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CloudPull Changelog

What's new in CloudPull 2.8 Build 4073

Sep 27, 2015
  • CloudPull is now compiled using Xcode 7 against the OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) SDK.
  • When exporting or restoring a Google Drive file, CloudPull now sets the creation date and modification date of the file to that of the Google Drive item.
  • When saving a backup file that has a long file name, CloudPull now truncates the base name to 200 characters. Previous versions truncated the base name to 32 characters.
  • CloudPull now uses Apple's JSON parsing library instead of a third party JSON parsing library.
  • CloudPull now uses a newer version of the MailCore IMAP library for backing up Gmail.
  • When moving backups, CloudPull no longer cycles through backup files if the “Lock Backup Files” setting is off.
  • The goldenhillsoftware.com web site is now served exclusively via HTTPS. All links in the app have been updated accordingly.
  • Some troubleshooting aids have been added to the Help menu.

New in CloudPull 2.8 Build 4059 Beta (Aug 3, 2015)

  • The update adds fixes to the Activity Window to avoid display bugs under OS X El Capitan.
  • The app now includes configuration changes required to communicate with Google APIs under App Transport Security in El Capitan.
  • The app is now compiled with Xcode 7 against the OS X 10.11 SDK.
  • When saving backup files that have long file names, CloudPull now truncates the base name to 200 characters. In previous versions it truncated the base name to 32 characters.

New in CloudPull 2.7.4 Build 4042 (Jun 22, 2015)

  • IMPROVEMENTS:
  • Fixed a bug displaying items that have an indeterminate last modified date.
  • In response to recent news of an OS X keychain vulnerability:
  • When adding or updating Google account credentials, CloudPull first deletes any pre-existing entries that might exist for that account in the keychain and then adds a new keychain entry. It never updates existing keychain entries.
  • The first time this version of CloudPull is run, it will delete its Google account credentials from the keychain and then add them again.
  • IN SHORT, THE KEYCHAIN VULNERABILITY REFERENCED ABOVE IS THIS:
  • Developer of Malicious App knows that Good App creates certain keychain items.
  • Before Good App is ever installed or running, Malicious App creates a keychain item with the expected service name and account name. Malicious App is code signed in such a way that its keychain items are available to both itself and to Good App.
  • Good App runs, and updates the keychain item with account credentials.
  • Malicious App now has access to these account credentials.
  • This is a significant vulnerability in the OS X keychain that I hope Apple addresses very soon. In the meantime, this improvement will help protect the secrecy of the credentials CloudPull uses to access your Google accounts. CloudPull does not store your account password at all, but it does use the keychain to store OAuth tokens that grant it access to your accounts.

New in CloudPull 2.7.3 Build 4037 (May 11, 2015)

  • Added a “Lock backup files” checkbox to the General pane of the preferences window. Backup files are locked when and only when that checkbox is checked. By default, backup files are still locked.
  • Fixed a crasher in some error handling code.
  • Updated the code that asks Google Drive for the last known change number to use a newer HTTPS retrieval mechanism (NSURLSession).

New in CloudPull 2.7.2 Build 4027 (Jan 24, 2015)

  • For customers with 1Password installed, the sheet showing you the Google login page will contain a 1Password button. Clicking on the 1Password button will open 1Password and ask it to display your Google accounts.
  • When setting up an account, CloudPull will now proactively warn you if avast! Mail Shield is enabled. CloudPull's backup of Gmail is not compatible with avast! Mail Shield. This update does not address the incompatibility, but it provides a more helpful error message.
  • If validating sufficient access to your account results in an error message, that error message will now be aligned correctly.
  • The user style sheet for the Google Request for Permission page in the login workflow has been updated.

New in CloudPull 2.7.1 Build 4025 (Dec 29, 2014)

  • This update fixes a bug that could cause calendar backups to fail after deleting a calendar.

New in CloudPull 2.7 Build 4021 (Dec 2, 2014)

  • Now available with two major improvements: the ability to limit Google Drive backups to traditional Google Docs, and a modernized status indicator in the menu bar.
  • By default, CloudPull still backs up all files on Google Drive. You can limit Google Drive backups to traditional Google Docs in the account sheet of the preferences window.
  • Redesigned the menu bar status indicator. Taking a queue from the status indicator for Time Machine, the icon is no longer animated while CloudPull is performing backups. Instead, it will show a static arrow while a backup is in progress. In addition the status indicators are now monochrome images, making them look much better in Yosemite's dark mode.
  • Other improvements include:
  • Updated wording for Google Drive document types: Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides.
  • Compiled against the OS X 10.10 SDK with Xcode 6.1.

