Feedback on Cloud Storage (Cloud Collaboration)

We've been trying to setup a collaboration with a remote editor via BM Cloud Storage. Unfortunately, after almost two weeks of comprehensive testing, we’re ready to give up as it all seems to be too buggy at this stage. I get that Cloud Storage is still in beta, so I’m leaving the results of our test here with hopes Blackmagic might take them into consideration.

The workflow we tried to achieve:
1. Each project consists of two folders: Assets and Footage. The Assets folder contains MP3 and JPG files, and the Footage folder contains video clips.
2. I create a new project in the Cloud Library enabling “Allow Multiple Simultaneous Users“ and “Sync Proxies Only”.
3. Then I add both folders to the project. The proxies start to generate automatically and sync to the Cloud Storage. The Assets folder also syncs automatically.
4. Remote editor does their job. They might also add extra assets to the Assets folder, which automatically syncs back to us.
5. Once the editing is completed, I render the final video.
6. One month after the project was completed, I delete the footage from the Cloud Storage website to free up space for new projects.


The issues we have encountered:

1. It’s not possible to create a new project in Cloud Library without Cloud Storage integration.
Not all of our projects will be edited by remote editors, most of them will be done by in-house editors, but we still collaborate via Cloud Library with footage being stored on NAS. So it’s a waste of time to specify the Cloud Storage settings for each project when we use it in 5% of cases. Also, enabling the “Don’t sync media” option in the project settings still creates folders for each project in the Cloud Storage, which is an unmanageable mess.
Proposed solution:
Disable the Cloud Storage integration for all cloud projects by default. Remove settings related to Cloud Storage from the “New Project”, “Copy Project” and “Save Project As” dialog boxes. Keep all settings related to Blackmagic Cloud in the project settings.

2. It's not possible to delete top-level (project) folders on the Cloud Storage website.
Since many empty folders have been created in our Cloud Storage account due to the previous issue, we attempted to delete them. Unfortunately, the delete button doesn't appear for the top-level folders, making it impossible to delete them.
Proposed solution:
Ensure the proper display of the delete button for all folders on the Cloud Storage website.

3. Deleting files from the Cloud Storage website results in their deletion from the hard drives on all machines.
I'm not entirely sure how it's supposed to function, but we were planning to use Cloud Storage for ongoing projects only. When a project is completed, all related footage will be deleted from the Cloud Storage website to free up space for new projects. All footage on our hard drives has to remain intact.
Proposed solution:
Develop a straightforward way to free up Cloud Storage space without deleting files from hard drives.

4. Permissions Issue.
Remote editors can delete files from the Cloud Storage website, which will be automatically removed from all machines.
Proposed solution:
Implement user permission management for Cloud Storage. Take Google Drive as an example. When we share a folder in Google Drive we can choose the following roles:
- Contributor - can add and edit their files.
- Content manager - can add, edit, move and delete files.
- Manager - admin access.

5. No recycle bin on the Cloud Storage website.
Since Cloud Storage doesn’t have a recycle bin, it’s not possible to restore accidentally or maliciously deleted files.
Proposed solution:
Implement a recycle bin with only the admin having access to restore or permanently delete files.

6. No folder size is displayed on the Cloud Storage website.
Since the size column only contains values for files and folders lack size values, it's unclear which folders are empty.
Proposed solution:
Display the size values for folders.

7. Paste Project dialog doesn’t have the project name field.
Since we use project templates for almost every project, we often start with a Copy & Paste of an existing project. Unfortunately, the Paste Project dialog doesn’t have the name field. As a result, it automatically creates the “Project_Name (Copy)” folder where it places “.syncprojectinfo.json” file. Renaming the project in the Cloud Library doesn’t rename the folder on the hard drive, which creates a mess and unnecessarily complicates file management.
Proposed solution:
An ideal solution would be to remove Cloud Storage settings from the project creation dialogs as described in Issue #1. In the meantime adding the project name field to the Paste Project dialog can mitigate this issue.

8. Reuse Project Folder Issue.
If you attempt to create a project in the Cloud Library after creating the project folder on the hard drive first, you will be prompted with “Reuse Project Folder” warning. Naturally, we’d like to reuse it as we always prepare a folder with all footage and assets before creating a project. Unfortunately, clicking the “Reuse” button creates a new folder on the hard drive with the same name and adds the number “2” at the end. It happens in 50% of cases. Sometimes it adds “.syncprojectinfo.json” file into the existing folder which is the preferred behaviour.
Proposed solution:
Ensure clicking the “Reuse” button always reuses the chosen folder instead of creating a new one.

9. Davinci Resolve can’t resync files from Cloud Storage.
In case a remote editor accidentally deletes some files from a project folder on their hard drive, the Blackmagic Cloud Sync menu will still show that all files are in sync. Pausing and resuming the sync has no effect. So the only way to restore those files is to open the Cloud Storage website, download each missing file individually and place them into the project folder on the hard drive. This seems like a lot of work for something that can be done automatically.
Proposed solution:
Automatically resync files from Cloud Storage at the start of the project, or at least add a button to the Blackmagic Cloud Sync menu to manually force a resync.


If you have any other issues we have missed or know of any workarounds for the issues I have mentioned, feel free to leave a comment.

Thank the lord that someone else is dealing with this and trying to figure it out. There is absolutely no documentation, and the way this currently works is pretty weird.

+1 on everything said above, plus how about a general update on the plans with this?

There's no documentation for it?!

Well THAT'S FUN!

I've just been given access to a project with media that's being hosted in a BMD Cloud Storage space and it's not making any sense to me. Some stuff is syncing but other stuff isn't. It's only proxies, but should be camera originals, and I have no way of researching what might be going on?

Wow. I'm glad I'm not paying for that storage.

Huge +1. We've also experienced all of these issues.

TL;DR Make it work more like DropBox, with a singular sync folder for the entire library, but with smart filtering to only sync media files that are actually used in a DaVinci Project and optionally only sync proxies.

I believe the Cloud Storage syncing should be more similar to DropBox in that it simply syncs folder hierarchies between remote collaborators (with some smart filtering) as opposed to being project file based, which currently has to re-create your entire folder hierarchy for each project in your Cloud Library which is all stored in a separate sync folder than your actual video project folder. The current approach leads to duplicate footage if projects use shared assets, and is a bit of an organizational nightmare.

With this alternative approach, I imagine each editor would assign a root sync folder on their machine at the Project Library level (perhaps a setting in the Project Manager for each Cloud Library), then as media is used in any DaVinci project, it gets uploaded to the Blackmagic Cloud and maintains its folder structure as it appears on disk, relative to the root sync folder directory. Then when a remote collaborator opens a cloud project and DaVinci starts to download any relevant media, it syncs it to the appropriate folder within that collaborators mapped sync folder, matching the same relative path as the original file. And if a remote editor or VFX artist adds new media to the project from their local machine, it gets synced to that same folder on everyones machine alongside all the other media instead of putting it in a completely different sync folder that DaVinci creates for that specific project.

If one of the editors uses media that's outside of the sync folder (like from another external drive or from their desktop) then DaVinci could show a pop up indicating that there is media being used that's outside of the sync folder and give you the option to either organize it somewhere within the sync folder, or add a new sync folder which other editors will then map to their systems and begin syncing to.

Adopting this approach means that you can organize your media as needed and everything is synced to that same location for every remote collaborator and is automatically organized in your actual video project folder that you’re all using.

Also, Cloud Storage should not be enabled by default and definitely should not be a pop-up where you have to uncheck a handful of checkboxes every time a new project is created.