Why I quit pCloud and moved to MEGA

(pCloud, MEGA and Dropbox review 2021 for power users)

On end on November I bought the pCloud product at what I thought was a good price: 245 euros for 2TB of cloud storage. This is a lifetime price, as compared to MEGA and Dropbox which offer 2TB of hosting at 10 euros per month. “In two years I would recover my investment”, I thought – what a smart guy!

As you well have guessed, things did not go according to plan.

At first, I was well impressed with the upload and download speed, and the availability of an Android app. Then, I started using the product regularly. For me, this means a lot of editing of text files, PowerPoints, and Adobe Premiere projects.

Trouble in Paradise

In March, I noticed that the pCloud Windows software was reporting that 1828 were stuck in upload and 1220 in download. The pCloud application did not show any sign of doing anything. I got worried and wrote support, asking them for a log or a queue.

pCloud support did not answer my question about the log, and instead advised me to unlink my account. If you don’t know what that means, it’s almost like an uninstall. Unlinking breaks all connection between client and server, and then on linking back, every file will have to be synchronized again.

This was an awful solution since I had 1TB of files in the pCloud and did not want to waste time and bandwidth on synchronizing everything again.

Queue or Log

I really did not want to consume a lot of time and bandwidth, so tried to debug it myself. I asked again pCloud support for the upload/download queue or log.

Can you please let me know if there is a log, or some verbose view where I can see the upload/download queue?

They answered:

For the time being, this option is not available. At pCloud, we value our users’ opinions and we’re tirelessly working towards fulfilling all their requests.

Nonetheless, the information you have provided has been forwarded to the respective department as a suggestion and we will be in touch once it can be made available. In the meantime, if you have any further improvement ideas, please let us know.

Amazement

I was shocked and amazed! Is there a software in the world that does not offer a log? And a synchronizing software that does not offer a queue? Is that even possible?

I triple checked the whole application GUI and folders – there truly was no queue or log.

I was speechless.

How is this possible?

What pCloud Offers

The only feedback they I found in the pCould software is a really small status bar that shows a count of “remaining” files. That is it. No queue, no log, no nothing.

In my case, I noticed the files were “stuck” because the numbers did not advance, but there was no way for me to find out:

· On which file(s) it was stuck

· What was the queue

· Why they were stuck

Trouble revisited

After a few days, some files got stuck again. At this point in time I was lost. How often does this software break? Why is there no queue or log allowing the user to get notice of what is going on with the important personal files?

I wrote pCloud support:

Please provide a log file. How is it possible that this software does have a screen with the Download/Upload queue and a Log file?

The answer was:

Unfortunately, there are no logs an you won't be able to see which file is stuck so the best way to stop all ongoing processes is to Unlink from the Account tab of pCloud Drive. Please note that by unlinking, your sync/backup settings will be reset.

Omg, is this happening? I would not have ever imagined that there is a software in the world that does not provide a log file, and a queue in case of a synchronizing software.

Refund

There was no way for me to continue using their platform:

· Files were getting stuck

· There was no indication why

· There was no indication where

· When the software stuck, I had to re synchronize 1 TB of data!

· I got [conflicted] files even on the files which have only been edited on a single device

I thought the product did not ensure for me:

· Reliability – it works without stucks or weird conflicts

· Consistency – not getting random stucks

· Accountability – what is the software doing – uploading/downloading/crashing

· Predictability – a queue that shows me what is going on and when will the processes be finished

· Control – prioritize/pause files

· Debuggability – in case of trouble I want to be able to quickly fix the issue, not go through support, and especially not go thorough unlinking and resynchronizing everything again

Because all these missing properties that I expect from a software (of this type), I decided to quit pCloud and asked for a refund.

The pCloud support wrote:

Unfortunately, refund are possible only in the first 10 days after a payment and you exceed this period with few months.

pCloud Human Feedback

I wrote a quick public review of pCloud describing the software missing the two hugely important features: Queue and Log.

I got an email from pCloud signed with Paul J. Klee Head of pCloud's Technical Support. A quick look up on the internet revealed no living Paul J. Klee, just a dead Swiss-born German artist.

At this point in time I cannot verify if the email was true or fake, but I assume the name is fake and who knows what other parts of it.

Another feedback I got is the following:

I was amazed!

To quote:

instead of reading what they explained, you are busy publishing the same comments all around the net...

and

It's an ironic you find us unreliable, but you continue to use your lifetime account

Are these people even Support? Is this how Support… supports the user?

Why don’t they just slap me already for behaving in a way they don’t want?

End of pCloud

At this point in time I realized that there is no way for me to continue using their product. Moreover, I was even afraid of using their platform because I believed they could erase my data on their pCloud and easily blame it on me – since there is no log!

