(Cloud Down!) When will we get automatic OFFLINE backups?

[speedfreakgarage]

I got on my computer to work on a very important blueprint that is due tonight, and I find the Fusion Servers are down!  I can't access ANY of my files, as they weren't automatically saved locally.

WHEN WILL THIS BE FIXED?

I want to check one box, that will automatically save ALL files locally in case the server goes down.

I know i'm not the only one who has been completely screwed by this "cloud save only" nightmare.

PLEASE GIVE US AUTOMATIC LOCAL SAVES!!!

[masa.minohara]

Hi @speedfreakgarage,

I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. The team is diligently working on the issue right now. 

To keep an eye on the outage you can follow our Health Dashboard HERE. We will keep you updated on this.

[evilgtv]

Agreed.  This is a ridiculous way to operate for a software purporting to be professional.

I've been away for a month, got back 2 days ago.  Yesterday I worked on one file, today I need to open a different project to do some work on it.  Of course, I can't, because for some insane reason the default 'caching' setting is 15 days.  Why on earth files are cached for only a set time I really don't understand - as far as I'm concerned, there should ALWAYS be a copy of the latest version of my files backed up locally every time I hit save, and it should remain there UNTIL I DELETE IT, whether that be 10 minutes or 10 years.  Sync it to the cloud in the background, ask me for confirmation of which version I want to use, that's fine - but don't EVER delete my local copy. 

Here's a hypothetical situation for you - I have a design in Fusion which gets output to a CNC mill, a complex and expensive part run on demand every now and then for a customer.  They ring me up needing this part run IMMEDIATELY to repair a production line that's losing them $50,000 an hour, as the spare one they had in stock just fell off the forklift.  The only problem is, it's been 18 months since they last needed one.  What do I tell them?  Yes, no worries, just bring me the part so I can measure every single dimension and redraw it from scratch before I can even fire up the mill.  Or alternatively, you can wait an unknown amount of time until I can access your file again.

Hypothetical - for two reasons.  One, I'm a hobby user anyway, which means all this outage costs me is not being able to work on my project in this bit of spare time, instead of $ and a customer. 

Secondly - ain't no way I'll buy a subscription if I do go into business, for this exact reason. I do however have a mate who runs a rapid prototyping business, and I certainly won't be advising him to take up a Fusion360 subscription unless this issue is resolved.

[brianrepp]

@speedfreakgarage - I sincerely apologize for the situation this has put you in.  The frequency and duration of our outages have improved significantly, but access to your designs in order to run your business is always critical.

For the files you were trying to access, you should have access if it's something you've used recently.  Is this something that hasn't been accessed for some time?

We're getting close to taking Fusion back online, and I'll respond here as soon as we do.

[speedfreakgarage]

I noticed, for some reason, the Offline Cache was set to only a few days.
So I changed it to 365 days. But obviously its too late now. However, i
still think that this software should NOT rely on the cloud. Amazon proved
clouds aren't reliable when their services crashed and they took down
multiple websites for an entire day.

[speedfreakgarage]

What about the Offline file storage? Is anyone working on adding that
option, so I don't ever have to rely on the cloud again?

Thanks.

No Cloud = Good Software

^_^

[brianrepp]

---

@speedfreakgarage wrote:
What about the Offline file storage? Is anyone working on adding that
option, so I don't ever have to rely on the cloud again?

Thanks.

No Cloud = Good Software

^_^

---

Good move on adjusting the cache limit, and one thing you may not have explored yet is the ability to prioritize files to be cached.  It's a feature that was added last year, and a bit more info is HERE

[brianrepp]

@evilgtv - apologies for not responding earlier, somehow I missed your message.  And I totally get your hypothetical situation, and as you say, it's not a hypothetical for some of our commercial users.  The link I just shared with Speedfreak above is the very first thing i'd recommend doing (along with extending the date range for cache) if you have a handful of critical parts that you tend to need access to at unexpected times.

Beyond that, we do have projects in the backlog that will continue to improve the offline experience, and I'll gather a bit more info on the status of them (along with sharing the feedback in this thread).

[evilgtv]

The problem with that lies in these lines here:

"Caching a design/project is a one time operation. Cached designs will not be automatically synced with newer versions - you’ll have to re-cache them if you want the latest changes available offline.

