Sync across devices with iCloud or Dropbox

How it works

You connect a folder that lives inside your cloud drive. visualOS writes your workspace into it; your cloud service copies it to your other machines; visualOS on those machines reads it back. The app checks for a newer version every time it starts or comes back to the foreground — so the normal rhythm is: finish on device A, open the app on device B, and the new state is just there.

Setting it up

1. Create one folder in your cloud

   For example iCloud Drive/visualOS or Dropbox/visualOS. One folder — not one per device.

2. Connect it on your first device

   Settings → Folder & Workspace → Connect. Your existing canvas is written into the folder.

3. Connect the same folder on every other device

   Same steps there. visualOS will detect the existing data and offer to load it — accept, and the device joins the party.

4. Set the folder to “Keep Downloaded” on every device

   This tells your cloud to keep real copies on the device instead of placeholders. It’s the difference between sync that feels instant and sync that seems broken — step-by-step here.

What to expect

• It’s not real-time collaboration. visualOS is a personal tool: work on one device, pick up on another. Changes travel when your cloud syncs the files — usually seconds, sometimes longer on slow connections.
• Offline is fine. Edit away without a connection; your changes are written to the folder and your cloud forwards them when it’s back online.
• Both devices edited at once? visualOS merges your changes item by item, and keeps both versions when the exact same element was edited on both sides. Nothing is lost — details in When two devices edit at once.

Which cloud services work?

iCloud Drive (the natural choice on Apple devices), Dropbox, and generally anything that shows up as a normal folder on your disk — OneDrive, Google Drive for desktop, Syncthing, a NAS folder. On iPhone/iPad the native app connects to iCloud Drive folders via the system picker.