looking for my ideal cloud storage. Thoughts?

Rob40 · Mar 1, 2018

my experience is as a hardware guy, not so much a software guy. I build computers and have hotrodded/watercooled/overclocked them but the software area i'm not really good with. especially the cloud thing.

I travel quite a bit (i hotel it 2 to sometimes 3 nights a week) and not only use a PC at home, but a notebook on the road and ipad while doing the work bit. I'm a ms Word guy. Ideally, I have three platforms that I can be using at any given time and depending on how smooth the ipad with BT kb works out, I could just move to that for my traveling work, ditch the notebook, since the ipad instant on nature works well for the quick thoughts. (I really need to look hard at chromebook)

However, I have lots of flash work and longer pieces/chapters as well in progress. Currently, I'm scared about using the flash drive all the time and then wondering what version of what document is on what device, besides the fact that they do fail.

What I would rather have is an easy cloud where I turn on whatever platform I'm using, click a sync down button to update from the cloud, then work offline for however long i'm on the device, then sync it back up to the cloud when done and move on the the pc or other device in the same process. Turn on, grab the current versions, work on it, send it back up, with simple clicks without having to open up software, drag and drop and cut n paste, etc. If I ever try to update the cloud with older versions it should tell me so i can decide not to do that. Ultimately, that's the ideal use of the cloud.

So what's your easiest experience you've had with using the cloud for your documents? Any super simple one-click Solutions? I had a very hard time making playlists long ago because i didn't know what it was doing to my mp3s-i just copied and pasted to folders, making multiple copies and burning up space. I don't want to feel i have to do that and wind up in a nest of old versions of garbage.

Maryn · Mar 1, 2018

I'm pretty low tech, but I've used DropBox for documents (not pictures or music) for years. What I find is that the automatic saving to the internet when I am next connected works reliably and across devices, yet I have the document on my device, ready to be added to or edited, when I'm in a hotel or on a ship with spotty, slow, or no internet. Whatever changes I make will be saved in the cloud the next time I'm connected.

I have a laptop and a desktop at home, and I usually travel with an elderly laptop. Syncing between/among them is not an issue, although more than once I've created a conflicting copy by modifying a document on one computer when it's open on another. (What else can you do when you get a real good idea?) I use DropBox on my phone and iPad mostly to read what's already written. (My recipe files live on DropBox, usually accessed through the iPad, but when we rent a vacation house, I don't have to bring anything more than my phone to have access.)

Someone is sure to suggest GoogleDocs, but my limited experience with them is that you need a good internet connection.

Rob40 · Mar 1, 2018

Thank you for your experience with that. My only fear now is a device syncing with the cloud and trying to replace a newer file with an older one but if i sync before i start, Thats a non issue. Sounds easy peasy then.

Al X. · Mar 1, 2018

Rob40 said:
my experience is as a hardware guy, not so much a software guy. I build computers and have hotrodded/watercooled/overclocked them but the software area i'm not really good with. especially the cloud thing.

I travel quite a bit (i hotel it 2 to sometimes 3 nights a week) and not only use a PC at home, but a notebook on the road and ipad while doing the work bit. I'm a ms Word guy. Ideally, I have three platforms that I can be using at any given time and depending on how smooth the ipad with BT kb works out, I could just move to that for my traveling work, ditch the notebook, since the ipad instant on nature works well for the quick thoughts. (I really need to look hard at chromebook)

However, I have lots of flash work and longer pieces/chapters as well in progress. Currently, I'm scared about using the flash drive all the time and then wondering what version of what document is on what device, besides the fact that they do fail.

What I would rather have is an easy cloud where I turn on whatever platform I'm using, click a sync down button to update from the cloud, then work offline for however long i'm on the device, then sync it back up to the cloud when done and move on the the pc or other device in the same process. Turn on, grab the current versions, work on it, send it back up, with simple clicks without having to open up software, drag and drop and cut n paste, etc. If I ever try to update the cloud with older versions it should tell me so i can decide not to do that. Ultimately, that's the ideal use of the cloud.

