Apple certainly encourages iOS and macOS users to take advantage of its iCloud services, which vary in cost. A lot of the services rely on iCloud storage, and they’re free…until you exceed the paltry 5GB of included service, at which point you pay monthly from $1 for 50GB to $10 for 1TB.
That’s not a terrible lot, but 5GB doesn’t even cover the capacity of any of the iOS devices Apple sells. Other services, like iTunes Match ($25 per year) are not quite iCloud features, but rely on it.
Macworld reader Susan is still running iOS 10 and has apprehensions about upgrading to 11. She writes, “The information I find on iOS 11 suggests that it will automatically log me in to various things I do not use. Apple seems to be pushing a lot of features I am leery about, especially too much storage of things in iCloud.”
Fortunately, you’re not forced to use anything. Apple doesn’t turn on iCloud features by default, even though it offers them. You may be thinking of a feature new to iOS 11, Quick Start, which is often called automatic setup. With that feature, you bring two iOS devices close together, one you’re using as the template and one you’re setting up. With a combination of Bluetooth to exchange some information and a visual pattern that requires the camera to complete, the transfer process starts. It’s much more streamlined than other methods, and it brings most or all of your settings (you can choose some of those), including iCloud.
You can always review your iCloud service settings in iOS via Settings > account name > iCloud, and make sure there’s nothing switched on that you didn’t mean to enable.
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Author: Glenn Fleishman, Senior Contributor
Glenn Fleishman’s most recent books include Take Control of iOS and iPadOS Privacy and Security, Take Control of Calendar and Reminders, and Take Control of Securing Your Mac. In his spare time, he writes about printing and type history. He’s a senior contributor to Macworld, where he writes Mac 911.