CNET Editors' review
SugarSync Desktop offers a complete, but sufficiently compact desktop manager for viewing and arranging the multimedia files that will be stored online as part of the SugarSync service to be retrieved via the SugarSync client on a Mac, other Windows laptops, a BlackBerry or Windows Mobile phone, or from your personal Web address from any other Web-friendly device.
SugarSync gets high ratings for its ease of use, reliability, and above all, its speed. There are nice extra features, like the Magic Briefcase that house on all platforms and devices the content you drop into it, and a quick link to your personal Web site. A search field would not go amiss, especially if you're not certain of your file's location and haven't had the foresight to include your file into the briefcase. Despite that, this service makes mincemeat of many competitors in the remote access space for its ability to monitor multiple computers and platforms with little fuss.
Publisher's Description
From SugarSync:
SugarSync enables mobile consumers and professionals to backup, sync, access and share all their files on-the-go, instantly and securely from any Mac, PC, or mobile device (including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices). SugarSync users can sync music, photos, movies and other files in ANY folder and access and share those files via the cloud, providing a Cloud service that matches the way people currently organize their folders and manage their digital lives. SugarSync's file sharing and collaboration tools also allow users to share any folder or file with a simple URL via social networks, email, instant messaging and more.
SugarSync offers 5GB plans for FREE, and paid plans for larger storage needs. All of SugarSync's mobile apps are free to download, as well.
What's new in this version: Version 1.9.47 includes the ability to sync shared folders.
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All versions:
2.8 starsout of 81 votes
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Current version:
2.3 starsout of 13 votes
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My rating:
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"Love it! Been using this for years with no problems."
Version: SugarSync Manager 1.9.47
Pros
I've used sugarsync across 5 computers and 2 mobile devices for years now. My files are always there, always updated, without having to think about it. Big plus - it saves previous versions of files in case I overwrite one - the original is still there. This has made my life SO much easier. No real need for flashdrives anymore. All my files are available from any computer.
Cons
Takes a little while to learn - just as with any new program. Give it a chance and you will be sold!
Summary
I can't imagine my digital life without this wonderful tool. I work from several computers and travel and all of my info is there when I need it. No more re-doing updates. All of my precious photos are safely stored and backed up. No more catastrophe if a computer crashes - all the info is still there! SO, SO Great! Thank you SugarSync
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"One missing feature destroys it all"
Version: SugarSync Manager 1.9.47
Pros
Good in every way but one that makes it useless
Cons
WON'T SYNC FOLDERS ON REMOVABLE STORAGE (drives attached via USB). NEXT.
Summary
Without the ability to sync folders located on USB drives, I have no ability to use this service for any files that I'd want to put in "the cloud". I have a single large USB drive for all my non-program/OS files, and am not planning on moving the ones I want to sync over to my main drive with limited space. Unbelievable that someone could keep a job and not fix this deal breaking limitation within days of it being pointed out (I saw a thread on their forums where people were complaining about this and a person from sugarsync said they'd be adding it in... this was over a year ago). I'd guess that probably 75-90% of users would want this, so sugarsync's pretty much shot themselves in the foot at this point. I know dropbox, the next syncing service I'll be trying, does this.
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"Extremely slow and eats bandwidth and not support."
Version: SugarSync Manager 1.9.47
Pros
Cannot think of any. I seemed like a good idea at the start.
Cons
It is SO SO slow.
Summary
I thought I would finally have a fool proof backup system when I started with Sugarsync. It works OK, but it is SO slow, and it takes a huge amount of bandwidth. It took weeks and weeks to get current, running almost around the clock and all that time my connection ran slowly for everything. My family knew when my laptop was home and running surgarsync because all the other connections slowed. If I added photos from a real estate listing I knew I would have days of a slow running internet connection as those photos uploaded. DSL at home and cable connection at the office, both were slow. For all other functions I have perfectly adequate band width.
I thought I needed to add capacity early on so I bought more back up space.
