Experience with SkyHub Cloud Storage?

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Has anyone had any experience with SkyHub Cloud Storage? They are offering unlimited lifetime storage for $89.99 through various deal outlets (WinDeals included). I’ve poked around the web but I can’t seem to find any recent reviews by any trusted sources. So what do you say, fellow Loungers? Is it too good to be true! TIA

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According to Register.com’s Whois, the domain name skyhubcloud.com was only created a bit over 6 months ago (February 7th).

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For that money you can get a 2TB external disk, my preferred backup solution.

cheers, Paul

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I agree. I use these: Western Digital My Passport Ultra 2 TB Portable Hard Drive – $89. They work great, they’re fast and they fit in my back pocket.

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I agree. I use these: Western Digital My Passport Ultra 2 TB Portable Hard Drive – $89. They work great, they’re fast and they fit in my back pocket.

I have two similar drives. Keep one at home and one in the office, use Acronis Backup software and swap the drives every week or two. That way both drives have both home and office backup information which is no older than the last ‘switch’.

Not that I don’t trust the “Cloud”, I’m just unsure of where my data goes on “Sunny” days.

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Right? And, for most broadband users here in the US, the upload speed, (from your computer to the server in the cloud), is significantly s-l-o-w-e-r than the download speed. Backups can take days, weeks and beyond.

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I signed up with them for the $90 unlimited storage for life deal through Windows Secrets. (This is in addition to backing up to an external drive and taking it offsite every two months; call me paranoid.) I figured that it would be worth $90 to give it a try.

So far, I have only used them for a couple of weeks, and haven’t tried to restore anything. Here is what I have found:
– The upload took about 3-4 days, limited by my ISP’s 6-10 Mbps upload speed. I let it upload around the clock, and it eventually finished. It did not interfere with my other use, whether I used the “smart” or “turbo” upload setting.
– I can’t find the promised Android app, and I suspect it doesn’t exist (yet).
– SkyHub’s promo material promised that you could encrypt data before it leaves your computer, with a password you select (and presumably they don’t know). I haven’t found that feature yet either, although you can select SSL connections.
– For the price, you can backup 3 computers. Two users on the same computer count as two computers. I guess I could switch to running the upload from an admin account so that it has access to ALL users’ files so that it counts as one user.
– It is a backup service, not a file sharing service like Dropbox or Box.
– I can’t find any sort of help files, instructions, or information on functions like “smart/turbo bandwidth throttling”, but the interface is simple to figure out.
– I sent them about 600 MB of files, mostly photos. No problem. It shows that I have 16 Exabytes of storage left, so that’s effectively “unlimited”.

It is too soon to say anything about their reliability or longevity. They say they use Amazon for their storage. I haven’t tried contacting customer support, and their web site only has a few unhelpful FAQs; I wouldn’t count on much support.

Hopefully, their business and pricing model will allow them to stay in business and add features (like Android and encryption). It seems to be a service with a low level of features and a low cost, so I feel I am getting what I paid for. For a one-time cost about the same as yet another external disk (that I would have to find yet another off-site location to store and would have to retrieve periodically) I can store my files in the cloud far, far way. While also making it easier for the NSA and Chinese

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I signed up with them for the $90 unlimited storage for life deal through Windows Secrets. (This is in addition to backing up to an external drive and taking it offsite every two months; call me paranoid.) I figured that it would be worth $90 to give it a try.

600 MB in a few days seems extremely slow. Most of the providers I’ve tried I average about 20 – 35 GB / day. Still slow, but with a 10 Mbps connection it is as fast I really want, as faster would interfere with my normal usage of the internet. Always test your restore procedure with any backup. Have you done that? I almost wrote this company off when I saw you have to restore through the website. But apparently that works well with Backblaze, so it might work well with them… When I tested with Altdrive, it reported corrupt files and then aborted 16 GB into a 32 GB restore. Hence, altdrive was dropped from my list of cloud backup services.

