Hi.

I started using Ulysses on my Macbook for a new project. As I have the iPad with me more often than the Macbook, I got the iPad version, too, in order to sync my library through iCloud.
According to the Soulmen support (they answered within one day during the weekend, which I found pretty impressive), I can have Ulysses open on the Macbook and the iPad simultaneously and work on the library on both machines.

As using Dropbox that way would not work, I'd like to hear from the Ulysses afficionados here (Bill, Stephen ...): What's your experience with syncing the Ulysses library? Do I risk losing notes when I do as Soulmen support suggested?

Thanks, Franz

I've been writing a lot of articles with Ulysses recently, moving back and forth between OS X and iPad. The iCloud sync has been "reliable" but not fast. That's not The Soulmen's fault -- it's Apple's. In practice, what is means is to wait a while (maybe a minute or so) before swtiching devices and resuming editing. Pay attention to the little cloud icon that appears next to the sheet that's syncing on either device. If a conflict occurs (very rare) Ulysses will ask what you want to keep -- one version, or the other, or merge.

OTOH working with Dropbox files in Ulysses is so odd, I gave up on it and moved every group (document) to iCloud.

Drafts and Editorial do the Dropbox sync thing a lot better. I've also been using Editorial on iPad syncing with Sublime Text on OS X thru Dropbox because Editorial and Sublime Text have a much broader and richer implementation of Markdown features than Ulysses. They are both just better plain text editors, IMO. (Never have understand why The Soulmen have not added table markup to the app.)

Thanks Paul. That increases my confidence in the sync process :-)

The only time I experienced a problem with syncing between my iPad and my two MacBooks with Ulysses was when I was writing on one of the units (don't recall which) when I didn't have wifi. I ended up losing some work, although I was never completely clear of the exact sequence of events that caused it. Since then, I've always been aware to make sure I give each device a chance to sync to iCloud before working on another device.

I concur that the sync is somewhat slow sometimes, so you have to be patient.

Other than that, no problems.

Steve Z.

Thanks Stephen.

"I’ve always been aware to make sure I give each device a chance to sync to iCloud before working on another device" - that means, you wait a minute or two before working on the same note on a different device? And it does not mean you close the app on device 1 before launching it on device 2 - right?

Go make a cup of coffee and come back, all should be well ;-)

It's never clear with iCloud sync when something is syncing in the background and when it isn't. I've found the little cloud icon next to the sheet that's syncing is a reliable indicator for when sync is not finished. The icon will disappear when Ulysses has finished sync. If I take my iPad to a place without Wi-Fi then I make sure I open Utysses again and examine the groups for unsynced sheets before I open Ulysses on my desktop.

It doesn't matter if the iPad instance is open but idle as long as you don't try to use both instances of Ulysses at the same time -- especially to edit the same sheet.

This is one of those YMMV situations. You're just going to have to try for yourself, with your own kit and networks, to see how it goes.

Yes. I rarely exit Ulysses on any of the devices.

Franz Grieser wrote:

Thanks Stephen.

"I’ve always been aware to make sure I give each device a chance
to sync to iCloud before working on another device" - that means, you
wait a minute or two before working on the same note on a different
device? And it does not mean you close the app on device 1 before
launching it on device 2 - right?

iCloud sync is really slow in every single app which depends upon it. It is so bad that I don't use iCloud sync if I can avoid it. I was using Simplenote which has one of the best syncing solutions of any note taking app I have seen, but lately I have been looking for something better. Right now I am using Notebooks (with an "s") which is OK. The desktop app lacks the polish of the iOS version, and you have to flip a lot of settings switches in order to get it to work as a Markdown app -but it is possible. They recently improved their Dropbox sync and I find it quite reliable. And because the files are just plain text files you can open them in any other desktop app you like, such as Byword. I really like Letterpress, but iCloud sync kills it for me. Simplenote would be great if they were actively developing it and working on better Markdown support. I was thinking of trying Ulysses, but the discussion in this thread has convinced me that it isn't worth the cost. I think I'll stick with Notebooks for now...

I use Ulysses quite a lot (as you know), and have found that from dismal beginnings, the iCloud sync between Mac and iPad is now fast and reliable.

iCloud sync is still odd, in the sense that you can't be absolutely sure when it's going to happen (usually straight away, sometimes only after several minutes or even - worst case - hours).

But it's hugely improved on what it was about 10 months ago.

Letterspace also works well for me, partly because the author introduced some kind of kick-butt system that triggers syncing as soon as you load the app.

And despite iCloud's timing vagaries, I've never lost data.

I do, however, save really sensitive docs to multiple sync services, including Soonr (kind of like Dropbox for Business), Dropbox and increasingly, JottaCloud (a Norwegian sync service that's very moderately priced and hosted in Europe).

Cheers,
Bill

It's also worth mentioning that Apple has just added document recovery services to iCloud (covering documents, contacts and calendars), although I can't pretend to have experimented with this yet.

Soonr and Dropbox both have file versioning, of course.

Thanks to all for your replies and hints. So I'll trust my next project to Ulysses (and do daily backups by exporting to DOCX ;-)

MadaboutDana wrote:

Letterspace also works well for me, partly because the author introduced
some kind of kick-butt system that triggers syncing as soon as you load
the app.

Thanks for letting me know about this. Giving Letterspace another try.