Now here I have spent $150 and still I have no current back up. There as no response from customer service regarding tech support or early termination of my one year subscription.
I deleted the sync manager before Christmas because I needed bandwidth for some other uploads and I could not find a way to suspend the upload. Now it appears that I accidently deleted the program all together. Any time I try to load the sync manager now it locks up my system. Now I guess I will need to find that back up drive I was using.......
Also it is painfully slow when I went checking for particular backed up file on line. -
"Good in concept, but horrible in reality"
Version: SugarSync Manager 1.9.47
Pros
if it did everything its supposed to do, it would be great, but it does not
Cons
constant failings at every level, absolute NO TECH SUPPORT and this is with paid software. VERY buggy software, computer starts up and Sugarsync can pretty much use all resources, using up to a a gig in process memory usage. another HUGE problem is no matter what, your space keeps growing more and more, they say its because they keep up to the last 5 copies of things, that means, you cant delete them, and you have to purchase 5 times the amount of back up space. I had 5 gigs in my documents I wanted to backup and access anywhere including my tablet, I was only backing up 100 megs on tablet, I soon ran out of my 10 gig account, got a 20 gig, ran out there, got a 30 gig, guess what they ran out, I have tries software on 3 different computers, crashed them all, I email tech support 4 times, not one response.
Summary
I have spent hours and hours and hours hoping and trying to get this to be what they claim it would be and I can not, while it seems to be a fantastic piece of software for what it can do, its not, I can go on and on and on, on all the work its caused me and all the bugs and the obvious flaws, for instance, when the software does crash on your computer, which it will, and you uninstall and reinstall, you just cant go and delete your old files up there and start over, well you can tell it to delete that computer, then it puts it into the deleted files, and you might have 50000 files in there, SO the only option I can see is you go to the deleted files and choose all you can see and say permantly delete, but they only show you 50 at a time, so after 75 pages I gave up, after hours of looking I found there was an easier way, but not an easy way, but they didnt tell me this, they dont answer support tickets. But in this wonderfull world, someone will see this software and say hey its a good idea, lets do it right and a star will be born some where.
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"NO SEARCH!"
Version: SugarSync Manager 1.9.47
Pros
I have used sugarsync for a couple of years now. There tech support was fantastic at the beginning now they are non-existent.
Cons
NO SEARCH!
There are multiple threads on sugar sync by paying customers for a year and a half about adding searching. You can not search! If you have 100 folders and you need one file... have fun.
And it seems like it is there high priority...Summary
It is good software, I back up almost 60GB, but with no search I will be leaving. There tech support does not post any ETA on when it is available...
I am hoping that maybe they will get the idea, and no one starts buying there software anymore, they may fix the search.
Ask for search before you buy, and see what their answer is...
I am surprised CNET does not state this in their review -
"Just not reliable enough!!"
Version: SugarSync Manager 1.9.47
Pros
- Good concept with lots of functionality
Cons
- Concept not implemented well enough.
- Very buggy and unreliable.Summary
I have been using it for 1 week and it is really, really buggy. Initially I backed up three folders of old files from my C drive (files that haven't changed for years), but the sugarsync software was taking forever to sync (more than one week), so I checked out the File Transfer Status screen and noticed that the upload was "stuck" on the current file: it had uploaded 51Mb of the file, that then increased to 52Mb, as you would expect, but then it would move back to 51Mb!!! It did this moving between 51Mb and 52Mb continuously - I left it for a few hours and when I returned it was still doing it. So, I deleted that file from my computer (these were not important files) and the upload moved on to another file but the same thing happened again. I looked up the problem in the sugarsync troubleshooting help section and in the end I reset the client software, as instructed by the sugarsync help troubleshooter - the last resort for lots of problems is to reset the client. But, that resulted in the entire client getting totally confused about everything. I left the client for 2 days but it did not sort itself out. In the end I had to remove all sync folders from the client and delete all files on the server and start again.