The not encrypting before upload sounds like a show stopper. Also given this company has only existed for 6 months, and they are now selling lifetime subscriptions at $50, I would not expect them to remain in business for more than a year. There is no use in backup that will not exist when I need it. Still they could be doing this a as an alternative to venture capital. If it allows them enough money to take their business to the next level, then maybe they will exist a long time.

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Forewarned is forearmed with SkyHub Cloud: “Their big print giveth, and their little print taketh away! ”

SkyHub’s staff is unprofessional. They appear as though their company is trying to hide behind the conservative prestige of the Wall Street Journal
(a newspaper who’s comments on excellence incidentally, may never have been uttered or intended to be understood in connection with SkyHub Cloud’s storage service).

Whether or not the Wall Street Journal said this about them, SkyHub Cloud’s advertising is in fact a federal offense under the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125 (1) (B), which prohibits false advertising by use of false or misleading descriptions or representations of fact.

In August 2015, I signed up for their lifetime unlimited service which they were selling at $89.99. Under the terms of this advertisement my storage capacity was unlimited. In other words, I was not limited to 1TB storage space on their servers as they have done in other advertisements they have placed. in addition, under the terms of their advertisement, I had the option to store the content of up to 3 computers. Their advertisement specifically included thumb drives, however, at the bottom of the advertisement they stated that NAS and DAS drives were not included in the offer.

Within one month of backing up my desktop computer and having backed up less than 2 TB of data, I received a notice that my storage was full and I needed to buy more storage space. As I had not yet uploaded the content of the first of my three computers, based on the terms of the agreement I signed up for, I knew something was wrong with the error message. I contacted them about this and they replied there had been a “miss understanding” (sic), at the time I signed up, and that all external drives were NAS or DAS drives and that thumb drives were no different. In other words, within less than one month I had exceeded the maximum capacity for the lifetime unlimited subscription costing $89.99, which I had already paid. When I wrote to them a second time they did not respond. I wrote to them four additional times and they never replied. Why would they? They already had my money. They only ever replied to me once.

Fortunately, my story has a happy ending. Although I never heard from SkyHub Cloud ever again once they got my money, I was eventually able to get my money back from the promoters of the SkyHub deal, Stack Social, who are partnered with the website called BitsDujour.

Hope this helps.

ecdaniel

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Why would they? They already had my money.

They also had your data.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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They also had your data.

You are right. They still have my data. This is where it becomes an uphill battle. It is difficult if not impossible to determine from where I am whether the level of encryption they claim through their advertising to have, is sufficient to prevent anyone including them from accessing my data of their own volition. Additionally, it is impossible for me to obtain any assurances from them, as they do not respond to my emails, and I have not been able to obtain their postal mailing address.

I say I have a “happy ending” because, in my case, there is no personal information contained in the files. The files consist of my music collections, movies and picture collections that are contained on a hard drive. If at some point I am able to get in touch with them, I would like to remove the information from their servers. But I won’t be holding my breath for this particular outcome.

However, I am remaining vigilant. If I see future advertisements of SkyHub Cloud making these same claims, I just may contact the Internet Security Bureau of our state attorney general’s office and see if that office can determine SkHub’s postal mailing address, or if they can advise me what breach of privacy actions may be available to me.

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I would always say Encrypt FIRST then send to online backup, Even if you think the data is uninteresting to anyone.:cheers:

PS
Consider also a safe deposit box in a bank not in a flood zone. This is also useful for a bunch of other stuff:Wills, deeds,titles, insurance papers…..
Yeah you can’t access it from another country.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Forewarned is forearmed with SkyHub Cloud: “Their big print giveth, and their little print taketh away! ”

SkyHub’s staff is unprofessional. They appear as though their company is trying to hide behind the conservative prestige of the Wall Street Journal
(a newspaper who’s comments on excellence incidentally, may never have been uttered or intended to be understood in connection with SkyHub Cloud’s storage service).

