I also moved off Dropbox when they instituted the 3 device limit in 2018.
For day to day, it’s been very solid for me. Surprisingly, I really like the Desktop sync. Makes my working between computers seamless.
Two issues:
I feel like there are certain apps that I can’t use, because they don’t support iCloud. From what I’ve read on these forums, it’s because iCloud sync is just not where dropbox is. A bummer, I would really like to try Notebooks as an Evernote replacement.
Am I crazy, or is dealing with files in Shortcuts way better with Dropbox than with Apple’s own iCloud? With iCloud, I only have access to the /Shortcuts/ folder, but it seems like with Dropbox, I can access any folder in the service. UGH!
if dropbox created one tier below the $9.99 a month tier, I would move back. But $120 a year, when iCloud solves most of my problems… too rich for me.
I suspect my process is very similar to many on this forum. Backups, like any insurance, exist to help us recover that which has been lost or damaged. I make local backups of all my data but I am selective with offsite backups. I start by determining what needs to be “insured”, for example my financial & medical records and family photographs. And what does not, files like music and movies I have ripped from originals that I own.
Next, I set up my offsite backup software and select that data that I consider irreplaceable. I run a first backup and check my logs to see if the software has reported any errors. Then I select a few files from the offsite backup, restore them to a temporary folder on my Mac, and open the spreadsheets, view the photos, etc. to verify they are good. If everything checks out I make myself a reminder to repeat this every month and I’m done.
I currently backup my home folder and an external SSD, so I do test restores from each location. Not counting download time, doing a test takes me about 10 minutes.
Just by thinking about your backups you are already way ahead of most computer users.
I’m also considering migrating to iCloud Drive but so far hesitated due to partly inertia and partly sour past experiences.
I’m currently on OneDrive as my enterprise plan gives me a generous 5TB storage and it has good integrations with MS Word which I hate but rely on for my bread. However, the OneDrive app is among the worst citizens of the macOS and sends my MacBook on the launchpad or deathbed several times every day for no reason.
Will really appreciate if there’s any input on migrating from OneDrive to iCloud Drive (esp. in a MS Office-heavy workflow) and the comparison of the two services.
I have accounts with all 4 services (iCloud, Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox). Am now using iCloud primarily, but also Google Drive for some of my Google Sheets requirements.
I also had the same experiences as you when it comes to OneDrive. It is amazing to me that so many people in the Microsoft ecosystem thinks that crashes are an expected occurrence. Drove me crazy.
Migrating files from OneDrive to iCloud was no problem. Just copy & paste thru Finder. Keeping files on OneDrive just as a backup of sorts.
Some people in this thread have commented on iCloud syncing issues, i.e. delays. I have never experienced this. Have almost 500Gb is business files (no photos, music or movies) and iCloud is by far the fastest of any of the cloud services. Only difference is Dropbox has LAN sync which does speed it up between computers on a local network. Otherwise their regular sync is not as fast as iCloud.
I’m one of those people who has felt burned by iCloud Drive in the past. The more positive reports I’ve seen here encouraged me to try it again. And…
… It’s still not reliable for me. Sometimes the icon for a file that I add to iCloud Drive shows up in Files and for apps on my other devices almost immediately. Sometimes it takes hours. Or days - if it ever happens. I get that a file may not get downloaded right away but there isn’t even any indication that there’s a file that could be downloaded. What’s with that? I never have that problem with Dropbox. Even more mystifying is that some items that I’ve deleted later (sometimes much later) reappear in the Files app. But when I try to use them they disappear again.
I’m also seeing instabilities in normally solid apps when I’m using files on iCloud Drive. Some apps on macOS beachball and have to be killed - despite my having added the files to iCloud Drive from that machine. On my iPad this morning Files(!) chewed through all of the remaining battery after I asked it to delete a file and then walked away. I was surprised at how hot an iPad with a runaway app gets.
I get that I don’t have any recent experience with iCloud Drive but still… How is it possible to get into states like this? File replication and distribution was a research area for me in my grad school days. It’s very disappointing to see that Apple still can’t get it right 35 years later. If I were teaching this material I’d probably give this effort a sympathy C.
I’ve tried everything. Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud Drive, and they all have their ups and downs.
For example, iCloud tries to be more seamless with the operating system but isn’t reliable, whereas Dropbox focuses on speed, but for some reason slows down my computer. Google Drive is just incredibly cheap and easily accessible, but doesn’t sync very well seamlessly.
I’ve been using Mega for a year now and I’m incredibly satisfied. It syncs specific folders that I want to sync, the security is bar none, cheap, doesn’t slow down my computer, and syncs quickly and seamlessly. The organization of the folders and files is very easy to navigate and you can organize it however you’d like. I honestly recommend it to everyone. Setting up an account can be a bit challenging for people who aren’t tech savvy, but that’s mostly because of the security features. It’s kind of like 1Password in that way, because if you lose your master password and lost your backup key (or whatever it’s called), you’ve lost your account and nobody can get it back for you, unless you suddenly remember your password.
I’ve been using iCloud for all my files since the start of the year and have had no issues at all. For sharing files at work I initially continued to use Dropbox but have recently cancelled that when it came up for renewal.
Like the post above, I found Dropbox was using too many resources (and I was only using it to share files, not for storage) as it was always being reported in the CleanMyMac menu as the reason my computer was slowing down. It was causing my MacBook battery to drain much faster than usual - CleanMyMac showed is as using the battery excessively throughout the day. I tried removing Dropbox and using my Google account (Workspace with File Stream) for sharing files. Finally, my battery usage is back to normal so I can go all day without having to charge.
iCloud has proven rock solid for me, without a single sync issue, and I use it on two iPads, iPhone and my MacBook. Integration in Apple apps and iOS is better than any other service.
My Dropbox Plus subscription renews in a month. I’m using 125 GB of 2 TB, and I have 9.75 GB of free space from referrals etc. This might be the year I take the time to leave Dropbox…Only Zoom, Safari and Mail have used more power in the last 12h and I haven’t changed a file on DB in that time.
Today it’s Mail, Copied, MS Word (all of which I’ve been using all morning) and then Dropbox, to which I’ve added one file in the last 12 hours. DB is using more than Safari or DevonThink both of which have been actively used as well.
So a bit of a follow-up here. We needed a new laptop, so I got one of those M1-powered MB Airs. iCloud Drive didn’t want to work on it at all. Eventually, I had to force quit cloud processes on the command line and reboot the computer to get sync to trigger. As it turns out, all the files in iCloud Drive had already downloaded, but weren’t visible in Finder or accessible in apps.
It’s been nearly a year since I started this thread, but that didn’t inspire confidence.
I know the app sucks, but you know what’s never given me an issue syncing my files? Dropbox.
Yup, and it’s fairly easy to find out what it is doing or what files are not sync’d or what problems they are having.
I’d love to drop Dropbox, but what I actually did was buy a 2TB SSD to use my Dropbox connected to my M1 MacBook Air with all of my files downloaded locally.
I don’t trust iCloud because it has almost no way to diagnose problems, and history has shown it has problems.
The is why I stopped using Apple Notes. I’m tired of periodically have unsynced notes and then spending too much time trying to track them down, resyncing, etc. I’ve moved all of my notes to Craft.