Wich Cloud are you using to backup all your stuff? OneDrive, DropBox, Google Drive

[Alexander Stolte]

Which provider do you use to backup your files, pictures etc.? and are you satisfied with it?

I've been using Microsoft OneDrive for years and I'm not happy with it, synchronization takes a long time, videos often take a long time to load on the phone and then it's usually the worst quality...

The reason I'm worried about this now is that since the update to mac OS Big Sure, Onedrive no longer works on the mac and microsoft can't seem to get a handle on it for 3 months. And also generally onedrive on the mac is absolutely not recommended, the synchronization takes even longer than with windows... It really hurts to use onedrive on the mac.

 

[mangojack]

Probably not adding much here ....
We use Google (photos) for all our Pics and small Videos. (reasonably happy ... few duplicates etc..)

Personally , I use Dropbox for all documents and codding projects. Have done for many years and have had no issues (Win & Android)

That being said I only do a manual sync occasionally. (I never ever have Dropbox running, when coding or editing documents)
That decision might bite me on the bum one day.

 

[KMatle]

Google Drive for some data like travel documents (when we were able to travel) and important (encrypted zip files). I have an older 1and1 (IONOS) contract with unlimted storage where I store my complete documents folder (encrypted, too). I think the provider doesn't really matter these days (at least then big ones). It's more about what to do with it (backups? sharing data? website?).

 

[udg]

Just a quick note: if you plan for a Disaster Recovery solution don't limit yourself to backup your files; from time to time try a restore operation.
Why a test restore is important? Because you may find that one or more critical files got corrupted, others weren't saved at all, etc.
Only a full restore will tell you that in case of a disaster you will be able to be fully operative again (and how much time it will take you).

BTW, Disaster Recovery is much more than backing up/restoring files. Search for it if that sounds new to you.

 

[Sandman]

if you plan for a Disaster Recovery solution don't limit yourself to backup your files; from time to time try a restore operation.
Why a test restore is important? Because you may find that one or more critical files got corrupted, others weren't saved at all, etc.
Only a full restore will tell you that in case of a disaster you will be able to be fully operative again (and how much time it will take you).

Probably one of the best advices on this forum. It's all too common that a restore doesn't work.

 

[udg]

@Sandman : thank you for your kind words.
Luckily I didn't learn it from a bad past experience but researching on the subject in order to write an article for a company blog.

 

[thetahsk]

Which provider do you use to backup your files, pictures etc.? and are you satisfied with it?

I've been using Microsoft OneDrive for years and I'm not happy with it, synchronization takes a long time, videos often take a long time to load on the phone and then it's usually the worst quality...

The reason I'm worried about this now is that since the update to mac OS Big Sure, Onedrive no longer works on the mac and microsoft can't seem to get a handle on it for 3 months. And also generally onedrive on the mac is absolutely not recommended, the synchronization takes even longer than with windows... It really hurts to use onedrive on the mac.

You can try the German Telekom Magenta cloud. There is a free service with 3GB for non Telekom customers, for Telekom customers you get 15 GB for free.

MagentaCLOUD: Unsere Tarife | Telekom

Ob Fotos, Musik oder Dateien: Die MagentaCLOUD bietet für jeden Bedarf den passenden Tarif mit genügend Speicherplatz an. Jetzt entdecken und bestellen!

cloud.telekom-dienste.de

 

[emexes]

I used to use BackBlaze, which gives unlimited space to back up one computer for USD 6 per month.

Now I use iDrive, which gives "limited" space (5 TB) (TB, not GB) to back up multiple computers for USD 6 per month. The first year is usually cheaper.

 

[emexes]

I have an older 1and1 (IONOS) contract with unlimted storage

I had "unlimited webspace" hosting with them when they were 1&1, I think about 12 years ago, and when a friend wanted to host ~20 GB of OpenStreetMap country files, I said: hey, no worries, use this.

A week later, the files disappeared from the host and I was told that webspace meant web files ie html and associated eg images and videos, not zipped-up databases. Apparently there was a fair-use clause somewhere in the contract too = renaming the .zips to .mp4s would probably not have circumvented the problem either.

 

[MichalK73]

I use cloudtb.com like Sftp 100Gb for $ 10 and a little web option so some files can be put out. However, I switch to my little server. I dug up some old HP 2 core intel with 2GB, I threw some old 240SSD + 500HDD disk. On it Linux, sftp services, web, ABMaterial webapp, Samba in the local place as it works and Nextcloud as a private cloud. Cheap domain from namecheap.com ($ 5 for 2 years) I directed to the dynamic IP of my router + LetsCrypt SSL. I have set what time the server should turn on and off. The price was cheaper than he wanted to buy something like this in hosting.

 

[j_o_h_n]

I have had disappointing experiences restoring from one or two online backup services. One was a test to check the restore and a bunch of stuff was missing, the other I decided to use the online backup restore as a way of moving files to a new machine. Again lots of files were missing. That second service is now gone from the consumer market.
I have had a good experience doing a test restore from iDrive and I also use Sync.com which is like dropbox except that they cannot read my files. I am using sync.com for several years now and it works flawlessly in my experience.
I also tried duplicatii for a while but I had one or two issues once my data grew and it's never moved on from being tagged as experimental. I am thinking of trying duplicity
which has good reviews and which like duplicatii allows you to automate backups to cloud storage you already have.

 

[Cableguy]

I use Dropbox on a daily basis and I am happy with it.
I can take anything from 5 to 100 photos a day, it allows me to digitize documents to pdf and I share specific folders with specific people.
Usage across platforms is almost transparent.
I am using the 1Tb paid option as about 15$/month...
I will only change if I can get a NAS to be securely accessible from ... everywhere.

