When your third-party iOS app fails to properly sync data between devices, the problem may lay with Apple and not the app, say developers in conversation with The Verge.
Developers complain that two years in, iCloud is still “a developer’s worst nightmare” as Apple has failed to properly integrate iCloud with Core Data (the primary way iOS apps store data). Core Data is effectively a piece of middleware that sits between an app and the database that stores the data, and many iOS apps rely on it. When Core Data and iCloud don’t properly sync, data can go missing.
Many developers, not wanting to jeopardize their relationship with Apple, made their comments anonymously and took advantage of this–not to mince words.
Frustration seems to be sufficient that many developers are considering abandoning iCloud support altogether. One developer known to have been a firm advocate of iCloud as a concept put it simply: “If Apple doesn’t fix it in iOS 7, we’ll have to abandon ship.”