MISSING IN iCLOUD
page 3
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
2. WEBSITE HOSTING
3. FILE STORAGE & SHARING
4. GALLERY
Apple's online service,
iCloud, is intended primarily as a method for
easily syncing data such as calendars, contacts, emails and
pictures
between your Macs and your iOS devices. Though it was touted as
a
partial replacement for the old MobileMe service, it is lacking
a
number of facilities which were available there.
FILE STORAGE
In fact iCloud now provides an online storage area in the form
of the '
iCloud Drive' (OSX Yosemite and iOS8 or
higher
required). Where
earlier systems could use iCloud to sync iWork documents, any
type of
document (less than 15GB) can be stored and be available to
other
devices running the required system. It's part of iCloud itself
and
uses the same storage as the rest of the account - prices
detailed
here.) A more recently added facility is
to store your Documents and Desktop folder in iCloud though they
appear to be on your Mac, so allow syncing with other devices.
This shoujld not be regarded as a backup since a deletion
applies immediately everywhere.
There are various other companies which provide a form of online
storage, though
mostly it's in the form of backup, not strictly storage as such.
The
differences is that backup systems monitor a specified folder or
folders and upload changes: storage is an area to which you can
upload
files which can then be deleted or moved on the computer without
the
online versions being affected. With the backup systems, you
must keep
files you want to store in the monitored folder(s) - if you move
them
out they will be removed from the backup.
Third-party providers
Various firms provide backup and/or syncing facilities: here are
some
suggestions.
SugarSync
is a small application which
runs on
Mac or PC: it's 'faceless'
(meaning it only appears in the menu bar). It
includes file sharing and a 'Web Archive' for storing files
you don't
also want to be on your Mac. You can select any folders on
your Mac to
sync. It does block-level
incremental uploading which makes uploading changed files a
very quick
process. Changes to the folders
are automatically detected while the program is running and
uploaded -
a remarkably quick process as only the individual blocks of a
file
which has changed are uploaded. Another computer can then
access
SugarSync and download the files to the equivalent folders,
providing
quick
syncing. However note that it won't handle certain types of
files such
as live databases (i.e. Outlook) and apparently any package
containing
.plist files (such as RapidWeaver 'Sandwiches' and QuicKeys
shortcuts,
both of which synced back as incomplete).
It doesn't have a background process: you leave the
application running (it appears in the menu bar) - the
Preferences give
you the choice of having it run automatically at startup.
Unlike some
of the others, if you quit it, it really is quit (if it is
running an
upload at the time it will automatically resume the next time
you boot
it). There is a free trial but the previously available free
basic
level has been discontinued: plans start 100GB and go up to
1TB -
current pricing detailed
here.
It's received good reviews: I used it for a time and
originally found
it to be flexible and easy to use, but in the end ran into too
much
unsatisfactory behaviour - I don't know whether
this was just
me or a general issue; when working properly it would be my
choice
of the available methods (though it's a pity that the original
30GB
paid plan
has been discontinued) but for me at least it's no longer
viable.
However you should be aware that cancelling
either the free trial or an existing subscription has been
made quite
difficult - you have to contact them by chat or telephone
between
0600-1700 PST which is inconvenient for many people - added to
which
there have been complaints of them taking ages to answer (to
be fair, I
had no problem cancelling).
Dropbox
offers similar syncing
facilities,
though you have to create a single
'Dropbox' folder somewhere on your computer, and keep the
files you
want to upload in that: changes to this folder
are automatically detected while the program is running and
uploaded
using block-level replacement. You can also specify folders
not to
sync, so that they are on the server only (and can be accessed
via the
web page or a third-party program such as
Cyberduck).
Another computer can then access
Dropbox and download the files to its 'Dropbox' folder,
providing quick
syncing.
Like SugarSync it doesn't have a background process. You would
normally
keep the
application running at all times, but you can close it and
reopen it to
suit yourself: it only does anything when actually running -
other
methods involve a background process you can't easily
terminate, even
when the application itself isn't running.
The
system
requirements are now OSX 10.13 or later, or Windows 7 or
later: users with an earlier system will be signed out.
Dropbox is free for storage up to 2GB - you can increase this
by
recommending friends - but there is then a steep step up to
1TB at
$10 per month, which is a good price, though as 1TB is rather
a lot
it's a pity that they
don't provide an intermediate level. It can easily import
photos from
digital cameras and iOS devices; as well as file storage it
provides
sharing, including movie and picture previews. It does also
allow web
hosting but it's not
really geared for this and I wouldn't recommend it for
anything more
than the odd page. It's well liked despite its limitations
Google
Drive
is now part of 'Google One'. It
provides 15Gb of free storage, with
upgrades ranging from 100GB ($1.99 per month) to 30TB
(see their
pricing
pge ). They have added an additional step to 200GB
($2.99 per month) but removed the 1TB level, the next being
2TB.
The
'Google
Drive' application
appears only in the menu bar and is designed
to
run on startup and all the time, however it can be quit if
desired and
there is no background process. I moved to it with the
termination of
Copy and it works well and reliably, with good transfer
speeds. Like
Dropbox it syncs with its own folder, which is placed in the
Home
Folder, and can then sync to the equivalent folder on other
devices,
and new version can also sync any nominated folders on your
computer. It requires OSX 10.15.7 Catalina or higher (Catalina
will get no updates from June 2024 and stop working in June
2025).
