Sync via iCloud Drive?

Do you plan to implement sync via iCloud Drive?

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@Scud We don’t have any plans to implement iCloud Drive support in Sync at the moment, but we’re not opposed to the idea, could you tell us a bit about why you’d prefer to use iCloud Drive for sync? Thanks!

Well, currently I use Dropbox for cloud storage, but plan to switch to iCloud Drive since it’s a native solution for MacOS/iOS.

I would use iCloud Drive as well. It’s a matter of convenience. Particularly with respect to accommodating Macs where I don’t otherwise have a reason to install Dropbox.

Now, if Strip could sync between cloud services (and not just with cloud services)… that would really be something! :wink:

I would use iCloud Drive as well. Dropbox is not recommended by security experts. Please give us option to sync via iCloud drive. Thanks.

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Now that iCloud Drive is becoming more reliable, I am migrating away from DropBox. It would be great if you guys supported iCloud Drive so I could expedite that.

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If you guys are really into the privacy game, you need to check out Tresorit and sync with it. It is encrypted on both ends. They can’t even reset your passwords. That is what I use for real security.

Any news about Apple native solution (iCloud drive)? Please, be so kind and improve STRIP with the mentioned feature. thanks

@ZemljakS Sorry, no news here, we do not plan to integrate STRIP with iCloud Drive at this time.

Hello @wgray
Are there even any chances to include iCloud implementation? I think we wait too long for this feature now… :frowning:

Hi @ZemljakS,

I’m sorry if you’ve been waiting, we don’t intend to add support for syncing over iCloud or iCloud Drive. This isn’t because we have any particular problem with the technology, just a perspective on planning. Codebook already supports two similar cloud services that are freely available. To implement a third service (like iCloud Drive or Box.com, etc) and maintain it alongside the others requires some considerable attention and focus. Currently we’re working hard on automatic background sync and don’t wish to add a new service to the current system. We hope you’ll understand, good things are ahead!

Guys, no offense, but this seems to be odd to me. Working in IT I always defended and recommended Codebook. But here you are clearly moving into the wrong direction. Instead of supporting the two integrated PC platforms (OneDrive and iCloud) you are stubbornly keeping the (IMHO) outdated Dropbox sync alive. Android maybe the reason for GoogleDrive, but Dropbox? Maybe you should seriously review your direction or some users might move on. A lot of us try to pair down their used services meanwhile, free or not. With all due respect, you are not helping here.

Guys, no offense, but this seems to be odd to me. Working in IT I always defended and recommended Codebook.

Thank you very much, we really appreciate that. Bring on the candid feedback!

But here you are clearly moving into the wrong direction. Instead of supporting the two integrated PC platforms (OneDrive and iCloud) you are stubbornly keeping the (IMHO) outdated Dropbox sync alive. Android maybe the reason for GoogleDrive, but Dropbox? Maybe you should seriously review your direction or some users might move on. A lot of us try to pair down their used services meanwhile, free or not. With all due respect, you are not helping here.

I’m sorry to hear that, as we’ve tried to be thoughtful in our long-term planning for Codebook. I’ll do my best to lay out what we’re currently hoping to accomplish and try to address this critique along the way.

First, I think it’s helpful to review how Codebook’s sync feature works now, in particular with regard to cloud services, and for anybody else following along. When Codebook syncs with Dropbox or Google Drive, it does not use a local client service on your PC, it communicates directly with the remote service’s API over HTTPS (after authorizing you through the OAuth dance and two-factor if enabled). Codebook creates a folder named Zetetic for its own use, and stores an encrypted replica of your entire database on the service. The next time you tell Codebook to sync, it looks for the replica, pulls it down, exchanges changes with it, and replaces the updated replica out on the cloud service.

It is important to note that this sync process has to be initiated by the user, who is left with the responsibility of remembering to sync up all their devices after making changes. Furthermore, the file exchange process is inefficient, hampering our ability to support larger types of data in Codebook like image files.

