- Joined
- Jan 5, 2007
- Messages
- 225
- Reaction score
- 3
- Points
- 18
- Location
- Norfolk, England
- Your Mac's Specs
- White Macbook (refurb), 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo, 2 GB Memory, 60GB HDD
Below is my explanation of why I think iDisk is a dead feature for me and why I plan to use Back to My Mac instead.
(if you don't know what I'm on about, check out Apple's explanation of iDisk and Back to My Mac.
THE PROBLEMS I HAVE WITH IDISK
I've been using iDisk for a few days now and let's just say it's not been the most enjoyable experience I've had using an Apple product.
1) I started using iDisk without "iDisk Sync" turned on (default setting). "iDisk Sync" allows you to keep a copy of your iDisk contents on your local hard drive. Any changes you make locally is then synced to the cloud every now and then. With the default setting of "iDisk Sync" off, I accessed the files straight off the 'cloud' instead.
But then I found out that without having a local copy of the files on my iDisk drive i.e. "iDisk Sync" turned on, any attempt to Spotlight files located on the iDisk wouldn't return results. That's because Spotlight doesn't index the iDisk contents when it's in the 'cloud'.
So, to enable me to Spotlight files, I turned "iDisk Sync" on.
2) Sometimes though I would open a file from the iDisk on my iMac, do some work on it, and then use my Macbook somewhere else and inadvertently open the same file and make some changes.
You can imagine what happened. It would get all muddled up (because now there's two local copies) and I'd inevitably end up losing work or face the tedious job of patching the two together. I know I should've used the Share Screen feature first to check but I simply often forgot.
3) But even when I was only opening the file in one place at a time, very often I would then experience syncing problems ("last sync failed") which in essence meant that I could never trust whether my local copy was up-to-date anyway. I could've solved this by turning iDisk Sync off and keeping it in the 'cloud', but then I would be back to problem no. 1!
HOW BACK TO MY MAC SOLVES THESE PROBLEMS
Luckily, just a few hours ago, a revelation occurred to me. Why do I need iDisk when I have Back to My Mac which is also bundled with MobileMe?
With Back to My Mac I could access my hard drive just like I would with iDisk. The only difference is that it would work more like iDisk with "iDisk Sync" off i.e. I would need to mount the drive first before using it. But after that it's just like having a local hard drive.
It eliminates problem no. 1 too because Spotlight via Finder works great with remote files in Back to My Mac.
Back to My Mac doesn't directly solve problem no. 2 but at least I'm visually reminded to use 'Share Screen' to see if the file is open on the remote machine first; and if it is, close it before opening it on my local Mac. The reminder comes from the Share Screen button right there in the Finder when I first connect using Back to My Mac.
And there's no syncing needed! So it completely gets rid of problem no. 3!
The other major benefit I've noticed is that often I'm on the same wireless network as the 'remote' computer. And so any operation I perform on the remote hard drive, such as saving changes that I had made to a document using my local Pages app, happens so much quicker because of the difference between your average wireless network speed (11 Mbps) and your average internet speed (1 Mbps).
When I used iDisk, even if both computers were on the same wireless network, it would still try to use the internet speed when performing operations.
So Back to My Mac solves problems 1, 2 and 3, and wins it by giving me another benefit in no. 4!
OTHER STUFF AND THE ONLY REASON I CAN THINK OF WHY IDISK IS STILL ALIVE
What Back to My Mac isn't designed for though is to allow multiple people to collaborate on a document held in a central place, or sharing files publicly with anybody, not just with your other Macs.
With iDisk, you would generally place the file(s) you want to share in the Public folder within iDisk (which is automatically created for you, specifically designed for this purpose). Anyone can then access (and potentially write) the file(s) by visiting your designated Public folder URL (you can password protect the folder if you wish for added security).
However, in my uses of my Mac, I haven't found myself needing to collaborate with other people over a document or project that much at all. If I do need to collaborate it would usually be over a Pages or Word document, and I would just use the amazing Change Tracking tool with comments feature in Pages or the equivalent in Microsoft Word.
I'm sure other people need to collaborate for other reasons, using different programs, though. So if anybody reads this can you reply with how you use iDisk for your purpose?
In regards to sharing files publicly with other people (not just your other macs), it's also something which I don't do very often. Obviously using iDisk allows anyone to access those files whenever they want, but I don't usually require a server-hosted solution. My current solutions are to simply share it over iChat, email, or use my web-sharing feature to put files there instead.
Have I identified all of my options? I'm sure there are other ways to do so without using iDisk. If you know of me, feel free to school me.
