Cloud Storages Compared - Part 4

   See Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, for comparisons and details of different cloud storage functionalities.

 In this post I am evaluating how cloud providers deal with symbolic links. If you don't want to read, I'll save you the rest: THEY DON'T DEAL WITH THEM WELL. Read on for the best approach to this problem.

What are symlinks?

 Final Cut Pro use symbolic links (symlinks) to manage media within Libraries. They are Aliases files that point to a file stored externally. In FCP case, Media files. If I backup my FCP Libraries to the cloud, I don't want symlinks to be screwed with.

 In this example I created a simple FCP Project with a Folder "Test FCP Project" containing 5 folders: "Original Media", "FCP Libraries", "FCP Cache", FCP Backups", and "FCP Media".

 The last 3 are necessary for each FCP Library to work properly. I added the first 2 as it is the way I like to organize my projects, and they are self explanatory.

 When you look into the FCP Library "Test FCP.fcpbundle", by right clicking and choosing Show Package Content, you will see that FCP uses a symbolic link of the "O Estudio.mov" media that is stored externally in the "Original Media" folder I created specifically for this project. That's the way I like to work. Store Media separately, not in the fcpbundle Library itself.  Makes projects management and backups more efficient. I want my FCP Libraries as lean as possible, and that means no media ever stored within the Library itself.

 Inside the FCP Library, there is an automatically created "Original Media" folder, containing the symbolic link O Estudio.mov recognizable by the small arrow in the icon, the Alias Kind, and the small size compared to the actual file it's referencing. FCP needs this symbolic link to point at the actual media file stored externally and load it in the Library.

 Mega. Unfortunately cloud storages are not good with symbolic links. This is what happens when I upload the Project file to Mega, on the web app it seems normal:

 Looking into the Library "Test FCP.fcpbundle" reveals that the symbolic link is gone. Mega has ignored it:

 If I now download the Test FCP Project file from Mega to my computer this is what I get:

  Empty folders "FCP Backups" and "FCP Media" have not been downloaded, they do not exist anymore.

 When opening the fcpbundle Library, the symlink inside 6-22-26 has been deleted, with its containing folder "Original Media", that is now empty. "_Temp", and "Motion Template" folders, automatically created by FCP and empty at the start have also been deleted.

 This proves that you cannot store Final Cut Pro Libraries without first creating an archive, i.e. compressing / zipping the folder or files. If you don't, you will loose symlinks and empty folders, messing up the structure of your project, and of the Library itself.

 With Mega, and most cloud providers as we will see in this post, you must first Compress the folder/file and create a ZIP archive prior to uploading or backing up. That's the only way to keep the project integrity.

Locally, with Mega desktop app, or if drag and dropping the Library to the Mega sync drive, symlinks will trip Mega, and the sync will immediately stop. At least Mega pops an alert on the desktop app when it encounters symlinks, the web app doesn't even alert you.

 You can only choose to ignore the symlink to continue syncing, and in doing so you will loose it as it won't be backed up. 

 Again in order to hide the symbolic links from Mega, and keep the project and library exactly structured as the original, you must Zip the project folder, or Zip the Library before dropping it inside Mega sync Drive / folder or on the web app.

 GoogleDrive web ignores symlinks, they do not get uploaded. No alerts. GoogleDrive does not delete empty folders. 

No more symlink when uploading from the web.

GoogleDrive desktop app / sync folder on the other end looks like it keeps the symlink intact.

Symlink present in Google Drive local sync folder.

And symlink also present on the web - when uploading via the Mac desktop only.

 Alas when round-tripping, downloading the fcpbundle from the web GoogleDrive, Final Cut Pro crashes on trying to open the Library. Something happened during round tripping and the symlink got damaged. It looks different upon download. 

Symlink not recognized as Alias. Something happened and it got damaged.

So as with Mega, compressing / Zipping is the way with Google Drive, even though the presence of symlinks do not trip the sync.

 kDrive on the web ignores symlinks. No alerts. kDrive does not delete or ignores empty folders. kDrive Desktop app feign to be fine with symlinks: when you drop a fcpbundle into the local synced kDrive it shows the symlink present, only for the sync to FAIL. And it does not clearly say it's failing because of the symlink, and it's put on pause indefinitely.

Symlink gone on kDrive

 Internxt sneakinly and silently plain ignores and does not upload the complete "Test FCP.fcpbundle", not on the web, not on the desktop app/local drive. No alert on the web nor on the desktop app. It's not backed-up.

Entire fcpbundle gone from Internxt

 Jottacloud uploads without warning, ignoring symlink, and its enclosing Original Media folder, on both the web and the desktop app. Dragging the Library to the local synced folder shows both the symlink and folder, but they stay local and are not synced to the cloud.

