iCloud "Folder" via Finder?

[MikhailT]

Fu*king great (not)!

Why can they not stop idiotic behaviour's such as this? Change the iCloud API if they have to, just stop it doing it.

I suppose Apple think it's a Really Great Behaviour™ "no empty folders using your iCloud storage space" type reasoning. But in reality, it just ends-up causing more issues than it solves to users; i.e. it's junk, so get rid of it!

Is there something else I'm missing here – why else would this be set to do this?

(Can any devs around here pass this on via official Apple feedback, as it's a proper pain in the backside.)

I don't understand the problem. How are you creating the empty folder in iCloud in the first place?

 

[jimthing]

Fu*king great (not)!

Why can they not stop idiotic behaviour's such as this? Change the iCloud API if they have to, just stop it doing it.

I suppose Apple think it's a Really Great Behaviour™ "no empty folders using your iCloud storage space" type reasoning. But in reality, it just ends-up causing more issues than it solves to users; i.e. it's junk, so get rid of it!

Is there something else I'm missing here – why else would this be set to do this?

(Can any devs around here pass this on via official Apple feedback, as it's a proper pain in the backside.)

I don't understand the problem. How are you creating the empty folder in iCloud in the first place?

Just like any file system on your local/networked machine, one often sets-up a folder ready to accumulate docs into it the future, as a placeholder or temporary receiving point (pending folder).

I may have these folder structures:

e.g. 1:

>Banking
>> Joe Blow bank
>>> Joe Blow bank (general docs)
>>> Joe Blow bank (statements)
>>> Joe Blow bank (2012-2013 tax certificates)

The last folder "Joe Blow bank (2012-2013 tax certificates)" acts as a placeholder for later in the year when I receive the tax docs from my bank with end-of-year tax info, as a 'placeholder reminder', all set-up waiting for the needed docs to arrive.

e.g. 2:
> Downloads
>> ScanSnap pending

I have all my docs scan using my high-speed doc scanner (Fujitsu S1500M, if wondering) into a single folder location, ready for transfer into their appropriate folder later-on, when I wish to file them away.
This is analogous to when most people select to download file on a website, and it automatically saves into your Downloads folder (or where ever you set it) on your computer: a sharepoint.

(also similar to the way many users deal with their email, using both the Inbox & often one or more various 'pending' folders of some kind (e.g. "Urgent", "Later this week", "Unimportant", etc.), to gain some order of magnitude: what needs dealing with in what order.)


Apple should at the very least give users the choice under an option (most I'd suspect would turn it OFF anyway), and not this self-imposed "Apple forced" way of annoying the hell out of most of their users.

Just because I temporarily empty all the docs out of a folder, does NOT mean the iCloud system should then decide to auto-delete the folder in the background without the USER wanting it to –which is exactly how it (stupidly!) works now– so when I go to chuck something in it (manually or automated) it's then VANISHED into the ether!


...I still can't work-out a real reason for this behaviour to exist anyway, as it saves next-to-zero space on the iCloud users' account (it actually acts just like a version of iOS app folder creation, in fact!).
So why bother having it work that way...anyone have a better idea of why??

 

[MikhailT]

Just like any file system on your local/networked machine, one often sets-up a folder ready to accumulate docs into it the future, as a placeholder or temporary receiving point (pending folder). So why bother having it work that way...anyone have a better idea of why??

No, I meant how are you accessing iCloud to create folders in, are you intentionally accessing Mobile Documents to store those empty folders in or are you doing this through an iCloud app?

Officially, Apple does not support iCloud like a Dropbox folder, they've never said users can do this. Until Apple modifies the file system to allow iCloud to be accessible to users, your issue isn't an issue.

 

[w0lf]

-

Couldn't you just put a placeholder file in the placeholder folder to make it stay?

 

[jimthing]

No, I meant how are you accessing iCloud to create folders in, are you intentionally accessing Mobile Documents to store those empty folders in or are you doing this through an iCloud app?

Officially, Apple does not support iCloud like a Dropbox folder, they've never said users can do this. Until Apple modifies the file system to allow iCloud to be accessible to users, your issue isn't an issue.

Just to be clear, I have tested it several times, but currently don't use it, due to it being unusable at the moment for any really meaningful usage as it does not work like Dropbox which adds a folder in the Finder on all my Mac's, and other usability reasons (many users are well aware of, hence it's generally low uptake for non-iWork document storage).

Anyway, when I did test it though, I did so using TextEdit in M.Lion:

1) on your Mac, create two rtf docs, and save them in a folder.
2) in TextEdit go to File>Open, select the iCloud tab.
3) drag the folder with the two rtf's from your Mac Finder into the iCloud window in TextEdit. The folder with the two docs is now stored in iCloud.
4) now drag one then the other rtf files back to your Mac's Finder, and you'll notice the created folder vanishes!

There are other ways using the "Save"/"Move To" interface in iCloud enabled apps as well.

If you notice, the iCloud interface with folders in it looks just like an iOS app folder interface. This is part of this "sandboxed" apps philosophy so I believe, as a non-dev.

Couldn't you just put a placeholder file in the placeholder folder to make it stay?

But why should users have to do that workaround? When you create a folder in Documents via Finder, you don't have to do such a thing do you? So why should users have to create fake files to save things in iCloud? Answer: they shouldn't.
Other cloud services allow you to do what you need to do with your own file/folder structure, and this needs changing in Mavericks for sure. I hope I'm not disappointed (otherwise I'll have to use the competition, like Dropbox which seems to work pretty well), but somehow I get the feeling I am going to be again.

 

[kjpg]

I do use iCloud for "drop boxing" finder files/folders. I made a new folder in MObile Documents, and added an ALIAS to this to the sidebar. Files in that folder will sync with other macs but there is no way to browse those files online. They WILL NOT appear in the icloud.com web server nor in any iCloud-enabled apps (correct file-types added to the appropriate and weirdly named Mobile docs/application folders.

This works really well with one very significant caveat: since is not a sanctioned activity and if you accidentally delete a file in that folder, it will rapidly be deleted from others stores and you CANNOT go to iCloud.com to find deleted files, as you can in Dropbox.

my 2c.

 

[Reznam]

Interesting

I am surprised by the posts on this. There is a dropbox solution for Mac, its called... wait for it... "Dropbox". It works great for me across all my devices and computers and shows up in Finder. So until Apple decides to provide the enjoyable experience I currently have with the real dropbox for document syncing with their iCloud service, I'll keep on using what works. Instead of trying to make iCloud work like Dropbox on your Macs, just use Dropbox until Apple finally figures it out.

 

[0038459]

Do you really think that we won't know Dropbox? We are trying to figure out the solution within the icloud because the synchronization is seemingless.