Comments on: Syncing Notational Velocity with iCloud

Question: Syncing Notational Velocity with iCloud

Rory Marinich — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:32:33 -0800

Mountain Lion iCloud question: I know iCloud stores files locally on my Mac, somewhere. Generally I use two document editors — iA Writer, which syncs to iCloud, and Notational Velocity, which doesn't. Can I set Notational Velocity to save its notes in iA's iCloud folder, so that it automatically syncs to iCloud and I can use iA's mobile apps to edit my notes on the fly?

By: adamrice

adamrice — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:38:12 -0800

I'm not 100% certain of the answer to that (I am 99% certain that the answer is "it won't work"), but as an alternative, you can use Dropbox with both. Base account with Dropbox is free. I'm doing this to sync between NValt and the note-taking app on my iDevice, and it works like a charm. iA Writer does support Dropbox on iOS, and apps don't need special support for it on the Mac.

By: Magnakai

Magnakai — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:39:28 -0800

The answer to the original question is a straight-up no. Applications have sandboxed document areas on iCloud, so no application can access those of another.

By: Rory Marinich

Rory Marinich — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:42:16 -0800

adamrice: I intend to use Dropbox for backup/syncing/sharing, but iCloud is extremely convenient to use.

Magnakai: But Notational doesn't use iCloud. I intend to point it to the physical on-computer folder which iCloud uses to store my iA documents.

By: ConstantineXVI

ConstantineXVI — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:45:54 -0800

If an app doesn't have iCloud support, it can't store things in iCloud. Full stop. iCloud apps also can't reach into other apps' iCloud buckets; it's not a plain filesystem like Dropbox.

By: Rory Marinich

Rory Marinich — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:53:59 -0800

iCloud apps also can't reach into other apps' iCloud buckets; it's not a plain filesystem like Dropbox.

Um, yes it is, and question over, I figured this out myself.

iCloud stores files in ~/Library/Mobile Documents/{app name}. This is the folder which iCloud syncs, and which an application sees as its "iCloud folder". Within this folder, one layer of subfolders can be read, and after that folders will just be entirely ignored.

So, I created a "Notes" folder within my chosen app's iCloud region, set Notational Velocity to read that, and now when I write things on Notational Velocity they automatically upload to iCloud.

It's ridiculous to think that iCloud doesn't use a "plain filesystem". It might not let you directly access the filesystem through an app, but you don't store files without a filesystem being involved.

By: Magnakai

Magnakai — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 10:58:04 -0800

Oh neat, that's a great solution Rory. Sorry for not reading the original question thoroughly!