To Cloud or not to cloud

Deep Thought

Hi

Just wondering if anyone is backing up to the cloud and is using it

Any opinions on how good it is or recommend to use?

Gordon

I'm still undecided. I have a master computer that I backup using time machine regularly, this is the master sync, so I'm not sure what the benefits are. Also not overwhelmed about uploading personal data to a web server.

maninblack

I backup my contacts, calender and photos to the cloud.

Very very handy. Now when I add a reminder/appointment to my calender, it updates back on the laptop. Syncing was a pain in the ass

Sad Professor

I think iCloud is brilliant. The syncing between multiple devices has been flawless for me. And it will get even better once app developers start adding iCloud support. I see GoodReader has just added it.

culabula

Sad Professor wrote: »

I think iCloud is brilliant. The syncing between multiple devices has been flawless for me. And it will get even better once app developers start adding iCloud support. I see GoodReader has just added it.

Plus one. The whole thing seems infinitely more slick and reliable than MobileMe. A winner.

culabula

In addition: when I discovered how you could untick apps in iCloud/manage storage, I now have 4,7Gb left out of 5.

120_Minutes

What i dont like is the icloud control panel on my pc only allows me to sync my contacts and calenders with outlook. i dont use outlook, i use gmail to sync my contacts and calenders, which is a pain.

coolegrain

my question about icloud is - if i have apps on my iphone or ipad that have been bought through a u.k. or u.s.a. app store account (as well as regular irish account apps)...will they restore from the cloud if i ever reset my device ?

culabula

coolegrain wrote: »

my question about icloud is - if i have apps on my iphone or ipad that have been bought through a u.k. or u.s.a. app store account (as well as regular irish account apps)...will they restore from the cloud if i ever reset my device ?

Yes, if you back up any or all of your apps.

Eire Go Brach

culabula wrote: »

In addition: when I discovered how you could untick apps in iCloud/manage storage, I now have 4,7Gb left out of 5.

It also backup your APP data. I somehow managed to go over my 5gb. Until I noticed it was a video in vlc that was the problem.
So being able to untick apps is great.

franciec

Eire Go Brach wrote: »

culabula wrote: »

In addition: when I discovered how you could untick apps in iCloud/manage storage, I now have 4,7Gb left out of 5.

It also backup your APP data. I somehow managed to go over my 5gb. Until I noticed it was a video in vlc that was the problem.
So being able to untick apps is great.

The actual app backup doesn't count towards total, I thought I read that somewhere?

But you're saying the app data does add up your storage that's good to know for future reference. Guess more apps will be iCloud enabled and the space won't be long going.

Sad Professor

The app itself doesn't count toward the backup, no, because you aren't uploading it as it already exists on Apple servers. But app data, i.e. anything you upload belonging to that app, such settings, content, high scores, etc, does count. So if you had a lot of video in VLC or a lot of PDF files in GoodReader that would fill your space pretty quick.

DubDJ

I've had so many problems with iCloud.

I done my homework on it beforehand and had used beta so I "thought" I was prepared. But it really hit me hard and only now am I finally getting my head around it all and getting it to work. So much for "it just works".

Had to deal with duplicates, separate iCloud and Apple ID accounts and faults in the whole syncing process.

I'm still sorting out small glitches like i've currently two Photo Stream folders on my iPhone and I can't get rid of the other. And the Weather App/Widget doesn't work when i'm not on Wifi. Dunno if it's Meteor or the phone that's the problem. I'm currently restoring and hoping this helps with the problem.

Really like iOS 5 though. The improvements are welcome. Finding it better on battery and much faster and rarely have any crashed app's even though it's new. Hoping I can get everything up and running properly. And iCloud syncing efficiently.

Mellor

My internet is over 3G, my iphone 2GB per month, and my mobile wifi 6gb per month.
I've diasbled iCloud as I think it will eat too mush of this data.

Good idea?

DubDJ

Mellor wrote: »

My internet is over 3G, my iphone 2GB per month, and my mobile wifi 6gb per month.
I've diasbled iCloud as I think it will eat too mush of this data.

Good idea?

Most of the heavy syncing, if any, will be done over Wifi. Depends really on what you have set to sync. For example my Data allowance is 20GB per month. I have all of the iCloud switches on. But turned off Wifi Syncing, and iCloud backup as i'd imagine it would eat up a lot of data. With the other app's it won't eat up too much data. I'd say monitor what you need and don't. Contacts, bookmarks, photo stream will all just amount to a few MB's id say. You can also select whether you want it to use your Mobile Data to sync certain things like Documents in the Cloud. I have that turned off.

