You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Mac book pro to iPad pro

I would like to move all of my files from my now old (2013) Mac book pro to iCloud so that all I now use is an iPad Pro. Is this ok and if so how do I do it safely. I can then recycle my Mac book pro

MacBook Pro 13", 10.13

Posted on May 15, 2019 1:22 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 15, 2019 1:44 PM

Its o.k as long as you understand that iCloud is a sync service, not a backup.


Once everything is on iCloud, any changes made to files there affect all connected devices. So if you delete a file, it deletes from all devices accessing that account.


You can use the iCloud Drive Folder in Finder on your Mac like any other folder, and just drag and drop files and folders to it as required.


Do note, that unless you are paying for more iCloud Storage, the default storage is only 5GB, it may or may not be enough to hold all your files.


See here for more details about how iCloud Drive works: Work with files and folders in iCloud Drive - Apple Support




7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 15, 2019 1:44 PM in response to markpersad

Its o.k as long as you understand that iCloud is a sync service, not a backup.


Once everything is on iCloud, any changes made to files there affect all connected devices. So if you delete a file, it deletes from all devices accessing that account.


You can use the iCloud Drive Folder in Finder on your Mac like any other folder, and just drag and drop files and folders to it as required.


Do note, that unless you are paying for more iCloud Storage, the default storage is only 5GB, it may or may not be enough to hold all your files.


See here for more details about how iCloud Drive works: Work with files and folders in iCloud Drive - Apple Support




May 15, 2019 2:06 PM in response to markpersad

This may not be completely possible and not really advisable depending what you currently use your MacBook for and what you plan on using the iPad Pro for.

Not all macOS app file data is fully compatible with iOS and with iOS apps that can store the data.

Some data transfers are, also not one to one.

Any iPad, even an iPad Pro, is NOT a full computer or laptop/MacBook replacement.

They never were and as long as Apple continues to makes the MacBook lineup, NO iPad will be on equal feature and operational parity with any MacBook system.

iPad are companion devices to be used alongside a Mac.

iOS is NOT macOS.


Sorry,


Also, since you own a MacBook Pro, this is, actually, a much better backup solution for any iDevice, as the only other options for iDevices is offsite, “cloud” data storage/data backup services which you may have to pay a monthly fee for large backup data storage amounts.


Why do you think you need to ditch your MacBook Pro?

What types of things do you do with your MacBook Pro currently that you think you can do or get by using an iPad Pro?


This seems to me not to be a very sound or advisable thing to do.


And getting data from your Mac to your iPad using iCloud will be fairly slow.


You may want to look at other offsite, online data storage services like DropBox or Google Drive/Photos as Google Drive has a free tier up to 15 GBs of storage and monthly sub plan of $1.99/month for 100 GBs of data storage bring the total Google Drive/Photos cloud storage up to 115 GBs.

That is a pretty decent and affordable monthly data storage plan and is these services are better alternatives to iCloud.



Mac book pro to iPad pro

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.