Files can be uploaded via a web page or a third party program
such as
Cyberduck,
and folders holding these files
can be excluded from the application so that they don't sync
to the
computer.
Files can be shared to specified people (who don't have to
have a
Drive) or publicly. Some people have tried to use it as a host
for
podcast media files but this has proved endlessly problematic
- it's
not really designed for this and I don't recommend trying.
Amazon S3
provides storage and sharing,
though
not syncing.
Its pricing is progressive, depending entirely on how much you
store
(rather than the large steps up used by most other services),
with an additional charge for uploads; costs vary by the
regions chosen
for storage - typical charges are $0.026 per GB, $0.0055 per
1,000
uploads, with storage rates reducing above 50TB - it's aimed
at
businesses but it quite suitable for personal use. You can
have free
access up to 5GB for a year (paying the costs if you go over).
You can
choose from a number of storage areas in USA, Europe or Asia
so you
would choose the nearest to get the best speeds. It's cheaper
than, for
example, Google up to very approximately 400GB but above that,
as the
price increases proportionally, it becomes more expensive up
to 1TB,
then, with Google's step to 10TB, becomes cheaper up to about
3TB and
more expensive up to 10TB. (10 TB is unlikely to be reached by
private
users! - Google's maximum is 30TB, Amazon is unlimited.)
There is also 'Glacier' storage which is very much cheaper but
where
files cannot be retrieved immediately - it may take several
hours, so
it's suitable for long-term storage (this isn't available on
the free
version).
Its operation isn't as simple as some others so it's worth
reading the
documentation carefully.
Uploading/downloading can be done using the
web-page console, but it's easier to use a third-party program
-
Cyberduck
handles it very well. It is designed to be reliable to
professional
standards and has multiple redundancy in its storage. Though
requiring
a little more effort to master than the others it's a very
good
and reliable storage solution.
Jungle
Disk
has reinvented itself as Cyberfortress and is now aimed at
teams - it doesn't look suitable for a domestic user.
There are a number of other broadly similar services (pricing
may
change), including:
Backblaze
is $9
per month per computer for unlimited storage. By default it
backs up
all your data excluding System files, Applications and
temporary files
- it's not entirely clear whether you can add your own
exclusions. It
runs on Mac and Windows.
Carbonite
Crashplan
Microsoft OneDrive
provides online storage which
appears
as a folder in your Home Folder, and runs as an application
with a Dock
icon. It's free up to 5GB, upgradeable to 100GB (£19.99 per
year;
higher
amounts available when bundled with MS Office).
Sharing facilities are included. Reviews in the Mac App Store
suggest an assortment of problems.
Tresorit
Mozy, Copy and
Wuala have been
discontinued.
Using your web space
Ordinary webspace hosting isn't suitable for private file
storage as
it's publicly accessible, unless you can encrypt the backup.
Previously
I mentioned an application called xTwin which could do this.
However
this has now been discontinued by the makers; since only the
application can access the encrypted files comprising the
backup,
anyone who is using this need to be careful not to lose it, or
they
will lose access to their backups. They should
zip a copy of
Twin together
with the serial
number and upload that
to the
web space,
so that in the event of a
disaster they would be able to download that first. However you
should
be aware that some webspace providers don't allow file storage
as such,
only hosting for public access - web pages and related files.
File Sharing
Probably the best option
is
Hightail
(used to be YouSendIt).
It provides the facility for you to
upload files and send an email to a recipient telling them how
to
download it. There is a free version with some limitations and a
plan
at $15 per month with fuller facilities; they can also provide
plans
for businesses.
Amazon S3 provides the facility to make
files or folders publicly available.
There are other methods, though they tend to be fudges. Dropbox
can do
shared folders, but other people using it must have their own
DropBox
accounts. There is a
third-party add-on
allowing people to email attached files to your DropBox (though
they
might just as well email them directly to you: in both cases
there tend
to be limits on the size of attached files).
There is also a newer program,
Cloud App,
which makes sharing files simple: it runs as a background
process and
you just drag files to the menu bar icon. Storage is with Heroku
and
Amazon: it's free with a limit of 10 files per day, maximum 25MB
per
file, with tiered plans giving unlimited files and increasing
maximum
files sizes - see their
pricing.
If you are only interested in making files available for
download you
can do this from some of the storage solutions listed above: or
you can
do it from your own web space. You can create a web page with
links to
the relevant files: if you provide a link to a file which is a
type a
browser can display - .jpg, .gif, png, .mp3, .m4v etc - it will
open
and display the file. If you want to force it to download the
file
itself the simplest, though less elegant, way is to zip the file
- as
this is a format the browser doesn't know it will download it.
However you can force a download of a file without zipping it -
this is
what MobileMe's 'File Sharing' did, but you cannot replicate
this exactly on other servers (and may not be able to
password-protect
it, depending on whether your hoster offers this
facility). You
have to place your files for download in a particular folder,
and add
an 'htaccess' file to it to force downloads of any file in that
folder.
This will only work if your web hosting company allows it - some
may
not. The method is described
here.
The
next page will examine Photo
Galleries.