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Do you use an alternative to iCloud/Drive?

U

Uplift

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 1, 2011
465
187
UK
I'm wondering what cloud service people are using on their Macs? For storing documents or working with documents online.

iCloud with iCloud drive is the obvious choice because it is baked into the OS. I haven't really been using these cloud services to their full potential, I sometimes use Dropbox to share some files. We have recently started using Google Drive at work to store all of our documents and i'm absolutely loving it.. it's really fast and working with documents in the browser is fast and great for quick edits... changes are then reflected locally, it's great :)

I decided to try to integrate a similar work flow at home and went with iCloud Drive, I moved my documents over to my drive and like the integration with iWork apps and on iOS.. The service as a whole just doesn't seem as reliable though, the online app areas appear to be slow and bloated and syncing locally is not as reliable as I had hoped... I made some changes online and they haven't been updated locally... There is currently a loading icons next to my iCloud Drive icon but it's not really doing anything.

I've rambled on a bit but my question is: is iCloud as rubbish as it is coming across? If so, what alternatives are you guys using?

From what I can see only Google Drive and OneDrive offer online apps.. Both don't seem to support direct editing of iWork files unless they're converted to .xlsx/.docx/.pptx... is it worth switching to Office apps.

I guess I am just looking for a quick and easy work flow, any suggestions?

Thanks :)
 
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I use Google Drive personally, and the school district where I work users it. I do IT so I see Google Drive at its best and its worst, but overall it's terrific.

I also started using iCloud Drive for a few files I need to access for my recording studio. I could probably just keep it all on Google Drive, but I like keeping my audio tools on iCloud and my work files on Google Drive.
 
I have done a little more testing.

I have since realised Google Drive works with it's own format, I thought it could directly edit .doc files but it creates an equivalent gdocs file, which is then downloaded locally beside the original file which is untouched.. changes are then to be done with the new file, not sure i like this work flow... with this in mind I think I prefer iCloud Drive, providing the sync issues aren't a regular occurrence.
 
I have used Dropbox for ~5yrs and the syncing reliability, integration with third party apps, etc are all top notch. My biggest complaint with their service is no tier in between free and 1TB.
 
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I use my own colocated servers for business use, not really trusting anyone with my bread and butter - I know where they're at, don't need to worry about changing TOS or "who owns them now..." crap, and I don't have to worry about millions of others trying to use the same hard drive at the same time. Think about that...

Personally, I use both AWS via Amazon's Cloud Services - Netflix and MS use them, so why shouldn't I? - and MS's own Azure. I keep my iOS devices' backups local.

I thought iCloud was a great idea, but now there's maybe 30-70 million iPhone users out there, synching their cookies and history and backups and iCloud documents and iMessages and FaceTime histories and photos and..., well, you get the idea - Apple's IT staff much be hating on the whole iCloud idea...
 
MUBiomed said:
I have used Dropbox for ~5yrs and the syncing reliability, integration with third party apps, etc are all top notch. My biggest complaint with their service is no tier in between free and 1TB.
Click to expand...
Exactly my opinion also. Dropbox really changed the way I worked between multiple computers, and so far iCloud is not stable enough for me to swap to it, and all my coworkers use Dropbox anyway, making file exchange easy. And Dropbox for me is fast, stable and very reliable. iCloud, not so much.
 
I only use Dropbox. Tried iCloud drive, but no 'selective sync' feature, which is a major let down for me..

The only thing i do like about icloud drive is the price... I only have a free account with Dropbox, coz that's all i need, but the 1TB would be cheaper with Apple when I use it in the U.S, which i have done before, when trying it out.
 
Reduced iCloud Drive back to 50gb. Don't want a storage that stores on cloud and computer, as I mainly upload movies. Dropbox gave me issues on 6-8gb movies. Trying Mega atm. 50gb free.


Update: Been trailing the 15gb One Drive for my movies uploading/storing/streaming. Working well.
 
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I started with Dropbox for college but was never a fan of cloud storage, then Snowden suggested getting rid of it http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/11/edward-snowden-new-yorker-festival/ so I went with OneDrive. It was a pretty solid service but since I was looking to consolidate everything on Apple, I ditched it for iCloud Drive and I couldn't be happier. Well, yes, with 10 GB default at least, and if I could share a file with the link rather than sending the file.
 
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I would very much like to use iCloud Drive, but like others, I want selective sync because I just don't need or want all of my files on all of my devices - even though I want them synced to the cloud. I have used iCloud some to check it out and it seems to work very well for me. I am hopeful they will add selective sync one day.

I also ditched Dropbox this year after being a longtime user. I moved to SpiderOak which is less convenient than Dropbox when it comes to integrations, etc. but is better for privacy. They also offer tiers under 1TB. I leaned of them through another thread somewhere and also a Snowden mention.
 
Pretty much been using iCloud for everything for about 2 years now. This includes, Mail, Calendar, iCloud Drive, iCloud Keychain and iTunes Match (now Apple Music). The only issues I've had in this time were with iCloud Keychain but quickly resolved.

Have about 3GB files in iCloud Drive.
 
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