New in CloudPull 2.6.1 Build 4010 (Oct 30, 2014)

  • Fixes a bug in honoring Mac App Store purchases.

New in CloudPull 2.6 Build 4005 (Oct 9, 2014)

  • Contains the following improvements:
  • Fixed a problem retrieving paginated lists of Google Drive file changes that could cause Google Drive backups to fail.
  • Updated to a newer version of the Google Calendar API to retrieve the list of available calendars.
  • Use newer downloading APIs available in Mavericks and Yosemite to improve the speed and reliability of Google Drive file downloads.
  • Use a newer IMAP library for backing up Gmail.

New in CloudPull 2.5.4 Build 3714 (Aug 18, 2014)

  • The Google Calendar API recently changed in a way that rendered CloudPull unable to back up calendars. This update incorporates fixes which restore CloudPull's ability to back up calendars.
  • This update fixes a bug that, under certain circumstances, caused CloudPull to crash during its first backup cycle.
  • This update adds the ability to control the HTTP timeout length and the number of simultaneous downloads per account when backing up Google Drive files. The new settings are available under the “Advanced” pane of the preferences window. I do not anticipate many customers changing these settings, but they helped one customer circumvent some Google Drive backup issues.
  • This update fixes a display bug in the History popover.
  • This update fixes a crash that could occur under certain conditions when retrieving an updated list of mail messages from Gmail.

New in CloudPull 2.5.3 Build 3680 (Nov 21, 2013)

  • Addressed an issue where a calendar could not be backed up if Google was unable to return the list of modifications since its last successful backup. CloudPull now handles this condition by retrieving a fresh list of all events for that calendar.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause CloudPull to attempt to download Google Drive files from stale URLs.
  • Added error handling improvements when downloading Gmail messages.
  • Increased the amount of time allowed for a Gmail message to be downloaded.
  • Fixed a bug that could incorrectly cause mail messages to be listed as unlabeled messages.
  • Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause the “Restoring…” window to not close after restoring via drag-and-drop.
  • Fixed an error condition that could occur when renewing an OAuth token after a backup of Google Drive, Calendar, or Contacts had been running for more than an hour.
  • CloudPull will now find the inbox mail folder even if it is not named “INBOX”.
  • Improved the error message shown if a newly authorized Google account does not have the expected email address.
  • Added validation that all previously backed up files are still present in the backup repository at the start of each backup cycle.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause an inability to drag and drop multiple items from the main window if two of the items are Google Drive folders with long and similar names.
  • Built against the Mavericks SDK with Xcode 5.

New in CloudPull 2.5.2 Build 3648 (Oct 24, 2013)

  • Fixed a bug that, in certain cases, resulted in events being excluded from calendar backup files.
  • Added the ability to back up responses from legacy forms on Google Drive. Responses from newer forms are only backed up if those responses are stored in a Google Drive spreadsheet.
  • Made the username field in the login web view editable.
  • Fixed a cosmetic bug with a progress indicator when running under Mavericks.
  • Improved the performance of updating the list of mail labels that should be backed up for an account.

New in CloudPull 2.5.1 Build 3636 (Sep 23, 2013)

  • This update addresses bugs in the login web view that made it incompatible with certain Google accounts.
  • This update adds threading improvements to the email message retrieval system.
  • This update adds retry logic to handle network errors when updating the list of Google Mail messages in an account.
  • This update addresses a mail folder path encoding bug that rendered the app unable to find the “All Mail” folder via IMAP for some customers.
  • This update addresses bugs in the Preferences window that would be seen if CloudPull was not set up with any Google accounts and the customer had not purchased the app's premium features.
  • This update addresses two crashes: one that would occur under certain circumstances when updating Google Calendar events, and one that would occur when two accounts had the same email address.

