This is why iCloud isn’t in more apps

Written by

Kyle Baxter:

…naturally I’ve also been thinking through how syncing should work. This seems like an easy question to answer: iCloud. If only. I wish it were that easy, but it’s not.

As a user, I want iCloud implemented in everything I use. However, for developers, there are reasons why iCloud doesn’t make sense yet.



  • http://twitter.com/SebSemmi Sebastian Semmler

    Maybe because of this, Apple wanted to buy Dropbox. They figured it out how a sync service has to work

    • gjgustav

      No, DropBox is not the be all and end all. It’s a good file level sync service. But if you want finer granularity, it can fall short.

  • swotam

    Even in the apps that have it I’ve found it to be wonky. I use iAWriter on Mac, iPad, and iPhone and (at the moment) nothing done on the Mac will sync to the iOS devices. But stuff done on the iOS devices will sync to the Mac. Also had issues with timeline sync in Tweetbot via iCloud. Sometimes it just goes off into la la land… It needs some work for sure.

  • jEN

    Many developers (Vemedio’s Martin Hering comes to my mind) have complained about how unreliable iCloud still is. If I were a dev and syncing was not an absolute necessity in my app, I’d probably wait as well.

  • DamienMcKenna

    FYI this is why the CulturedCode people, who make the Things todo system, built their own data sync system.

  • http://www.theuniversalsteve.com SSteve

    iCloud’s unreliability and incompleteness are biting the folks at Barebones. They promised to have Yojimbo syncing working long before the forced transition from MobileMe to iCloud but are still struggling to get it implemented.