Lost in the Clouds

[Paul Whybrow]

We previously discussed saving work in the cloud in the summer of 2019, but we have lots of new members and I was puzzled by how different cloud services are while saving my five audiobook recordings yesterday.

I use three clouds: Dropbox, Google Drive and MS OneDrive. I started saving my work with Dropbox at 10.00 am—each book took from 90 minutes to two hours to upload, so I wasn't finished until 7.00 pm. I then turned to Google Drive, which saved each book in about five minutes! Until it got to Book 5, which, for some reason, took 45 minutes. Wondering how fast OneDrive would be, it initially looked to be rapid completing the first two titles in ten minutes each, but then it stopped saving anything, so I gave up feeling disgruntled. I'll give it another go today.

I've taken paid subscriptions to Dropbox and Google Drive at a tenner a month, which I don't begrudge, though why Dropbox is so slow to save is disappointing.

Which clouds do you use?

 

[RK Wallis]

My files on Scrivener on Onedrive, and when I save my Scrivener file, files automatically save to Onedrive. It's instantaneous. No fiddling around. Just close Scrivener and it's saved and backed up in one go.

 

[Jonny]

I'm pretty computer literate but have not embraced cloud sharing and I'm not sure why this is.

Anytime I've tried (iCloud & OneDrive) I have found them a baffling faff, so I save vital files the (relatively) old school way and use a memory stick.

What am I doing wrong with cloud? I'd like to use OneDrive because I use Word for almost everything.

 

[Barbara]

None of them. I generally work on my MS when I'm on my lap top at home, so I don't need that kind of access from any device anywhere. If I go anywhere where I have time to write, I bring the laptop. For back up / save keeping, I don't trust cloud services. (Are they hackable, corruptable? Wasn't google cloud thingy down yesterday?) I like being in charge of the save keeping my work. I use an external hard drive and a memory stick for more long time storage, but mainly, I email the file to myself every day to 2 email addresses.

And every now and then, I print it out anyway to look at the story arc. Good old paper.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

A radical alternative to the Cloud:

https://www.yankodesign.com/2020/12/16/this-thumb-sized-unbreakable-waterproof-ssd-makes-cloud-storage-feel-ancient/?

 

[Jonny]

Wow! only $79 dollars too. That's a great bit of tech, Paul.

Let's hope this and similar are rolled out in significant numbers soon.

Looks like the clouds just might be clearing for a brighter day.