New in CloudPull 2.5 Build 3616 (Sep 4, 2013)

  • Export of Backups:
  • CloudPull 2.5 allows you to export backups for an account with the click of a button. When you export backups, all of your current backup files are exported to a folder of your choosing. Mail is organized into Apple Mail mailboxes, with one mailbox for each Gmail label. Contacts and Calendars are copied and organized into a logical folder structure. Backups of Google Drive files are copied and organized into the same folder structure that they have on Google Drive. Google Reader subscriptions are exported into a “Subscriptions.opml” file. Google Reader saved articles are exported into an “All saved articles.html” HTML Bookmarks file. To export backups for an account, simply click on the new Export Backups button at the top of the main window.
  • Much Faster Backups:
  • CloudPull 2.5 uses a newer version of the Google Drive API, and takes advantage of its ability to list just those files that have changed since the previous backup cycle.
  • CloudPull 2.5 uses a newer version of the Google Calendar API, and benefits from its ability to list only modified events in a calendar.
  • There is a Google IMAP extension that allows a client to retrieve a list of labels associated with a message when retrieving that message from the “All Mail” folder. CloudPull 2.5 takes advantage of that extension, and no longer needs to retrieve the list of messages from the folder associated with each label.
  • CloudPull 2.5 takes advantage of IMAP compression.
  • CloudPull 2.5 retrieves less header information about unchanged messages when performing incremental backups.
  • CloudPull 2.5 uses a new multi-file format for its database of what items are backed up. This format results in dramatic speed improvements.
  • Web-based Login:
  • CloudPull 2.5 uses OAuth, a more flexible authentication mechanism, to log in to your Google accounts. You now log in by entering your password and any other required information directly into a Google login page using an embedded web view. CloudPull 2.5 stores an OAuth token, instead of your Google account password, securely in the keychain.
  • Other Changes:
  • Google Drawings are now backed up as SVG files instead of PNG files. This change allows backups of drawings to maintain resolution independence.
  • Removed CloudPull Free from the Mac App Store, and renamed the premium Mac App Store Edition from “CloudPull Premium” to “CloudPull”. More information for CloudPull Free customers is available in a separate post.
  • Important Notes:
  • After applying this update, CloudPull will migrate data from its old database to one with its new format. This will take less than an hour for most customers.
  • After applying this update, CloudPull will attempt to convert the username and password for each account to an OAuth token. This will not work for accounts where 2-step verification has been enabled. If you have enabled 2-step verification for an account, you will need to log in to that account from within the Preferences window.
  • By default, CloudPull 2.5 only backs up calendars that are owned by the account that CloudPull is backing up, shown under “My Calendars”. If you still wish to back up other calendars that are shared with or subscribed to by the account, a preference setting allows you to do so. When you initially apply this update, CloudPull will ask whether you wish to accept the new default or to continue backing up all calendars.

New in CloudPull 2.4.2 Build 3588 (Jul 2, 2013)

  • Disables ongoing backup of Google Reader and includes a few other tweaks.
  • Disabling Backup of Google Reader - Google Reader has shut down. In response to that, this update disables backup of Google Reader. The app provides full access to your existing Google Reader backups, but the ability to update Google Reader backups or to backup Google Reader for a new account has been removed.
  • Gmail Labels - Previous versions of CloudPull did not back up Gmail labels that started with either “[Gmail]/” or “[Google Mail]/”. I had deliberately, but perhaps unwisely, ignored them because they look like special mail labels. However, some customers have defined labels that start with one of those prefixes. With this update, CloudPull will back up those labels.
  • “Copy” and “Copy link” - You can now copy the name of an item by right-clicking on it and selecting “Copy” from the resulting menu. If the item happens to be a Google Reader subscription or bookmark, you can also copy the link associated with that item by selecting “Copy link” from the resulting menu.

New in CloudPull 2.4.1 Build 3580 (Apr 25, 2013)

  • Google recently changed the way it expects URLs to be formed when downloading presentations in Microsoft Office format. Backing up presentations using the old URL pattern no longer works. This update restores the ability to back up presentations, and also updates the URL patterns for documents and spreadsheets.
  • In addition, the Direct Download Edition of this update includes cosmetic fixes and server interaction fixes for the in-app store that allows customers to purchase the app's premium features.