Cached designs, including those cached selectively, are cleared after 60-360 days of inactivity. You can change the time period in the General settings in the Preferences. "

So, as far as I understand, every time I hit save, I also need to go into the data manager, and re-export my file to the cache - otherwise there isn't much point having it cached.  Not only is it clunky, and adding a completely unnecessary user interaction (which should be done BY DEFAULT at the same time by the software anyway), but it's also ultimately pointless, since the cached file will delete itself after an arbitrary time period because..... well, because.... because why, exactly?  Why am I not permitted to keep an offline backup of my own file for more than 360 days at most, and 15 days by default?

[dmitriy]

I want to bump this thread

MUST HAVE ACCESS TO FILES AT ALL TIMES.

Its quite aggravating and detrimental to business if we cant get access to files while there is an outage

PLEASE have a "sync" to have all CAD or some CAD on computer so they can be accessed at any point.

Thank you.

[brianrepp]

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@dmitriy wrote:

I want to bump this thread

MUST HAVE ACCESS TO FILES AT ALL TIMES.

Its quite aggravating and detrimental to business if we cant get access to files while there is an outage

PLEASE have a "sync" to have all CAD or some CAD on computer so they can be accessed at any point.

Thank you.

---

@dmitriy - I completely understand, and feel your pain.  While it's not the ideal solution (yet), you do have the ability to selectively cache designs locally, more info HERE.

[dmitriy]

Thank you and am aware of that.

It would work great if Autodesk can notify us of outages ahead of time.

...or just add a sync feature - this is absolutely critical for commercial viability of this product!

[brianrepp]

---

@dmitriy wrote:

Thank you and am aware of that.

It would work great if Autodesk can notify us of outages ahead of time.

...or just add a sync feature - this is absolutely critical for commercial viability of this product!

---

For planned outages (these are rare) we do let people know ahead of time on our Health Dashboard.  For unplanned outages (like today) we, unfortunately, don't know when they will occur.  Once they do occur, we have all hands on deck to get our users back up and running as quickly as possible, and then after we're in the clear, we do a retrospective to understand exactly what happened and how we can avoid it in the future.

[dmitriy]

Understandable!

Hope its back swiftly. Thank you!

This is merely a discussion, interest and reinforcement of a needed new feature than a need for work-arounds.

[Anonymous]

---

@brianrepp wrote:

Once they do occur, we have all hands on deck to get our users back up and running as quickly as possible, and then after we're in the clear, we do a retrospective to understand exactly what happened and how we can avoid it in the future. 

---

This is a perfectly reasonable thing to do when there's an emergency. But the larger point is that anyone who doesn't have locally saved copies of their work, which absolutely should be automatic, because unexpected network outages happen on both the client and server end, is kind of screwed. 

I spent all morning doing other work so I could spend the afternoon working on a project on my CNC router, only to find I can't even open up the file now. So there goes the rest of my day. Thanks.

[brianrepp]

@Anonymous - I sincerely do get it, and I know the current selective cache solution isn't always going to work.  It eased the pain for situations where you know what you're going to be working on, but otherwise isn't very helpful.

Following the recovery from this outage, I promise to raise the issue and circle back with the community.

[dmitriy]

Bumping to elevate this.

Software MUST work offline and sync to cloud. In slow or no internet conditions this sync gets in the way. Im waiting for large files to upload before using them normally.

Please focus on this issue as this can make or break the usability of this platform.

[brianrepp]

@dmitriy - this has been an ongoing conversation.  I don't have anything to share yet, but I assure you when we're at the point of getting some feedback on our thinking, we'll share broadly.

So I'm clear - for your particular situation, you're essentially looking to use F360 offline, and only connect occasionally for collaboration or other connected workflows?

[dmitriy]

I think there should be a mode/option where selected or whole library of CAD data is synced to a folder on the machine for use offline.

This is a file management/storage thing more than it is online/offline thing. Just mimic drop box/google drive and how it could be mirrored or selectively synced. Maybe the file organization should be closer to cloud storage/backup over trying to always sync to files online as needed..

[Fueler]

FWIW I have decided that I want it both ways. Cloud and local. Gets me covered every which way.