The buggy software makes this a not-very-secure way of backing up your files!!! I shall test it a few more times but suspect I will be throwing it out as I am not confident that it works reliably.
What happens if this upload problem happens again in a month's time? Will I have to delete everything on the server and start again - what a drag!! And why does the recommended solution destroy the client? After resetting the client I was not able to recover my backed up files from the server - not much use then as a backup! If this problem occurred just when you needed to restore your files, you would be up s**t street. -
"Generous features, but has a learning curve"
Version: SugarSync Manager 1.9.47
Pros
unlimited number of machines synced; 5GB free storage; ample speeds.
Cons
First-line support often unknowledgable. In the past I had a restore failures when using large zipped file containers. Will only sync from an internal drive. Does not encrypt files before uploading (see below for solution)
Summary
When I compared the online storage services, SS was handing out the most features. I've been with them for three years, and recommend it. But because there is such a layered mix of syncing, raw storage and sharing, it can be confusing and you must take some time and understand the basics of what is going on. Regarding the restore failure I had, I think the biggest bugs are ironed out.
Unfortunately, you cannot sync from external drives, so you will have to keep a local backup first, or sync directly off your primary folders.
There are also adjunct services you can use with SS (and dropbox and the like) to encrypt your files BEFORE they are uploaded, which I strongly recommend. See my blog article http://j.mp/zi3cY2 for more info.
All in all, I recommend SS. -
"No reliability and No Tech Support--Be very careful"
Version: SugarSync Manager 1.9.47
Pros
Magic Briefcase runs like Dropbox, but because it is unreliable this is a marginal pro
Cons
No reliability in file sync
File sync process is too complicated
Sync process corrupts frequently, and appears to do so when you loose a hard drive during the sync
The corruption appears at their server end, and with your desktop application software.Summary
Technical support has little or no expertise with the product. The chat option is free, phone costs $99 per year. You will need to talk with them. If your hard drive fails you cannot remove the sync links and their software will not allow you to remove the computer. Because the sync process is abruptly terminated when a hard drive fails, the sync process will corrupt and you cannot easily restore your data. You have to export and safe incomplete folders and then run file duplicate detection software to determine which files are duplicates with the "synched" folders on other computers.
Tech support seems lost each time you point out that their software has created mirror images of folders, orphaned folders, and have yet to be able to solve the simplest problems because they often cannot access your server space due to technical problems on their end.
I ran well up to the point where the hard drive failed, then the corruption process became overwhelming. Since I was using their software for backup and sharing of data across computers, I thought the backup would be safe. It was not. -
"Unreliability Destroys Credibility"
Version: SugarSync Manager 1.9.47
Pros
Easy to use
Cons
Must cross fingers
Summary
I have been testing sugarsync for approximately two weeks. Initially I was very encouraged because it was easy to use and seemed to do what I needed which was backup critical files totaling about 15 GB. A few days ago I checked my server and sugarsync manager had crashed. "Ok... let me look into this" I thought. To make this short, the answer I found on the sugarsync blog was to reinstall the program. "Hmm, that doesn't sound like something I want to do every two weeks" thought I again. The tech support answers were "cheery", but when I read that "...our tech support engineer is looking at your problem", I envisioned one guy staying up all night trying to debug thousands of issues. Bottom line for me is without a doubt, reliability. Reading other blogs stating "some files weren't backed up" evokes paranoid fantasies of what I will tell my client when I tell him/her that their files were "lost" in the cloud. I'm still searching for something as reliable as the hard drive I take home every night.
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"It works, what a relief too!"
Version: SugarSync Manager 1.9.47
Pros
When dealing with very large,complex,vital and ever changing files this backup is exactly right.
Cons
Before upgrading from 30 gig remember that Sugar Sync backs up files you have permanently deleted within Sugar Sync. This is not obvious. If you are really, really sure that you were right to permanently delete those files, then go to the Sugar Sync bin and permanently delete them again. I just regained 17 gigs of space that way.
Summary
Go with it, it's a fine service.
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