5 ms·

I wrote this 448 days ago, on why I moved to Google Drive. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11030171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11030171 But now

by unabst 9y ago

I wrote this 448 days ago, on why I moved to Google Drive. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11030171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11030171 But now I'm back. Google Drive is unusable. I upgraded to a paid plan so I'd have no storage limits. But the moment I tried to back some large folders, I noticed the upload speeds were capped, and the native client kept crashing. I'd leave it on overnight, just to see it not running in the morning. 100 GB of files is a trivial amount these days, and it's impossible to manage on Drive. And selective sync would attempt to upload the folder before it deletes it locally, so was useless. I couldn't just select which folders to upload first, even though I was there trying it due to Drive's own inability to upload large amounts of files. Then there are all the sync issues. I had setup 5 or 6 computers to sync files, which is the main use case Drive is sold on. Yet, I'd notice (1) and (2) and (3) duplicate versions of the same file, and at one point I had a folder with (79). So I'd have to dig through partially synced folders and duplicates just to figure out what to sync first, then sort through computers to see if Drive was actually running. Then remove large folders to outside of Drive, and drop them in in batches just so Drive wouldn't choke itself. I also had an issue with file name length. I had copied a folder of saved web pages from Dropbox. I'd noticed all the directories were empty in Drive. Turns out, the folder names were too long. I understand the existence of technical constraints, but if I can't move files from Dropbox just by copying them, Drive needs to modify it's feature set. Insync is the only reason I still have Drive. It doesn't crash, and it doesn't have sync duplication issues. But again, there is some API rate limit that causes it to halt. Drive is simply incapable of handling large amounts of files. I wish they'd just say that. So I am back on Dropbox because I have no other options. And it just works. I had no idea syncing was such a hard problem. And now with smart sync, I can see the files locally without having them take up space. Most of the files are for storage purposes anyway, so this is genius. The new online interface is better than google also. It still locks up Photoshop, and I bet it's still piss slow in Japan, but for now all my large folders are back on Dropbox. Drive is reserved for Sheets and Docs that don't take up any space anyway, because the files are just links. I use Windows but I don't trust Microsoft.

josefresco 9y ago
Hey there - I went down a similar road as you about a year back when I looked for a file backup solution. I started with Dropbox, and attempted a sync of my local files. Within minutes the Windows app crashed. I switched to Google Drive, same thing. Synced a large number of files and the Windows software crashed. Even Tried Insync, still had crashing issues. Researched the issue and found that both clients are limited in the amount of RAM (32bit vs 64bit) and this limit is easily reached when syncing tens-of-thousands of files causing the software to crash. Neither provider offers a 64 bit version, or a version of their client software that handles syncing jobs this large. I finally settled on Backblaze which was affordable ($5/month), and "just worked". The files aren't as accessible as Dropbox or Drive, but I still use those for the files I need/touch often, and use Backblaze for my "entire PC" cloud backup solution.
- mcgrath_sh 9y ago
  I was sold on Backblaze. Until it would continually time out when backing up my 5TB pseudo-server/HTPC. And then it would restart. Just as it reached 5TB. I think I have finally found my solution with rclone (I moved to a Linux system after Backblaze was a no-go) and Amazon Cloud Drive. All my data is encrypted and it is trivially easy to add fresh backup copies. All of this is mostly for my media. All non-media is in my dropbox account and I back up to a physical drive. I used to be high on BackBlaze (I had issues with CrashPlan taking forever too, BackBlaze was faster) but when it would continually just have my backups magically disappear, I left.
  - josefresco 9y ago
    I only backup about 1.5TB (4.4M files) so yeah - it seems every tool has it's limits.
  - glenneroo 9y ago
    I've been able to backup close to 1 million files (7.7TB) to CrashPlan, granted I had to manually edit the .ini file multiple times to increase the Java Heap memory allocation to allow that many files. At least the fix is documented on their support page (although I still can't figure out why after however many years this bug exists, they don't just add an option in the software directly). The only problem I have with them is that they have an upload limit, which changes from day to day, but over here in Europe I get between 100-1000 KB/s, which according to support is throttled depending on how many users are currently active. They offered to let me send them a hard-drive... to their US address, haha! It took about 2 years of leaving my PC on 24/7 to finally back everything up, let's hope they don't go the same way as StreamLoad (MediaMax), where I lost ~2TB of time-lapse footage due to being unable to download everything before the service went offline. It's even documented on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Linkup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Linkup). p.s. I made this comparison of cloud image backup solutions back in 2012 (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mWx6wbL6NYbhjY1_ISNapAgXbi-JuKJJaF2K5RPAZLk/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mWx6wbL6NYbhjY1_ISNa...), it's crazy how many of these services are now defunct.
rrdharan 9y ago
[Disclaimer: I used to work at Dropbox.] > So I am back on Dropbox because I have no other options. And it just works. I had no idea syncing was such a hard problem. This is such a great comment. I'm bookmarking it so I can post a link to it every time someone on a different thread asks why Dropbox is still a thing :).

