Adobe is discontinuing file syncing! What are we supposed to do instead?

[ACWaters]

Adobe is discontinuing file syncing!

What are we supposed to do instead?

I use this feature ALL THE TIME. It has been great!

I am so sad it is going away. The only supported files on the Files section of the Creative Cloud are Cloud formats! SO BAD!

What are you all doing to work remotely? 

This will be such a time suck. 

Please share what you are doing  and thank you!

[ACWaters]

Adobe is discontinuing file syncing!

What are we supposed to do instead?

I use this feature ALL THE TIME. It has been great!

I am so sad it is going away. The only supported files on the Files section of the Creative Cloud are Cloud formats! SO BAD!

What are you all doing to work remotely? 

This will be such a time suck. 

Please share what you are doing  and thank you!

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Not really specific or a solution, but Adobe has a long and dismal history of rolling out adjunct features, then either abandoning them half-developed or actively discontinuing them. I could probably list ten without pausing for a sip of coffee.

It is a very poor idea to base your entire workflow, shop operation or business on any of these "sidebar" functions. As a wise old revolutionary once put it, "Anything you get free ends up costing more than it's worth... but you often don't find that out until later."

In this case, though, there are many cloud file solutions that will work just as well, albeit without any close sync for Adobe users. And most of the worthwhile ones are, oddly enough, not free.

[rob day]

What are we supposed to do instead?

I also use it. Looks like we (and our collaborators) will have to use a similar sync/share service like Dropbox, OneDrive, GoogleDrive.

The free version of those services probably isn’t going to be enough storage for design work, but they are not expensive—Dropbox Plus is $125 annually for 2TB. It’s file sync’ing and collaboration tools work the same as the Creative Cloud Files folder—you can invite other users to sync to specific job folders and there is a time machine for dropping back to earlier saved versions.

[ACWaters]

thank you!

[rob day]

Dropbox and Creative Cloud sync’ing have pretty much identical features. But it will get tricky if you are using a sync’d workflow to remotely collaborate with other CC users—you will have to agree on the service. Many users have a Dropbox account, but maybe not the paid 2TB plan, which you are probably going to need for cloud collaborations.

[BobLevine]

This is exactly why I never used it.

Dropbox and OneDrive are my recommendations. If you have a Microsoft 365 account you get 1TB included. 

[ACWaters]

Okay thank you!

[Randy Hagan]

Like other respondents here, I use other cloud storage services than Adobe's Creative Cloud online services. My primary beef is with how much local resources are tied up into Adobe "phoning home" for font, library and file resources I don't particularly want or need.

Due to a wide range of clients, I've had exposeure to a wide range of cloud storage resources — Dropbox, Box, iCloud and OneDrive, as well as a couple of less-known services. In short, if my client requires it, I'll sign up and use it to share files with them. My favorites amongst the clients I deal with are Dropbox and Box; I've personally used OneDrive as a backup cloud repository with good results too. Primarily because it's auto-installed on every Windows device I have, and as Bob Levine offers, it's free with my Office 365 subscription.

But one thing I'd never do is use autosyncing. For me, cloud storage is an archive resource. I would never use it to sync or store live files in production. It eats up too much of my local computer power I need to, like, actually work, and it uses it at unfortunate and unpredictable times. But that's my call, and I realize that's worth little more than my rules for my shop. It's not my place to say that you can't be you.

In short, I'd move my work to Dropbox (if you're willing to pay for it) or OneDrive (if you're already paying for it with an Office subscription) and not look back at Creative Cloud Files. The only things I have stored in Creative Cloud Files are a couple of generic logo graphics/files identifying my business, and class files that go with previous AdobeMAX workshop seminars.

Hope this helps,

Randy

[ACWaters]

Thanks Randy.

I am familiar with all those other services and have used them all. 

I just like the CC sync feature and honestly I pay for a fast connection and it in no way has slowed down my work at all because then it is in all my places everywhere without having to have another service. I'm not using it to share with other people, I am using it to work in different places (desktop, laptop, iPad, etc). Even if I log in to the computer at work I can access those files -- which is true of these other things, so I guess I should not complain. It's fine. 

Whatever. I can use these other 3rd party people, it is just a pain in the butt to have to change it. 

Thanks for your response!

Adrienne

[rob day]

I'm not using it to share with other people, I am using it to work in different places (desktop, laptop, iPad, etc)

Then you can choose any service—Google One has 15GB free plan.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

This is crucial. If you're a fairly unskilled, 'retail' user, yes, it's probably best if you stay with one of the shopping mall brand services. If you are a somewhat more sophisticated user and have more need than a gig or two of 'free' storage, shop around — there are many commercial services that offer low-tier, small-user services on a par with industrial file sharing and storage.