Edit: Also in Settings>Store I have the auto app and book syncing turned off. Books won't eat too much data but I won't download any either way. But App's will especially if they're large files.

Mellor

Maybe be I wasn't clear in the above.

All my data is 3G.
Be it 3G direct to my iPhone, (2GB per month)
Or my "Mobile Wifi", which is a mobile wifi hotspot, that uses a 3G connection, (6GB per month shared with laptop and other iphone).

I only have one iDevice btw
I might sync contacts to back them up, but not worry about apps or alrger files

DubDJ

Mellor wrote: »

Maybe be I wasn't clear in the above.

All my data is 3G.
Be it 3G direct to my iPhone, (2GB per month)
Or my "Mobile Wifi", which is a mobile wifi hotspot, that uses a 3G connection, (6GB per month shared with laptop and other iphone).

I only have one iDevice btw
I might sync contacts to back them up, but not worry about apps or alrger files

I have an iPhone 4 with 1GB per month. And Meteor Hotspot 20GB per month. So i'm in a similar situation but with more Wifi Data. I have everything turned on except Wifi Sync, iCloud Back-up, Automatic App & iBook downloads. I'd say the one's listed there in bold would eat up a lot of data. But i'd say your fine leaving the other's turned on and it wouldn't effect your data too much.

jester77

DubDJ wrote: »

I have an iPhone 4 with 1GB per month. And Meteor Hotspot 20GB per month. So i'm in a similar situation but with more Wifi Data. I have everything turned on except Wifi Sync, iCloud Back-up, Automatic App & iBook downloads. I'd say the one's listed there in bold would eat up a lot of data. But i'd say your fine leaving the other's turned on and it wouldn't effect your data too much.

WiFi Sync won't use any data. This is for local syncing, it does the same thing as plugging your iphone into your PC with a USB cable and clicking sync in iTunes. Except now you can do it wirelessly. I had read that your phone needed to be connected to power to do this, but I was able to sync this weekend without having the phone connected to power.

DubDJ

jester77 wrote: »

WiFi Sync won't use any data. This is for local syncing, it does the same thing as plugging your iphone into your PC with a USB cable and clicking sync in iTunes. Except now you can do it wirelessly. I had read that your phone needed to be connected to power to do this, but I was able to sync this weekend without having the phone connected to power.

Wifi syncing does use data it has to. How else can it transfer data? Mellor only has 6GB of Wifi data per month so it will eat through his data. Not his phone data but his mobile broadband. Yeah it is true you must be connected to power for wireless syncing to work.

jester77

DubDJ wrote: »

Wifi syncing does use data it has to. How else can it transfer data? Mellor only has 6GB of Wifi data per month so it will eat through his data. Not his phone data but his mobile broadband. Yeah it is true you must be connected to power for wireless syncing to work.

You can either choose wifi syncing or icloud backup for syncing, but not both. icloud backup will use up your data allowance syncing with Apples servers. WiFi syncing syncs with your laptop over your local network. The laptop and iphone both need to be on the same subnet so this will not use up any data allowance.

DubDJ

jester77 wrote: »

You can either choose wifi syncing or icloud backup for syncing, but not both. icloud backup will use up your data allowance syncing with Apples servers. WiFi syncing syncs with your laptop over your local network. The laptop and iphone both need to be on the same subnet so this will not use up any data allowance.

So your saying the wifi syncing doesn't eat up your data wifi data? But how does it work then?

culabula

DubDJ wrote: »

So your saying the wifi syncing doesn't eat up your data wifi data? But how does it work then?

No, this is just a local arrangement, just as I send music from my MacBook round the house to five airport express every day, using my home network. It's just a facility, like wifi syncing, does to affect your data.

Gordon

DubDJ wrote: »

So your saying the wifi syncing doesn't eat up your data wifi data? But how does it work then?

When you use wifi - forget your 'data allowances' from your phone carrier, as you're not using your phone carrier to use wifi. You can access data either by your phone carrier (Edge 'E', 3G, or 'O') or by wifi (or bluetooth..), so if you use wifi - you're not charged by your phone carrier.

jarvis

Gordon wrote: »

DubDJ wrote: »

So your saying the wifi syncing doesn't eat up your data wifi data? But how does it work then?

