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crazytrain

macrumors member
Sep 9, 2009
66
80
1. iCloud isn't reliable. Plenty of people are still having issues with duplicate entries and sync failures.

This! I tried iCloud when it first came out - it duplicated every appointment I had in my calendar so I disabled it. Since the loss of local syncing I've used iCloud again and on three occasions, every single diary entry has disappeared and I've had to re-enter them. iCloud may suit some, even most/many, however the ability to locally sync is, in my experience, far more reliable and Apple should never have removed the CHOICE for me to decide which I prefer....
 

Reason077

macrumors 68040
Aug 14, 2007
3,588
3,532
Did anyone actually miss this? Surely iCloud syncing is a lot more convenient for most of us.

Perhaps this was requested by corporate/government customers or whatever who don't want to use iCloud to due to security concerns, but I would have thought a lot of them use Exchange instead of iTunes to sync anyway.
 

Morgenland

macrumors 65816
May 28, 2009
1,476
2,204
Europe
for the rest of us....

Seriously who is still using iTunes to sync Contacts and Calendars in this day and age? :eek: iCloud does everything you need and is the most reliable cloud syncing service on earth.

I agree: iCloud is the most reliable cloud synching service.

But nevertheless:
European culture handles private data more curious. We had bad experiences in the past with secret services. So we hesitate to support NSA ambitions and do not take part in services, that (without discussion) make some things more easy to handle.

Apple has of course recognized, that migration to cloud is decelerating (instead of promotion and zeitgeist), guys like me won´t ever do.
Apple knows the number of guys like me, so they finally decided to reenable local synching.... for the rest of us ;-)
 

numlock

macrumors 68000
Mar 13, 2006
1,590
88
Did anyone actually miss this? Surely iCloud syncing is a lot more convenient for most of us.

Perhaps this was requested by corporate/government customers or whatever who don't want to use iCloud to due to security concerns, but I would have thought a lot of them use Exchange instead of iTunes to sync anyway.

not sure what you consider as anyone but people with the original iphone can only sync contacts through itunes and exchange.
 

Adamsappel

macrumors regular
Mar 12, 2014
117
0
Did anyone actually miss this? Surely iCloud syncing is a lot more convenient for most of us.

Perhaps this was requested by corporate/government customers or whatever who don't want to use iCloud to due to security concerns, but I would have thought a lot of them use Exchange instead of iTunes to sync anyway.

There are over 7 billion people upon earth.
Just over 2,4 billion have internet.
Of that 2,4 billion, about a third have broadband access.
Way less than a billion have reliable, uninterrupted services at affordable prices.
Cloud-based computing in general is therefore not widespread.

Apple has a small global footprint yet a fair share of its user base are located in regions without practical broadband connectiviity. We bought Apple for its local sync, especially via tethering.

In global terms, iCloud users are by far a minority. If you live away from the USA, you soon realise how fragile and compromised the Intetnet is. Natural disasters, power outages, accidents and even terrorism/sabotage can and do interrupt connectivity. This post will travel 23,140km via a detoured undersea cable so that it can be saved on Apple's servers. It goes from the tip of Africa along the west coast up to the UK and from there across the Atlantic to the USA. The cables get severed and on our harbour there are two ships that have the immense task of maintaining these cables.

My USB cable is two feet long and works better and is not exposed to risk.
 

andyring

macrumors member
Jan 15, 2009
33
42
Lincoln, Neb.
Corporate environments

I have to be honest and tell you that I did not even realize the feature was missing. I rarely connect my iPhones or iPad to the Mac. Pretty much I do all my syncing through iCloud. What advantage is there of doing a local sync at this point?

By sharing through the iCloud my wife and I can share the same calendar across our 5 combined devices and we have had no issues.

Seriously who is still using iTunes to sync Contacts and Calendars in this day and age? :eek: iCloud does everything you need and is the most reliable cloud syncing service on earth.

Corporate environments are a huge, huge area where local syncing is a must. I've got about 50 users, and we recently upgraded everyone to Mavericks. Once we did that, I suddenly had a steady stream of people walking into my office saying their calendars and contacts weren't syncing. Took me a while to figure out that Apple removed that without telling anyone.

It was even more frustrating when the only solution was to tell people "Yeah, it sucks but Apple just decided to do this and didn't tell anyone. Now you have to go create your own personal iCloud account to re-enable the syncing you've been used to for years by just plugging in your iPhone."

