Apple Did This to iCloud Drive, and it's Brilliant!

What a lot of BS. Do not use iCloud. We've had so many cloud companies hacked recently it's proven to be dangerous and not secure at all. Just store everything on your own devices. No matter what they tell you sooner or later your private data will be stolen from a cloud computing organisation. Apple is no different. Do not believe their PR departments. They're not there for your benefit. Their BS is a con to make you feel secure. So many millions of people who felt secure had their personal data stolen without knowing about it because the cloud companies kept it quiet. Do not trust any company with your data. Ever.

Can I get copy ?

That’s an interesting way of utilising tags on Apple devices. But I use them differently. 😊

My Grey was easy to delete. Maybe your is too now...

Are you comfortable with the security for iCloud?

I am very hesitant to host any of my personal files on the internet unless the storage provider offers zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption, i.e. all data is encrypted locally on the users machine before being uploaded to the storage provider's servers and (critically) the user maintains their own encryption key so that it is never known to the internet storage provider. This hasn't stopped me using online backup services because there are ones that offer zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption but so far it has stopped me using other cloud services for easy access to all of my personal documents across all of my devices.

As a Windows user who is about to move to a Mac I was very excited to discover that iCloud does offer zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption if the user enables ADP (Advanced Data Protection) on their iCloud account ... until very soon afterwards I discovered that ADP is now disabled for any new UK users because Apple is in dispute with the UK Government about this feature.

Perhaps you aren't as paranoid about security as me, or maybe you created your iCloud account when it was still possible to enable ADP for UK users, but as a soon-to-be new user I'm not sure I'm comfortable hosting documents that contain personal details such as bank account numbers, national insurance number etc on iCloud without being able to enable ADP.

Aside from coloring folders, how is this better than using folders as a grouping approach? Tags are useful when files you want to tag are scattered around the drive, subfolders etc. But when you tend to group related files in folders anyway, what do tags give you except for coloring? You can create root folders in iCloud like "Work", "Personal", "CPI" etc, put everything related in them.

I use Alfred to search for folders and files by name. That’s much faster for me.

As I do not have a modern mac, can anyone tell me if documents in a tagged folder receive that tag, too?
So for example: I have bills „rent“ for private and business. I need to do my taxes and are looking for the rent bills. If I search „rent“ with tag „business“ will the mac show me only what I need?

To delete that gray tag, click on the tag and try clicking the minus sign below.

Thanks Carl for that useful video. I'm sure many people, like me, didn't know about this new organization tip. It really works smoothly and reliably in the Apple Ecosystem. For those who like and use it, it means a lot.

I just tried to customize iCloud Drive folders and discovered the option is not available for the Documents & Desktop folders. However, the option to customize other folders on iCloud Drive folders is available. I was also able to customize folders on Google Drive without limitation on my MacBook. I am running MacOS Tahoe 26.0.1. Any suggestions?

Could someone please tell me which tool was used to display the Finder window alongside the camera, and how the layout of the windows was arranged? So which screensharing tool is used here basically :). Thanks.

Thanks. I don’t own any iBook or the like, only an iPad and an iPhone. So I don’t have Finder. Yet, in the “Archives” app I seem to be able to choose a specific folder and then tag it by a particular color. So in that way I could be working like you across my iPad and iPhone. Right?

I hate this. iOsisation is crap.

I’ve been doing that for many years. But there is a bug if you use column view when arranging by groups.

I switched to ICloud as well. I do not work with others anymore, so for my freelancing stuff, iCloud works well and integrates perfectly with all the apple devices. It's not perfect but nothing is. I wish they would allow creating quick share links to share any files with others who are not on iCloud.

This is not a new feature. Only now the folders take on the colour of the tag, when before they were simply marked (tagged) by a dot next to the folder. But in terms of functionality, none of the things you rave about is new to MacOS 26.

iCloud Drive works perfectly well in Windows as well.

The only reason I use iCloud is because of Photos and iOS sync apps otherwise I would ditch it straight away. Dropbox is in a different league. So I have to pay for both services which is a shame.

iCloud Drive is horrible. The upload speed is pathetic and Apple throttles it, you can’t fully regulate what gets uploaded or downloaded. The optimize space feature is very buggy on Mac OS. It’s so bad. It caches clones of files even when you removed downloaded files, i could go on and on. What’s more puzzling, It’s actually gotten worst with newer releases.

This video got me the sudden urge to finally organise my iCloud drive that I haven't touched in years.

Do you keep the iCloud Drive separate from your Documents?

Hmmm. Does your wife also take duplicate screenshots of old photos to get a copy later in the timeline instead of tagging?? So infuriating !!
:(

1:17 Are you sure that's a dog. From Earth?

Forgive me if you've answered this. I watched this video and the one you linked on how you organize your iCloud. For apps that have their own folder like Pages and Numbers, do you still put the file in one of your tagged folders (CPI, Personal, etc) depending on what it is, or just let it save in the app's own folder?

One thing I don't understand. If you can tag and change the color of a folder, why can't you change the color without tagging?. I mean not via "preview" but using this new feature. It seems both work together, if I am right.

You should have clarified who this video is for

(Reading the comments below)... so, to be safe, I should really store all my files on my MacBook itself (which timeMachine backs up every day), because if I plonk things in iCloud (from laptop or iPhone) they could get lost forever?!? -plus iCloud is super slow.