Symlink gone from Jotta in the cloud.

 FolderFort behaves the same as Jottacloud.

 pCloud web ignores and does not upload the symlink. If you try to copy the Library to the locally mounted pDrive, it flashes an error code 100078 and doesn't upload anything. Empty folders are respected.

 iCloud. Dropping the folder into the iCloud local drive shows the symlink present. On the web, iCloud recognize the fcpbundle as a Final Cut Pro Library. Downloading the bundle still has the symlink present, yeah! The roundtrip works.

iCloud respects symlinks.

 Unfortunately, Apple iCloud, for all its automation (or maybe because of it)  is a really aggravating cloud service for the advanced user:

 #1, SHAME ON YOU! APPLE for not implementing direct download of a folder. Apple forces people to sign to iCloud. You cannot share an anonymous link. DropBox used to do that and I hated it, this is beyond stupid.

No download, only share.

 #2 How convoluted do you need to make this Apple? Can't you just give us a "create download link" at the browser level? Is it too much to ask? Really?

OK Apple, forcing my hand, I'll share.

OK, I copy the link and send it to friend.

Apple forcing 3rd party to sign in to iCloud. BAD BEHAVIOR!

No anonymous direct download link??! WTF Apple???

 #3 iCloud on the web sends an error message: "Can't upload folders". Seriously Apple? What is this? That's a serious and aggravating limitation. If you drop just the fcpbundle Library to iCloud web, it works fine, the symlink and entire structure is respected, including empty folders. So iCloud is perfectly capable of dealing with folders. Incredibly cringe. 

 OneDrive on the web behaves the same as kDrive. Empty folders present, symlink gone. No alerts.

Nope, symlink is not uploaded via OneDrive web, no alerts.

Empty folders are present.

Symlink is gone.

OneDrive desktop app on the other end leaves everything intact including the symlink! Copying the fcpbundle back from OneDrive local sync drive to another location on the local Mac drive keeps the symlink, and Final Cut Pro opens the Library just fine!

Uploading from the desktop app by just drag and dropping into OneDrive sync drive.

No alerts or error messages.

Symlink present when uploading to the cloud only, and round-tripping back to the Mac.

Although its icon looks different now, Final Cut Pro has no problem opening the Library.

Symlink present on the web as well after desktop syncing the Library.

 That's a big Surprise. OneDrive has found a way to deal with symlinks.  On the desktop solely though. That said, it appears that you cannot "Free up space" with a fcpbundle. It stays on the sync local OneDrive no matter what you do:

Free up space does not work. fcpbundle stays stubbornly local.

 Drime ignores symlinks and does not upload them. Empty folders are preserved. No alert on the web app.

Upload complete??? I don't think so.

 The desktop app flashes an error: Something went wrong! And is unable to sync. No further explanation. As long as the symlink is present on the local Drime drive, the sync will fail.

Sync failure because a symlink is present on the Drime local sync drive.

Drime is unable to sync, but doesn't help you figure out why.

 Dropbox fails to upload the symlink, and also fails at uploading empty folders on the web. At least it presents a log of the errors, for the empty folders only, no mention of symlinks:

DropBox displaying Microsoft / Apple syndrome:

why have user click once when you can force them to click many times?

Empty files cannot be uploaded. OK, a symlink mention would have helped.

Empty folders gone.

No symlink.

Icedrive ignores both symlinks and empty folders, no alerts whatsoever.

Empty folders gone. 100% upload... I don't think so.

No symlink.

 Sync uploads empty folders just fine, and flashes an error: cannot upload empty file. Does not mention symlink per se, but better than most. Of course no symlink is present in the cloud.

Error message. Empty files cannot be uploaded.

Symlinks cannot be uploaded would have helped.

All empty folders present.

No symlink.

Recap.

 Except for iCloud and OneDrive, no love for symlinks from any of the cloud providers in this list. Solution: Compress / ZIP your ".fcpbundle" Library, or your entire project before syncing/uploading it to the cloud.

Cloud Provider	Upload symlink on web app	Upload symlink on desktop app / sync folder	Alert Message	Sync stops	Upload and respects empty folders
iCloud	Yes	Yes	No	No	No, iCloud cannot upload folders of any kind via web. What a disgrace.
OneDrive	No	Yes (*)	Yes	No	Yes
Mega	No	No	Yes, but only on desktop	Yes	No
GoogleDrive	No	No (**)	No	No	Yes
Internxt	No, entire fcpbundle gets ignored	No	No	No	No
kDrive	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
DropBox	No	No	Yes	No	No
Drime	No	No	Yes, only on desktop	Yes	Yes
JottaCloud	No	No	No	No, but symlinks do not get synced	No
PCloud	No	No	Yes, only on desktop	Yes	Yes
FolderFort	No	N/A	No	No	No
Icedrive	No	No (**)	No	No	No
Sync	No	No (**)	No	No	Yes

 

(*) Cannot free up local space with ".fcpbundle" files, they stay local.

