A few weeks ago I wrote about my problems getting documents to sync with iCloud Drive. In response, I heard from several developer friends telling me that things were about to get better and to install the 8.1.1 developer preview. So I did. After using it for a week, and the beta going out to the wild yesterday, I’m pleased to report iCloud Drive document syncing is loads better with the latest updates. This morning I spent 30 minutes moving between my iPad and Mac on a large numbers spreadsheet and both devices were keeping up. In short, iCloud document syncing is manageable again. Third party apps, like Drafts and Mindnode, are also seeing the benefits of this update. If you’ve been waiting, or had a bad prior experience, update your Mac and iOS devices with yesterday’s updates and give it a try for yourself.

The reason I’ve been so critical of iCloud lately is because I haven’t dismissed it. I see real potential to using Apple’s cloud solution. I like its tight integration with the operating system and since I’m using all Apple hardware, it just makes sense for me. I’m also considering going deeper into tagging and assuming that Apple tags will be better supported with an Apple cloud. I hope the problems of last month are initial stumbles. For now, I’m just happy to see the service working again as expected.