iCloud

When Apple introduced its paid-for iCloud+ service with iOS 15, it included a new security feature called iCloud Private Relay, which is designed to encrypt all of the traffic leaving your device so no one can intercept it or read it. Private Relay sends web traffic to a server that is maintained by Apple in order to strip the IP address. Once IP info has been removed, Apple sends the...

With the release of iOS 16.3 and macOS 13.2, Apple is introducing Advanced Protection for iCloud, which uses end-to-end encryption to provide Apple's highest level of cloud data security yet. Here's everything you need to know about enabling it on your devices. The new security feature ensures users will have the choice to further protect their important iCloud data, including iCloud Backup, ...

Every Apple device user is given 5GB of free iCloud storage to let them store their data in secure remote servers, but Apple also offers iCloud+, a premium cloud subscription service that gives you more storage as well as additional features like Private Relay and Hide My Email. Apple offers iCloud+ with 50GB, 200GB, or 2TB of additional storage for $0.99, $2.99, or $9.99 per month. If...

With the release of iOS 15.4, Apple has added the ability for users with paid iCloud+ plans to create custom email domains directly on their iPhone. This article explains how it's done. When you subscribe to iCloud+ (prices start at $0.99) you can use custom domains to send and receive email with iCloud Mail. That means if you own a personal domain name, you can set up iCloud Mail to use it...

With iOS 15 and Hide My Email, you can create unique, random email addresses that forward to your personal inbox whenever you want to keep your personal email address private. This is especially useful if you think that a business or website is likely to share your email address with ad agencies or other third-parties for marketing purposes. Providing them with a dummy address means you can ...

With iOS 15 and the Hide My Email feature exclusive to iCloud+ subscribers, you can create unique, random email addresses that forward to your personal inbox whenever you want to keep your personal email address private. Hide My Email addresses are really useful if you think that a business or website is likely to share your email address with ad agencies or other third-parties for...

In iOS 15, paid iCloud+ plans feature Hide My Email, which lets you create unique, random email addresses that forward messages to your personal inbox whenever you want to keep your personal email address private. They're really useful if you think that a business or website is likely to share your email address with ad agencies or other third-parties for marketing purposes. Providing them...

With the introduction of iOS 15, Apple rebadged its paid iCloud plans to "iCloud+" to reflect the fact that subscribers now get access to additional privacy features like Private Relay and Hide My Email. This article explains what Hide My Email is and how to use it. Hide My Email builds on the idea of Sign in With Apple by providing you with unique, random email addresses that forward to...

As part of iOS 15, Apple introduced iCloud Private Relay, a feature of all iCloud+ paid plans that's designed to encrypt all of the traffic leaving your device so no one can intercept it or read it. Private Relay works by sending web traffic to a server that is maintained by Apple to strip the IP address. Once the IP info has been removed, Apple sends the traffic to a second server...

Alongside iOS 15, Apple introduced an iCloud+ service that adds new features to its paid ‌iCloud‌ plans (upgraded ‌iCloud‌ storage tiers start at $0.99). One of these features is ‌iCloud‌ Private Relay, which is designed to encrypt all of the traffic leaving your device so no one can intercept it or read it. Private Relay sends web traffic to a server that is maintained by Apple...

Creating an iPhone or iPad backup should be routine for most users, as it's a simple procedure and the easiest way to recover your data if your device is replaced, lost, or stolen. There are two types of backup available to iOS users. iCloud backups are encrypted automatically and stored in the cloud, and you can create and use them anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection. By contrast, computer-base...

Apple enables iCloud account holders to use email aliases, which allow you to send and receive emails without disclosing your true email address. Using an email alias to log in to websites and online services can help protect your genuine email address by hiding it from spammers and other sources of unsoliticted messages. In addition, email aliases make it easy to filter messages, because...

As of iOS 13.4, Apple lets you share folders that you've synced to iCloud with friends and colleagues who have an Apple ID. Whether you're sharing from an iPhone or iPad, you'll be able to give people one-way access to the file, or allow them to modify the document if you're collaborating on a piece of work. This step-by-step guide shows you how it works. The sharing options that you choose...

iCloud is Apple's cloud platform that serves and secures all Apple devices. It can save and synchronize all your photos, contacts, files, reminders, and notes, and you can also use it to store device backups. You can access and manage your iCloud data on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows, and the web. Keep reading to learn how. iCloud stores your content securely and keeps your apps up to date...

Messages in iCloud, as the name suggests, stores your iMessages in Apple's cloud servers rather than on each of your individual devices, which has a number of benefits. When you receive a message on one device, it shows up on all devices logged into the same iCloud account. Likewise, when you delete messages and conversations they are instantly removed from all your devices. Another...