It gets into a legal thing too. A lot of companies (banks, financial institutions, or companies located outside the United States) likely have policies about where and how data is stored. Suddenly a company has no control over where their data is stored, with Apple forcing it to happen on their servers in the United States.
 
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robeddie

Suspended
Jul 21, 2003
1,777
1,731
Atlanta
Ok, last post for real this time.
(Snip)
Again, I know many will disagree. I just want what's best for progress, and for me, this view makes the most sense.

First off, your wrong. Tons of progress in the world, in fact almost ALL of it, has occurred even while legacy solutions hung around for a while.

And some would contest whether putting your personal information in the cloud is 'progress' - at least compared to other breakthrough technologies of the past century.

More specifically, what technological progress exactly are we delaying anyway by not using the cloud? Is there some amazing advancement in the world you are envisioning that will happen once were all storing our personal info in the cloud that won't occur if we don't all get on board? If so, do tell!

Bottom line: All we're asking for is CHOICE. We're not trying to deprive you of your choice to use the cloud, but your stance would deprive US of OUR CHOICE.

Based on that alone, you're on the losing side of this argument.
 
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horcrux34

macrumors newbie
Mar 13, 2014
9
0
Apple sure switched us over to iCloud without most of us even realizing the other method was going away- that was slick wasn't it, hehe. I like iCloud and don't really care for my personal stuff- I can see how some businesses might be concerned though, although I trust Apple with my info.
 

Reason077

macrumors 68040
Aug 14, 2007
3,588
3,532
not sure what you consider as anyone but people with the original iphone can only sync contacts through itunes and exchange.

Oh, good point. I didn't realise they had disabled it on devices that don't support iCloud. That's not cool.

----------

If you live away from the USA, you soon realise how fragile and compromised the Intetnet is. Natural disasters, power outages, accidents and even terrorism/sabotage can and do interrupt connectivity.

I don't live anywhere near the USA and I'm pretty sure I have faster and cheaper internet than most people in the USA do. Most major internet services co-locate their servers in different regions around the world. Europe and Asia, at least, and eventually they'll come to Africa too. The Internet isn't quite as USA-centric as you seem to think it is.

But even so, I don't see how connection reliability is a big issue for iCloud. The beauty of iCloud is that it gives you reliable syncing even when you don't have a constant or reliable internet connection. Added appointments or notes to your iPhone but no signal? No problem, it'll sync automatically next time you're on a WiFi hotspot.

And, Photostream and iTunes Match aside, the bandwidth requirements of iCloud are actually pretty modest.
 

aj8690

macrumors regular
Aug 28, 2012
109
94
Columbus, OH, USA
First off, your wrong. Tons of progress in the world, in fact almost ALL of it, has occurred even while legacy solutions hung around for a while.

And some would contest whether putting your personal information in the cloud is 'progress' - at least compared to other breakthrough technologies of the past century.

More specifically, what technological progress exactly are we delaying anyway by not using the cloud? Is there some amazing advancement in the world you are envisioning that will happen once were all storing our personal info in the cloud that won't occur if we don't all get on board? If so, do tell!

Bottom line: All we're asking for is CHOICE. We're not trying to deprive you of your choice to use the cloud, but your stance would deprive US of OUR CHOICE.

Based on that alone, you're on the losing side of this argument.
I gave two very specific examples. Let me know if you need help understanding them; I'll try to expand in a way that you might be able to understand, or maybe give an easier example.

And, FYI--people who begin with "you're wrong" are generally wrong.
 

robeddie

Suspended
Jul 21, 2003
1,777
1,731
Atlanta
I gave two very specific examples. Let me know if you need help understanding them; I'll try to expand in a way that you might be able to understand, or maybe give an easier example.

And, FYI--people who begin with "you're wrong" are generally wrong.

Your two 'examples' are irrelevant. I asked you what progress is specifically being suppressed because some of us prefer not to use the cloud.

And I'm sorry but you are wrong because you're in favor of limiting freedom of choice. When it comes to my personal information, I value my choice to store it where I choose (and obviously a lot of people feel the same way).

So to sum up, you want to restrict a freedom many of us hold dear based on a couple examples that dont have anything to do with this specific issue.
 
