Storing/Working on Logic Projects from iCloud Drive?

[Jonathan Levine]

Not sure if anyone else does this, but I’ve thought about moving my Logic project files over to iCloud Drive and wasn’t sure how good of an idea that would be. I’d like to keep some more important files like my personal sample library and Logic projects in iCloud as a precautionary measure in case anything ever happened to my backup SSD or Mac. Also, could I run into any potential problems running projects off of iCloud Drive like slower load times, bugs, etc.?

 

Any feedback is appreciated. 

[Atlas007]

All of the concerns you mentioned are potential havoc that could indeed happen...

Edited September 12, 2022 by Atlas007

[triplets]

11 hours ago, JonathanLevine said:

Also, could I run into any potential problems running projects off of iCloud Drive like slower load times, bugs, etc.?

You betcha. Physical drives are the most reliable option.

[David Nahmani]

11 hours ago, JonathanLevine said:

wasn’t sure how good of an idea that would be.

It's not a good idea, especially if your project needs to stream audio data in real time (audio tracks, samples...).

[beebeeveevee]

I use iCloud Drive. It's probably worth noting that it's not a DropBox-type product - it's more of a sync'd version of your local disk. It's hard to explain but there are good web resources on it. The way I have things set up here is that I have a local folder which is sync'd to iCloud Drive. So I'm still working locally, essentially, but it's constantly backing up that same folder to iCloud. I imagine there are ways you can do a similar thing in other cloud storage products, but I get iCloud as part of the Apple One subscription, so it makes sense for me. I have not had any problems in the 1+ year I've been using it so far. 

I don't use it to save space, just to alleviate the fear of losing all my work. I use a time machine drive too, just in case.

[Jonathan Levine]

Yeah, that’s what I figured too. I know that you can download the files locally from the cloud like you said, so you are essentially just working on them from the SSD anyway while they’re still being backed up to iCloud. I might try working on a few new projects that are stored on iCloud Drive and downloaded locally to see if that method would work well. Thanks for the help guys!

[David Nahmani]

Just now, JonathanLevine said:

I know that you can download the files locally from the cloud like you said, so you are essentially just working on them from the SSD anyway while they’re still being backed up to iCloud. I might try working on a few new projects that are stored on iCloud Drive and downloaded locally to see if that method would work well.

Yes, that sounds like a good method, and shouldn't take too long to download/upload as long as you have a fast connection. 

[cpaesano]

I tried working off my iCloud Drive about a year ago.  I ran into issues when using the loop packs.  Because of the entire Logic Pro project was stored in a iCloud drive, the loop index would fail and all the loops would disappear after trying to apply filters to find a loop.  I spent several weeks with Apple Support.  We could not figure it out until I moved my LPX projects out of the iCloud Drive.  Problem solved after that. 

I am still in need of finding a workaround for this.  I want to rely on an external drive to back up my files.  If you have any working ideas, let me know.

[wonshu]

28 minutes ago, cpaesano said:

I am still in need of finding a workaround for this.

You could work in a local folder under, let's say ~/Documents/Projects Internal/

Then you set up a task in Carbon Copy Cloner (or if you're good with the terminal, you create a LaunchAgent with an rsync command) to sync that folder to a folder on the iCloud Drive. That way you always have the latest version synced to the cloud, but you're working locally. Huge downside to this is, that you have the audio data twice on your machine. You could avoid that with Carbon Copy Cloner by not syncing to a folder but syncing to a disk image that sits in iCloud. But then that images syncing will take a long time the bigger it gets.

Or you setup the sync script so that it ignores all .wav and .aif files and only sync the project files to iCloud...

Lots of options. Nothing without downsides.

If your goal is, that you have your projects available on a different computer, then I would recommend just working on an external drive. Much less confusion. Unfortunately Logic is not good with working off of networked drives. 

[cpaesano]

7 hours ago, wonshu said:

You could work in a local folder under, let's say ~/Documents/Projects Internal/

Then you set up a task in Carbon Copy Cloner (or if you're good with the terminal, you create a LaunchAgent with an rsync command) to sync that folder to a folder on the iCloud Drive. That way you always have the latest version synced to the cloud, but you're working locally. Huge downside to this is, that you have the audio data twice on your machine. You could avoid that with Carbon Copy Cloner by not syncing to a folder but syncing to a disk image that sits in iCloud. But then that images syncing will take a long time the bigger it gets.

Or you setup the sync script so that it ignores all .wav and .aif files and only sync the project files to iCloud...

Lots of options. Nothing without downsides.

If your goal is, that you have your projects available on a different computer, then I would recommend just working on an external drive. Much less confusion. Unfortunately Logic is not good with working off of networked drives. 

Good options.  The more I learn about this particular issue, the more I am leaning to accept the reality of going with the old fashion routine backups to an external drive.  Too much automation handling this data leaves me with no control and hands off monitoring.  Thanks a lot for the detailed response.