Livedrive at a Glance
Our Rating
2.25 / 5 stars
Price:
- Standard – Unlimited: $66.53/year
Supports
- Windows and Macs
Pros:
- Web interface to upload and access files. Includes streaming music and videos.
- Free two week trial.
- Allows sharing of files.
- Backup offered as well as storage.
- Easy to use.
Cons:
- Allows insecure FTP access.
- Comments indicate poor customer support.
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Full Livedrive Review
Livedrive is an online backup system that offers a large array of features that is not often included with other storage systems. Livedrive provides customers with unlimited space to store all their files, photos, music, digital content, and videos, kind of like your home away from home on the internet. Your home on the internet will be safe and secure as well as there always with all the space you will ever need. You will never have to upgrade as you do in real life when you need a larger home.
Features include unlimited online storage, sync files and folders throughout all computers, backup data online, access all your files from the web, access all your files with FTP, drag and drop web upload, and the ability to share files easily to name a few.
Features that you do not often see with online storage systems include the ability to access from iPhone, Blackberry, PDA’s, you can view movies on the web, play your music on the web, edit office documents on the web, edit or retouch images on the web, and integrate with Facebook.
Behind the scenes of Livedrive is Andrew Michael that founded Fasthosts Internet Limited. Fasthosts Internet Limited is the largest internet hosting company in the UK. He sold the company in 2006 and worked diligently to create an online storage system that would give customers exactly what they needed. Taking two years to create, Livedrive has many features that are sure to please every person that wants to secure their data with an online storage system.
Livedrive offers unlimited storage space with an easy to use interface that allows users to drag and drop, use their specially designed desktop sync software, or FTP. You will be able to see all your files just like you would on a normal hard drive as well as view or edit your files on the web or from your mobile phone.
The drag and drop feature comes from Java whereas the online file editing uses both Zoho and FotoFlexer so customers can edit at any time. Livedrive may have been created mainly for business users; however, the pricing makes it quite affordable for families, individuals, businesses, and corporations that want to ensure they protect their data by using an online storage system with excellent security.
Livedrive does have a two week free test drive. For standard storage you receive 100GB, web portal, online file access & filing, the ability to install on one PC, Zoho & IPaper integration, facebook integration, online video player, mobile access, total security, one click sharing, unlimited speed, 24 hour support by email, money back guarantee, and instant online activation for $66.53 per year.
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Livedrive Resellers
Livedrive has a number of resellers available that you can purchase their services from as well. For the most part these services offer the same features as Livedrive, but occasionally at a different price. While this list is not complete it is important to know that if you purchase services from one of these services you are purchasing from Livedrive.
- Zovo
- Tapnet
- Backzup
- BeeCloud
- BackUPyourPC
- Iozeta
- MyLiveDrive
- Keep My Files Safe
- infiDrive
- Elephant Backup
- Mowbe
- Bulldog Backup
- Cheap Drive
19 Comments
Through over-stated claims on an impressively designed web site, Livedrive gives the impression to the casual shopper/buyer of a solid, professional product & service. As a long time Livedrive user, I find it hard to sleep at night knowing what I know about how the company operates and just keep silent about it. The buying public needs to know that the company’s business ethics and morals are very much in question. Many of the functionality & features described on their site are either not functional, function intermittently, or don’t function the described way at all. And you don’t figure that out sometimes until after your 30 day trial has expired and you’re stuck with an unrefundable year’s subscription. Livedrive is all about creating an impression rather than actually creating the service they describe on their site. They have focused development time on adding new features to entice new customers instead of bringing their services up to the specs to match the descriptions outlined on their site. They claim that files transferred to their servers by way of their provided desktop client are encrypted, but they are not. Your files are freely browseable by their employees on their servers, so beware. Further, files backed up are sometimes corrupted when downloaded. Other files are downright missing & lost forever. They have promised a Mac client “soon” for months. FTP was plagued with outages for months before being pressured into fixing it. Bug reports are often ignored unless enough people complain about a particular issue. They advertise 24 hour support response, but that response is an auto-reply. It will probably take months for your issue to be resolved. We have pointed out all of these things to Livedrive and requesed that they adjust their public claims accordingly, but they refuse. Many reviews are based on abbreviated, short term tests. I just want to be sure that the perspective of a long time user who has had long term exposure to their ethics, services, & policies are made available to the public before they become a victim like me.
