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Hey MacRumors Community! Where Do You Store Your Documents? iCloud? DropBox? Drive?

Where do you store your stuff*? (Stuff*= documents, files, pix, vids, GIFS, etc.)

  • DropBox

    Votes: 12 34.3%

  • iCloud

    Votes: 5 14.3%

  • Google Drive

    Votes: 4 11.4%

  • Other (Please Explain)

    Votes: 14 40.0%
  • Total voters
    35
HappyDude20

HappyDude20

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jul 13, 2008
3,688
1,479
Los Angeles, Ca
Hi everyone!

Perhaps i'm not alone on this but once in a rare blue moon either in Pages or Notes (on any device, OSX or iOS), I'll accidentally delete a note/document by mistakenly deleting said particular file... for example if my iPad is on, i'm holding it in my hands and by misfortune w/o my knowledge my fat fingers confirms to delete something I didn't intend to. The real frustration is that once you delete a file on Pages or Notes, it's gone forever. To Apple's credit they do tell us before confirming to delete anything within these apps but of course accidents do happen and it's a major pain when any important document is lost forever.

The only form of saving a deleted document is to rush over to another device associated with my iCloud, in hopes its not connected to the internet so as to expect the document in question still on another device. Of course these days its rare to find any of my iDevices w/o internet connection. However at times i'll leave my iPad in the car and simply copy and paste a document that was accidentally deleted on my iPhone, for example.

All this mentioned above isn't necessarily this thread's main point, but i'm here wondering what others do here in the MacRumors community in regards to where they save and store and (how they) best utilize their files; documents and notes in particular, though admittedly am excited to hear what else the community focuses on in regards to storage. As an aside, I would imagine most store their photos and documents separately, but hey, this is MR so I'm genuinely curious.

I ask because I've just grabbed ALL of my documents away from Pages' iCloud and dropped them in DropBox; realible for me the past few years, though a tab bit cumbersome (only in comparison) when importing/exporting into Pages for typing up documents. I will say this migrating to DropBox away from Pages has been easier tonight for me considering for the past 5 years was a university student and relied heavily on Pages; now so, not so much.

I'd love to hear the why's to your responses as well. I'll be up. I'm just online. MacRumors being my main site.

Love you guys!:D:apple:
 
I use multiple cloud services for online storage to have both easy access and convenient back up. This is mainly for documents as I have another back up strategy for media like pics, music, and movies. I think the key to not losing important docs is to have a "working copy" and a routine "back up" or "archive" copy.
 
I put copies of my user documents on a flash drive. I don't have that many.

I don't have backups for music or photos. But, the photos we want to keep permanently are printed and put in albums, and the music I have is mostly recorded from my vinyl albums and burned onto CDs or copied to an MP3 player.
 
I keep the bulk of my files on an external hard drive (clone of my current hard drive + videos/movies), files that I may want more immediate access to (iTunes library, music videos I'll watch more regularly) on my local MacBook Air hard drive, and I have a DropBox account but really haven't needed to use it.
 
New program that gives other cloud applications the boot!

Personally I only use "copy". Start with 20 GB of free cloud space after you verifiy your email. And that's not even the best part. When you refer to other people you gain 5 GB for each referral. Generous. Easy. And just great.
 
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I use Dropbox to store and sync my files across computers and devices. Plus I also use Evernote to store many important things that I want quick access to.
 
I clicked on Google Drive as that is my primary cloud storage, but I also use DropBox.

I still back files up on DVD-Rs, just because I imagine a worst-case scenario where my cloud storage gets deleted for some reason (this happened to my son; Google got pissed about something regarding his email/docs/whatever and deleted his entire acccount.) I also have space on iBackup that a friend of mine lets me use.

I use Evernote as a document-management system.
 
Storing Documents in the "cloud" is Lazy & Gullible

Since I've been a computer "expert" since 1962, far longer than most of you have lived, I don't understand why anyone would entrust their documents to any third party source on the internet. When I started, it was large IBM main frame computers 3090s, 7094s & Illiac II, with no personal document storage available and at the mercy of the facility operators for access. Then in the 80's with the advent of the Apple II, Lisa, and Mac personal computers we were finally able to have control of our own computing assets and especially our own personal files free from the control of some power crazed facility operator. This has seen continuous advancements until we now have multi-TBs of local storage under our control. With the proper planning their is no excuse for anyone not having a local backup system independent of their primary storage assets and not relying on the good will of some unknown entity on the internet or being open for government access to your personal information or taxed for the amount of storage you use.

