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HistoryEdited Nov 10, 2011 9:18 AM by Joel Anderson…

iCloud Documents in the Cloud

Personal Productivity Strategies > iPad > iCloud > iCloud Documents in the Cloud


Steve Jobs demoed iCloud and never really used the word sync.
At he spoke about how everything would just automatically go to all of your devices (including your Mac/PC).
But how does it really work?

Well not so automatic, let's look at the fine print:

iOS to iOS Document Syncing:
If you are only syncing iOS devices, it is very seamless, and works very well: Create a document in an iOS version of an iWOrk app, and those documents appear on all of your iOS devices. You can open the documents on any of your iOS apps, edit them, and those changes are updated everywhere.


iOS to Mac/PC Document Syncing:
Once you add a Mac to the mix, the problems arise:

First of all *nothing* is (officially) automatic on the Mac — you have to upload and download documents to and from each of your Macs using the iCloud.com website.

Second of all, the iOS and Mac versions of the iWork applications have different features, and more importantly, different formats. This means that the document format has to be converted before it can be used.

So there is no way to directly open a Pages document created on an iOS device on the Mac. A conversion process has to take place first.
Currently, this happens via the upload/download process of the iCloud.com website.

The implication here (beyond the manual upload/download process), is that this means you will be creating multiple version of documents — anytime you want to work on an iWork document on the Mac, you have to download it from iCloud, edit it, then upload it back to iCloud. Each download creates another version of the document.

I think these are only short-term problems, and these behaviors will probably change in future versions of the OS and with application updates.

Here is a page detailing Mac to iOS Syncing in various scenarios: Timed iCloud Sync Tests


Mac-to-Mac Document Syncing:
Note, this is an undocumented, unsupported feature of iCloud. Do not rely on it on for important documents without backups!

Behind the scenes, iCloud stores documents locally on your Mac in ~/Library/Mobile Documents.

Any document you place in the folder, is automatically synced to all of your Macs. You could use this "feature" to place any kind of document, and have it pushed to all of your Macs, ala DropBox.


I have created a diagram illustrating this process:

Here is a printable version of the diagram:
Download file "iCloud Mechanics.pdf"


