Why does cloud integration bring unreliability and weird issues to everything it touches?
iTunes
For example I've had the same iTunes library for about 14 years and never had it get corrupted or have any problems whatsoever. As much as I hate the iTunes user interface, and as much as that interface has gotten worse over the years, iTunes has never had reliability issues for me.
However in the latest version (12.2) all havoc has broken loose, not just for me but for many users. Content disappears off the device, things get jumbled and messed up in iTunes itself. What's the common thread? Cloud integration (Apple Music service).
I can't sync without transferring purchases from my phone even though it JUST transferred all the purchases, like, 20 minutes ago—at which point it re-transferred ALL of my apps, which took forever, and which I had done just the night before. I don't have automatic updates turned on, so… what the hell Apple?
Syncing voice memos also leads to duplication of files on the computer side of things, but this is not iCloud related. So maybe the problem is just Apple's terrible approach to syncing, where they do not allow the user any control over the syncing process, and they randomly duplicate things for no apparent reason. Why can't they just compare the checksums of the files and if they're the same, don't create an extra copy?!
Calendar & Contacts
In my calendar and contacts, ever since I started using them a few years ago, items will just randomly duplicate and you can't get rid of the copies. I'll delete the copies and they just come back again.
In my calendars, there are about 50 iCloud calendars called "Planner events" that keep showing back up even though I took 30 minutes to delete them one-by-one (because you can't batch-delete them!).
In contacts, I've just resigned myself to the fact that contacts will randomly duplicate themselves.
Why can't Apple get this stuff right? Before creating a copy of something, why not prompt the user to resolve whatever conflict it is that the system is trying to solve by the brute force method of just duplicating it and leaving it up to the user to delete the copy they don't want, later?
The solution given is basically, turn off iCloud syncing for the item and then turn it back on. But it does not say what effect that will have on my local copy. What if there are some contacts on my phone that are not on my computers? If I turn off iCloud syncing everywhere and then turn it back on, will any contacts be deleted or duplicated? How will I know if they were, or not, since it's not like it tells you before it deletes or duplicates things?
Scarred for Life
Many of us who are old-school Mac users have already been through the cloud wars a bunch of times, and want nothing to do with iCloud. We went through similar weird bugs and issues with MobileMe, .Mac, and iTools. Though they've renamed the service and changed what it does, one thing has never changed: it's never felt reliable, it's always led to weird issues, and it never gives the user very much control over what is happening. So when something goes wrong, you're basically screwed and it's time to restore from a backup.
We've also been through the fact that Apple can never make up it's mind about what cloud services it's going to keep offering from year to year—or even software, for that matter. Did you love iDisk and iWeb? Find them useful? Too bad. Did you love iPhoto, or Aperture? Sucker. We were just pretending. Did you love the old Pages? Hahah oops. Time to update, dude! Get with the times! You're a loser for liking that old crusty stuff. Join the future already. Gosh!
WHY?
I just don't understand why Apple does this. I really don't. What is Apple's own, internal reason for removing features and forcing unreliable cloud services on us? For not properly beta testing their software, and releasing it in buggy states that causes all sorts of problems every time you have to update? For naming every system process a cryptic name that nobody except them and Linc Davis can even recognize as being an official part of the OS? Really, what is the thinking behind all this?
Why is it that, in an OS—that is so sensitive to third-party system modifications being installed that it can fail to even boot after an update, if you have the wrong kernel extensions—they don't have any decent way to easily and quickly see in one place a list of all the various third-party software, and an easy way to install and uninstall it?
Why don't they even respond to posts made to their own corporate support forums? Seriously why?
Why are they hell-bent on integrating more and more cloud crap that barely works into the operating systems each version? I've never been able to get handoff to reliably work, and I don't think anyone else has, either, from the looks of the forum threads I've seen. I don't think anyone in the entire world likes the horrific abomination that iTunes has become.
Why is it that Microsoft is smart enough to keep making the core products that its users love: MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Outlook, MS Windows—yet Apple sees fit to stop making the core apps that so many people loved like Aperture and iPhoto?
Why has Apple ditched the well-loved, tried-and-true desktop metaphor, which is timelessly simple and straightforward with its easy-to-use files and folders, and pushed everything towards "libraries" where all your files disappear into some kind of weird managed database that will be corrupted if you move things around inside of it and, even if you don't, will eventually be corrupted anyway?
