Re: ReadyCloud Desktop Client - Solutions or Alternatives (Windows)

ranc · ‎2015-09-02

I've searched these forums, youtube videos and spoken to tech support and not found any sensible solution to how to set up sync and backup on my 2 laptops and NAS to get various subsets of data to sync.

User documentation with clear schematics would be useful however nothing appears to be available beyond the basic level docs which just say it all works so easily. Not my experience. Tech phone support told me I need to reset my expectations on what sync can and can't do ... really?????

Another user Dwad, sets out the problems pretty concisely over here. Albeit he's on a mac, yet it's the same problems I'm experiencing on Windows. The main issues are these:

I don't want to only be able to sync or back up folders under ..users\[username]\SELECTAFOLDER\ - this is incredibly restrictive and doesn't work for me at all.
From what I can see (and PLEASE someone correct me if I'm wrong), after syncing, you end up with a 2nd copy of the data under ..users\[username]\READYCLOUD\SELECTAFOLDER\ and that's the one that is now syncing? So the folder you asked to sync in the first place isn't actually being synced any more but a new copy of it? Surely, surely this can't be the case. This is what Dwad pointed out in his post but it just seems so completely bananas to me that I keep thinking I must have this wrong.

My feelings after spending way too much time trying to resolve this, is that the Readycloud Desktop app just isn't there yet and should not be out of beta. For now, I should dump it and find another pc of software until netgear get it working right? I don't want this to be the outcome because it means getting more software, starting again and a whole bunload more of wasted time .. but without any workable solutions or useful user documentation that explains the desktop client sync / backup world clearly then I'm unsure of any other choices. I'm flat out at work and don't have time for this - readycloud was meant to save me time .

I am ALL ears for any sensible solutions. Please. Anyone.

StephenB · ‎2015-09-03

@ranc wrote:

...My feelings after spending way too much time trying to resolve this, is that the Readycloud Desktop app just isn't there yet and should not be out of beta. For now, I should dump it and find another pc of software until netgear get it working right? ...

Regrettably that's what I'd suggest. Netgear still seems rather confused over what users need/expect from ReadyCloud. I keep an eye on it, but so far I haven't seen the features or performance I'd need. And it still hijacks 5.x.x.x IP addresses.

For PC backup I use Acronis TrueImage (but not their new subscription cloud service) with the NAS as the target. There are other choices, but its worked well for me for some years. If you are just backing up folders, you could use the built-in backup jobs, or put together a simple robocopy script on the PC.

For remote NAS access I am mostly using FileZilla with ftps. Though I am in the process of switching to OpenVPN. That gives me secure access to the entire home network, including the NAS. ReadyCloud allows more control over access for outside users, but that's not a feature I need.

I don't really need sync, so I haven't worried about it. Maybe after I finish with OpenVPN I'll take another look at that.

ranc · ‎2015-09-03

Thanks Stephen - I appreciate you getting back to me, even if it wasn't the answer I was hoping for! I'm a little confused that you're a moderator (netgear employee?) yet able to be so candid? It's great, but my mystery with this remains why such a company as massive and (in my prior experience), reliable as Netgear can have dropped such a major ball here. Still feel like I'm missing a major point.

Anyway, that's an aside.

So in relation to my original post, backup is fine and I'll just rewrite the scripts with what I'm using at the moment and point it to the NAS. My video / music collection etc I'll figure out something with - it's not that high priority.

BUT it's the sync that's so important for me for my work stuff. A ton of documents - mostly just word / xls / huge numbers of pdf's that I update regularly throughout the day on both devices. So I need sync software sitting in the middle to sort that out for me.

I've had a look around but most of it is for cloud storage.

I'm currently looking at syncback and if anyone has and reasons to/not to or other suggestions I'd love to hear.

Thanks again Stephen.

Ros

I've got OD4B but

StephenB · ‎2015-09-03

@ranc wrote:
I'm a little confused that you're a moderator (netgear employee?) yet able to be so candid?

I was asked to be a mod a while ago, but have never worked for Netgear. The Netgear employees all have that "N" logo marking their posts. I've always called things as I see them (trying to be fair but also honest), and Netgear has never given me grief about it.

The ReadyNAS forums have always been quite open, and that has carried over to the new community forums. I think that's to Netgear's credit (and their policy here has been beneficial to both Netgear and its customers).