Whether or not the Wall Street Journal said this about them, SkyHub Cloud’s advertising is in fact a federal offense under the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125 (1) (B), which prohibits false advertising by use of false or misleading descriptions or representations of fact.

In August 2015, I signed up for their lifetime unlimited service which they were selling at $89.99. Under the terms of this advertisement my storage capacity was unlimited. In other words, I was not limited to 1TB storage space on their servers as they have done in other advertisements they have placed. in addition, under the terms of their advertisement, I had the option to store the content of up to 3 computers. Their advertisement specifically included thumb drives, however, at the bottom of the advertisement they stated that NAS and DAS drives were not included in the offer.

Within one month of backing up my desktop computer and having backed up less than 2 TB of data, I received a notice that my storage was full and I needed to buy more storage space. As I had not yet uploaded the content of the first of my three computers, based on the terms of the agreement I signed up for, I knew something was wrong with the error message. I contacted them about this and they replied there had been a “miss understanding” (sic), at the time I signed up, and that all external drives were NAS or DAS drives and that thumb drives were no different. In other words, within less than one month I had exceeded the maximum capacity for the lifetime unlimited subscription costing $89.99, which I had already paid. When I wrote to them a second time they did not respond. I wrote to them four additional times and they never replied. Why would they? They already had my money. They only ever replied to me once.

Fortunately, my story has a happy ending. Although I never heard from SkyHub Cloud ever again once they got my money, I was eventually able to get my money back from the promoters of the SkyHub deal, Stack Social, who are partnered with the website called BitsDujour.

Hope this helps.

ecdaniel

Thanks for the excellent, detailed review!

This is the deal that made me google for reviews:
https://deals.cultofmac.com/sales/skyhub-cloud-2tb-backup-lifetime-subscription-2?utm_source=cultofmac.com&utm_medium=dealfeed-sidebar&utm_campaign=skyhub-cloud-2tb-backup-lifetime-subscription-2
$40/lifetime for 2TB unlimited, including NAS and DAS drives.

Note: deals.cultofmac.com is an alias for partners.stacksocial.com.

Given the horrible support, criminally misleading advertising, and trail of broken promises, I’m going to pass. I also notice that the compatibility wording has changed to now imply, rather than clearly indicate, that there are iOS and Android apps. Interestingly, there IS now an iOS app … and it’s from one “John Smith” which I conclude is another name for Zoolz, as ‘his’ other apps are PetaBackup and icubby backup, all with 0 reviews.

Good of Stack Social to refund you, but bad of them to keep doing business with the same folks.

Also, I strongly suspect the Wall Street Journal quote is fabricated. Google can’t find it. The phrase “Online file storage excellence” doesn’t seem to be on the WSJ site at all. Even using the WSJ’s own search function, I get 0 hits for Zools or SkyHub.

I’ve messaged StackSocial asking about the quote.

The juicytools link changed; this now works: https://juicytool.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-subscription-review/

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Like anything else, doing your due diligance beforehand saves a lot of grief down the road.

PC Magazine did a side-by-side comparison on cloud storage services in March…

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2413556,00.asp

ZDNet has an article from May on selecting a service…

http://www.zdnet.com/article/whats-the-best-cloud-storage-for-you/

I like the idea of cloud storage for one reason…the data is offsite in case of a disaster.

If a fire or flood took out your location, it wouldn’t matter how many external hard drives you backed up with. If they are onsite, they’re probably trashed.

Theft (as in old fashion breaking and entering) is also a possibility. A fireproof cabinet wouldn’t help there.

Thank you for the comparisons and rankings. I will have a closer look at Code42 CrashPlan.

You are right, of course, due diligence can prevent headaches from occurring later on.
In the past I have relied on a website to do the due diligence for me, as I myself am not a techy.
On this occasion they dropped the ball.

