iCloud Drive files getting deleted

17 July 2015, 05:18

I don’t usually post links to other people’s stuff here at MKF but this one needs sharing.

If you use iCloud Drive you might already be aware of its shortcomings. This is a major one that can lead to lost files without warning.

And as for why it’s happening, take a read of this and the comments from an Apple engineer. It’s a crying shame.

As somebody who works at the coalface of their software I feel increasingly that – dare I say? – Apple is becoming another Microsoft. When tech companies get beyond a certain size they just seem to spin out of control. I know it’s easy to make such an obvious criticism but I have thought about it, and it feels true.

Within iOS and OS X things are buggy and half implemented, and just don’t get fixed. I’m starting to feel there’s a lack of respect for us end users. That’s what used to separate Apple from just about every other tech company. Apple would implement a terribly complicated and clever feature but not even mention it, which is why using Apple products was such a joy — and why sites like OS X Hints used to thrive.

It wasn’t perfect. It used to be the case that Apple might release something broken, or lacking features, but it’d get fixed next time around. But iCloud? It’s still maybe 10% of the quality of Dropbox in every respect. It’s chronically slow to upload and sync (a ceiling of circa 320Kbps in my tests – why?!). Files can get lost, without the user even being made aware. There’s no feedback on whether things have finished syncing globally. There’s no versioning of files. Sync errors are incredibly common, leading to duplicated files and user’s time spent fixing things. It feels like an internal testing feature that somehow made it out into the real world.

Come on Apple. You can do way better than this.

Know better?

 
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