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gbf

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 13, 2019
901
560
besides iCloud folder which is your favorite cloud storage

google drive or dropbox?
 

gbf

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 13, 2019
901
560
I heard Dropbox isn’t very secure. Am I wrong?
 

posguy99

macrumors 68020
Nov 3, 2004
2,284
1,531
"Besides" iCloud? I would never use iCloud in the first place... I like my data.

Used to use Dropbox, until they decided to no longer be a cloud storage provider and instead be a social media platform. Tried OneDrive for a while, since it came with my Office subscription, but a cloud storage system should actually store files in the cloud, and OneDrive... has problems with that. Would randomly insist it had a complete sync... when it didn't.

Using Google Drive right now. It's annoying, but it's not annoying enough to get rid of it yet.
 

gbf

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 13, 2019
901
560
"Besides" iCloud? I would never use iCloud in the first place... I like my data.

Used to use Dropbox, until they decided to no longer be a cloud storage provider and instead be a social media platform. Tried OneDrive for a while, since it came with my Office subscription, but a cloud storage system should actually store files in the cloud, and OneDrive... has problems with that. Would randomly insist it had a complete sync... when it didn't.

Using Google Drive right now. It's annoying, but it's not annoying enough to get rid of it yet.
What is that your against iCloud?
 

artfossil

macrumors 68000
Oct 5, 2015
1,785
2,059
Florida
Personally I rely on iCloud. I do have a proprietary (and free) Box account (university) which is now, sadly, being converted to OneDrive. And my Mylio photos are backed up to Amazon as well as to an external drive.

Everything I have in iCloud is backed up to an external drive.
 

trifid

macrumors 68020
May 10, 2011
2,077
4,949
Dropbox has a unique feature called 'smart sync' which means if you run out of space, it will still show the files in the Finder, but they will be stored in the cloud to free up space. iCloud has something similar but you have no control over which files go the cloud and which are stored locally. So the main advantage here is that Dropbox lets you choose and/or you can set it to automatic like iCloud.

I also like the history feature in Dropbox, which is like a time machine, you can go back to any previous version of a file, iCloud doesn't have this, and Google Drive isn't as easy to use.

And the other feature I like is sharing, Dropbox is the easiest out of them to share files quickly.
 

gbf

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 13, 2019
901
560
I drag and drop the files that I want to iCloud Drive......I love that....I backup what I want when I want
 

posguy99

macrumors 68020
Nov 3, 2004
2,284
1,531
What is that your against iCloud?
Apple has repeatedly demonstrated their incompetence in Internet services. I don't need to waste my time watching for the next time they randomly screw something up.
 

fisherking

macrumors G4
Jul 16, 2010
11,251
5,561
ny somewhere
Apple has repeatedly demonstrated their incompetence in Internet services. I don't need to waste my time watching for the next time they randomly screw something up.
could you give some examples? i've been using the cloud for years, without any major issues (just some minor ones).
 

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,032
iCloud for personal data.
OneDrive for work.

BackBlaze for backup. Time Machine (local) for backup.
 

gbf

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 13, 2019
901
560
iCloud isn't a backup.
how can you say iCloud Drive isn't a backup??? if my Mac crashes all I have to do is buy a new one, turn on iCloud and boom all my documents that I want "backed up" are in iCloud Drive.
 

537635

macrumors 65816
Mar 7, 2009
1,152
1,040
Slovenia, EU
how can you say iCloud Drive isn't a backup??? if my Mac crashes all I have to do is buy a new one, turn on iCloud and boom all my documents that I want "backed up" are in iCloud Drive.

This is your second post (that I've seen), bashing Dropbox but not providing any details. Care to explain?

Cloud storage isn't a backup. Please educate yourself before something bad happens to your data. Example: You inadvertently delete a file and do not realise you deleted it. After 2 months you need that file.

TimeMachine is a backup. BTRFS snapshots are backups (kinda, still not proper backup). Cloud storage "can" be a backup if used properly.


With that said, iCloud is clearly the worst (or one of the worst) cloud solutions there are. It's buggy, it's inconsistent, I would never ever trust it with my data in current implementation. I do use it for iMessage sync and mobile device backups, which work fine and do not require high end features.

When it comes to quality, sadly, nothing beats Dropbox.

- fast
- flexible
- complete file system integration
- bit rot protection (only in Drobpox)
- delta sync (again, only Dropbox does it well)
- NAS sync
- good iOS app
- easy and granular file sharing


iCloud fails in most of these features above.
 
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gbf

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 13, 2019
901
560
This is your second post (that I've seen), bashing Dropbox but not providing any details. Care to explain?

Cloud storage isn't a backup. Please educate yourself before something bad happens to your data. Example: You inadvertently delete a file and do not realise you deleted it. After 2 months you need that file.

TimeMachine is a backup. BTRFS snapshots are backups (kinda, still not proper backup). Cloud storage "can" be a backup if used properly.
First off, I NEVER BASH ANYONE. I ask questions to learn.

Secondly, if I have 48000 pictures on my iMac and I want to make sure they are safe I BACK THEM UP TO THE CLOUD. How can you say iCloud Drive is not a form of backing things up?

I drag pictures and documents to the cloud service and no matter what happens to my local machine I will always be able to access those files because I BACKED THEM UP.
 

537635

macrumors 65816
Mar 7, 2009
1,152
1,040
Slovenia, EU
is dropbox safe for iMacs??? lots of conflicting reports online...
By "bashing" I meant this.


Again, please do educate yourself, before you lose data. Yes, you can sync those photos. Yes, you'll be able to restore these photos if your device fails. But that's it.

Imagine you mix something up and you delete a folder with 1000 photos inside, which you didn't want to delete and only realise that after a month or two.

Game over.


Dropbox actually does take this into account if you pay extra. They have a tier, which keeps deleted files in the background.
 

gbf

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 13, 2019
901
560
I guess I don’t like the idea of anything doing anything automatically. I like to decide what gets backed up and what doesn’t.

the iCloud Drive I find to be easy as pie. Dropbox has so much animation and offers to do this and that it’s annoying and can be confusing.

I did read something that Dropbox wasn’t safe. I don’t know or remember if it was a reputable site or not.

I want one place to where at the end of the day I can drag my pictures I took or documents I worked on and put them in a safe place for security.

before iCloud I believe the machine at the cell store was called cellbrite? Everytime you bought a new phone they had to hook your old one up first to transfer contacts. Cellbrite the first cloud storage sorta?
 

537635

macrumors 65816
Mar 7, 2009
1,152
1,040
Slovenia, EU
Please read my post again, especially the example where iCloud won't protect your data.

If you want simple sync, iCloud works good I guess. But it's not as safe as proper backup.

Manual moving and copying of files for backup is a disaster waiting to happen. If you do this, I guarantee you will eventually overwrite something important.

But it's your data.
 

gbf

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 13, 2019
901
560
I’m not going to argue this point with you. If you are careful and not careless you won’t have problems. Do mistakes happen yes but there is always the undo move.
 

gbf

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 13, 2019
901
560
With iCloud sync there is no "undo".

I guess you'll have to learn the hard way :).
Just as if you were doing one of your backups and your internet went down in the middle of it. I guess you would be SOL as well. Break out the Samsung T7
 
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