Changes to how model photos and documents are stored
Now that version 6.0 is finally done it's time to look ahead a bit.
One thing that has been a constant source of bugs and hassle is the handling of photos and documents for models. This is a great feature and really useful if you manage you model projects in Model Colors. Initially when the feature was added years ago server and storage costs were quite a bit higher than today and a fear was that suddenly all users would upload massive amounts of photos and thus skyrocket the storage costs. Thus the decision was made to store all the documents and photos in each user's own iCloud Drive folder. This folder is used on all Apple devices to sync data between them and acts like a normal cloud storage folder. In theory the app saves files to a model specific folder on iCloud Drive and the files get synced to all other devices.
In practice, this does not work too well. This feature has been a constant source of bugs and weird issues over many years. New devices can take ages before they sync the contents of iCloud Drive which makes it look like the app has suddenly lost all photos, cover photos etc. for all models. Not ideal. The files do get synced eventually, but there's nothing the app can do to speed up the process. New files also do not necessarily get synced immediately. Various bugs in the app's handling of the files hasn't helped either. :)
The plan now is to possibly start using a proper external storage system for the photos and documents. The tech side is quite straightforward and would allow the app to fully control all aspects of the media handling. For those that are in IT the app would use an Amazon S3 compatible storage solution, however it would not use Amazon.
For users this would not really look too different from today. There would be an initial stage where old photos and documents are uploaded to the new storage but after than there should be no visible changes in the app. The current folder in iCloud Drive would be kept for a while as backup, but eventually it could be removed and the space freed up for other uses.
Another small change in the app would be to add a Delete my data feature that could be used to force the app to clear out any data from the backend server and the storage server. This is required by the GDPR legislation in the EU.
Would you welcome such a change or do you think it's a bad idea? Please do not hesitate to get in touch and share your concerns before anything has been really put in motion.