Thank you, Adobe, for this unwarranted, unmitigated disaster that is Cloud Documents.

Hi ProDesignTools,

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I certainly see that the Libraries section offers certain benefits, all of which are predicated on all users being CC users and being invited to view (or being shared) a file via the in-app share feature.

I don't collaborate with anyone via my CC directly, but instead, to date, my practice would be simply to share output files via a link to the file's specific location within my Creative Cloud Files. This will no longer be possible from Feb 2024 (I admit, and we can agree I am sure, that there is enough time to create an alternative workflow prior to that. But it is an alterantive that is going to cost me more money. And I want to be clear that my beef here is not one against change in and of itself).

Since reading your comment the other day, and finding the time to have a bit of a feel around, I also (accidentally) clicked to open a Cloud Document Ps file on Photoshop on the web; and lo and behold the gasp of exasperation that my body emmitted, upon discovering that it is 'not yet supported by this browser'. It seems so phenomenally strange to me that the default, shipped browser on macOS does not support this. And the question here is; is this the fault of Adobe dev, or is it the fault of Apple dev (in the same way that it is the fault of Apple dev that freeform gradients do not display in Finder previews [which I believe are generated as a PDF] or as part of a final PDF file opened in Preview)?

Sorry if I seem to be veering well off topic here, but my current frustrations are many and varied 🙂

Cheers,
DTMN

Indeed, this is part of what grates my soul. I was, in part, paying my hard-earned crust to Adobe for the benefit of 100GB of storage for all my CC-related files, and now have to go pay someone else more money just to do something similar, but it won't be anywhere near the same thing.

This is not hyperbole. Cloud Documents is a shocker. You're left to rely on a half-arsed effort that only gives the option to save files as 'AIC' or 'PSDC' and there isn't even the option to default 'always make available offline'.

I live in Australia, and despite its supposed reputation as a highly developed country (lol; come for the agression and racism, stay for the bigotry), it has, at best, a third rate excuse for communications infrastructure. If I want to do some quick editing while on a train, for example, then depending on your location and/or reliablility of your phone to allow you to hotspot, or you're on a plane, you're screwed if you didn't remember to make your document offline-editable.

As Mr Smith correctly advises in another comment here, one's priority should always be a locally stored copy. So why they couldn't combine the apparently awesome super duper new features that come with Cloud Documents, with the efficiency of the exisiting Creative Cloud Files structure, is beyond me. It's the reason I avoid using Acrobat DC.

As for Lightroom CC and Mobile, holy moly. I added images to it on my phone yesterday, and they still haven't synced. And I have all options selected to use mobile data, background refresh etc. Incredible.

And what about InDesign? No way to simply, directly, link an Illustrator file where you might use several of its artboards in one project?

This is not hyperbole, it's demonstrably my actual experience.

The only thing that comes even remotely close to hyperbole is the expletive-laden rant I just went on upon discovering the typo I made in the word 'disastrous' on my first post. 🙂