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How to Change Where Safari Files Download in iOS

By default, Safari's Download Manager saves files in the "Downloads" section of the Files app, but you can easily customize the storage location by following these steps.

• Launch the Settings app.
• Scroll down and tap Safari .
• Tap Downloads .
• Choose to store downloaded files in iCloud Drive , On My iPhone , or in another location of your choosing ( Other... ).

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How to manage Safari downloads on iPhone and iPad

While surfing the web or accessing our email, we tend to download files on our iPhone and iPad. Initially, it all looks good. Eventually, with the files piling one after another, you start feeling the need to manage Safari downloads.

But wait… don’t rush to a third-party download manager. Managing your download, that too in a separate file manager app, is a tricky and daunting business. So, here’s good news, with iOS 13 and the changes made to Safari, you can manage your chaos (or should I say Downloads?) easily!

Here are some quick ways to manage your Safari downloads on your iPhone and iPad effortlessly. Let’s begin!

How to download files in Safari on iPhone

• Pause/Resume/Cancel your downloads in Safari 

Change default Safari downloads location on iPhone

Delete downloaded files in safari, auto-delete safari downloads on your iphone.

• Locate the file/item you want to download and tap it.
• Confirm download when prompted through the popup window.

Note : There’s also an alternate way to access your downloads. You can go to the Files application and select Downloads .

How to manage your downloads in Safari on the iPhone

Pause/resume/cancel your downloads in safari.

• Tap the download icon at the top right corner of Safari.
• Tap the ‘X’ symbol to pause or cancel your download.

Note : You can directly reach the downloaded location of a file by tapping the ‘ Search ‘ icon next to the file name.

• In the Settings app, tap Safari and select Downloads .

Note : iCloud Drive will let your downloads be available across all connected devices, whereas the iPhone/iPad option will only save the file to the respective device.

However, if you want to delete the file permanently, there are two ways to do it.

• Tap the arrow icon and swipe left the file you want to delete.

You can also choose to auto-delete files.

• Open the Settings app and tap Safari .

• Here, you have three options : After one day, Upon Successful Download, or Manually.

I hope the steps were quick, easy, and helpful. In case you have any other trouble, feel free to connect with me in the comments below. For further help related to the Safari browser, consider reading Dhvanesh’s guide on How to troubleshoot common Safari problems .

Read more: 

• How to install Safari extensions on Mac in just 4 easy steps
• Safari Not Opening t.co Short Links from Twitter? Quick Fixes
• Restore Deleted Safari Bookmarks on​ Mac
• How to disable Safari tab previews on Mac (Quick guide)

A tech-aficionado whose superpower lies in blabbering interminably about new technologies. After 4+ years and 4500+ content pieces that helped diverse companies grow, I followed my passion and made iGeeks Media my home. When not gushing over technology, you will find me immersed in a fictional world, either reading or creating one.

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How to change download location for Safari on your iPhone

Last updated 1 year ago

If you've ever downloaded anything on your iPhone, you may have had trouble finding it later. After all, it's not immediately clear where these files go.

By default, you'll save anything you download to the Downloads folder of iCloud Drive. You may not want it there, given that it uploads to your iCloud drive, and takes up space there too.

Changing the download location elsewhere is possible. Here's how to do it.

How to change the download location for Safari on your iPhone

• Open Settings
• Scroll down and tap Safari
• Scroll down and tap Downloads
• Select either iCloud Drive , On my iPhone , or Other...

If you select iCloud Drive or On my iPhone, you will automatically download files to the respective Downloads folder.

Should you select "Other...", you will be prompted to navigate to the location either on iCloud Drive or your iPhone where you would like to download files.

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How to change where the downloaded Safari items are saved

Beginning with iOS 13, iPhone has an enhanced Safari browser with a Mac-like download manager . With this, iPhone and iPad users can download all sorts of files from the Internet, like PDFs or ZIPs, and store them locally in a folder inside the Files app.

This brief tutorial shows you how to change the location where Safari on iPhone, iPad, and Mac downloads the files.

