First, I apologize that this is longer than I anticipated and if any of this has already been answered. A lot of the posts are in German and Google Translate is having a very hard time keeping up while I’m trying to scroll and read everything. And no, downloading and translating aren’t working well either.
I’m trying to understand the relationship that the Boxcryptor Beta has with iCloud and iCloud Drive. Let me explain what I’m seeing and my thoughts/questions.
On macOS, when iCloud is added as a provider, a Boxcryptor folder is created in my iCloud Drive and a Location is created named Boxcryptor - iCloud (Onedrive, etc.), macOS “sees” this location as being within iCloud Drive, separate from others like Desktop, Documents, etc.
Windows and Onedrive for Windows allow for user data to be moved to the Onedrive folder (ex. C:\Users\Joe.User\Onedrive) and top-level aliases to be redirected to the new locations (C:\Users\Joe.User\Desktop becomes C:\Users\Joe.User\Onedrive\Desktop and so on). This allows all user data to be copied into Onedrive for backup, replication between devices, and easily restore to a new device.
Like Windows, macOS places user and application-specific data in the Users directory at the root of the drive (/System/Volumes/MacHD-Data or whatever).
Unlike Windows, macOS does not allow user data directories to be moved and aliases created directing applications and/or users to the new location. So, in order to encrypt /Users/Joe.User/Documents, I need to move my Documents folder into the Boxcryptor - iCloud location and start using that location as my default. However, I cannot move my /Users/Joe.User/Desktop directory to a Boxcryptor location and redirect the Desktop there, MacOS won’t allow that and, very possibly, it might mess up any applications or mountpoints already there.
One of my issues is that the terms iCloud and iCloud Drive are used interchangeably by Apple and others, leading to a LOT of confusion. iCloud is Apple’s cloud service that encompasses petabytes and petabytes of globally stored data. In short, it’s the whole chimichanga. I know, I helped install a tiny part of it. iCloud Drive is one of the services that iCloud provides, the storage space for backup, replication, and restoration mechanism for all Apple devices. Microsoft Onedrive is the Windows version of it, running on Microsoft Azure as part of Office365.
You’ll notice that Microsoft didn’t name it Azure and Azure Drive or something like that. I blame all of this on Mark the Marketing Weasel and his weaselly brethren.
In writing all this down to make sure I have it straight in my head, I think I’ve answered my own questions. Have I? If I have, please ignore my rant on Apple’s confusing marketing terminology.
Are there any release notes for the beta that aren’t on this page? Even if they’re in German, I can translate a text file easily, it’s the web pages that are a pain.
Are there any plans and these may be only from Apple, to allow user data directories to be moved so they can be encrypted? Or has someone come up with a workaround I haven’t found or figured out yet?
