Concern: How safe is it to save sermons in Logos?

I just had a scare. I was going to go over Sunday's sermon and it was gone! Sure enough I found it in the deleted docs. I have no idea how it was deleted, I didn't delete any documents since I finished up the sermon but when I restored it I only got the title, the sermon was empty!

Thankfully I restarted the program with chest thumping and it came back, but this brings up the question. How safe are our sermons on the server? Can you imagine opening up the program on Sunday morning and the sermon being missing??

This highlights the incredible responsibility we are trusting to Faithlife. I have no reason to think that Faithlife will "drop the ball" but it is a scary thought. I hope you take it as seriously as we do.

When we get the ability to see the sermons on our iPad (hopefully soon) it would be nice to have the ability to download it to our device so we know we have it.

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Comments

William Gabriel

I wouldn't entrust your sermons to Logos. Nothing against them in particular, but with almost any process it would be very easy to lose what you've worked on in an instant. In the old days it was forgetting to save to your floppy or having it go bad. Now it's a glitch in the cloud.

I would encourage you to find a way to backup as you go. The process will probably be a little bit different for everyone. Personally, I write my sermons in note taking software that syncs to the cloud, and every once in a while I'll copy/paste the whole thing to a Word Doc that syncs to Dropbox. I could just start in Word, but I like being able to write & edit easily no matter where I am, even on my phone. Anyway, you should be able to find a rhythm that works for you, but find a good way to do backups!

MJ. Smith

I have no idea how it was deleted, I didn't delete any documents since I finished up the sermon but when I restored it I only got the title, the sermon was empty!

Basic answer: as safe as if would be in any software i.e. subject to user error and storage failure. Any truly critical file I keep in two versions - current working version and last saved final/checkpoint copy.

Al Het

In every situation I've had personal knowledge of, servers were/are generally considered more reliable than an individual hard drive. All servers that I'm aware of back up the data on them to multiple sources, and very frequently. Also, my sense has been that individual servers tend to be more reliable in general than individual computers as well (for whatever that's worth, my "sense" could be wrong). All that said, I agree with M.J., that there's always room for failure in human endeavor. I'd be much less worried about Logos losing my sermon, than my home/work computer losing it. However, it IS always a good idea to have your notes stored in more than one place.

When I first read the title, I thought this might be a thread about intellectual rights to the sermons stored on their server. I might revisit that in a new thread.

William Gabriel

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/855089#Comment_855089

In every situation I've had personal knowledge of, servers were/are generally considered more reliable than an individual hard drive.

Business risk replaces hardware risk in the cloud. A company might have great processes for data fidelity and backup and then suddenly go out of business, leaving you in the same lurch a crashed hard drive would. It has happened before, and I'm sure it will happen again. The larger and more reputable the company, the more lead time you'll likely have to migrate, but there are no guarantees.

Simon’s Brother

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/855096#Comment_855096

I have no idea how it was deleted, I didn't delete any documents since I finished up the sermon but when I restored it I only got the title, the sermon was empty!

Basic answer: as safe as if would be in any software i.e. subject to user error and storage failure. Any truly critical file I keep in two versions - current working version and last saved final/checkpoint copy.

In every situation I've had personal knowledge of, servers were/are generally considered more reliable than an individual hard drive.

Business risk replaces hardware risk in the cloud. A company might have great processes for data fidelity and backup and then suddenly go out of business, leaving you in the same lurch a crashed hard drive would. It has happened before, and I'm sure it will happen again. The larger and more reputable the company, the more lead time you'll likely have to migrate, but there are no guarantees.

MJ's basic assessment is correct but you are also correct William in that their business risk does replace personal hardware risk. It's up to each of us to asses that risk, its potential for impact upon our needs and the counter measures we should take.

Back in the old days the only risk was ....

John Goodman

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/855101#Comment_855101

I can't get on with the sermon documents - they seem to require a style of preaching which is based around showing slides. I do use images and verses when I preach but not always. I very much prefer to use word docs that get built into a personal book. These are then backed up in dropbox and in time machine. I tag the sermons by passage, time, place and themes. It makes a very handy personal book and previous messages always end up in the passage guide so that I know what I've already said and where!

Graham Criddle

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/855104#Comment_855104

John

Worth making the point that if you enter the passage into the sermon info area it shows up in the PG as well - in the Sermons section

Similarly if you tag The Topic it appears in Topic Guides etc

DAL

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/855110#Comment_855110

I'm still debating whether I should pay Best Buy $150 to unlock my external hard drive. Get an external hard drive to back up your stuff they said, it'll be safe they said...

DAL

Lee

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/855193#Comment_855193

My rule of thumb is that I started making a backup on my dropbox which I can also then download to any android device which is good.

I have not saved any to Logos. Yet..

Al Het

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/855096#Comment_855096

Business risk replaces hardware risk in the cloud. A company might have great processes for data fidelity and backup and then suddenly go out of business, leaving you in the same lurch a crashed hard drive would.

Yeah, I agree, and I actually debated whether to bring that point up. On the one hand, I would assume that a company like Logos would give notice if they were closing things up, though you are right that there are no guarantees. However, because I'm not familiar with the sermon outline part of the software at all, I'm not sure if there is even a way to retrieve sermon outlines to a hard drive. That is one of the problems with proprietary software when it comes to outlines and such.

Backing up/multiple copies continues to be the safest method. The question of "how safe is safe enough" is a good one. I imagine that for many, maybe a majority, the Logos server is safe enough for them.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/855269#Comment_855269

if there is even a way to retrieve sermon outlines to a hard drive.

Aren't you able to read them offline? They are already on your hard drive if you can.

Al Het

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/855272#Comment_855272

Aren't you able to read them offline? They are already on your hard drive if you can.

Oh, that might well be. As I said, I've never used it. I was working off the assumption of the original question, which seems to imply that it is only stored on the server.

My only point originally was that if it is stored on Faithlife's servers, it is likely more secure than it would be if it were only on a personal hard drive.

Simon’s Brother

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/855269#Comment_855269

I would assume that a company like Logos would give notice if they were closing things up,

Does Faithlife use a third party for storage - I don't know the answer, so it they do or do in the future use a third party it becomes a question of that third party, rather than Logos having business issues.