# Difference between iCloud Drive and iCloud Documents

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-icloud-drive-and-icloud-documents/943089>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 28, 2021, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-icloud-drive-and-icloud-documents/943089 "2021-05-28T13:30:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-icloud-drive-and-icloud-documents/943089/1 "2021-05-28T13:30:10Z")

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For the life of me, I don’t get the difference between these two, in Apple OS X. I mean the two marked with an asterisk below:

Favorites  
napier  
Applications  
On My Mac  
AirDrop  
Recents

iCloud  
iCloud Drive \*  
Desktop  
Documents \*

When I examine the contents they appear exactly the same. I have looked at several web references and three books, and mostly what I am getting is that one is for “everything else”, but not “besides what”.

I’m happy using iCloud Documents, and I see everything appearing in iCloud Drive, but I’m about to get Ms. Napier started with Apple computing and want to be clear before I confuse her.

Thanks!

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**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-icloud-drive-and-icloud-documents/943089/2 "2021-05-28T14:44:32Z")

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The Desktop and Documents folders in iCloud Drive are automatically synced with the Desktop and Documents folders on your local machine.

iCloud Drive is the whole Enchilada - you may not be storing anything there right now, which is why they all appear the same, but try dragging a file onto iCloud drive (not into the Desktop or Documents folder), and see if it shows up only in iCloud Drive.