When you use wifi - forget your 'data allowances' from your phone carrier, as you're not using your phone carrier to use wifi. You can access data either by your phone carrier (Edge 'E', 3G, or 'O') or by wifi (or bluetooth..), so if you use wifi - you're not charged by your phone carrier.

I think everyone is misunderstanding the lads. They aren't ever syncing over wifi because they don't have wifi!!!! They are using mobile wifi/ dongles/ hotspots, whatever, so they are on a data plan for the device they are using. therefore surely they are using data on their dongles? No? Unless it's sharing over the television antenna or the radiator pipes :-)

Is this what you are talking about lads?

Gordon

jarvis wrote: »

I think everyone is misunderstanding the lads. They aren't ever syncing over wifi because they don't have wifi!!!! They are using mobile wifi/ dongles/ hotspots, whatever, so they are on a data plan for the device they are using. therefore surely they are using data on their dongles? No? Unless it's sharing over the television antenna or the radiator pipes :-)

Is this what you are talking about lads?

Oh right, didn't think of that! Lads - confirm as you may need to ignore what I said!

dodzy

jarvis wrote: »

I think everyone is misunderstanding the lads. They aren't ever syncing over wifi because they don't have wifi!!!!

looks that way to me.

Others are of the assumption that Mellor, for example has, "wifi" at home. By that I am referring to something like UPC (or similar ) with the router, the home network, all pcs, laptops, idevices connected wirelessly to a central hub, bla,bla,bla. I'm pretty sure that this is NOT the case

DubDJ

Yeah I have a Mobile Broadband Hotspot. And my normal data plan on my iPhone. I know Wifi syncing won't effect my iPhone data plan. But I assume it effects my Wifi data plan. But the impression I got from the above posts is once you have two devices connected to the same Wifi Hotspot it won't eat any of your Wifi data? Is that true?

richardw001

What I don't like - is the cloud amount given 5GB seems to be very low - most online storage providers would give you that much for free anyways.

Its unacceptable in my opinion where users are buying devices that cost hundreds of euros - that they don't get at least - say some gigs free along with the device.The level of free storage based on the devices you have.

Someone that has bought an ipad say - should get 10GB free based on that purchase. Similar if they buy an iphone - maybe an additional 2GB

Thoughts comments welcome - however before I "buy into" the iCloud - I would like to think that there is more that 5GB free of charge.

Sad Professor

5GB is loads. Most people will never use close to that much. It needs to be emphasised that iCloud is not like DropBox/SugarSync. It's not an online storage locker for whatever crap you decide to drop in it. iCloud is primarily for syncing data between apps on different devices/computers. It has more in common with Google's online services than with the likes of DropBox. I currently use Dropbox and will continue using it. iCloud doesn't replace it nor is it intended to. Apple actually tried to buy Dropbox and you can see the big gap in their iCloud service where iDisk used to be and which DropBox was probably intended to fill.

It should also be noted that Photo Stream doesn't count toward the 5GB.

culabula

richardw001 wrote: »

What I don't like - is the cloud amount given 5GB seems to be very low - most online storage providers would give you that much for free anyways.

Its unacceptable in my opinion where users are buying devices that cost hundreds of euros - that they don't get at least - say some gigs free along with the device.The level of free storage based on the devices you have.

Someone that has bought an ipad say - should get 10GB free based on that purchase. Similar if they buy an iphone - maybe an additional 2GB

Thoughts comments welcome - however before I "buy into" the iCloud - I would like to think that there is more that 5GB free of charge.

I think 5Gb is plenty but there is the option of buying another ten for just 16€ a year. It's hardly excessive.

Many services such as Photostream do not impact upon your 5Gb usage.

You can get up to another 10.5Gb free from Dropbox using referrals.

You can get 50Gb right now if you download Box from the app store and sign up.

Horse. Mouth. Gift. Look.

floggg

Sorry, but did I read above that it's wifi sync or iCloud back-up, and you can't use both?

I'd like all my data to sync to the cloud if it means not having to worrying about losing a back up if my computer crashes. But at the same time want to keep music etc synced across iPad, iPhone and iTunes on laptop, which iCloud doesn't really seem to do

DubDJ

floggg wrote: »

Sorry, but did I read above that it's wifi sync or iCloud back-up, and you can't use both?

