{"slug": "icloud", "name": "iCloud", "category": "infra", "category_name": "Infrastructure and DevOps", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 20, "warners": 4, "score": 3.33, "rising": 1.35, "first": "2025-11-26", "latest": "2026-10-23", "why": "I pay for iCloud for the family because I don't want to be Oncall 24/7/365.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 12, "compare": 0, "warn": 4}, "spark": [0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I pay for iCloud for the family because I don't want to be Oncall 24/7/365.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.icloud.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["iCloud", "iCloud Drive"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 795551520, "item_id": 49721970, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49721970", "by": "al_borland", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the $2.99/month I pay for 200GB of backup space is worth not having to be angry all the time about storage limits.", "excerpt": "How would they decide which 5GB gets backed up? A partial backup also gives a false sense of security, as it\u2019s not a backup. There are other services that will backup photos on iOS to the cloud, some for free (at least at one point, not sure if they still do), although that usually means lower quality backups, not the originals. To me, the $2.99/month I pay for 200GB of backup space is worth not having to be angry al", "context": "", "use_case": "device backup", "switched_from": "", "story": "iCloud backup \u2013 5GB available, but I can't use it"}, {"id": 792639392, "item_id": 49539962, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49539962", "by": "4lx87", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "iCloud. Great price. Great service.", "excerpt": "iCloud. Great price. Great service. And Apple has better privacy safeguards and internal processes in place for protecting your email from their employees than FastMail or anyone besides maybe the encrypted mail providers like ProtonMail.", "context": "", "use_case": "email hosting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Alternative to Proton Mail?"}, {"id": 744440000, "item_id": 46527500, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527500", "by": "SanjayMehta", "date": "2026-01-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use iCloud, Dropbox and OneDrive for family, professional use and junk files respectively.", "excerpt": "I use iCloud, Dropbox and OneDrive for family, professional use and junk files respectively. Works out really well. They all work perfectly for their intended uses.", "context": "", "use_case": "family files", "switched_from": "", "story": "Everyone hates OneDrive, Microsofts cloud app that steals and deletes files"}, {"id": 738726097, "item_id": 46170381, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46170381", "by": "websiteapi", "date": "2025-12-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I pay for iCloud for the family because I don't want to be Oncall 24/7/365.", "excerpt": "immich is neat, but I tire of fiddling around with computers more than necessary so I pay for iCloud for the family because I don't want to be Oncall 24/7/365. I do self host home assistant sadly, just because certain things I want to do are just not possible with SmartThings. planning on moving to their hosted solution for that eventually too tho. I actually did the math earlier and the iCloud 12TB plan for a family", "context": "", "use_case": "family photo storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self-hosting my photos with Immich"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 795321408, "item_id": 49707588, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49707588", "by": "crossroadsguy", "date": "2026-09-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "They also allow an app to start backing up their data in your iCloud quota without your explicit apoorval or enabling.", "excerpt": "Pretty sure their decade old iCloud Tabs bug, that leaves phantom tabs from other devices stuck, isn\u2019t fixed. They also allow an app to start backing up their data in your iCloud quota without your explicit apoorval or enabling. In fact when you notice, you go ahead and uncheck it, and next time you check it again, you\u2019d see Uber again happily backing up 500MB (or lord knows what) into your iCloud account, a massage ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27"}, {"id": 772605794, "item_id": 48287862, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48287862", "by": "jekbao", "date": "2026-05-26", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I\u2019ve tried a few options, including iCloud Drive, but they are not quite reliably as Obsidian\u2019s paid sync service.", "excerpt": "I\u2019m curious what specific problem Files.md aims to solve as an open-source alternative to Obsidian. Since Obsidian already uses open data stored as Markdown of my choice as well as plugins are open-source - my only real pain point is seamless online & offline syncing between my laptop and mobile phone. I\u2019ve tried a few options, including iCloud Drive, but they are not quite reliably as Obsidian\u2019s paid sync service. W", "context": "", "use_case": "syncing notes", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Files.md \u2013 open-source alternative to Obsidian"}, {"id": 755312019, "item_id": 47207001, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47207001", "by": "agentic_lawyer", "date": "2026-03-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "iCloud sync actually messed up every file I opened due to the lag between remote copy and local edits.", "excerpt": "The thing is that there already is a very good self-hosted option for sync - Livesync. I won't say it's not eccentric and confusing (it is!) but once you get it to work, it actually works extremely well and is lightning fast too. I use syncthing as well for backups but livesync has the obvious advantage of working natively inside Obsidian. I'm so done with subscriptions for cloud based solutions and between livesync ", "context": "", "use_case": "Obsidian sync", "switched_from": "", "story": "Obsidian Sync now has a headless client"}, {"id": 741017264, "item_id": 46313579, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46313579", "by": "sneak", "date": "2025-12-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "don't use iCloud (it's a privacy nightmare)", "excerpt": "I've been using all of my macs for years now without Apple IDs. I use them only reluctantly on iOS devices to install apps, and don't use iCloud (it's a privacy nightmare). Relying on Apple to remain benevolent when the incentives are so misaligned is a fool's errand.", "context": "uses Macs without Apple IDs", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?"