Sounds like you have had a rough time with them. It is true a lot of reviews are only based on a short trial. That is often all I can base my reviews on. While I did not have any problems like you described when I tested their service, I was also mainly testing their service as an online storage service.
While I do not doubt that you have had a difficult time with them it would be nice to hear from others that have good experiences with the company. Unfortunately no company has a perfect record and there will always be someone that is disappointed with the companies service.
@BlatSd,
I couldn’t agree with you more…
I have sent 3 email to Livedrive, (still no answer) and posted several problems in the forum (all of them not approved, so not visible on forum) see the problem?
Once you have paid, they let you swim…..
I’m stopping after a year, this company doesn’t give me any confidence whatsoever.
Well… I was also a long time user, and have experienced countless problems. John, you are right that many people dont have a perfect record.. but at least they do not try to cover up cold hard facts that they have faults in there system.
I remember when a user discovered that they had a client that transmitted data unencrypted!! They asked.. and even told others how to test there clients.. they all had the same result.. unecnrypted data. Eventually they took that off there homepage and then released a new client with this encryption option.. worst of all.. its disabled by default!!!
I was a user since march when it first went public.. i tried working with them… they never really listened.. but i gave it a chance since it was new and promising.. i was happy to contribute to make it better.. the idea that LD has is great!! Only problem is the ethics of management that runs the company!!
My biggest problem was data corruption due to trasmission problems. I uploaded about 100GB of data… 50,000 photos. about 5% of them were corrupted!! When we contatcted Livedrive about this.. there response was.. were sorry , you put them in your L Drive corrupted.
Common.. why would i put bad data on L?? Lucky for me.. i maintained backups of all my personal data as i knew it was a new service.
In addition, the portal its-self would just go off for days at a time… even recently it still can go off and on. some users went almost 48 hours without access to portal!!
Another one of my peeves was just the fact that they blame us for the problems like i mentioned above about putting corrupt data on the L Drive.
BUT THE MOST HORRIBLE THING TO DO IS THIS…. I experience a problem with dissapearing files… I contact support and they say.. oh.. were sorry, this is new.. its the first time we saw that… we are looking into it.. then ANOTHER USER emails support the same problem a few weeks later… guess what.. Support answered them the same!!! THEY ARE AWARE OF PROBLEMS!!! But , they do not admit it!!!! Its the worst!!!!!
There have been many changes at Livedrive that you are not aware of… there have been many problems that are never talked about… you can find very much infromation on this site:
http://www.Livedriveliedtous.com
They even were able to recover some of the public cached files from bing before they were deleted! Its a mountain of useful information about Livedrive to help you make an informed decision before you pay for their service.
Obviously someone does not like there ethics and does not want can fool others into buying a service that only works.. MOst of the time. They do not even have an SLA…. and i remember this question in the old forums!!! They said they can not do it… obviously
And it you want something for business.. its required!!!
In your post, they said service is $129?? Well thats no longer the case.. they have bumped it to $149… you should think.. while thats a great idea to offer unlimited… its just not feasible. at least right now… They are just trying to get as many customers as they can so they can sell the company.. just like Andrew did with fast hosts… Its business.. its life… If that was not the case.. they would focus on fixing all problems…. even like the SIMPLE recycle bin problem!! if you delete something and you want to restore.. your resolution must be bigger then 1024×768 otherwise the restore button is trunicated!!! Thats been there since the beginning!! And even now.. its not fixed!! JUST SIMPLE SCRIPT FIX!!!! Still a bug…
Oh… hey.. goto https://www.Livedrive.com… put your credentials in wrong.. and click login.. you are redirected in to an unsecure logon HTTP://www.livedrive.com/login… commmon!!! SIMPLE THINGS!!! Now you are transmitting your logon in clear to LD.
Countless other little problems can be found with just a little effort.
Even there FTP server is unsecure!! Minimum should be SFTP!! Which they said wasn’t even in the future!!!
I’ll stop talking.. you can read that webpage I found from google search for livedrive review. I will surely not use Livedrive!! I can not trust them.
Sorry but this service is a ****… too many errors… ejected from my tests!
Thank you for all this information. I thought that the problems I’d been having with Livedrive were ‘just me’ …. but I can verify that I’ve experienced many of the probems described above at first hand. Now how to extricate myself and who else to try. I’ve always kept external HD backups also, and until I can find a good alternative, will stop wasting time with online options. Ext HD are getting smaller and smaller, and so it’s better to carry one of them around!
Bad!
Low uplaod speed with my 1 gbps connextion.
Very bad custumer support.
