[RANT] iCloud sucks

[LeiQQ]

I only have a mini and iPhone 4. Im using sb else's iPad to write this. So far I have not had a successful backup of my phone to the cloud. I'm still rung sl on my mini so I can't really benefit from it so much, maybe in the future. I'm still using db for my docs.

 

[nateo200]

WTF is a "techie person"?

I have no clue. I think its a term people use when they describe someone who knows a tad bit more about computers than the average human being. So if you have an iPhone according to MrOldWaysDontChangeJustDownloadedloltacos.exewhyismycomputerbroken you could be a techie.

 

[ahnet]

Very very poor

I cloud is in fact a very very poor product. It does not matter if you are a techie or not. I have the same issues that most people do on this thread plus a handful of others. Slow is not the word, mega-slow begins to explain how painful it is to try and read email on the cloud with my mac or laptop and if you want to read your email on a pc, forget about it. No chance because it is so slow. I have a great internet connection, 25mb so thats not the problem. I am a loyal and dedicated apple fan since the 80's and hope they correct all these massive issues before they even try to charge us for this. Please please Apple listen to your users and correct the problems!!!!!

 

[ladymacintosh]

I can't figure out why the calendar entries I make on my iphone show up on my ipad but not the other way around? I thought it was supposed to sync both ways. Can someone help me out? I'd really like the calendar entries on my ipad to also show up in my iphone.

 

[TLewis]

I can't figure out why the calendar entries I make on my iphone show up on my ipad but not the other way around? I thought it was supposed to sync both ways. Can someone help me out? I'd really like the calendar entries on my ipad to also show up in my iphone.

Your iPad's default calendar is likely set to a calendar that is (one of):

1. Not sync'd to your iPhone
2. Not sync'd at all.

On your iPad, go to Settings->Mail, Contacts, Calendars->Default Calendar, and set it to the same calendar that your iPhone uses (this assumes that you've set up the same calendars on your iPad that you have on your iPhone -- if not, you'll have to set them up).

 

[ladymacintosh]

Your iPad's default calendar is likely set to a calendar that is (one of):

1. Not sync'd to your iPhone
2. Not sync'd at all.

On your iPad, go to Settings->Mail, Contacts, Calendars->Default Calendar, and set it to the same calendar that your iPhone uses (this assumes that you've set up the same calendars on your iPad that you have on your iPhone -- if not, you'll have to set them up).

I looked at that and saw that on my iPad, it has a iCloud Calendar and when checked, all the calendars get checked. My iPhone4 does not have the iCloud Calendar option to check, but all the calendars are also checked. Why would my iPhone not have the 'iCloud Calendar' check box?

 

[TLewis]

I looked at that and saw that on my iPad, it has a iCloud Calendar and when checked, all the calendars get checked. My iPhone4 does not have the iCloud Calendar option to check, but all the calendars are also checked. Why would my iPhone not have the 'iCloud Calendar' check box?

You never connected your iPhone to iCloud, or you have turned off iCloud calendars on your iPhone.

However, you mentioned that "sync" is only working on your iPhone, which doesn't have iCloud. If so, you're probably doing one of:

1. You're syncing with a different cloud calendar, such as google calendar.
2. You're only doing manual syncing via itunes.

If you're doing #1, you need to set that up on your iPad.

If you're doing #2, don't do that. Use the iCloud calendar or something similar (however, you'll have to somehow migrate your existing calendar, and I don't know how to do that without possibly losing your data).

 

[ladymacintosh]

If you're doing #2, don't do that. Use the iCloud calendar or something similar (however, you'll have to somehow migrate your existing calendar, and I don't know how to do that without possibly losing your data).

Under Settings/iCloud (on iphone) I have calendars, reminders, and find my iphone turned on. Under Storage and Backup I have iCloud Backup turned off.
Could this be the reason why?

Thank you for your help!

PS: I don't have Google Calendar.

 

[TLewis]

Under Settings/iCloud (on iphone) I have calendars, reminders, and find my iphone turned on. Under Storage and Backup I have iCloud Backup turned off.
Could this be the reason why?

No, iCloud backup isn't the cause.