Comments

/groups/tech/search/index.rss?sort=modifiedDate&sortDirection=reverse&tag=mainlist/groups/tech/search/?sort=modifiedDate&sortDirection=reverse&tag=mainCore ArticlesCustomTagSidebarCustomTagSidebar?sort=modifiedDate&sortDirection=reverse&tag=main0/groups/tech/sidebar/CustomTagSidebarmodifiedDate5CustomTagSidebarreversemainCore Articlescustom/groups/tech/search/index.rss?tag=hotlist/groups/tech/search/?tag=hotWhat’s HotHotListHot!?tag=hot60/groups/tech/sidebar/HotListAdded iOS 5 and iCloud Article LinkjoelJoel Anderson2011-10-27 05:51:48+00:002011-10-27 05:51:48updated47joelJoel Anderson2011-03-28 23:40:40+00:002011-03-28 23:40:40updated46Moved Document Management & iWork Document Formatting under FeaturesjoelJoel Anderson2011-03-28 23:40:32+00:002011-03-28 23:40:32updated45Moved Paperless Workflow under features, moved iPad 2 Mini review under General PointersjoelJoel Anderson2011-03-28 23:39:09+00:002011-03-28 23:39:09updated44Added breadcrumbsjoelJoel Anderson2011-03-28 15:48:01+00:002011-03-28 15:48:01updated43Changed Title of iPad Document Strategies linkjoelJoel Anderson2011-03-28 15:43:54+00:002011-03-28 15:43:54updated42joelJoel Anderson2011-03-27 19:12:09+00:002011-03-27 19:12:09updated41Separated Productivity Outline into its own pagejoelJoel Anderson2011-03-27 19:11:22+00:002011-03-27 19:11:22updated40joelJoel Anderson2011-03-21 11:51:32+00:002011-03-21 11:51:32updated39fix shopping and travel pages from blog pages to wiki pagesjoelJoel Anderson2011-03-21 11:49:38+00:002011-03-21 11:49:38updated38joelJoel Anderson2011-03-21 11:47:11+00:002011-03-21 11:47:11updated37Moved link to iPad 2 Mini Review towards top of pagejoelJoel Anderson2011-03-19 13:23:03+00:002011-03-19 13:23:03updated36Added New to iPad pagejoelJoel Anderson2011-03-19 12:02:34+00:002011-03-19 12:02:34updated35Added link to iPad 2 Mini ReviewjoelJoel Anderson2011-03-19 10:31:38+00:002011-03-19 10:31:38updated34joelJoel Anderson2011-03-19 10:29:17+00:002011-03-19 10:29:17updated33Added iPad App pages for Shopping and TraveljoelJoel Anderson2011-03-19 10:28:06+00:002011-03-19 10:28:06updated32Removed Cases links, as it is now linked from the new Accessories pagejoelJoel Anderson2011-03-19 09:59:48+00:002011-03-19 09:59:48updated31joelJoel Anderson2010-04-26 14:49:15+00:002010-04-26 14:49:15updated30Added new structure for iPad case articlesjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-26 13:29:44+00:002010-04-26 13:29:44updated29Formatting cleaningjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-26 02:30:51+00:002010-04-26 02:30:51updated28Added use of keynote presentationjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-25 21:14:19+00:002010-04-25 21:14:19updated27joelJoel Anderson2010-04-25 20:55:07+00:002010-04-25 20:55:07updated26Added a strengths/weakness list to article; Created place holders for printing and remote controljoelJoel Anderson2010-04-25 20:54:50+00:002010-04-25 20:54:50updated25Organized and Separated LinksjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-17 02:12:22+00:002010-04-17 02:12:22updated24joelJoel Anderson2010-04-12 19:17:12+00:002010-04-12 19:17:12updated23joelJoel Anderson2010-04-12 19:12:10+00:002010-04-12 19:12:10updated22joelJoel Anderson2010-04-12 19:10:37+00:002010-04-12 19:10:37updated21joelJoel Anderson2010-04-12 18:58:05+00:002010-04-12 18:58:05updated20joelJoel Anderson2010-04-12 18:46:24+00:002010-04-12 18:46:24updated19joelJoel Anderson2010-04-12 18:45:36+00:002010-04-12 18:45:36updated18joelJoel Anderson2010-04-12 18:23:47+00:002010-04-12 18:23:47updated17joelJoel Anderson2010-04-12 18:19:55+00:002010-04-12 18:19:55updated16joelJoel Anderson2010-04-12 18:17:32+00:002010-04-12 18:17:32updated15Added NoteTaking AppsjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-12 18:13:40+00:002010-04-12 18:13:40updated14Added iPad Accessories PagejoelJoel Anderson2010-04-07 13:57:19+00:002010-04-07 13:57:19updated13Added iPad Cases pagejoelJoel Anderson2010-04-07 13:50:29+00:002010-04-07 13:50:29updated12joelJoel Anderson2010-04-07 13:49:43+00:002010-04-07 13:49:43updated11joelJoel Anderson2010-04-06 00:00:36+00:002010-04-06 00:00:36updated10Added tag - hotjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 23:05:53+00:002010-04-05 23:05:53addTag9joelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 22:54:36+00:002010-04-05 22:54:36updated8joelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 22:46:37+00:002010-04-05 22:46:37updated7joelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:35:18+00:002010-04-05 20:35:18updated6joelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:33:42+00:002010-04-05 20:33:42updated5joelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:31:37+00:002010-04-05 20:31:37updated4joelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:27:51+00:002010-04-05 20:27:51updated3Added tag - ipadjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:26:48+00:002010-04-05 20:26:48addTag2First createdjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:15:04+00:002010-04-05 20:15:04created1wiki2011-10-27T05:51:48+00:00groups/tech/wiki/17816FalseiPad/groups/tech/wiki/17816/iPad.htmlJoel Anderson47 updatesiPad