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Dropbox Glitch Perfect Reason Why Backups Should Be Local

By - Source: Tom's Hardware | B 32 comments

Dropbox acknowledged on Monday that an issue with its Selective Sync feature has deleted the files of some users. The company is currently sending out an email explaining what happened. As compensation, Dropbox is providing these customers with one year of Dropbox Pro for free.

"We've fixed the Selective Sync issue that affected a small number of users and reached out to them to help restore their files," a spokesperson told Tom's Hardware. "Issues like this aren't acceptable at Dropbox, and we've implemented additional testing to prevent this from happening again."

Selective Sync is a Dropbox feature that allows users to select a specific file or folder to be mirrored on the user's local hard drive. For instance, perhaps users take photos on their smartphones, and those images are automatically uploaded to Dropbox. The user may choose not to mirror those images on a local hard drive with limited storage capacity.

According to Dropbox, the file deletion occurred when the desktop application was shut down or restarted while the user was applying Active Sync settings. The company's email said that the team worked hard to restore those files, indicating that many may not have been rescued from the dark clutches of the trash can.

The question here is this: should consumers depend on cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive? As this example indicates, one small glitch can cause users to lose valuable files such as photos, documents and so on. Sure, cloud storage is convenient when users want to access files from different devices in different locations, but there may be other ways of doing so without having to depend on third-party cloud solutions.

For instance, Pogoplug has a networking device that will allow users to access their files from anywhere. Just hook up several hard drives, and you can access them from a mobile device's app or a web interface on a laptop. There are also a number of routers that allow users to plug in a hard drive via a USB port and access its files from anywhere.

Of course, this view isn't meant to discourage customers from using cloud services. However, it may be wise to backup the cloud backup using a portable HDD or SSD, toss it into a fire-proof safe, and then refresh the backup when needed.

Follow Kevin Parrish @exfileme. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

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  • 4 Hide
    runswindows95 , October 13, 2014 10:27 AM
    This is why I follow this advise: "If you want to keep the file, back it up three different ways". I don't use cloud storage myself, but have three external backup drives. I like the idea if I need a file, I don't have to be online to access it.
  • 4 Hide
    qlum , October 13, 2014 10:41 AM
    I personally still rely on backups on different drives on the same machine but cloud storage could help however it should never be instead of local storage but rather in addition to. if the cloud service fails you still have local and if local fails you still have cloud.
  • 2 Hide
    aldaia , October 13, 2014 10:48 AM
    If i want to share a file (e.g. between work and home computers) I use cloud. If I want to keep a file I backup to an external HD. If the file is important I make an extra backup to my work centralized file system, where, in addition, IT makes daily incremental backups and weekly full backups.

  • Add your comment Display all 32 comments.
  • 4 Hide
    skit75 , October 13, 2014 10:52 AM
    Cloud (noun, singular): A dynamic arrangement of multiple potential single points of failure, with a user at one end and their data at the other

    Let that sink in for a second. =)
  • 0 Hide
    nthreem , October 13, 2014 11:04 AM
    I agree with the guys above and recommend multiple backup methods for anything that's irreplaceable or time consuming to reproduce.

    If you can get past security implications of putting your files into cloud backup services, then I believe it's a viable and smart way to backup files. There are services out there that give you UNLIMITED storage space for very reasonable costs.

    Just like I don't trust my local hard drive from failing, I wouldn't never trust the cloud from failing as well. But chances are that my local copy will not fail at the same time my could copy fails. And if you add a third backup medium, the chances of losing all three at the same time becomes even smaller.

    Cloud backup data loss should help identify single points of failure in your backup schema, but it's definitely not a "perfect reason why backups should be local".
  • 0 Hide
    bootsattheboar , October 13, 2014 12:03 PM
    You are equally likely to screw something up locally. I've had issues personally with backups working fine initially, but then as the system grows, I've run into hard limits imposed by the underlying technology: path length, bit rot, catalog size or corruption, memory limits, Windows locking files, etc. I used to backup servers to DVD's using dump/restore/bzip2, then found out that I couldn't restore after the compressed files exceeded 2 GB in size, because they couldn't be read back even though growisofs was happy to write them. I've run into quirks of all kinds with backup systems like Retrospect, Bacula, Genie Timeline, Cobian backup and others using both tape and hard drives. I've gone back and forth regarding whether a "push" or "pull" backup system is best, and still haven't made up my mind. It is really tricky to get right, and you usually don't find out you got it wrong until it's too late. Then it's reinstall everything, scrape what data you can out of the backup system, and back to the backup system drawing board.
  • 1 Hide
    firefoxx04 , October 13, 2014 1:03 PM
    Anyone who uses dropbox as a backup solution is an idiot. Its is good for syncing files across multiple devices and it does a damn good job. I use it for school work. Start something on my laptop and switch to my desktop without having to transfer any files manually. It is excellent.

    My dropbox folder is backed up on a daily basis to a separate harddrive.

