Dropbox v iCloud

Scrivener Scrivener for iOS
21

You’re right, there is a lot of scaremongering on the net, much of it unfounded. For (many) people with valuable data, concerns about Dropbox aren’t in that category.

Personally think it is better for people to make informed choices. If they think its scaremongering, that’s fair enough. If they think its valid, that’s also fair enough. People can judge matters for themselves. Different choices are just different choices.

I used to use Dropbox but don’t any more:

  1. Slow, troublesome, and unreliable
  2. Lost and corrupted data
  3. Learnt about the security, ownership of data, and privacy issues
  4. Clients stipulated that Dropbox should not be used for their work

If you or other people are happy with Dropbox, that’s great. Choice is good.

SWM

22

Dropbox hasn’t been slow, troublesome, or unreliable for me, the past 10+ years. I haven’t lost a word.

From all I’ve seen and heard, almost NO platform or major corporation has been immune to password leaks and other security glitches.

Security is always a compromise between safety, cost, and convenience. If you know of a 100% safe and convenient alternative, maybe I missed the part where you suggested it.

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23

You’re absolutely right in all that you say, @drmajorbob.

Indeed. That sentiment was pre-acknowledged:

And you’re right again. I didn’t make such a suggestion, and I wouldn’t make such a suggestion. And because it wasn’t made, you didn’t miss it. Phew. :sweat:

SWM

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24

Bit of a smile here for all the help on help…SWM, would feel you’re handling it quite kindly and intelligently.

From here, I would say that if I’ve never much liked Dropbox, and increasingly so as they added all their own ‘help’ to close people in (the just-log-in downloads when you share them, unless you look into the cryptic way to avoid them, etc.) over the years, there are much worse alternatives. Box would come to mind…or the clutches of biggest boys’ clouds. As in any era of life, for the unpleasant, you just have to step away.

I can also say that though in fact Scrivener somehow keeps from having the problem (good, truly protocol-correct design in very little doubt), I quite regularly have Dropbox acting up unpleasantly on a new iPad with latest iPadOs. It becomes ‘unseeable’ to some apps, after for example uploading just a few (like 2…) files in succession. Cleanest way to repair this is to power down and restart the iPad.

Once again, Scrivener iOS never shows me this problen; always syncs right away, and always cleans up in its nicest possible way if I’ve done something myself to get pad and laptop out of sync themselves.

Yes, even we who would be thought ‘expert’ on the underlying knowledge, screw up. So it’s very good that Scrivener is clever about fixing up, as much as it is about staying out of trouble itself.

I can also say that Apple iCloud was definitely a problem back when Dropbox was chosen for Scrivener sync. And I notice that it nowadays seems entirely reliable on same iPad, whether Dropbox is misbehaving or my unaccessible wifi provider is. All of them, give or take cloud ‘bad days’, which seem to be happening more often than expected, and so having more than one available is a fine idea.

If and when iCloud becomes available in Scrivener-land, I will prefer it. But I also use a kind of double entry, allowing both diversity-safeing by having things on two clouds, and enabling an Android phone to participate. Dropbox in some role will always be needed by Scrivener for that.

Last point, appreciate actually the up-to-date reading on Dropbox security, SWM. I don’t put unencrypted things I care about there, but it’s good always to be aware of current moment’s potentials, isn’t it…thanks.

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25

Thanks. Enjoyed your post.

I feel better informed when I hear about other people’s experiences. No single solution is right for everyone, and as no two people can possibly have the exact same set-up, our experiences are bound to be different.

I used to use Dropbox, but I don’t now. I currently use iCloud and am very happy with it. That might change in the future.

Mark (@xiamenese) always talks highly of Sync.com. If I ever have issues with iCloud and don’t want to go back to Dropbox, I will try using Sync.com because of Mark’s recommendations.

People share their time and experiences freely here. I’m glad they do. I am richer for all that I learn from others. No absolute rights or wrongs: just opinions and ideas from which we can all pick and choose and refine and replace.

