Livedrive Review

Livedrive is a decent backup tool that also offers some storage space. However, the service is extremely expensive and we have had countless reports of payment and support issues. While we like it well enough in our full review, we hesitate to recommend it.

By Branko VlajinWriter
— Last Updated:
2019-02-14T15:51:27+00:00
(Editor)
Starts from $ 800 per month for Unlimited GB

Livedrive is a backup service that was launched in 2008 and bought by J2 Global in 2014. It targets small businesses and home users. Besides offering backup, it also has storage space, but nothing that competes with the best cloud storage services. At the same time, it doesn’t rank well among the best online backup providers, either, thanks to some odd functionality and pricey plans.

Livedrive is located in the UK, which makes it fit for our best cloud storage services for Europe. We included it as a cloud storage service there, but if you’re confused about the difference between cloud storage and backup, read our explanation. For more choices that are not based in the U.S., read our cloud storage outside the U.S. piece.

Livedrive has interesting features in addition to plain, old backup, giving you unlimited space to backup your files, good ease of use and compliance with privacy laws in Europe. Still, it’s not cheap and omits key features, such as zero-knowledge encryption and two-factor authentication. Also, according to reports from readers, issues abound with payment and support; scroll to our comment section at the bottom for more on that.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths:

  • Sync storage space
  • Unlimited backup
  • Good ease of use

Weaknesses:

  • Expensive
  • No two-factor authentication
  • No block-level backup
  • No backup by file type

Alternatives for Livedrive

  1. 1
    • Continuous Backup
    • Incremental Backup
    • External Drive Backup
    • NAS Backup
    • Unlimited Backup
    • Versioning
    • Private Encryption
    2000-Unlimited GB
    $ 800
  2. 2
    • Continuous Backup
    • Incremental Backup
    • External Drive Backup
    • NAS Backup
    • Unlimited Backup
    • Versioning
    • Private Encryption
    Unlimited GB
    $ 458
    Save 24 %
  3. 3
    • Continuous Backup
    • Incremental Backup
    • External Drive Backup
    • NAS Backup
    • Unlimited Backup
    • Versioning
    • Private Encryption
    5 GB - 12.5 TB
    $ 579
  4. 4
    10-2000 GB
    $ 399
    Save 20 %
  5. 5
    5 GB - 10 TB
    $ 500

Features

80 % – Good

As a backup solution, Livedrive is fairly average and we’ll go into more detail later in this review. However, what sets Livedrive apart from most of its competitors, is it’s storage feature, called Briefcase.

Livedrive Briefcase enables you to access and edit your files from a variety of devices and online, share large files with family and friends and free space on your computer.

livedrive-briefcase

Briefcase works like an external drive on your computer, so it’s similar to the common model of sync most cloud storage services use.

Files that you place there will automatically be synced online. You can then access and edit them by using the desktop app, mobile app or web client.

If you need to save space on your hard drive, you can choose to store files online only. You will have to download them to open them, though. See here for the guide on how to do that.

Like cloud storage services, Briefcase allows you to share files with your family and friends and free space on your computer by storing files in the cloud. You can play your music files from the browser, too.

livedrive-web-gallery

There’s a gallery feature in the web app that lets you preview photos you’ve backed up, but it didn’t show photos for us after we uploaded several. Previewing photos manually worked fine, though.

livedrive-photo-preview

For the details about advanced backup features, including hybrid backup, read our BigMIND Home review.

Pricing

69 % – Decent

Backup
  • Unlimited backup space for 1 PC. Details
  • Unlimited GB Storage
1-year plan $ 8.00/ month
$96.00 billed every year
Briefcase
  • 2TB cloud storage for sync across multiple devices. Details
  • 2000 GB Storage
1-year plan $ 16.00/ month
$192.00 billed every year
Pro Suite
  • 5TB cloud storage for sync across multiple devices, plus unlimited backup storage for a maximum of 5 PCs. Allows FTP, SFTP and WebDAV access. Details
  • Unlimited GB Storage
1-year plan $ 25.00/ month
$300.00 billed every year

Backup is $8 per month and provides unlimited backup for one computer, as well as enabling you to access your files through the mobile app. You will have to purchase the network-attached storage backup feature separately for $6.33 per month, though. That said, it has file restoration, encryption and versioning, which keeps the last 30 versions of your files.

Briefcase costs $16 per month and gives you 2TB of sync storage space. It works on desktop and mobile devices and lets you share files from your storage space. It also keeps the last 30 versions of your files so you can restore a previous version if you changed something you didn’t want to. Plus, you can backup photos from your phone.

It’s not cheap: you can get 2TB of cloud storage space for far less from Sync.com or pCloud. If you’re interested, read our Sync.com review and pCloud review to learn more.

Pro Suite combines the previous two plans, allowing you to backup your devices and use cloud storage space for $25 per month. It gives you 5TB of sync storage space and unlimited backup space.

You can backup five computers, as well as tablets and mobile devices. FTP, SFTP and WebDAV are available with the plan, too. If you’re unfamiliar with those methods of access, read our what is FTP and what is WebDAV articles.