So what's your easiest experience you've had with using the cloud for your documents? Any super simple one-click Solutions? I had a very hard time making playlists long ago because i didn't know what it was doing to my mp3s-i just copied and pasted to folders, making multiple copies and burning up space. I don't want to feel i have to do that and wind up in a nest of old versions of garbage.

Onedrive, hands down. Since it's a Microsoft product, it plays nice with MS Office apps. In fact, I keep my manuscript documents resident on the Onedrive account, and access them from multiple devices, and it's just like working off a network drive. It's also how you can effectively use MS Word for the Ipad, which by the way is a pretty solid app. If you have a Hotmail, MSN, or Outlook account you already have it available.

Rob40 · Mar 1, 2018

I was fiddling with one drive, found the initial setup process maddening. Ill have to try again once i get home. How smooth is the syncing across devices?

Bing Z · Mar 2, 2018

I use Dropbox. It's auto-sync on pc is flawless. Its downsides are low space limit for free accounts and lack of built-in applications (eg Google Docs for Google Drive). I had tried Google Drive, and preferred Dropbox (but have a feeling it will work great on an (older) iPad that doesn't have enough RAM for the resource-hungry Word app). Never tried Onedrive (my rebellious reaction toward Windows insisting that I use one--it was installed on my PC anyway but I have since disabled/uninstalled it ^_^.)

One feature you may like to look into is retrieve/restore older versions of files--helps if you have a brain fart moment, do something disastrous, and hit ctrl-s too fast. AFAIK, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Onedrive all have this feature but the ops are slightly different.

Test drive them and find one that fits your style the best.

Maggie Maxwell · Mar 2, 2018

Maryn said:
Someone is sure to suggest GoogleDocs, but my limited experience with them is that you need a good internet connection.

Just for opening the document. Then you can set it to offline and it'll sync once connection is back. I was working on a project when Google had a total failure and went down, but when it came back up, it had saved everything it hadn't been able to "save" because of the failure. I like it, but yes, you do need to be able to use the internet to get the file opened.

talktidy · Mar 2, 2018

If you use Scrivener, then Dropbox is the way to go apparently. I have been blinded with science, but I think it has something to do with the syncing method.

I am not the most tech-savvy but I use Dropbox as one of my back up options and I have had no problems with it so far.

AW Admin · Mar 3, 2018

If you're primarily using Microsoft, go with OneDrive.

But remember to still make backups. Even the cloud fails sometimes, so email yourself files and use a thumbdrive or backup drive too.

Enlightened · Mar 3, 2018

I earned a graduate certificate from a US university that offered free accounts (5GB, for life) with box.com. I use it. Default, individual, free accounts are small, but useful as well. I think they give at least 100 MB; lots for Word documents and such. They allow real-time editing with teams, agents, whoever.

Maryn · Mar 3, 2018

Bing Z said:
I use Dropbox. It's auto-sync on pc is flawless. Its downsides are low space limit for free accounts <snip>

I've probably got a half million words of fiction (and other text) on Dropbox and I'm nowhere near the limit for the free level. (I just checked. I've got multiple novels and earlier drafts and such going back fifteen years, and I've used about a quarter of the allotted space.) Of course images, video, and music files take up lots of space, but if your main concern is putting your writing someplace in the cloud, I expect Dropbox is good for one's adult lifetime output.

Rob40 · Mar 3, 2018

Maryn said:
I've probably got a half million words of fiction (and other text) on Dropbox and I'm nowhere near the limit for the free level. (I just checked. I've got multiple novels and earlier drafts and such going back fifteen years, and I've used about a quarter of the allotted space.) Of course images, video, and music files take up lots of space, but if your main concern is putting your writing someplace in the cloud, I expect Dropbox is good for one's adult lifetime output.