One critical point here - all folders to be tagged must be ‘directly’ in iCloud and not be a sub folder of another folder. For example, if I tag my ‘Personal’ folder, its sub folders will not be tagged or coloured (despite checking ‘Tint folders based on tags’). Therefore it will not be the same layout in iCloud as demonstrated by Carl’s iCloud Drive. This can only be achieved if the folder is directly under iCloud and each folder is separately tagged. Way too much work for the number of folders I have! Or have I missed something here and there is a way?

Thank god for Copilot AI video summaries. Hope your channel goes broke, productivity grifter.

I have OneDrive, Drop Box and iCloud and use them daily. Aside from tags, I don't understand why you think iCloud is so fundamentally different than the others.

Thank you for this most interesting video. A few remarks: I'm using 30ish tags (one for each subject I teach) and it's fine. Just click on any tag for a subject and all the files related to it appear， which is great when you're in front of students. The new system of tagging folders seems imperfect to me. For example if you tag a folder in a specific colour， the subfolders won't switch to the same colour (in your video an orange folder contains blue ones). So I reckon you have to edit each subfolder manually， which is not great.

Why is this the first time I’m hearing about the new tags and color coding in iCloud? No one else is talking about it.

iCloud, like many Apple stuff is too much invasive…

"Tint folders based on tags": 14 minutes of your life recovered for anyone curious. The rest of the video is about how Carl organises HIS work via Apple's tags, which are NOT cross compatible with any other file system or storage method. He omits to mention iCloud is NOT a backup solution either, though he does briefly mention clearing down his iCloud annually to download to a local hard disk drive, but fails to mention that this is not a recommended best practice. A simple folder hierarchy with top levels of your major work areas (CPI, FES and Personal in your case) would work perfectly and be perfectly compatible across many vendor's filesystems.

To summarise backups: keep at least three backups (of every point in time you might require), on at least two different forms of media (backup HDD / USB memory stick / burned to DVD … another local file server YOU control), with at least one of these stored securely off-site / away from your home or business. Adopting a consistent, structured, organised and well rehearsed (i.e. TEST your backups, don't just go through the motions), can save you from financial devastation if the worst should happen (flood, tornado, fire, theft, ransomware attack…).

Whilst I agree iCloud working might be for some due to the simplicity of how it shares with all your Apple devices signed in to the same AppleID (or within the family, I guess?) that's no different than setting up my own PRIVATE server at home that I CONTROL. There are many linux based ready-to-go distributions that can guide people through setting this up, CasaOS springs to mind but there are TrueNAS and many others besides. YouTube has many videos showing people how to set this up on an old piece of hardware you can just leave in the corner. In the event of a disaster if this is a laptop you can easily just grab it and go, but if you've adopted the strategy above you won't even need to as one copy will be off-site anyway but if it's there and you're running for it, why not grab it anyway?

On a similar note, I tried using iCloud's photo synchronisation to sync a few (<10) photos at a time and found is incredibly frustrating to use. I'd snap the photos on my phone and then wanted to use them on my mac but unless I took extreme measures, the phone and mac would just sit there looking dumb with "synced to iCloud" at the bottom whilst both sides had different pictures as the most recent. I discovered a stupid trick to make it work though: pretend to share the photos on the phone and suddenly iCloud synchronisation springs to life and pushes the media to iCloud's servers. After maybe 30 seconds things. When you've worked with UNIX / Windows for 30 years this isn't just bad, it's laughably silly. It's almost as though Apple designed it this way (and again, it is NOT a bandwidth issue).

This "when I feel like it" synchronisation makes iCloud less than useless for me, and probably for others too. I couldn't, for example, film video whilst out and about and know it'll synchronise to iCloud between shots. iCloud is there to do a job, and it's terrible at it (except if that job is "make Apple sh*t tons of money…").

Sorry for the ranting type comment, all in all your video isn't bad to show beginners how you organise your workflow, but Apple's tags are NOT cross workflow compatible, whereas a simple folder hierarchy with top levels of CPI, FES and Personal (in your case) would work perfectly.

Sorry, but iCloud and Tags just aren't for me. They're a huge hindrance to working efficiently and quickly, though other people who rely on "search for everything because I don't know where it's stored" might find the tags useful. Likely those same people might benefit from being better organised in the first place.

Used to be a time that Apple created stuff that just worked and was simple to use, not requiring YouTube videos to figure out how to use it!

Hello Carl. Thanks a lot for the tips on coloring the folders in Finder. I'm using the PARA method. Is there an intelligent way to color all the subfolders as well? Best regards. Ulrich

You might want to discuss how to encrypt some folders and not others in iCloud.

What a stu. Pid how to blah blah. Is this for old people who do not know how to browse a directory. Geez YouTube really need to cleanup all these users off YouTube.

Thanks Carl. I have the 2TB iCloud subscription as well as Dropbox. This mostly confirms my choice to rely on Dropbox. 👍

2Tb is not top tier. Everytime you upgrade to a larger plan, new options unlock that were not visible before. Since a few months I am on 6Tb now, which, a few years ago, I did not even know it existed. I heard there are still quite a lot of tiers above me.

I have been able to delete tags with no issue - even in bulk - yes I've hundreds of them

pieprzysz

Nice🎉 Thank You

Tell your wife I love the picture of your dog!

I use iCloud a lot, but it’s not that perfect. The issue I have is upload/download speed. And it’s not my connection issue. On google drive I get 10x download/upload speeds, and when I use my own server it can get up to 1000x speeds. But ease of use and how everything is organized are true benefits of iCloud.