Does anyone here use iCloud Drive?

lumencreative · 24 Feb 2015 at 21:40

Just after some thoughts really.

Does anyone here use iCloud Drive instead of the likes of OneDrive or Dropbox?

Basically, we bought a Synology NAS enclosure but it's not really working as well as I'd hoped, and I tend to use my 1TB USB Hard Drive more, which unfortunately, I keep leaving connected to my work PC and forgetting to bring home. So, we've decided to look at cloud storage.

I know most of the world at least know about Dropbox but is it really the best option? At home and our design office we use Macs. I have an iPad and an iPhone. At my 'employment' I have a Windows 7 PC. As I mostly use Apple, I thought iCloud Drive would be ideal but it's quite expensive.

Dropbox Pro is £7.99 a month and then there's OneDrive. We already use Office365 for email so OneDrive is included in the cost.

We are basically looking for something to use as a central repository for our business files and the ability to share files/folders with customers who may not already be registered.

Is this possible with OneDrive or Dropbox? I don't think it is with iCloud Drive.

Any thoughts?

lumencreative · 25 Feb 2015 at 11:07

Tuxxey said:
I personally use a free version of Dropbox, because I've been using them for so long now, I've been lucky to snatch a couple of free promotion HD upgrades, so I can't see myself upgrading to the pro version anytime soon. I do use iCloud for the calender/photo sharing/backup features, although I don't use the iCloud drive feature, because I've already got dropbox.

After reading over your thread and noticing your prepared to pay money for cloud storage. Why don't you just create your own cloud? Bittorrent sync can help you with out, it's pretty new but I was reading up about it recently, sounded very interesting for large amount of file sharing over the cloud.

http://www.getsync.com/

Thanks for your input. I've heard of Bittorrent Sync before but my understanding is it's a direct device to device syncing service which requires both the original and target computers to be on (i.e. it takes your files from Computer A and puts them on Computer B without any online repository).

The Synology NAS that I have does have a sync feature called CloudStation but I'm not convinced it's the best solution.

lumencreative · 26 Feb 2015 at 11:24

The_Abyss said:
I use Microsoft's One Drive. 1 TB comes free with Microsoft Office.

Opinions on OneDrive? Any good compared to Dropbox, etc?

lumencreative · 27 Feb 2015 at 13:59

Thanks for all the opinions guys. I think I'm going to give OneDrive a go. I used Word on my iPad for the first time last night and as others have commented, Microsoft Office in general has tight integration with OneDrive so seems like the way to go.

lumencreative · 10 Mar 2015 at 10:43

andrewohare said:
I use Onedrive so that I can switch between mac & Pc with no issue

plus I sub to Office 365 so gives me 1TB One drive space and the latest office suite for Mac & PC

I went ahead and tried OneDrive but I was sorely disappointed.

As we subscribe to Office 365 Business Premium, it made sense to try OneDrive first as the 'free' option (given that we already subscribe to Office 365), however, I think we may be opting for Dropbox instead.

There are obviously pro's and con's for both but I will list my main ones below. Please note these comments are based on my experience using the Mac.

OneDrive
If you subscribe to Office365, it makes complete sense to use OneDrive, given that each user gets 1TB of free cloud storage. Doesn't really matter what you use it for but its free storage so use it

I like the way OneDrive is so tightly integrated to Microsoft Office, and things that I save on my Mac or PC are instantly (almost) available on my iPad and iPhone, however, that's about it.

Sharing files and folders on the mac is a bit of a pain in OneDrive and considering OneDrive for business is aimed at teams and collaboration, you would think this would be easier. There are 'share' options in the iOS apps though so it's possible that this function exists in Windows as well. Firstly, to share anything, you have to log into the web version of OneDrive to share anything with anyone. Then, you can't see folders on your Mac/PC that have been shared with you (and this is by design), so you have to log into the web interface to access shared folders.

What makes this even worse is that there's an automatic folder in OneDrive for sharing files with anyone else in your company, and even this folder doesn't sync between different users machines, so you still need to access the Web Interface.

It would make much more sense for this folder to be more of a central repository for files that are sync'd between all users within the company (as the name of the folder suggests).

Sharing files or folders with anyone outside of the company is a little bit easier, in that you click share, enter an email address and away you go, however, the recipient then has to either have a hotmail/outlook account, or create one before they can access the files.

Dropbox
To be fair, dropbox has always been great which is why it's so popular. I have had a free account with Dropbox since its early days but never really used it for much. I have got 4.75GB of free storage which isn't much nowadays.

The main reason I wanted to avoid Dropbox is because I would have to spend £79 per user as appose to OneDrive being in with what we already pay to Microsoft.

The thing that jumps out at me is the sharing. To be honest, this is the main function I am looking for in a solution, the ability to share files with colleagues and/or customers.

With dropbox, you see all shared files and folders right on your PC/Mac/iPad/iPhone, just as you would expect. You can also share files with the ease of a right click. Dropbox gives you the option of sharing via email which gives you a url to paste into your emails. When someone goes to that url, they are not required to create an account, or log in to anything.

It's hard to dismiss OneDrive completely because it can be a good system, and as I said earlier, it's 1TB of cloud storage that if you subscribe of Office 365, is free. However, it has some serious shortfalls which from the reading I've done, is by design.

Microsoft appear to have been intentional about not accessing shared files and folders from the OneDrive apps, which is a real shame.

The jury is still out for us as I am really reluctant to pay £79 for every person that needs Dropbox like functionality so I am eagerly awaiting a response from Microsoft as to whether they will be allowing Sharing in the near future.

lumencreative · 10 Mar 2015 at 12:53

Peg said:
Have you had a look at using the Filestation package with your Synology NAS? Right clicking on the files on your NAS in Filestation gives various sharing options. You can share via email with non account holders and even set time limits as to how long the link is live.

Thanks for commenting. I didn't know you could share using Filestation, so thanks for that tip. I will have a look, but unfortunately I have now sold all of the drives out of the Synology, and was planning on selling the Synology itself.

I will have to do some sums and see what would be the most cost effective solution. Of course, if this is a viable option, I could sell the Synology I have and buy a cheaper model.