New in CloudPull 2.4 Build 3579 (Apr 15, 2013)

  • Backup of Tagged Articles:
  • Google Reader allows you to assign tags to articles. Interestingly, I do not know of any tool or service that has provided the ability to export or back up tagged articles. Google Takeout does not export tagged articles. CloudPull has not backed up tagged articles. It is time to address that.
  • CloudPull now allows you to back up articles that you have tagged. Tags will appear in the left navigation pane of the main window. If you click on a tag, articles assigned to that tag will appear to the right.
  • Just like articles that are Starred, Shared, or Liked, tagged articles are stored as Web Location files that can be opened with Safari. You can also right-click on a tag and export articles assigned to that tag into an HTML Bookmarks file, suitable for import into Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Pinboard.
  • Google Reader also allows you to assign tags to feed subscriptions. If you assign a tag to a subscription, every single article originating from that feed will automatically be assigned to that tag. In most cases, it would be overkill to retrieve and back up all articles assigned to a tag that had subscriptions assigned to it. Therefore, by default, CloudPull will not attempt to back up articles associated with a tag if that tag has assigned subscriptions.
  • For customers with premium features, the Advanced pane of the Preferences window now has a checkbox allowing you to back up tags that have assigned subscriptions.
  • Please be aware that enabling that setting could result in backing up a much larger set of data than you really wish to back up. This can have a significant impact on the time it takes to perform a backup and the amount of space required to store backups.
  • Export of All Saved Articles:
  • CloudPull now allows you to export all of your saved articles into one big HTML Bookmarks file. The list of articles exported will include articles that you have Starred, Shared, Liked, and Tagged. The list will be divided into folders: one for Starred articles, one for Shared articles, one for Liked articles, and one for each tag. The HTML Bookmarks file is suitable for import into Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Pinboard.
  • Improved Quick Look Preview for Articles:
  • Previously, performing a Quick Look preview on a saved article showed you the article on the originating web site. This was ideal for an article that still existed at its original location, but was not useful for an article that was no longer online. I have heard from a few customers concerned that their Google Reader copies of some articles are their only copies; the originating web sites are no longer online. With this update, performing a Quick Look preview on an article will show the article text from the RSS feed. This will not always be the full text of the article, but it is what Google Reader had.
  • Improved Quick Look Preview for Subscriptions:
  • Performing a Quick Look Preview on a subscription now shows you the web site for the feed. Previously, it showed a Quick Look preview on the Web Location file itself.
  • Article Source Names:
  • When displaying a list of articles, CloudPull now includes a “Source” column containing the name of the originating web site for each article. When exporting articles to an HTML Bookmarks file, the name of the originating web site is now included in each bookmark title.

New in CloudPull 2.3.1 Build 3560 (Mar 26, 2013)

  • Improved memory usage when backing up mail.
  • Fixed a bug where clicking a help link in the status menu could cause a crash.
  • Fixed a bug where switching between left navigation items in the main window would occasionally cause a crash.
  • Fixed a minor bug in the output format of HTML Bookmarks files.
  • Added credit in the About box to the artist and source of the “Upgrade” icon in the Preferences window.

New in CloudPull 2.3 Build 3558 (Mar 21, 2013)

  • Shared and Liked Articles:
  • For a long time, Google Reader had an ability to “share” an article with Google Reader followers and to “like” an article. In a redesign that was released in October of 2011, that functionality was removed and replaced with Google Plus sharing options. Although the functionality is long gone from Google Reader, the lists of articles that were Liked and Shared before that redesign are still available via the Google Reader API.
  • With this update, CloudPull will now back up Shared articles and Liked Articles. The lists of Shared and Liked articles can be selected from the left navigation pane of the main window. Just as with Starred articles, Shared and Liked articles are stored as Web Location files and can easily be dragged and dropped to the Finder. They can then be imported into Safari by dragging them into the list of bookmarks.
  • Interestingly, very old versions of CloudPull also had the ability to back up Shared and Liked articles. I removed the functionality after Shared and Liked articles were removed from Google Reader, out of concern that the information would become unavailable via the Google Reader API. However, the information is still available via the API. At this point it seems very likely that it will remain so until the Google Reader shutdown.
  • New Article Export Options:
  • In addition to letting you restore bookmarks of Starred, Shared, and Liked articles as Web Location files, CloudPull now allows you to export these lists of articles as HTML Bookmarks files, suitable for importing into Safari, Chrome, or Firefox.
  • This option is available by right-clicking on the applicable item in the left navigation pane of the main window.
  • If you are running CloudPull as a foreground app, the ability to export your subscriptions and lists of articles is also available in the “File” menu.
  • The ability to save bookmarks in these formats is a benefit to using CloudPull to export your Google Reader data. While Google Takeout also provides your lists of Starred, Shared, and Liked articles, it serves that data in a JSON format. The JSON format is suitable for reading and manipulating the data programmatically, but not for simply importing those articles into your browser bookmarks.
  • Locating the Backups Folder
  • With this update, customers who have not purchased premium features can now see the backups folder path in the General pane of the Preferences window.
  • This change does not affect customers who have paid or who are within a 30-day trial. Paid and 30-day trial customers can see and change the backup location under the “Advanced” tab.
  • Important Bug Fix
  • This update contains an important bug fix for direct download (non-Mac App Store) customers who choose not to purchase premium features. Specifically, there was a bug where the app would expire on direct download customers after 30 days if it was not purchased even though it should never expire on customers who do not have premium features. I am sorry about that bug.

