Syncing Projects to Cloud

Hi.
I always keep the working projects folder on a local drive. I use Googledrive web interface to backup Cubase projects on an ad hoc basis. Anyone use Google drive desktop to do cloud sync? Is it minimally invasive - does it work quietly in the background? Any comments welcome re other cloudsync apps [Windows 10].
Many thanks

Hi,

Sorry, there are known issues and crashes of any kind of these cloud syn services are involved.

I agree with @Martin.Jirsak - best to stay away from any sort of cloud sync software touching your Cubase project directories.

I can highly recommend (and have been using for years) https://www.goodsync.com/ to synchronize your local directories with various cloud providers (or local network drives, USB drives etc.). It’s powerful, reliable, and very flexible in terms of setting up a sync/backup strategy.

My take on this is that the problem with services such as Google Drive and Dropbox is the behind-the-scenes method they use to copy locked files (aka files currently in use, like a Cubase project .cpr.) This causes errors to happen because the OS’s file system has conflicting metadata for a particular file.

I’ve been using sync.com for a few years on Mac and Windows. I presume they use the correct method because I have not, in all this time. had any problems. It’s not free, (well, they do give away 5gb of storage as a kind of try-out thing) that might have something to do with it, I suppose.

2 Likes

I use Microsoft OneDrive to back up my computer.

After reading these comments, I wonder if i should disable it before i boot Cubase up.

I do occasionally have random crashes, which i have attributed to various things like ARA 2 unreliability, old machine, etc.

Not to say those factors don’t play a role in my occasional crashes, but maybe there’d be less with OneDrive off.

(I backup my project folder on my audio drive to an external HDD after every session, AOMEI brand software; the OneDrive is just incidentally running for other, non- Cubase, files).

I don’t know what method OneDrive uses to copy files, it probably is the right one though (called Shadow Copy), since they own the OS as well. I think this is the only problem that stems from using so-called cloud backup services. If you’re not having actual problems that you explicitly know are related to OneDrive, I would do nothing.

I removed OneDrive from my system though. In my own view, it’s better to not use multiple services provided by the same company. Not least because they way the company gets paid is partly from the sale of info about how you use your account. In the case of Microsoft it’s really beyond human ability to keep track of what is being tracked.

By paying for the service I see no ads, no “reminders” about products, and no suggestions on how to use it, and no mystery in regard to errors related to it.

2 Likes

Thanks everyone. I was thinking it would probably be a bad idea to have cubase reading and writing to a project folder that is also syncing to cloud storage. I was thinking along the lines of copying the main working cubase project folder to another location after a session, like a normal backup - then sync that other backup location to the cloud. Seems sensible maybe…

That’s the way it’s done old school. But I really like not having to remember to do that, because I don’t like waking up at 3 in the morning in a cold-sweat-panic-attack wondering if I actually remembered to copy the folder.

Using sync.com , no intervention from me is needed.

Ah, I actually prefer to not having these syncs run automatically so that I have control over when things get sync’d:

Sometimes I want to make sure that a change I just made immediately gets propagated to my various backup locations because I really want to make sure I don’t lose it, and sometimes I don’t want to sync for a while because I’m trying stuff out and would much rather have the previously sync’d backup available to me to revert to in case I mess things up beyond repair.

And running a sync before I shut down my computer for the day and leave the studio is so ingrained in me by now that I won’t lose sleep over it. I guess different people have different ways of working :slight_smile:

Hi,

I use a tool called Resilio Sync. This syncs across the internet, but it isn’t a cloud sync tool it’s a peer-to-peer sync tool, i.e. one computer to one or more others. So, I have another computer away from my studio and they both keep in sync pretty much instantly across the internet/LAN. It doesn’t sync the CPR files while Cubase has them open but once I do a SaveAs (and I always SaveAs with a new version number to keep my project development history) or when new Cubase backup versions are created then it syncs them. Never had any trouble with this tool, been using it for years. Actually, I use it as well to sync with other musicians which I collaborate with so they can work on the projects as well (at different times!) and also to sync my laptop so I can work remotely if I need to. Very similar to cloud syncing but there’s no cloud storage it’s always local to a computer.

The other thing I do is what I call my long term backup. I have a 12 TB hard disk and I use SynBack to copy all changed files on 3 hard disks over to the backup disk. I’ve set it up so that the studio PC boots itself at 4am, the backup starts, and when it finishes then the PC shuts down. This I did with the alarm in the BIOS to boot up, the task scheduler to start the backup and SynBack to shutdown the PC. SynBack also emails me with success or failure so I can monitor that it’s working or not.

Mike.