Thank you,

And thank you all. Everyone has been such a help. I set up Onedrive for the PC and iPad and the notebook. If I want to set up the iPad for available offline, I can't select that for the folder everything is in, I have to individuallty select each file....unless I want to upgrade and then I can do that to just files and get it all that way....so That's pretty negative but then I have to actually be using the iPad for that purpose. We'll see. But, it seems to work well so far at home across platforms. I'll discover over the next four days on the road what happens.

I also set up dropbox as well, I suppose one could dual-cloud and dual-sync, etc. If OneDrive isn't the ideal, I'll dropbox for a while and try that.

Space isn't a concern, it's just fot writing. 100 flash pieces to revise and edit (whenever I learn the insights to that) plus the shorts and the longer projects. It's just words and bytes. Nothing enormous.

cbenoi1 · Mar 3, 2018

talktidy said:
If you use Scrivener, then Dropbox is the way to go apparently. I have been blinded with science, but I think it has something to do with the syncing method.

Got a reference?

Because I am using Scrivener with OneDrive on two computers and it works well.

I have ditched DropBox from all my machines because they got hacked and the password list got leaked ( ref: https://www.cnet.com/news/dropbox-hack-leaks-more-than-60-million-usernames-and-passwords/ )

-cb

talktidy · Mar 3, 2018

cbenoi1 said:
Got a reference?

Because I am using Scrivener with OneDrive on two computers and it works well.

I have ditched DropBox from all my machines because they got hacked and the password list got leaked ( ref: https://www.cnet.com/news/dropbox-hack-leaks-more-than-60-million-usernames-and-passwords/ )

-cb

If your setup works well for you, then more power to your elbow. Dropbox seems to be what's been recommended on the Literature and Latte Forum in the past.

AW Admin · Mar 3, 2018

If you want to automatically Sync Scrivener files on iOS with Scrivener on macOS or Windows, you have to use Dropbox.

If you want to backup files or share files, you can a portable hardrive, USB drive, WebDav, SFTP, etc. etc. But you'll be manually managing files.

Maryn · Mar 4, 2018

That was important for me, having synchronization be automatic rather than something I do manually. All writers have good intentions about backing up the latest, but life can and does interfere with intentions all the damned time.

blacbird · Mar 4, 2018

Rob40 said:
\
However, I have lots of flash work and longer pieces/chapters as well in progress. Currently, I'm scared about using the flash drive all the time and then wondering what version of what document is on what device, besides the fact that they do fail.

I use multiple flash drives and a couple of external hard drives, and that's it. The flash drives are labeled. I keep at least two of these identically current all the time, and I also keep an index (simple word document) with what versions of my writing folders are on each device. Never had a problem, through many years.

Flash drives are now so cheap, even quite large ones, that there's no excuse not to have several at hand.

caw

Rob40 · Mar 4, 2018

blacbird said:
I use multiple flash drives and a couple of external hard drives, and that's it. The flash drives are labeled. I keep at least two of these identically current all the time, and I also keep an index (simple word document) with what versions of my writing folders are on each device. Never had a problem, through many years.

Flash drives are now so cheap, even quite large ones, that there's no excuse not to have several at hand.

caw

I fly all the time, hotel many times a week. Last thing i need is to be leaving a flash drive in a room or on a plane somewhere. The goal of clouding things is about not having to have the extra bits, even one less device but enough devices with the material on them synced up that if one fails i have 2 to 3 other backups at hand and not risking leavingdrives out there somewhere on the road.

AW Admin · Mar 4, 2018

Just a thing I want to emphasize: automatic syncing (derived from synchronizing) always means that the hardware and software work together so that the data is identical on multiple devices, automatically.

If a human being must initiate the process, or manually move a file, it's not automatic syncing.

blacbird · Mar 4, 2018

Rob40 said:
I fly all the time, hotel many times a week. Last thing i need is to be leaving a flash drive in a room or on a plane somewhere. The goal of clouding things is about not having to have the extra bits, even one less device but enough devices with the material on them synced up that if one fails i have 2 to 3 other backups at hand and not risking leavingdrives out there somewhere on the road.