Change Safari downloads location on iPhone and iPad

By default, Safari stores all your downloaded items in the Downloads folder on iCloud, making them available across any iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Windows device signed in to the same iCloud account. But it’s easy to change that.

Here’s how to use any folder for Safari downloads:

• Open the Settings app, scroll down and tap Safari .
• Tap Downloads .
• Select  Other .
• Choose any folder inside iCloud Drive or On My iPhone and tap Done . You can also tap the folder plus icon to create a new folder and set it as the download location.

From now, any file you download in Safari will be saved inside this folder from where you can easily access this .

Tip: Choose iCloud Drive or On My iPhone in Safari settings to default back to the Downloads folder.

Please note:

1) Even if you have added third-party locations like Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive to the Files app , you can’t select them as a possible Safari downloads folder. You must select a folder in iCloud Drive or locally On My iPhone.

2) Selecting a folder in iCloud Drive as your download location is handy as it will upload the downloaded files to iCloud and make them accessible from your other Apple devices like Mac, iPhone, or iPad. However, if you’re on the limited 5 GB plan, it may quickly fill up your iCloud. So, you will have to either free iCloud space , upgrade to a paid iCloud+ plan , or live with problems like failing device backups and more.

3) On Mac, if you set “Ask for each download,” you can choose the desired folder location on a per download basis. However, you don’t have this choice on iPhone.

4) The above setting only affects the files you download when you see a download popup like the one below. For several supported files and websites, you can continue to tap the share icon and choose Save to Files > choose any folder > Save / Done .

Change Safari downloads folder on Mac

Here’s how to set any Finder folder as the preferred Safari download location on Mac:

• Open Safari and press the Command + Comma (,) keys. You can also click the word Safari from the top left and choose Preferences .
• Make sure you’re in the General tab.
• Click the dropdown menu next to File download location .
• Click Other , choose any Finder folder, and then click Select . If you want files to save to iCloud Drive, choose that from the left sidebar. In case you don’t have a specific folder in mind, you can set Ask for each download and choose any folder while initiating a file download.

If you don’t see the iCloud Drive folder, that’s because you haven’t enabled it in the first place. To do that, click  > System Preferences > Apple ID > iCloud and check iCloud Drive .

Check out next:

• How to manage and remove download items in Safari for Mac
• How to change the file download folder for Firefox and Chrome on Mac
• Steps to move Safari’s address bar on iPhone back to the top, just like it used to be

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Make your own iPhone Safari download manager with Shortcuts

By Charlie Sorrel • 11:00 am, March 13, 2019

• Top stories

One of the biggest shortcomings of mobile Safari is downloading files. It’ll do it just fine, but it loads everything as if it were a web page. PDFs, ZIPs, MP3s: They all get loaded right there into the current page, whereupon you have to use the Open In… feature to save the file.

Perhaps even worse — you don’t have any idea how long the download is going to take. All you have to go on is the loading progress bar up in the URL bar, which creeps along and really only offers two states: “not done yet” and “done.”

Today we will fix that by whipping up a download manager using the Shortcuts app. Let’s go.

Safari download shortcut

Today we’ll make a simple three-step shortcut that does a few things. It lets you download a file in mobile Safari, rename it, and save it to your Dropbox. Here it is:

As you can see, the shortcut:

• Accepts only URLs
• Downloads the content of the URL (this is the file)
• Prompts you to rename the download
• Saves it to a downloads folder on Dropbox

To use this shortcut, you just long-press on a link in Safari, choose Share , tap Shortcuts , and then tap the shortcut you made.

Custom options

You can of course customize these steps. The first step should be left alone, but you can have the shortcut save the download in your iCloud Drive instead of Dropbox. If you do this, you’ll only be able to choose the Shortcuts folder in iCloud Drive, but you can specify a subfolder. That would look like this:

Rename Safari downloads on iOS

I also added a step to rename the file before it is saved. For many people, this shortcut might be worth using just for that. There’s no way to rename a file when you save it on iOS, so you must use a shortcut to do it. (Or find the file later in the Files app , and rename it there.)