New in CloudPull 2.2.1 (Feb 9, 2013)

  • Updated to account for a change in the way Google Calendar data is served via CalDAV.

New in CloudPull 2.1.9 Build 3050 (Feb 2, 2013)

  • Google recently made a change to the way Google Calendar data is served via CalDAV that rendered CloudPull unable to find events in calendar feeds. CloudPull should have been able to handle this change, but it was not. This update fixes that.
  • Since the problem introduces the possibility that the most recent calendar backup may not include the events, the first time this version is run it will back up fresh copies of your calendars.
  • This update also fixes a bug in which CloudPull would fail to back up calendars that had no events.

New in CloudPull 2.1.8 Build 3048 (Jan 7, 2013)

  • Adds the ability to purchase the app from inside the app itself.

New in CloudPull 2.1.7 Build 3044 (Nov 26, 2012)

  • CloudPull 2.1.6 introduced a crashing bug. Specifically, the app would crash when opening the main window and, from the left navigation pane, selecting a Google Drive folder that contained at least one subfolder. This update fixes that bug.

New in CloudPull 2.1.6 Build 3042 (Nov 23, 2012)

  • Retrieval of Documents and Spreadsheets:
  • Google recently changed the format in which their API exports documents and spreadsheets. Previously, the API returned documents in the older “.doc” format and spreadsheets in the older “.xls” format. Now, their API returns documents in the newer “.docx” format and spreadsheets in the newer “.xlsx” format. These are more modern formats introduced by more recent versions of Microsoft Office.
  • Until now, CloudPull was using the older filename extensions when storing backup files for documents and spreadsheets. While the documents and spreadsheets that CloudPull has backed up are complete and valid, applications have difficulty reading documents and spreadsheets with the wrong filename extension.
  • With this update, CloudPull will use the filename extension specified in the “Content-Disposition” HTTP header. This will ensure that CloudPull will store documents and spreadsheets with the correct filename extension. As of now, Google still serves presentations as “.ppt” files. However, should Google start serving presentations as “.pptx” files in the future CloudPull will automatically use the new filename extension.
  • After installing this update, CloudPull will download the current versions of each document, spreadsheet, and presentation as a new version, to ensure that the filename extension matches the format of the backup file.
  • This is a critical fix, because the incorrect filename extensions make the documents and spreadsheets unreadable until the filename extension is changed. As a result, I am requesting an expedited review from Apple so that this update can be more quickly made available in the Mac App Store.
  • Identification of Special Mail Folders:
  • Since IMAP mail folder names are intended to be read by people, the names of special IMAP mail folders such as “All Mail” and “Sent Mail” vary based on the language associated with your account. CloudPull identifies the mail folders using flags associated with those folders. With this update, CloudPull will update its record of which mail folders are special during each backup iteration. This allows CloudPull to identify special mail folders if the account language changes between backup iterations.

