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Once a year I do some tests to see if the wife and I, with only our grocery list shared between us, can switch. And once a year I find out the answer is “no - a
by mtts 2y ago
Once a year I do some tests to see if the wife and I, with only our grocery list shared between us, can switch. And once a year I find out the answer is “no - and it isn’t any better than last year”.
iCloud is extremely slow. Updates in files can take 10 minutes or more to propagate, especially if two or more people have been editing them. If you’re the only one editing a file, on multiple devices, it’s still slow but much less so.
It also tries to be clever about what it syncs and when, with no options (that I’m aware of) to force it to simply fetch local copies of everything. This makes it unusable for files that you want to access in a terminal as the terminal is, for some reason, not part of the clever sync on demand system.
However, if you want to get fancy with sharing stuff with applications on iOS, such as, for example, an Obsidian file directory or some other set of markdown files to view and edit on the go, you’re pretty much forced to do it in iCloud as the Dropbox file provider on iOS is extremely unreliable and prone to locking up, even if you’re the only one editing the files. For this use case you’re pretty much condemned to iCloud.
- bobbylarrybobby 2y agofyi, there is an obsidian plugin called “remotely save” that can sync with Dropbox. (It uses the plain old Dropbox API and therefore requires a separate Dropbox login from the Dropbox app on your phone.)
- sgt 2y agoMight be something wrong on your side. Reason is that I've used iCloud for more than a decade. At first it was a bit rough, but it's been rock stable the last 5-6 years. I also use it for grocery lists between my wife and I. And we're in South Africa, so not even as close to iCloud's main servers as you are (presumably).
- gorpigo 2y agoAs far as I know Apple just uses AWS for hosting. Not sure what regions but it’s likely you’re connecting to on in Cape Town or somewhere in Europe
- ThePowerOfFuet 2y agoThey use GCP as well.
- sgt 2y agoWe have AWS in Cape Town and GCP in Johannesburg.
- mtts 2y agoDo you only update your grocery lists at home or in places with good WiFi? Because I can reliably cause iCloud to choke if network coverage is less than excellent (a plausible use case for grocery lists, I’d imagine). Dropbox, on the other hand, doesn’t bat an eye.
- sgt 2y agoSo she sends me a shared note on iMessage, I usually only click on it once I am physically in the store. Then I check the "boxes" and she can see it in near real time. Often she's typing additions to the list as I'm using it, which is a cool feature. Not as rapid as e.g. Google Docs would be, I think. This is not on WiFi as I just use 3G, 4G or 5G (whatever is available) when doing shopping.
- addicted 2y agoA shared iMessage note is the scariest thing ever. I’ll tap on it and it will only open like 50% of the time.
- cdelsolar 2y agoMy wife and I found Notion works great for grocery lists or other household planning stuff.
- LeoPanthera 2y ago> with no options (that I’m aware of) to force it to simply fetch local copies of everything System Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Optimize Mac Storage = Off You need enough disk space to store everything in your iCloud storage or this will fail.
- ThePowerOfFuet 2y agoYou should seriously try Anylist — it's been am amazing experience thus far.
- ksec 2y ago>and it isn’t any better than last year”. This. I think Apple gets the most benefits of doubt when things dont work. And for 99% of the time it works fine. It is that 1%, when it happens, how long would it be fixed, is it actually better than M$ or Google questions pops up. Basically just stay away from iCloud. You get far less headache.
- wil421 2y agoMy wife and I do the same thing and there definitely is not a 10 min delay.
- sogen 2y ago> iCloud is extremely slow When it works. Sometimes it won't even sync files between two devices in the same room, and just show an infinite progress bar. And I'm using the latest OS versions in all devices.
- BoorishBears 2y agoiCloud is unreliable, Dropbox is reliable, but sometimes the connectors it uses are unreliable. Unfortunately there's no perfect solution yet across all platforms