You could also have the shortcut automatically name the file by date or some other parameter. To do this, just tap in the Name field of the Set Name action, and pick one of the automatic options that appear above the keyboard. It looks like this:

If you tap the Contents of URL button in that list, you get all kinds of crazy options. You could, for instance, choose to rename the file with the title of the web page you’re downloading from. You can also stack these name labels, adding the date into the mix, and so on.

Dig around the left sidebar to see what else you can do. And remember that, although my screenshots come from an iPad, all this works on iPhone, too.

One final tip: You can switch to another app and leave Safari downloading a large file. If Safari gets killed in the background, your download will too. But for all but the biggest files, you can just let it run while you go do something else.

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How to fix Safari downloads going to iCloud drive after iOS 17 update

Ever since l updated my iPad to ios17 anything I download from Safari keeps going to my downloads folder on my iCloud Drive. I've changed it numerous times in my settings to be downloaded on a folder on my iPad and it shows, that folder. However, the minute I download something to check the folder after it's been downloaded it's showing in the iCloud downloads folder. I've restarted my iPad and everything. Can anyone help?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPad Air, iPadOS 17

Posted on Mar 23, 2024 3:43 AM

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• Is there a way to clear safari "Documents & Data" on iPad? Free Safari Documents & Data from Ipados 16.4 Is there a way to clear safari "Documents & Data" (Image below)? Any hint would be higly appreciated. [Edited by Moderator] 107 1

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Where Do Downloads Go in Safari on iPhone or iPad?

While browsing the web using Safari on your iPhone or iPad, you can download images, documents or PDFs by tapping links on websites. When you tap a link, a popup will appear saying, “Do you want to download ‘file.name’?” When you tap the Download option, the item will be downloaded onto your iPhone or iPad, and it will be saved to your default download location, which you can change.

It appears that some users are having trouble locating downloaded files. So how can you find them? Where is the Downloads folder?

Where to find Downloads in Safari

You can easily see the items that you have downloaded by tapping the AA icon at the left end of the Smart Search field in Safari and selecting Downloads, as you can see in the screenshot below. If you do not see the Downloads option, it means that your download list is empty. Depending on your settings, your list may be emptied automatically by Safari.

You may also notice a blue arrow. This blue arrow may appear next to the AA icon. This blue arrow icon indicates that you have recently downloaded an item.

As explained above, you can access the downloaded items in Safari. After you open Downloads, you can share, save, AirDrop, print or annotate the downloaded item. This is called the Downloads list. By default, this list will be emptied after one day. Note that just items in the list will be removed. Your downloaded file will still exist somewhere on your iPhone. There are a few settings you can customize.

Where are downloaded files saved on your iPhone or iPad?

By default, downloaded items will be saved in the Downloads folder in the Files app. This folder can be located in either iCloud Drive or On My iPhone. You can also change the location. Here is how:

• Open Settings .
• Tap Safari .
• Tap Downloads .
• iCloud Drive – Downloads. If you select this option, your downloaded items will be available on your other devices too, if you are signed in with the same Apple ID.
• On My iPhone or iPad – Downloads. If you select this option, your downloaded items will only be stored on your iPhone or iPad.
• Or tap Other to select another location of your choosing in iCloud or on your device.

How to customize when items are removed from the Downloads list

By default, Safari will remove an item from the list after one day. However, you can change this. Here is how:

• Tap Remove Download List Items .
• After one day : Your list will be cleared after one day.
• Upon successful download : This will make it so there will be no Downloads list in Safari. Any item you download will directly go to the download folder.
• Manually : This will make it so the list will stay intact unless you clear it. To clear it, open the Downloads List (tap AA, then Downloads in Safari), then tap Clear to delete all. If you want to delete individual items, swipe left and tap Delete.

Related articles

• iPhone / iPad Popup Says Unable to Download Item, Fix
• Do you Want to Download “f.txt.js”?
• How To Restore Disappeared Downloads Folder To Dock & Sidebar In Finder
• How To Manage Downloads In Safari On iPhone And iPad
• App Store: Unable to Download App? Fix

Dr. Serhat Kurt worked as a Senior Technology Director specializing in Apple solutions for small and medium-sized educational institutions. He holds a doctoral degree (or doctorate) from the University of Illinois at Urbana / Champaign and a master’s degree from Purdue University. He is a former faculty member. Here is his LinkedIn profile and Google Scholar profile . Email Serhat Kurt .