New in CloudPull 2.1.5 Build 3037 (Oct 18, 2012)

  • This update addresses the following issues:
  • Sports Team Calendars:
  • Google Calendar allows you to subscribe directly to sports team calendars. However, Google does not provide API access to these calendars. To the best of my knowledge Google has never publicly said why, but it seems likely that their license to this data prohibits them from providing API access to this data.
  • Until recently, these calendars did not appear in the Google Calendar API at all, so CloudPull simply did not see that you were subscribed to one of these calendars. In a recent subtle Google Calendar API change, subscriptions to these calendars became available but their event-level data is still not available. Therefore, CloudPull was trying but failing to back up these calendars.
  • CloudPull 2.1.5 will now ignore sports team calendars to which you may subscribe in Google Calendar. This limitation is strictly for sports team calendars that Google makes available. This limitation does not apply to shared calendars in general. This also does not apply to, for example, a company or little league sports team calendar to which you may subscribe.
  • Fixed “Exclude item from status determination…”:
  • If you right-click on an item that cannot be backed up, you can select an “Exclude item from status determination…” menu item. This allows you to acknowledge that backing up a certain item is problematic, and allows the cloud icon in the menu bar to reflect a successful backup if everything else is backed up properly. The need to use this is very rare, but it can be useful when the Google APIs are not properly providing download access to an item.
  • Unfortunately, this functionality stopped working correctly in a recent update. You could select the menu item, but it did not work. This update restores that functionality.
  • Retina Snapshot Icon:
  • When updating CloudPull for retina displays, I somehow missed that the snapshot icon in the main window was not retina-optimized. That is fixed in this update.

New in CloudPull 2.1.4 Build 3034 (Sep 3, 2012)

  • When editing account settings in the Google Accounts preferences area, the “Select labels…” button becomes disabled when you uncheck the Mail checkbox. This update addresses a bug in which that button would also become disabled if you unchecked one of the other four checkboxes on that sheet.

New in CloudPull 2.1.3 Build 3031 (Aug 20, 2012)

  • Adds retina display support. The artwork in the application has been updated to look great on retina displays. You will notice modest improvements on most Macs. On the Retina MacBook Pro, you will notice that artwork within the application looks dramatically better.
  • This update also contains more sophisticated error handling and retry logic, making it less likely that transient network issues or errors returned by Google's servers will result in a failed backup attempt.

New in CloudPull 2.1.2 Build 3027 (Jul 9, 2012)

  • Mountain Lion, a version of Mac OS X expected to be released later this month, contains a new security feature called Gatekeeper. Gatekeeper allows you to indicate that only apps from the Mac App Store and those from identified developers should be allowed to run.
  • With this update, the Direct Download Edition of CloudPull is code signed in a manner indicating that it is from an Apple-identified developer. This allows the app to run when apps are limited to those signed by identified developers.
  • If you are updating directly from a version of CloudPull prior to 2.1, you will see a prompt asking you to grant access to the password stored in the keychain for each Google account. Please click “Always Allow” to grant CloudPull access to these keychain entries. If you are running CloudPull 2.1 or later, your keychain entries have already been updated.
  • This change does not apply to the Mac App Store Edition of CloudPull.

New in CloudPull 2.1.1 Build 3026 (Jun 25, 2012)

  • Addresses a critical bug in which certain email messages were not backed up properly. The most disconcerting part of this bug is that CloudPull was reporting these messages as having been backed up even if the message backup file was invalid.

New in CloudPull 2.1 Build 3021 (Jun 8, 2012)

  • Faster message downloading and message download throttling
  • An Activity window, allowing you to monitor the progress CloudPull makes while it performs backups
  • User interface improvements to the Google Accounts area of the Preferences window
  • Text updates to reflect the name of Google Docs changing to Google Drive
  • Pagination of lists of over 1,000 backed up items

New in CloudPull 2.1 Build 3021 Beta (Jun 8, 2012)

  • Faster Message Downloading and Message Download Throttling:
  • Downloading email messages in CloudPull 2.1 is about four times as fast as in version 2.0.3. CloudPull now creates up to four simultaneous connections to the mail server for each account to achieve this major performance boost.
  • In order to keep Google’s IMAP servers running smoothly for all of their customers, Google has IMAP usage limitations. Google enforces IMAP usage limitations by throttling back the speed at which it responds to IMAP clients and by temporarily disabling IMAP access after excessive usage. In order to avoid IMAP access speed being throttled back by Google, CloudPull now throttles back its own usage. CloudPull now only downloads 5,000 messages per account per backup cycle by default. Therefore, it may take several backup cycles after the initial setup before all email for an account is completely backed up.
  • While the message throttling offsets some of the benefits of the faster downloading, the end result is that CloudPull spends far less time downloading email messages.
  • More details about the throttling are available on a separate page.
  • Activity Window:
  • CloudPull 2.1 provides an Activity window, allowing you to better monitor the progress CloudPull makes while it performs backups.
  • This window can be shown by selecting the “Activity” menu item from the CloudPull status menu.
  • Improved Account Preferences:
  • The “Google Accounts” tab of the Preferences window has been overhauled. This view makes it easy to determine what services are being backed up for each account. In addition, the “Account Settings…” button makes it more apparent how to change settings for an individual account.
  • Google Drive:
  • While CloudPull already worked with Google Drive just as it had with Google Docs, CloudPull 2.1 contains updates to the user-presented text to reflect the name of the service changing.

