iCloud folder sharing does not yet work in macOS Catalina. Apple won't add the feature until next year

Apple released macOS Catalina for regular users yesterday. The system brings several interesting novelties, but one of the originally promised ones is still missing. Apple announced on its website that it is delaying the introduction of iCloud Drive folder sharing in macOS Catalina until next spring. On the Czech version of the Apple website, this information is presented in the form of a footnote at the end stránky, dedicated to the new features of the macOS Catalina operating system.

On the Mac in the spring…

The process of developing this key feature took Apple many months. It should be the ability to share folders on iCloud Drive between Apple users via a private link. The function first briefly appeared in the first beta versions of the iOS 13 operating system, but before the official release of the full version of the iOS 13 and iPadOS operating systems, Apple withdrew it due to problems that arose during testing. The full version of macOS Catalina was released earlier this week without the ability to share folders on iCloud Drive.

In the first versions of the macOS Catalina operating system, users could register that after right-clicking on a folder in iCloud Drive, a menu appeared that included the option to create a private link and then share it via AirDrop, in Messages, in the Mail application, or directly to people from a list contacts. The user who received such a link gained access to the corresponding folder in iCloud Drive, could add new files to it and monitor updates.

…in iOS later this year

While on the aforementioned page dedicated to macOS Catalina features, Apple promises the introduction of folder sharing on iCloud Drive in the spring, iPhone and iPad owners could apparently wait for it during the fall of this year. However, this option does not yet exist in the iOS 13.2 beta 1 operating system. It is therefore possible that Apple will introduce it either in one of the next versions, or that the information on the relevant website has simply not been updated yet.

As part of the iCloud Drive service, it is currently only possible to share individual files, which puts this service at a considerable disadvantage compared to competitors such as Google Drive or Dropbox, where the sharing of entire folders has been possible for a long time without problems.