iCloud is not a backup: what it protects and what it doesn’t

iCloud is very good at what it’s designed for: keeping your files, photos and settings the same on every device you own, with a copy on Apple’s servers, so a lost Mac doesn’t have to mean lost files. It just isn’t a backup in the sense that matters when something goes wrong.

Apple’s own backup page says iCloud keeps your data “safe, backed up automatically and available anywhere you go”. The same page files it under “Sync and store data with iCloud”, though, and gives Time Machine a heading of its own: “Use Time Machine to back up automatically”. That distinction is the whole story.

We make Yester, a backup app for Macs. Everything below about iCloud links to Apple’s own documentation.

What’s the difference between sync and backup?

Sync keeps one current version of your files everywhere. A backup keeps copies from the past that changes on your Mac can’t touch. Both are useful, but they answer different questions: sync answers “how do I get this file on my phone?”, while a backup answers “how do I get back the file I had on Tuesday?”

What does iCloud protect you from?

Quite a lot, as long as the problem is the device rather than the files. Your iCloud Drive files and photos live on Apple’s servers as well as on your devices, so a Mac that’s lost, stolen or broken doesn’t take them with it: with Desktop and Documents in iCloud Drive, Apple says you can “access the files from your Mac on all your devices”.

It also only covers iCloud Drive, plus Desktop and Documents if you turn that on. Hidden folders in your home folder, such as ~/.claude and ~/.codex where Claude Code and Codex keep your conversations, aren’t synced at all.

What it isn’t is a separate history of your files. Your own changes reach every copy, within the limits described below.

How do deletions and overwrites spread through iCloud?

The same way everything else does. Apple is explicit: with your Desktop and Documents in iCloud Drive, “when you delete a file on one device, it will be deleted on every device you’ve signed in to with the same Apple Account”. Deleting on iCloud.com works the same way, removing the file from all your devices that have iCloud Drive turned on. Photos behave alike: with iCloud Photos on, deleted photos stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days on all your devices, then they’re gone.

Overwrites spread too. Save a changed document and iCloud Drive brings your other devices up to date with it. That’s exactly what you want when the change is right, and exactly what you don’t when it isn’t: a bad edit, a file overwritten by an old copy, or files scrambled by ransomware all sync as faithfully as good work.

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre has seen ransomware incidents that “compromised connected cloud storage locations”, which is why it recommends keeping at least one backup offline at any given time.

What do Recently Deleted and version history cover?

They’re real safety nets, with limits worth knowing.

Recently Deleted. On iCloud.com you can recover files deleted from iCloud Drive within the last 30 days, whichever device you deleted them on. After that they’re gone, and Apple is clear that you “cannot recover or restore files you have permanently removed”. Deleted files can also be removed for good before the 30 days are up.

Version history. Apple says “iCloud periodically saves versions of the files stored in iCloud Drive”, and in Pages, Numbers and Keynote you can browse and restore them. On a Mac, many apps save versions of documents as you work, “every hour, or more frequently when you’re making many changes”, and File > Revert To > Browse All Versions shows them.

What they don’t cover. Version history lives inside the apps that support it, one document at a time. Apple’s pages don’t describe a way to put a whole folder, or all of iCloud Drive, back as it was on a chosen day, and files deleted more than 30 days ago are beyond recovery. If you notice a problem in the fifth week, sync has already finished its work.

How do you get back a file you deleted from iCloud Drive?

Move quickly, because the clock started when you deleted it. Apple’s steps for iCloud.com are short:

1. Go to icloud.com/iclouddrive, sign in and select Recently Deleted in the sidebar.
2. Select the files you want and choose Recover, or choose Recover All.
3. If a file isn’t there, go to icloud.com/recovery, choose Restore Files, select the files and restore them.

Recovered files go back to the folders they were in when you deleted them, and Apple warns that editing or deleting files during the process might interrupt it. If the 30 days have passed, iCloud can’t help, and a backup is the only place left to look.

What happens to your files with Optimise Mac Storage on?

Some of them stop living on your Mac. With Optimise Mac Storage on, “your Mac can automatically store documents in iCloud when more space is needed”; in Finder those files show the In iCloud status icon until you download them again. The Photos setting of the same name keeps smaller versions of your photos on the Mac when space is limited, and the full-size originals in iCloud.

That matters for backups, because a backup app on the Mac can only copy what’s on the Mac. Yester lists files that live only in iCloud in Settings, so nothing is left out without you knowing. The fix is Apple’s own: Control-click important folders in iCloud Drive and choose Keep Downloaded, or turn off Optimise Mac Storage if you have the space. In Photos, choose Download Originals to this Mac.

One more trap: turning off Desktop & Documents Folders doesn’t bring your files home. Apple says “your files stay in iCloud Drive”, and new, empty Desktop and Documents folders are created on your Mac. Move the files back yourself if you want them there.

Isn’t iCloud Backup a backup?

It is, for other devices. iCloud Backup covers iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro, not the Mac, and it deliberately leaves out data that’s already synced to iCloud, such as your photos when iCloud Photos is on. For a Mac, Apple’s backup page points you to Time Machine, which keeps hourly, daily and weekly backups on a drive at home. That covers mistakes, but not a burglary, a fire or a flood that takes the drive as well.

Who can read what’s in iCloud?

It depends on a setting. With standard data protection, iCloud Drive is encrypted, but Apple keeps the keys, so “Apple can decrypt your data on your behalf”. Advanced Data Protection makes iCloud Drive end-to-end encrypted, but in the UK Apple says it can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection to users who haven’t already turned it on.

A backup that’s encrypted on your Mac with a key only you hold keeps that decision with you, wherever you live. Yester works that way: every file, file name and preview is encrypted before it’s uploaded, and Yester never has the key, so nobody at Yester can read your files. The price of that privacy is looking after the recovery key: keep it in a password manager, or let Yester save a copy in your iCloud Keychain, because nobody can unlock the backup without it.

How do you protect your iCloud files properly?

Keep iCloud, and add a backup:

1. Keep iCloud Drive and iCloud Photos on if you like them. Sync is useful; it just isn’t history.
2. Make sure important files are on your Mac. Use Keep Downloaded for folders you can’t lose, and Download Originals in Photos if you have the space.
3. Add an off-site backup that keeps its own history, such as Yester, so a deletion that synced everywhere is still in last week’s backup.
4. Add a Time Machine drive if you have one, for a third copy at home.
5. If something vanishes, act within 30 days. Check Recently Deleted on iCloud.com first, then your backup.

How does Yester protect your iCloud files?

Yester backs up your whole Mac every hour, including the iCloud Drive files downloaded to it and the hidden folders where Claude Code and Codex keep your conversations, and keeps 90 days, a year or five years of history, depending on the plan. When a file in iCloud Drive is deleted or overwritten on any of your devices, the change syncs to your Mac, but the older versions stay in Yester’s backup until they pass your plan’s window.

Browse & Restore shows your folders as they were at any moment you choose, so you can bring back a whole folder as it was before a deletion synced. Nothing on your Mac can delete a Yester backup, in line with the NCSC’s principle that cloud backups should be “resilient to destructive actions”. Ransomware that scrambles your files, and the sync that spreads them, can’t reach the versions from before it struck.

Yester needs a Mac with Apple silicon running macOS 26 or later, and costs from £11.99 a month for a Mac with 512 GB of built-in storage.