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Safari website screenshot creates PDF on iCloud Drive downloads folder

• Thread starter emulajavi
• Start date Jun 25, 2022
• Sort by reaction score
• iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
• iOS and iPadOS
• Older iOS Versions

macrumors 6502

• Jun 25, 2022

Hi. on my iPad with iPadOS 15 when I’m browsing a website using Safari and do a screenshot with the vol+ and power button.… a screenshot is taken BUT… also a PDF of the full website from top to bottom is generated and saved into the Downloads folder on iCloud Drive. I don’t find any setting to disable this behavior.… so the PDF isn’t generated and saved can anyone help me? thank you!  

• Aug 8, 2022

No one?? If I take a screenshot ( https://support.apple.com/en-ie/guide/iphone/iphc872c0115/ios ) while browsing a website using Safari on iOS 15.... a PDF is automatically created (and saved on Downloads folder of iCloud Drive) containing a screenshot of the full website. thanks  

macrumors demi-god

I know there is a way to get the behavior you're seeing, but I don't know why it's happening automatically. When you take a screenshot and quickly click on the image on the lower left of the screen, you can then work on the "Full Page" and save it to files (with the default location being the last folder used). Could you have an extension installed in Safari which is causing this?  

• Aug 9, 2022

I don’t have any extensions installed and I also don’t have any ’experimental features’ changed from default in Settings. It’s very strange because it happens randomly on my iPhone and on my iPad so when I try to reproduce the behavior I’m not able to do it, but from time to time when I look into the downloads folder on iCloud Drive, I find a bunch of websites saved there as pdf, and all I can say is that they are websites I’ve ‘screenshoted‘ recently either to save a picture on the camera roll or share a picture of part of it (touching on the bottom left thumbnail, cropping the picture, touching on share, sharing the picture via WhatsApp and then touching the red recycle bin so to no save the picture in the camera roll).  

I've read that the full page screenshots are supported in Mail as well as Safari; they both support taking a screenshot of the scrollable page outside of what's visible on the screen. Could you test in Mail and see if the same thing happens? It's not so great that it's random; makes it hard to test.  

macrumors regular

• Oct 5, 2022

This is a very weird Safari iPad bug. You can see this bug in action by taking these steps: 1. Launch Safari on your iPad (I’m running iPadOS 15.6.1). 2. Go to a website, and take a screenshot of the website. 3. Tap on the screenshot in the corner to view it. 4. Tap on the “Done” button and choose “Save To Photos”. Steps #3 and #4 are required to trigger this bug. BUG: A copy of the screenshot in PDF format will appear in your iCloud Downloads folder.  

Contributor

Unable to reproduce. Checked downloads folder in Web iCloud files immediately after the pictures were uploaded and nothing there.  

• Oct 22, 2022

I’ve had this on my iPhone for at least two years and thought it was standard behavior. Had gigabytes of PDFs in my iCloud Drive that I had to delete. Can’t find a way to disable it either.  

macrumors 65816

scotty321 said: This is a very weird Safari iPad bug. You can see this bug in action by taking these steps: 1. Launch Safari on your iPad (I’m running iPadOS 15.6.1). 2. Go to a website, and take a screenshot of the website. 3. Tap on the screenshot in the corner to view it. 4. Tap on the “Done” button and choose “Save To Photos”. Steps #3 and #4 are required to trigger this bug. BUG: A copy of the screenshot in PDF format will appear in your iCloud Downloads folder. Click to expand...

• Jan 3, 2023

I just noticed this today. Also does it for Mail on iOS, although we can’t reproduce that reliably. Confirmed for my wife as well. PDFs go back to 2019 for us. Seems like a security concern.  

macrumors member

• Jan 28, 2023

I’ve seen this annoying behavior on my iPhone as well. Take a screenshot of a webpage. Select the small image to open the editor. Select screen. Select done. Select save to photos. The screenshot appears in photos and the full page pdf appears in files. It doesn’t happen every time. Not sure what triggers it to happen.  

