ICloud – Take the iCloud Plunge

icloudipod-touch

I want to understand committing to using iCloud given my particular needs, which to date I totally avoid except for "find my mac." Consequences, gotchas, costs – both money and time, an upgrade tread mill trap, etc. E.G. "useful" trumps unicorns and rainbows.

I'm reading questions and much of it is old. That's minute details anyway, I need a bigger picture with relevant detail to make sure I'm not screwing myself in some way.

Cause for Pause

The nuclear option: if I disconnect from iCloud everything iClouded on that device is deleted. That. sounds. bad. Like no backing out, ever?! It seems like any backup recovery puts the computer back to a wired-to-the-cloud state.

Buggy iCloud? When first introducted iCloud was quickly turned off by Apple, people fired, and months of rework preceeded a re-introduction of iCloud. Pervasive glitches in the nooks and crannies due to sheer complexity?

Convoluted processes: Might customizing (or the lack thereof) iCloud doom me to a lifetime of jumping thru hoops thus making the whole thing not worth it?

Vague security and privacy concerns: synching via public WiFi hotspots. iCloud means no air gap (yeah, the "air gap" myth). General iCloud security, "ownership", what Apple does w/ iClouded stuff.

Unforseen show stoppers due to hardware, software, personal-needs differences.

Synergy and benefits I'm simply unaware of.

General mindset: Living fully wired/connected 24/7? I'm just not feeling it. But obviously I would not have made this post if I was absolutely against alien technology; no conspiracy theorist, I.

My Landscape

  1. 2008 iMac that cannot upgrade beyond El Capitan
  2. MPB 2011 on Sierra
  3. iPod on iOS 10.2
  4. MacBook Air 2015 model on Sierra
  5. Keep the iMac beyond mere inconvenience.
  6. I locally backup all my computers. iPod is backed up on iTunes.
  7. Different people
    • MacBook Air, let's call it "ID1"
    • All other devices, collectively call it "ID2"
    • I've read threads about separate AppleIDs. Use a common ID for purchases, separate IDs for all else. But that needs some tweaking; see below
  8. Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) functions.
    • Reliably synch calendar and contacts across all devices
    • ID1, ID2: separate email, browser history/bookmarks
  9. Photos
    • Decades of photos – Is it all or nothing?
    • Sharing and syncing photos behind our household firewall is all I really need; I think.
    • I don't know if I completely grock iCloud implications of "camera roll" vis-a-vis "photo stream". I think of my photo "library" as one thing.
  10. No iPhone
    • iCloud/iOS gotchas because an iPod is not an iPhone. EVERYTHING is iPhone centric now.
    • Don't ask. I'm a kool-aide drinking Apple fan boy since pre-Macintosh yet I choose to no longer have an iPhone. iPhone 6 jump the shark pricing + provider pricing + engineered upgrading + reality check = the total cost of ownership last straw.
  11. Unnecessary $$$ for unnecessary storage
    • I don't need instant iPhoto Photos synching?
    • I backup my computers at home.
  12. iTunes
    • I'm old school. I "own" my music. I don't subscribe to Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, etc.
    • "match my music" doesn't make sense from my perspective. But I'm open to new concepts.
    • iCloud induced creeping storage costs, crippled functionality, other?

Best Answer

  1. Back up your devices
  2. Jump in the iCloud pool
  3. See if you like it

Given your landscape, having one set of photos instead of managing them on many devices alone seems worth simplifying things via iCloud. I'm also a big fan of iTunes Match and Apple Music despite having tens of thousands of CD and phonograph recordings digitized.

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