By Dan Moren

July 10, 2015 10:57 AM PT

Wish List: Deeper folders in iCloud Drive application folders

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

Let’s make this one short and sweet. I don’t understand why iCloud Drive generally lets one create folders of seemingly infinite depth–except for in the folders that belong to specific applications.

For example, here’s a folder several levels deep in iCloud Drive, contained within a top-level folder that I created. I can, if I want, keep creating folders, just as I can elsewhere in OS X.

Here’s a sub-folder I created within the “Preview” folder of iCloud Drive. Want to create a folder inside this sub-folder? Tough noogies.

This seems bizarre to me. I can’t think of anyplace else in OS X where the regular rules of folder hierarchies are suspended. Either it’s a holdover from the earliest days of iCloud storage, where each app had its own bin and that was it, or Apple thinks that creating multiple levels of folders is too complicated for most users. I feel like after 30 years or so, most of us have the hang of it.

As long as Apple’s opening up iCloud Drive a bit further in iOS 9 and OS X, perhaps multiple levels of folders can join the fun?

Update: The plot thickens. Some apps can nest folders seemingly indefinitely (such as TextEdit and third-party apps like PDF Expert), while others (like Preview, Pages, Numbers, Keynote) cannot. Weeeeird.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His latest novel, the supernatural detective story All Souls Lost, is out now.]

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