So, I was shopping for a proper iCloud alternative, and I think I found a proper gem, although with a few missing pieces.
Apple is great, until it's not
I've been fully immersed in the Apple ecosystem for a few years now. Starting with an iPod Shuffle back in 2011 (this is still the best-designed device; it still even works now!), then iPhone, then laptops, iPads, and so on.
I've also managed to get my wife onboard, and a few years ago, I was happy with everything-Apple, including all our cloud needs like sharing files, photos, and even using iCloud passwords before they were properly advertised with the Passwords app.
Then I installed LineageOS on my old wife's Android device and needed some cross-platform password manager. I ended up with Strongbox and KeepassXC. One piece out of iCloud.
iCloud Mail works just fine on different devices; I don't feel the need to move away. Same with Apple Music and TV.
But files and Photos… That's a big, hard "no" from Apple.
No API, no third-party apps, no support outside the walled garden.
This was still fine as long as I only used that toy-Android-secondary-device.
Now, when I got a proper Linux desktop and noticed I don't use my MacBook that much anymore, I started looking around for what my options are.
Yes, there's rclone with iCloud Drive support. That kinda works (although buggy). But, for Photos, there's literally a hard, strict lockdown.
Jottacloud
I was looking for something that would work everywhere and also be somewhat compatible with our current setup, which includes an Apple TV device.
Surprisingly, Jottacloud does offer an Apple TV app. I didn't even notice this while doing the first trial until I read some mention of it in one of their support documents.
Big wow, let's go full with this solution then!
Advantages
With my weekend trial, I noticed these huge pluses for Jottacloud:
EU company with a good vibe
Jottacloud is a Norwegian company, so we can be sure they treat their personnel well (no other choice up there in the North).
Speaking to customer service is an amazing experience. Like yes, they greet you with a bot first, but telling the bot to send you to a human does work, and then this human actually treats you like a creature with a brain.
They don't have scripted chats; it's a normal conversation like you'd talk to your friend that happens to work in that company.
They even follow up with topics that need to be checked with the dev team after a few days.
I felt well listened to and understood.
Apple TV app
Not much to say. It is there, and it works more or less like the native app.
Apps plus CLI tool
Major platforms have apps with GUI. When there's no app, there's a CLI tool that seems to be built for everything that has a CPU.
I have to say this is a really smart solution. Such a CLI tool can be written in, let's say, Golang, compiled to almost everything, and then used by the GUI tools as well.
One codebase, so many customers well served.
Also, the CLI tool has a nice design. It's easy to set up, and then it works mostly in the background, not bothering you.
jotta-cli login
jotta-cli sync ./jottacloud
jotta-cli observeBig props to whoever designed this!
Good documentation
Docs are well written and tell you what you need to know, including options and what the consequences are (e.g., first initial Photos upload with iCloud "storage optimization" vs "originals on device").
Price is an absolute banger
I didn't even notice this, but when you buy the family plan, you get 1TB PER USER, not 1TB shared. Wow.
Setup and forget
I have it running on iPhone, iPad, Ubuntu, and Android. It just works, no need to go there and fiddle with it.
Missing stuff
I noticed only two problems, both of them are show-stoppers for us moving away from iCloud.
No HDR support
You have your new iPhone that makes amazing HDR photos. You take a photo, then you check it out on the Photos app. You notice the colors are super bright there.
Then you check it on the Jottacloud app, and something is off.
Yes, Jottacloud doesn't show the originals unless they are already on the device.
Meaning, if you use optimized iCloud storage AND use Jottacloud only for the photos, you'll always look at JPEG instead of HEIC.
That was my first, "Woops, that's bad," moment.
I could live with JPEGs in the browser, that's fine, and I know HEIC on the web is not a thing yet.
But on native devices, there must be at least some option to preview the original. Maybe not even as a default but somewhere, somehow.
I talked about it with support, and while they have good arguments why they didn't ship it like this, that doesn't change the fact that it is a major issue for me.
I also understand that it might be a very niche problem.
No shared library
This is a big one. We use the shared library on iCloud. Apple made it pretty smart, and every family member has their own photos library, and there's one that's being owned by everyone.
You can pick the photos you want to put in the "community" one while keeping some screenshots and other irrelevant photos just for yourself.
Jottacloud has nothing that would work like this.
If we disabled iCloud completely and only relied on Jotta Photos, we would stop sharing photos with each other.
I also talked about this with support, and just like with HDR, they acknowledged it, but there's nothing in the roadmap to tackle this.
Here, I also understand that it's a non-trivial problem to solve for product designers.
I stay
So, in the end, while I'm not successful with my plan of moving away from the iCloud subscription yet, I still think Jottacloud has great value.
Having all my files and photos available on all my devices is definitely worth the subscription price.
For now, we will keep the iCloud setup, with the shared library, that is being backed up to Jottacloud on my end.
If you want to try them out, here's the link, non-referral.