Enabling iCloud Drive: still sync Pleco DB across iOS 7 & iOS 8 devices?

[etm001]

Hi,

Goal: make sure I can still sync Pleco's database across iOS 7 and iOS 8 devices.

Question: if I enable iCloud Drive on the iOS 8 device, with this affect sync'ing with the iOS 7 device?

With the release of Yosemite I'd like to try iCloud Drive, but want to be sure it won't affect the sync'ing of Pleco's database between my iOS 8 iPhone and iOS 7 iPad.

Thanks!

 

[mikelove]

No, if you enable iCloud drive then you will no longer be able to sync via iCloud with an iOS 7 device.

 

[Tom F]

I made the mistake of upgrading my iPad from v8 to v9 of IOS - I did the upgrade to overcome another issue (not Pleco related)
Now I find that I can no longer sync flashcards between my iPad and my iPhone 4, which is on IOS v7.1.2 and I believe cannot be upgraded to v8 or v9.
Is that correct? The iCloud drive does not operate on IOS v7, and there doesn't appear to be an option to run iCloud as it was before iCloud drive came along.

Is there anyway around this, so I can still sync flashcards across iPad and iPhone? I use this a lot, since I often create flashcards on both devices, at different times, in different situations.

If not, could I downgrade my iPad back to IOS v8, i.e. revert to the situation I had before the upgrade, which was working fine for Pleco?

Any other solutions, short of getting a new iPhone?

If there is really no solution to re-enable synching, is there a way to manually copy the iPad flashcard db and load it into the iPhone db?

Thanks!

 

[Shun]

Hi Tom,

if you don't need it, you should be able to turn off iCloud Drive on your iOS 9 iPad in the iCloud preferences. You can even disable iCloud drive just for Pleco and enable it for other apps. I would expect the Pleco iCloud sync to work as before like this, but I haven't tried. You can copy the flashcards database manually by backing up the flashcards database on one device and restoring it on the other. Hope this helps!

Regards, Shun

 

[Tom F]

Mmm…. I don't think that is right Shun.
If I turn off the iCloud drive on my iPad, I cannot load the Pleco flashcard database from iCloud. If I turn it on, I am prompted to "Upgrade to iCloud Drive". I.e. it does not seem to be possible, on IOS v9 to have iCloud without iCloud Drive - they have become the same thing (or at least, inseparable), as far as I can see.
The screen where it suggests upgrading to iCloud Drive also explicitly states that "the device below [i.e. my iPhone 4] cannot be upgraded and will not be able to access the documents currently stored in iCloud.

 

[Shun]

Oh, so in typical Apple fashion, they removed backwards compatibility. Too bad. But moving it manually works. Sorry, maybe someone else knows more.

 

[Tom F]

Thanks Shun.

Does anyone know if I can reverse the iPad upgrade? i.e. revert to IOS v8 on the iPad.

Or if there is any other solution whereby I can have synching of flashcards between my iPad and my iPhone

 

[mikelove]

Only way I can think of is to create a brand new Apple ID on your iOS 7 device - that should (hopefully) come with iCloud Drive still disabled.

 

[Tom F]

Hi Mike - I don't understand your suggestion. i'm not clear how creating a new Apple ID would change anything?

My iPhone 4 has IOS v7 (and can't be upgraded to IOS 8 or 9). On IOS v7, iCloud drive is not available, as far as I know. So there is no issue of enabling or disabling - it just isn't there!
My iPad was on IOS v8 (I think it was 8.4.1) which I think did have iCloud Drive available, but I didn't use it.
I upgraded to IOS v9, in order to solve another problem. After doing the upgrade I found out that iCloud Drive seems to be mandatory if you want to use iCloud at all.
There is an option to enable iCloud Drive, which (as I explained above) explicitly states that I cannot upgrade my iPhone (from IOS v7) and so this will not be able to access the docs on iCloud.

As far as I can tell, there is no solution to this. From looking on the web it seems that there was a short period where you could downgrade from IOS v9 to v8, but Apple closed this window a month or two ago (I'm not clear why they no longer allow you to downgrade).

So it looks like I will just have to use the iPad as my "Master" for Pleco flashcards, and just manually copy them to the iPhone for now.
Longer term, seems I will just have to succumb and get an iPhone 6!

If you can see any other solution, please let me know!!

 

[mikelove]

Ah, sorry, I missed the bit about being stuck on iOS 9 - no way to downgrade to the old iOS, so the Apple ID workaround wouldn't help here.