Announcing: Sign in and Save to Cloud

[MakeCode]

Today we’re excited to announce Microsoft Account integration in MakeCode Arcade! Starting today, you can Sign into MakeCode Arcade and your projects will be saved to the cloud. They’ll also synchronize to all devices where you use Arcade.

We’re starting small and plan to roll out access to this feature in phases over the next month or so.

Phase 1	Experiment	Feature is hidden behind the “Cloud Save” Experiment. Adoption by a small set of early adopters while we focus on stability.
Phase 2	Soft Release	Feature is quietly enabled for everyone. Adoption is organic while we focus on scale.
Phase 3	General Release	Feature is announced!

Today we enter Phase 1, so we’re looking for a few brave early adopters willing to test drive this feature and provide feedback. At this stage there is a good chance for bugs. See the FAQ below for how to report bugs and get help. As a safety measure, before trying this feature we recommend backing up any work you can’t bear to lose.

Ready to try it? Jump over to this GitHub article for details: Cloud Save Experiment.

Microsoft Account FAQ

Q: Do I already have a Microsoft Account?

A: Do you play Minecraft, game on an Xbox, subscribe to Office 365, or have a Hotmail account? If so, then you likely already have a Microsoft login! You can check to see if your email is already tied to an existing MSA here.

Q: Do I need to create a new email address with Hotmail or Outlook?

A: No. You can set up a Microsoft Account with a current email address even if it’s not hosted with Microsoft. (e.g.: Gmail, Yahoo, etc).

Q: Does it cost money?

A: Nope! Creating a Microsoft Account is free. MakeCode is also free.

Q: Will signing into Arcade be required, now or ever?

A: No. Sign in if you want to take advantage of cloud sync to backup your projects.

Q: I’m having an issue, where can I get help?

A: Reach out to us by posting here on the Arcade forum or by filing an issue on GitHub.

Additional Resources

What are Microsoft Accounts
Login or Create a Microsoft Account
Microsoft Account Terms of Service
Child and Family Accounts and Controls

[kwx]

Awesome, this is a feature I’ve been wanting for a while! I gave it a quick spin using an Incognito window, here’s some quick feedback:

• The first save took a while, the “cloud save” icon stuck around for maybe 10-15 seconds. From then on, everything worked as expected.
• The “save” button that exports to an image still works as expected, creating a local PNG file. Since it’s possible to reload projects from those and from downloaded UF2 files, that seems to be a good fallback in case there are any issue with the cloud save. (This is working as expected, I just wanted to highlight it since it’s very reassuring.)

I’m tempted to switch this on for my normal browser account, but I have one big question - when does it migrate local storage to the cloud? Is that per project (basically, converting one project to cloud save when I open it), or does it do a mass conversion of all local projects as soon as the experiment is switched on? I think it could get very confusing if I turn on Cloud Save on multiple computers and it starts uploading random snapshots into shared cloud storage, so I’d need to do some cleanup first if that’s the case.

[eanders]

Hi @kwx. Thank you for trying it out and for the feedback! Individual projects are moved to cloud the next time they’re opened in the editor. Or more precisely, the next time they’re saved. There is no mass upload.

[kwx]

Hm, this is a bit confusing. I turned the experiment on in my normal browser profile, and I now see three copies of the test project. The “4 hours ago” one is the last local save and expected, and I also see the renamed “3 hours ago” copy with a cloud icon which would match the cloud save I did in my incognito experiment. However, I’m surprised that there’s a third “3 hours ago” copy which doesn’t have a cloud save icon. Did it create an extra local copy based on the cloud save?

@eanders

Or more precisely, the next time they’re saved. There is no mass upload.

Perfect, I think that’s the much more reasonable behavior. Thanks for explaining!

[eanders]

It isn’t immediately clear to me how this could happen. We handle conflict resolution by making a copy of the project, but we append “- Copy” to the title. This would typically happen when a project is being edited in two places simultaneously.

This may indicate a bug. I’ll go ahead and log it in GitHub for tracking.

[Vegz78]

This is really great, thank you! Soon the days relying on fragile cookies when forgetting to save manually are over, and welcome cross device synchronization! Will there be project collaboration features as well?

@OLegonD and I will start testing immediately!

[poon_g]

I’m so excited!!! Been waiting for this day for so long!!!

[DahbixLP]

Hello! I just tried this feature when I switched from laptop to PC! It worked all fine and I saw the games aswell as Logged in:MyName! BUT I am logged in with my school email adress wich will be deleted when school is over… Whenever I use my normal email adress (the one I also use on the forums) it says Logged in:undefined! It still shows the cloudsaved games but it is weird and I do not want to risk my games! Also my Profile Picture is not 2 letters it is just a “?”…
Hope this gets fixed soon! Thanks

[MakeCode]

Thank you for trying out cloud save, and for the feedback @DahbixLP! The “Logged in: undefined” message this is a UI issue, and shouldn’t have an effect on cloud save stability. That said, we’ve had a few reports of users losing a recently edited cloud-saved project. We’re still working out some remaining issues, so in the meantime please regularly back up (save locally) any projects you don’t want to risk.

[omnisImperium]

Hey! I just went into beta to test this, and I have a tiny suggestion. Perhaps you could implement multiple ways to log in, rather than just a microsoft account. Because, for some reason whenever I log in, it just says that my account it locked. Alternate log in features could be helpful for other people with the same issue, or that don’t have / are too young to have a microsoft account.

[Agent_14]

Better yet, a make code account! That can be created using google, Microsoft, etc.

[S0m3_random_guy]

That would be really cool, a Makecode account that can be logged in using a MS account or anything else like Gmail or GitHub. But i think that it would be ideal if we were able to sign in to the cloud save service with our forum account!