Logic Pro X Did it Right
The bright spot for Apple is Logic Pro X, which is the best piece of software they make, and the most loved by users. Why can't they put whoever is in charge of that project in charge over all software at Apple?
iTunes
For example I've had the same iTunes library for about 14 years and never had it get corrupted or have any problems whatsoever. As much as I hate the iTunes user interface, and as much as that interface has gotten worse over the years, iTunes has never had reliability issues for me.
However in the latest version (12.2) all havoc has broken loose, not just for me but for many users. Content disappears off the device, things get jumbled and messed up in iTunes itself. What's the common thread? Cloud integration (Apple Music service).
I can't sync without transferring purchases from my phone even though it JUST transferred all the purchases, like, 20 minutes ago—at which point it re-transferred ALL of my apps, which took forever, and which I had done just the night before. I don't have automatic updates turned on, so… what the hell Apple?
Syncing voice memos also leads to duplication of files on the computer side of things, but this is not iCloud related. So maybe the problem is just Apple's terrible approach to syncing, where they do not allow the user any control over the syncing process, and they randomly duplicate things for no apparent reason. Why can't they just compare the checksums of the files and if they're the same, don't create an extra copy?!
Calendar & Contacts
In my calendar and contacts, ever since I started using them a few years ago, items will just randomly duplicate and you can't get rid of the copies. I'll delete the copies and they just come back again.
In my calendars, there are about 50 iCloud calendars called "Planner events" that keep showing back up even though I took 30 minutes to delete them one-by-one (because you can't batch-delete them!).
In contacts, I've just resigned myself to the fact that contacts will randomly duplicate themselves.
Why can't Apple get this stuff right? Before creating a copy of something, why not prompt the user to resolve whatever conflict it is that the system is trying to solve by the brute force method of just duplicating it and leaving it up to the user to delete the copy they don't want, later?
The solution given is basically, turn off iCloud syncing for the item and then turn it back on. But it does not say what effect that will have on my local copy. What if there are some contacts on my phone that are not on my computers? If I turn off iCloud syncing everywhere and then turn it back on, will any contacts be deleted or duplicated? How will I know if they were, or not, since it's not like it tells you before it deletes or duplicates things?
Scarred for Life
Many of us who are old-school Mac users have already been through the cloud wars a bunch of times, and want nothing to do with iCloud. We went through similar weird bugs and issues with MobileMe, .Mac, and iTools. Though they've renamed the service and changed what it does, one thing has never changed: it's never felt reliable, it's always led to weird issues, and it never gives the user very much control over what is happening. So when something goes wrong, you're basically screwed and it's time to restore from a backup.
We've also been through the fact that Apple can never make up it's mind about what cloud services it's going to keep offering from year to year—or even software, for that matter. Did you love iDisk and iWeb? Find them useful? Too bad. Did you love iPhoto, or Aperture? Sucker. We were just pretending. Did you love the old Pages? Hahah oops. Time to update, dude! Get with the times! You're a loser for liking that old crusty stuff. Join the future already. Gosh!
WHY?
I just don't understand why Apple does this. I really don't. What is Apple's own, internal reason for removing features and forcing unreliable cloud services on us? For not properly beta testing their software, and releasing it in buggy states that causes all sorts of problems every time you have to update? For naming every system process a cryptic name that nobody except them and Linc Davis can even recognize as being an official part of the OS? Really, what is the thinking behind all this?
Why is it that, in an OS—that is so sensitive to third-party system modifications being installed that it can fail to even boot after an update, if you have the wrong kernel extensions—they don't have any decent way to easily and quickly see in one place a list of all the various third-party software, and an easy way to install and uninstall it?
Why don't they even respond to posts made to their own corporate support forums? Seriously why?
Why are they hell-bent on integrating more and more cloud crap that barely works into the operating systems each version? I've never been able to get handoff to reliably work, and I don't think anyone else has, either, from the looks of the forum threads I've seen. I don't think anyone in the entire world likes the horrific abomination that iTunes has become.
Why is it that Microsoft is smart enough to keep making the core products that its users love: MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Outlook, MS Windows—yet Apple sees fit to stop making the core apps that so many people loved like Aperture and iPhoto?
Why has Apple ditched the well-loved, tried-and-true desktop metaphor, which is timelessly simple and straightforward with its easy-to-use files and folders, and pushed everything towards "libraries" where all your files disappear into some kind of weird managed database that will be corrupted if you move things around inside of it and, even if you don't, will eventually be corrupted anyway?
Logic Pro X Did it Right
The bright spot for Apple is Logic Pro X, which is the best piece of software they make, and the most loved by users. Why can't they put whoever is in charge of that project in charge over all software at Apple?