Upgrade to iOS 8, But DON’T Enable iCloud Drive (Yet)

Published on September 18, 2014

The launch of Apple's iOS 8 is upon us at last. Before you completely jump ship, Mashable recommends that you opt out of one feature (at least for now): iCloud Drive.

What is iCloud Drive?

iOS 8 brings us iCloud Drive - a new cloud-based storage system akin to Google Drive/Dropbox. The idea for iCloud Drive is to allow users to share app files through different iOS and OS X devices.

What's the catch?

Well, it looks like iCloud Drive is, at the moment, only compatible with iOS devices that are running iOS 8 and with Macs running OS X Yosemite - which is not yet generally available (GA).

As you might imagine, enabling iCloud Drive on your new iOS 8 system to a system without a compatible part could cause some serious syncing issues. Here's what Nick Fletcher of Realmac Software has to say:

"As OS X Yosemite is still pre-release (and not yet available) upgrading to iCloud Drive will prevent you from syncing with Clear for Mac until both OS X Yosemite is released and you upgrade to OS X Yosemite," he wrote. "Developers cannot work around the choice made when upgrading to iOS 8, so please make sure you pay close attention to the iCloud Drive screen shown after you update to iOS 8."

How to Disable iCloud Drive

When you initially update your device to iOS 8, the setup process should ask you if you want to enable iCloud Drive. Select "Not now."

You can later re-activate this feature via: Settings - iCloud - iCloud Drive. Expect your syncing process to take some time, as Apple will be moving your data to new servers.