Author Topic: SpiderOak - very nice people =) (Read 54965 times)

kyrathaba · « **Reply #50 on:** July 07, 2011, 09:41 PM »

The only complaint I've had with SpiderOak is that I got up to 10 GB of space because of others signing up through my link. Then, about 10 days later, SpiderOak starts bucking up on me, saying I've exceed the maximum of 8 GB of free backup space. So I wind up having to remove quite a few files from S.O. backup. Grrr...

Other than that, I've been completely satisfied, especially given that this is a free service.

For me, the strongest selling point is there zero-knowledge-of-my-files architecture.

Lifehacker had a recent article comparing several of these types of programs.

Armando · « **Reply #51 on:** July 07, 2011, 10:07 PM »

Well, my problem is/was... performance (as I mentioned in a previous post). I often used it to sync tasks lists + other very small files I wanted to access on the go and having to wait a long time to have access to those is maddening.

I also experienced a situation where the queue appeared to be completely jammed and nothing got saved for days, without any warning!! At that point I just stopped using it, feeling that it wasn't reliable enough for my code backup.

I'm still trying to find something as speedy and "reliable" as Dropbox... but with some actual security preoccupations.

kyrathaba · « **Reply #52 on:** July 07, 2011, 10:13 PM »

I've never had it jam up for days, but I have had it seem to stall out for 2-3 hours; eventually it always finishes it's business for me. Can't say that I blame you, though, if you weren't satisfied with its performance. And certainly Dropbox remains, for me, the most elegant -- I suppose just because it's so darned simple to use!

iphigenie · « **Reply #53 on:** July 08, 2011, 01:41 AM »

Being over: At least Spideroak lets you delete files moderately quickly from its interface or, iirc, the web admin - so you can pick whatever large bits you might want to take off the system to bring it back to level

I downgraded Syncplicity from paid to free recently and between the "you cant do anything you're over" and the fact that you just cannot do anything on the web admin I had to "unsubscribe" all the folders (which wipes them from the backup space) and start over. Way worse

Not sure how others do it, it would be interesting what the best practice ought to be - to me if I am over I would like an easy interface mode to pick what to remove to be brought back to level

Elegance: interestingly enough I have had to use dropbox for work and I found the approach inelegant - that you have to put everything into that one folder. If I have folders all over that I want to backup I need to move them and adapt applications.. and if I only want to back up part of a folder tree I have a mess... It does work for a shared project folder, though.

kyrathaba · « **Reply #54 on:** July 08, 2011, 07:16 AM »

I'm back down to 8GB, which the SpiderOak app has been telling me is the maximum amount of free space I can have. That's fine by me. They had to set the limit somewhere. My only minor irritation was that for several days it let me have 10GB of stuff backed up. To me, that's a bug.

Deozaan · « **Reply #55 on:** July 08, 2011, 01:37 PM »

I'm back down to 8GB, which the SpiderOak app has been telling me is the maximum amount of free space I can have.
-kyrathaba (July 08, 2011, 07:16 AM)

I thought the referral page said you could get up to 50GB of free space from referrals?

EDIT: from the spideroak front page:

Spideroak referral.png

kyrathaba · « **Reply #56 on:** July 08, 2011, 01:57 PM »

You're correct. Yet I continue to get prompted to upgrade, or else delete enough files from my backup queue to drop below 8 GB.

kyrathaba · « **Reply #57 on:** July 08, 2011, 04:15 PM »

Also, the image from their page that you posted above reads in a way that suggests that you get 50GB for referring one single person. It'd be unambiguous to say "Gain up to a maximum of 50 GB by referring your friends" or -- even better -- "Gain 1 GB of extra storage for every friend you refer who registers with SpiderOak".

kyrathaba · « **Reply #58 on:** July 08, 2011, 04:17 PM »

Here's the nag-screen:

Even though my SpiderOak usage bar shows this:

Deozaan · « **Reply #59 on:** July 08, 2011, 04:27 PM »

One problem I've often had with SpiderOak is that when I'm selecting files and folders to backup, it will mess up and unselect or re-select folders, or sometimes select folders I never wanted selected in the first place. This can sometimes lead to it attempting to recursively backup large directories and all it's subdirectories (like my User directory). Maybe you should check to make sure something like that didn't happen.

kyrathaba · « **Reply #60 on:** July 08, 2011, 04:31 PM »

Good idea, I'll have a look...

tomos · « **Reply #61 on:** July 09, 2011, 01:20 AM »

I'm back down to 8GB, which the SpiderOak app has been telling me is the maximum amount of free space I can have. That's fine by me. They had to set the limit somewhere. My only minor irritation was that for several days it let me have 10GB of stuff backed up. To me, that's a bug.
-kyrathaba (July 08, 2011, 07:16 AM)

have you reported the problem to SpiderOak?

kyrathaba · « **Reply #62 on:** July 09, 2011, 08:41 AM »

have you reported the problem to SpiderOak?