While we like the idea of combining backup space and sync storage, the Pro Suite plan’s price is steep enough to rival the more expensive enterprise file sync and share solutions.

Pro Suite users get native NAS support for each network drive or NAS device they want to backup. They can start using it by going to “account settings” in the web portal and adding the folders on the drive to their backup selection. If you need strong NAS support, read our best online backup for NAS article.

Livedrive Trial

The service offers a free 14-day trial with all plans. Canceling is not simple, though, because it requires you to call the cancellation team in the UK, which can be expensive if you’re not from there.

There is an easier method in the terms of use. It’s a link that leads to a cancellation form, which you can fill out to cancel your account. We feel that’s a cheap move on Livedrive’s part because it makes it more difficult for users to cancel their free trial.

Ease of Use

78 % – Good

The desktop app lagged several times during our testing, mostly while adding or removing folders from backup. You have to do that because Livedrive requires you to choose specific folders to backup.

livedrive-control-center

You’ll access the control center for the app through the system tray icon. It’s simple to use, with the main menu at the top and the rest of the window showing you the content. The interface is drab, but clear, and it won’t confuse you.

livedrive-web

The web app shows the devices you’ve backed up, lets you download individual files, and gives access to your Briefcase if you have it. Plus, you can get in to your account, preview your backed up photos in a gallery or view support information.

It doesn’t have many features, so it won’t overwhelm you. You can navigate between them using the menu on the left while the features display next to it in a clear and attractive manner.

livedrive-mobile

The mobile app is available for iOS and Android. It’s fast and makes it easy to access your cloud backup. You can also see files shared with you and open your music files. Music playback is a nice feature that lets you create a playlist and browse music by artist, album, year or genre.

File Backup & Restoration

75 % – Good

Livedrive selects several folders by default for backup, including desktop, documents, pictures, music and videos.

livedrive-backup-select

It excludes some files, though, so consult the list on its website to see if they are important for you. You’ll have to manually select files you want to backup because Livedrive can’t backup by file type. If you’d need that feature and like simple user experience you can get it with Backblaze. Read our Backblaze review to learn more.

livedrive-scheduler

Once you define your backup, you can choose a number of hours between Livedrive’s scans for file changes or set a specific time for it to do so every day.

The restore feature works from the desktop app. To restore files, you need to choose a computer you’ve backed up, then select individual files or folders to restore. You can use the web app to download individual files, too.

Speed

75 % – Good

Initial backups usually take a long time, depending on how much data you have to protect. To see how Livedrive compares with others in the online backup field, we conducted upload and download tests using a 1GB zipped folder. We were on a WiFi connection out of Belgrade, Serbia, with an upload speed of 6 megabits per second and a download speed of 83 Mbps.

We struggled with testing Livedrive on our second attempt. The desktop client was stuck at “calculating” completion time and didn’t start uploading. That said, our subsequent attempts were more successful. It took about an hour, on average, to upload 1GB of data, which is much slower than the 24 minutes it should take in theory.

Downloading wasn’t slow, though, as it only took two minutes, which is close to the theoretical time it should take.

That said, upload and download speeds aren’t on Livedrive alone. They also depend on your internet service provider and how close you are to the servers in the UK.

If you find that uploading your backup takes too much bandwidth, you can throttle it by going to “settings,” clicking “advanced” and then “bandwidth.”

Security & Privacy Policy

82 % – Good

You can set Livedrive to ask for a password each time it starts. It’s useful if someone steals your device and tries to restore your files to it.

Livedrive has servers in secure data centers in the UK. The security page states that it has “three layers of physical data security.” The data centers employ 24/7 monitoring to detect and prevent intrusion. All are ISO 27001 certified, which is the standard for information security management systems.

Livedrive uses AES 256-bit encryption to scramble your files before uploading them, but it retains the decryption key, so it doesn’t qualify as zero-knowledge.

You can find services that do in our best zero-knowledge services piece. One of those, SpiderOak ONE, is a cloud backup service, as well. If you’re interested in zero-knowledge backup, read our SpiderOak ONE review for more about its security.

Zero-knowledge is significant if you’re concerned about your privacy. Section H of Livedrive’s privacy policy states that Livedrive can share your personal data with legal and regulatory authorities, external advisors and any necessary party for legal proceedings. Still, the service is compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation, which provides adequate protection for EU users.

Livedrive doesn’t offer two-factor authentication to protect your account if someone steals your password, so make sure to make a strong one.

Support

80 % – Good

livedrive-support

The support section consists of an FAQ and knowledgebase and a feature that shows service status.

The FAQ and knowledgebase are always available, though the search function could be faster when returning results. If you don’t find the answer to your question, you can submit a ticket to the support team. You can contact the support team Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time. During testing, we got a response in about an hour, which is good.

Support could be improved with the addition of online chat and telephone support.

The Verdict

Livedrive used to have separate applications, but now everything is integrated, allowing users to access what they need with ease. Its adherence to the GDPR is also a plus considering it used to have questionable clauses in its privacy policy. Because it’s not zero-knowledge, you should take care when choosing which files you want to backup, though.