(**) It looks like the symlink is being uploaded, it even shows up on the web, but it is in fact damaged. Upon download, the ".fcpbundle" is broken and either Final Cut Pro cannot open it, or the media is unlinked and cannot be relinked.

DaVinci Resolve 21 Is Out!

 DaVinci Resolve version 21 is out! So many new things, so little time!

From BlackMagic:

 DaVinci Resolve 21 introduces the Photo page, bringing Hollywood's most advanced color tools to still photography! A new generation of AI tools let you search media by content, read slate data, perform de-aging, blemish removal and more. The Edit and Cut pages have improved keyframing and greater graphic format support. Color page workflows are optimized with MultiMaster trim passes, layer list node graphs and group versions. Fusion offers over 70 new graphics via the powerful Krokodove toolset. Fairlight’s folder function simplifies audio track management and navigation. Plus, increased support for immersive and VR workflows puts you at the forefront of the latest deliverable technologies.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/whatsnew

Splash screen

What's new in DVR 21? Photo page and more! Some are only for the paid "Studio" version.

Old projects do need an update.

Once updated, V21 projects cannot be opened with older versions of Resolve.

How To Bulk Transfer Contacts From One iCloud Account To Another

  Apple makes transferring contacts in bulk from one iCloud account to another somewhat painless on the web.

 Log into the first iCloud account on the web.

 Go to Contact app.

 Select all contacts you want to export.

 Click on the Share button, and select "Export vCard.

Even though it says "Export vCard" singular, it will export multiple contacts in a single ".vcf" file.

 Name and save the .vcf file somewhere safe.

 Log out the first iCloud account.

 Log into the second iCloud account.

 Go to Contact app.

 Click on the + button.

Even though it says "Import Contact" singular, it will import multiple contacts from a single ".vcf" file.

 Select the ".vcf" file to import.

 Wait for a while, if you have a lot of contacts the process can take several minutes and there is no progress indicator whatsoever, it looks like nothing is happening. I wish Apple would add some kind of progress bar with a percentage of completion or something!

 After some time the contact list gets populated.

 Done!

 Delete the ".vcf" file if you so desire, or keep it somewhere safe as a backup.

Cloud Storages Compared - Part 3

  In Part 1 and Part 2 I look at the pros and cons of a handful of cloud providers. I dive into the nitty gritty to discover the practical differences, annoying behaviors, and other details that can make the experience enjoyable or unpleasant.

 Read on for more info as I continue my test drive. At some point I will do a recap / wrap-up and decide which provider I prefer for my own usage.

JOTTACLOUD UPDATE

 First off, I need to correct myself re. Jottacloud Selective sync capabilities.

Jottacloud does selective sync! - I updated my Part 1 post to reflet that.

In the Jottacloud settings you can select which folders get synced. Great!

JOTTACLOUD FUNCTIONS

 Jottacloud has three distinct functions: Backup, Sync and Archives.

 Backup looks at folders your device and backup any new file or updated file to the cloud. Backup is also selective as you can select which folders get backed up in the settings. Very cool. You can backup multiple devices. If something happens to your computer, you have a backup in the cloud of the data you've selected to backup.

 Sync is for files and folders you wish to share between devices. You can select any folder on your device that you want Jotta to keep in sync. As mentioned earlier, you can select which files and folders get synced within the main sync folder. That's very flexible. 

 Archive is self explanatory, and is where files and folders you occasionally use get stored. Archive is in the cloud, but is accessible - not searchable unfortunately - via the desktop app as well. It is fully searchable on the web app and iOS app, so hopefully Jotta will add the feature in a subsequent update of the macOS app. Right guys?

 I'm liking Jotta more and more. It is accessible in iOS Files as a Location, like kDrive and Drime.

DRIME DRAMA

 As I continue testing Drime, something happened on my Mac: For some reason now, only the top folder shows on the local folder and it is empty. The sync of files and folders seem to work, as files I put in the local folder get uploaded to the could just fine, but they disappear from the local folder as soon as that's done.

 The other issue I have with Drime, it uploads every single .DS_Store from my Mac, and it gets in the way of the experience.

 I wrote to the people at Drime, they haven't answered. Let see if they come up with a solution to both of these major roadblocks.