I understand that, and wasn't simply knocking the idea of cloud storage. What I was addressing was your comment about not knowing what version of a file was on what external storage device. I travel too, and when I do I always take at least three storage devices with me, one always on my person, one with the computer and one in my luggage, and each one with the relevant files I'll need to use. I work routinely with hundreds of document files in Word and Excel and some graphic program types. Keeping those straight is a matter of index discipline, a bit of a pain in the butt, and enormously important. Don't skimp on it, regardless of what storage strategy you use.

I also work a lot offline, which seems to weird out people for some reason. I guess if you have a computer on it is just assumed you are on line, or else you need to be investigated by Homeland Security or the FBI or somebody.

There's nothing wrong with cloud storage, but as has been noted, the "cloud" isn't perfect either. A year or so ago there was some horrendous loss of cloud-stored files in the Netherlands.

caw

Maryn · Mar 5, 2018

When you store on flash drives, external hard drives, and the devices themselves but do not put backups in the cloud, when your house burns to the ground while you're out shopping, you lose it all--unless you carried a flash drive with you to the grocery store, or routinely leave one at work or your friend's house.

cbenoi1 · Mar 5, 2018

blacbird said:
I also work a lot offline, which seems to weird out people for some reason.

I hear you. You'd be amazed at how battery you gain by switching off the WiFi.

blacbird said:
What I was addressing was your comment about not knowing what version of a file was on what external storage device.

That right there is a recipe for disaster.

You need to have a robust system where you write once to a backup and can never overwrite it. Like burning a CD/DVD. That's what I do - burn a CD every major milestone and make it so it cannot be modified.

There are software / cloud equivalents. They are called versioning systems. Most are free, but many don't have free servers. SVN, CVS and their derivatives come to mind (forget GIT for this sort of usage). They are designed for programmers but there is nothing preventing them from handling any type of file.

-cb

AW Admin · Mar 5, 2018

blacbird said:
There's nothing wrong with cloud storage, but as has been noted, the "cloud" isn't perfect either. A year or so ago there was some horrendous loss of cloud-stored files in the Netherlands.

caw

Ultimately, cloud storage is nothing more than a redundant array of drives in the form of large servers.

Things can, do, and will go south. Always have multiple redundant backups of several sorts, if the data is something you care about.

JayMass · Mar 23, 2018

Actually, these days it's usually at least three redundant arrays of drives.(*)
The data losses that occurred in the past have made it clear that just redundancy is indeed not enough and replication is also required.

All in all, the chances of permanently losing data in one of the big public clouds is very, very small today.

But the biggest reason for data loss these days has been found to be simply people deleting the wrong file. And that can happen on your laptop as easily as in the cloud.
A simple solution for that is to just have a copy of the file, possibly even in the same directory. (The way Scrivener automatically retains a number of versions if I remember correctly?)

So I do agree that things can and do go wrong and it can never hurt to have an extra backup somewhere.

(*) I know this for a fact for Azure which is behind Onedrive: every byte is written three times to storage arrays that are physically in different locations (the 3rd copy typically on another continent), just in case a plane crashes on the data center (aka "The Boeing factor"). If that would happen, you would not be able to access your files for a couple of days until the infrastructure was replaced/reassigned and the data was copied back to a customer facing storage layer. So if it is imperative to not only have data safety but also data availability at all times, this does not help you. I would expect Google cloud which drives Google drive to do something similar and I do believe that Box had the same when it was backed by Amazon's AWS, but I have no idea what they do now in their own data center.

maggiee19 · Mar 31, 2018

I use Dropbox. Everything I've ever written, from 2005 to now, is on my Dropbox except for the manuscripts I wrote by hand, which I have to type. I'm currently using only 9.9% of my storage, so if you use Dropbox solely for your manuscripts, it's very unlikely that you'll run out of space.

looking for my ideal cloud storage. Thoughts?

Rob40

Maryn

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Rob40

Al X.

Rob40

Bing Z

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Maggie Maxwell

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talktidy

AW Admin

Enlightened

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Maryn

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Rob40

cbenoi1

talktidy

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Maryn

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