Then Apple, who has lost the vision with the passing of Jobs, came up with the "new" ideal of everyone putting their documents on some unknown storage system out of their control aka the "dark ages" of computing in the 60's 70's. With the capability of the NSA to gain access to your accounts and documents, why would anyone trust their documents to a "cloud"?

Wake up everyone, the "cloud" is the first step BACKWARDS toward the old days of main frame control of your computing capability. What happens someday when "they" decide that you have to pay to access your documents or that for some reason their systems have been compromised or have crashed and your data is not recoverable? Remember when Apple's iDisk and .Mac were free?

With Apple's removal of optical storage it is their way to prevent you from privately sharing your documents and from offline storage of your documents.

Don't give up your freedom and control. That is what personal computing is all about and what Jobs spent his life trying to provide of everyone. Don't let him done.
 
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I first used Google Drive to share files when working on group assignments during university. Now I use it to backup photos and certain documents. Google gives 15gb for free and I use a gmail account so it's convenient for me.

In Google we trust ;)
 
macnicol said:
Since I've been a computer "expert" since 1962, far longer than most of you have lived, I don't understand why anyone would entrust their documents to any third party source on the internet.
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone really believes that Apple is removing optical drives from their CPUs to force people to use cloud storage; optical media is slow, uses mechanical parts, and discs themselves are incredibly prone to damage. You have heard of flash storage, right?

On that note, I actually don't use cloud storage much, because I only have the one desktop and my iPhone. That being said, I use dropbox quite a bit to share audio files and sessions with bandmates.
 
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bobfitz14 said:
may i ask how one goes about doing this?
Click to expand...

It's rather simple, at least I think so. Just create your own domain using some hosting service (I use dreamhost) and set one up. The domain registration is usually free for new customers (9.99/yr thereafter) and the hosting usually can be had for <$100/yr or <$10/mo. You'll have unlimited space, emails, etc. To password protect it - you go into the utilities pane of your hosting service and just enable it; I believe it's called 'webDAV' - you can create several different user/pw combos. Also, you can easily upload/download using webftp or download through normal means.

I like this option better than anything else since I can control everything. Also, sharing files is so much simpler. I can simply send them a link to it and furnish the user/pw and they can download it themselves. No need to email or give them my user/pw to access my 'cloud'.

Hopefully that makes sense. Let me know if you have any other questions.
 
thatoneguy82 said:
It's rather simple, at least I think so. Just create your own domain using some hosting service (I use dreamhost) and set one up. The domain registration is usually free for new customers (9.99/yr thereafter) and the hosting usually can be had for <$100/yr or <$10/mo. You'll have unlimited space, emails, etc. To password protect it - you go into the utilities pane of your hosting service and just enable it; I believe it's called 'webDAV' - you can create several different user/pw combos. Also, you can easily upload/download using webftp or download through normal means.

I like this option better than anything else since I can control everything. Also, sharing files is so much simpler. I can simply send them a link to it and furnish the user/pw and they can download it themselves. No need to email or give them my user/pw to access my 'cloud'.

Hopefully that makes sense. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Click to expand...

I really like that concept. Wish I could justify a purchase like that
 
A friend of mine highly recommends BackBlaze. Apparently, they offer unlimited space for complete storage and backup at a reasonable price, $60 a year or less. I don't personally use any cloud service that I have to pay for at this time because I have local storage options, but it's something I may consider in the future. I know there are multiple services like this including Carbonite, Mozy, and many others.
 
Thanks for your gracious reply to what I intended be a non confrontational post.

Thraun said:
I don't think anyone really believes that Apple is removing optical drives from their CPUs to force people to use cloud storage; optical media is slow, uses mechanical parts, and discs themselves are incredibly prone to damage. You have heard of flash storage, right?

On that note, I actually don't use cloud storage much, because I only have the one desktop and my iPhone. That being said, I use dropbox quite a bit to share audio files and sessions with bandmates.
Click to expand...

Yes, I am an EXPERT having been an MS degreed Aeronautical AND Astronautical Engineer with 40 years of engineering software development. Personally written 100s of thousands of lines of software, managed software development departments that created and implemented ultra high tech "black" program software systems. I have witnessed the PC industry birth and growth and actively participated in its achievements. I was an certified Apple Evangelist.

You can take my opinions or leave them
 
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Work files, SkyDrive (25GB)

Personal files, static, pdf and media. DropBox (25GB)

Personal files, editable and family collaboration documents, Google Drive. (25GB)

All free, I also have the Box.net 50GB free promotional... but I mean, jeez, what's the point.

Pretty sure getting a WD MyCloud for xmas, 2TB. App, 100/100mbps fiber link. I think it may take over all.
 
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