Moving from Dropbox to iCloud legacy

I just deleted my Dropbox account. Don’t need to pay for two cloud servers.

I initiated iCloud legacy syncs, but I can’t see the location of the sync stores?

I’m confused.

You aren’t going to see them as they’re not user-accessible. Why would you need to see them?

I tried using iCloud for DT syncing and went back to Dropbox. ICloud has it’s own rules on when to sync and, while its gotten better over the years, is not as robust as Dropbox. With Dropbox, files sync fast and I have had zero issues. When it was on iCloud as the main sync location, I would wait sometimes over an hour for a file to sync.

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iCloud legacy is, according to reports here, worse than CloudKit. So maybe you’d at least want to use that Apple thingy. Or perhaps read through the various threads here about issues with CloudKit and iCloud and rethink your decision.

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In addition to the other comments above, which I fully agree, keep in mind the Dropbox has a “free” account that makes 2GB available. Not sure how long that will be available, but if your synching can fit, well, try.

And iCloud itself can stall, independently of our apps. I have a Mac where iCloud gets hung up for no reason I can tell.

I use CloudKit and it’s been (fine?).

I’m curious about Dropbox sync, though. I’m not a paying customer, but if the DEVONthink to go only downloads files “on demand” — does that mean, the drop box free tier should be sufficient…? (My databases are approx 40 GB)

The stability or reachability of CloudKit is not universal. It works well for some, not for others.

And no, you can put 40GB of databases in a 2GB account.

I see, thanks! That’s an error on my side. The databases need to be uploaded in full to the Dropbox servers, makes total sense.

That is not true. Only the sync data, in encrypted form, is on the Dropbox server. The sync data is not the database and is only useable to DEVONthink for syncing.

But your DEVONthink database(s) too big for the free Dropbox account.

Do you need an internet sync service? Bonjour, which is local network only, sufficient to sync to your other devices? Bonjour is normally the quickest sync method.

Sync up with Bonjour when at your local network, and then after returning from “out and about”, sync again to bring everything back to same version.

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Only to confirm that the sync took place, which I suppose is done by the “verify” option.

In DB, you could see the files under “apps”.

I was paying for a DB upgrade and iCloud upgrade at the same time. Coming nowhere near 2 TB.

My use of DT is purely personal management, so I am not a highly dependent user.

I was at 6.75 GB in Dropbox just with DT files.

I’ve tried Bonjour briefly during the initial setup of the DEVONthink to go. But have switched to CloudKit.

Just to check: with Bonjour, all data is being synced in full to an iPhone / iPad?

Whether files are downloaded or not on your mobile device is determined by a setting. It should be independent of the sync method.

And all details of syncing are describes in detail in the manual. Which is worth reading.

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The timestamp of the last good sync is the indicator. Verify just checks if the transactional data matches between your device and the sync location.

If you ever decide to get a home NAS, I’ve been happy using it to sync Devonthink and other applications like Zotero rather than either iCloud or Dropbox. I never even looked at how much storage I’m using until I saw this thread. It’s only about 65GB for two databases, but it’s very fast. Additionally the thing that’s really helped is using Tailscale which lets me connect and sync regardless of where I am. I sync MacBook and iOS devices that way without problems.

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Thanks. I probably didn’t explain correctly. I used to use two different computers in two places and had a lot of need for Dropbox. I was paying ~$120 / year for Dropbox and as things progressed no longer need it.

Even though I back up to a local external drive, I have this auto-habit of synching as well. So, I was trying to figure out iCloud Legacy Sync

Thanks for all the tips.

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