Storage Studio's cloud accounts and iCloud Drive

iCloud Drive is built into macOS, and Storage Studio leaves it exactly as it is. What Storage Studio adds is a home in Finder for your other cloud accounts.

What iCloud Drive does

Signed in with your Apple ID, your Mac shows iCloud Drive in Finder's sidebar. Files sync across your Apple devices, you can choose to keep your Desktop and Documents folders in iCloud, and Optimise Mac Storage can make older files online-only when space is short. You don't need to add it to Storage Studio — it's already on your Mac.

What Storage Studio adds

• Other accounts in Finder. Accounts you connect in Remotes & Accounts — such as Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or Box — appear as folders inside the Storage Studio location in Finder's sidebar, with files online-only until you open them.
• Another Apple ID. You can add the iCloud Drive of a different Apple ID, such as a family member's. That Apple ID needs Advanced Data Protection off and Access iCloud Data on the Web on, and Apple asks for a new verification code about once a month. Its iCloud Photos can appear too, read-only.
• Space back from your own iCloud Drive. Optimize Cloud Storage… in the More menu can make the downloaded files in your iCloud Drive online-only in one pass.

%% caption: Where each account shows up in Finder
flowchart TD
  A[Your cloud storage] --> B{Which account?}
  B -->|Your own Apple ID| C[iCloud Drive in Finder's sidebar]
  B -->|Another Apple ID| D[Storage Studio location]
  B -->|Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box and others| D

Using both

Keep using iCloud Drive for your own Apple ID as you always have. Use Storage Studio for everything else, so all your accounts are reachable from Finder without filling your Mac.

See also: Cloud accounts · iCloud Drive for another Apple ID · The Storage Studio location in Finder