 

[andymc]

I use Dropbox. But I have a problem....

When I open a B4A source code file that's contained in a Dropbox monitored folder, B4A complains the file is in use and can't open. This generally happens if I try to open the file soon after the PC boots up, if I leave it a while it opens file, or if I close dropbox then it opens fine.

 

[rabbitBUSH]

Now I use iDrive, which gives "limited" space (5 TB) (TB, not GB) to back up multiple computers for USD 6 per month.

That's all changed : the FREE is now 5GB and from then the 5TB starts at $52 per annum as a limited time special offer ONE user.

I will only change if I can get a NAS to be securely accessible from ... everywhere.

That's been my option for some years. freeNAS or Open Meida Vault or something (LINUX). When I worked I had a NAS unit that had its own Cloud service software that one could set up so that the NAS unit itself become a cloud storage device ... which they actually naturally are anyway.

Not at the moment though since I have to work on that in my home situation now.

You just need a box capable of taking at least 5 drives of your flavour of size and run the setup to get the RAID running and so on. ALL Drives of the same size. Its not all that difficult and one can use a older machine (or just throw some money in the air and see what falls out of the sky). You can beg stuff off friends and colleague who have it lying around at home and cadge a NAS together fairly easily - (of course NAS grade drives are first prize). Once done you can chuck regular nightly incremental backup at it etc etc etc.. Clip onto your home network - one should be able to work out how to access that across the net. (see : # 10 - ABOVE)

Top 20 Best Linux NAS Solutions and Linux SAN Software

a Disaster Recovery solution

I also tried to get the habit (from a disaster recovery viewpoint) of running CloneZilla on the main development computer at least twice a month. That went onto an external mobile drive which lived in the fireproof safe.

 

[MiguelL]

I've used both Google drive (paid) and Onedrive (business) to backup around 600GB. Google Drive is "ok" but only up to a certain amount of files, Onedrive worked better with a larger amounts of files. Both have awful userinterfaces (try to restore 600GB, it'll take forever). Handling files bigger than 2GB was also a problem. CyberDuck (free) and MountainDuck (no longer free), could be helpful in accessing your Google Drive, OneDrive, DropBox etc. https://cyberduck.io/
After trying various options, I've setup "Syncthing" to a 4TB external drive that I have at Home. Every afternoon, it connects to my work office and synchronizes a certain folder where I copy all the important files to. It's the best and most reliable thing I've found so far for my backups. Syncthing runs on Windows or Linux and has been very reliable for over 2 years now.

 

[tchart]

I use Dropbox with GoodSync (https://www.goodsync.com/)

I have Dropbox syncing all the time unless Im debugging.

I use GoodSync to do a proper backup of my projects to Dropbox - this is a 1 way push to a Dropbox folder that is excluded from syncing back to my PC.

I also use GoodSync's cloud storage as another cloud backup as well as backing up to my portable HDD.

BTW I have a friend who recently had all of his local drives, network storage and local backups encrypted by Ransomware so it pays to have it in multiple places that are not always online/available. He had to restore from really old backups.

 

[Num3]

Synology NAS (~150€) + 2x4Tb Hard Drives in Raid 1 (~240€)

Besides the usual stuff that comes on the NAS (Firewall, User Management, Network drive, FTP server, HTTP Server, Database Server, Torrent Client), I installed NextCloud on it because I don't like the Synology client apps. The nextcloud client is installed on all my family computers / devices, so they are all synced/backed up with the Nas Cloud. For security reasons, there is only 1 ssl port open to the outside world and all services are only available on the local Lan.

Besides NextCloud I additionally use SyncBack on my main windows machine to sync all my development / essential directories to my user NAS account drive once a week (2 different ways to backup, in separate "file spaces")

I really fell in love with current state of NAS technology, so I also run a full linux server on a Terramaster Nas (hacked) where I installed 4Gb additional ram and boot NethServer.

P.S. : Forgot to mention, you can also run java8 on the Synology nas, so i can push B4J servers / apps to it and test them there.

 

[vecino]

For me, security is very important. I use 2 systems:
- A Synology NAS with 4 disks of 2TB each, in RAID-5.
- Mega (mega.nz), free 50GB account

 

[Cableguy]

Synology NAS (~150€) + 2x4Tb Hard Drives in Raid 1 (~240€)

Besides the usual stuff that comes on the NAS (Firewall, User Management, Network drive, FTP server, HTTP Server, Database Server, Torrent Client), I installed NextCloud on it because I don't like the Synology client apps. The nextcloud client is installed on all my family computers / devices, so they are all synced/backed up with the Nas Cloud. For security reasons, there is only 1 ssl port open to the outside world and all services are only available on the local Lan.

Besides NextCloud I additionally use SyncBack on my main windows machine to sync all my development / essential directories to my user NAS account drive once a week (2 different ways to backup, in separate "file spaces")

I really fell in love with current state of NAS technology, so I also run a full linux server on a Terramaster Nas (hacked) where I installed 4Gb additional ram and boot NethServer.

P.S. : Forgot to mention, you can also run java8 on the Synology nas, so i can push B4J servers / apps to it and test them there.

Interesting... can you point to the your NAS model... your setup is what I was looking for... plus, do you think it would be possible to create a client for the NAS, using B4X products, specially Android

 

[Tron71]

We use PCloud for backing up multiple computers to the same storage. Haven't had any problems with so far. But be careful when cancelling shared folders; if you stop sharing a folder with a user and you want the synchronised data to stay on the users computer you must first disconnect the users computer from the share otherwise the data will be removed from the users computer automatically.