That said, it uses AES 256-bit encryption to scramble your files before uploading them. It doesn’t protect your account as well, though, because two-factor authentication isn’t available. Photo preview and storage sync space are valuable additions to its features.

Upload and download speeds aren’t anything to brag about because they are slow. That’s not surprising considering it doesn’t have a global network of servers. Keep that in mind if you have lots of data you want to backup.

The price isn’t great value, either, and can’t compete with the other services. Do Livedrive’s benefits outweigh its costs? Let us know in the comments below. Thank you for reading.

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44 thoughts on “Livedrive”

  1. so far i think livedrive is great service. it does everything it says on the website. for me the most important part is cloud backup thats why I chose the backup plan for $8 per month. I’m quite computer savvy, so I cannot confirm other people’s complaints with the software being too complicated.

    I feel quite comfortable knowing that my files are backed up with livedrive.

    I would never rely on one cloud backup only because if something happens to one service and i have all my files with them that could be devastating for my business. So I also use Backblaze as a secondary unlimited online backup (as it doesnt support file sync).

    Reply
  2. i’m a livedrive user for a year now and i can only second what the reviewer is saying. the service has improved a lot in the last couple months. Several times i was on the verge of leaving and signing up for another unlimited services, but there was just no one that could offer so much syncing space. i own three computers (laptop, and two desktops) I’m a 3d artist so i need a lot of space because of my renders that take up gigabytes and i cant afford to lose them.
    livedrive handles large files well, but of course its easier to work with smaller files. if you dont have files larger than 2gb then livedrive is a good choice. syncing is not that fast as you might know it from dropbox but it only costs a fraction.

    Reply
  3. Hope you can advise. I have 3tb of data at the moment and was trying to free my laptop from being tethered to hard drives. In the past I had considered a large DAS and a NAS device but have now seen that you can get 5tb of online storage for $200 a year.

    Options I have see are

    1. Raid drive hard wired to Laptop: Backup to second hard Raid drive or internet
    2. NAS device: backup to internet.
    3. All files via Internet

    Key criteria.
    1. Able to access my files anywhere.
    2. If NAS device fails you can always use internet. or preferably turn it off when you are out of house. only use it to share files within house.
    3. Need provider to be able to offer the option of import and export of data by sending physical drive for them to load and return. This prevents me being locked into service provider and avoid 3 months of upload/download of initial data.
    4. Need to be able to have access to files like network drive and know they are also backed up and safe

    Questions.
    1. How is Livedrive different from Amazon S3
    2. Does anybody else besides S3 offer the option of import and export of data by sending physical drive for them to load and return.
    3. Cannot see how you access files and sync to S3.

    Thanks in advance

    Reply
  4. In my household, we have 2 macs (my wife’s pro and my air) that we use
    daily. I also have a Synology DS211+ set up with 2 3TB hard drives,
    giving me a storage capacity of nearly 3TB. Currently, i have both
    macs set up to use the NAS as their time machine destinations. I also
    have a bunch of music and video files on the NAS that are only on the
    NAS (not either laptop), as well as some old outlook PST files and old
    files from computers we don’t use anymore. The total space being used
    on the NAS right now is about 600GB.

    I have about 1 GB of docs on Google Drive (synced to my mac) and then
    another 9 GB of assorted docs on my mac hard drive. I’ve then got 52
    GB of photos on my mac hard drive as well.

    We also have many gigs of wedding photos and videos on DVDs that I am
    about to transfer to our NAS.

    So in the end (and after reading your review) I signed up with the Livedrive Pro Suite because it supports up to 5 computers. Unfortunately, I needed to pay extra for the NAS extension but in the end it was well worth it. Overall I feel that things are running quite smoothly with livedrive, only thing I can’t really comment on is the syncing because I have not used it yet.

    Reply
  5. ######— MY REVIEW OF LIVEDRIVE —######

    I have a lot of data, in total around 5 TB, so the only cloud storage solution that I was taking into consideration was one that would give me unlimited cloud storage and backup. I had a look at Crashplan (really cheap but no sync), then I had a look at Backblaze (really cheap, too, but lacks features), the other brands like JustCloud I’ve never heard of so I did stay away.

    I remember reading about Livedrive in some article of a tech magazine. So I thought what the hell, let’s try it. I was looking for further reviews on the web an found this one. What’s interested me the most was speed because I have so much data, I really want to bring it to the cloud as fast as possible. My files are still being transferred roughly at the reported speed in this review – so I’m quite happy with that. Honestly, I can’t say anything about the support but I marked it with five stars anyway, hopefully this won’t bias this review toooooo much 😉 Anywho…looking forward to making a test restore with some files soon and taking some over to the Briefcase to sync.

    ######## THUMBS UP !! #########

    Reply
  6. Hi! My name is Herbert. I have tried many online backup services in the past. First, I signed up with Mozy, but after a while they canceled their unlimited online backup offering (that was back in 2007). Then, I signed up with Carbonite online backup because back then they were the only ones that could offer unlimited online backup and they were pretty cheap. I think it was only around 60 bucks per year or something. So I signed up but unfortunately I didn’t read the fine print. They throttled my bandwidth after a couple of gigabytes making uploads terribly slow. So I needed to change again and look for different provider. That was probably in 2011.