by unabst 9y ago

josefresco 9y ago

Hey there - I went down a similar road as you about a year back when I looked for a file backup solution. I started with Dropbox, and attempted a sync of my local files. Within minutes the Windows app crashed. I switched to Google Drive, same thing. Synced a large number of files and the Windows software crashed. Even Tried Insync, still had crashing issues. Researched the issue and found that both clients are limited in the amount of RAM (32bit vs 64bit) and this limit is easily reached when syncing tens-of-thousands of files causing the software to crash. Neither provider offers a 64 bit version, or a version of their client software that handles syncing jobs this large. I finally settled on Backblaze which was affordable ($5/month), and "just worked". The files aren't as accessible as Dropbox or Drive, but I still use those for the files I need/touch often, and use Backblaze for my "entire PC" cloud backup solution.

mcgrath_sh 9y ago
I was sold on Backblaze. Until it would continually time out when backing up my 5TB pseudo-server/HTPC. And then it would restart. Just as it reached 5TB. I think I have finally found my solution with rclone (I moved to a Linux system after Backblaze was a no-go) and Amazon Cloud Drive. All my data is encrypted and it is trivially easy to add fresh backup copies. All of this is mostly for my media. All non-media is in my dropbox account and I back up to a physical drive. I used to be high on BackBlaze (I had issues with CrashPlan taking forever too, BackBlaze was faster) but when it would continually just have my backups magically disappear, I left.
- josefresco 9y ago
  I only backup about 1.5TB (4.4M files) so yeah - it seems every tool has it's limits.
- glenneroo 9y ago
  I've been able to backup close to 1 million files (7.7TB) to CrashPlan, granted I had to manually edit the .ini file multiple times to increase the Java Heap memory allocation to allow that many files. At least the fix is documented on their support page (although I still can't figure out why after however many years this bug exists, they don't just add an option in the software directly). The only problem I have with them is that they have an upload limit, which changes from day to day, but over here in Europe I get between 100-1000 KB/s, which according to support is throttled depending on how many users are currently active. They offered to let me send them a hard-drive... to their US address, haha! It took about 2 years of leaving my PC on 24/7 to finally back everything up, let's hope they don't go the same way as StreamLoad (MediaMax), where I lost ~2TB of time-lapse footage due to being unable to download everything before the service went offline. It's even documented on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Linkup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Linkup). p.s. I made this comparison of cloud image backup solutions back in 2012 (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mWx6wbL6NYbhjY1_ISNapAgXbi-JuKJJaF2K5RPAZLk/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mWx6wbL6NYbhjY1_ISNa...), it's crazy how many of these services are now defunct.

rrdharan 9y ago

[Disclaimer: I used to work at Dropbox.] > So I am back on Dropbox because I have no other options. And it just works. I had no idea syncing was such a hard problem. This is such a great comment. I'm bookmarking it so I can post a link to it every time someone on a different thread asks why Dropbox is still a thing :).