I have been using Ulysses for a book project. Today, when I opened Ulysses, everything was gone. Fortunately, I have the same material in Scrivener because I’ve been using both apps concurrently until I decide which one I want to stay with. The attached shows an example of the missing content.
I’ve submitted a support request, but I thought I’d check here to see if anyone else has ever experienced something like this.
I’m not negative on Ulysses, I like the app and support is always good. I’m just checking to see if anyone else has ever had this happen.
I didn’t have content disappear like you did from Ulysses, but I experienced constant ‘ghost’ loss for lack of a better word. All my devices would remove Ulysses content and I would need to re-download each time I needed it. It got embarrassing when I had to give a talk, and my content didn’t load.
After that I switched over to Obsidian for all my writing needs.
Thanks for the input. I’ve already checked the backups. Only some of the folders and sheets would backed up. All of my other apps are syncing correctly. New content also syncs.
I tried that but the lack of Pandoc support on the iPad is one of the reasons I stopped using it. Aside from my current iPad experiment, I use my iPad for at least 60 or more of my writing.
I was thinking about moving from Asana to Noteplan for plain text project management and a cheaper subscription, but if cloudkit can experience a data loss like this just because, with no way of retrieving your notes after the fact… I’m out. Sorry this happened to you @Bmosbacker, but thank you for sharing with the rest of us.
Thanks @snelly. Fortunately, I do have the information in Scrivener and Pages. I also have a Backblaze backup and backups on two external drives. That said, I can’t trust Ulysses, which is unfortunate because it is a great app.
Having used Obsidian in the past, I’m tempted to use it for most of my writing, but it will not work for a book project. Others claim to have written books with it, but I don’t think it will work well for my long non-fiction book on school leadership. For one thing, it has a lot of citation references. It would be tedious to extract all of those text files into a single Pages or Word document that I could then compile effectively, including all of the citations, for a manuscript for an ebook and a printed version.
I may be wrong–I’m open to suggestions.
Most other writing can probably be done in Obsidian. I have to decide whether to trust my writing to Pages and Scrivener or move most of it to Obsidian. My main issue with Scrivener is that I hate using Dropbox and sync, and the iPad version of the app leaves much to be desired. Pages works well, and I’ve never encountered a sync problem with Pages. I can also export any document as plain text. I even did an experiment where I added hash marks (#, ##…) to the front of headings in Pages, then exported the document as plain text as a form of archive or “backup.” When I open those documents in an editor, they are appropriately rendered as a markdown file. But, I can’t bulk export Pages documents.
We only have a sample size of one for this problem, and we are unsure of the underlying issue. I have used Ulysses for 8 years without any problems. On the other hand, maybe I am just lucky because I have used Devonthink for an even longer period without any issues, despite some users in this forum claiming it too is untrustworthy
Aside from aesthetics and price, does Pages have any features that specifically benefit writers that MS Word lacks?
I’ve used both since they were launched, and actively use them in various contexts still.
I’d say lack of bloat keeps me using Pages when I don’t need to collaborate. It’s much less distracting, and features are easy to find. In Word, even after years use, I’m always using the help menu to search for features. I’ve never done that in Pages, as its interface is intuitive.
That’s true and fair. I don’t use Ulysses for other reasons, and this (probably unreasonably) reinforced that for me.
If I regularly used and loved Ulysses, this incident wouldn’t be enough to change that if I hadn’t had any issues, though it would certainly encourage me to keep up with backups and more frequently export to files in a format that didn’t require Ulysses to read and edit, and store them in a place where it couldn’t readily access and modify them.
If you are working with a trade publisher, you will almost certainly have to use MS Word for editorial revisions, because of customized tracking and styles used by publishers.
I like Pages better, and it also (like MS Word) works with the standard citation / reference managers.
CloudKit is a database with an interface for developers to interact with it. Using CloudKit, NotePlan can actively decide when to upload or download data to Apple’s servers.
CloudKit is partially dependent on good implementation by an app developer and NotePlan’s developer is one of the best.
Noteplan data is stored as plain text files in one folder location on your Mac’s SSD. Those files are picked up by your Time Machine backups, your backups to external disk drives, and your backups to remote backup services. There is no way you can lose your plain text data stored in the macO file system if you have a sound backup plan.
Ulysses is a different ball of wax but I still can’t understand why Ulysses data is not retrievable. We are not getting all the details we need.
First, let me reemphasize that I am not mistreating Ulysses. I made a point of saying, “I’m not negative about Ulysses; I like the app, and support is always good.” Ulysses is a great app, and the support team has been great. Nevertheless, substantial portions of my book just disappeared. That is worth noting and asking about. In answer to your specific questions:
So you do have your data back and could restore and continue to use Ulysses? Is that right?
Not in Ulysses. It has not been recovered in the backups within Ulysses. However, I have backups in Backblaze, two external drives, Scrivener, and Pages. When it comes to a project of this size and importance, I’m being extremely redundant with my backups.
But you are strangely silent on what happened and why you can’t trust Ulysses …
Because I have no idea what happened. I opened Ulysses to find the content missing. This is a significant issue that certainly undermines trust in an application. Again, I respect the Ulysses developers and I like the app. The problem may well be iCloud. I don’t know.
Did you seek help from the Ulysses support team? Were they able to identify an underlying cause?
Yes, I contacted suppport and no, they have not yet identified a cause. I’m waiting for more information. Thus far, no solutions.
Why would you treat a well-known and respected app this way?
As I stated above, I’m being respectful but also sharing what happened. I’m confused by what you mean by “Why would you treat a well-known and respected app this way?” What way? Are you saying I shouldn’t ask if anyone has experienced this? I hold Ulysses in high regard, and I’m reaching out for support because of that respect.
All the blame in your initial post seemed to fall on the Ulysses app when there are lots of moving parts with an incident like this.
Thank you for adding more information. I encourage you to follow through with Ulysses support and update us when more is known.
It was often my job to figure out and fix issues that arose at the software company I worked for and I am uncomfortable when a problem like this goes unexplained.