But the choice is not only whatever brand or service came in your last Cracker Jack box. 🙂

[turner111]

Funny, I asked the same thing in the CC forum & got bullied... glad I found your question here.

FWIW I'm using Dropbox daily with a client; they have a business account of some type, and it seems to be great so far. We work from files directly without any transferring first. (Only hiccup I ran into, which was a few days ago, was that I duplicated an ID file & couldn't rename it. Strange.)

Only question I really have at this point is how their backups are handled. Apparently, you can't ask them without a paid account.
Anyway, thanks again.

[rob day]

Only question I really have at this point is how their backups are handled

Hi @turner111 , I’m not sure you have to worry about that in a sync’d workflow—you and your collaborators would all have up-to-date local copies on every save, and there would also be a copy on the cloud server. Also, if you accidentally trash a file, Dropbox has a Deleted files directory where you can retrieve trashed files for a certain period of time. You do have to worry about overwriting each other and getting conflicted copies, so communication is important.

I would worry about backups with Adobe’s cloud formats (.PSDC, .AIC) where it seems like the save is only to the cloud server with no local copy.

[turner111]

Hi Rob - thanks for the note.

My client currently has backups running constantly, so even if someone overwrote something, a previous version can be pulled.

It would be great if ID recognized/honored the lock files, though.

As far as CC goes, I typically manually backed up my own stuff to various drives. Would much rather have automatic cloud backup.

[rob day]

It would be great if ID recognized/honored the lock files, though.

Last I checked none of the syncing services will sync lock files. I don’t think there is a practical way to do that, but here is a possible scripting option from @Kasyan Servetsky .

http://kasyan.ho.ua/indesign/event_scripts/warn_about_docs_open_on_dropbox/warn_about_docs_open_on_d...

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/idlk-files-over-cloud-storage/td-p/11307839

[ACWaters]

Adobe is discontinuing file syncing!

What are we supposed to do instead?

This is going to be really bad for me. I use it all the time.

How do other people work remotely?

Any thoughts on how to move forward?

[R Neil Haugen]

No clue what in the world you're talking about. Especially as remote work is a bigger part of the video post multiverse than ever, and Adobe's Team Projects and Productions formats are designed specifically for remote workflows.

And being upgraded for that constantly.

Neil

[Ann Bens]

[R Neil Haugen]

Thanks, Ann!

As someone who only has ever used their "cloud" for CC assets anyways, this will have no effect.

Neil

[ACWaters]

Wow, love the tone of derision in that answer, R Neil. 

I guess it is a non issue -- but this isn't CC assets, it is specifically AIC and PSC assets form now on that is not the same as synced files. I thought the syned files were handy for everything but it's cool. I can pay someone else for a cloud server. 

[R Neil Haugen]

No clue where you see derision, just a simple flat comment. No emotional content whatsoever.

I've never assumed the Adobe CC cloud storage was really meant for anything other than CC stuff assets. Mogrts, Look files, naturally the Team Projects files that are 'built' to be out there. That sort of thing. And have always been puzzled by those trying to use it for other things.

There simply isn't enough room per user to put much out there that I've ever seen, but then ... everyone's mileage always varies.

Neil

[Remote Index]

No clue where you see derision ...

R Neil Haugen,

Respectfully, I'll just point out that you showed up in the thread first to say that the problem doesn't exist, then to say that the problem doesn't affect you.

To someone looking to this forum for help - well, that might give the impression of being unhelpful.

R.

[R Neil Haugen]

It's always fascinating to watch the inherent differences in humans. Many say I'm too wordy. As I do tend to have the longer, more detailed answers most of the time.

Others say I'm not wordy enough. Ah well ... 

I learned a long time ago not to put in, or take out emotion from ... online discussions. It is so probable one will be wrong, whatever take emotion one ... chooses ... to take. I've had some people get really angry over stuff here, and ... well ... I'd love to sit down in person with them over a beverage at NAB or something like that. Doubt we'd have any problems at all.

I do expect to disagree with anyone on most things. But that doesn't mean either disrespect nor derision, simply that, as different humans, we naturally see things differently. Which to me is fascinating. Interesting. And always useful. It's in the different ways of seeing things that learning takes place.

[kglad]

@R Neil Haugen 

the adobe cc sync folder will sync non-adobe product files, too so it could be used for non-adobe assets.