Apple Delays macOS Catalina iCloud Drive Folder Sharing Feature to Spring 2020

Apple has quietly delayed the macOS Catalina iCloud Drive Folder Sharing feature that will provide iCloud users the ability to share entire folders instead of just individual files.

iCloud Drive saw a big overhaul — particularly on iOS — with Apple’s latest round of software updates. Its new file sharing feature gives users the ability to grant access to folders and documents.

Hiccups in beta testing, which caused some users to lose data, meant file sharing had to be pulled and postponed until later this fall. Now it seems it’s going to take Apple a little longer to deliver it.

According to a new report from MacRumors, iCloud Folder Sharing in macOS Catalina will not be arriving until spring 2020. The iCloud Drive folder sharing feature now appears with an asterisk which at the bottom of the macOS Catalina features page stating “Coming this spring.”
So as of now, if you have sorted your music in your iTunes playlists over the past many years, upgrading to Catalina will likely destroy that all.
The report notes that users can still share individual files in iCloud Drive, putting the service at a significant disadvantage to other cloud-storage services like Google Drive and Dropbox, both of which have allowed folder sharing capabilities for years.

Similar to Dropbox, the new iCloud Folder Sharing tool will allow users to share files with others by right-clicking a folder in iCloud Drive to reveal options to generate a private link to share access to the folder, with the option to send the folder via AirDrop, Messages, Mail, or with people in your contacts.

Apple’s iOS 13 and iPadOS pages also mention the delay, but still list the feature as coming this fall.