If you're an Apple Music subscriber, you can add and download songs, albums, playlists, and video content from the Apple Music catalog to your personal music library, and access all of them on any other Apple devices you own that have the Music app. With Apple's Sync Library feature enabled, the Apple Music content in your library will be synced across your devices as long as they are all...

Apple has little known iCloud tools that are designed to let you recover files that have been deleted from iCloud, as well as recover Contacts, Calendars, and Reminders that have been lost. Lost iCloud data isn't a situation that comes up often, but these tools were introduced following an iCloud Drive bug in 2015 that caused some users to lose documents stored in iCloud Drive, prompting the...

In iOS 12, Apple has added the ability to share pictures or video in your Photo Library using an iCloud.com link that lasts for 30 days. Not only is sharing a link quicker and less burdensome on your data allowance than sending several images or gigabytes of video, you can also share the same link as many times as you want within the expiry limit. For the new photo link option to appear,...

You can share files you've synced to iCloud with friends and colleagues who have an Apple ID using the step-by-step guide below. Whether you're sharing from a Mac or an iPhone, you'll be able to give people one-way access to the file, or allow them to modify the document if you're collaborating on a piece of work. The sharing options you choose automatically sync across your devices, so you...

Apple's native Mail application in macOS lacks a specific option for enabling out-of-office replies, but there is another way you can set them up on a Mac, and that's with Rules. It's worth bearing in mind at the outset that your Mac needs to be powered on for this out-of-office method to work. That's because Apple Mail rules are only applied locally to incoming emails, and aren't active on the...

If you've been maintaining and migrating the same Contacts list across Macs over the years then you've probably come across your fair share of duplicate contact cards. They can also appear seemingly out of nowhere after setting up iCloud Contacts on your Mac for the first time. Unless you intentionally keep certain information for the same contact separated out for whatever reason, duplicate...

iCloud Keychain is a feature of your Apple account that you can use to keep your website login credentials, personal details, credit card details, and wireless network information up to date and available across all your Apple devices. With so many usernames and passwords to remember these days, iCloud Keychain provides a convenient way of always having this information at hand. And with its...

Apple's Family Sharing feature allows you to share music, movies, apps, photos, and more with family members, and in iOS 11, Family Sharing extends to Apple's iCloud Storage plans. When you purchase a 200GB or 2TB iCloud Storage plan, all members of your family can share the storage space. Depending on how many family members you have, family plans offer more storage at a better price than...

iCloud Photo Library was introduced with iOS 8, but with the launch of the Photos for OS X app, it's now available on the Mac. In a nutshell, iCloud Photo Library is Apple's newest photo service that lets you sync all of your images across all your devices and to iCloud. iCloud Photo Library supports several photo and video formats, storing photos in their original format, and it makes all...

Apple's iCloud Mail service is experiencing issues at the current time, and Apple's System Status page says that the service may be slow or unavailable for some users. The outage began at 6:06 a.m. Pacific Time, and affected users may not be able to access their mail until the issue is resolved. Apple has not provided a timeline on when a fix might be available, but we'll update this article ...

Apple's iCloud for Windows software appears to experiencing serious issues for some users, with complaints on the MacRumors forums about corrupted videos and images from strangers appearing in Photo Libraries. There are a handful of complaints from customers who are running into complications with iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro models. Videos recorded on an ‌iPhone‌ and then synced with ‌iCl...

Apple today rolled out a new design on iCloud.com following several weeks of beta testing. The page now features a colorful wallpaper with tiles for your Apple ID account and Apple apps like Photos, Mail, iCloud Drive, Calendar, and Notes. There is also a tile with icons for additional apps like Find My, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and more. The page can be customized, with users able to choose ...

iCloud Mail has been experiencing an issue over the past few hours and is currently down for some users, according to Apple's system status page. There have been a number of reports on Twitter and from MacRumors readers over the past few hours, although the volume of reports doesn't seem terribly high, so the issue may be affecting only a relatively small percentage of users. User ...

Apple appears to have delayed its new iCloud Shared Photo Library feature for iOS 16, which is scheduled to be officially released on Monday, September 12. In iOS 16, currently still in beta, Apple has introduced an ‌iCloud‌ Shared Photo Library that aims to make it easer to share photos with your friends and family. With the new ‌‌iCloud‌‌ Shared Photo Library in ‌iOS 16‌, a new...

Some of Apple's iCloud services are experiencing an outage at the current time, according to Apple's System Status page. ‌iCloud‌ Bookmarks and Tabs, ‌iCloud‌ Calendar, ‌iCloud‌ Contacts, iCloud Drive, ‌iCloud‌ Keychain, ‌iCloud‌ Mail, ‌iCloud‌ Web Apps, and ‌iCloud‌ Storage upgrades are having problems, as is iCloud Photos. Apple says that these services may be slow or unavailable for some...

