Apple iCloud and Apple Music

[FuzzyWuzHe]

So while in my "lockdown mode" (it's what I call social distancing so that I don't justify not doing what I'm asked to do ), I have been looking for busy work and during the couple of weeks at first, we had lots of rain which meant I really didn't want to ride the trike, not because I will melt, but, because the black trike is a pain to get the road grime off afterwards. The rain and the Utah dust that blows in make this clay/mud that gets everywhere a pain to remove ... and even though I'm more into function than pretty, I still don't want caked mud on the trike.

Anyway, I decided to play around with my computer and "organize" the files. Specifically, 20k+ photos, 100's of videos and who knows how many pdf files that I've saved over the years. You have seen my garage, my computer was kind of the same thing. The other thing was the music, especially the many audio books that aren't on audible, the older mp3 files.

Not being a tech guy, it seemed to me that there had to be a way to "sync" all this to all of my devices. Two mac's, two phones, an iPad and an Apple Watch. By doing that, I would never again have to worry that I lost files. Even I can't loose 6 electronic devices ... right? right? right?



Okay, so like riding a trike, Alan had quite the learning curve getting this stuff to work. Turned out, Alan just wasn't patient enough to wait unit the process the first time finished. Go figure, Alan being less than patient.

But I digress. Not long after I got all the toys playing nice with each other, my iPhone XS Max developed an issue. It was not giving me notifications when I'd receive a text, mail and sometimes that an incoming call was coming in. After several attempts with Apple Care to get this resolved, it was decided the phone was broken.



Since I had moved one of my lines and mom to spectrum (the broken phone was one), I had to switch the sims and get the broken one back on Verizon. Turns out I didn't need to do that because the warrantee I had was with apple care and they really didn't care what provider I had. Kind of like Harley's extended warrantee, except they don't black list me.



Apple care offered me an upgrade to an iPhone 11 for the same $ (small deductible), but, with my old eyes and my programs I wanted the bigger screen. They offered me an iPhone 11 Pro Max for just a little more money. I bit. Of course that allowed them to sell me a new case and screen protector. Yea, I'm easy, but, not cheap (having champagne tastes with a grape juice budget is not always a good thing).

Anyway the phone came Wednesday around 1700 and as I always do, I put it on the charger until it was 100% charged before I did anything to it. Old habit I guess, but, it's me.

I didn't really want to start what I thought would be a long process of making the 11 Pro Max look like the Xs Max. Mostly this process is "spanking" Siri so she doesn't listen in ... LOL. Apple really wants her to play, but, not on my phone. I do every thing I can to shut her down. Does it work? I don't know, but, she don't bother me anymore. That takes about an hour to get all the settings to prohibit her. Of course, having said that, I then upload a lot of my life to their cloud.

Next came the loading of the apps I use (mostly banking apps and Filemaker) and teaching the phone that my face is the only one that should open them. Basically just imputing the passwords for each app and giving the app permission to use the Face ID to open it's files.

Finally was the endless process of syncing the photos, videos and music. I put this off until the last because it's always been a pain and takes awhile. When I got to the point of getting the photos, videos, music and the few pdf's that I put on the phone, I was shocked that I had actually done that already just by signing into my iTunes account. It had done that all by itself over the night while it charged. As grand ma used to say, "Kewl Beans". This alone is worth the price of the cloud.

I pay $0.99 a month for my iCloud space (50 gig ... I started with 200, and downgraded when I realized I only was using about 40 gig, I originally was using about 55 gig, but, after I let it finish, it leveled out around 40). I also pay $9.99 a month for Apple Music. I can do the same thing with just the sync built into the Mac software to the phones and iPad, but, not to the other Mac. There may be a way to do that, but, I haven't figured it out yet. So for $12.98, I get to have all of the machines look alike. I also get Apple Music Radio, kind of like SiriusXM Internet, but, you will use data just like you would if you use the SiriusXM internet music (ie on your phone). I'm still evaluating whether I will keep the music part. In my case, once the music is on the phone, I don't really change things anymore since all of my new audio books are coming from Audible. The other benefit, is that the originals are stored on the cloud and not on the devices (not sure how this works, but it does save space on each device. Instead of getting 256 gig phones, I can get by with a 64 gig one. (Had to get a 256 gig to replace the Xs Max because they wanted to replace it with something similar or upgraded).

By switching to the iCloud thing, I was able to eliminate my dropbox account. I was paying $2.99 a month for that, and all I was using it for was to get photos off my phone and to my Mac. iCloud does that for me now, all I need to do is put the photos in the correct folder afterwards, which I had to do anyway with dropbox after I got dropbox to down load them.

Anyway, does any of this have anything to do with a trike??? Nope, but, I thought I'd pass along the experience I had with these two services and some of the lessons learned.

First lesson, be patient with the iCloud. It seemed like it had loaded all the photos, but, after it does that it takes a bit of time to organize them in the same folders on your phone as you have them in on your Mac. After the initial upload, it is almost instantaneous. The cloud will be something I'll pay for probably until I die ... LOL. Well, unless Apple decides to gouge us once enough of us get used to it and feel like we can't live without it ... LOL.

Next, with the photos, it's easier to deal with them in albums instead of folders. For example, let's say I have lots of pictures of products I've purchased from Dk Custom Products, I do. I also have lots of photos of the many accessories I've done to the Tri. So, in my case, I made a folder just for the tri and put it under a folder of Alan's stuff. In that folder is a folder for accessories. In that folder there is a folder for DK stuff, In that folder there is albums for each product, Cool and Clean, High Performance Oil Filter, Comfort Lit, etc. This allows me to show someone photos of the Cool and Clean without having to scroll through 20K+ photos, couple of quick clicks and I'm there. The albums keep like things together, much like the folders, but, seem to be liked better by the photo app . Not sure I understand any of what I think I know about how this works. Except, photos have to be in albums, albums can be in folders, but, not in other albums.

