[benji888578]

EDIT: I "upgraded" to iCloud Drive, please see my next comment.

Original post:

I'm about to put iOS 9 on my main iPhone (6) and when using the iOS 9 beta on my iPad it almost made me update to iCloud Drive, but, I didn't. It says I can't use the new features of Notes without updating to iCloud Drive, but:

My main concerns about iCloud Drive:

1) I refuse to pay for iCloud GBs. Apple devices come at a premium and no way I'm paying extra monthly payments for storage space I don't feel I really need, so, I need to keep it at a minimum.

2) I refuse to put everything in iCloud, I prefer to store my photos in my devices and on my computer's drives. (I would go for an auto-backup system to my own drive(s) when on my own network and on wifi only.)

3) I refuse to use cell data for large files, in the old iCloud settings I have kept Photos turned off for all 3 settings.

I use iCloud (between all my iOS & OS X devices) for:

Mail
Contacts
Calendars
Reminders
Safari
Notes
Passbook
Documents & Data
Keychain
Find My iPhone

I do not want to go over my free 5GB.

I'm not sure what will happen if I "upgrade" to iCloud Drive, but, Notes is kind of my "clipboard" between all my devices, and, if I have to update to iCloud Drive to use it, what kind of things will happen??

Also, I have iCloud Drive turned off on my Mac. I don't want to be using multiple GBs of space for emails, just for off-loading the content that isn't text.

I've tried to find an article that explains what the difference between iCloud and iCloud Drive is, or, how much data you'll be using if you turn on iCloud Drive, but, nothing seems to explain what I really need to know. I want to continue to sync the list of items above, and also pertinent data for apps I use on multiple devices, but, for larger files, isn't that what "handoff & continuity" are for?

I've searched iMore, but, really only found articles on iOS 8 and smaller blurbs that don't seem to have up to date info. (yet).

I just seems like we deserve an explanation of what iCloud Drive is and will do before we upgrade to it, but, Apple wants to manipulate people into turning it on so they will buy iCloud Drive plans. But, this is not a big complaint, I appreciate all they do to keep my info. private, that is something others do not do at all.

[benji888578]

So, I "upgraded" to iCloud Drive, no significant increase in iCloud use yet, however, at this point the issue is with Notes app, I have not upgraded because it states that I have to upgrade all of my devices to iOS 9 or OS X El Capitan in order to sync notes with those devices...this is B.S., I'm not going to update my Mac to El Capitan until it is proven stable, perhaps 10.11.3, but, I need Notes to work on all my devices.

What gives? How is this supposed to work and how does it work?

I want to use the new features of Notes, but, not if that means they will no longer sync with Notes on my Mac w/OS X 10.10.5.

[Loren Sims]

When Notes was upgraded this go-round, they changed the file sharing from being IMAP (email) based to now being iCloud-based. This is why they say you must upgrade to both iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

Go ahead. Jason Snell calls the El Capitan upgrade 'rock solid,' and having run the Public Betas of it since July, I have to agree. The new Microsoft Office seems to be having trouble running on it and there are a few system utilities that are having trouble dealing with the new System Integrity Protection, but a lot of people are calling this the most stable upgrade in many years.

I never used Notes much (after I was alarmed at the way it kept sending my notes to my email until I found out how to turn that off), but after I moved all of my notes out of the IMAP accounts into iCloud (they look like separate folders in Notes) note syncing has been flawless and Notes is now my primary note-taking application.

I'm still on the free iCloud tier and iCloud Drive lets me easily see just how much of my 5GB is being used.