iCloud is great for synchronizing contacts, calendars, photos and other items between Mac, Apple TV and various iOS devices. Taking advantage of the services provided on web, it is also possible to recover files, bookmarks or deleted contacts and even share items with people who do not use iCloud.
For several years all the devices of the House of Cupertino (Mac, iPad, iPhone) can work with iCloud. The House of Cupertino offers free 5GB of storage space (extendable for a fee) that can be used for photos, notes, documents and other items that update automatically from one device to another with the iCloud account activated.
Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Reminders, Safari and various apps of the App Store thanks to iCloud are automatically updated on all devices; if we save a new phone number, add a site to the Bookmarks or update a keynote presentation saved on iCloud, we find the change everywhere. When we work with other people on a document, presentation, or spreadsheet, everyone sees the changes in real time. The files update automatically on all devices. Here are five simple tips or tricks, not all known, useful for anyone using iCloud.
Recover files, bookmarks or contacts
Did you accidentally delete a file, contact or item from the calendar? No problem: with a browser go to www.icloud.com, indicate the email associated with your Apple ID and password, click on the “Settings” icon: in the page that opens, at the bottom left, you can access the section “Advanced” and from here choose the items: “Restore file”, “Restore contacts”, “Restore calendars and reminders”, “Restore bookmarks”. For example, if you click on “Restore file”, the list of files that can be restored is presented, sorted by date of deletion. Next to each file is the number of days remaining before the final deletion. “Restore Contacts” to restore the archive of contacts to a previous date, “Restore calendars” the archive calendars and reminders.
Sharing from www.icloud.com
Sharing photos of iCloud allows you to share our favorite moments with whom we want. Friends and relatives with whom we share albums can post photos, videos and comments and changes appear automatically on everyone’s devices. To access this function, use a browser to go to www.icloud.com, indicate the email associated with your Apple ID and password, click on the “Photo” icon, select the album and choose with whom to share or send the photos by mail.
Create albums to share with friends and relatives
With the iCloud Photo Sharing feature, you can share photos and videos with selected people, who in turn can add photos, videos and comments. To do this you need to update all the Mac, iOS devices and Apple TV with the latest version of the operating system, set iCloud on all devices making sure to log in to iCloud with the same Apple ID on all the devices we want to use with iCloud Photo Sharing. You can even add a PC with Windows 7 or later by downloading iCloud for Windows.
From the iPhone you can create a “shared album” using the Photos app and choosing the desired photos. We can invite up to 100 people to participate, make comments and even add their own videos and photos. We will be able to manage the shared album and permanently save the photos added by friends. Here’s how to proceed:
- Open the Photos app and choose “Shared”
- Indicate the name of the shared album (eg “Trip”, “Wedding”, etc.)
- Select Create and invite the desired contacts.
You can also share albums with friends and family who do not use iCloud. Just open a shared album, go to the People panel on your iOS device (Photos> People) or click on People icon on your Mac, then activate “Public Website”. The photos are published on a website accessible by anyone through an updated browser.
You can add photos or videos to a shared album at any time: Just select the share symbol (the square with the arrow in the middle up) and choose iCloud Photo Sharing. In the Moments view you can add all photos and videos made the same day in the same place or publish only some of them by selecting photos and videos and choosing the reference album.
When we add new photos, a notification is automatically sent to the people we share the album with. Make sure the “Members can publish” option is activated, so that others can add photos and videos as well. You can check this option in the People panel on your iOS device (Photos> People) or by clicking the People icon on your Mac.
A shared album can hold up to 5000 photos and videos. Shared photos and videos, their comments or “Like”, remain stored in iCloud until the person who posted them is deleted manually or until the entire shared album is deleted. The owner of a shared album can delete any photo, video or comment posted by other users. Subscribers can only delete content that they have added personally. Any deleted item is automatically deleted from the album on all your devices and on all subscriber devices.
Create aliases for mails
iCloud allows you to create email “aliases”, an email address that hides the actual address to a recipient. An alias is convenient to help manage the emails we receive, have seemingly different addresses and monitor the origin of unwanted messages.
Go to www.icloud.com, indicate your Apple ID and password. Click on “Mail”, click on Settings (the wheel icon), choose Preferences and click on “Account”.
You can have up to three active email addresses and enable or disable an email alias at any time. It is obviously possible to delete email aliases that you no longer wish to use at any time. While the deactivation of an alias is temporary, its deletion is final. When an alias is deactivated or deleted, emails sent to that alias are sent back to the sender.
Create rules for incoming e-mails
Another great tool made available by iCloud are the rules for e-mails, a mechanism that automatically filters incoming messages. Rules can be configured to automatically filter in incoming messages or reorganize messages already received using Mail on iCloud.com. For example, you can create a rule that organizes messages from a particular sender to a particular folder. At any time it is possible to modify or delete these rules at will.
Go to www.icloud.com, indicate your Apple ID and password. Click on “Mail”, click on Settings (the wheel icon), choose Preferences and click on “Rules”. From here you can add or remove rules. In the Name or email address field, you must enter the full or partial name of the sender, a complete email address or the domain only (the part of the email address after the @symbol). Using the “Then” pop-up menus you can configure the behavior of the rule. You can add more rules (up to 500): these are applied in the order in which they appear in the list. To change the order, just drag a rule up or down the list.