    That was also the time when my professional career took off and I needed to travel a lot. So, I bought a laptop and I still had my PC at home. So a different need arose: I had to sync my files across those devices. I tracked down several possibilities: one thing could be using a combination of services like dropbox or sugar sync with an online backup service. But then I would have to think about where I stored what kind of data so I was looking for a solution which could provide me with the best of both worlds. That’s why I signed up for life drive a couple of months ago and I don’t want to go back. Yes, there are some glitches when it comes to file sync as reviewers have pointed out before but I didn’t expect a “perfect service” either. It was just right for my needs offering unlimited online backup plus a vast file syncing cloud storage space.

    I think livedrive is going to be useful for people who travel a lot, but also need their files for when they are at home. You can carry your backups around and still have your files synced across all devices and even access them while you are at the airport for example. I can’t tell you how much I used the file preview feature on my iPhone to look at an Excel spreadsheet or a PowerPoint presentation before meeting with a client.

    If you sign up for livedrive you should really take advantage of the savings for signing up for a year or two years, because I think if you go monthly they are too expensive and there are better and cheaper alternatives (Backblaze, Crashplan but without sync unfortunately). After all who wants to pay 25 bucks monthly for unlimited storage and file civilization if you can get for 60% off when you sign up for two years??

    So, yes, I can recommend livedirve if you are willing to accept that it is not perfect.

    Reply
  7. Hi!

    I would describe myself as not very computer savvy, but I was looking for a solution to backup my computer files. I’m a secretary so I handle a lot of documents, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents etc. Fortunately, my boss let’s me work from home (sometimes) because I have to watch my grandkids. So I need access to my work related files (I do not get a company laptop or phone). I stumbled across dropbox but i heard people saying it is not for backup (as it is only storage), so I started looking for a solution that would allow me to access my backed up files from the office AND from home.

    I can’t remember how I found Livedrive but I decided to go for the Pro Suite (which is quite expensive if you pay monthly but I signed up for 2 years and I found a coupon somewhere). Sometimes livedrive wouldn’t sync my files properly which was quite annoying. For example I edited a Word document and it would take ages until the updated version was shown. Weirdly enough, this only happens with Word files if I edit Excel Spreadsheets everything syncs almost automatically. So make sure your files are being synced correctly.

    As I said I’m not very computer savvy (born in 1956) so it takes me a while to figure out things on the computer and I was quite overwhelmed with Livedrive’s software for Windows that’s why ease of use gets only 3 stars.

    For now my hard drives run smoothly but you never now and I feel a lot better knowing that I can always get my files when I need them.

    Reply
  8. Here’s what you need to know about livedrive: IT SAVED MY ASS!! Just like that. I woke up my computer wasn’t working anymore, I could turn it on but nothing would happen. I brought it to an expert he said he couldn’t do anything-so I remembered that I acutally signed up with livedrive (I totally had forgotten about that).

    So in the end I could:

    + restore all my files because I had set it up to backup everything
    + even find files I didn’t know I still had like some papers I wrote in university
    + get all my files back quickly because it was FAST

    ====

    I can’t tell you much about their support. I heard some bad things on the forums but for me livedrive saved my butt. +++++THANKS++++!!!

    Reply
  9. About me: not a tech person, 30 years old, not that much files.
    what was important to me: security and ease of use
    where livedrive meet my requirements: it is very easy to use (apart from the that that you need to download an extra piece of software to get to your files), and they have some sort of encryption that is supposed to be fairly secure (but I’m no expert a this).
    where livedrive didn’t meet my expectation: it slows my computer down quite a bit (it’s not one of the latest models but it’s not old either), sometimes I feel it is taking a long while before “detecting” a change of a file to back that up. That scares me a bit because what happens if my computer crashes in exactly that moment, that’s why I keep pressing “scan now” if I have an important file to backup.

    Reply
  10. Hi,

    First off I’d like to give 3,5 stars for livedrive but your review system doesn’t make that possible so I gave it 4 stars. In general I can second those positive review I’ve read so far and I’ve been using Livedrive for a couple of weeks. In fact, I just ran out of trial mode and decided to go with the Backup package. I signed up for with the free trial for the pro suite but realized I didn’t need that much syncing space – it’s just an overkill. So for now I’m using sugarsync for my file sync needs.

    Why 3,5 stars? Well, first I don’t like the plan options, they made my decision very hard finding exactly what I need.. Why is there a backup and a briefcase plan? Why not combine the backup with a little bit of Briefcase, like 100GB? That would be perfect for me as I don’t need a massive 2TB or 5TB syncing space. So I grudgingly chose the backup plan because it offers unlimited backup (I have around 350GB of files to protect, so metered backup systems are not an option for me).

    Before deciding a plan I contacted support to ask if it’s possible to get a little bit of sync with the backup plan but guess what: they didn’t know and promised to get back to me, until today I’m waiting for an answer!! They only get 3 Stars in Support because they answered very fast and were quite polite, though that doesn’t help me a lot. I can’t comment on how they help you if you have technical problems, though.

