SugarSync - user experience

Forums › IT Pro and developers › SugarSync - user experience

simon14

1889 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#100320 9-Apr-2012 08:53

Hi guys,

I have used several paid online backup services including Mosy, MyPCBackup and JustCloud and a bunch of free services but about 2 months ago I signed up to SugarSync and have no regrets.

Sugar Sync backs up and syncs your selected folders, it has more features than Dropbox (which I haven't actually tried but have seen in action).

There is an App for Android and iPhone. The App allows you to stream your backed up Music library. It also has an option that automatically syncs photos and videos to the cloud. Videos are only synced while on wifi but photos can be synced on wifi and/or 3g.

There are a bunch of other features that some may find useful like the ability to share entire folders or just a single file and keep folders synced between PC's.

They have a free account that comes with 5gb of storage and a variety of paid accounts.

It's taken me years to find an online backup service that I'm actually happy with!!!!

If you sign up to a free account, sign up using my referral link below and we will both get an extra 500mb of storage. Sign up to a paid account via the referral link and we will both get 10gb extra storage.

Sugar Sync

Does anyone else here use Sugar Sync? What are your experiences?

GeoffisPure

459 posts

Ultimate Geek

#607023 9-Apr-2012 12:49

Thanks for posting this simon14. I recently signed up for mspot.com which also offers 5GB of free storage, and streams to android and IOS devices. I have half typed up a review I planned on posting here, but I suspect Sugarsync might be even better.

mSpot has a couple of limitations: it transcodes your music to a maximum quality of 96kbps AAC and the free plan only allows you to enable one mobile device. Does SugarSync have these, or similar limitations? Also, does it allow you to choose which iTunes playlists to sync, or does it only work with folders?

simon14

1889 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#607157 9-Apr-2012 19:12

GeoffisPure: Thanks for posting this simon14. I recently signed up for mspot.com which also offers 5GB of free storage, and streams to android and IOS devices. I have half typed up a review I planned on posting here, but I suspect Sugarsync might be even better.

mSpot has a couple of limitations: it transcodes your music to a maximum quality of 96kbps AAC and the free plan only allows you to enable one mobile device. Does SugarSync have these, or similar limitations? Also, does it allow you to choose which iTunes playlists to sync, or does it only work with folders?

Hi GeoffisPure,

There are no limitations like you outlined with mSpot.

SugarSync will stream your music in the same quality you uploaded them in. It can also stream some types of video files.

I don't use itunes or any Apple product for that matter.... but according to their FAQ, you can sync itunes libraries.

wsnz

649 posts

Ultimate Geek

#607685 11-Apr-2012 09:44

I'm currently using this service to Sync photo's (and docs) from my Android-powered phone to my PC, and I can confirm it works really well! The only thing I found annoying is that if I delete the photo's off the PC, there is no option for that action to be synchronised back to the phone. Apparently this is by design.

For PC backup I'm using CrashPlan.

minigopher17

281 posts

Ultimate Geek

#607752 11-Apr-2012 11:52

I find SugarSync great at keeping certain folders in sync between my desktop and my laptop. Also, the new functionality of automatically uploading photos from my Android is a great plus too.

sidefx

3716 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#608161 12-Apr-2012 11:31

Thanks for the heads up, I remember someone recommending it a while ago but I stuck with dropbox at the time... Looks like I might be replacing dropbox now though! More free storage and the way it works looks more flexible (and geeky :P) than DB.

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman

clicknz

467 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#608177 12-Apr-2012 12:04

Thanks, Simon14 - I used your link and am setting it up now on my laptop & iPhone. I'm using DropBox atm, but always on the lookout for useful geeky things, so will give it a try.

Cheers,
Mike

Photographer/Videographer clickmedia.nz

sidefx

3716 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#608357 12-Apr-2012 16:59

Since I'm already using dropbox I decided to go looking for reasons why I might want to stick with it. There were some reports of sugarsync trashing the folders they were supposed to be syncing, but they seem to be quite a while ago (~3 years) so hopefully not an issue any more.

The other big one dropbox proponets seem to point to is that dropbox has better "delta syncing"

I decided to do a quick unscientific (and probably very flawed) test of this, so I:

1) Created a tar file of 3 random MSIs = around 52Meg tar file and drop that into the dropbox\sugarsync folder and let it upload.

2) Add a text file containing some random text to the tar.

3) Add another text file containing random text.

4) Delete the first text file from the tar.

On each step I let it complete to see how long it takes and at the end how much bandwidth had been used (according to the network tab in task manager)

1) Dropbox took around 4 minutes; sugarsync around 2 minutes
2) Dropbox applied changes very quickly <10 sec; sugarsync a bit longer ~2min
3) Dropbox applied changes very quickly <10 sec; sugarsync ~2min
4) Both applied changes very quickly

The surprising thing was the bandwidth used at the end; they were very similar, in fact sugarsync seemed to use a bit less, so it seems the great delta syncing in dropbox isn't such a differentiator any more:

Bytes Up/Down - Dropbox: 61,456,672/2,030,869 Sugarsync: 57,986,131/2,713,942

With the rest of my playing today, I must say I'll probably switch to sugarsync (that extra free space is great, and it's very easy to get more through their rewards) and would have no problem recommending it! Only advantages I can see on dropbox are that it's easier to use for non-techies\geeks, it's possibly a wee bit faster and there's a Linux version...

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman