4 Easy Ways to Sync OneDrive with iCloud [Full Guide]
OneDrive and iCloud are welcomed by users around the world and maybe you are one of these users. There is no doubt that syncing OneDrive with iCloud can bring more conveniences. But how to achieve that? This post will provide you with 4 ways to sync OneDrive with iCloud Drive and iCloud Photos without any effort.
May 11, 2023 | 4 minutes read
Can You Sync OneDrive with iCloud?
OneDrive can be used on devices equipped with Windows, macOS, or iOS systems, while iCloud is specially designed for macOS or iOS users. Therefore, some people may think it impossible to sync them. But actually, OneDrive can be synced with iCloud.
So why sync OneDrive to iCloud? Here this post will give you 3 outstanding advantages.
- Collaboration: OneDrive and iCloud have unique features. When you sync these 2 clouds, you can use these features altogether. For example, after you sync OneDrive with iCloud, you can use the robust iCloud Photos to manage your OneDrive photos.
- Accessibility: After syncing OneDrive to iCloud, you can easily access OneDrive files on your Apple devices without downloading the OneDrive app. By doing so, you can also save the device’s storage.
- Backup: By syncing OneDrive with iCloud, your OneDrive files can get mightier protection. That means, even if you accidentally lose your files on OneDrive, you can still access them on iCloud.
As you can see, device compatibility can be a big difference between OneDrive and iCloud. Thus, the next section will show you 3 tested ways to sync the 2 clouds on PC, Mac, and iPhone/iPad.
Sync OneDrive with iCloud via Desktop Apps [3 Ways]
Before you begin to apply the following 3 ways, you have to know that these ways all require you to download a desktop app on your device. After the downloading, the desktop app will create a folder in one of the local positions to sync files from your device. The files in this folder and the app itself will take over your device storage.
Way 1: OneDrive and iCloud Sync on PC
If you are a Windows 10/11 user, you don’t need to download OneDrive on your PC because it is pre-installed on your computer. But you still have to turn on it to make OneDrive sync with your PC. If your computer is installed with previous versions of the Windows system, you have to download OneDrive as a preparation.
Step 1: Log in to your account on the OneDrive app and open it in File Explorer.
Step 2: Enter iCloud.com and open iCloud Drive by clicking its icon.
Step 3: Click “Browse” in the left sidebar and tap the upload icon in the upper-left corner.
Step 4: Open the OneDrive folder in the pop-up window and choose files that you want to sync with iCloud. Then click “Open” and all your operations to sync OneDrive with iCloud Drive are finished.
Way 2: Integrate OneDrive with iCloud on Mac
Because iCloud has been equipped on Mac, you don’t need to download another one. But you have to make sure that you turn on iCloud Drive. Also, you have to get OneDrive’s desktop app.
Step 1: Open Finder on your Mac.
Step 2: Click OneDrive in the left sidebar and select files on it. Then drag the files and drop them to iCloud Drive. What you have to do next is wait for the task completed.
Note: If you find OneDrive can’t sync with your Mac, you can refer to the solution for OneDrive not syncing.
Way 3: OneDrive and iCloud Integration on iPhone/iPad
First of all, you have to download OneDrive on your iPhone/iPad and turn on iCloud in your device settings.
Step 1: Open OneDrive and log in to your account on your device.
Step 2: Choose files on OneDrive and tap the upload icon in the upper-right corner.
Step 3: Scroll down the screen until you see “Save to Files” and choose it. Then click “Save” and your OneDrive files will be synced to iCloud.
Sync OneDrive with iCloud Photos via MultCloud [1 Automatic Way]
If you think manually sync OneDrive to iCloud is troublesome and you only want to sync photos, you can try MultCloud. MultCloud is known for managing multiple cloud drives. And as one of its main functions, Cloud Sync is good at syncing files between clouds. To automatically copy files from OneDrive to iCloud Photos, there are only 3 steps to realize it by Cloud Sync and the sync speed can be quite fast.
Unlike the former ways that sync files on a one-way trip, you can choose Two-way Sync on MultCloud whose sync process will run back and forth between clouds. Besides, there are two ways for you to auto-sync files. One is using Real Time Sync which won’t stop running until you stop it or there is nothing changed for 7 days. Another way is using a Schedule to set a frequency for the process. When the time is up, OneDrive will automatically sync files with iCloud.
Here the post will give the specific steps for using Real Time Sync to sync OneDrive with iCloud Photos.
Step 1: Enter the MultCloud website and click “Sign up Free” to get a MultCloud account.
Step 2: Click “Add Cloud” and the icon of OneDrive. Then log in to your OneDrive account to add it to MultCloud. Also, you should repeat the same steps for adding iCloud Photos.
Note: You have to go through the two-factor authentication to log in to iCloud Photos account on MultCloud.
Step 3: Tap “Cloud Sync” and choose OneDrive and iCloud Photos in the 2 boxes respectively. Then choose Real Time Sync in the upper bar and click “Sync Now”. All the photos will be synced from OneDrive to iCloud Photos very soon.
Note: If your OneDrive has not only photos, you can use Filter to exclude other files by extensions and those files won’t be transferred to iCloud Photos.
Additionally, because photos are big in size, if you have a lot of photos to sync, you may run out of the free 5 GB of traffic. At this time, you can upgrade to MultCloud’s VIP and then you may get unlimited traffic.
Conclusion
Problems like how do I sync OneDrive folders to iCloud can be easily solved in the 4 ways shown in the post. You can choose any way to try because they are all tested. The way of using MultCloud can even help you automatically sync OneDrive with iCloud with just 3 steps.
What’s more, there are other wonderful functions on MultCloud that deserve to try such as Team Transfer, Cloud Backup, and the upcoming Email Migration. If you are interested in saving Gmail emails to PDF, you can try Email Migration which can batch-convert emails to PDF and choose conversation format to download.