I'd like all my data to sync to the cloud if it means not having to worrying about losing a back up if my computer crashes. But at the same time want to keep music etc synced across iPad, iPhone and iTunes on laptop, which iCloud doesn't really seem to do

No, you can enable iCloud back-up and have all your data and settings automatically backed up to the cloud.

You can also enable wifi syncing and copy apps, music, iBooks etc to your iDevice over the wifi network. You cannot have iCloud backup and manual backup to iTunes enabled at the same time.

You can have both features enabled. But you can't have the same feature enabled on iCloud and iTunes.

trowel

Am i right in saying the move from mobile me, which i use currently, to icloud means having to upgrade OSX to 10.6 Snow Leopard (€30) and then to OSX Lion (€25) in order to make the switch?
I use MacBook Pro and have only updated software to 10.5.8 currently.

culabula

trowel wrote: »

Am i right in saying the move from mobile me, which i use currently, to icloud means having to upgrade OSX to 10.6 Snow Leopard (€30) and then to OSX Lion (€25) in order to make the switch?
I use MacBook Pro and have only updated software to 10.5.8 currently.

Sort of, in that you can only download from the Mac Appstore and that of itself requires 10.6.6.

Having said that, I have read that the .dmg of Lion, does not require Snow Leopard to be on board.

faceman

Im loving iCloud. all data between my iPhone, iPad and iMac is in sync. really great!

Dermoth

I have a question. I use Mobile me at a family level primarily to sync calendars. I know that I can have different apple ids for purchases (and do for both us and ie stores). What's the best way to continue to sync calendars between desktop and my own and wife's iPhones but keep imessages separate? Is it possible? Thanks

culabula

Dermoth wrote: »

I have a question. I use Mobile me at a family level primarily to sync calendars. I know that I can have different apple ids for purchases (and do for both us and ie stores). What's the best way to continue to sync calendars between desktop and my own and wife's iPhones but keep imessages separate? Is it possible? Thanks

Yes, simple. Use only your phone numbers as ID for iMessage on your iPhones. If there is an email address there remove it.

culabula

faceman wrote: »

Im loving iCloud. all data between my iPhone, iPad and iMac is in sync. really great!

+1

Stainless_Steel

App syncing isn't working for me. I have auto downloads enabled under app store settings.

Am I right in saying if I download an app on my iPhone then it should also download on my iPad?

What conditions need to be met for it to work?

culabula

Stainless_Steel wrote: »

App syncing isn't working for me. I have auto downloads enabled under app store settings.

Am I right in saying if I download an app on my iPhone then it should also download on my iPad?

What conditions need to be met for it to work?

Yes that's it. But it doesn't download an iPad app to iPhone if the equivalent does not exist and vice-versa. Mine are in perfect sync. But of late I have noticed it to be slow, possibly owing to icloud hiccups.

ToadVine

Stupid question ... what is the point of syncing my iPhone with my MacBook if everything is in iCloud and thus synced across my devices?

Has iCloud done away with the need to cable sync my iPhone and MacBook ever again?!?!??

Sad Professor

Everything isn't in iCloud. You still need to connect to your computer (either physically or wirelessly) to sync your non-iTunes music and other media content.

Stainless_Steel

culabula wrote: »

Yes that's it. But it doesn't download an iPad app to iPhone if the equivalent does not exist and vice-versa. Mine are in perfect sync. But of late I have noticed it to be slow, possibly owing to icloud hiccups.

Thanks for that.

Yeah I assumed if an app was iPad only then it wouldn't attempt a sync.

But all the apps I have tried so far have been universal versions.

ToadVine

Sad Professor wrote: »

Everything isn't in iCloud. You still need to connect to your computer (either physically or wirelessly) to sync your non-iTunes music and other media content.

So are all my contacts, calendars, etc synced across iCloud? I have these set to sync on settings > iCloud.

I don't keep non iTunes music or media content on my iPhone ... so I'm guessing I'll never need to cable sync through iTunes again, right?

Sad Professor

ToadVine wrote: »

So are all my contacts, calendars, etc synced across iCloud? I have these set to sync on settings > iCloud.

Yeah, all those thing, if enabled, are synced to iCloud.

I don't keep non iTunes music or media content on my iPhone ... so I'm guessing I'll never need to cable sync through iTunes again, right?

You should be mostly okay then, yes, but keep in mind that not all iTunes content is currently covered. Music and books are, but not films. Photos and video aren't really covered either. Photo Stream only offers 30 days of storage. And afaik only the contents of your camera roll are backed up to iCloud.