I like the idea of cloud storage because I can travel anywhere without carrying the actual physical
hard drives on my person as extra baggage. Besides Code42 CrashPlan, I do not see any other cloud services that are particularly
attractive to me at this time. Given the speed of technological advancement these days, I may hold out until I find a lifetime
unlimited cloud service that is certified reliable and that fits the bill.

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Thank you for the comparisons and rankings. I will have a closer look at Code42 CrashPlan.

You are right, of course, due diligence can prevent headaches from occurring later on.
As I myself am not a techy, in the past I have relied on a website to do the due diligence for me.
On this occasion they dropped the ball.

I like the idea of cloud storage because I can travel anywhere without carrying the actual physical
hard drives on my person as extra baggage. Besides Code42 CrashPlan, I do not see any other cloud services that are particularly
attractive to me at this time. Given the speed of technological advancement these days, I may hold out until I find a lifetime
unlimited cloud service that is certified reliable and that genuinely fits the bill.

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This page will tell you all you really need to know about SkyHub: http://www.juicytools.com/reviews/skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-subscription-review/
Short version: they are reselling the backup service offered by zoolz.com

SkyHub’s normal pricing quoted on their website is per year and within the same ballpark as Zoolz own pricing. But the special deals being offered by Android Authority at $89.99 and Macappware.com at $49.99 are lifetime deals, making them very much cheaper as it’s only a one-off payment rather than an annual subscription.

I had an online chat with Zoolz asking them what would happen to my backed-up data, and to my backup plan, should one of their resellers go out of business – specifically, would it still be available for restoration (and further backup) directly through Zoolz in a situation like that?

The answer was not encouraging: “You will probably need to confirm it through them and know the policy that will of course inform you in order for you to retrieve your data … we provide our customers [by which I think she meant ‘resellers’] with the software excluding support of any type … it will be mainly through the provider you choose to purchase from … I would recommend you to copy your inquiry to SkyHub to receive an answer.”

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This page will tell you all you really need to know about SkyHub: https://juicytool.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-subscription-review/
Short version: they are reselling the backup service offered by zoolz.com

SkyHub’s normal pricing quoted on their website is per year and within the same ballpark as Zoolz own pricing. But the special deals being offered by Android Authority at $89.99 and Macappware.com at $49.99 are lifetime deals, making them very much cheaper as it’s only a one-off payment rather than an annual subscription.

EDIT: I found that despite SkyHub’s website advertising $89.99 per year for the Family Plan, after you click the purchase link it then says “$69.99 One Time Payment” – with no mention of this being a special offer – quite confusing!

I had an online chat with Zoolz asking them what would happen to my backed-up data, and to my backup plan, should one of their resellers go out of business – specifically, would it still be available for restoration (and further backup) directly through Zoolz in a situation like that?

The answer was not encouraging: “You will probably need to confirm it through them and know the policy that will of course inform you in order for you to retrieve your data … we provide our customers [by which I think she meant ‘resellers’] with the software excluding support of any type … it will be mainly through the provider you choose to purchase from … I would recommend you to copy your inquiry to SkyHub to receive an answer.”

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You are mistaken. SkyHub Cloud offered unlimited lifetime backup in August 2015. Here is the link.

https://bitsdujour.stacksocial.com/sales/skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-plan?utm_source=bitsdujour&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=2015-08-13_bitsdujour_skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-plan&utm_content=skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-plan

license terms. “Length of access: Lifetime”

ecdaniel

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Hello Graham Smith. Replying specifically to your inquiry, I am including the link to the advertisement for Skyhub Cloud’s Unlimited Lifetime Backup for which I signed up.

https://bitsdujour.stacksocial.com/sales/skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-plan?utm_source=bitsdujour&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=2015-08-13_bitsdujour_skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-plan&utm_content=skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-plan

Consistent with the advertising agreement, I uploaded over 1TB of data from my video and music collection without any problem. The following day, I attempted to continue this process and as I tried to upload additional data I immediately received the attached system-generated error message, . SkyHub recognizes when a device is attached to the computer, and determines the upload permissions. You will note the advertisement says ‘back up all your devices, discs and thumb drives.” However, SkyHub would not give permission to my thumb drive, and when I tried to add the content directly to the computer desktop or to the hard drive in order for SkyHub to upload directly from the computer, I received the “Storage Full Buy More Storage” message.

