Livedrive at a Glance
Our Rating
2 / 5 stars
[xrr rating=2/5]
Price:
- Backup: $7.95/Month, $79.95/Year
- Briefcase: $15.95/Month, $159.95/Year
- Pro Suite: $24.95/Month, $249.95/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. (Briefcase and Pro Suite)
- Backup offered as well as storage.
- iOS and Android Apps for mobile access to files.
Cons:
- Defaults to not encrypting connections between your computer and Livedrive.
- Allows Non SSL (http) Web Access.
- Allows insecure FTP Access.
- Forum comments indicate poor customer support.
- Music browsing and mobile apps don’t seem to work well.
- Can only download individual files from web not folders.
- Have to install separate Restore client to restore files.
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Full Livedrive Review
Livedrive gets high praise from online publications like PC Pro and Expert Reviews. Both publications give Livedrive high ratings and to be quite honest made me wonder if the software they used and tested was a different service than the one I was using. I have even been accused by some Livedrive resellers of not giving Livedrive a fair review so I decided to revisit Livedrive and see if they have improved since the original review was published in August 2010.Installation
Installation of Livedrive is pretty straight forward. I choose the straight Backup version to test and after providing an email address and password and then entering personal details like address etc. After providing all of the that information you finally get to a payment screen where you have to choose what plan you want. If you are just after the free trial you need to look a little bit to find the option for the free trial. Be careful they have an option to enter your credit card details and you could easily sign up for the full version of the service and not the trial simply by entering your credit card information. This is all done on purpose of course to try and get you to sign up and pay for the service instead of using the trial.
Once you are able to download the software to your computer installation goes fairly smooth. Double click the installation file you downloaded and follow the wizard. Once the software is installed you can enter your login details that you provided on the Livedrive website. After the application logs you in you can select the folders you want to backup. It gives you the usual default folders like your Desktop and My Documents on Windows. You can also select other folders from your computer. This will then complete the Livedrive setup and once you click the finish button will launch the application on your taskbar.
Backing Up
With Livedrive installed you can easily access information about your backup from taskbar icon near the clock. Selecting status will give you a basic screen letting you know what the basic status of your backup is.
The biggest flaw in the backup settings is the fact that connections between your computer and Livedrive servers are not encrypted by default. You need to go into the backup settings and check the little box that says “Encrypt all file transfers between Livedrive and your PC”. Without turning on this encryption settings all connections appear to be done unencrypted possibly exposing your data to anyone that knows how to listen in.
Restoring
There are two ways to restore your files from Livedrive through the web interface and through the Restore Client software. Unfortunately both offer problems and neither is as easy as it could be. The web interface allows you to browse your backed up files and then download them to your computer but you can only download individual files not folders. That is fine if you have only one or two files to restore you can download them but if you need to select an entire folder you will need to use the Restore Client.
The Restore Client is an additional piece of software from Livedrive that you need to download and install and they don’t make it very easy to find. After some searching I finally found it under Accounts -> Software Download. It would be better if they made it available on the home page after you login so you don’t have to go hunting for it. If you did not know you needed the Restore Client you could get frustrated. Apparently the Mac version has the Restore Client built in with the Livedrive software so there is only one thing to install. Why the Windows version does not do this I don’t know but it is another frustrating thing about Livedrive.
Once I was able to install the Restore Client I was able to select multiple files for restore. You can choose to restore to a new location or to the original location. Selected folders and files then quickly downloaded to my test computer. I did not have any problems with the restore files and they appeared to be the same as the original files but I did not do an in depth analysis of each file simply made sure I had the same number of files as the original folder.
Other Features
Web Access
Livedrive offers web access through your web browser. Simply log in to the Livedrive web address that they give you and you can browse the files you have uploaded to the Livedrive servers. As noted in the restore section you cannot download folders but only files. On the surface this is all fine, but behind the scenes this is not as secure as it could be. The default for web access is over an unencrypted http connection not a https SSL connection. The login form gives you the choice to select SSL but it is not the default. This is a huge mistake as far as I am concerned, they should only offer SSL encrypted connections.
I ran a little test to see how much you can actually see of the data I was viewing. On my test machine I was browsing the backed up data, on another machine on the network I was running a packet sniffer to watch what was being sent. I was able to clearly see the text file I had backed up via Livedrive and all of its contents. Seems pretty innocent for just a plain text file but what if that was your financial documents? Pretty easy to discover. Not only that but the cookie being transferred in plain text contained my username and a hash of my password. Copying the hash of the password and running it through any number of decrypting hash websites I was able to easily discover what the password was. If you were on your laptop using a free wifi hotspot someone could easily packet sniff your Livedrive account credentials and use that information to login to your Livedrive account and steal all of your data.
If you use Livedrive you need to make sure you never login to their web interface without SSL. This is one of several security problems with the service.
Stream Music and Movies
This is offered as a feature via the web and mobile apps. If it is one of the reasons you are considering Livedrive, don’t bother. First off after I uploaded some music to my test Livedrive account it would not show in the Music browser in the web access or in the mobile app. After some looking through the Livedrive forums it appears that it can take up to a month for music to be processed and show in the music browser. The files are there but they just do not show. Somehow I was able to make the files show up in the music browser after I did a test restore of a music folder, then they magically appeared. I then tested playing a few of the MP3’s and was surprised at how poorly they played. I have a decent Internet connection and can easily stream music and video in high quality from other sites, but from Livedrive the music constantly kept pausing to buffer and was basically not worth listening too.
The video streaming worked a little better because you don’t have to wait for the file to be discovered by a video browser you can just select it to play. They quality however is poor. You would not want to sit and watch it on your computer or tablet. In the end this was more of another frustration than a feature.
Mobile Access
I tried the Android version of the Livedrive mobile app and it worked all right. I was able to access files and download them onto my mobile or tablet. I could not get any kind of music playback to work. Considering the added features of other companies mobile apps offering to backup your files from your mobile the Livedrive app leaves a lot to be desired.
Security
Livedrive does not seem to take security very seriously and it shows. The default settings to not encrypt information between your computer and Livedrive, not making SSL default on the web app and the fact that they hold both the keys on their server for your encrypted files makes Livedrive a service you should think twice about using to store your important files with.
Encryption is not something you should have to turn on, it should be on by default possibly not even offering the option to turn it off.
Customer Support
The support forum is full of comments by users and slow responses by Livedrive staff. Granted the forum is not the best way to get quick support, but when it takes over a month for a reply on the official Livedrive forum that is a long time to wait. I did create a support ticket on Livedrive to close my test account and got a fairly quick response with a typical how can we help you if you are experiencing any issues.
Overall
Livedrive has a history coming from a web hosting background with the owner, Andrew Michael, previously owning Fasthosts. It is that previous history that shows through in Livedrive with a lack of concern for security and poor customer service. In many ways Livedrive feels like a web host that has simply started offering online backup as a way to make some extra money. Features that look cool and could be great do not quite work as expected or not at all and customer support seems to be lacking.
There are a number of Livedrive resellers that also offer Livedrive services. The majority of them state that they over come some of the problems with Livedrive by offering better support. While they may be able to offer some better support the deficiencies in the Livedrive software in security and use is not something a reseller can over come.
Overall Livedrive does not seem to have improved much since my last review and in fact seems to have fallen further behind compared to their competitors. If you are looking for online backup I would honestly suggest you look at another service.
Review Date: October 30, 2012
Original Review: August 13, 2010
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Comments
29 responses to “Livedrive Review”
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.
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.
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!
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 [email protected], 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.
and for your friends ? lol
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.
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!
Sorry but this service is a ****… too many errors… ejected from my tests!
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.
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.
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