Make accessing iCloud files quicker and easier on the Apple Mac

If you use iCloud Drive to store files and need to access them quickly there are several ways to make it slightly easier and a tiny bit quicker. Add quick access icons to Finder and Dock.

ICloud used to be so locked down that it was almost useless for general purpose file storage and it could only be accessed from within an app. These days you can store all sorts of files on iCloud and it is more like a standard online drive than it used to be. It is not perfect, but is definitely better than it was.

ICloud is awkward to use from non-Apple computers and phones, but if you are an Apple fan and only have Apple kit, it is quite useful, although you do need to subscribe to get more than the 5GB of free space you get.

Add iCloud to the Finder sidebar

Open Finder and in the sidebar should be a section with iCloud. Is iCloud Drive there? Can you click it to access your files?

If it is not there, or if it is and you want to hide it, go to Finder > Preferences and select the Sidebar tab. Tick all the options in the iCloud section and tick all the items in the Devices section while you are here.

The sidebar in Finder should now look something like this:

Add iCloud to the Dock

Wouldn't it be easier if there was a Dock icon to go straight to iCloud? It would save you having to open Finder first. I recently showed that iCloud is mirrored on the disk (iCloud is not an online drive) and you can access your files through the Library folder.

Click the Go menu, hold down the Option key and click Library to open Finder showing the contents of your personal Library folder.

A copy of iCloud is stored in the Mobile Documents folder.

Click and drag this folder from the Finder window and drop it at the right side of the Dock.

Ctrl+click the folder icon that is added and choose the display options as you prefer. Choose Grid or List view, set the sort options and so on.

If you open the Mobile Documents folder in Finder, it shows the contents of iCloud Drive, but if you click the folder when added to the Dock, it shows the whole contents of iCloud, of which iCloud Drive is just a part.

The Dock icon could be useful if you want to access all the other folders on iCloud, or at least see what is there. You may be surprised to see folders and files from apps you tried, but removed a long time ago. ICloud is full of junk!

A better iCloud dock icon

There is another way to add an iCloud Dock icon and this is like the Files icon that is on the iPhone and iPad home screen. For some unknown reason, macOS has this, but hides it where you will never find it.

Open Finder and select the Mac's disk on the left. On the right are several folders.

Open System > Library > Core Services then right click Finder.app and select Show Package Contents.

Apps are really folders that contain many subfolders and files. Open Contents and then Applications.

The whole path is:

/System/Library/Core Services/Finder.app/Contents/Applications

Drag the iCloud Drive.app to the left side of the Dock and drop it in a space. This adds iCloud Drive to the Dock. One click and the contents of iCloud Drive is displayed.

You now have an icon on the left side of the Dock to show the contents of iCloud Drive and an icon at the right side of the Dock to show the contents of all iCloud files and folders.