• Feb 7, 2023
• Apr 18, 2023

Still happening randomly. Any clues?  

macrumors newbie

• May 4, 2023

• Dec 23, 2023

Any news about this? still happening to me With iOS 17.  

• Jan 11, 2024

It’s even worse on my end. For me, no matter which download location outside of folders in iCloud I select, it always get resets to said folder. I am literally unable to save anything to "On My iPhone". I have even tried downloading straight to Dropbox, but who could’ve guessed it, my selected location get reset instantly and downloads everything to iCloud Drive/Downloads. This is so infuriating, especially since i am on the latest build, iOS 17.2.1 (21C66). Edit Submitted my issue directly to Apple via feedback assistant (13535803).  

• Feb 25, 2024

Just discovered it's happening on my devices and has since 2021!! It happens on any web browser, not just Safari. Confirmed it happens with Chrome and DuckDuckGo. Also happens in the Notes app.  

• Mar 23, 2024

Settings --> Safari --> Downloads --> On My iPhone/iCloud Drive  

• Jun 22, 2024

June 2024 an it still randomly happens... I've seen it has also started to happen with Notes App screenshot. As always, randomly.  

• Jun 23, 2024

Interesting twist on this issue. I saved some safari webpage screenshots directly into files and discovered that copies were also in the recently deleted album in photos.  

xbpr said: Interesting twist on this issue. I saved some safari webpage screenshots directly into files and discovered that copies were also in the recently deleted album in photos. Click to expand...

emulajavi said: June 2024 an it still randomly happens... I've seen it has also started to happen with Notes App screenshot. As always, randomly. Click to expand...

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• Delete or hide an event
• Set an alert
• Restore your calendars and events
• Share a calendar
• Stop sharing a calendar
• Accept a shared calendar invitation
• Receive emails for updates to shared calendars
• Contacts on iCloud.com overview
• View contacts
• Create or edit contacts
• Create and manage lists
• Search contacts
• Delete contacts
• Restore contacts
• Import, export, and print contacts
• If you can’t create, import, edit, or delete contacts
• Add a domain you own
• Purchase a domain
• Add or remove people
• Transfer custom email domain addresses
• Allow all incoming emails
• Import existing emails
• Create and delete email addresses
• Stop using a domain
• Find Devices on iCloud.com overview
• Locate a device
• Play a sound on a device
• Use Lost Mode
• Erase a device
• Remove a device
• Create and edit addresses
• Stop using or reactivate addresses
• iCloud Drive on iCloud.com overview
• Upload and download files
• View files and folders
• Organize files and folders
• Rename and duplicate files
• Share files and folders
• Add or remove shared files and folders
• Delete shared files or folders
• Email files
• Delete files
• Recover deleted files
• Permanently remove deleted files
• Mail on iCloud.com overview
• Add and manage email aliases
• Use a custom email domain with Mail
• Choose a default email address
• Use Hide My Email in Mail
• Write and send email
• Save and view email drafts
• Reply to or forward an email
• Receive a reminder to reply
• Add an attachment
• Create an email signature
• Save and find email addresses
• Set up an automatic reply
• View all email headers
• Download attachments
• Automatically forward email
• Manage junk mail
• Delete email
• Organize email with folders
• Search, filter, and flag email
• Set up filtering rules
• Archive email
• Make a sender a VIP
• Use Mail Privacy Protection
• Print an email
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Notes on iCloud.com overview
• Create notes
• Add links to notes
• Add or edit lists
• Add or edit tables
• Organize notes in folders
• Organize notes with tags
• View notes and locked notes
• View or download attachments
• Delete and recover notes
• Search notes
• Share notes
• Edit shared notes
• Delete shared notes
• Share folders
• Make updates to shared folders
• Delete shared folders
• Photos on iCloud.com overview
• View your photos and videos
• Hide your photos and videos
• Use iCloud Shared Photo Library
• Upload and download photos
• Add a title or caption
• Organize photos and videos
• Add photos and videos to Favorites
• Play a slideshow of photos
• Delete and recover photos and videos
• Share photos and videos
• Reminders on iCloud.com overview
• Create and delete reminders
• Add and delete reminder lists
• Move a reminder to another list
• Mark a reminder as completed or not completed
• Search for reminders
• Restore your reminders
• Share a reminder list
• Reply to a shared reminder list invitation
• Leave a shared reminder list
• Recover files and information
• Use iCloud on your Windows computer
• Get more help with iCloud
• Legal notices and acknowledgements