Well, I'm stumped. Are you sure your iPhone and iPad are using the same account? Make sure that the iPhone iCloud account is working: go to Settings->iCloud->Account, and make sure that the correct Apple ID and password are set (also, this should be the same on both the iPhone and iPad).

Under Settings->Mail, Contacts, Calendars->Default Calendar, which calendar is selected?

 

[abriwin]

iCloud doesn't seem to work for me

I wanted to sync my apps between all my devices. iMac, MBA, iPad, iPhone.
I thought iCloud has to be the way. Had to update Macs to Lion to use iCloud, did that. Lion sucks, retrograde step, everything grey, tiny scroll bars, icons etc but thats something else.
Tried logging in to iCloud, it asks if I want to find my phone, no I don't want to find my phone! It's next to me. I look at my calendar there's nothing in it, worse, it's in Portuguese, casa, trabalho, what the heck happened, to home, work, health, travel, finance? It tells me to set up a mobile me account? I already have one, why do I have to set up a new one? The new one is empty there's no way of merging it with my existing data is there? I don't need another address what about all my contacts who already have my address?

iCloud sucks, I have switched it off. Goodness knows what will happen when Apple ceases Mobile me, will Mobile me users have to make a class action against Apple for ceasing a service without adequately replacing or merging it?

 

[miniConvert]

Just wanted to add to this thread to say iCloud has been fantastic so far for me.

Literally just logged into it on my iPhone and iPad, and on each of 4 Macs as I upgraded them to Lion and was prompted to do so, and everything has 'just worked'. Contacts/Calendars/Bookmarks/Reading Lists/etc all stay in sync, emails pushed, iCloud backup works (tested doing an OTA restore!), WiFi Sync works...

...extremely difficult for me to fault this free cloudy offering.

 

[bmcgrath]

My only gripe with iCloud and iOS is that it is having problem unifying my Google contacts and iCloud contacts. Same goes for calendar.

 

[bp1000]

iCloud brilliant for me too

OP

You sound like you would be more at home with Microsoft Products - you are trying to overcomplicate everything.

----------

My only gripe with iCloud and iOS is that it is having problem unifying my Google contacts and iCloud contacts. Same goes for calendar.

I had to make the change

I decided to export both and import into iCloud - i don't think you can sync to both.

I rarely log in to gmail now so there is no need to use googles cal and contacts.

 

[Night Spring]

iCloud sucks, I have switched it off. Goodness knows what will happen when Apple ceases Mobile me, will Mobile me users have to make a class action against Apple for ceasing a service without adequately replacing or merging it?

http://basics4mac.com/article.php/cloud_convert_mobileme

 

[mattkowalski]

User Error ≠ Product Fail

GraphicsGeek explained it best.

This simply is not true. Not saying whether iCloud is or not (I don't use it), but well-designed software minimises the ability for users to make errors.

 

[Phat^Trance]

iCloud does everything its suppose to do just fine for me.

same here!

 

[CrAkD]

I can tell you this muck the iBooks bookmark feature doesn't work. I'd switch back and forth between my phone and my iPad well reading the Steve jobs book and the bookmarks were NEVER synced. I'd have to manually find my place every time I switched.

 

[thelookingglass]

I wanted to sync my apps between all my devices. iMac, MBA, iPad, iPhone.
I thought iCloud has to be the way. Had to update Macs to Lion to use iCloud, did that. Lion sucks, retrograde step, everything grey, tiny scroll bars, icons etc but thats something else.
Tried logging in to iCloud, it asks if I want to find my phone, no I don't want to find my phone! It's next to me. I look at my calendar there's nothing in it, worse, it's in Portuguese, casa, trabalho, what the heck happened, to home, work, health, travel, finance? It tells me to set up a mobile me account? I already have one, why do I have to set up a new one? The new one is empty there's no way of merging it with my existing data is there? I don't need another address what about all my contacts who already have my address?

iCloud sucks, I have switched it off. Goodness knows what will happen when Apple ceases Mobile me, will Mobile me users have to make a class action against Apple for ceasing a service without adequately replacing or merging it?

I love posts like this. Clearly the misunderstanding is more on your end then on Apple's, although I'll give you that iCloud has introduced some complexity that may be a bit too much for existing users.

Anyway, to address some of your points:

- Find My Phone is a feature that allows you to track your phone in case you lose it. It wasn't asking to find your phone that very minute.

