How does document syncing work?

[jason.siegel]

I am having a bit of trouble understanding how document syncing works. If I create a document in iCloud with Pages, is there no local copy in my filesystem? Can I not edit a local copy when I am not connected to the Internet? And if something happens to Apple's servers, is my document gone for good?

 

[Daria]

I am having a bit of trouble understanding how document syncing works. If I create a document in iCloud with Pages, is there no local copy in my filesystem? Can I not edit a local copy when I am not connected to the Internet? And if something happens to Apple's servers, is my document gone for good?

I didn't know the answer to you question until I just messed around a bit with iCloud.

As I understand it, the document you make in the Cloud stays there, but one of the options you have is the the option to download it, which is what I did. So yes, there is no local copy in your Mac until you put it there. At that point, you will then be able to edit it, I believe, but I'm not sure how the edits get syncd.

BUT! You have to have the new Pages from Mavericks to be able to open the document. 😉 I don't have it yet, so my short note is in limbo, I guess, because though I have it, I can't open it.

I have to learn all this stuff too, as I'm getting an iPad Air in the near future. 🙂

 

[jason.siegel]

For the life of me I cannot understand what all the excitement is about cloud working. I totally get the convenience if syncing, but how can people be stripped of their ability to work offline, to retrieve prior local backups, and to have backups at all? Sounds nuts.

 

[Daria]

For the life of me I cannot understand what all the excitement is about cloud working. I totally get the convenience if syncing, but how can people be stripped of their ability to work offline, to retrieve prior local backups, and to have backups at all? Sounds nuts.

I agree at least in part with what you're saying. And, also will say from personal and continuing experience that it's possible for the cloud to not work well. My Contacts (I have only Contacts & Calendar in the Cloud...) continues to drop whole contacts and also to duplicate items within the individual contact.

I've had several phone appointments with Apple and things just don't work the way they're supposed to. I blame the Cloud. 🙄

But. . . if I'm traveling and have only my iPad Air and iPhone, I'll need them to be syncing and how else would that happen except with the Cloud? If I don't have them in the Cloud, they won't be syncing, right? Or perhaps I'm missin' something here.

 

[jason.siegel]

Well, the Dropbox desktop model allows you to store files locally and then sync when you go online.

 

[Rigby]

For the life of me I cannot understand what all the excitement is about cloud working. I totally get the convenience if syncing, but how can people be stripped of their ability to work offline, to retrieve prior local backups, and to have backups at all? Sounds nuts.

iCloud documents are available offline on both Macs and iOS devices if you use the apps (of course if you use the web versions of the apps via a web browser on icloud.com, you don't have local copies unless you explicitly download them). When you make changes to a document, it is uploaded to the cloud as soon as you go online and automatically copied to the other devices, so all of them have local copies.

 

[jason.siegel]

Rigby, Thanks. If I create a new iCloud file in Pages, where can I find it in my filesystem?

 

[Rigby]

Rigby, Thanks. If I create a new iCloud file in Pages, where can I find it in my filesystem?

~/Library/Mobile Documents

 

[jason.siegel]

Thanks!