AND NOW, REAL WORLD SPEED TEST

 I just stopped my writing to do a simple upload test, as I wondered if they might be variations between providers. Surely an important consideration.

Cloud Provider	1GB file web app upload speed	Web app drag and drop to upload	Max file size	Web app drag and drop between folders	macOS app
iCloud	12 min	Yes	50 GB	Yes	Yes
OneDrive	18 min	Yes	250GB	Yes	Yes
Mega	12 min (*)	Yes	Unlimited	Yes	Yes
GoogleDrive	12 min	Yes	5TB	Yes	Yes
Internxt	12 min	Yes	40GB	Yes	Yes
kDrive	13 min	Yes	200GB/1TB (**)	Yes	Yes
DropBox	11 min	Yes	2TB	Yes	Yes
Drime	11 min	Yes	Unlimited	Yes	Yes
JottaCloud	14 min	Yes	Unlimited	NO	Yes
PCloud	12 min	Yes	Unlimited	NO	Yes
FolderFort	13 min	Yes	100GB	Yes	No
Icedrive	12min	Yes	Unlimited	Yes	Yes
Sync	13 min	Yes	Unlimited	Yes	Yes

_________________________________________________________________

 (*) Mega failed repeatedly on safari as I was trying to upload the 1GB test file (using drag and drop, and using the upload button.) It uploaded fine on Firefox.

 kDrive UPDATE: (**) Infomaniak has a bandwidth limit allowed per day and per user depending on the plan you choose. The inexpensive my kSuite+ has a (generous for its price tier) 200GB/day/user limit. The other plans are at the 1TB limit.

 Microsoft OneDrive is the slowest of the bunch. Who would have thought? Jottacloud, kDrive, FolderFort are a tad slower than the rest, which are all clocking around 11-12 min.

 I've added FolderFort to this speed test, it looks like a stripped down version of Drime. It has no macOS app, so not interesting to me at the moment.

WEB APP DRAG AND DROP TO UPLOAD

 Al providers have this function, which is fast and convenient. On the other hand, not all providers show upload progress clearly. Here is some fun comparison with screen grabs below.

UPLOADING PROGRESS VISUALS

In perfect unreadable Microsoft fashion, I give you OneDrive.

Black progress bar over dark gray line, fantastic.

No info whatsoever except the name of the file and where it's being uploaded.

Plus a useless spinning wheel. 

When you click on the expand button, you get a version with improved readability.

Why? Can't we just get that version upfront? Really, Microsoft?... I don't know, I've given up on Microsoft a long time ago.

Jottacloud large contrasty progress bar with data size progress.

Practical, not very beautiful to look at. Does the job.

The Expanded version is really only useful when uploading multiple files.

Drime really good snapshot of the action.

Data size counter, timer. Good job there.

Too bad your macOS app is broken and you are not answering to users.

kDrive, not so great display, at least it's contrasty enough.

The progress is shown in the small circle, Why?

The better, larger progress line is actually not one! It just zips endlessly there.

Data size progress indicator wins a point. But overall, bad UI from kDrive. Please improve the UI guys, you have a solid product!

iCloud clean, unencumbered display.

With just the right amount of info, as one would expect from Apple.

Data size counter, no timer though.

Although the progress bar and the wheel are kind of redundant.

Internxt clean, stripped down display, taking after Apple.

Percentage uploaded instead of actual data size.

Except I'm not sure "Processing" is the right word to use here.

DropBox has been at the game for a while and it shows.

Excellent progress bar, extended file info.

Counter, expected time of completion, and more. A winner.

Icedrive minimalistic high visibility "gadget".

Different for sure, not bad actually.

Sync.com not so great window.

No progress bar, useless spinning upper wheel.

At least it's readable, with some data counting info.

pCloud clean, stripped down window.

Missing some real time data size and time counter unfortunately.

Mega excellent panel, bravo! Another winner.

FolderFort better than Microsoft. I kid you not.

No progress bar, but high contrast UI, and data size upload progress, nice.

Inspired by Google, no doubt.

And finally GoogleDrive clean panel.

Missing size counter, with expected time of completion.

MAX FILE SIZE UPLOAD

 Only Mega, Drime, Jottacloud and PCloud offer unlimited file size upload. GoogleDrive and DropBox give you a generous 5TB and 2TB respectively. OneDrive maxes at 250GB, Folder fort at 100GB. I expected better than 50GB from iCloud and kDrive. Internxt is at the bottom of the list with a 40GB limit. Note that even though some providers have unlimited file size, in practice they have some kind of limitation that kicks in, like slower upload speeds (Jotta above 5TB of total storage), daily data upload cap; or stricter limits to the desktop app, or phone app, or web app.

