Month: January 2025

As any Apple user can attest to, our friends in Cupertino certainly aren’t shy when it comes into hectoring us into using its cloud service, iCloud. A lot of users try to avoid it, but that’s about effective as emptying a swimming pool with a teacup. Even if you don’t use its features, most people, even the most tech-suspicious ones, eventually pull out the white flag and surrender to Tim Cook & Co.

It’s important to remember that iCloud is a SERVICE – a service that has a free option and a paid tier. In short, it allows you to sync data between your Apple (and even non-Apple) devices. That data includes photos, contacts, calendars, notes, email (if you use an @icloud account), and your data and files, along with a few other items. 

OK, now that we’ve established that iCloud is a SERVICE – what do we use it for? (Understand that all these are optional, not required!) For one thing, it backs up your data – so if you lose or replace your Apple device, you can log into iCloud and Bang! All your data that you elected to save comes right back into place*.  This includes:

Photos: iCloud allows you to back up your photos on the cloud, sync your photos between your devices, as well as share albums and view shared albums. 

Your data and files: The files in your Documents folder and on your desktop are backed up to the cloud and synced between your devices. 

Contacts, Calendar, and Notes: These items are backed up to the cloud and synced and shared between your devices, so you’re always up to date with the data. 

Email and Messages: Email (only if you’re using an @icloud account) and messages are also synced between devices.

iOS devices: By enabling a backup, you can easily restore your data on a new iPhone or iPad a device if you must replace it, whether for upgrade purposes, or for setting up a device to replace a lost or damaged one.

And there are more: Passwords, Safari bookmarks, Reminders, Stocks, Wallet, among others.

* Understand that these services must be enabled (by YOU) in advance in order to sync your data to the cloud.

Also understand there are some space limitations. Apple gives you a measly 5 GB of storage space for free (which is analogous to receiving a $25 gift card to Nordstrom. It’s nice, but you’re probably going to have to spend more). In the big picture, that’s not a lot – it’s. (Just for context, Google gives you three times the storage for free than Apple does.) 

Prices (as of January 2025) for upgrading your iCloud storage:

50 GB – 99¢/month

200 GB – $2.99/month

2 TB – $9.99/month

6 TB – $9.99/month

12 TB – $59.99/month

Welcome to 2025! With the new year comes a fresh start, time to say goodbye to yesterday. And because your computer’s hard drive has a finite amount of space available, the first of the year is a good time to clean things up when it comes to the data on your computer. And this goes for your email as well. 

First thing you’re going to need is an external hard drive, preferably a solid state (SSD) model, although if you have an old school type lurking about, that will do the trick. Once you copy your data to the external drive, plan on putting in a secure place, such as a safe or lockbox.

OK, so the best way to back up data is to copy your entire “home” folder onto a backup drive. Not only will that copy all the files on your Desktop, Documents, and Downloads folders, it will back up your Library folder, which contains your browser settings, your email (whether you use Apple’s Mail program or Outlook), and other miscellaneous items, such as Quicken files, among others. Your “home” folder (which usually named after you) is found inside the Users folder, which is found in the top level of your hard drive, which is named “Macintosh HD” by default. 

*Important note: If you have multiple user accounts on the computer, you will want to back up ALL the different “home” folders found within the Users folder. 

To back up your “home” folder, plug in the external hard drive and allow it to mount. Depending on how you have your finder settings enable it may appear on the desktop. If it does, double click it and drag your home folder onto it. If it doesn’t appear on the desktop, open a new finder window (Command-N) and look for it in the sidebar of the window. Best practice dictates that you first create a new folder on the external drive with the date of the transfer. 

*More important notes: If you’re using the external drive for a Time Machine backup, you won’t be able to use it for any additional files, unless you have an older Mac OS. AND if you have any files that you want to copy that are OUTSIDE of your home folder (on the top level of the hard drive, for example), you’ll have to copy those to the external drive after you copy the home folder. Yes, things get more complex as time rolls by…