Last year, we shared how we were using Instagram, IFTTT, Dropbox, and Multcloud to place the latest image posted on Instagram on this website. Shortly after, we used a very similar technique to export daily Fitbit data to a text file using IFTTT and saving it to Dropbox where it then would get syncronized by Multcloud.

For a while, everything worked great! However, starting in late December, the integration started breaking down. After some investigating, the problem appears to be Multcloud.

In fact, we're quite certain the problem is Multcloud.

The text files are still being created by IFTTT and added to the Dropbox folder. Multcloud is failing to sync the files.

It's worth mentioning that we're using the free version of Multcloud for this. We have only one folder that needs to be synchronized with a directory on the KTracy.com server. As mentioned before, we eventually plan to let a Raspberry Pi do this work; which will be a lot more powerful and flexible than MultCloud; which is why we haven't invested in their service.

When you have a free account, you are limited to only one synchronization and it must be a "Real-time Sync" instead of a scheduled synchronization. They do offer scheduled synchronizations, but only with the paywall. I'm not sure why a real-time sync is free while the scheduled sync is not; but regardless, the real time sync has been unreliable for the past couple of months after performing flawlessly after getting set up. Nothing changed on the server, nothing changed in Dropbox; which leaves only MultCloud as the culprit.

What Are You Doing About It Now?

I don't know if you noticed, but there's a wedding happening in about two months! Everyone here at KTracy.com is running around trying to make sure everything is beautiful and amazing for that special day.

Unfortunately, that means we're probably not going to do anything about it for now. We tried creating a new sync on Multcloud to see if that will perhaps fix the problem. If it doesn't, we're going to put up a message by the end of the month explaining that the Fitbit (and latest image) features are temporarily unavailable.

What Are We Eventually Doing About It?

As stated above and as far back as last year, we never wanted to be reliant on Multcloud anyway! In some regards, having this feature break is actually a good thing for us (just at a bad time). Eventually, we're going to program a Raspberry Pi to do all of this and more for us. If all goes well, we may not even have to be reliant on DropBox or IFTTT.

For a long time, we've been researching how to create our own cloud service in a way that works best for KTracy.com and the KTracy Manor. In particular, we want to be able to access files from the web and have it double as a NAS video device for archiving private home movies and the extensive video library of DVDs, Blurays, and even VHS tapes that Kevin and Katie have collected over the years. It should also be able to back itself up on the various cloud services that the KTracy.com team are currently using.

We're not sure if we're going to call it "The Kloud" or "KCloud" or something like that... but whatever it is, we have high standards for what it's able to do.

The future is exciting, but it will take time to build (time we don't currently have).