    I’m happy with livedrive – for now. But I’m also considering other options. I think now that there is so much competition in the cloud storage space there might be other options soon that have a plan that better suits my needs.

    Reply
  11. My experience with livedrive has been more/less ok. Contrary to other reviewers, I don’t find the software easy to use. I’m wondering what I’m missing – but how to I recover previous files version from within the software client? No idea. How can I prioritize files that I want to backup? Burried in the preference pane. So ease of use only gets three stars here.
    Performance is ok, BUT it slowed down my computer and bandwidth quite a bit. How can I limit bandwith? It should be possible but I just couldnt find it in the software. The software itself makes a good impression it runs ok but nothing fancy either. I swtiched from SugarSync because it was too expensive for me to backup my 200+GB of files.
    Didn’t need support until now but I’ve read here and there that it is not the best but they at least provide a telephone number which i like in case something is broken I feel like I can contact them and speak to a person (hopefully).
    If you’re tech averse I cannot recommend livedrive, but if you’re used to seeing backup services run or have installed and tried out the one or the other you might like it actually. I’m not quite sure if livedrive is forever, or if I move soon to a different provider, only time will show.

    Reply
  12. LiveDrive leaves a LOT to be desired. Ask yourself if you feel safe with a company that doesn’t even use SSL connections for their web interface by default? Features added to the service in the last few years have been minimal at best and many don’t work as expected. Performance is absolutely horrible, just try using WebDAV or SSL-FTP.

    In my case I moved country but when I tried to get my billing changed (their prices are cheaper in Europe) they couldn’t do it, and every message I sent to their support took literally days (sometimes even weeks) to get a reply.

    There are many reports of data corruption from their users. I’ve had a few files mysteriously become unreadable or truncate to 0 bytes. That’s totally unacceptable.

    LiveDrive’s web interface hasn’t been improved for nearly 3 years now. Neither has their support site. Why do you have to set up a separate account to post tickets or messages on their forum?

    These are all examples of how they aren’t interested in progressing, being happy just to drift along and collect their fees instead of trying to improve their service.

    In short, from a superficial point of view it seems like they offer a decent service but the more you dig into them the more you will discover that this company is run by people with an absolute minimal understanding of the technology and business they require.

    Avoid them, there are much better options out there.

    Reply
  13. Livedrive on the face of it seems to offer the best service, but I tried it out for a few months and had nothing but problems. It just doesn’t work. The program constantly crashes, and you can’t trust it. For example, in my case when I lost a file and went to recover it from Livedrive, it wasn’t there and I noticed that some other files of that type (not a system file, ie a file Livedrive should be backing up) weren’t being backed up.

    I went through several back and forths with tech support (who were friendly and quick to respond) and eventually the issue was flagged for the development team. Three months later the problem was still there so I quit the service. There’s no point in a back up service you can’t rely on.

    It seems for large hard drives the best way is still just to keep a local duplicate. I think this kind of service is still years off from being able to back up large amounts of data well. For smaller amounts of data backup dropbox works flawlessly and is brilliant.

    Reply
  14. I was with Livedrive for years, so long in fact I am almost 6TB of backups. I have it backing up my servers and laptops. I don’t think I ever really needed to speak to them about anything.

    However about a month or so ago one of my servers started backing up a tremendous amount of data in fairness it took me about a month to figure out why my throughput stats were so high. Anyway after a fair bit of digging The Livedrive client had been backing up continually changing log files. Admittedly this could have my configuration mistake as I am pretty sure they would have change this on an update. Thinking nothing off it I fixed the problem and all was fine.

    About 2 to 3 weeks later I got a “Breach of the Live drive® Terms of Use” email and that my account closed, no help, no discussion, no attempt to resolve any issues or a desire to resolve any issues. The only thing I could get out of support is you’ve breached section 20 part b and f. Your account will be closed.

    I am writing this review not just because I am annoyed at livedrive, I’ve been a loyal customer for 4 or 5 years, but I had no idea such an issue would get me kicked off the service and anyone else should double check their configuration just in case.

    Not impressed with Live Drive Support at all.

    Reply
  15. I made the same experiance as Ken. I am a customer of Livedrive now for several years. All of the sudden I get the mail, that my contract is cancelled due to breach of section 20 part A and F.
    All attempts to get in touch with somebody have failed. No explanation, no discusson or chance to fix whatever I might have done wrong.
    This behavior may be owed to the fact, that their pricing has changed since I signed up. I have several TB backed up and still pay the price they locked me in a few years back. I just think they want to get rid of all customers using a lot of their storage and not paying the new pricing.
    By the way this is not the only problem I had with them. A while back, I had to restore several files and they “lost” several of them. Never was able to recover the files. Their custome support is really below average. I am actually not terrible unhappy if they cancel my membership… If I do get my refund. They cancelled my membership TWO day after I paid for a full year in advance. I guess time will tell.

    Reply
  16. They cut lots of UK users off, data lost and court action needed for refund.

