Use iCloud Drive to store documents on your Mac, iPhone and iPad
With iCloud Drive, you can safely store all kinds of documents in iCloud and access them from all your computers and iOS and iPadOS devices. If you like, you can have all the files in your desktop and documents folders stored automatically in iCloud Drive. That way, you can save files wherever you usually keep them and they become available on all your computers and iOS and iPadOS devices.
You can use iCloud Drive on Mac computers (OS X 10.10 or later), iOS devices (iOS 8 or later), iPadOS devices and Windows computers with iCloud for Windows (Windows 7 or later required). You must be signed in to iCloud using the same Apple ID on all your computers and devices.
You can also use iCloud Drive on iCloud.com from a web browser on a Mac or Windows computer.
To set up iCloud drive using an iOS or iPadOS device, Windows PC or on iCloud.com, see the Apple Support article Set up iCloud Drive.
Set up iCloud Drive
If you haven’t yet set up iCloud Drive on this Mac, you can do it now in the iCloud pane of Apple ID preferences.
On your Mac, choose Apple menu
> System Preferences, click Apple ID, then select iCloud in the sidebar.Select iCloud Drive.
The first time you select the iCloud Drive feature on any of your devices, you’re asked to upgrade. When you upgrade, your documents and data currently stored in iCloud are moved to iCloud Drive. If you’re not asked to upgrade, your account is already upgraded.
Important: After upgrading to iCloud Drive, your documents stored in iCloud Drive are only available on your computers and iOS and iPadOS devices that meet minimum system requirements and have iCloud Drive turned on. Your documents in iCloud Drive are also available on iCloud.com.
If you have devices with iCloud Drive turned off, documents and data on those devices aren’t kept up to date with documents and data on your devices with iCloud Drive turned on.
Store your Desktop and Documents folders in iCloud Drive
On your Mac, choose Apple menu
> System Preferences, click Apple ID, select iCloud in the sidebar, then click Options next to iCloud Drive.Open Apple ID preferences for me
If you don’t see Options next to iCloud Drive, make sure iCloud Drive is turned on.
Select Desktop & Documents Folders.
Click Done.
After you select Desktop & Documents Folders, your Desktop and Documents folders are moved into iCloud Drive. They also appear in the iCloud Drive section of the Finder sidebar.
If you can’t move or save a document to iCloud Drive
If you can’t move or save a document to iCloud Drive, your iCloud storage space may be full. The document stays on your Mac, and is uploaded to iCloud Drive when space becomes available.
iCloud Drive shares your iCloud storage with iCloud Photos, iOS and iPadOS device backups, messages and attachments in iCloud Mail (your @icloud.com email account) and more.
To get more space, do the following:
Upgrade your storage. See Manage iCloud storage.
Remove items you don’t need to store in iCloud Drive.