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Introducing Apple One. Bundle your favorite services and enjoy more of Apple for less. Learn more

The original Leef iBridge was one of the first dual-interface devices that included both USB and Lightning interfaces so that you could easily transfer files between Macs, PCs and iOS devices. Apple pushed out a host of new features in iOS 13 and iPadOS 13, and one of the most significant is native support for external storage—it means you can plug in thumb drives, external disk.

The best place for all your photos, files, and more.

iCloud is built into every Apple device. That means all your stuff — photos, files, notes, and more — is safe, up to date, and available wherever you are. And it works automatically, so all you have to do is keep doing what you love. Everyone gets 5GB of free iCloud storage to start, and it’s easy to add more at any time.

iCloud Photos

All your photos and videos.
Always available.

A lifetime of photos
on all your devices.

With iCloud Photos, you can browse, search, and share all the photos and videos from any of your devices, whether they were taken yesterday or years ago.

Take all the photos you want. Without worrying about space on your devices.

To save space on your devices, the original, full‑resolution photos you take are automatically uploaded to iCloud. You’ll still always have a lightweight version of every photo on your device, and you can download the originals whenever you need them.

All your files available from all your devices.

The files you keep safe in iCloud Drive are easy to get to, no matter which device you’re using. You can access all your files from the Files app on iOS and iPadOS, the Finder on your Mac, File Explorer for Windows PCs, or iCloud.com.

Organize files however you want. Get to them on any device you want.

iCloud Drive lets you organize your files with folders, rename them, and tag them with colors. And when you make a change, the update is made across all your devices. You can even have everything in your Mac Desktop and Documents folders automatically available in iCloud Drive.

Apps using iCloud

Your favorite apps are
even better with iCloud.

All your essentials.
Accessible from all your devices.

iCloud automatically keeps apps — including Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Reminders, Safari, and some of your favorite apps from the App Store — updated across all your devices. So when you add a new phone number, bookmark a website, or update a slide in a presentation, the change appears everywhere.

Collaborate with Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and Notes.

Work with others on documents, presentations, and spreadsheets and see edits as they’re made. With live updates on all your devices, your collaborators will always be on the same page.

Every message. Updated across all your devices.

iCloud automatically stores all of your messages. Search for an address, a funny exchange, or anything else. And you can pick up every conversation right where you left off. Even when you move to a new phone or computer.

iCloud Backup and Restore

All the things that matter.
Safe and secure.

Automatic backups give you peace of mind.

iCloud automatically backs up your iOS and iPadOS devices when they’re connected to power and Wi-Fi. So if you lose your device or get a new one, you’ll have all the things that matter without missing a beat.¹

Move to a new device with everything you loved about your old one.

iCloud makes moving your settings, photos, apps, and documents to a new device seamless. Just sign in to iCloud when you set up your new device, and you’ll be ready to go in minutes.

Two‑factor authentication helps keep your data safe.

Two‑factor authentication is an extra layer of security designed to ensure that only you can access your account. That means your account can only be accessed on devices you trust, like your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

Find the storage plan that’s right for you.

The right amount of storage depends on how you and your family members want to use your devices. Everyone gets 5GB of free iCloud storage to get started and it’s easy to upgrade at any time. Your apps and any iTunes or Apple TV purchases don’t count toward your iCloud storage space, so you need it just for things like photos, videos, files, and device backups.

Apple One

Bundle iCloud
with up to five other great services.²
And enjoy more for less.

Family Sharing

Family Sharing makes it easy for you and up to five family members to share Apple Books and App Store purchases and an iCloud storage plan.⁴ And everyone can access an Apple Music family plan and subscriptions to Apple TV+, Apple News+, and Apple Arcade.

Designed with your
privacy in mind.

Storage Device For Mac And Pc

Apple takes the security of your data and the privacy of your personal information very seriously. Because of that, iCloud features are designed to keep your information safe, secure, and available only to you.

Optimized Storage in macOS Sierra and later* can save space by storing your content in iCloud and making it available on demand. When storage space is needed, files, photos, movies, email attachments, and other files that you seldom use are stored in iCloud automatically. Each file stays right where you last saved it, and downloads when you open it. Files that you’ve used recently remain on your Mac, along with optimized versions of your photos.

* If you haven't yet upgraded to macOS Sierra or later, learn about other ways to free up storage space.

Find out how much storage is available on your Mac

Choose Apple menu  > About This Mac, then click Storage. Each segment of the bar is an estimate of the storage space used by a category of files. Move your pointer over each segment for more detail.

Click the Manage button to open the Storage Management window, pictured below. This button is available only in macOS Sierra or later.

Manage storage on your Mac

The Storage Management window offers recommendations for optimizing your storage. If some recommendations are already turned on, you will see fewer recommendations.

Store in iCloud

Other Storage On Mac

Click the Store in iCloud button, then choose from these options:

• Desktop and Documents. Store all files from these two locations in iCloud Drive. When storage space is needed, only the files you recently opened are kept on your Mac, so that you can easily work offline. Files stored only in iCloud show a download icon , which you can double-click to download the original file. Learn more about this feature.
  