SWM

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26

I only have an iPad and an iPhone, and I can’t sync my iPhone with the free Dropbox account. And when Dropbox was new, I referred so many people, I have 20 GB, but still

27

Are you looking for help, or just venting? I too have the free account, and have always been able to sync to dropbox from my iPhone. I’ve never had a second iOS device to sync with, but they should both be able to connect to the same Dropbox account.

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28

I haven’t found away to sync both, but it does sound strange. Maybe I should create a post asking for help.

29

You were right. It took awhile, but I got it to work. I’d still rather have iCloud, but Dropbox is acceptable, especially since I have so much space.

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30

Super late to this convo, and don’t want to tell businesses how to run but, as a consumer, business owner, writer, and web developer, I use iCloud, pay for the extended storage and use Scrivener on multiple machines. I was going to use iOS scrivener and skipped because of the dropbox dependency. Sold iPad and bought an MacBook Air. No hatred for DropBox but iCloud is flawless in my experience, and how many cloud drives do I want to track. I have dropbox, Box, iCloud, and a personal ftp site. I focus on iCloud and my personal ftp site but to each his own.

31

Hi guys! Newbie here, thanks for accepting me.
interesting discussion and most importantly useful for me

32

It is limiting, because it’s limited to only 3 devices. Who needs more than 3 devices, lots of folks. Desktop/Laptop/phone/iPad. I want to be able to use the device at hand. Having to pay $120/year for the privilege is ridiculous. As for syncing problems with iPad. I’ve never lost a document through iCloud and I use it for my work documents.

33

Shh. Don’t tell Dropbox. I’ve got the “Free” basic account running on four devices, no problem yet.

When I’m forced off for whatever reason, I’ll consider Apple’s iCloud. While I do use it already for purposes other than Scrivener and there has been no (that I’ve noticed) loss of files, I do notice that Apple’s iCloud has a mind of its own about when and if it will sync and there is no obvious way to bend it to my will. If it works for you, then great!

34

Because you’re late to the conversation, you may have missed that the technical limitations of iCloud made it incompatible with Scrivener. Improvements in iCloud since iOS Scrivener was released have since made iCloud synchronization potentially feasible, but only at the cost of a ground-up rewrite of Scrivener’s file access tools. So it won’t be soon.

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35

In case you aren’t aware, use of iOS Scrivener does not require installation of the Dropbox app, so it does not count against the 3 device limit.

Best,
Jim

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36

Hi , thanks I think. The point I was making, which someone else made earlier is iCloud does work, very well, at least for me. I gave Scrivener installed and use on two machines, syncs fine. Just can’t use iOS so, nothing needs fixed I don’t think.

37

Ah, absolutely true – just bringing Scrivener projects into sync again on my ancient extra iPad I had to log out of Dropbox on for the three-device limit.

I thought one could elaborate, that this working without being affected by limits is because Scrivener is using the Dropbox API - its own over-the-net connection, not borrowing from the Dropbox app on the iPad.

This will also be why I never see problems with Scrivener and Dropbox, which is always dropping out after one or two recent uses, for other apps - something really wrong there.

One more thing that can be handy in cases is to use the iCloud file system on Windows, to sync things from an iPad. I haven’t tried this with Scrivener, and wouldn’t, but it is very useful to patch together journaling done in IA Writer on the iPad with Typora on the Windows laptop, so they see and can edit the same files.

Great short explanation form @kewms Katherine, on the reasons things are as they are.

And once again, Dropbox syncing for Scrivener has been entirely failure-free and dependable, which is more than I can say for many, many other arrangements. Synchronization is a tough business, and we can see who’s done it right.

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38

p.s. just to make the point, while I was typing the last note, the ancient iPad, on iOS 9.3, (no iPadOS those days), and where many apps fail now, updated over 2000 files to bring Scrivener fully inline with other platforms.

No fuss, no muss – it just did it, and now I have an ‘extra’ typing handheld, as backup or when might not want to risk others. It’s slow, but this doesn’t show while writing in Scrivener either, which is snappy.

And, on this old iOS, the Draft Navigator works again – Scrivenings-equivalent for the iPad. It will be great to have that back, no? Could be the patience is good so that all will be working in arriving iPadOS 16…??

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