The lifetime account of pCould was about to end for me after 7 months.

Alternatives

I spent a few days looking for alternatives and the ones that remained on the list were MEGA and Dropbox. I have been using the MEGA and Dropbox free plans for over 10 years, and was happy with their synchronization implementations, but now it was time to choose the one that will get my money. Let’s see some features of them.

Price

While they have different plans, the one I was interested in, the 2 TB of space carries the same price, both on MEGA and on Dropbox and is 10 euros per month.

Upload/Download Queue

Right after price, the most important thing for me is the upload/download queue.

MEGA has a really beautiful screen implemented with everything that a power user requires. The main screen shows the active file being transferred, speed and ETA.

Even more, MEGA allows you prioritize and pause the transfer on a file basis. You will love this feature when you need ad hoc bandwith or just want to delay uploading/downloading the file for any reason.

Business

One reason why the queue is so extremely important is the way you use it in a company. Let’s say you are in charge of file backup and the boss comes to you and askes you if the XYZ fields have been synchronized. What proof do you have that you have done your job and that the files are safely backed up?

You open the Completed tab in MEGA and you show it to your boss. This is awesome!

Dropbox Queue

Does Dropbox have a queue? Yes! It is less impressive than MEGA’s, but still very usable.

Folders

One major distinction between MEGA and Dropbox is that MEGA can synchronize multiple folders, where Dropbox synchronizes only one C:\Dropbox (or whatever you name it).

Below is an idea of how only specific local folders are synchronized to the MEGA cloud.

How is this helpful? It has a ton of advantages, and one very important to me, described in the next section.

Removable Drives

I cannot stress how important this is for anybody who uses a lot of files, or big files from the cloud. In my case, I do not waste 1TB of space on my laptop to hold MP4 video files I use in my work. I keep the 1TB of mp4 files on a removable disk which I load as drive X:

Then MEGA synchronizes the 1TB from the removable drive, and when done I can remove the drive.

This is amazingly useful to me to free up so much space, and not to run around with copyrighted material, as laptop can be easily lost/stolen.

This is not something Dropbox can do! As I mentioned before, Drobox only synchronizes one folder. Period.

File Conflicts

One very important aspect you need to know about your file synchronization is what happens in case of conflicts?

On the MEGA site the answer is:

The current version of MEGAsync does not resolve such clashes in a deterministic manner. Avoid them if possible.

I really don’t like this answer. By test, I discovered that files are overwritten in case of conflict, but at least you can find them in the Rubbish folder or in versions, if you use File Versioning – which is a must in this case.

These overwrites may very well give you trouble, especially because of the issue presented the section below (Time Zones).

How does Dropbox handle conflicts?

Dropbox makes copies! I think this is much better than the MEGA way, at least because you immediately get to see it, so the winner here is Drobox.

Time Zones

One big drawback of MEGA is the fact that it does not handle time zones right.

You can read about it here MEGAsync overwrites the file from the cloud when it is replaced with its earlier version, or, to put it short: if you receive files from a different time zone, you edit them and upload them to MEGA, you may find that your edits are overwritten by the old copy.

So MEGA is a no go when regularly using files from multiple times zones: for example, a cross continent company, international correspondence, etc.

As far as I have read, Drobox handles time zones aright, but I have not tested it.

Bottom Line

So, which one do you choose between MEGA and Dropbox?

Choose MEGA if you:

· are a power user

· need a great upload/download queue

· need control and accountability over the synchronizing process

· synchronize removable drives

· do not work with files from multiple time zones

· do not mind the way MEGA deals with conflicts

Choose Dropbox if you:

· are an average user

· suggested it to an average user, like mom or brother

· need a good upload/download queue

· only backup one root folder

· do not synchronize removable drives

· use files from different time zones

· want better visibility over conflicted files

One Word

If I were to describe MEGA and Drobox in one expression, I would probably say they are like “Android versus iPhone”.

MEGA, like Android, allows better control and customization. Drobox, like the iPhone, is prettier, with a bit less options.

They both do a great job, so you can choose whatever style fits your personality best.

End Suggestions

This was my story with pCloud. In the end, I decided to just give up the 245 euros invested in their lifetime solution, so I deleted my account. There is no way for me to feel safe using their product, both on a software level and on a human level.

My greatest suggestion is: Don’t do what I did! Learn from my mistakes.

Second is: Do not rush to buy a product that seems a good deal. Don’t do impulse buying, like the “Christmas sales”, or “Just 4 more hours to buy our product at a discount”.

Third: Before buying the whole product, test it a bit. Pay for MEGA or Dropbox on a monthly basis, until you feel completely satisfied and safe with the product and support.

I wish you use my suffering so that you make a better decision and spare yourself a lot of lost time and bad emotions and thoughts.