Keep your Safari bookmarks, Reading List, and tabs up to date with iCloud

With iCloud, your Safari bookmarks, Reading List, and open browser tabs stay up to date on all your devices.

Access the same bookmarks, Reading List, and tabs on all your devices

When you set up iCloud for Safari , your Safari bookmarks, Reading List, Tab Groups, and open browser tabs are stored in the cloud, which frees up space on your device. You can access that information on any device that’s set up for iCloud and Safari, including your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac. You can access your bookmarks on a Windows computer.

Because your information is in the cloud, changes you make on one device—like bookmarking a new website, removing an item from your Reading List, or opening a new tab—automatically appear on all your devices. You see the most up-to-date version of your bookmarks, Reading List, Tab Groups, and open browser tabs, no matter where you access them.

Restore your bookmarks on all your devices

Your bookmarks are archived automatically. You can use iCloud.com to restore an archived version on all your devices if you ever need to.

Collaborate on Tab Groups

You can collaborate on Tab Groups with friends and family who use iCloud. When collaborators add or remove a tab from the group, everyone sees those changes in real time.

Get started

See Set up iCloud for Safari on all your devices .

How-To Geek

Can you ditch icloud for google drive i gave it a shot.

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Key Takeaways

• Google Drive offers 10GB more free cloud storage than iCloud, totaling 15GB.
• Google offers similar pricing to iCloud, but is more likely to offer discounted rates.
• Google Drive is more versatile across devices, while iCloud is the only service that supports restoring data directly to iPhones, iPads, and Apple wearables.

Paying for iCloud means having extra space to store media and files, but is it cost-effective? Not exactly. Aside from cheaper cloud storage subscription plans, Google Drive brings more to the table and might just be the right fit for you.

Google Offers More Free Storage

Google Drive gives you 10GB more free cloud storage (at 15GB) than Apple does with iCloud (at only 5GB). So, if you get a lot of annoying system notifications prompting you to upgrade your free 5GB iCloud storage and you’re not looking to pay for anything yet, consider backing up your files, photos, and videos on Google Drive’s free 15GB cloud storage space.

You can also get the best of both worlds by using both free plans from Google Drive and iCloud. There’s nothing stopping you from using as many cloud storage services as you want on your iPhone. That means you’ve got a total of 20GB of free cloud storage. At least for now.

This way, you can easily back up your pictures and videos on iCloud , as it's much easier to handle and syncs automatically. Then, you can easily upload your files and documents to Google Drive and access them whenever you want. It’s just as simple as storing your files on iCloud.

The big drawback here is that you'll need to consciously manage this storage. Turning on iCloud Photo Library under Settings > iCloud will handle media uploads, but you'll need to have the Google Drive app installed to use Google's storage instead.

Fortunately, Apple's Files app integrates with a good number of third-party cloud storage services (turn them on using the "..." button on the Browse tab).

Prices Between the Services Are Comparable

iCloud's paid plans are quite pricey compared to other cloud storage providers like Google Drive. You might be surprised to learn that the iCloud subscription pricing differs across regions.

If you live in any of the South, North, and Latin America regions, you’ll basically spend less money on iCloud than someone else in Europe, Asia, or Africa. On the other hand, Google Drive offers consistent pricing worldwide. Google also offers fewer plans than Apple.

iCloud storage plans come in four different sizes. You could opt for any of the 50GB, 200GB, 2GB, 6TB, and 12TB packages. Google Drive, on the other hand, provides fewer packages. A basic 100GB plan, a 200GB premium package, and a 2TB plan. There's also a 2TB plan that comes bundled with Gemini Advanced.