    Google Livedrive issues before using

    Reply
  17. Hi had livedrive for approx 4 years, and things were fine to begin with, files were backing up, I had lots of computers connected, and I was happy with my £10 a month. Then things started to go bad, after a year or two; I would try to access a file online, but it wouldn’t work, the software would give up uploading files until I updated the software, which required a computer reboot (which I rarely do) (and these updates were coming in quite often, sometimes days apart). Then failure hit, I had one of my laptops backed up, everything seemed fine, the software status was all ok, all files sync’d, etc, then the laptop melted, so I binned it, got a new one, downloaded the restore software, navigated to that backup, and started the download process, to my horror, massive chunks of data wouldn’t download, and it would error ‘file not sync’d yet’, so the software knew the files existed on the laptop as they were being indexed, but they claim the files never got sync’d, despite being running on that laptop for at least two years, how is this possible? So I figured, more fool me, trusting this company, but carried on paying hoping things would be ok, but then approx 6 months later, I get an email from them saying my account was being deleted as they found copyrighted material on my backups (my LEGALLY acquired music library), despite asking them why this was a problem, I was told that no copyrighted material was allowed to be uploaded, and their decision was final, and I had 30 days to get any files off their servers before they were deleted!

    Horrible company, I spent hundreds of pounds on their service, and the very few times i needed it, it didn’t work! Shame on them!

    Reply
  18. I’m not a techie but I’m not inexperienced either. I signed up for the backup system and have had nothing but trouble from the beginning — starting with logging in. And my account page looks nothing like the screenshots I’ve seen so far.

    The design is terrible. There is no user’s manual or even a set of instructions. The first (and last) backup was performed almost two months ago and there is no self-evident way to update it. There is no obvious way to recover the data in case of a crash.

    The answers from LiveDrive werent helpful and I finally decided to cancel the service and see if a refund was possible. At that point, the replies stopped completely.

    Reply
  19. Generally, the reviewers overlook one rather important aspect; LiveDrive’s products simply do not work.

    My company has used Live Drive for cloud storage and backups for five years and it has always been tolerably flaky, but Version 3 on Windows 10 simply does not function.

    At any one time 75% of the machines insist that LD run an integrity check at reboot, the integrity check never finds anything to correct but it still insists on running. At the same time user files are not being uploaded or download to the client machines. God only knows what the backup function is doing, or not doing, whichever may be the case.

    And customer service is another adventure in futility. To get support one needs to go to their website and open a support ticket. The response to the problem is always the same, “Reinstall the desktop client.” This doesn’t appear to do anything; I guess it is intended to make you feel better.

    After reporting the desktop reinstall’s lack of results, they will send you a link to download and run their LogRetriever and send them the results. Seventy-two hours after that you will receive a system generated response stating that you have not responded to their last message and the ticket is being closed.

    At this point your only option is to completely uninstall LiveDrive and delete the cache files. You can then reinstall and download the cache. The download takes just over six days for a 256 GB cache, apparently their serves are connected by dialup on a 300 baud line.

    Reply
  20. Initially (6 years ago), LiveDrive was a great option however moving into the present, others have caught up and overtaken them and Livedrive is now a dying legacy product.

    Their customer support is horrific and their servers are slow. They also take your money without any warning (when re-billing), and refuse to offer any pro-rata’d refunds simply telling you you’re screwed and you just have to use the year out even if you don’t want the service.

    If you then try to cancel the renew service, you will be told the only option is to cancel the entire account and everything will be erased.

    The price plans are also ridiculously expensive.

    Short of the long. They are a dying company.

    Do yourself a favour and use Dropbox or something similar instead.

    Reply
  21. I can’t get the livedrive to keep working on my laptop…I’ve never done a complete backup yet and I can’t get thru to a live body on Livedrive. I’m seriously thinking of calling foul and getting the BBB involved. any tips for me?

    Reply
  22. WARNING AVIOD AVIOD AVIOD ….JUST READ SOME OF THESE REVIEWS. I bought the service through a reseller but my data is still held with livedrive. My account was charged for another year and then they suspended my account for no reason. No warning just suspended. I have spent the past month trying to get a response from anyone and nothing. Live drive then contact me and said nothing to do with us it dripbit. When I said its livedrive who has my data they just said contact your reseller. I have told them so many times that dripbit refuse to answer anything they just keep saying nothing to do with us. They now hold my data illegally and there seems little I can do now but tale legal action to try and get it back. The service is bad as is the customer service. the app is so basic its pointless. AVOID for your own sake and the chance of loosing all your data and money.

    Reply
  23. I bought a lifetime account some years ago, via Dripbit. Suddenly my account was suspended and then it was closed. All attempts to contact Livedrive were met with – contact Dripbit. All attempts to contact Dribit we met with – all support must use the ticketing system. All support tickets are ignored, emails are ignored, live chat options, yes you’ve guessed it all ignored.

    Referring all this back to Livedrive and theysay, yes you’ve guessed it again – You must contact Dripbit!

    You couldn’t make it up. The worst quailtiy of service in the world. AVOID bothe LIVEDRIVE and DRIPBIT!

    Reply
    1. I Got the same problem with the Lifetime Account.

      They said that Dripbit didnt make payments for my service so , they cant provide the stupid service. And the problem is Me and Dripbit.

