How to sync Mac desktop and documents to other devices with iCloud [Tip]

icloud1If you use an Apple Mac as your main desktop for business or personal purposes, then you surely need to sync your Mac’s desktop and documents with other Apple devices you also use. Your other devices could probably be iPhones, iPads, and your Apple TV if you have one.

Too Tedious

Let’s examine a hypothetical example that will clearly show good reason to sync your Mac’s desktop and documents. You have done some work today on your office Mac for a presentation that is scheduled for tomorrow morning at the office. Before leaving the office for home today, you have saved your PowerPoint presentation to your iPad so you can do some last-minute changes at home tonight.

You save your PowerPoint file from your iPad to your home Mac computer using “Bluetooth” technology or just email it from your office Mac as an attachment to yourself, so you can work on it using your home Mac computer.  

Next morning you then email it back to yourself so you can use the file for your presentation from your office Mac computer. This process of emailing back and forth, transferring the file back and forth between the office Mac, iPad, and home Mac and vice-versa. Is this not, tedious? You can easily avoid this situation if you simply sync your Mac’s desktop and documents using iCloud.

How to Sync Your Mac’s Desktop and Documents with Other Devices

When you sync your Mac’s desktop and documents with your other Apple devices the whole tedious process becomes effortless for you.

In the example just discussed, you could sync your Mac’s desktop and documents that you use at your office with one of you other devices like the Apple iPad that you carry from home to office and back.

Here is the process to sync your Mac’s desktop and documents with the iPad, with easy to follow steps.

Step 1: Ensure the iCloud Desktop and Document Syncing are turned “On” for your office Mac.

Step 1.1: Open “System Preferences” and click “iCloud.”

Step 1.2: In iCloud preferences, click on “Options” next to iCloud Drive.

Step 1.3: Enable Desktop and Documents Folders under the Documents tab.

Your office Mac will now begin to upload your desktop and document files to iCloud.

At the end of Step 1, your iCloud drive is now synced with your office Mac and everything you update on your office Mac will be updated in the iCloud version as well. Your files have been uploaded from your office Mac to iCloud.

Step 2: Setup the iCloud Drive app on your iPad and every other device you want to access files from the office Mac, synced in iCloud. Now access your desktop and documents from the iPad.

Step 2.1: Ensure your iPad is logged into the same iCloud Drive account as your office Mac.

Tapping the iCloud Drive app on your iPad will enable you to access your desktop and documents from your iPad.

Conclusion

When you sync your Mac’s desktop and documents using iCloud storage then your other devices can access your files from this common storage using the iCloud Drive App.

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