How to share a folder in iCloud Drive from a Mac and fill it with files

To share a folder from a Mac, put it in iCloud Drive, Control-click it in Finder and choose Share. Pick the option to collaborate rather than send a copy, set who can open it and whether they can make changes, then send the invitation by Mail, Messages or a copied link. Anything you drop into that folder afterward syncs to everyone you invited, and anything they add syncs back to you.

Before you start

A shared folder has to live in iCloud Drive. Folders elsewhere on your Mac cannot be shared this way.

• Turn on iCloud Drive. Open System Settings, click your name at the top, then iCloud, and make sure iCloud Drive is on.
• Find it in Finder. iCloud Drive appears in the Finder sidebar under iCloud. If it is missing, choose Finder > Settings, click Sidebar and tick iCloud Drive.
• Make or move the folder. Create a new folder inside iCloud Drive with Shift-Command-N, or drag an existing folder into it. Dragging from elsewhere on your Mac moves the folder into iCloud Drive; hold Option while you drag if you want to leave the original where it is and share a copy.

Moving a file into iCloud Drive without hunting for the folder covers what happens to files once they are in iCloud Drive, including how to keep them downloaded on your Mac.

Share the folder

1. In Finder, Control-click the folder in iCloud Drive and choose Share.
2. In the sharing options, make sure the folder is set to collaborate, not to send a copy. Sending a copy gives people a snapshot that never updates; collaborating gives everyone the same live folder.
3. Open the access options (the line describing who can access the folder) and set them as described below.
4. Choose how to send the invitation: Mail, Messages, or Copy Link to paste it anywhere.

The exact wording shifts a little between macOS versions, but the choices are the same: who can open it, what they can do, and how the invitation goes out.

Choose what people can do

Two settings decide how the folder behaves.

Who can access:

• Only invited people. Only the people you send the invitation to can open the folder, even if the link is forwarded. This is the right default for anything personal.
• Anyone with the link. Whoever has the link can open it. Convenient for a group whose addresses you do not have, but treat the link as you would a key.

Permissions:

• Can make changes. People can add files, edit them, rename them and delete them. Use this for a folder everyone contributes to.
• View only. People can open and copy files but not change anything. Use this when you are handing something out.

There is also a choice about whether participants can invite others. Leave it off unless you want the group to grow without you.

The people you invite need an Apple Account to open the folder. Once they accept, it appears in their own iCloud Drive and works like any other folder there.

Add files to the shared folder

Anything you put in the folder is shared at once, so filing into it is the whole job.

• Drag into it in Finder. Files from elsewhere on your Mac move into the folder. Hold Option while dragging to copy instead and keep your original. Files from a USB drive or another disk are copied either way.
• Save straight into it. In any app’s save dialog, choose iCloud Drive in the sidebar and then the shared folder.
• Keep it handy. Drag the shared folder into the Finder sidebar under Favorites, so it is always one drop away. How to drag a file to a Finder sidebar folder shows how.

Two things to keep in mind. Files in a shared folder count against the iCloud storage of the folder’s owner, not the people adding to it, so a group dumping videos into your folder fills your storage. And when everyone can make changes, deleting a file or moving it out of the folder takes it away for everyone, not only for you. If you want your own copy of something, Option-drag it out so the shared original stays.

Manage or stop sharing

To see who has access, add someone, remove someone, or change the permissions, Control-click the shared folder and choose Share again. For a folder that is already shared, this opens the sharing options with the list of participants, where you can also stop sharing entirely.

When you stop sharing, the people you invited lose access and the folder is removed from their iCloud Drive. If anyone needs to keep files from it, tell them to copy what they need somewhere else first.

For a one-off hand-over of a folder that nobody needs to edit, a shared folder may be more than you need. How to send a whole folder from a Mac compares the other routes, from zipping it for email to AirDrop.

Gather files from all over before you drop them in

Filling a shared folder usually means collecting from everywhere: a PDF from Downloads, scans on the desktop, photos you exported, a document buried in a project folder. Doing that with two Finder windows means a lot of navigating back and forth, and it is easy to drop something into the wrong folder while the shared one is half covered.

Ledge gives you a holding spot first. Drag each file up to the notch at the top of the screen as you come across it and let go; it lands on a shelf that drops from the notch and stays there until you take it somewhere. When you have everything, open the shared folder in Finder, press Option-Space or click the notch, and drag the files off the shelf into it. A Finder window receives the file itself, so the files move into the shared folder rather than leaving duplicates scattered behind.

Ledge has no account and no cloud of its own, and it does not sync anything. iCloud Drive does the syncing the moment a file lands in the shared folder, which is exactly what you asked it to do. Ledge needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

Questions

Can I share a folder that is not in iCloud Drive?

Not with iCloud sharing. Move it into iCloud Drive first. For sharing with other computers on the same network instead, macOS has File Sharing in System Settings > General > Sharing.

Do the people I invite use up their own iCloud storage?

No. Shared folders count against the owner’s storage only.

What happens if someone deletes a file from the shared folder?

When participants can make changes, a deletion removes the file for everyone. Use View only for anything you do not want others to remove.