New in CloudPull 2.0.3 Build 2545 (Apr 21, 2012)

  • Throttles back the speed at which it requests photos for contacts when backing up Google Contacts. Google recently instituted usage limits in the Google Contacts API, and CloudPull was exceeding those limits. As a result, some contact backups were failing. This update addresses that.

New in CloudPull 2.0.2 (Mar 12, 2012)

  • Improves the speed at which messages are retrieved from Gmail.
  • Message retrieval now happens at roughly three times the speed at which it did in version 2.0.

New in CloudPull 2.0.1 (Mar 7, 2012)

  • Fixed an IMAP bug that affected whether messages appear as "read" or "unread" on certain devices that use the Exchange syncing protocol after being backed up by CloudPull.

New in CloudPull 2.0 Build 2541 (Mar 1, 2012)

  • CloudPull now backs up Gmail.
  • CloudPull creates point-in-time snapshots. Snapshots allow you to restore data from an account as it existed, for example, at the time of a backup that took place two days ago.
  • The left navigation pane is now more visually appealing, allows hiding and showing of categories, and only shows navigation items for backed up services.
  • Backed up items are now represented by more visually appealing icons.
  • Historical information pertaining to backed up items is now detailed in a popover. You can view this by right-clicking on an item and selecting the “History of [item name]” menu item.
  • OPML exports of Google Reader subscriptions, suitable for import into NetNewsWire, are now available by right-clicking on the “Subscriptions” item in the left navigation pane.
  • In response to the removal of “shared” and “liked” articles from Google Reader, any existing shared and liked articles are archived with the first snapshot.

New in CloudPull 1.5.6 Build 2035 (Feb 2, 2012)

  • Accepts and follows HTTP redirects from Google when retrieving lists of items. The Google Calendar API has begun occasionally issuing redirects when retrieving a list of calendars.
  • If you have recently seen calendar backup errors, this update should address the cause of those errors.

New in CloudPull 1.5.5 Build 2034 (Jan 16, 2012)

  • CloudPull now ignores calendar entries with no VEVENT or VFREEBUSY items. Entries that have no events or free/busy items were recently added by Google. Without this change, CloudPull fails to back up calendars that have these entries.
  • This update includes a fix to a parsing bug involving Google Reader subscriptions to sites that do not have an RSS feed.

New in CloudPull 1.5.4 Build 2032 (Nov 15, 2011)

  • CloudPull has been updated to reflect the removal of Shared Articles and Liked Articles from Google Reader.
  • CloudPull no longer uses Growl to post background notifications.
  • CloudPull now writes far fewer messages to the system log.
  • Several bugs, including one crasher, have been fixed.

New in CloudPull 1.5.3 Build 2030 (Aug 25, 2011)

  • This update addresses a bug that resulted in occasionally failing to retrieve the list of Google Calendars.
  • This updates adds the ability to locate the backups directory if its location on the file system changes.

New in CloudPull 1.5.2 Build 2028 (Aug 19, 2011)

  • Offline Operation Improvements:
  • The backup scheduler in CloudPull 1.5.2 takes into account when the Mac is offline. When offline, CloudPull suspends automatic backups. CloudPull reschedules backups when the Mac comes back online. If a backup is overdue or if the last backup attempt was not successful when the Mac joins a network, CloudPull will schedule a backup 30 seconds into the future. The 30 second delay allows for any other network changes that might otherwise interfere with the backup.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • This update addresses a bug where CloudPull was unable to backup gzip-compressed files from Google Docs.
  • This update addresses a crasher in, ironically, the crash reporter.

