Discussion Why is it not recommended to edit your project source on cloud services folder?

[Carbon]

I just read one of the release notes today, and they remind you to not directly edit project source out of cloud folders like Dropbox etc? Why is that? Has it always been this way? Boy am I late to the party..

 

[BaBiA Game Studio]

It mentions in the release notes that projects get issues with external applications/services editing project files as these external applications can keep files locked and it can lead to corrupt files, or the IDE unable to commit any saves, etc. The worst problem was that code from one object would end up in another project because there was an object in both projects with the same name, and the original project had been unable to save and close the code file because the external application had it locked, and it got carried over to the next project.

You can upload your project files to a cloud folder afterwards, but it has never been a good idea to do your project work using a cloud folder as it can cause these file locks and corruption issues.

 

[Cowlord]

I use OneDrive and for the most part it works. Every once and a while you'll get an error in GMS saying it can't save a file; just read which file can't save then make a change to it (go into code and hit the spacebar) and save again.

Edit: I also use bitbucket if it were to ever become corrupt

 

[Ednei]

Honestly, I would not recommend using onedrive folders or googledrive directly.
I had terrible experiences where I completely lost a project. My luck is that I had an older backup in another folder, and I was able to recover some of the work.

I currently use backup programs like Iperius Backup that allows you to upload the project to your googledrive account, for example.

If you do not want to use a program, I recommend working the project in a separate folder and then copy and paste over the copy of the folder that is onedrive on your computer.

 

[Dan]

As mentioned above already, it's because these other programs will monitor the files and this might cause saving issues. 2.1.5 now does quite a bit to mitigate/retry these issues, but if the file is locked for a long time, this might still give problems. If you need to share your projects via Dropbox, etc., work in a safe folder and just export a yyz and share that as and when required.

Also, it avoids you having to use external source control tools to recover from issues where your project is corrupted just because you chose to save it in a folder where it is processed by multiple applications at the same time...

 

[chamaeleon]

Also, it avoids you having to use external source control tools <snip>

What you meant to say was surely "Also you should use external (or not) source control tools", while internally at YYG working hard on streamlining team work using source control. Right?