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Cloudy with a Chance of Insanity: Unsticking iCloud Drive

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Re: Cloudy with a Chance of Insanity: Unsticking iCloud Drive

#11

I’ve given up on using iCloud Drive, despite having Apple everything, because I find the sync so unreliable and undebuggable. I never had any issues like this with OneDrive or Dropbox.

Same. Things just... don't sync. Not after a minute, not after an hour. But then 2 days later the files pop up.

And then on Tuesday it all works instantaneously and perfectly.

But then Wednesday it stops entirely again.

It honestly baffles me, what possible architecture choice could explain its erratic behavior.

And it baffles me just as much that they've never fixed it.

Whereas Dropbox and Google Drive for Desktop have always worked great.

Re: Cloudy with a Chance of Insanity: Unsticking iCloud Drive

#13
...so I kinda had doubts about giving up on the apple stuff and moving on towards a home server with a RAID setup coupled with off-site backup.

It's a bit more work, but not _that_ much more work, and a single weird undebuggable incident can flip the entire "amount of work" calculation on its head.

Re: Cloudy with a Chance of Insanity: Unsticking iCloud Drive

#14

I’ve given up on using iCloud Drive, despite having Apple everything, because I find the sync so unreliable and undebuggable. I never had any issues like this with OneDrive or Dropbox.

Same. Things just... don't sync. Not after a minute, not after an hour. But then 2 days later the files pop up. And then on Tuesday it all works instantaneously and perfectly. But then Wednesday it stops entirely again. It honestly baffles me, what possible architecture choice could explain its erratic behavior. And it baffles me just as much that they've never fixed it. Whereas Dropbox and Google Drive for Desktop h…

I found OneDrive would crash a lot amd couldn’t deal with file names that weren’t valid windows file names.

The google drive for Mac crashes a lot, and no matter how I adjust the settings often refuses to download the full remote system unless I click on the cloud icon next to the file name. They really want you to use a web browser, which I don’t like to do (prefer native apps, thanks).

Dropbox seems to have gotten it right, it seems. I guess that’s why they’re still in business even though their business is built around a feature, not otherwise a product.

Re: Cloudy with a Chance of Insanity: Unsticking iCloud Drive

#15
It is believed that Apple hasn’t gotten Cloud and Social right yet. Remember they tried multiple times with Music Sharing, Find My your friends, Share directly to Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Like the author, I have Dropbox besides iCloud. However, iCloud is an Apple thing — share/backup/store settings, preferences, temporary edits/work, and share with families. If something is essential, even for Pages, Numbers, etc., I store the files in the local version synced to the cloud (Dropbox for personal/family and Google for work).

I haven’t faced the problems people keep mentioning on the Internet, so I stay cautious enough. However, it has been my pattern for a while — Own your content and use everything else as tools[1].

I manually back up Photos every month. I need to find a simple way to automate backing up the photos, contacts, etc., and keep a copy in Open formats.

iCloud is convenient and works as long as we stick to Apple’s prescribed lane. However, try to have a way to walk out if the need arises.

1. https://notes.oinam.com/digital/

Re: Cloudy with a Chance of Insanity: Unsticking iCloud Drive

#16

It is believed that Apple hasn’t gotten Cloud and Social right yet. Remember they tried multiple times with Music Sharing, Find My your friends, Share directly to Twitter, Facebook, etc. Like the author, I have Dropbox besides iCloud. However, iCloud is an Apple thing — share/backup/store settings, preferences, temporary edits/work, and share with families. If something is essential, even for Pages, Numbers, etc., I…

“it is believed”? APNS is one of the most reliable services on the planet, serving about a billion people 24/7/365 for many years.

The whole “Apple is bad at cloud” is a meme from a decade ago. Apple is great at the bits of cloud computing that make Apple money.

Re: Cloudy with a Chance of Insanity: Unsticking iCloud Drive

#17
post #16

It is believed that Apple hasn’t gotten Cloud and Social right yet. Remember they tried multiple times with Music Sharing, Find My your friends, Share directly to Twitter, Facebook, etc. Like the author, I have Dropbox besides iCloud. However, iCloud is an Apple thing — share/backup/store settings, preferences, temporary edits/work, and share with families. If something is essential, even for Pages, Numbers, etc., I…

“it is believed”? APNS is one of the most reliable services on the planet, serving about a billion people 24/7/365 for many years. The whole “Apple is bad at cloud” is a meme from a decade ago. Apple is great at the bits of cloud computing that make Apple money.

Yes, absolutely. This is why I use it as a critical component of my life -- personal, work, etc. but with the idea that, “I trust everyone. I just don’t trust the devil inside them.”

I just happen to have backups to walk out and not become part of a statistics or, worse, a meme influencer.

Re: Cloudy with a Chance of Insanity: Unsticking iCloud Drive

#19
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. Things just... don't sync. Not after a minute, not after an hour. But then 2 days later the files pop up. And then on Tuesday it all works instantaneously and perfectly. But then Wednesday it stops entirely again. It honestly baffles me, what possible architecture choice could explain its erratic behavior. And it baffles me just as much that they've never fixed it. Whereas Dropbox and Google Drive for Desktop h…

I found OneDrive would crash a lot amd couldn’t deal with file names that weren’t valid windows file names. The google drive for Mac crashes a lot, and no matter how I adjust the settings often refuses to download the full remote system unless I click on the cloud icon next to the file name. They really want you to use a web browser, which I don’t like to do (prefer native apps, thanks). Dropbox seems to have gotten…

> Dropbox seems to have gotten it right, it seems. I guess that’s why they’re still in business even though their business is built around a feature, not otherwise a product.

That criticism never made sense to me, especially from Steve Jobs, as a moderate sized team putting their all into an excellent product will be competitive against a larger team putting in a half-hearted effort. As he himself demonstrated.

Re: Cloudy with a Chance of Insanity: Unsticking iCloud Drive

#20

Headline based on movie name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloudy_with_a_Chance_of_Meatba...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloudy_with_a_Chance_of_Meat...

Definitely the movie name too, and assuredly not the book which came out 30 years before. (Which the movie is based on)

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