Apple's Merger of 'iCloud Documents and Data' Into iCloud Drive Now Complete

Last May, Apple Apple announced that it would be merging its iCloud Documents and Data service into iCloud Drive in May of 2022, and that transition has now been completed.

icloud drive mac ipad iphone
As noted in a support document updated today, users who previously relied on ‌iCloud‌ Documents and Data for syncing files across devices will need to turn ‌iCloud Drive‌ on in order to see their files.

iCloud Documents and Data, our legacy document syncing service, has been discontinued and replaced by iCloud Drive. If you used iCloud Documents and Data, your account has been migrated to iCloud Drive.

If you used the iCloud Documents and Data service, you need to turn on iCloud Drive to see your files. When you switch to iCloud Drive, the amount of storage space your saved files use in iCloud doesn't change.

Apple's support document provides instructions and minimum system requirements for ‌iCloud Drive‌ on iOS devices, Macs, and on the web at iCloud.com.

The vast majority of ‌iCloud‌ users already have ‌iCloud Drive‌ enabled, so they won't see any changes. But for users who had ‌iCloud‌ accounts prior to the introduction of ‌iCloud Drive‌ in 2014 and never enabled it, perhaps to maintain compatibility with pre-iOS 8 and pre-OS X Yosemite devices that couldn't support ‌iCloud Drive‌, they will now need to turn it on in order to regain access to their files.

The older ‌iCloud‌ Documents and Data service kept cloud-synced data stored in folders specific to a given app, only allowing access to the data from that app. With ‌iCloud Drive‌ being a more full-featured syncing service, all of those files can now be accessed from a single location: the Files app on iOS and iPadOS, the ‌iCloud Drive‌ section of Finder on macOS, or the ‌iCloud Drive‌ section of iCloud.com.

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.4 and iOS 27 Features Revealed in New Leak

Friday December 12, 2025 10:56 am PST by
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28. The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
apple beta 26 lineup

Apple Leak Confirms Work on Foldable iPhone, AirTag 2, and Dozens More Devices

Monday December 15, 2025 2:05 pm PST by
Last week, details about unreleased Apple devices and future iOS features were shared by Macworld. This week, we learned where the information came from, plus we have more findings from the leak. As it turns out, an Apple prototype device running an early build of iOS 26 was sold, and the person who bought it shared the software. The OS has a version number of 23A5234w, and the first...
Apple Logo Top Half

Early iOS 26 Software Leak Uncovers Dozens of Upcoming Apple Features

Monday December 15, 2025 3:05 pm PST by
Software from an iPhone prototype running an early build of iOS 26 leaked last week, giving us a glimpse at future Apple devices and iOS features. We recapped device codenames in our prior article, and now we have a list of some of the most notable feature flags that were found in the software code. In some cases, it's obvious what the feature flags are referring to, while some are more...
Apple Foldable Thumb

Leak Reveals Foldable iPhone Details

Monday December 15, 2025 9:09 am PST by
The first foldable iPhone will feature a series of design and hardware firsts for Apple, according to details shared by the Weibo leaker known as Digital Chat Station. According to a new post, via machine translation, Apple is developing what the leaker describes as a "wide foldable" device, a term used to refer to a horizontally oriented, book-style foldable with a large internal display....
iOS 26

Apple Releases iOS 26.2 With Alarms for Reminders, Lock Screen Changes, Enhanced Safety Alerts and More

Friday December 12, 2025 10:10 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 26.2, the second major update to the iOS 26 operating system that came out in September, iOS 26.2 comes a little over a month after iOS 26.1 launched. ‌iOS 26‌.2 is compatible with the ‌iPhone‌ 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation ‌iPhone‌ SE. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings >...
iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Coming Soon With These 8 New Features on Your iPhone

Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon. Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week. iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
macOS Tahoe 26 Thumb

Apple Releases macOS Tahoe 26.2 With Edge Light

Friday December 12, 2025 10:08 am PST by
Apple today released macOS Tahoe 26.2, the second major update to the macOS Tahoe operating system that came out in September. macOS Tahoe 26.2 comes five weeks after Apple released macOS Tahoe 26.1. Mac users can download the macOS Tahoe update by using the Software Update section of System Settings. macOS Tahoe 26.2 includes Edge Light, a feature that illuminates your face with soft...
airpods max 2024 colors

AirPods Max 2 Likely to Offer These 10 New Features

Monday December 15, 2025 7:41 am PST by
Apple released the AirPods Max on December 15, 2020, meaning the over-ear headphones launched five years ago today. While the AirPods Max were updated with a USB-C port and new color options last year, followed by support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio this year, the headphones lack some of the features that have been introduced for newer generations of the regular AirPods and the ...

Top Rated Comments

eicca Avatar
47 months ago

Or you know, UPGRADE YOUR DEVICE!!!!!

If you are not upgrading, perhaps because you think your device works fine, why are you still using Apple device. Also it’s 2022. That device you own is too obsolete and really should upgrade…..
1) It's running the latest iOS so it's not the device's problem, genius.
2) You pay for the upgrade and I'll happily do it. Otherwise I have to spend my hard-earned money on other things.
Score: 36 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jim Lahey Avatar
47 months ago
iCloud is a mess. With each passing day I ask myself again if anyone of influence at Apple actually uses their devices and services. They are probably connected to their own in-house system and are blissfully unaware that iCloud sync actually sucks for the plebeians. An option to force a refresh would be nice, but that would mean acknowledging that it doesn't "just work".
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tgwaste Avatar
47 months ago
Maybe the piece of absolutely complete garbage crap they call iCloud Drive should be fixed first before doing anything else. It has NEVER worked properly.


Computer 1 (this space usage is correct)

$ du -hd1 Documents/ | tail -n 1
408G Documents/

Computer 2 (and here we are at almost double used for the SAME files)

$ du -hd1 Documents | tail -n 1
740G Documents


2.5 TRILLION dollar company.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
eicca Avatar
47 months ago
Now can they make it so sync actually works and stops erasing my Pages docs on iPad?
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ratspg Avatar
47 months ago
About time! Now we can hope for restoring deleted files and file history like Dropbox :)
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
telo123 Avatar
47 months ago
The whole iCloud Drive needs a redesign. It isn’t as fluid as Google Drive or OneDrive.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)