WEB APP DRAG AND DROP BETWEEN FOLDERS

 This is a very intuitive, convenient and fast way to move files and folders around. Most providers do it well, DropBox does it best. Unfortunately JottaCloud nor pCloud have that feature, which makes them very passé and cumbersome to use. I hope they both implement full web drag and drop in the near future. Very important guys!

macOS APP

 Being an Apple Mac (and iPhone) user, this is a must for me. All providers on my list, except ForderFort, have a macOS app. As mentioned into Part 1,  the location of the cloud drive differ among providers. They do behave differently, and the available functions are different. I will look into user experience more in details in incoming Part 4.

 I will also look into the providers iOS apps, and how they behave. They all have one, including FolderFort, which make the lack of macOS app on their part all the more disappointing.

Stay tuned!

Cloud Storages Compared - Part 2

  In Part 1, I go through the various pros and cons of a select few cloud providers, and what I discover as I'm test using the services. Read Part 1 first and then let's continue our discovery here.

STATUS ICONS macOS DESKTOP APP

 I have to correct myself about kDrive not visually signaling the difference between offline and online files with status icons, it actually works. I noticed the same phenomena happening with DropBox status icons which are similar looking. Grey cloud icon, file in the cloud only, free checkmark, file on local drive and in the cloud.

 The problem according to Infomaniak (makers of kDrive), is that too many File Providers create confusion on the whole system, and status icons tend to disappear. If you turn other apps File Providers off and on again, the kDrive status icons appears. It's kind of random.

 It is weird that this affects every file and folder on the Mac considering each provider should only be concerned with their dedicated sync folder, not the folders of their peers. I suppose Apple has only implemented an all or nothing function at this point. Does this sound familiar?... This needs improvements.

 (*) Note that Mega nor Jotta have a cloud only option, so the status icons are only there to indicate upload in progress (red), or file fully uploaded to the cloud (green.)

 (**) pCloud always mounts the whole cloud drive as a virtual drive, with all of its content offline. Only when editing a file do pCloud download a local copy. You then have to drag it back into pCloud when done. The status icons serve the same purpose of indicating upload in progress, or file fully uploaded to the cloud.

USER SPECIFIED FOLDER macOS

 iCloud, OneDrive, GoogleDrive, and Internxt do not let user specify a local sync folder. Instead the sync folder goes to: User/youruser/Library/CloudStorage. You cannot change the location. I don't fully understand this behavior, but it sounds like Apple is imposing this new way of syncing cloud drives to the Mac. Google explanation as to how this is supposed to work makes it even more confusing. DropBox too is migrating to the File Provider way, but for now at least you can still use it the old way, and specify which folder gets synced. Depending on your needs, having or not having a user specified folder might work or not work for you. DropBox decided to update on my machine, so now it's managed by File Provider.

OK, I guess this is the new DropBox now.

Cloud Provider	Status Icons	User Specified Folder	Movies Preview	Rename Extension	Detailed Info
iCloud	Yes	No	Yes	No	Basic
OneDrive	Yes	No	Bad	No	Basic+
Mega	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Basic
GoogleDrive	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Basic
Internxt	Yes	No	Limited (***)	No	Basic
kDrive	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Basic
DropBox	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Best
Drime	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Basic
JottaCloud	Yes (*)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Basic
pCloud	Yes (**)	No (**)	Yes	Yes	Basic

M

MOVIES PREVIEWS

 As a media professional, this is essential for me. Common encoding schemes like h264 are recognized, but others (like ProRes) are not, and so unfortunately there is no preview for these less common codecs across the board. Cloud providers cater to the general public I guess.

 OneDrive previews are an abomination, they look awful, over compressed (for the sake of quick access I suppose), which makes the experience borderline useless.

(***)  Internxt systematically fails at previewing most movie files, including ".mov" and common codecs. Only previews that work seem to be h264 ".mp4".

Same thing happens with IceDrive and iDrive by the way. A h264 ".mov" file will not preview, but renaming the file ".mp4" will preview fine. Kinda dumb.

The worse is Sync.com, it has no preview for any kind of movie

RENAME EXTENSION (Web App behavior)

 iCloud, OneDrive, Internxt do not allow you to change the extension of a file in the web app. You cannot rename a ".mov" file as ".mp4" for example. I do not like that limitation.

DETAILED INFO

 Most providers only provide basic information, type of file, size, location. OneDrive gives you some useful info like frame size. DropBox is by far the best info data: capturing device, resolution, frame rate, color space, and even codec. All the others are pale in comparison.