Transfer files from iCloud Drive to Amazon S3
Server to server, without downloading anything to your computer.
How it works
Connect both accounts once. ShiftMyData then talks to iCloud Drive and Amazon S3 directly and streams the files between them in memory — nothing is written to our disks, and nothing travels down to your machine and back up again. The job runs on a worker, so closing the tab does not stop it.
Will every file be verified?
iCloud Drive exposes no checksum through its API, so files are compared on size and modification time. That is a limit of iCloud Drive rather than of the transfer, and it applies whichever tool you use.
Before you start
- The largest single file Amazon S3 accepts is 5 TB. A bigger one is reported as failed and the rest of the transfer carries on.
- Amazon S3 has no real folders, only names with slashes in them, so empty folders are not created there. Every folder that holds a file arrives as expected.
- A transfer copies each file's current content, name and modification time; sharing and version history stay behind on iCloud Drive. Business migration carries them where both sides support them.
Sources: docs.aws.amazon.com · aws.amazon.com
Worth knowing about iCloud Drive
Apple publishes no official API for iCloud Drive. The connection uses an unofficial one, signed in with your Apple ID password and a code Apple shows on your device, and Apple can change it without notice -- so treat iCloud as best-effort rather than as something to schedule a nightly job against.
Worth knowing about Amazon S3
S3 has no modification time of its own -- it records when an object was written, not when the file was authored, and that timestamp cannot be set. Transfers into S3 therefore compare on checksum where one is shared, and on size where one is not.
Steps
- On the Clouds screen, add iCloud Drive: enter your Apple ID and password, then the code Apple shows on one of your devices.
- Add Amazon S3 the same way: paste an access key ID and secret access key from the AWS console, ideally for an IAM user limited to the buckets involved.
- Pick the source folder in the left pane and the destination bucket in the right.
- Choose a mode — copy, mirror, move, or two-way — and start the transfer.
- Leave it. Progress is on the Jobs screen, and a webhook can tell you when it ends.
Questions
Do I have to download my files from iCloud Drive first?
No. The transfer is streamed from iCloud Drive to Amazon S3 on our servers, so nothing is written to your machine and your home upload speed is not the limit.
What happens if I close my laptop?
The job keeps running. It is queued on a worker rather than in your browser, and the progress is there when you come back.
How do I know every file arrived?
iCloud Drive exposes no checksum through its API, so files are compared on size and modification time. That is a limit of iCloud Drive rather than of the transfer, and it applies whichever tool you use.
Is there a size limit?
None imposed by us. What you move is drawn from your prepaid allowance (30 GB free, then 500 GB for ₹100 or 2,500 GB for ₹500, each valid a year). Amazon S3 takes single files up to 5 TB, and its own storage quota applies.