It would be trivial to write a backend that oauths with dropbox/github/etc and sync data through it, but there's little point in doing so
I don't know what your project is, but on any given day I'm switching between three laptops (one OSX, one Linux, one Windows), an iPad, and my iPhone. Localstorage is really great for prototyping but doesn't sync between machines. Export is ok, but sync is awesome. Plus having access to the raw data, for me, can be really beneficial for integrating with local tools. For example, I believe I once had a Python script that could parse out specific attributes out of a Drawio document; I wish I could remember more details from that.
For sure, sync is another big challenge. Once you had "third party storage from the browser" you could manage sync.
I've been all over browser filesystem access too (you could e.g. use syncthing to sync from the filesystem) and it's just too clunky for users to use still.
Also tried building a chrome extension in an attempt to use the sync storage that's available to extensions (used to sync your settings across devices), but it's crippled by being maxed out at only 100kb.
Yeah, browser filesystem access is ridiculously clunky, especially if it’s a more of a “document you’re iterating on” where you have to remember to download it, make sure it’s in the right place to sync, and upload it again on the other devices. I think the thing that third-party storage really wins at is that it’s very low friction and pretty close to universally available for a semi-technical user (e.g. drawio/diagrams.net supports OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, GitHub, and Gitlab). Chrome extensions are relatively high friction in comparison, plus… in my personal example, I don’t actually use Chrome on any of the devices. Safari on iPhone and iPad, Firefox on Windows/Linux/OS X.
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I don't know what your project is, but on any given day I'm switching between three laptops (one OSX, one Linux, one Windows), an iPad, and my iPhone. Localstorage is really great for prototyping but doesn't sync between machines. Export is ok, but sync is awesome. Plus having access to the raw data, for me, can be really beneficial for integrating with local tools. For example, I believe I once had a Python script that could parse out specific attributes out of a Drawio document; I wish I could remember more details from that.
For sure, sync is another big challenge. Once you had "third party storage from the browser" you could manage sync.
I've been all over browser filesystem access too (you could e.g. use syncthing to sync from the filesystem) and it's just too clunky for users to use still.
Also tried building a chrome extension in an attempt to use the sync storage that's available to extensions (used to sync your settings across devices), but it's crippled by being maxed out at only 100kb.
Yeah, browser filesystem access is ridiculously clunky, especially if it’s a more of a “document you’re iterating on” where you have to remember to download it, make sure it’s in the right place to sync, and upload it again on the other devices. I think the thing that third-party storage really wins at is that it’s very low friction and pretty close to universally available for a semi-technical user (e.g. drawio/diagrams.net supports OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, GitHub, and Gitlab). Chrome extensions are relatively high friction in comparison, plus… in my personal example, I don’t actually use Chrome on any of the devices. Safari on iPhone and iPad, Firefox on Windows/Linux/OS X.