by Roger Mepham.
I have uploads working on the Cloud server by auto-installing Moodle 2.4.2 to a subfolder with a data folder inside the subfolder and then doing a manual upgrade to 2.5.
Uploads is still working when the data folder is moved outside of the public_html folder.
The next thing to try is getting it work with moodle at the root (i.e. not in a sub folder).