Comments on: SugarSync’s Bitter Aftertaste

By: Ben McClure

Ben McClure — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 04:14:00 +0000

I’m under the impression that it’ll sync PST and things like accounting files after they are unlocked (when the program using them is closed).

I completely agree regarding it not telling you the things it didn’t back up, and just having a lot of missing files (or replaced files which return to the original) and other sync issues.

I love the idea behind SugarSync, and the way in which it works in theory–it just doesn’t do an adequate job of ensuring data consistency in all cases.

After several years of testing, I can safely say that I have found nothing which syncs half as well as Dropbox, even though its feature set is more limited than most other services. It’s caused me to gladly shell out the extra cash required for adequate Dropbox space, because it’s the only thing I’ve found that works quickly, and has never caused me any data consistency issues.

Ben

By: Disappointed

Disappointed — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:05:00 +0000

Unfortunately there are a number of problems, it wont sync pst files or accounting files (MYOB, Quickbooks). It also doesn’t tell you what it didn’t backup, I suggest you start checking your web account as there may be other folders totally missing as well.

By: Ricardorivaldo

Ricardorivaldo — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 20:03:00 +0000

I got an entire folder that just “vanish” from my laptop. The web interface shows the folder, but no way to get it back. I have reset the configuration and try to download everything again, no lucky yet. But I HAVE A BACKUP, actually, I keep at least 2 backups, just in case. My conclusion: NOT READY FOR CRITICAL MISSION WORK.

By: Marc F Gould

Marc F Gould — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 13:31:00 +0000

Thank you for all your comments on SugarSync. What do you think of DropBox?

By: Ben McClure

Ben McClure — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:37:00 +0000

Great to hear. I have had a great experience with SpiderOak since becoming a customer, and am happy to have turned a few others toward them as well

So far, SpiderOak has perhaps been a bit slower than other systems, but more importantly, in my experience if it tells me a folder is synchronized, it actually is. I’d be interested to hear your experience with it as well.

By: A User

A User — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:37:00 +0000

Agreed, emphatically! We’ve decided, after yesterday’s experience, that sugarsync is too risky. Based on your recommendation in other posts, we’ve signed up for spideroak and will hope for the best

By: Ben McClure

Ben McClure — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 21:01:00 +0000

This is the exact reason that problems like you and I have had with SugarSync are not OK–even if they are related to growing pains, or if there are still bugs to be worked out, customers are paying for mission-critical data synchronization and SugarSync does not seem to be able to deliver that at the moment.

I really like the SugarSync plans, their desktop and web interface, and a lot of other things about them, but they’re all for naught if SugarSync can’t properly make sure that files are in sync.

Thanks for the comment!

By: A User

A User — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:41:00 +0000

Thanks for your article. I am using sugarsync for work and I am not too happy with it. This morning sugarsync told my employer and I that our shared folders were ‘in sync’ when they were not. Two important files were actually ‘pending download’ (after two days!) from my laptop. Once we clicked on this on the file manager on my laptop, a window popped up saying that uploading was in progress.

What then actually happened was that it replaced my file with the earlier file from his folder (yes, it actually OVERWROTE my saved and updated file with an earlier version, and all my changes were lost).

Earlier that morning, when he had assumed that our folders were in sync (when they actually were not), he used an earlier version of my file (containing data that was no longer applicable) to send out information to recipients, thereby sending it to some who should not have received it. The issue wasted time and caused some embarrassment, and to my distress made it look at first as if I had not done my work thoroughly.

By: Ben McClure

Ben McClure — Sun, 01 May 2011 17:04:00 +0000

While that should be true, it didn’t work that way at all for me. There were problems upon problems, many inconsistencies between the folders on my computer and the folders on SugarSync’s server, countless syncing problems with valid files getting renamed without notification on one or the other computer… Some or all of these issues may have been fixed since my article, however–I have not tried SugarSync again in a while (been happy with SpiderOak for the most part).

I may give it another shot soon, though.

Thanks for the comment.

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 01 May 2011 11:47:00 +0000

Hm, but once you have selected your sync folders there should really be no need to touch the sugarsync software again. Just letting it run in the background works fine for me…

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