If you live in the US, the pricing from both providers is pretty much the same. iCloud’s 50GB plan costs $0.99/month, while Google Drive’s 100GB plan costs $1.99/month. On the larger side, Google Drive’s 2TB plan (without Gemini Advanced) costs $9.99/month, just as iCloud’s 2TB plan costs $9.99/month.

While we can easily say iCloud provides more storage options so it's better, it's not that simple. First, Google Drive sometimes offers discounts on its cloud storage plans that could save you some money, something Apple never does. We’re looking at savings from $3 to $39 on their plans at the time of writing.

Also, don’t forget that iCloud pricing differs across regions. If you live in any of the European, Asian, or African countries, you could be paying twice as much as someone in the US for the same iCloud storage plan. It could also be argued that the value is greater since you can do more with Google Drive storage (more on this later).

Automatically Back Up iPhone Photos to Google Drive

Once you take a picture or record a video on your iPhone, it automatically backs up to iCloud once you’re connected to the internet, but with Google Drive, the process isn’t necessarily automatic. Basically, you have to manually upload whatever media you wish to back up using the Google Drive app.

Not everyone has the time to manually back up their photos and videos every time, so this might be a bit of a drawback for Google Drive. The good news, however, is that you can set up an automatic media backup by installing the Google Photos app.

Google Photos works just like the Photos app on iPhone, storing your pictures and videos. To get started, simply enable the "Back up & sync" setting under "Google Photos settings" within the Google Photos app. You can open the app at any time and check to see whether your media library has been backed up, or manually initiate a sync.

Google Workspace Syncs Better with Google Drive

If you frequently use Google Sheets, Docs, and other Google Workspace services, Google Drive integrates perfectly. It syncs all your files automatically if you use the same email account across these services.

Once your email is connected to Google Workspace services and the same email is linked to your Google Drive, any document, sheet, file, and image shared with you will automatically sync with your Google Drive. It's a one-stop shop for all your work-related files.

On iCloud, however, you’d have to manually upload files you work on unless you're creating them with apps that specifically use iCloud as a storage medium. It's no tough job, but automatic backups and syncs simply make life much easier.

Only iCloud Supports Restore from Backup on iPhones

If you ever lose or replace your iPhone, or decide to reset your iPhone to factory settings and want to keep your phone data and information, iCloud backup is superior since the iPhone doesn't support restoring from other storage providers.

You could also manually backup to iTunes, but you'd have to remember to do this regularly. Only iCloud can be used as a last line of defense for restoring all data and information on your iPhone. Google Drive, while useful, falls short here. It can only restore your photos, videos, calendar events, and contacts, not the full iPhone experience.

The same goes for the Apple Watch and iPad. Your health and fitness data, customized watch faces, drawings, notifications settings, even your bookmarks on Safari—all of it can be restored back on your Apple Watch and iPad with iCloud.

Google Drive Works Better Across Multiple Devices

Google Drive is a more versatile option if you use a mix of devices, like an iPhone, a Windows PC and an Android tablet. It's difficult to share files from Android to iCloud, though Windows support has improved over the years. Google Drive makes more sense for users who aren't fully engrossed in the Apple ecosystem.

The storage you buy through Google could be more useful to you if you use a lot of non-Apple devices.

Is the Switch to Google Drive Worth It?

At the end of the day, choosing between iCloud and Google Drive is all about what works best for you. When considering things like price, free storage space, and workspace sync ease, Google Drive puts up a good fight against iCloud.

On the other hand, because iCloud is native to iPhones and the Apple ecosystem, it makes life easy to some extent. If you back up your iPhone and other Apple devices regularly, you'd never have to worry about losing your app data, files, information, photos, videos—basically, everything.

And if you need just a little bit more space, there's no harm in using both iCloud and Google Drive free storage plans. You get the best of both worlds without spending a dime.

If you're looking for a one-stop shop to back up all your data and information, it’s better to go with iCloud. While paid iCloud plans will cost you , the peace of mind is totally worth it.