      What a company.

      AVOID Livedrive to anycost.

      Reply
    2. Same thing happened to me, after I had paid for a full year subscription.

      I’ve sent several support tickets to DripBit. No response.

      Have you had any response from them?

      Reply
    3. I had the same situation. I bought a “lifetime” account. The service has always been mediocre, but adequate for my needs. Now they’re holding my files ransom unless I pay MORE money for a service I already bought. Biggest scam ever. I’m also getting the run around with “customer service”.
      This company is the epitome of “Buyer Beware”!

      Reply
  24. I bought a lifetime account last year via Dripbit as well. When I ran into an issue, Livedrive would not assist at all and told me to contact Dripbit. I never received any replies from Dripbit for any of the tickets I created regarding my issue.

    Now it appears Dripbit is no longer a reseller, and my “lifetime” account has been changed to a trial account by Livedrive and they will not honor my “lifetime” purchase.

    This is a hit-and-run scam in my opinion. Instead of taking Dripbit to task, they instead convert the users accounts into trial accounts and then tell you to pay monthly if you wish to keep the account active. My advice – avoid any resellers in the future for any type of online services. I can buy 5TB drives (I have two!) for around $120 for backups instead of spending money for online backup, and I’m sure I can restore/backup far quicker in this manner.

    My rating for Dripbit – 0%. Never responded to any inquiries or tickets created.

    My rating for Livedrive – 2%. At least they did respond, if only to tell me to contact the reseller for assistance and nothing else.

    Reply
  25. Livedrive was a waste of time and money for me. I dutifully uploaded my files but on the few occasions I needed to restore a file from Livedrive it wasn’t there. It seemed that the oldest files, the ones that would have been backed up first, the ones that Livedrive software reported were indeed backed, weren’t there. Livedrive customer service was evasive. They invariably advised I run diagnostics etc but had nothing to say about why my supposedly backed up files weren’t there. I My guess is that for people like me who got the low-price plan at $8 per month, we got what we paid for….nothing. It’s a scam.

    Reply
  26. Signed up for a lifetime subscription via DripBit. What can you say about a service that took six months to back up my files online, consistently used up 30% of my memory, and then, when things went sour with DripBit, arbitrarily cancelled my subscription, no refund or recourse? Avoid LiveDrive like the plague.

    Reply
  27. I have been a livedrive user, and now reseller almost since they started.
    I dont understand why everyone is slating there services and products. I am always reading awful reviews. Ive never wanted to post my comments up til now.
    Reading over some of the other comments…
    Ive never had an issue with restoring items, and use the briefcase feature daily, and again have been for years. Occasionally i get a sync issue between machines, which can be annoying, but is easily resolved by doing a check and repair.
    The software gets better and better too.
    The support service was almost non existent a couple of years back, but now i get a reply next day as and when i fire them a question. I know it could be better with 24 hours support.
    I help my clients with there backups and restoring files and they are happy. Especially when they have overwritten a file, and want to go back to a previous revision i have saved my clients bacon on quiet a few occasions.
    Pricing i think is very reasonable too. 4/5 for me. only thing i would like to see changed, is maybe 24/7 support and live chat.

    Reply
    1. I have been a livedrive user, and now reseller almost since they started…. me too! AND I HAVE A LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP!!! Probably you could do me a big favor and ask support why my account vanished almost a month ago – [email protected]. Since there’s no account, there’s no way to login or retrieve pass (which I haven’t forgotten BTW). No way to contact support…

      Reply
        1. I haven’t done anything wrong, BTW. Livedrive disabled my account without giving notice. No notification at all. If someone could help me out here, I’d be very grateful.

          Reply
  28. I have been using the LD Briefcase for about 3 years, and have generally been very satisfied. My gripe is that yesterday my auto-renew was rejected because i had not updated my credit card information. I got an email about this and found that I was instantly locked out of my files. There’s no question that the problem was my fault, but I would expect at least a day’s warning to fix the problem before this punishment was meted out. Given the global usage of the system, and LD’s operations on UK time, my business could easily be down for an entire working day. And then the only thing you can do is submit a “ticket” and you have no idea when someone will respond. Knowing that there will always be somebody in the sales dept. (even if no one’s available in the support dept. ) I got through the sales desk and got it straightened out in short order. But really, I think that this kind of treatment is small-minded and unprofessional

    Reply
  29. I used livedrive for several years, but last year my creditcard expired and my account was automatically closed. Just like that, no notifications, not even an email. The wordt part of it is I could not contact support, because you need a valid account for that.
    After getting a new creditcard I expected my account to be reinstated as has happended for my other services that bumped into this problem. But to no avail.
    Finally I contacted them using their sales email address and they reported that everything was gone. My briefcase files, my backups, everything is lost.
    Peculiar that a firm you entrust with your backups, deletes them.

    Reply
  30. Livedrive disabled my account without giving notice. No notification at all. If someone could contact support for me and help me out here, I’d be very grateful.