By some strange process SkyHub took the content I uploaded from one computer and distributed it among three different computers that SkyHub created for my account. In other words, SkyHub split up the data into three separate files, when on my computer the same data appears on only the one computer. I have tried to ask them about these things, but as I have said, they did not return my emails.

So to answer your question, they limited me by rejecting any additional data backups and sending out a system generated error message that my storage capacity was full and that I needed to buy more storage. You are right, it is Bs, but if they don’t respond their isn’t much you can do.

ecdaniel

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Ralph:

Here is the link to the advertisement. https://bitsdujour.stacksocial.com/sales/skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-plan?utm_source=bitsdujour&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=2015-08-13_bitsdujour_skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-plan&utm_content=skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-plan

It says nothing about a Family Plan, nor does it say anything about one terabyte or one year.

ecdaniel

QUOTE=Ralph_010;1029755]This page will tell you all you really need to know about SkyHub: http://www.juicytools.com/reviews/skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-subscription-review/
Short version: they are reselling the backup service offered by zoolz.com

SkyHub’s normal pricing quoted on their website is per year and within the same ballpark as Zoolz own pricing. But the special deals being offered by Android Authority at $89.99 and Macappware.com at $49.99 are lifetime deals, making them very much cheaper as it’s only a one-off payment rather than an annual subscription.

EDIT: I found that despite SkyHub’s website advertising $89.99 per year for the Family Plan, after you click the purchase link it then says “$69.99 One Time Payment” – with no mention of this being a special offer – quite confusing!

I had an online chat with Zoolz asking them what would happen to my backed-up data, and to my backup plan, should one of their resellers go out of business – specifically, would it still be available for restoration (and further backup) directly through Zoolz in a situation like that?

The answer was not encouraging: “You will probably need to confirm it through them and know the policy that will of course inform you in order for you to retrieve your data … we provide our customers [by which I think she meant ‘resellers’] with the software excluding support of any type … it will be mainly through the provider you choose to purchase from … I would recommend you to copy your inquiry to SkyHub to receive an answer.”[/QUOTE]

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I was trying to edit my original post to update the link, and somehow managed to delete the post instead… so anyway, I’ll reply here instead of reposting the entire thing – here is the updated link for the blog that tells you all about SkyHub https://juicytool.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-subscription-review/

Ralph:

Here is the link to the advertisement. https://bitsdujour.stacksocial.com/sales/skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-plan?utm_source=bitsdujour&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=2015-08-13_bitsdujour_skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-plan&utm_content=skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-plan

It says nothing about a Family Plan, nor does it say anything about one terabyte or one year.

ecdaniel

QUOTE=Ralph_010;1029755]This page will tell you all you really need to know about SkyHub: http://www.juicytools.com/reviews/skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-subscription-review/
Short version: they are reselling the backup service offered by zoolz.com

SkyHub’s normal pricing quoted on their website is per year and within the same ballpark as Zoolz own pricing. But the special deals being offered by Android Authority at $89.99 and Macappware.com at $49.99 are lifetime deals, making them very much cheaper as it’s only a one-off payment rather than an annual subscription.

EDIT: I found that despite SkyHub’s website advertising $89.99 per year for the Family Plan, after you click the purchase link it then says “$69.99 One Time Payment” – with no mention of this being a special offer – quite confusing!

I had an online chat with Zoolz asking them what would happen to my backed-up data, and to my backup plan, should one of their resellers go out of business – specifically, would it still be available for restoration (and further backup) directly through Zoolz in a situation like that?