Personal Productivity Strategies > iPad Did you just get a new iPad, and want a know what you should get right away? Try my iPad Quick-St...Falsejoel2011-10-27T05:51:48+00:00joelJoel Anderson2010-05-01 02:22:25+00:002010-05-01 02:22:25updated11Changed the name from Personal Productivity to Personal Productivity StrategiesjoelJoel Anderson2010-05-01 02:14:34+00:002010-05-01 02:14:34updated10Added text descriptors to each categoryjoelJoel Anderson2010-05-01 02:05:53+00:002010-05-01 02:05:53updated9Added tag - paperlessjoelJoel Anderson2010-05-01 01:46:35+00:002010-05-01 01:46:35addTag8Added tag - mainjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:17:08+00:002010-04-05 20:17:08addTag7joelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:15:34+00:002010-04-05 20:15:34updated6Added tag - hotjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:15:11+00:002010-04-05 20:15:11addTag5Added tag - ipadjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:11:26+00:002010-04-05 20:11:26addTag4Added tag - gtdjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:11:21+00:002010-04-05 20:11:21addTag3Added tag - productivityjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:11:16+00:002010-04-05 20:11:16addTag2First createdjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:10:54+00:002010-04-05 20:10:54created1wiki2010-05-01T02:22:25+00:00groups/tech/wiki/56867FalsePersonal Productivity Strategies/groups/tech/wiki/56867/Personal_Productivity_Strategies.htmlJoel Anderson11 updatesPersonal Productivity Strategies This section of the site will focus on personal productivity, and will include topics such as Getting Things Done (GTD), OmniFoucs, paperless wor...Falsejoel2010-05-01T02:22:25+00:00joelJoel Anderson2010-05-01 02:22:25+00:002010-05-01 02:22:25updated11Changed the name from Personal Productivity to Personal Productivity StrategiesjoelJoel Anderson2010-05-01 02:14:34+00:002010-05-01 02:14:34updated10Added text descriptors to each categoryjoelJoel Anderson2010-05-01 02:05:53+00:002010-05-01 02:05:53updated9Added tag - paperlessjoelJoel Anderson2010-05-01 01:46:35+00:002010-05-01 01:46:35addTag8Added tag - mainjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:17:08+00:002010-04-05 20:17:08addTag7joelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:15:34+00:002010-04-05 20:15:34updated6Added tag - hotjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:15:11+00:002010-04-05 20:15:11addTag5Added tag - ipadjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:11:26+00:002010-04-05 20:11:26addTag4Added tag - gtdjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:11:21+00:002010-04-05 20:11:21addTag3Added tag - productivityjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:11:16+00:002010-04-05 20:11:16addTag2First createdjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:10:54+00:002010-04-05 20:10:54created1wiki2010-05-01T02:22:25+00:00groups/tech/wiki/56867FalsePersonal Productivity Strategies/groups/tech/wiki/56867/Personal_Productivity_Strategies.htmlJoel Anderson11 updatesPersonal Productivity Strategies This section of the site will focus on personal productivity, and will include topics such as Getting Things Done (GTD), OmniFoucs, paperless wor...Falsejoel2010-05-01T02:22:25+00:00joelJoel Anderson2010-05-01 02:22:25+00:002010-05-01 02:22:25updated11Changed the name from Personal Productivity to Personal Productivity StrategiesjoelJoel Anderson2010-05-01 02:14:34+00:002010-05-01 02:14:34updated10Added text descriptors to each categoryjoelJoel Anderson2010-05-01 02:05:53+00:002010-05-01 02:05:53updated9Added tag - paperlessjoelJoel Anderson2010-05-01 01:46:35+00:002010-05-01 01:46:35addTag8Added tag - mainjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:17:08+00:002010-04-05 20:17:08addTag7joelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:15:34+00:002010-04-05 20:15:34updated6Added tag - hotjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:15:11+00:002010-04-05 20:15:11addTag5Added tag - ipadjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:11:26+00:002010-04-05 20:11:26addTag4Added tag - gtdjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:11:21+00:002010-04-05 20:11:21addTag3Added tag - productivityjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:11:16+00:002010-04-05 20:11:16addTag2First createdjoelJoel Anderson2010-04-05 20:10:54+00:002010-04-05 20:10:54created1wiki2010-05-01T02:22:25+00:00groups/tech/wiki/56867FalsePersonal Productivity Strategies/groups/tech/wiki/56867/Personal_Productivity_Strategies.htmlJoel Anderson11 updatesPersonal Productivity Strategies This section of the site will focus on personal productivity, and will include topics such as Getting Things Done (GTD), OmniFoucs, paperless wor...Falsejoel2010-05-01T02:22:25+00:00joelJoel Anderson2010-05-01 02:22:25+00:002010-05-01 02:22:25updated11Changed the name from Personal Productivity to Personal Productivity StrategiesjoelJoel Anderson2010-05-01 02:14:34+00:002010-05-01 02:14:34updated10Added text descriptors to each categoryjoelJoel Anderson2010-05-01 02:05:53+00:002010-05-01 02:05:53updated9Added tag - 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