In the beginning, Codebook only provided sync over WiFi, then Dropbox was added soon after (by quite popular demand), and Google Drive a couple of years after that. We went with these services because they’re both available freely with high adoption (Dropbox remains quite popular, and it seems like everyone has a Google account), and they both support all the platforms we support (Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows).

To date the most frequently requested improvement to Codebook, by quite a margin, is automatic background syncing. You should be able to turn on Codebook’s sync feature and forget about it, it should keep your data up-to-date across your devices for you, and technologies like iCloud helped to make this a reasonable expectation of any app.

When iCloud first came out, it wasn’t an appropriate technology for the file-exchange sync process outlined above. iCloud Drive is a different story, providing the kind of file-based API that Codebook currently uses for sync—-but the user would still need to remember kick it off and wait for it to complete. And while we could add iCloud Drive support to the Mac and iOS versions of Codebook, we would not be able to provide it to our Windows or Android customers. I think that position could fairly be called stubborn, but Codebook supports four different platforms, so providing consistent functionality across the apps is important to us. We think it’s helpful to our customers, and some are quite … insistent about it. Perhaps an Android customer wouldn’t care that iCloud Drive wouldn’t be available to them. Certainly debatable.

OneDrive is another request that’s been coming up lately, it’s impressive how this service has taken off. It supports iOS, macOS, and Windows (and it looks like a wrapper could be made easily for Android), making it more cross platform. But again, we’re talking about adding and maintaining for many years another integration for the current, inefficient sync system.

Providing automatic background sync (and dealing with the efficiency problem) required a big overhaul of how we track and sync changes. In addition, we want to provide this new feature without removing support for the current on-demand options (some customers will prefer to sync on-demand, over WiFi, for various reasons). That means 1) a new change tracking system in all four apps 2) a new background sync service 3) upgrading wifi, google drive, and dropbox sync in all four apps to utilize the new change tracking. We still have some ways to go, but a large amount of this work is already completed. It didn’t make sense to us, in the middle of all of this, to pursue OneDrive or iCloud Drive support. That said, it’s a feature request we’ll be happy to revisit in the future, OneDrive in particular.

So that’s where we’re headed: new sync system supports current features using a more efficient change-tracking system, allowing us to improve Codebook quite a bit now and well into the future, plus background sync with a new service. Is that the wrong direction? Could we be working to integrate OneDrive as a sync endpoint alongside this work? Sure, but I don’t know that it’s necessarily the “right” direction as compared to our current course. Admittedly, it doesn’t help you get closer to the goal of moving away from 3rd party cloud services. We’ll definitely keep that in mind and appreciate you bringing it up.

One other thing I’d like to point out for convenience’s sake: you don’t have to install Dropbox or Google Drive itself onto your PC or Mac for Codebook to sync with either service. All that’s needed is authorization to access, Codebook takes care of the rest.

First of all, thank you for your extensive answer and explanation, I REALLY appreciate you took the time and effort it took you. Might be our views are not exactly the same, but then again you explained yourself perfectly. Honestly, I had one foot out the door, but now I’m willing to wait for future changes. As much as I’d wish to kick my Dropbox account to the curb, I’ll keep it exclusively for Codebook :wink:

But why wouldn’t you be able to provide iCloud Drive to your Windows and Android customers? There’s already software on both platform doing the same. But then, I’m no expert in this field, so I understand that I’m walking on thin ice here. And just for completeness sake, I’m aware that Codebook uses the API and not the application itself to sync.

Thanks again

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I received the information of working on Codebook beta 4.1 and I like to repeat my hopes that you work on sync over iCloud. I use iCloud for al my data, I only use a the Dropbox account for Codebook, Google Drive or One Drive are no option for my data!

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Are there any plans currently to enable iCloud syncing for MacOS/iOS?

I noticed I can use a local storage folder in my iCloud. Wonder if its on the roadmap still or was implemented and I missed it?