Biggest lesson was that I need to be careful what I allow to go to the cloud. In these times where we sanitize everything, I had to do that to my Mac. Files like the digital copy of my dd214, Social Security documents, Banking statements, Al's Pool Service documents and many others that I don't use hardly ever, but, would seriously compromise my identity if the wrong person got ahold of them, where moved to a folder on my Mac in the root directory (look at me getting all techie ... LOL) that doesn't go to the cloud. Being highly technical, I named that folder "Unsync'd Stuff". It still gets backed up by the time machine and I also manually back that up every week to an external 2TB hard drive.

Apple music is another issue. I probably won't use the radio part, so probably not worth my $$. Although that might change if I get back to bagel and coffee reading, I use my air Buds to block out chatter so I can read comfortably. I initially thought of the $9.99 a month as just one less trip to get a bagel and coffee (my favorite reading place), but, a new thought hit me ... it also could be one less tank of gas for the trike ... hmmm ... now that hurts ... LOL. Since Apple gives you three months free when you sign up, I don't need to make this decision until near the end of May. I'll probably keep it just to keep things simple. Like Trump says, "We'll See".

[paws]

WHEW!!!! You is one busy body!

[FuzzyWuzHe]

WHEW!!!! You is one busy body!

Anything to keep the Mind ON the reservation

[trike lady]

None of my computer like each other or share, presently only one is set up to run the printer. I have a host of obsolete operating systems for certain vintage games and software. The phone I have is an Android and everything else is some version of Windows and Linux. But you certainly stayed busy with all that.

[hogcowboy]

I must have done something way wrong because all my photos that went to Apple cloud magically got numeric names that mean absolutely nothing to me so everything the cloud now has means nothing to me. So it was a bust to me. Maybe it was that Folder versus Album thing, I have no idea. The other thing I hate is the sync'ing of the Calendars changes things to Apple defaults even when I have custom times. It adds Apple's defaults every darn time. I remove them and the next sync they are back.

Again, probably something I did wrong but so far I hat this Apple cloud sync garbage. And to top it off, now my weekly Time Machine backups never finish. It just keeps doing something endlessly. My wife, who is a programmer, can't even figure out what thos clowns at Apple are doing. But she's a Windows type so the Mac is foreign to her. So it's all on me, that this mess has to be due to something I did or didn't do but I really can't wait for these devices to all die and just leave me the heck alone.

[paws]

I only use the basics on my Ipad, dont sync anything to the cloud. But i am missing a set of pictures that WERE there a few months ago. Pics i took 2 years ago are there but pics taken a year ago are gone,,,i did nothing different when taking them. Not happy about it. And it is categorizing the pics into location...ie...Kerrville, Midland. I didn’t tell it to do that.

[Jack Klarich]

I must have done something way wrong because all my photos that went to Apple cloud magically got numeric names that mean absolutely nothing to me so everything the cloud now has means nothing to me. So it was a bust to me. Maybe it was that Folder versus Album thing, I have no idea. The other thing I hate is the sync'ing of the Calendars changes things to Apple defaults even when I have custom times. It adds Apple's defaults every darn time. I remove them and the next sync they are back.

Again, probably something I did wrong but so far I hat this Apple cloud sync garbage. And to top it off, now my weekly Time Machine backups never finish. It just keeps doing something endlessly. My wife, who is a programmer, can't even figure out what thos clowns at Apple are doing. But she's a Windows type so the Mac is foreign to her. So it's all on me, that this mess has to be due to something I did or didn't do but I really can't wait for these devices to all die and just leave me the heck alone.

I only use the basics on my Ipad, dont sync anything to the cloud. But i am missing a set of pictures that WERE there a few months ago. Pics i took 2 years ago are there but pics taken a year ago are gone,,,i did nothing different when taking them. Not happy about it. And it is categorizing the pics into location...ie...Kerrville, Midland. I didn’t tell it to do that.

That is why I transfer all my important stuff to an external hard drive

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Wow ... I've never experienced the things you guys are. Well, except sorting by location and time/date.

Any photo I take, I put into a folder and album that allows me to sort as I want them. I do this inside the Mac Photo App.

I can click on locations, dates, media type (animated, selfies, video, etc.) and it will show them sorted in that way, but hen I go back to albums and folders and they are still there.

I have no idea what the changing names to numbers is about. Maybe GPS coordinates.

I will say apple doesn't play well with almost anything else. I switched to all apple in 95 except cell phone. At that time, my company provided me with a Motorola beast (bag phone) and all it did was make and answer calls (it was my electronic leash). When I moved here, I got a personal cell because dad was really sick (why I moved here) and it was one of the first Palm Pilot cells .. worked okay with apple, but, not until the first iPhone did stuff seem to work well together.

My local Spectrum Store (can't buy phones or accessories), just for accounts, salesman asked a lot of questions about what I do with the phone, computers etc, to determine what service I needed. He said I use my phone and cell service way more than most of their customers and I'm guessing I only use 10% of the capability. I say that because I do everything I can to keep Apple out of my business. Just don't trust "big brother", not the there is anything I do that anyone would want to know. Well, that and I just don't understand how lots of it works.