iCloud cant be that hard to use can it?

[doobybiggs]

I am trying to use iCloud to backup some photos, where did I go wrong?

I have iCloud open, it is set to upload documents (which is where my folder of pictures is) still nothing. I do not have iPhoto yet as apple is working on that after they screwed that up for me.

Do I need that iPhoto selected for it to upload pictures?


On a side note, it has not backed anything up. No calendar stuff or bookmarks or anything. Is it like a once a week type thing or what?


I am on a mini at the moment trying this ...

 

[Bear]

I am trying to use iCloud to backup some photos, where did I go wrong?
...

Photo Stream is not a way to back up photos. It's a way to sync photos across devices. Photo Stream only retains up to 1000 photos taken within the last 30 days.

...
On a side note, it has not backed anything up. No calendar stuff or bookmarks or anything. Is it like a once a week type thing or what?
...

Have you actually selected in the iCloud preferences for those items to sync?

 

[doobybiggs]

Have you actually selected in the iCloud preferences for those items to sync?

Yep I have everything selected but the iPhoto, since I do not have that ...

 

[aristobrat]

For the calendar/contacts/bookmarks, you can try signing out of iCloud (in System Preferences) and then signing back in, or you can try unchecking something like Contacts, going back out to System Preferences, and then going back and re-checking it.

As for Documents & Data, that doesn't sync (or backup) your Documents folder on your Mac. AFAIK, it's specifically talking about Documents & Data pertaining to apps specifically written to save things in iCloud.

 

[doobybiggs]

For the calendar/contacts/bookmarks, you can try signing out of iCloud (in System Preferences) and then signing back in, or you can try unchecking something like Contacts, going back out to System Preferences, and then going back and re-checking it.

I tried that, still saying I am not using any storage ... I updated a few things in my address book to see if that would trigger it ... How long does it normally take to update?

 

[aristobrat]

Mine updates quickly, almost instantaneous (for contact/calendar updates, anyways). Have you tried logging into www.icloud.com and seeing if your contacts are visible there?

 

[doobybiggs]

Mine updates quickly, almost instantaneous (for contact/calendar updates, anyways). Have you tried logging into www.icloud.com and seeing if your contacts are visible there?

hmmm contacts are update there ... just not my calendar which is weird lol.

 

[aristobrat]

In iCal on your Mac, if you click the Calendars button in the top left of the program, does it show you any iCloud calendar options at all?

Mine looks like this.

 

[doobybiggs]

the calendar works fine with my phone but not this

Maybe it is not working because google does not work with iCloud in syncing those dates?

mine shows ....

 

[aristobrat]

Right, two separate clouds there.

If you put an event on your Google calendar, it gets stored in Google's cloud, and should show up on all devices that you have your Google calendar setup on.

If you put an event on an iCloud calendar, it gets stored in Apple's cloud, and should show up on all devices that you have iCloud calendars setup on.

 

[danny_w]

It seems to me that iCloud sync is needlessly complicated and difficult to troubleshoot. Apple finally got sync working fairly well with MobileMe and then took several giant steps backwards with iCloud. at lease with MM if things didn't work you could remove computers from the sync config and easily reset the contents of either MM or your local computer so that the sync would overwrite instead of merge; this was a tremendous help when trying to resolve conflicts. Now it seems that those features have been removed form iCloud. And the fact that there is no bookmark app in iCloud so that you can see what is in the cloud means that we are blind and don't know what the cloud should be pushing to the devices.

Now I am really glad that I started the process of moving everything to Google a while back. At least Google seems to "get" the sync business. Come on Apple, get with it!

 

[doobybiggs]

yep it is annoying I cannot see what all is in there and mess around with it.

Hmmm alright, I guess I will keep my calendar stuff on google so everything is in the same place and I dont have to redo a years worth of calendar items.

 

[danny_w]

yep it is annoying I cannot see what all is in there and mess around with it.

Hmmm alright, I guess I will keep my calendar stuff on google so everything is in the same place and I dont have to redo a years worth of calendar items.

I keep all of my personal calendars in Google, business calendars in Exchange, setup Google and Exchange via Exchange accounts on my iPhone, and subscribe to my Google and Exchange calendars in iCal. This keeps all of my calendars in since, and I can update them in Exchange, Google, or iCal, and have them synced to all of my devices.

Now if bookmarks would work, it would only have to handle Safari, but it can't even do that right. I changed from using Google Chrome recently to Safari thinking that iCloud would sync everything for me but no luck so far. I may end up going back to Chrome and having to manually maintain my bookmarks on the iDevices. Too bad, it could have been so sweet.