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GayleGR's avatar
GayleGR
Follower
Oct 31, 2019
Status:
New Idea

Multiple Issues with Meural web interface and Canvas

I was told by Netgear phone support that posting feature requests to this forum was the only way to communicate my displeasure and bemusement with the Meural Canvas web interface and cloud-based service. In 2019, it is unbelievable that a tech company could still make such a terrible UI for such an expensive product, but here we are. Here is a brief list of the issues I have encountered…

 

  1. 20Gb limit on cloud-based storage - Imagine my surprise when, after spending over $1200 on two Canvases, I started receiving a message on the website that I had run out of storage space on my Meural cloud. The phone support person I spoke with informed me that the storage limit for Meural is 20Gb. For 99 cents per month, Apple will give a customer 50Gb of storage. But for the price tag of a $600 Canvas (and I’ve purchased two), I’m limited to 20Gb? Really?
  2. Deleting playlists does not delete the uploaded photos inside it - I understand this from the perspective of protecting customers from accidental deletion, but it highlights the many issues of the user interface. It is so unclear as to WHERE on the website uploads are all kept and managing them is ridiculously obtuse. For instance…
  3. One-at-a-time upload management - If I want to remove an upload, change its name, add it to a playlist, etc I can only do so one upload at a time. This is incredibly frustrating and, frankly, unacceptable in a world with much better user interfaces.
  4. Errors when uploading too many items at once - In addition to having to manage uploads one at a time, I have also encountered issues when attempting to upload more than, approximately, 10 images at once. The website will hang, crash, throw an error, or not upload the images at all. Please fix this.
  5. No interface for upload management beyond the playlists - Playlists are the only way to manage one’s uploads and what actually shows up on the Canvas. I have no ability to reorder the images; and even if I could, they do not display on my Canvases the same way they are displayed - or ordered - on the website. Not alphabetically. Not chronologically. Not in the order I uploaded them. It seems completely random, with no way to manage it.
  6. General “uploads” interface is…terrible - The three-column display is not only difficult to navigate, but it’s not even flattering to the artwork itself, which the whole point of this device. Images only load if you scroll to the bottom of the page and wait. And then, as previously mentioned, the uploads themselves are completely scrambled and in no apparent or useful order.
  7. The mobile app - …is not an improvement over the website and therefore unhelpful in resolving issues.
  8. Intermittent image “drop-out” on Canvas - This has less to do with the web-based interface and more to do with the overall functionality of the hardware and service, but my Canvases will often display a blank, black screen for several seconds (or even close to a minute in some instances), before the next image appears. There seems to be no rhyme or reason for this issue, I cannot recreate it manually, and I have not been able to find a fix despite resetting the Canvases several times and reloading the playlists on them.

 

I truly hope I am not just shouting into the void here and that your Meural team of engineers will consider making changes to the interface, in addition to Netgear putting more time, money, and other resources into improving this product and service. If this does not fall on deaf ears, please respond soon so that I know it is being worked on. You also have my permission to contact me via my Netgear account.

 

Thank you.

4 Comments

  • This is mostly a venting post about my frustrations of setting up my $600 MC327.  

    I was expecting a plug and play product.  Instead, I have spent frustrating hours with failed/finicky registration and wifi connection, as well as trying to use the app.

     

    it's hard to believe this is a Netgear product. Wifi connectivity is weak....I had to manually reset the Meural's internal wifi by hand swipes on the Meural.   What a total PITA, as the swiping motion sensitivity is less than perfect.

     

    Managing the art on the app is cumbersome, confusing, and not intuitive.  The paltry documentation is basically the brochure. 

    I will call customer service on Monday to resolve my questions.  Or return this product. 

     

     

     

  • NorCal-GV technically it isn't a Netgear product, they purchased Meural and now they own them as well as all the interfaces that came with that.  So it'll likely be a while, if ever, before things get changed.  Given the interfaces on other netgear products I wouldn't hold our breath on this one. 

     

    I'm hopeful that we'll see some improvements to the interface soon, but it needs a serious overhaul and I don't know if they see the value in making it easier for people to upload their own artwork when it means they'll be less likely to subscribe to their Art service. 

  • As a potential customer, it would be comforting to see a Netgear response to this thread. Maybe just a "Thank you for your input, we'll contact you directly", or even just, "Thank you for your input, I'll make sure this feedback gets back to the Canvas team".

     

     

  • I'm having these same issues. I've owned the Meural for two days, and while I love how it displays art, and how it looks in the room, I HATE that I've had WiFi issues three times in two days. Updating the playlists on meural is painful, and it might be driving me to a return soon. I searched here for WiFi solutions and found a thread where a support staffer pointed to the generic "how to connect to WiFi" article, when it's clear the customer was having trouble with the device.

     

    how do we consistently keep the device connected to WiFi?