I DONT reccomand that to my ennemy.
I give a note of 1/10.
and for your friends ? lol
I’m a new Livedrive‘s user……
It doesn’t work and there is no way to have a reply from support. I signed with a money back guarantee that is not possible to use…..
Don’t know what to do
Have you tried Twitter? Their Twitter account is located here: http://twitter.com/livedrive_com.
Since it sounds like you have tried to do it through the proper channels, if you take it public on Twitter it might get them to do something. Just a thought.
Keep on them and let us know how it turns out. I am sure others would like to know.
I think there is nothing I can do but try to tell others not to sign.
It’s like the company is closed….
I’ve sent an email to sales@Livedrive.com, I’ll wait 24 hours and then I’ll post on twitter.
Thanks for your reply
I got money refund only using their twitter agent. Support never replied, be careful.
Reliability Problems: Technical & Support
———————————————————
I am a currently using LD with 150GB and there are some main issues.
1) All files are correctly backed up to the LD cloud and visible correctly on their nice portal – But, many files of any type are visible on the local drive (with the option set, that all files are physically in the cloud and local), but they are not accessible from local applications (file has been moved or deleted). I re-synched everything 2 times and it still doesn’t work correctly
2) The support took 14 days to answer on my first 3 requests and only after contacting the press center and partner manager I got an answer within minutes! All support forum entries are filtered by LD and any critical, but objective comment has not been published so far
3) The product architecture is good, but if there is not a 100% reliability – why use it? I am currently testing Wuala to complete my intention to replace Dropbox and Mozy with a single product
4) No native support for Linux/Ubuntu and Android
If they can not solve the issues in the next 3 days it’s gone forever from my infrastructure – good luck!
Non existent customer support. Their website states 24-hr response, but they’ll get back to you days or weeks after, if you’re lucky enough to get a response at all.
As bad as that is, it’s not their biggest flaw by far. Their software is buggy and can damage your files.
I personally lost thousands of irreplaceable files cause of this major bug. Made several attempts to contact them to resolve it but not a single response.
They even shutdown their Facebook page after several complaints were posted there that they neither could, nor would, respond to.
Use with EXTREME CAUTION.
This was some interesting reading. A week ago I registered for the Free Trial of their service “Briefcase”. Ok, it looks awesome at a first glance. I get promised to be able to stream my media to XBMC-player, I have the iPhone app that promises I`ll be able to stream to my phone via the built in mediaplayer.
However: My trial is soon ending and this is what Ive accomplished so far…
- I cant access their FTP via XBMC. This means im not able to stream my pictures/music/photos.
- I can not get my music into the mediaplayer in the Livedrive-app on my iPhone.
When I tried to post my problems on their forum, they never get published since every post have to be approved by LD. Emailed support 3 days ago but still no reply. I`ll try the Twitter option mentioned above.
If they only had their service working it could have been awesome, but as it is for now, I can not trust this company with my family photos/vacationvideos.
I have been using Livedrive since 2009. Before I signed up, I specifically asked them if after I delete the files from my local PC do they remain backed up on their server and I received a very strong “your files will always remain on our servers unless you log in and delete them”. Recently I went to retrieve some files from their server and come to find out they are not there. Some time between 2009 and 2011 they changed their method of backing up, and my files were permanently lost. They told me that in a newsletter at some point they alerted all the subscribers to the change. I decided to cancel my service and go with a Drobo system. With weekly hard copy backups, it is a very fast and efficient service.
If you are in the market for an online storage system and considering Livedrive, please PLEASE please read the fine print and ask tons of questions before you subscribe.
There are very few services that store data after you delete it from your computer. Most have a 30 or 60 day policy. In fact I can’t think of any that do.
Sorry about your files being lost.
Their support is absolutely terrible. They updated their servers on Thursday which caused their FTP to break. They indicated on their site that they were going to do maintenance and then after 2 hours they said the maintenance was completed with no reported issues. Their FTP has been down since Friday and today is Monday. I wrote 3 e-mails and have never received a response. Their website today still continues to indicate “no reported issues”. That is pure BS. Finally, if you post a comment in their technical forum, it will get filtered and anything criticizing them is never published. Even a post requesting why the FTP is down will go unanswered.
Bottom line? This company has very bad customer service and I would seriously advise you to look elsewhere if you plan on using them for business purposes.
Livedrive is absolutley awful over the last 6 months. Customer service sucks and since changing their fault reporting system I cant even call them anymore… I have had enough and cancelling…
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