iCloud vs. Cloudant

[Brendan]

Hey There,

I’ve been asked recently if I prefer iCloud or Cloudant. So I’ve put together some pros and cons for each. You decide.

Cloudant Pros:

1. Fast initial and subsequent syncs.
2. Pretty much a free service unless you go over $50 of usage activity per month. I don’t know any customers who have ever been charged for it.
3. You can sync your database with other people easily without sharing your iCloud login info.
4. Has a web interface so you can see all your data (although it’s not in a pretty format).

Cloudant Cons:

1. It’s not Apple.
2. The data is stored on their servers in an unencrypted format, although they assured me that their servers are secure. Data during transmission is of course encrypted.
3. If you go over $50 of usage per month, they will charge you. But almost never happens.
4. You need a username and password

iCloud Pros:

1. It’s Apple.
2. It’s free for the first 5 GB.
3. When you enable sync on one device, a placeholder document is automatically added to all your other devices. Opening it will automatically download the data from iCloud and start syncing.
4. Data is encrypted during transmission AND at rest on Apple’s servers.
5. No username or password required.

iCloud Cons:

1. Initial sync is slow because Apple throttles the traffic going to the CloudKit servers. At least that’s what I’ve read and experienced.
2. Only 5 GB of free storage.
3. No access to the CloudKit Dashboard website for non-developers (as far as I know).
4. You can’t sync with other users. Not without you both sharing the same iCloud account username and password. And if you do that, then you’re syncing everything else too, not just Tap Forms data.

So there you have it. I’m sure there are other pros and cons for each. That’s just off the top of my head.

Personally I like both iCloud and Cloudant. With iCloud it is easier to get the document synced initially because I don’t have to send the document over to the other device. It happens automatically when I enable iCloud sync. But that’s a minor thing.

[Yogie]

Hi Brendan,

is there a way to choose a dedicated iCloud account? As many others (maybe) I do have my own iCloud account that I use to sync my personal stuff. Secondary we (my wife and I) share another iCloud account with which we buy apps. As in any iOS device you can set different accounts for this purpose. So which account can be used and how to choose/set it up?

Many thanks for additional tips and help on this.

Cheers
Joerg

[Brendan]

I don’t know of a way to let a user choose which iCloud account to associate with an app. Tap Forms just uses whatever the currently selected iCloud account is. App Store accounts don’t necessarily have to be the same as iCloud accounts. So it makes sense that you can share an account for app purchase. But I’ve never seen an app ask for iCloud credentials or present a list of accounts to connect to. For iCloud, you must be logged in to the same account on all devices.

If you want to sync with another user, I suggest using one of the 3 other sync services Tap Forms provides support for.

[Sydney Barrett]

I prefer iCloud :D

[Doug Eddy]

I have not been able to function long with Cloudant. I use Tap Forms on my iPhone, iPad Pro and MBP Retina to keep my health stats for several situations. Cloudant will all of a sudden indicate it doesn’t recognize my account. iCloud has yet to work for me. And the proximity synch works fine with my iPad Pro and iPhone together but for some reason it will not recognize my iPhone. It is driving me nuts. But very frustrating because it used to synch with ease. I’m not sure what to do. – Doug Eddy

[Brendan]

Hi Doug,

Try signing out of Cloudant within Tap Forms and signing back in. Make sure the “Shared by user” field is empty. Hopefully that’ll get it going again.

For iCloud, make sure you’re not logged into Cloudant and you have no devices setup for syncing with Nearby. Then enable iCloud sync. Wait for that device to finish the entire sync process, uploading all of its data. Then enable sync on the next device, then wait, then move on to the next device, etc.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Larry]

Brendan,

I am currently using Cloudant and would like to switch to iCloud. Is it just a matter of turning off cloudant sync on all devices and then turning on iCloud sync, wait for first upload, then enable it on other device(s)?

–Larry

[Brendan]

Hi Larry,

Here’s a simple guide to switching from Cloudant to iCloud:

To switch to iCloud:

1. Make sure all your documents are in sync with each other first on every device.
2. Click the Sign-Out button on all copies of Tap Forms for all documents that you sync using Cloudant.
3. Backup all your documents on each device. Or at least on one device.
4. Remove that document from all but one device that you want to designate as the “master” document.
5. Enable iCloud sync on that one “master” document. Allow that to fully sync to iCloud.
6. A placeholder document with a little cloud w/download arrow icon should appear on each device you have logged into the same iCloud account.
7. Tap on the placeholder document to open it up. Tap Forms should start to sync it. Wait for it to sync, then move on to the next device.

That’s all you should have to do.

[Anonymous]

i prefer iCloud because You can fully share iCloud Drive space with your family now if you’re on iOS.
Source: https://www.howtoisolve.com/add-new-family-member-shared-icloud-storage-plan-iphone-mac/

[timzu]

I have to say that overall I’m really disappointed in the syncing for this version of TapForms. It worked for a while, then stopped. I switched from Cloudant to iCloud, then to doing it manually, then back to iCloud. It’s a pain and never consistant. The previous version of TapForms that only used Cloudant worked fine.
Yesterday I added a record on my iPad and it said “Syncing” for several minutes. Opened it on my iPhone and Mac and synced again, but no new record. This happens ALL the time no matter what sync service I try to use, including manual.

[robert salsbury]

Hi –

Does the iCloud sync work with the direct download version of the desktop application? I have not been having great luck with iCloud sync.

-Robert

[Brendan]

Robert, yes it does. Both the App Store and direct download versions offer the same features now.

[Brendan]

Robert, I’m referring to Tap Forms 5 by the way. I’ll have an update that supports iCloud sync with the older version of Tap Forms and removes Dropbox sync for the direct download version soon.

[Emmanuel BING]

Bonsoir,
Est-ce que cette version avec iCloud est automatique ?…
Merci,
EB

[Brendan]

Hello Emmanuel,

Yes, Tap Forms 5 has automatic sync with iCloud. As you make changes to your database documents, Tap Forms will sync them to iCloud if you’ve enabled iCloud sync.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Kurtois]

Can anyone comment on the status of IBM Cloudant and Tap Forms v5? IBM indicated there would be a change to IBM Cloudant accounts.

EDIT:
I found a post regarding this topic. Sounds like, as of this writing, this issue is still being worked on.

[Mark Kristan]

Sorry for being off topic and don’t wanna hijack your thread,but when do a search for the topic I have a question about there it brings no results and there seems to be no “post new message” sort of button – how can I start a thread and ask a question, before I commit to buying this software? (Also not seeing a “contact us” link).

[Author]

Posts