Cloud Based Location - Good or Bad Idea?

[mjs]

Like many people I have 2 systems. 1 is fixed and the other a laptop for mobile work. Keeping them in sync is always a bit of a challenge particularly when you are remote with the laptop and want to continue work as seamlessly as possible. To that end:

1. Would love to hear approaches to this.
2. Is setting the "User Data" location in S1 to cloud based storage (in my case iCloud) a good or bad idea?

Thanks!

 

[Lukas]

2. Is setting the "User Data" location in S1 to cloud based storage (in my case iCloud) a good or bad idea?

Definitely bad idea! Everyone will strongly advise you against it.
When people report problems with file access rights or songs that won’t open, it’s usually because their songs are being synced with iCloud, OneDrive, or Dropbox. So please don't do this. Studio One frequently accesses the User Data folder - not just for songs, but also for presets, macros, color schemes, and other user settings.

For subscription customers, there are Studio One Pro+ Workspaces and a Backup & Restore mechanism for presets etc.. Personally - even though I have access to everything - I use Google Drive for my songs, but I always download and upload files manually whenever I want to work on a project. No automatic syncing of Studio One folders.

 

[mjs]

Thanks Lukas. I suspected as much but it’s good to get clear and definitive perspective.

 

[boo]

I've been using this workflow for over a decade. not sure, I used iCloud, but definitely had used Dropbox and OneDrive. it works.
I don't store complete User Data, but just my song projects.

be sure not to modify project concurrently or until you get up-to-date version and sometimes it's worth it pausing the cloud sync when you're actually recording, it can safely upload later. that's it.

in fact, I believe, Logic supports storing projects on iCloud and their docs even suggest to do this for specific cases, like sharing a project between a computer and an iPad. so this has been working well for some years.

 

[SwitchBack]

I don't think this isn't about storing songs as much as it is about using iCloud as the 'live' storage location. You just can't trust the cloud to keep up without dropouts ever. You want to keep your User Data directory on a local drive, a fast one.

 

[boo]

You just can't trust the cloud to keep up without dropouts ever

actually it doesn't work like this, a 'cloud storage' like a dropbox doesn't work like a network share.

it's a local directory on your local drive that's synced on a schedule with the cloud.
if you pause the synchronization, it's just a local drive for now.

 

[Lukas]

it's a local directory on your local drive that's synced on a schedule with the cloud.
if you pause the synchronization, it's just a local drive for now.

But is this the whole truth? What about "virtual" files and folders that are displayed in the OS file browsers but are just a reference to the item in the cloud. Once you try to open it (or query any file details), the actual file content is downloaded from the cloud.

I'm not sure which of the services actually do this but I've seen mechanisms like that.

 

[boo]

But is this the full truth? What about "virtual" files and folders that are displayed in the OS file browsers but are just a reference to the item in the cloud. Once you try to open it (or query any file details), the actual file is downloaded from the cloud.

I'm not sure which of the services actually do this but I've seen mechanisms like that.

to keep it short, once it's downloaded, it's a local file and you work with it like with the same latency as your local ssd. let's not dive into 'selective sync' concept, it's not that important here.

 

[boo]

p.s. I've must not used DropBox for a while, it appears now they have online-only files. surely, that doesn't fit, but I don't believe, it's the default behavior.

but with the old method of syncing (that was the only one in original dropbox) everything goes like I described. you download the files (originally it was 'the whole directory') and then work with the copies from your local SSD.

 

[Wolfger]

I´m using my Studio One user folder with dropbox since two years (on Mac).
No problems at all. With the setting "available offline" for the whole folder it´s perfect and works just like any other folder on the internal drive. Everything is backuped reliable.
Not one hickup in 2 years.
I also backup my whole Mac and external hard-drives via idrive-cloud, Time-Machine and carbon copy cloner backups.