}]}], "who": [{"by": "2III7", "context": "switched from Android to iPhone", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50212048", "date": "2026-10-23"}, {"by": "nelsonic", "context": "iPhone 15 Pro owner", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50037594", "date": "2026-10-10"}, {"by": "ornornor", "context": "iPhone user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49812248", "date": "2026-09-23"}, {"by": "OneOverInfinity", "context": "pays for family storage", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48650496", "date": "2026-06-23"}, {"by": "_-x-_", "context": "iPhone user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47907465", "date": "2026-04-25"}, {"by": "jurli", "context": "replaced most app subscriptions with self-built tools", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46492046", "date": "2026-01-04"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["email hosting", "phone cloud service", "cloud storage", "family cloud storage", "device backup", "syncing skill files"], "compared": [{"slug": "bitwarden", "name": "Bitwarden", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "dropbox", "name": "Dropbox", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "immich", "name": "Immich", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "nextcloud", "name": "Nextcloud", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "google-drive", "name": "Google Drive", "co": 1, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "obsidian", "name": "Obsidian", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50211474", "title": "Today, we hacked what we'd set out to hack: the iPhone", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50035567", "title": "Apple may have an iPhone 18 Pro demand problem", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49801939", "title": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49721254", "title": "iCloud backup \u2013 5GB available, but I can't use it", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49701004", "title": "iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49589914", "title": "Ask HN: How do you manage skills files?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-03": {"warn": 1}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 2, "warn": 1}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 2}}, "quotes": [{"id": 803392768, "item_id": 50212048, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50212048", "by": "2III7", "date": "2026-10-23", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The only clutter on the iphone is icloud which stays out of the way and doesn't annoy me with subscription messages.", "excerpt": "I converted to an iphone 13 mini (from the S24 Ultra) after being on Android since the release of the HTC Desire in 2010. I used to install custom roms and tweak everything on all of my Android phones which actually lead me to the iphone because I realized I wanted a phone without all the OE clutter and Google crap. The only clutter on the iphone is icloud which stays out of the way and doesn't annoy me with subscrip", "context": "switched from Android to iPhone", "use_case": "phone cloud service", "switched_from": "", "story": "Today, we hacked what we'd set out to hack: the iPhone"}, {"id": 800601504, "item_id": 50037594, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50037594", "by": "nelsonic", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Meanwhile still paying rent for iCloud/sevices", "excerpt": "No reason to upgrade from 15 Pro to 18 pro. Recently refreshed the battery in 15 Pro for $60 and the phone feels new again. Processor and cameras are fine for all my daily needs as is the storage and all radio/wifi speeds. I usually upgrade every 2 years. But looks like it will be at least 4 this time. Meanwhile still paying rent for iCloud/sevices \u2026 so Apple is still winning. Might get a Duo for device testing but d", "context": "iPhone 15 Pro owner", "use_case": "cloud storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple may have an iPhone 18 Pro demand problem"}, {"id": 796995969, "item_id": 49812248, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49812248", "by": "ornornor", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I lay my coups dollars a month for iCloud family storage", "excerpt": "I use NextDNS on my iPhone and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen these ads in years of usage. I lay my coups dollars a month for iCloud family storage but that\u2019s it.", "context": "iPhone user", "use_case": "family cloud storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy"}, {"id": 795551520, "item_id": 49721970, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49721970", "by": "al_borland", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the $2.99/month I pay for 200GB of backup space is worth not having to be angry all the time about storage limits.", "excerpt": "How would they decide which 5GB gets backed up? A partial backup also gives a false sense of security, as it\u2019s not a backup. There are other services that will backup photos on iOS to the cloud, some for free (at least at one point, not sure if they still do), although that usually means lower quality backups, not the originals. To me, the $2.99/month I pay for 200GB