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luckysob

macrumors regular
Mar 29, 2011
136
18
Glad to see this is coming back (I didn't even know it was gone...but it would explain some unexpected behavior with Contacts).

My wife and I have big contact lists which are subdivided into different groups. I don't want all of her contact info for family and work, and vice versa. iCloud syncing doesn't allow you to sync up specific groups of contacts....you get the entire damn list.
 

stevenoz

macrumors newbie
Mar 19, 2014
4
0
For me, I use iCal syncing from a Snow Leopard server with iCal server that I run.

It runs my business.
 

MagnusVonMagnum

macrumors 603
Jun 18, 2007
5,193
1,442
Hate to point this out to you but it's just as damaging to even use a phone. If you call or send texts or use the internet, you're just as much a hypocrite as you called everyone else! Except, you know, you stand there preaching at everybody about how different you are. Here's a tin foil hat for you.

My 2 cents: Fair enough if that's how you feel, but don't go around labelling everyone else stupid and insulting folk because they don't think like you. That'll get you on the wrong side of many a person.

You mean like the post I responded to that did the opposite? Frankly, did you miss the part where I said I'm fine with people doing anything they want with their own data? I'm not upset with people doing what they want with things online. I personally think they should be more careful, though, but that's their choice. I do have a problem with people today all thinking that everyone else thinks just like they do and, "Is anyone STILL doing blah blah..." Yeah, just because one person does things a certain way, that doesn't mean we all have to (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, carrying a smart phone like it's an epinephrin shot, etc.). I do have a problem with companies trying to "force" me to do things the way they want rather than the way I want. That's a fast way to lose customers.

As for the Internet in general, there are varying degrees of security. The problem is that you can keep 100% of everything off the Internet and you're STILL on it in some places (e.g. government sites like state tax sites, etc. of which my state had a hacking before, stealing IRS records). But that doesn't mean I have to make it easier by putting unnecessary information out there when there are other ways to do it. I don't really care about my bookmarks syncing online (they are just public sites for the most part), but I don't need personal databases of things like contacts online when I don't even use a smart phone. It can sync to my iPod Touch when I do a regular sync for music, photos, etc. Frankly, I have way too much media data to store it in the Cloud anyway (over 3TB at this point) so things like Cloud backup make no sense to me, particularly when a much faster than CLOUD (unless perhaps you have Google's new 1Gbit service) USB3 backup drive can be had for $60-140 (depending on size).
 

melendezest

Suspended
Jan 28, 2010
1,693
1,579
I just wish iTunes was just for, you know, tunes, and Apple would put everything else somewhere else.

It's broken out on iOS (mostly), they should do the same on the Mac.

App Store for apps, iTunes Store for music, etc., etc. Hell, make a store for movies and call it good. iMovie Store or something, and make iMovie hold all my movies, incl. home vids.

I'd like that. The all-in-one thing seems bloated, to me. but hey, to each their own.
 

cube

Suspended
May 10, 2004
17,011
4,972
I hope this means I'll be able to sync my contacts and calendars locally through the BlackBerry Desktop software again. It's been a pain in the arse getting everything into Gmail and then syncing from there. Call me old-school but I love my Bold's "typing on air" keyboard. Although this year's iPhone could tempt me... ;)

If you had upgraded to a BB10 device, you would have always been able to locally sync with BlackBerry Link.
 

3282868

macrumors 603
Jan 8, 2009
5,281
0
I just wish iTunes was just for, you know, tunes, and Apple would put everything else somewhere else.

It's broken out on iOS (mostly), they should do the same on the Mac.

App Store for apps, iTunes Store for music, etc., etc. Hell, make a store for movies and call it good. iMovie Store or something, and make iMovie hold all my movies, incl. home vids.

I'd like that. The all-in-one thing seems bloated, to me. but hey, to each their own.

You know, that does make sense. I've teetered back and fourth on the subject before, and mostly stalled as the third party app's Apple used were not free. Now, it would make more sense to use each as the conduit and maybe go back to a simple app such as iSync for preference settings. iPhoto is already syncing images for OS X users, Contacts, Calendar, Safari apps, why not let iMovie handle video's? The only matter would be the iTunes Store; would iMovie sell movies and shows, iBooks - books, iTunes - music, etc? Would seem more convoluted there. Hmmm.
 

sddave

macrumors newbie
Jun 9, 2009
10
1
syncing

"Had no idea this was missing, since I use iCloud instead." -Everyone

I don't sync contacts and calendar with my iPhone and MBP, but I sync music: most of my iTunes songs are from my collection of CD's that I've imported into iTunes. Okay, so I'm old school ....
 