A group of UK network operators have formally urged the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to regulate iCloud Private Relay, claiming that Apple's privacy service is anti-competitive, potentially bad for users, and a threat to national security. In its response to the CMA's Interim Report on mobile ecosystems, Mobile UK, a trade association of British mobile network operators,...

The iOS 15.4 beta that was introduced today expands support for the custom email domain feature available for iCloud+, adding an option to set up a custom domain with ‌iCloud‌ Mail directly on the iPhone. If you go to Settings > Apple ID > ‌iCloud‌, "‌iCloud‌ Mail" is now a tappable option and it includes a section for setting up a Custom Email Domain. Prior to now, custom domains were...

Apple appears to have fixed an ongoing iCloud server issue that was causing some apps that have implemented ‌iCloud‌ support to fail to sync properly. The bug has persisted since November, and app developers were becoming increasingly upset with Apple's lack of effort to address the problem. According to YarnBuddy developer Becky Hansmeyer, Apple said that it has managed to address the issue ...

Some of Apple's iCloud services appear to be experiencing an outage, based on a multitude of reports that MacRumors has received and hundreds of complaints on Twitter. According to the Apple System Status page, there are issues with ‌iCloud‌ Backup, ‌iCloud‌ Mail, ‌iCloud‌ Storage Upgrades, iCloud.com, iMessage, and Game Center. Some users are unable to log into the ‌iCloud‌ website, and...

A number of developers are upset with an increasingly problematic iCloud server issue that is causing some apps that have implemented ‌iCloud‌ support to fail to sync properly. As outlined on the Developer Forums and on Twitter, there are CloudKit connectivity issues that have been occurring since November. Some users of apps that have ‌iCloud‌ support built in are seeing the following...

Major EU mobile operators are reportedly looking for Apple's iCloud Private Relay service to be outlawed because it allegedly infringes upon EU "digital sovereignty," according to a report from The Telegraph. ‌iCloud‌ Private Relay was a feature announced with iOS 15 that encrypts data so that neither Apple nor a third-party can see users' browsing activity in Safari. With ‌iCloud‌ Private...

Alongside iOS 15, Apple introduced an iCloud+ service that adds new features to its paid ‌‌iCloud‌‌ plans. One of these features is ‌‌iCloud‌‌ Private Relay, which is designed to encrypt all of the traffic leaving your device so no one can intercept it or read it. According to Apple, "regulatory reasons" prevent the company from launching Private Relay in China, Belarus, Colombia, Egypt,...

WhatsApp has announced it will give its two billion users the option to upload their chat backups to Apple's iCloud using password-protected encryption. Currently, WhatsApp on iPhone lets users back up their chat history to ‌‌iCloud‌‌, but messages and media that users back up aren't protected by WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption while in ‌‌Apple's cloud servers‌. Given that Apple...

Starting with iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey, users with a paid iCloud+ storage plan can personalize their iCloud email address with a custom domain name, such as johnny@appleseed.com, and the feature is now available in beta. iCloud+ subscribers interested in setting up a custom email domain can visit the beta.icloud.com website, select "Account Settings" under their name, and select ...

A criminal from Los Angeles has pled guilty to felony charges after breaking into thousands of iCloud accounts to hunt down nude photos of women, reports The Los Angeles Times. Hao Kuo Chi collected more than 620,000 private photos and videos by impersonating Apple customer support staff and sending out emails to trick his victims into providing Apple IDs and passwords. Chi used social...

iCloud Mail is experiencing an issue and is currently down for some users, according to Apple's system status page. The outage was noted by author Dan Moren and is also impacting one of our MacRumors editors. Affected users may be unable to access their iCloud inbox, send or receive emails, or complete other tasks through the Mail app across Apple devices and the web. Update: Apple's...

Apple has dramatically increased the amount of iCloud user data it stores on Google Cloud, according to The Information. The report claims Apple now has over eight million terabytes of data stored on Google's servers. As of mid-May, Apple was reportedly on track to spend around $300 million on Google cloud storage services this year, which would represent an increase of roughly 50% from all...

At its WWDC keynote on Monday, Apple announced that iCloud is getting a premium subscription tier called "‌iCloud‌+," which includes tentpole privacy features like Private Relay and Hide My Email. Another feature included in ‌iCloud‌+ that wasn't discussed in the keynote is the ability to create a custom email domain name. From Apple's iOS 15 features preview page, under the ‌iCloud‌+...

Alongside iOS 15, Apple introduced an iCloud+ service that adds new features to its paid ‌iCloud‌ plans. One of these features is ‌iCloud‌ Private Relay, which is designed to encrypt all of the traffic leaving your device so no one can intercept it or read it. Apple did not mention country limitations for the feature when announcing it, but Apple told Reuters that Private Relay will not be...