I'm new to IOS development so this is probably a silly question that is easy to answer.
I have created an IOS App using Core Data and CloudKit. It is successfully syncing with iCloud Drive running on IOS 8.1.1
The app is functioning, and iCloud is syncing the data with multiple devices correctly, but I would like to know how to use a web browser to locate the files that are stored remotely in my iCloud Drive account.
It is not located in the iCloud Drive folder with the data from other IOS applications on www.iCloud.com and although I can find the name of the datastore in the iCloud Container section of my Developer profile, I cannot see how to access it directly from a browser.
Is there a way that I can access the stored data externally to test it for security and also to monitor it's size?
Thanks for your help!
I don't know if you can see it using the web interface. You might be able to use the iCloud browser in Xcode to see the files, but I don't think that works either.
The way I usually do it is to open Terminal, and cd into ~/Library/Mobile Documents, and then into the container for your app. The iCloud data should be in there.
(Note you can't use Finder because it hides all data outside Documents.)
Related
According to the App Programming Guide for watchOS it is possible to store data in a Documents folder in the watch app. My code also seems to be doing this sucessfull, as there are no errors.
However, to really debug this, i wonder if there is some way to access this data on the device through the GUI for debugging (e.g., iTunesFilesharing with UIFileSharingEnabled, downloading the Container).
I want to keep an apps documents directory that contains sqlite using core data files in sync across users' devices. The sqlite files are the only files in the apps documents directory and simply need to be common to all users' devices
I've tried zipping up the sqlite files to send by email, which works with iTunes file sharing but is not suitable for my needs as it can expose the files to other users' devices.
I've tried using app groups to keep the directory common across devices http://blog.sam-oakley.co.uk/post/92323630293/sharing-core-data-between-app-and-extension-in-ios,
and
Accessing Core Data SQL Database in iOS 8 Extension (Sharing Data Between App and Widget Extension) but that simply did not share the directory across devices for me.
I've sent the file to parse, but pulling them down and reconfiguring the data was the problem there.
I've tried using iCloud and even the Apple engineer gave up on that one.
What I'm after is the simplicity of file sharing through iTunes (being able to replace the sqlite files) with a bit more finesse and without the need to plug in the device.
Some considerations
The whole model can be synced in one go
Data does not need constant syncing facilities, a manual sync option would suffice.
I am familiar with iCloud syncing, but I am new to app groups. There may be a simple answer to this question, but I haven't found it yet. Basically, I have an app in which I have iCloud integration, and now I want to try to add a today extension. I am currently using Core Data as a backend and would like to continue to do so. However, from what I have read, I need to move my data store to a shared location by defining an "App Group". (http://blog.sam-oakley.co.uk/post/92323630293/sharing-core-data-between-app-and-extension-in-ios-8 and Accessing Core Data SQL Database in iOS 8 Extension (Sharing Data Between App and Widget Extension)) I haven't been able to find out if this location is synced using iCloud or not. Or, because I"m using iCloud, do I need an App Group at all? I appreciate any and all help/suggestions.
If you're already using iCloud, you don't need to use app groups, because your extension can access the same iCloud container as your app does. As long as your entitlements and provisioning are configured correctly, you can literally just use the same Core Data stack setup in the extension as in the app.
Apple's Lister demo project does this, but there's nothing special about it. Just use iCloud as usual.
App groups are usually necessary to share data between apps and extensions. But a big exception is when the data is already stored external to the app-- as with iCloud.
I'd like to backup and restore files (or other type of informations like key-value, SQL-like transaction based info.) for NOT ONLY my app but also all the other Apps using iCloud.
I'm just new to iCloud and read only a few documents but it seems iCloud APIs are just for single App boundary (of course I understand there is an option for sharing information between 'Group' of applications).
What I want to do is backup and restore almost everything. How can I do that?
(There some apps doing this like
http://www.copytrans.net/copytranscontacts.php
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/05/18/elcomsofts-phone-forensics-software-offers-near-real-time-access-to-icloud-backups/)
I checked that the some of the Mobile App files are stored inside the "~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup" directory but there are only some of the files from all the files actually stored in iCloud.
And I tested CloudKit, but it just takes control over App's own data only.
Thanks in advance.
One thing to keep in mind when thinking about this is that iTunes actually doesn't backup or restore anything to/from iCloud. iOS device does it on its own: there's a daemon process running and if iCloud Backup is enabled, it will backup directly to iCloud, without talking to iTunes. Restore is also done without interaction with iTunes.
Next, as #rmaddy pointed out, your app on the device cannot access files of other apps, so you won't be able to do what you want from the device. If you want to do this via companion app running on PC/Mac then it might be possible, but will depend on what exactly do you need/want.
Re: contacts. Apps can access AddressBook and thus can sync/upload its contents. Apps can also access some other shared data, such as Photo Library. This is still a far cry from your original request to "Backup/Restore data for all Apps".
Re: downloading iCloud backups. Downloading isn't a big deal those days (Disclosure: I am the author of that forensic tool to download iCloud backups you're mentioned). There is even an open-source code for that. However, downloading and restoring are two very different processes. Specifically, you can download, but your app won't have enough permissions to write files in place.
Hope this helps and clears things up.
I have a simple survey iPad app. The data is saved in a TSV (tab separated file). I'm looking for an easy way to export this TSV file to a computer (without emailing it, if possible, and without doing it through iTunes).
App data on iOS is not directly accessible from a connected computer. It's not like you can mount the iPad's flash drive directly on a computer, navigate to the app's data directory, and copy the file to the computer. You have to have something with rights to access the data.
Some options are:
email or otherwise 'share' the data from within the iPad app.
Make the app's data accessible via iTunes
Turn the app into an FTP client or server
Dropbox integration (There was some problem where Apple was rejecting apps that did this, but i don't know the current state)
Have a look at IExplorer. It's a great little program / app that let's you access your iPad's file system from your computer. You can just drag and drop any file from your iPad to your computer.