iCloud & iCloud Photos · iCloud and external drives

Is iCloud Drive a good place for big video projects?

Short answer: Usually not for active projects: big media is slow to sync, uses your iCloud plan and isn't available offline once online-only. Keep active projects on your Mac or a fast external drive and use iCloud for finished exports.

Usually not for active projects. Large media files take a long time to upload and download, count against your iCloud plan, and can't be used offline once they're online-only. Editing apps also expect their project files to stay put and be available instantly.

A better pattern for big media:

  • Keep active projects on your Mac or a fast external drive. Storage Studio can relocate a big project folder to the external drive and leave a shortcut, so it opens from the same place.
  • Use iCloud Drive for finished exports you want on other devices.
  • Keep a separate backup of anything you can't recreate.

See moving folders to an external drive.

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