iPhone iCloud
Apple has introduced a new solution for managing files and documents across iOS and OX X platforms. This solution is named iCloud Drive and you can use this if you have upgraded to iOS 8 recently. Depending on your storage needs, using iCloud could cost you zero to $19.99 per month. If you are thinking that it is an app that you have to run on your iPhone, you are wrong. It is not present physically in your iPhone, but can mysteriously help you share and manage data seamlessly.
Why is iCloud Designed?
The first reason for creating iCloud is allowing the users to share data. When you use iCloud and your Internet connection, it allows you to share data automatically to all your iOS devices and computer. It is possible to share any data from your Safari bookmarks to anything from Camera Roll. Suppose you have clicked a picture using your iPad. When you use iCloud, it automatically adds that picture to your iPhone’s Camera Roll and to your Mac device’s iPhoto.
The next reason for creating iCloud is that you can store documents online. You can grab any document anywhere using your iPhone or any iOS device and connect to the Internet. It is also capable of storing your iPhone backup that allows you to restore your data and settings in case there is any need of wiping off everything from your iPhone to clean it back to factory settings.
However, while accessing iCloud, you need to use your Apple ID. This helps the system to identify other computers and devices that need to work in synchronization. Therefore, in order to ensure proper performance of iCloud, all your iOS devices and computers should use the same Apple ID. However, you can only synchronize the data that you want to share with other computers and devices by tweaking your iCloud connection easily.
How to Setup iCloud on iPhone?
You have to follow the following steps to set up iCloud:
Step1 – Access the home screen of your iPhone and select the Setting menu
Step 2- On Settings, you will find iCloud, tap on it
Step 3- First thing that you will notice on the iCloud menu is Account, which you have to tap. If you already have an Apple ID and password, put them in the fields. if not, set your ID and password.
Step 4- Once you have provided login details with your Apple ID and Password, you have to set up your storage plan on iCloud. 5GB of storage is free already, which is more than what most of the iPhone users require generally. However, there are options for upgrading the storage plan for a yearly fee. If you think 5GB is not enough, then you have to select 10GB, 200GB or 500GB storage upgrades according to your need. For example, if there is a large number of photos or increasing number of documents, you may want to upgrade to 500GB storage space. Similarly, you can anytime downgrade the storage if you think you don’t need that much anymore.
Step 5- When you are done with the last step, you have to return to the iCloud settings. You can do this by simply tapping the Done button.
Step 6- Set the option of your iCloud mail account. Look at the Account screen’s bottom, you can notice your iCloud email address.
Step 7- Synchronize iCloud by turning on or off your preferred information. Suppose you want to synchronize your list of contacts between your iOS devices, Mac and iPhone. All you need to do is switch on the Contacts by tapping the button. If you want to switch off synchronizing iCloud for reminders, just tap the button of Reminders off. There is separate screen for Data, Documents and Photo Stream with numerous options.
Step 8- Exit the Settings. Just press the Home button and you are out of Settings menu.
Using iCloud Drive on iPhone
The biggest advantage of iCloud Drive is that it works wonderfully and leaves nothing for you to configure or do. All you need to do is remain signed into your iCloud Drive account and any app that is compatible with iCloud Drive will allow you to save and open its documents.
Here, in the image, you can see that from Scanner Pro you can choose files and documents to save in iCloud Drive and at the same time, you can browse through the folders and select where you want to save them.
iCloud Drive works wonderfully with OS X and Windows. You can dump any document into the drive and they will be available to any iOS supported app instantly and vice versa.
There is also an option called Find My iPhone, which helps you to track your iPhone from the website. You can remotely lock your iPhone or erase it completely if it is stolen.
Apple also provides a free program to allow your Windows PC to join the fun. All you need to do is install iCloud Control Panel for Windows and your PC will be able to sync Calendars with Outlook, Contacts, Mail, Photo Stream with your specified folder, and Bookmarks with Internet Explorer.
How to Check the Storage of iCloud?
Do you want to check how much storage memory is remaining on your iCloud? To do this, you have to follow the steps given below.
Step 1- Tap Settings from the Home Screen of your iPhone
Step 2- Choose iCloud
Step 3- Choose Storage & Backup and tap the manage option (Manage Storage)
Here, you can see how much space is left and how much you have used for your backups. If you want to remove backups for the devices that you do not use anymore, you can do it from here and increase your iCloud storage. There is another option that allows you to disable or enable backups of your iPhone data.
How to Manage Photos on iCloud?
Most of the users will probably notice that the photos are taking most of the storage space of their iCloud. By tapping on the Manage storage option, you can see exactly what files and documents are using the space of your iCloud along with the storage amount being taken by each individual app.
iCloud Photo Library makes use of iCloud storage for keeping all your videos and images up to date across all your devices. The good thing is that you can reduce your iCloud Photo Library size. By using iCloud Photo Library, you can free the storage by deleting the videos and photos from the photos app on your devices or by choosing Optimize device storage in Settings.
How to remove videos and photos from iCloud Photo Library on your iPhone?
Step 1- Start Photos app. Check the bottom of the screen and you will get Photos. Tap on it.
Step 2- Tap Select. This will allow you to select the videos or images that you want to remove.
Step 3- Tap on the Delete icon and then remove the selected items by tapping Delete Photo.
It is possible to recover the deleted videos and photos for thirty days from your Recently Deleted album. In case, the storage limit of iCloud has exceeded, the iPhone will immediately remove the videos and photos, which means they will no longer be available in Recently Deleted album for recovery. You can also remove items from Recently Deleted album. For that, you have to tap Select and choose the items you want to delete forever. Then tap Delete.
Manage Default Contacts Account
Your device may use many third party accounts like Google, Yahoo, etc. apart from iCloud. First, you have to set up that your iPhone is showing only iCloud contacts. For that, open Contact and check the upper left corner where you will find Groups. Tap it and make sure to select all iCloud contacts. If you edit or store contacts using iCloud instead of any third party accounts, it will update the contacts automatically.
Step 1- Open Contacts and tap Groups
Step 2- Deselect all third party account options
Step 3- Select only iCloud
Step 4- To see your contact list, tap Done. If the contacts you are looking for is not in the list, it means those are stored in another account. You can import those contacts from the third party account to iCloud.
If your device uses multiple accounts, you have to set iCloud as default contact. For this, you have to select Settings and then move to Males, Contacts, and Calendars. In the section of Contact, tap Default Account and select iCloud.
How to Turn iCloud Contact on and off?
Step 1- Go to Settings and select iCloud
Step 2- Turn off Contacts
Step 3- If any data exists on contacts, iCloud.com and one or more devices, you can choose Delete from My (device). If similar data does not exist, you can choose Keep on My and wait for some time.
Step 4- Turn on contacts
How to Set Back Up of your iPhone on iCloud?
You .can set iCloud to automatically backup your iPhone. Turn on the iCloud Backup settings and leave it like that. In case, there is any need for resetting your iPhone to factory settings, your phone’s data will be restored automatically.
Though iCloud keeps backup automatically, you can do this manually also.
Step 1- First tap the Settings icon from Home Screen
Step 2- Tap iCloud and select Storage & Backup
Step 3- Let it start taking backup by tapping Back Up Now
It will indicate how much approximate time is left to complete the backup with a progress bar. If you want your iPhone to start taking iCloud backup automatically, you have to ensure that the Wi-Fi connection is turned on.