    Reply
  31. I used Livedrive for about three years and was fairly happy with them apart from their awful Windows software – you literally had to select every single directory you wanted to backup and there was no way you could select a whole drive or multiple directories at once. The process was laborious with each directory taking a minute to select – after every directory selection you were taken back to the top level directory forcing you to navigate through the whole directory structure each time to get to the next folder. Imagine doing this for hundreds of directories. Each time I upgraded my PC or hard drives I would literally have to put aside a whole weekend to simply select the directories I wanted to backup. The original software let you select multiple directories at once, then they ‘upgraded’ to a new version that didn’t. Shortly after this happened a couple of years back I warned them that this was a deal breaker for me, they said that they would pass on my concerns. Nothing changed but I persevered with them until this year when Amazon Drive unlimited came down to an excellent price and their software was user friendly so I switched. I let Livedrive know that I was cancelling and give them my reasons for doing so. Their astonishing reaction? They IMMEDIATELY deactivated my account before my current month’s subscription was up and I couldn’t access any of my backups! When I tried to log in I simply got a ‘Your Email or Password is incorrect. Please try again’. I received no courtesy email saying we’re sorry to see you go etc. Just this f*** you reaction! Because my account no longer exists and I can no longer access my backed up files I can only assume they were immediately deleted even though I was still within my subscription period. Consequently I would NOT recommend Livedrive as they are not customer focused and should NOT be trusted with your precious data.

    Reply
  32. Livedrive is terrible!

    I used the livedrive service for a few years. In retrospect I don;t know why I stayed with it for so long. Livedrive corrupted about 1 – 3 percent of all my files. None of them could ever be recovered, except the ones I backed up locally. If you are reckless enough to use their service, back up on a local hard drive all your data.

    I also found them to have appalling bad customer service.

    Stay away!

    Reply
  33. Hi,
    I purchase the lifetime license of 2 Tb. Worked for 2 months and was terrible slow, so I not used it for long time. And now I can not to connect to my account – when connecting i take the respond ‘there is no such account’.

    What is happened please respond.

    Regards Dmitry

    Reply
  34. I have signed for NAS backup and got charged two fees – $88.90 and 84.00 in same month. After that I started my upload process to their cloud. I have 1Gbs FIOS connection and my upload was from dial-up days hoovering between 1.1Mbs and 1.3Mbs… After few weeks of struggling and countless emails to them I decided its time to cancel my NAS subscription and I asked for a refund… At that time rep named Gourdev from Livedrive told me that I have signed for full year and I will not be able to get refund since its more than 14 days from the date I signed. I was trying to explain to Gourdev from Livedrive that after few weeks of trying to get that backup upload work – it still not working and that is the reason I want to cancel… I explained that upload speed would hoover between 1.1Mbs and 1.3 Mbs and upload process crashes every few days. Simply this is not a solution for me where I have several TB of data that needs to be uploaded and with such slow upload speed + crashes it would take me another few months to complete.
    They refused to issue any refund claiming that in contract states that I will be charged two fees ($88.90 and 84.00) after 14 days of free trial. The thing is that we tried that thing to get it to work in these first 14 days but we couldn’t and they still believe they should get paid for service they never delivered. Shame on you Livedrive.

    I am currently with IDrive where my NAS backup works fine and I can cancel at any time I want.

    Reply
  35. these pricks wont let me cancel the trial i had with them,which will be then lead to me being charged £10 in a few days, i rang and emailed, they said they`d email to confirm cancelation,didnt.

    Reply
  36. This is a company with zero technical support and even fewer people there who care about anything. 9 months ago some glitches started and all my data (which took months to upload at the slow speeds we have where I live), started uploading again even though the files clearly exist on their drive. For the past 9 months they claim to be looking at the problem but have done absolutely nothing. They either cannot fix it or won’t fix it. Either way nothing has happened and I have been unable to upload anything at all this year. Basically I trusted Livedrive and that trust was mis-placed. I am being charged for a service they cannot provide but if I cancel then all my data already there will be lost. There have to be better providers out there, it wouldn’t be hard.

    Reply
  37. I have used Livedrive for several years. Of recent, their service has been failing with lost online documents. It is also unable to fully update/add files to their system.
    When I raised this issue with them their customer service threatened to erase all my files within 3 days unless I agreed to continue with them. See below email extract;

    “If you do not wish to contact my colleagues, the closure will be actioned automatically within 3 business days, and once this is done any data transferred to Livedrive will become inaccessible and deleted from our servers shortly afterwards.

    This said, I would like to assist on this matter more directly, and resolve the root cause. Given the circumstances and situation, I would like to discuss this with you directly over the phone and, if necessary, do a remote connection and have a closer look at what’s happening. Please let me know if this is acceptable, and what number I can reach you on, as well as what time would be convenient for you.

    Kind Regards

    Ilarian
    Livedrive Customer Support”

    I have asked to make a complaint and also to be forwarded a copy of their complaints procedure which livedrive have refused.

    I would avoid this company at all costs.

    Reply
  38. I complete fail to see how you can award a score of 82% to a service that does not allow you to create and keep your private encryption key. This is essentially no encryption at all. Especially residing in the UK, where intelligence agency constantly show their hunger for all kinds of data.

    Reply
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