    All real backups should be done locally to a separate drive or to an outside source that specializes in data backup (even then, most people's upspeed prevents them from doing any large backups outside of their WAN.
  • 1 Hide
    chaotixblade , October 13, 2014 1:06 PM
    Or just do both. I've got a spare hard drive that keeps my data. That data is uploaded to dropbox and google drive.
  • -2 Hide
    marcelo-br , October 13, 2014 1:22 PM
    ...'backup using a portable HDD or SSD, toss it into'...
    SSD for backup? That is really bad advice. SSDs keep data for 6 months only after unpluged from power. Take care with your advices...
  • 2 Hide
    sixto1972 , October 13, 2014 1:55 PM
    But ..... the cloud... everyone loves the "cloud". It gets hyped up all over and people gobble it up.
  • 1 Hide
    Kewlx25 , October 13, 2014 3:28 PM
    Quote:
    This is why I follow this advise: "If you want to keep the file, back it up three different ways". I don't use cloud storage myself, but have three external backup drives. I like the idea if I need a file, I don't have to be online to access it.


    Three different ways, with one of those ways being off-site in another region. Unless one of your backups is 100+ miles away, a local natural disaster could destroy all of your copies.
  • 0 Hide
    tjandrew , October 13, 2014 4:36 PM
    A virus could wipe all data on hard-drives connected to your computer, a fire could destroy your home and all your drives/photos, a malicious user could log on to your computer and delete your backups, a lightening strike could destroy your electronics (happened to me).

    RAID isn't going to solve these problems. It isn't meant to. Multi-region cloud storage has a place and that is for maximum resiliency. Don't trust all your data to one service necessarily, and don't be lax with your security, but for individuals services like Dropbox are the only viable solution.
  • 0 Hide
    turkey3_scratch , October 13, 2014 4:41 PM
    Well what do you know, the file backup service does not even have backups of all their files. Why would people ever want coud storage if 90% oof the time they are on the same machine which probably has a 1TB hard drive?
  • 0 Hide
    runswindows95 , October 13, 2014 5:33 PM
    [quote=Kewlx25] Three different ways, with one of those ways being off-site in another region. Unless one of your backups is 100+ miles away, a local natural disaster could destroy all of your copies. [/quote]

    Yes, one of my critical backups is in another state, plus on a few servers.
  • 0 Hide
    TheKOkid , October 13, 2014 6:11 PM
    I've been using DropBox for about two years now. At first I used to manually upload photos from my phone, then immediately log onto my computer at home and download the files to a hard drive so I would have a backup copy in case I lost my phone and/or something happened to DropBox (like going bankrupt, as many storage companies have in the past).

    As time went on, I subscribed to DropBox Pro and took advantage of the automatic upload feature, as well as automatic sync with my Asus Transformer Pro and Barne & Noble Nook. But never have I looked upon those auto upload/auto syncy features as a "backup". I've always continued copying my pictures manually from DropBox to a hard drive on my main computer at home, and over time I've added two additional hard drives on other computers as an additional safety measure.

    In short, if DrobBox suddenly went bankrupt and disappeared from the net forever, and I simultaneously lost my phone and had my tablets stolen out of my luggage at the airport, I'd STILL have 3 copies of everything on 3 different home computers. In my opinion, anyone who doesn't follow a similar procedure is just asking for trouble. Take my advice - storage is cheap. Don't depend on a 3rd party to store files for you, no matter how convenient it sounds at the time. Eventually, something will happen and you will come to regret it.
  • 1 Hide
    therealduckofdeath , October 13, 2014 7:56 PM
    It's always easy to act clever in hindsight, counting 100's ways more secure than DropBox. But in reality, services like DropBox has probably saved files for millions of people over the years, people who would otherwise never had bothered or had the knowhow to do proper and safe local backups. The automation and low learning threshold of something like DropBox means it's a good enough backup service for the large majority.
  • 0 Hide
    Darkk , October 13, 2014 10:00 PM
    I don't ever rely on one piece of technology for backups. I work I wrote Robocopy scripts set on a daily and weekly schedule to copy files to different locations and then volume shadow at different times. Even tho the backups and volume shadows are completely automated it's always good idea to go back and check the backups to make sure it actually worked. Also I make use Microsoft's DSF to sync the files between different file servers both onsite and offsite.

    I personally don't trust cloud backup / sync to get it 100% right all the time. For personal stuff probably not too big of a deal long as you are backing it up locally yourself on a regular basis. But for Enterprise nope, we do it ourselves.
  • 0 Hide
    Dags , October 13, 2014 10:22 PM
    ho ho don't spend money in local storage. If you think your cloud storage service enough space for you precious data but has a 0.0001% chance to delete your files then backup your data in 2 different cloud storage services. I use Wuala Dropbox and OneDrive. Important files are kept in more than one cloud. You do the math and see how probable is to have 2 different cloud services fail at the same time.
  • 0 Hide
    Robert Hanson , October 13, 2014 10:56 PM
    I have my stuff backed up on 3 externals my local drive dvd thump drive and cloud nothing is getting lost
  • 0 Hide
    EdgeT , October 14, 2014 12:58 AM
    I think I'll stick to my local ftp/storage server, and I only need to pay the electric bill monthly :) 
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