- As for your calendars, there should've been a prompt asking you if you wanted to merge your existing calendars with iCloud. I'm guessing you said no, and that's why you see nothing in your calendars. Either that or you didn't wait properly for the OS to completely update before it restored your phone.


My dad was b*tching to no end about how terrible iOS 5 was and how it was doomed to failure because his update process ended up deleting all of his contacts. Turned out when he updated, he unplugged his phone before it was down with the restore process. Total user fail.

 

[abriwin]

total user fail

I love posts like this. Clearly the misunderstanding is more on your end then on Apple's, although I'll give you that iCloud has introduced some complexity that may be a bit too much for existing users.

Anyway, to address some of your points:

- Find My Phone is a feature that allows you to track your phone in case you lose it. It wasn't asking to find your phone that very minute.

…..

My dad was b*tching to no end about how terrible iOS 5 was and how it was doomed to failure because his update process ended up deleting all of his contacts. Turned out when he updated, he unplugged his phone before it was down with the restore process. Total user fail.

Guess I must be like your dad then, a total user failure, I went to the effort of updating Snow Leopard to Lion, tried to use iCloud, failed miserably, why when everyone else found it so easy? I might be getting long in the tooth but I am not senile yet.

Maybe this sounds stupid but perhaps some things written in US english make sense in the US don't make the same sense on the European side on the pond? Because there were some instructions in the setting up of iCloud that didn't seem to make sense to me. Maybe I need to make an appointment with the genius folks at Apple shop.

 

[maddog91]

I read a little bit o the post and kind of stopped. I feel iCloud has not let me down..Im a little confused as if it backups my photos but everything else works perfect. I add a contact and its updated within seconds. I never used my contact app on my macbook but now I do since I noticed the convenience of being able to edit names on my laptop and not a small phone screen.

It all just seems to work flawlessly.

 

[AbSoluTc]

I cloud is in fact a very very poor product. It does not matter if you are a techie or not. I have the same issues that most people do on this thread plus a handful of others. Slow is not the word, mega-slow begins to explain how painful it is to try and read email on the cloud with my mac or laptop and if you want to read your email on a pc, forget about it. No chance because it is so slow. I have a great internet connection, 25mb so thats not the problem. I am a loyal and dedicated apple fan since the 80's and hope they correct all these massive issues before they even try to charge us for this. Please please Apple listen to your users and correct the problems!!!!!

I think you're in the wrong thread. Never had an issue with iCloud being slow with email, let alone slow period?!?!

Better yet, I was at the Apple store yesterday picking up another iPhone 4S and was restoring from iCloud right there - without issue. Fast as hell too.

So, you should probably figure out what's so slow on YOUR end. Obviously something is. It's not Apple.

 

[Fast Shadow]

"Sucks" is a harsh term but I do find it to be clunky. Apple invested an enormous amount of money into the infrastructure and yet the product itself is kind of superficial and awkward.

Also, the fact is... I don't make much use of it. I have 3 email accounts (Gmail, hosted Exchange, work Exchange) and I use Activesync with all of them. So I have no real use for iCloud's email, contact, or calendar sync.

Find my iPhone is a great feature that I've used to recover a phone I lost at the supermarket.

I don't use iWork so there's another area I can't make much use of.

Photostream is very awkward. I can't just go in and delete individual items out of my stream? Doesn't really work for me. I use Flickr or Facebook to share photos from my phone publicly or just email them to myself if I don't want to post them to the world.

 

[FYDave]

I've used iCloud only once so far but it worked fine for me.

 

[pizzafootbal]

iCloud isn't amazing for me, but it is really helpful at times, you can choose to only sync to iCloud

 

[Buckland]

Dead slow

Since "upgrading" to iOS 5 and iCloud everything, and I mean everything, has slowed to a crawl. Dead solid apps I have used for months suddenly start to crash. My iCal appointments disappear myteriously - like my flight info for December. I am so disappointed in this whole thing! I'm going, as soon as I can, to an Apple store and opting out of iCloud. I can't risk losing important info anymore. I'll stick with syncing with a cable. Seriously, if I didn't know this was an Apple product, I'd swear it was windows.

Buck