iCloud Sync

[kewms]

In the past, I know Keith has mentioned his desire to get iCloud sync working. I trust Keith enough to know there are technical difficulties blocking this. However, it is odd that for all other data we can sync via iCloud, even if not in real time.

The technical difficulties have been discussed at length before, including in this very thread:
viewtopic.php?p=244405#p244405

Katherine

[lydiabhanning]

I'm saddened that we still don't have iCloud sync, although I understand that there's technical difficulties with it and so on. I just discovered that as of last month, Dropbox is now limiting free users to syncing with only three devices. I currently use four devices to manage my Scrivener projects, and now I'm going to have to ditch one of them. I also won't be able to link anything else with Dropbox unless I pay them ten dollars a month.

So, it looks like I may have to consider using something else to write with, or haul my laptop everywhere I go.

[brookter]

I'm saddened that we still don't have iCloud sync, although I understand that there's technical difficulties with it and so on. I just discovered that as of last month, Dropbox is now limiting free users to syncing with only three devices. I currently use four devices to manage my Scrivener projects, and now I'm going to have to ditch one of them. I also won't be able to link anything else with Dropbox unless I pay them ten dollars a month.

So, it looks like I may have to consider using something else to write with, or haul my laptop everywhere I go.

I have the same problem — Scrivener on more than 3 devices. If it weren’t for Scrivener, I’d have considered dropping Dropbox, but all the alternatives are risk and/or clunky and in the end I’ve just upgraded the storage for an easier life. I consoled myself by thinking I’ve been using Dropbox free for several thousand years (ie can’t remember exactly, but it’s a long time) so it’s going to work out about 10p a month for quite a while yet overall...

[JayMueller]

Just registered to weigh in here as well now that Dropbox has their 3 device link limit, I’m stuck with $120/year if I want all my devices to be able to synchronize.

[Amcmo]

You’re only stuck with $120 if you want to add devices additional to those already connected.

[statinfo]

Hello every scrivener-users,

with one desktop, one laptop, one iPad and one iPhone, the dropbox limit has been a serious problem, meaning "should i throw dropbox, scrivener, both or should i pay more than 100€ for an extra-activity that earns me approx. nothing ?" - i don't what to explain too much, but the dropbox fee would be around 1/10 of the annual income i make with my writing.

In short : Scrivener is a really efficient tool, Dropbox works flawless, but the things i write in are not worth the prize.

My solution is : my main scrivener document is in a folder inside my dropbox folder. I have created an another free dropbox account and shared the scrivener's folder with the new account - and the laptop is connected to dropbox with this new account. Not an ideal solution, but it seems to work, ans as my use of the laptop is for unusual situations, i think i could live with that for a while.

If this could help some of you...
... by the way, sorry for the mistakes, typos and wrong english as my main langages is french and/or python, not royal english

[lydiabhanning]

I've been thinking about this, and I'm still pretty unhappy about it, but there is a sort-of solution...I've been thinking of setting up a second Dropbox account for syncing additional devices in the future.

I am really unhappy with the way Dropbox did this, and with the measly three device limit. I love Scrivener too much to give it up totally, and since I'm grandfathered in, I can at least use my devices for now.

[Amcmo]

Just a reminder. If you already have more than 3 devices linked to your Dropbox account nothing changes as long as you don’t wish to change any or add any more.
I am a little annoyed as I have 5 devices and typically upgrade the iOS ones each year. Win and Mac computers every 3-5 years. Was thinking if the rumoured 17” MacBook turns out to be true I’d swap my few month old 15” ASAP, but then I’d run in to the 3 device issue.

[CCB]

i'd love some clear instructions as to how to manage using dropbox so i can work on my desktop and then work via my laptop ?

updating found my answer; viewtopic.php?f=19&t=11725

[defjaf]

Hi Keith et al at L&L,

Very, very quickly (because I'm snowed):

...

2. I do have plans to make it so that our iOS version can open and desktop sync projects using iCloud Drive too, and I think I have a solution for this. However, it will take some care on the part of the user, and there is a lot of work involved on my end to get this working (I've been going back and forth with Apple over a solution for this for months, picking apart the technical details--the Apple engineer also points out how iCloud and the general frameworks aren't designed around the sort of thing Scrivener does). So, this won't see the light of day until sometime later on in 2018. It's being investigated, though.

Keith

I am sure that you're still snowed [under?!], but I just wanted to give this topic a bump and ask if there is anything more on the status of iCloud syncing?

[sidderke]

Let's hope that there is interesting stuff in the announcement of iOS 13 at WWDC 2019 (the Keynote is the 3rd of June) that makes iCloud Drive a possibility for Scrivener iOS Syncing. I know Keith wants it to happen, but he doesn't want to compromise on Scrivener's special package format (and I don't want him as the developer to do that as well, the Scrivener package is one of the reasons we have most of those typical Scrivener-advantages that no other software has). On the other hand, I'm not going to lie, I'm really thinking of trying to quit Dropbox as much as I can, and going to iCloud Drive and it has already made me use Highland 2 more as a screenwriting package. (Both Scrivener and Highland 2 are great software packages that can work in tandem and both have different advantages and disadvantages)

[defjaf]

I admit that I never quite understand why the current iCloud sync paradigm is such a bad fit for Scrivener — its “bundle of files” format is in fact comparable to other apps like Ulysses (although admittedly somewhat more complicated) and the overall complexity isn’t much different from some of Apple’s own apps such as Keynote which have achieved remarkably good syncing in recent versions.

Having said that, I certainly understand that “syncing is hard” and getting it running on iCloud may be more effort than Keith and others at L&L want to put in — that is a perfectly legit response to this!

(After all, syncing is essentially cache invalidation, which we all know is one of the two hard problems in computer science. )

[marcoiac]

(After all, syncing is essentially cache invalidation, which we all know is one of the two hard problems in computer science. )

That's a fun twitter thread

[YouAlreadyForgot]

Dropbox keeps getting worse. More memory usage in the desktop app. Higher prices for less storage. Scrivener is still the sole reason I’m tied to Dropbox. It’s a bummer.

[devinganger]

Dropbox keeps getting worse. More memory usage in the desktop app. Higher prices for less storage. Scrivener is still the sole reason I’m tied to Dropbox. It’s a bummer.

It doesn't change the fact that it's the only widely-used sync engine that doesn't corrupt Scrivener documents unless the user somehow uses it incorrectly.