How to Set Up iCloud Drive on Your iPhone & iPad

Here's how to set up iCloud Drive on your iPhone or iPad, so that you can access, edit, and share your iCloud files from all your devices.

By Conner Carey Updated 01/11/2021

Do I need to use iCloud Drive? How do I activate iCloud on my iPhone or iPad? These are questions about iCloud Drive that we get frequently. iCloud Drive is an easy way to share documents and data from within different native Apple and compatible third-party apps across all devices. You can store and work with documents and files, including PDFs, in your iCloud Drive and access or email them from your device. Here’s how to turn on iCloud Drive.

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How to Set Up iCloud Drive on Your iPhone & iPad

We've gone over how to upload photos to iCloud on your iPhone, as well as how to back up your phone to iCloud. For more great tips on how to optimize your iPhone storage, check out our free Tip of the Day.

Open the Settings app.
Tap the banner at the top of the page.
Tap iCloud.
Toggle on iCloud Drive.

The apps featured below iCloud Drive are enabled with the app; toggle them on or off for use with iCloud Drive. You'll now be able to find your files in the Files app, and your apps can store documents and data in the iCloud, making them available across all of your devices, with 5 GB of free iCloud storage. To purchase more iCloud storage, visit Settings, tap the banner at the top, tap iCloud, tap manage Storage, and choose Change Storage Plan.

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Author Details

Conner Carey

Conner Carey's writing can be found at conpoet.com. She is currently writing a book, creating lots of content, and writing poetry via @conpoet on Instagram. She lives in an RV full-time with her mom, Jan and dog, Jodi as they slow-travel around the country.

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