The answer was not encouraging: “You will probably need to confirm it through them and know the policy that will of course inform you in order for you to retrieve your data … we provide our customers [by which I think she meant ‘resellers’] with the software excluding support of any type … it will be mainly through the provider you choose to purchase from … I would recommend you to copy your inquiry to SkyHub to receive an answer.”

[/QUOTE]

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This page will tell you all you really need to know about SkyHub: http://www.juicytools.com/reviews/skyhub-cloud-unlimited-backup-lifetime-subscription-review/
Short version: they are reselling the backup service offered by zoolz.com

I cannot 100% verify they are a re-seller of Zoolz but I can verify that I did sign up for both a Zoolz account and a SkyHub account on the same day. I was testing different services as an alternative to one which was quitting business due to being acquired. I activated the SkyHub account first and began backuping up a small set of data, all is good… I activated the Zoolz account next. In all of my testing, I am using the same email address (username) but a different randomly generated strong password. I performed the same small backup test and all was well still. I might add that the two accounts were established on two different computers in two different US states with no direct communication link between them. This was two completely separate accounts for two separate purposes only using a similar email address for the username. After I was finished with the test backups on both machines, I tried to log into the backup service webcenters from my local computer and I found that neither account would let me logon. I was able to use the forgot password option on the Zoolz site and I was able to resolve that issue but when I tried using the forgot password on the SkyHub site, I received an email from Zoolz. I changed the email address on the Zoolz account and regenerated a new password and all was still working fine on that side. I now cannot access the SkyHub account nor does the Forgot Password option work at all. Both tell me the Email account is no recognized.

My take on this is that SkyHub is indeed reselling Zoolz services. When I signed up for SkyHub, there was a notice of unique email addresses which I dismissed because I had never used this service before so it should not have mattered. I do not recall the same notice on the Zoolz service. The second account creation basically hijacked the first account but rendered both inoperable. Because I was still logged into the Zoolz account, I was able to change the password and then the username to regain control but the SkyHub account is still inaccessible. I have at this time sent a contact message to their helpdesk and waiting for assistance. I fear this will not end well for me but this is why I was testing multiple services in the first place.

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IMHO if it were me I would pick a company whose sole business model was NOT cloud storage. You want someone with a name brand to protect and$$ to do that.

:cheers:

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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ecdaniel,

One thing in particular you said that seems odd. How could they limit you to 2TB if you were allowed to backup the contents of three PC’S? Granted, they may disallow external drives, but who’s to say how much capacity you have on three PC’s? Even if the PC’s only had one 1TB drive each, that’s 3TB right there. And 2TB drives aren’t rare so that would be 6TB between 3TB.

Now, I realize that they were probably just BSing to justify cutting you off at 2TB but it sounds as if they couldn’t possibly limit you to 2TB under their terms.

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ecdaniel, It strikes me that since SkyHub are only reselling someone else’s product, that this would be the case even if you went directly with Zoolz. So perhaps you could have an online chat directly with Zoolz like I did. Tell them that you are unhappy with one of their resellers, I’m sure they would appreciate hearing about this, as indirectly it gives Zoolz a bad name as well. Hopefully they can also help you out with your technical issue, which I doubt SkyHub would be able to, since all they are is essentially a billing facility – they have no actual support staff of their own.

EDIT: Although I forgot, since you’ve already got your $$ back, I guess it doesn’t really matter anyway!

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They are now offering a special through SitePoint Shop for Lifetime 1TB backup for $49.99. I’m thinking with that pricing model ‘their lifetime’ may be very short. I think I’ll pass on the offer.

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In the end I went with CrashPlan, unlimited backup for one user, single PC, $5/month when paid annually. And if you decide to cancel they DO give you a pro-rata refund. Now that’s a good offer

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Hey Ralph: First, I should give an update on my experience with SkyHub. I discovered I was able to delete all my data from their servers easily enough. So I was relieved to have been able to do this. Their subsequent advertising makes a lifetime claim only to the extent of 1TB. As long as their advertising stops overreaching that’s fine.