• Photos. Store all original, full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud Photos. When storage space is needed, only space-saving (optimized) versions of photos are kept on your Mac. To download the original photo or video, just open it.
  
• Messages. Store all messages and attachments in iCloud. When storage space is needed, only the messages and attachments you recently opened are kept on your Mac. Learn more about Messages in iCloud.

Storing files in iCloud uses the storage space in your iCloud storage plan. If you reach or exceed your iCloud storage limit, you can either buy more iCloud storage or make more iCloud storage available. iCloud storage starts at 50GB for $0.99 (USD) a month, and you can purchase additional storage directly from your Apple device. Learn more about prices in your region.

Optimize Storage

Click the Optimize button, then choose from these options.

• Automatically remove watched movies and TV shows. When storage space is needed, movies or TV shows that you purchased from the iTunes Store and already watched are removed from your Mac. Click the download icon next to a movie or TV show to download it again.
  
• Download only recent attachments. Mail automatically downloads only the attachments that you recently received. You can manually download any attachments at any time by opening the email or attachment, or saving the attachment to your Mac.
  
• Don't automatically download attachments. Mail downloads an attachment only when you open the email or attachment, or save the attachment to your Mac.

Optimizing storage for movies, TV shows, and email attachments doesn't require iCloud storage space.

Empty Trash Automatically

Empty Trash Automatically permanently deletes files that have been in the Trash for more than 30 days.

Reduce Clutter

Reduce Clutter helps you to identify large files and files you might no longer need. Click the Review Files button, then choose any of the file categories in the sidebar, such as Applications, Documents, Music Creation, or Trash.

You can delete the files in some categories directly from this window. Other categories show the total storage space used by the files in each app. You can then open the app and decide whether to delete files from within it.

Learn how to redownload apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books.

Where to find the settings for each feature

The button for each recommendation in the Storage Management window affects one or more settings in other apps. You can also control those settings directly within each app.

• If you're using macOS Catalina, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, click Apple ID, then select iCloud in the sidebar: Store in iCloud turns on the Optimize Mac Storage setting on the right. Then click Options next to iCloud Drive: Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders setting. To turn off iCloud Drive entirely, deselect iCloud Drive.
  In macOS Mojave or earlier, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click iCloud, then click Options next to iCloud Drive. Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders and Optimize Mac Storage settings.
• In Photos, choose Photos > Preferences, then click iCloud. Store in iCloud selects iCloud Photos and Optimize Mac Storage.
• In Messages, choose Messages > Preferences, then click iMessage. Store in iCloud selects Enable Messages in iCloud.

• If you're using macOS Catalina, open the Apple TV app, choose TV > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Files. Optimize Storage selects “Automatically delete watched movies and TV shows.”
  In macOS Mojave or earlier, open iTunes, choose iTunes > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Advanced. Optimize Storage selects “Automatically delete watched movies and TV shows.”
• In Mail, choose Mail > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Accounts. In the Account Information section on the right, Optimize Storage sets the Download Attachments menu to either Recent or None.

Empty Trash Automatically: From the Finder, choose Finder > Preferences, then click Advanced. Empty Trash Automatically selects “Remove items from the Trash after 30 days.”

Other ways that macOS helps automatically save space

With macOS Sierra or later, your Mac automatically takes these additional steps to save storage space:

• Detects duplicate downloads in Safari, keeping only the most recent version of the download
• Reminds you to delete used app installers
• Removes old fonts, languages, and dictionaries that aren't being used
• Clears caches, logs, and other unnecessary data when storage space is needed

How to free up storage space manually

Even without using the Optimized Storage features of Sierra or later, you can take other steps to make more storage space available:

• Music, movies, and other media can use a lot of storage space. Learn how to delete music, movies, and TV shows from your device.
• Delete other files that you no longer need by moving them to the Trash, then emptying the Trash. The Downloads folder is good place to look for files that you might no longer need.
• Move files to an external storage device.
• Compress files.
• Delete unneeded email: In the Mail app, choose Mailbox > Erase Junk Mail. If you no longer need the email in your Trash mailbox, choose Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items.

Learn more

• The Storage pane of About This Mac is the best way to determine the amount of storage space available on your Mac. Disk Utility and other apps might show storage categories such as Not Mounted, VM, Recovery, Other Volumes, Free, or Purgeable. Don't rely on these categories to understand how to free up storage space or how much storage space is available for your data.
• When you duplicate a file on an APFS-formatted volume, that file doesn't use additional storage space on the volume. Deleting a duplicate file frees up only the space required by any data you might have added to the duplicate. If you no longer need any copies of the file, you can recover all of the storage space by deleting both the duplicate and the original file.
• If you're using a pro app and Optimize Mac Storage, learn how to make sure that your projects are always on your Mac and able to access their files.