New in CloudPull 1.5.1 Build 2024 (Aug 8, 2011)

  • Adds a variety of improvements:
  • Postal Addresses in Contact Backups - Prior versions of CloudPull wrote postal addresses as blocks of text in the "Note" area of the contact file. CloudPull 1.5.1 writes postal addresses as a structured postal address.
  • During your first backup after updating to CloudPull 1.5.1, CloudPull will create a new revision of each contact that has a postal address. This will allow backups of your existing contacts to reflect this improvement.
  • CloudPull News Alerts - The Mac App Store Edition of CloudPull now optionally checks this web site for operational news alerts. This capability will be used very sparingly to alert customers to issues pertaining to the day-to-day use of CloudPull. Technical details regarding this new capability are described on a separate page. Since the in-app Software Update mechanism in the Standard Edition of CloudPull provides a suitable communication channel for urgent issues and fixes, this capability only exists in the Mac App Store Edition of CloudPull.
  • Bug Fixes and Crash Reporter - This update also contains some edge case bug fixes, and an updated crash reporter.

New in CloudPull 1.5 Build 2023 (Jul 12, 2011)

  • Support for Lion (Mac OS 10.7).
  • Quick Look improvements (Lion only).
  • Performance improvements in the backup engine.
  • Better handling of configuration changes while backup is in progress.

New in CloudPull 1.4.2 Build 2019 (Jun 6, 2011)

  • Performance:
  • CloudPull now parses the list of Google Reader saved articles much more efficiently. In addition, CloudPull now uses less CPU power at any one time while processing lists of Docs, Reader items, Calendars, and Contacts.
  • From Mac App Store Edition to Standard Edition:
  • If you have run the Mac App Store Edition of CloudPull within a User Account on a Mac, the Standard Edition of CloudPull will now detect that. After detecting that, the Standard Edition will operate as if a registration code had been entered; it will not ask for a registration code and it will not run as a 30-day demo.
  • This improvement provides Mac App Store customers with access to updates, such as this one, that are not yet available through the Mac App Store.
  • In addition, when you tell CloudPull to start automatically at login, CloudPull will now delete any login items for other copies of CloudPull. This prevents multiple copies of CloudPull from launching automatically when you log in to your Mac. This applies only to copies of CloudPull that have the original filename, "CloudPull.app".
  • Bug Fixes:
  • CloudPull had a bug where certain Google Reader articles could appear more than once in lists of saved articles. This update fixes that bug.
  • CloudPull also had a bug that prevented the app from logging into accounts with certain characters in the password. This update fixes that bug as well.

New in CloudPull 1.4.1 Build 2015 (May 21, 2011)

  • Backup Exclusion Rules - Backup Exclusion Rules allow you to define criteria based on the Name and Type of item. CloudPull will not back up items that match any of your specified criteria. Instead, the item will appear with a status of "Will not back up". Rules do not apply to revisions of items that have already been backed up. Once a revision of an item has been backed up, CloudPull will not delete it based on new rules.
  • Shared Calendar Fix - This update also addresses an issue in which CloudPull failed to back up certain shared calendars. Specifically, CloudPull failed while trying to interpret shared calendar events where the only information available was that the calendar owner was "busy".

New in CloudPull 1.4 Build 2014 (May 16, 2011)

  • Adds the ability to back up Google Reader data, and the ability to choose an alternate location in which to store your backup files.

New in CloudPull 1.3.3 Build 1520 (Apr 26, 2011)

  • Addresses an issue that prevented the app from successfully creating VCard files for certain contacts.
  • This update is available immediately through the in-app software update mechanism and through this web site. This update will also be available as soon as possible through the Mac App Store.

New in CloudPull 1.3.2 Build 1519 (Apr 18, 2011)

  • Addresses a rare crash in HTTP networking code. This update is available immediately through the in-app software update mechanism and through this web site.

New in CloudPull 1.3.1 Build 1518 (Apr 8, 2011)

  • CloudPull sometimes displayed more recent Last Modified dates than those displayed in the Google Docs user interface.
  • CloudPull occasionally determined that a new document revision was available when that document had not changed. CloudPull would then unnecessarily retrieve a new copy of that document.

New in CloudPull 1.3 Build 1517 (Apr 5, 2011)

  • Adds the ability to back up Google Contacts, and the option to run as a background app.