Yep. Emailed their support. Awaiting a response...

tomos · « **Reply #63 on:** July 09, 2011, 10:15 AM »

have you reported the problem to SpiderOak?

Yep. Emailed their support. Awaiting a response...
-kyrathaba (July 09, 2011, 08:41 AM)

Let us know how you get on!
(btw, I asked that cause it's the kind of thing I would do - complain here but not report it

reminds me I've got to report a couple of dopus bugs...)

kyrathaba · « **Reply #64 on:** July 11, 2011, 02:29 PM »

I got an email back from SpiderOak support. They acknowledged that ppl ARE supposed to be able to earn up to 50 GB (1 per other person who registers on the site, downloads, and installs and activates the program). The rep confirmed that I currently have 12 GB stored with them, and requested screenshots, which I will send when I get home this evening.
I will report back on how this gets sorted.

kyrathaba · « **Reply #65 on:** July 18, 2011, 06:47 PM »

Okay, it's been one week. I got an email from a SpiderOak engineer stating he was looking into why the application gave me incorrect info in the usage bar on the amount of free storage I have available. Still awaiting a response on his findings.

kyrathaba · « **Reply #66 on:** July 26, 2011, 09:36 PM »

Re my earlier posts^: It's been two weeks, and no response from SpiderOak engineer.

f0dder · « **Reply #67 on:** July 27, 2011, 02:20 PM »

Re my earlier posts^: It's been two weeks, and no response from SpiderOak engineer.
-kyrathaba (July 26, 2011, 09:36 PM)

Hm, not so good.

Try posting on their forum to get some public visibility?

CleverCat · « **Reply #68 on:** August 13, 2011, 04:22 AM »

I always get a response within a couple of days and they are very helpful!

Curt · « **Reply #69 on:** August 13, 2011, 06:07 AM »

maybe even spiders take vacations?

kyrathaba · « **Reply #70 on:** August 13, 2011, 07:52 AM »

I still haven't heard back from the "engineer" (as he called himself) from whom I received an email response about my initial report... followed up with email but nada, so far.

CleverCat · « **Reply #71 on:** August 19, 2011, 04:18 AM »

maybe even spiders take vacations?
-Curt (August 13, 2011, 06:07 AM)

iphigenie · « **Reply #72 on:** August 21, 2011, 01:07 AM »

I would ping the main support address again - they are normally fast to respond, so perhaps something happened to the email address you are sending to

Deozaan · « **Reply #73 on:** May 18, 2012, 03:31 PM »

Here's the nag-screen:
(see attachment in previous post)
Even though my SpiderOak usage bar shows this:

(see attachment in previous post)
-kyrathaba (July 08, 2011, 04:17 PM)

Did you ever get this sorted out? I recently ran into a similar problem where a junction was created in one of my backup folders, and the junction folder had many large files in it which took me over my limit. I started seeing the same nag screen you posted above. So I went into my View tab and deleted the extra files I didn't want backed up, but for the past week SpiderOak would not synchronize the changes with the server. So on the SpiderOak site it said I was still over my limit, and on the client it said I was only at about 25% of my limit.

SpiderOak is stupid and always tries to process the Queue in order. So it was still trying to backup a bunch of files that I had since removed from the backup configuration. But it wouldn't back them up because I was over my limit. And the act of me removing them from my backups was placed in the Queue--AFTER the action to finish backing up more stuff--so it never removed them from the list.

So what you have to do is shut down SpiderOak, clear the queue, then start it up again and hope you can remove the extra files from your account before it queues up more backups. The details on how to do this are outlined here:

https://spideroak.co...ading_what_can_i_do/

Why they don't give you the option to remove items from the Queue within the client is beyond me. It's kind of stupid, actually.

kyrathaba · « **Reply #74 on:** May 18, 2012, 06:31 PM »

I never got a response beyond "Our engineer is looking at your reported problem..."

Thanks for the link