Anyway the point of this post is, if you're like me and don't really need to using the Public folder for the above reasons, consider switching to Back to My Mac.
I am.
(if you don't know what I'm on about, check out Apple's explanation of iDisk and Back to My Mac.
THE PROBLEMS I HAVE WITH IDISK
I've been using iDisk for a few days now and let's just say it's not been the most enjoyable experience I've had using an Apple product.
1) I started using iDisk without "iDisk Sync" turned on (default setting). "iDisk Sync" allows you to keep a copy of your iDisk contents on your local hard drive. Any changes you make locally is then synced to the cloud every now and then. With the default setting of "iDisk Sync" off, I accessed the files straight off the 'cloud' instead.
But then I found out that without having a local copy of the files on my iDisk drive i.e. "iDisk Sync" turned on, any attempt to Spotlight files located on the iDisk wouldn't return results. That's because Spotlight doesn't index the iDisk contents when it's in the 'cloud'.
So, to enable me to Spotlight files, I turned "iDisk Sync" on.
2) Sometimes though I would open a file from the iDisk on my iMac, do some work on it, and then use my Macbook somewhere else and inadvertently open the same file and make some changes.
You can imagine what happened. It would get all muddled up (because now there's two local copies) and I'd inevitably end up losing work or face the tedious job of patching the two together. I know I should've used the Share Screen feature first to check but I simply often forgot.
3) But even when I was only opening the file in one place at a time, very often I would then experience syncing problems ("last sync failed") which in essence meant that I could never trust whether my local copy was up-to-date anyway. I could've solved this by turning iDisk Sync off and keeping it in the 'cloud', but then I would be back to problem no. 1!
HOW BACK TO MY MAC SOLVES THESE PROBLEMS
Luckily, just a few hours ago, a revelation occurred to me. Why do I need iDisk when I have Back to My Mac which is also bundled with MobileMe?
With Back to My Mac I could access my hard drive just like I would with iDisk. The only difference is that it would work more like iDisk with "iDisk Sync" off i.e. I would need to mount the drive first before using it. But after that it's just like having a local hard drive.
It eliminates problem no. 1 too because Spotlight via Finder works great with remote files in Back to My Mac.
Back to My Mac doesn't directly solve problem no. 2 but at least I'm visually reminded to use 'Share Screen' to see if the file is open on the remote machine first; and if it is, close it before opening it on my local Mac. The reminder comes from the Share Screen button right there in the Finder when I first connect using Back to My Mac.
And there's no syncing needed! So it completely gets rid of problem no. 3!
The other major benefit I've noticed is that often I'm on the same wireless network as the 'remote' computer. And so any operation I perform on the remote hard drive, such as saving changes that I had made to a document using my local Pages app, happens so much quicker because of the difference between your average wireless network speed (11 Mbps) and your average internet speed (1 Mbps).
When I used iDisk, even if both computers were on the same wireless network, it would still try to use the internet speed when performing operations.
So Back to My Mac solves problems 1, 2 and 3, and wins it by giving me another benefit in no. 4!
OTHER STUFF AND THE ONLY REASON I CAN THINK OF WHY IDISK IS STILL ALIVE
What Back to My Mac isn't designed for though is to allow multiple people to collaborate on a document held in a central place, or sharing files publicly with anybody, not just with your other Macs.
With iDisk, you would generally place the file(s) you want to share in the Public folder within iDisk (which is automatically created for you, specifically designed for this purpose). Anyone can then access (and potentially write) the file(s) by visiting your designated Public folder URL (you can password protect the folder if you wish for added security).
However, in my uses of my Mac, I haven't found myself needing to collaborate with other people over a document or project that much at all. If I do need to collaborate it would usually be over a Pages or Word document, and I would just use the amazing Change Tracking tool with comments feature in Pages or the equivalent in Microsoft Word.
I'm sure other people need to collaborate for other reasons, using different programs, though. So if anybody reads this can you reply with how you use iDisk for your purpose?
In regards to sharing files publicly with other people (not just your other macs), it's also something which I don't do very often. Obviously using iDisk allows anyone to access those files whenever they want, but I don't usually require a server-hosted solution. My current solutions are to simply share it over iChat, email, or use my web-sharing feature to put files there instead.
Have I identified all of my options? I'm sure there are other ways to do so without using iDisk. If you know of me, feel free to school me.
Anyway the point of this post is, if you're like me and don't really need to using the Public folder for the above reasons, consider switching to Back to My Mac.
I am.