Secondly, I note that Zoolz started to advertise with BitsDuJour.com, and you are right, their claims are essentially the same as SkyHub’s except they are very up front about the fact that 1TB and not more, is what is being offered. Here is a link to the ad.
http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/zoolz-home-1-tb

I came across this article evaluating the sort of cloud storage I am looking for. Here is the link.

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-online-backup-service/

For the time being I have gone with BackBlaze for the $95 for a two year subscription pricing. The upload is very easy and the safety of the data is reviewed as very reliable on this service. My only concern is that there my be a learning curve when it comes to restoring the data. If the learning curve is too steep then I will go with Crashplan, as you have done. Happy holidays.

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I’ve been looking into getting set up with cloud storage / online backup.

To me, SkyHub seems really, really new and unproven…. which makes me really, really nervous about my privacy.

There website (https://skyhubcloud.com/) looks nice…but there really isn’t a whole ton of info on it.

Can anyone else provide a “thumbs up” for their services besides those who just got a good deal?

I’ve been comparing some of the other popular cloud storage services here: http://www.cloudstorageboss.com/reviews/

It kinda seems like “justcloud” is the way to go. I’ve seen them recommended a few other places too. Anyone have experience with them?

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I know this is an older thread but thought I’d add my ‘two bobs’ worth.

I bought the lifetime membership for about $49 about a year ago now. Again, saw the offer through Windows Secrets and thought I’d give it a go. First problem I had was finding out that the offer only included my PC, not network drives. Can’t remember to be honest if this was not mentioned in the deal, only mentioned in the fine print or only made obvious after I’d paid the cash but I’m happy to take the blame there.

The Skyhub dashboard version I was provided was specifically set up to disallow attaching network drives. I got around this by setting up symlinks and that all worked fine. Backed up about 18Gb and used the option to save locally as well, just to speed up restores if required. Things seemed to tick along fine in the background and never needed to call on the backup. Vaguely remember updating the dashboard at some stage but everything seemed to keep working so didn’t really check it out in any detail. I’m a bit paranoid about losing files and also backup locally using Areca (and make image files with Image for Windows) and after a few issues trying out Win10 and reverting to Win7 on a BootItBM multi-boot/multi-partitioned drive, I needed to restore some files. I used my Areca backups and all went fine but I thought I’d take the opportunity to just see how SkyHub was ticking along.

Well, at some point during a Skyhub Dashboard update the interface appears to have changed (if I’m using it correctly … EDIT; I wasn’t, see Edit 2 below). They seem to have tightened the lifetime version down even more so you can’t actually specify which directory to backup. The application generically backs up stuff in ‘My Documents’ and ‘My Pictures’. If you store your images in ‘My Pictures’ and that is on a NAS or USB drive, it seems to ignore it. However, the symlink I set up in the earlier version for ‘My Documents’ that points to a NAS drive seems to still work. I recently moved my images to a folder on a 1Tb USB drive and tried to set up a symlink on C: called ‘My Pictures’ but Skyhub ignores that. Weird.

As for security, there doesn’t appear to be any encryption at all (wrong, see Edit 1 below). My cloud encrypted stuff I put on SpiderOak. I only backup a couple of Mb so I get away with the free membership (2Gb) but you can get 1Tb for $129/yr.

Edit 1: Just found the setting for 256AES encryption. It’s actually changed in the settings page of your Skyhub website login. Your files are encrypted before they are sent.

Edit 2: Okay, I’m an idiot. Just found out how you can use Dashboard to select individual drives. This is what happens when you only look at an application occasionally… you forget how it works. If you click the Skyhub icon in your taskbar, one option you will be given is ‘Turbo’ or ‘Smart’ mode. In Smart mode you get a standard folder/file selection tree to customize your picking.

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