iCloud Drive
Shares rank 10 of 14 cloud storage by recommenders
People recommend iCloud Drive for keeping files and notes in sync across Apple devices. Critics report sync hangs, file loss, and weak Windows support.
People recommend iCloud Drive for keeping files and notes in sync across Apple devices. Critics report sync hangs, file loss, and weak Windows support.
31 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 23
- approval share
- 26%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Syncs across Apple devices
“I had issues with notes going missing or just being empty shortly after saving, and this setting fixed that.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “An Introduction to Obsidian” “they sync up on all my (Apple) devices and I can see the notes on my Macbook, iPad and iPhone at any time”
Comment from 13 Apr 2026 in “An Introduction to Obsidian”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Sync hangs and conflicts
“iCloud absolutely destroyed my vault’s file layout and scattered copies of my files all over my iCloud Drive”
Comment from 1 Mar 2026 in “Obsidian Sync now has a headless client” “icloud sync spinning over and over and hanging any app that tries to read your Documents folder”
Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “Why E cores make Apple Silicon fast” “I had this happen a bunch when I was using iCloud sync on multiple devices”
Comment from 28 Feb 2026 in “Obsidian Sync now has a headless client” - Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “Mysteries of Dropbox: Property-Based Testing of a Distributed Sync Service [pdf]”
Deleted files cannot be recovered
“iCloud Drive does not allow you to recover files if you put them into the trash and empty it by accident.”
Comment from 20 Sep 2026 in “Dropbox's Jan 1st 2027 terms of service” “there was no file history, which basically meant it's useless to me”
Comment from 20 Sep 2026 in “Dropbox's Jan 1st 2027 terms of service” “I lost data this way. It wasn't worth it.”
Comment from 1 Mar 2026 in “Obsidian Sync now has a headless client” Desktop sync on by default
“It's a terrible default and Apple doesn't provide any way for developers to detect if it's off.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “An Introduction to Obsidian” “No, I do not want files on my desktop to be synced to iCloud.”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “How Microsoft Abuses Its Users” Metadata and hashes leak unencrypted
“it sends identifying hashes of plaintext file content to the server without e2ee”
Comment from 8 Jul 2026 in “Chat Control 1.0 and 2.0 Explained” “The E2EE is useless with such unencrypted metadata leaks.”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Apple is about to make Hide My Email useless”
Other cloud storage people recommend
The four most recommended other cloud storage, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple iCloud | 144 | 231 | 38% | 13 | 3 yrs7 owners | — |
| Dropbox | 140 | 166 | 46% | 12 | 12 yrs16 owners | — |
| OneDrive | 86 | 370 | 19% | 12 | 8 yrs6 owners | — |
| Google Drive | 66 | 130 | 34% | 12 | 5 yrs3 owners | — |
| iCloud DriveThis page | 8 | 23 | 26% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
29 of the 32 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“iCloud Drive does not allow you to recover files if you put them into the trash and empty it by accident.”
“there was no file history, which basically meant it's useless to me”
“is not preserving file attributes especially if you want to use it cross OS between Mac and Windows”
“it sends identifying hashes of plaintext file content to the server without e2ee”
“The E2EE is useless with such unencrypted metadata leaks.”
“iCloud Drive is quite pushy”
“they are not quite reliably as Obsidian’s paid sync service”
“I spent ten minutes on my phone trying to figure out how to attach it”
“how much the equivalent virtual drives from Apple and Microsoft suck”
“My resume exists in an iCloud drive, and I spent ten minutes on my phone trying to figure out how to attach it to a gmail message before giving up.”
“I can find a pdf of the TTRPG I'm playing that's hidden deep in an iCloud drive”
“iCloud ate a file I was working on.”
“I had issues with notes going missing or just being empty shortly after saving, and this setting fixed that.”
“It's a terrible default and Apple doesn't provide any way for developers to detect if it's off.”
“I was not able to mount it with rclone.”
“they sync up on all my (Apple) devices and I can see the notes on my Macbook, iPad and iPhone at any time”
“routinely find sync issues in Dropbox and iCloud drive”
“No, I do not want files on my desktop to be synced to iCloud.”
“it automagically sends everything up”
“This is very annoying, but there's a right click and force keep downloaded that reflags the folder and all items within it.”
“I lost data this way. It wasn't worth it.”
“iCloud absolutely destroyed my vault’s file layout and scattered copies of my files all over my iCloud Drive”
“I had this happen a bunch when I was using iCloud sync on multiple devices”
“icloud sync spinning over and over and hanging any app that tries to read your Documents folder”
“Increase iCloud Drive storage space”
“iCloud Drive and Google Drive preserve all of that information and the accompanying Live Photos, and depth information.”
“there wasn't a keep offline setting last time I checked”
“Using Apple's thing feels unnatural on my Windows PC”
“both these vendor locked drives have a much better UX”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.