Porco

macrumors 68040
Mar 28, 2005
3,314
6,908
This thread has happened before and will happen again.

"But I don't use it, so why should anyone else have the option?"

Well great, that's a brilliantly broad-minded point of view. Except if everyone took that attitude sooner or later Apple will scrap a feature you love or rely on, and you'll be out of luck.

Options are good.
 

Martyimac

macrumors 68020
Aug 19, 2009
2,444
1,678
S. AZ.
First off, your wrong. Tons of progress in the world, in fact almost ALL of it, has occurred even while legacy solutions hung around for a while.

And some would contest whether putting your personal information in the cloud is 'progress' - at least compared to other breakthrough technologies of the past century.

More specifically, what technological progress exactly are we delaying anyway by not using the cloud? Is there some amazing advancement in the world you are envisioning that will happen once were all storing our personal info in the cloud that won't occur if we don't all get on board? If so, do tell!

Bottom line: All we're asking for is CHOICE. We're not trying to deprive you of your choice to use the cloud, but your stance would deprive US of OUR CHOICE.

Based on that alone, you're on the losing side of this argument.

This!!! This is what most of the "The cloud is the ultimate choice"
miss. They just can't understand why we want a choice.
 

minisuds7

macrumors member
Jul 26, 2012
87
9
The U.P. of Michigan
If you had upgraded to a BB10 device, you would have always been able to locally sync with BlackBerry Link.
I realize that. I'm a little strapped for cash at the moment though so the Bold will make do. Plus I'm considering iPhone in the fall when I should have some more money. But hey - if BlackBerry releases something that really blows my socks off then I'd consider BB10. The Bold is still quick (the most recent model the 9930) and works very well for what I want it to do.
 

melendezest

Suspended
Jan 28, 2010
1,693
1,579
You know, that does make sense. I've teetered back and fourth on the subject before, and mostly stalled as the third party app's Apple used were not free. Now, it would make more sense to use each as the conduit and maybe go back to a simple app such as iSync for preference settings. iPhoto is already syncing images for OS X users, Contacts, Calendar, Safari apps, why not let iMovie handle video's? The only matter would be the iTunes Store; would iMovie sell movies and shows, iBooks - books, iTunes - music, etc? Would seem more convoluted there. Hmmm.

I thought of that, and yes, let iMovie sell movies. I actually think it's simpler, since I'd buy where I play/view/store. They should take the apps out (they already have a store), the books (they also have a store), and the movies (the only one to add). I'm a sucker for modularity, when appropriate.

Letting iCloud or iSync handle, umm, syncing, is a great idea. But iTunes is frakking huge, and Apple's quest for simplicity has now gone too far in the wrong direction (just like iOS 7's 8-bit look).:p

I swear, Apple is a study in contradiction lately: they take away stuff we can use and stuff things in we don't need. But as always, this is subjective.

----------

This thread has happened before and will happen again.

"But I don't use it, so why should anyone else have the option?"

Well great, that's a brilliantly broad-minded point of view. Except if everyone took that attitude sooner or later Apple will scrap a feature you love or rely on, and you'll be out of luck.

Options are good.

Exactly. I wish Apple would expand their portfolio a bit. They don't need the ridiculous product "focus" that got them here. They've arrived. They're flush with money. They can stand to expand their lines a bit. Not go the Dell route, but a bit more than the austere line they have now.
 

londoner33

macrumors newbie
Mar 20, 2014
9
3
Reminders & Notes too?

I hope they thought of including local sync for Reminders & Notes too, just like it was with SL, before they started to migrate to iCloud. I do not want to have to remember of syncing somethings locally, and the rest with iCloud. It's an all or nothing. I should not have to manage this. Let's see what Apple will do in that respect.

I really hope they realise how much they screwed up with that forced transition to iCloud. If Mavericks' next patch restores FULL local sync, then it's good. Otherwise, I believe I'm not the only one currently evaluating a phone & desktop migration to a solution that ensures confidentiality, privacy, peace of mind, and manageability. 4 qualities that iCloud DOES NOT possess.
 
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