Manage web access to your iCloud data
Starting with iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2 and macOS 13.1, you can choose to turn off web access to your iCloud data.
You can access the data that you store in iCloud on the web at iCloud.com. For additional security and to give you more control over your personal data, you can choose to turn off web access to your iCloud data so that your data is available only on your trusted devices.
When web access is turned off, your iCloud data that’s usually available on the web at iCloud.com — such as mail, contacts, calendar, photos, notes, reminders, files, and documents — can be accessed only on your trusted device.
If you turn on Advanced Data Protection for iCloud, web access via iCloud.com is automatically turned off. However, you can choose to turn web access back on and use your trusted devices to allow temporary access to your data.
How to manage web access to your iCloud data
You can manage iCloud.com web access in iCloud settings (requires iOS 16.2 or later, iPadOS 16.2 or later, or macOS 13.1 or later).
On iPhone or iPad
Open the Settings app.
Tap your name, then tap iCloud.
Tap to turn off or turn on Access iCloud Data on the Web.
On Mac
Choose Apple menu > System Settings.
Click your name, then click iCloud.
Click to turn off or turn on Access iCloud Data on the Web.
When you turn off Access iCloud Data on the Web and then sign in to iCloud.com, you see an alert confirming that iCloud Data Web Access is Off and you can’t access your data. To turn web access back on, you can also select the “Manage on device” link that appears on iCloud.com and follow the prompts on one of your trusted devices.
Web access and Advanced Data Protection for iCloud
If you turn on Advanced Data Protection for iCloud, web access to your data at iCloud.com is automatically turned off to ensure that your data is available only on your trusted devices. If you’d like to access your data on iCloud.com, you need to first turn on web access. Then each time you want to access your iCloud data, you’ll use one of your trusted devices to approve temporary access.
To access your iCloud data on the web:
Turn on Access iCloud Data on the Web.
Sign in to iCloud.com using your Apple ID and password.
Use your trusted device to approve temporary access to your data.
After you approve access from your trusted device, you can access your data at iCloud.com. For the next hour, your device provides approval each time that you access a new category of data — such as photos, notes, or files. When your device provides access to a new category, you get a notification.
After an hour, you need to approve from your trusted device again to access a new category of data. Once you access a category of data, you can access it until you sign out of iCloud.com or close the browsing session.
Some data isn’t available on iCloud.com, such as Health data and passwords in iCloud Keychain.
Web access and privacy.apple.com
Turning off web access to iCloud data also limits the data that you can receive using Apple’s data and privacy management tools at privacy.apple.com. Your iCloud data won’t appear on your list of available data — which includes mail, contacts, calendar, photos, notes, reminders, files, and documents. To request this data, you’ll first need to turn web access back on.
Additionally, if you have Advanced Data Protection for iCloud enabled, Apple isn’t able to access or provide copies of iCloud data protected using end-to-end encryption, whether or not you allow web access. These specific data categories are listed in the iCloud data security overview article.
Some personal data that Apple stores and that’s associated with your Apple ID — including Apple ID information, transaction history, support history, and more — is still available to you via privacy.apple.com, regardless of your web access or data protection settings.