of backup space is worth not having to be angry al", "context": "", "use_case": "device backup", "switched_from": "", "story": "iCloud backup \u2013 5GB available, but I can't use it"}, {"id": 795321408, "item_id": 49707588, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49707588", "by": "crossroadsguy", "date": "2026-09-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "They also allow an app to start backing up their data in your iCloud quota without your explicit apoorval or enabling.", "excerpt": "Pretty sure their decade old iCloud Tabs bug, that leaves phantom tabs from other devices stuck, isn\u2019t fixed. They also allow an app to start backing up their data in your iCloud quota without your explicit apoorval or enabling. In fact when you notice, you go ahead and uncheck it, and next time you check it again, you\u2019d see Uber again happily backing up 500MB (or lord knows what) into your iCloud account, a massage ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27"}, {"id": 793562928, "item_id": 49597683, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49597683", "by": "mark_l_watson", "date": "2026-09-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I simply keep copies of debugged skill files in iCloud and copy them where I need them.", "excerpt": "I need to manage skill files across 2 Macs and 1 VPS, and also across fast inferencing APIs vs. very slow local models. The first dimension is easy: I simply keep copies of debugged skill files in iCloud and copy them where I need them. The second dimension is where I spend my time: I use short skill files for fast inference APIs and tiny skill files when I am running slow local models, and I simply spend a lot of ti", "context": "", "use_case": "syncing skill files", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: How do you manage skills files?"}, {"id": 792639392, "item_id": 49539962, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49539962", "by": "4lx87", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "iCloud. Great price. Great service.", "excerpt": "iCloud. Great price. Great service. And Apple has better privacy safeguards and internal processes in place for protecting your email from their employees than FastMail or anyone besides maybe the encrypted mail providers like ProtonMail.", "context": "", "use_case": "email hosting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Alternative to Proton Mail?"}, {"id": 789272416, "item_id": 49329526, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49329526", "by": "IFC_LLC", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I've self-hosted for about 2 months, and promptly switched to iCloud.", "excerpt": "The hardest thing in setting up your emails server is to keep your messages out of spam folders. Even if you are completely legit company that sends out ONLY human-written personal emails, you will get tagged as spam first. I've self-hosted for about 2 months, and promptly switched to iCloud. Just because I've been spending too much time calling people and telling them to check their spam folders. Recently our busine", "context": "", "use_case": "email hosting", "switched_from": "self-hosted email", "story": "Self hosted email continues to steeply decline"}, {"id": 788290738, "item_id": 49268171, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49268171", "by": "nugzbunny", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "My personal Dropbox was replaced by Google Drive, and then by iCloud.", "excerpt": "I used to use Dropbox at work and also personally. Work didn\u2019t like it as Dropbox was new/unknown and eventually banned us from using it. This was about 15 years ago and the only way to share files between colleagues was to manually upload a file to their shared drive (through a browser) and then ask your colleague to go download it. Works Dropbox was replaced by Microsoft. My personal Dropbox was replaced by Google ", "context": "", "use_case": "personal file storage", "switched_from": "Google Drive", "story": "Dropbox, loved by the masses, a shareholder dead end"}, {"id": 778407936, "item_id": 48650496, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48650496", "by": "OneOverInfinity", "date": "2026-06-23", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I pay for 6TB of iCloud storage for my family", "excerpt": "I pay for 6TB of iCloud storage for my family that I would be more than willing to self host if it was as frictionless as iCloud for backups and photos.", "context": "pays for family storage", "use_case": "family backups and photos", "switched_from": "", "story": "Millions in UK could claim share of \u00a33B after Apple case given green light"}, {"id": 772605794, "item_id": 48287862, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48287862", "by": "jekbao", "date": "2026-05-26", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I\u2019ve tried a few options, including iCloud Drive, but they are not quite reliably as Obsidian\u2019s paid sync service.", "excerpt": "I\u2019m curious what specific problem Files.md aims to solve as an open-source alternative to Obsidian. Since Obsidian already uses open data stored as Markdown of my choice as well as plugins are open-source - my only real pain point is seamless online & offline syncing between my laptop and mobile phone. I\u2019ve tried a few options, including iCloud Drive, but they are not quite reliably as Obsidian\u2019s paid sync service. W", "context": "", "use_case": "syncing notes", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Files.md \u2013 open-source alternative to Obsidian"}, {"id": 772542033, "item_id": 48283877, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48283877", "by": "jaredcwhite", "date": "2026-05-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "including iCloud Drive which I use sparingly", "excerpt": "I've used and paid for Dropbox for well over a decade. Other than the rare hiccup every few years (usually due to switching machines/OSes or whatnot), it's been rock solid and a true workhorse. I know there are many other options, including