I have been using both Mega and Dropbox in the last months/years, but recently I just switched bad to the good old pen because it's way faster. Are these services too slow or is it just me? Are you still using pen drives?
There are days when Dropbox is really slow or doesn't synch and I freak out a bit, but I usually pause it and reset it. It's only happened a few times to me. I tend to email documents to myself too as a back up, but a USB stick is the only way to know you have your information safe and accessible.
Cloud services are not full replacements for all needs of local data transfer between computers. Simply having their transfer rate limited to what your ISP provides is a large sign of it. Portable hard drives and flash drives (especially modern USB 3) are a better option for transferring large local data.
They are slow. I've looked up the reason to why this is and found that it's probably because they reserve a lot of their resources for the paying customers, so I bet that he paid version allows for faster download and upload speeds, and I think that's understandable since they do have to get profits to keep running. I personally don't think I'd want to start paying unless I can be sure I can secure decades of payments though because I'd hate for my data to disappear just because I someday couldn't pay for it or forget.
I use cloud services only as back up. Should I lose the files saved on my external HDD that's when I'll use a cloud service to retrieve a document and save it somewhere where it will be easier to get it any time I want. My internet connection is rather slow so that's another factor I must consider.Why not just buy storage devices to store your data? You'd use the free [cloud storage] services to back up the data you don't want to lose. It would save you some money.
This makes sense here, if I am a paying customer I get the full speed, if I am paying nothing I get a limited service. Either cases most people like me are not willing to pay, so I am back carrying a pen drive in my pocket, way faster and not that much of a trouble.
Cloud services are noticeably slower at times, but as a completely free service I'm more than happy to wait a little longer if that means I don't have to spend a single cent for storing most of my documents online. I feel that the convenience and ample storage space more than makes up for its speed.
I've had similar problems with Microsoft OneDrive. It seemed fine at first, and I was able to get everything uploaded after several hours. However when I try to download a bunch of stuff from it, particularly large files, it drops my connection and cancels the download part way through it almost every time. The only real way I can get all my files down from it, is to let it run in the background and sync on its own - but in that case I need to let it sync every single thing, I cannot select what I want and reliably get it to download. I'm apprehensive about trying out any of the other services, such as DropBox or Google Drive since I don't know them well enough to know exactly what they are sharing publicly by default, and what their policies are around viewing, and keeping my files - even if I want to delete them. The other thing you need to be really careful with when dealing with cloud file hosting, is that you can go over your ISP's monthly data caps very easily - especially if you are syncing for the first time, since many ISP's cap you at 250GB.
That has happened to me as well tom, for example, I used to love Mega because I could upload and download files with 3-5GB in a matter of minutes and now that takes me 30 minutes?! So the service actually is worse now, so no point in losing my time by using it.
If the slowness you experience between your computer and the cloud service is due to transfer speeds, then the problem is more than likely your bandwidth, not their service speed. If you're transferring massive files over a throttled connection, you'll need a significant amount of time to complete the transfer. Most of these services' infrastructure is quite extensive, and wouldn't have any problems supporting residential upload speeds.
I haven't experienced any problems with Dropbox. I do use Evernote and it has a tendency to be slow. It's also slow to sync with the app on my phone. I do recognize that these services are very popular and as more people use them, they will have periods of slowness. I also use Dropbox as a backup. It's convenient, but I keep all my files on flash drives. I lost some very important files when a file sharing site was shut down. I used it legally, but apparently, others used it for torrents. This was years ago before I knew better.
I think it's not exactly related with my internet speed, but with the fact that if the service is premium or not. I am not sure about this, but most likely services that are not premium have limited speeds, but I am not sure if Mega can be premium or not for example.
I don't understand much of the technology or whatever behind cloud services, but I have been using Dropbox and I have found it has been way slower on the last few months to sync my phone to it... specially Camera uploads. It used to go on very quickly and smoothly, and now it seems every photo is taking way longer to sync, which makes my phone use up more battery. So when I take a lot of pictures and syncing takes forever I know my battery is bound to die.
That's what I am talking about. If I am uploading a video to my pen and from there to the computer that has let's say 1GB it can take me 5-10 minutes at the most, but if I am synchronizing Dropbox that can take me 30 minutes or more, it doesn't make any sense and it's not practical.
There are plenty of legitimate reasons for there to be differences in speed between the two services. Network load for either of them may vary depending on time of day, their network's proximity to yours, and the number of concurrent users on the service. I don't have figures, but I would imagine that Dropbox has a much larger userbase of the two. Aside from that, there may be bandwidth caps enabled in Dropbox that isn't on the other, either client or server side.
Sure, I believe that there are reasons behind it and in fact I am free client, meaning I am not paying them anything, but I simply gave up on using their service because it's convenient for me, it takes a lot of my time and I don't need that, I have better alternatives.
I still don't think it's quite fair to compare transferring files in your local network or from locally attached devices to transferring files to/from the internet. The technology involved is different, and so the speeds will vary drastically depending on the conditions. Transferring to/from a USB device is always going to be much quicker than when transferring to a cloud service like dropbox, unless your internet connection has some MASSIVE bandwidth.
Of course they're much slower compared to your USBs and portable hard drives but they offer you something that your portable drives doesn't. Cloud storage allows us to sync our data to all our devices which may be a lot depending on your line of work. A smart phone, a tablet, and a laptop is usually the norm these days and plugging in your smart phone and tablet feels more of a hassle to me compared to just downloading the files from your dropbox app. Cloud storage also prevents us from forgetting our data in case we leave our portable drives at home. After 15 minutes to an hour of travel, just think of the hassle that you will undergo because of the important presentation that's in your USB. About the speed of transfer that you mentioned, I feel that it ultimately depends on the speed of your internet connection. I suggest that you try to upgrade your connection if you want faster syncing speeds. Peace out mate
I have always used cloud services and I think it can be really useful at times. But I have never felt it is too slow. I believe it is quite manageable. I think cloud is one of the best techniques I have used till now.
Well, if you're expecting cloud storage to match the data transfer speeds of USB 3.0 and other file transfer solutions, then you're going to be sorely disappointed every time. I have used both free and premium cloud storage solutions, and they're mostly comparable in speed. I've never noticed slower speeds just because I wasn't paying for the service, or faster speeds when I was paying for another service. Any issues related to slow cloud storage more than likely involves the Internet connection more than anything else, to be honest.