iCloud Drive which I use sparingly, but Dropbox is a service I trust. I hope it continues in that manner and they don't destroy their reputation with a woebegone \"pivot to AI\".", "context": "", "use_case": "file sync", "switched_from": "", "story": "Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down"}, {"id": 766519440, "item_id": 47907465, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47907465", "by": "_-x-_", "date": "2026-04-25", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I do use iCloud drive", "excerpt": "It still doesn't make sense why the app started silently downloading itself 3 days ago when I haven't had it installed in over a year. I do use iCloud drive but do not see anything related to the app inside of it.", "context": "iPhone user", "use_case": "cloud file sync", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tell HN: An app is silently installing itself on my iPhone every day"}, {"id": 755312019, "item_id": 47207001, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47207001", "by": "agentic_lawyer", "date": "2026-03-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "iCloud sync actually messed up every file I opened due to the lag between remote copy and local edits.", "excerpt": "The thing is that there already is a very good self-hosted option for sync - Livesync. I won't say it's not eccentric and confusing (it is!) but once you get it to work, it actually works extremely well and is lightning fast too. I use syncthing as well for backups but livesync has the obvious advantage of working natively inside Obsidian. I'm so done with subscriptions for cloud based solutions and between livesync ", "context": "", "use_case": "Obsidian sync", "switched_from": "", "story": "Obsidian Sync now has a headless client"}, {"id": 750689729, "item_id": 46918108, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46918108", "by": "rawgabbit", "date": "2026-02-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I also created a folder on Apple's iCloud that I share.", "excerpt": "For my personal passwords, I use Apple's password manager. It lets me share passwords with my family. I also created a folder on Apple's iCloud that I share. https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/share-passwords-iphe6b2b7043 https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud/share-files-and-folders-mm708256356b/icloud", "context": "", "use_case": "sharing a folder", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?"}, {"id": 744440000, "item_id": 46527500, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527500", "by": "SanjayMehta", "date": "2026-01-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use iCloud, Dropbox and OneDrive for family, professional use and junk files respectively.", "excerpt": "I use iCloud, Dropbox and OneDrive for family, professional use and junk files respectively. Works out really well. They all work perfectly for their intended uses.", "context": "", "use_case": "family files", "switched_from": "", "story": "Everyone hates OneDrive, Microsofts cloud app that steals and deletes files"}, {"id": 743872736, "item_id": 46492046, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46492046", "by": "jurli", "date": "2026-01-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The only subscriptions I pay for are things that are almost impossible to replace like online storage (iCloud) or Spotify", "excerpt": "My guess is that the amount of total software people use will significantly increase, but the total amount of money made from SaaS will significantly decrease I've replaced almost all of the App subscriptions with stuff I built for my self. The only subscriptions I pay for are things that are almost impossible to replace like online storage (iCloud) or Spotify", "context": "replaced most app subscriptions with self-built tools", "use_case": "online storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "Web development is fun again"}, {"id": 741017264, "item_id": 46313579, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46313579", "by": "sneak", "date": "2025-12-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "don't use iCloud (it's a privacy nightmare)", "excerpt": "I've been using all of my macs for years now without Apple IDs. I use them only reluctantly on iOS devices to install apps, and don't use iCloud (it's a privacy nightmare). Relying on Apple to remain benevolent when the incentives are so misaligned is a fool's errand.", "context": "uses Macs without Apple IDs", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Are Apple gift cards safe to redeem?"}, {"id": 738726097, "item_id": 46170381, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46170381", "by": "websiteapi", "date": "2025-12-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I pay for iCloud for the family because I don't want to be Oncall 24/7/365.", "excerpt": "immich is neat, but I tire of fiddling around with computers more than necessary so I pay for iCloud for the family because I don't want to be Oncall 24/7/365. I do self host home assistant sadly, just because certain things I want to do are just not possible with SmartThings. planning on moving to their hosted solution for that eventually too tho. I actually did the math earlier and the iCloud 12TB plan for a family", "context": "", "use_case": "family photo storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self-hosting my photos with Immich"}, {"id": 737008513, "item_id": 46063032, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46063032", "by": "zie", "date": "2025-11-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use iCloud sync and then on a macOS machine, I have code that commits it to VCS", "excerpt": "Have you tried beorg? https://www.beorgapp.com I've just started playing with it, but so far it seems quite good. I use iCloud sync and then on a macOS machine, I have code that commits it to VCS, so that it's durable.", "context": "", "use_case": "syncing org files", "switched_from": "", "story": "Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good"}]}