SugarSync Review

SugarSync has the underpinnings of a great cloud storage provider, but it simply has too many issues to be more than mediocre, if that. Its interface is hard to use, it lacks the kind of features we've come to expect and it's pretty expensive, too. Read our full SugarSync review for the details.

By Branko VlajinWriter
— Last Updated:
2019-01-16T12:59:31+00:00
(Editor)
Starts from $ 625 per month for 100 GB
Free plan available Save 17 % (All Plans)

SugarSync is a cloud storage service from the U.S. that was launched in 2009. We would expect it to be a polished service given the years it has behind it, but SugarSync is near the bottom of our review rankings.

It has an attractive desktop app, strong privacy policy and decent versioning capabilities, but they’re overshadowed by the lack of features, clunky web client, expensive pricing plans and lack of zero-knowledge.

If you want to learn how SugarSync stacks up against the best cloud storage services, stick with us for this SugarSync review.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths:

  • Attractive desktop app
  • Integrates with Boxcryptor
  • Protected folders
  • Strong privacy policy

Weaknesses:

  • Clunky web client
  • Not zero-knowledge
  • Expensive
  • Lacks security features for sharing
  • Slow

Alternatives for SugarSync

  1. 1
    • Sync Folder
    • File Link Sharing
    • Folder Sharing
    • Versioning
    100-Unlimited GB
    $ 625
    Save 17 %
  2. 2
    • Sync Folder
    • File Link Sharing
    • Folder Sharing
    • Versioning
    5 GB - 10 TB
    $ 500
  3. 3
    • Sync Folder
    • File Link Sharing
    • Folder Sharing
    • Versioning
    10-2000 GB
    $ 399
    Save 20 %
  4. 4
    • Sync Folder
    • File Link Sharing
    • Folder Sharing
    • Versioning
    15 GB - 16 TB
    $ 539
  5. 5
    • Sync Folder
    • File Link Sharing
    • Folder Sharing
    • Versioning
    15 GB - 30 TB
    $ 167
    Save 16 %

Features

70 % – Decent

Like many cloud storage services, SugarSync lets you sync and share your files and folders across devices, including smartphones. It supports network-attached storage devices, too. To use it, though, you have to subscribe to one of SugarSync’s business plans, run Windows and map a network drive.

If you want a solution that offers a proprietary network drive client, consult our guides on how to set up a cloud network drive and the best online backup for NAS.

sugarsync-apps

SugarSync integrates with many third-party apps, including Zapier, Xendo, Genius Scan and more. That said, it’s not a viable choice for collaboration because it doesn’t work with Office Online or Google Docs. For services that do, read our best cloud storage for collaboration article. Google Drive is our pick for personal users. Read our Google Drive review to see why.

SugarSync can’t play audio or video files, though. For that, you need one of the services from our best cloud storage for music or best cloud storage for videos articles.

Versioning lets you keep and restore previous versions of files. It’s useful when you make an unwanted file change and want to revert it or undo the damage done by ransomware. Hackers use ransomware to encrypt your files and demand payment to unlock them, but you can avoid having to pay by reverting files to their previous state with versioning.

SugarSync’s versioning lets you keep and restore five previous versions of files. If that isn’t enough for you, it lets you create a protected folder that keeps the last 12 versions of files in it. You can choose to save versions on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Note that protected folders will consume storage space for each saved copy.

For a service that doesn’t take up storage space for previous versions, consult our best cloud storage services with versioning or go to our Sync.com review.

SugarSync Features Overview

  • Sync

    • Sync Folder
    • Block-Level Sync
    • Selective Sync
    • Bandwidth management
    • Sync Any Folder
  • File Sharing

    • File Link Sharing
    • Link Passwords
    • Link Expiry Dates
    • Folder Sharing
    • Folder Permissions
    • Link Download Limits
    • Upload Links
  • Productivity

    • File Previews
    • Edit Files
    • In-App Collaboration
    • Office Online
    • Google Docs
    • Notes App
    • Media Playback
    • Mobile Apps
    • Deleted File Retention
    • Versioning
    • WebDAV
  • Security

    • At-Rest Encryption
    • In-Transit Encryption
    • AES 256-bit Encryption Protocol
    • Zero Knowledge
    • Two-Factor Authentication
    • US Server Location
  • Support

    • 24/7 Support
    • Live Chat Support
    • Telephone Support
    • Email Support
    • User Forum
    • Knowledgebase
  • Misc

    • Free Plan

Pricing

55 % – Fair

SugarSync is expensive, so it didn’t make our best deals in cloud storage list. In fact, it offers worse prices than Dropbox, making it one of the lowest value services on the market.

100GB
  • 100 GB Storage
1-year plan $ 6.25/ month
$74.99 billed every year
Save 17 %
250GB
  • Save 17 % Details
  • 250 GB Storage
1-year plan $ 8.33/ month
$99.99 billed every year
Save 17 %
500GB
  • Save 17 % Details
  • 500 GB Storage
1-year plan $ 15.79/ month
$189.50 billed every year
Save 17 %
Business 1TB
  • 1 - 9 users Details
  • 1000 GB Storage
Business Custom
  • Contact SugarSync for a quote Details
  • Unlimited GB Storage

The individual plans have the same features, but differ in the amount of storage they offer.

The first plan is $7.49 a month, but it only offers a meager 100GB of cloud storage. You can get a better deal if you pay for the year, in which case the price drops to $6.25 per month.

The next plan provides 250GB of storage for $9.99 a month. It can’t beat pCloud or Sync.com, though. For example, you can subscribe to pCloud’s 2TB plan for the same price, and it’s even cheaper when you take the yearly discount into account. Check out the pricing table in our pCloud review to learn more about it.

The 500GB plan doesn’t offer better value, but the Business 1TB plan is a decent deal. For one to three users you need to pay $55 per month. The price rises as you add users until you get to 10, which costs $133 a month. The plan comes with admin control, live phone support and the option to remotely wipe data from devices.

The Business Custom plan has the same features, but lets you have more than 10 users and custom storage space.

You can test the service using its free 30-day trial on any personal plan or use the free 90-day 5GB plan, which doesn’t require you to input your credit card information.

Ease of Use

75 % – Good

Services sometimes have a complex user experience that turns users away. That’s not the case with SugarSync overall, but its web client needs work.

sugarsync-web-client

The web client is functional, but it feels outdated because its design is drab and the app makes you go through more steps to complete simple file operations than many services do. For example, if you’re in the root folder and want to upload a file, you have to toggle the drag-and-drop area instead of it just appearing when you drag a file over.

Drag-and-drop works in a strange manner for other folders, as well, because you need to drag the file over the name of the current folder to upload it instead of just dropping it anywhere in it.

You can navigate the app using the menu at the top, but the pages load slowly. The menu on the right lets you access and tweak your account settings. Next to it is a search bar that lets you search by file name.

sugarsync-desktop-client

The desktop app is more attractive and easier to use. It works on Windows and macOS. For services that support Linux, consult or best cloud storage for Linux guide. The desktop app consists of a system tray icon and sync folder. After you install it, the “my SugarSync” folder, which is your default sync folder, is placed in the “documents” folder.

The interface is clear and simple to navigate using the menu on the left. Different colors make good contrasts, so it’s easy to spot what you’re looking for. Once you go into folders, you can use the breadcrumb navigation similar to your operating system’s file explorers to go back. The top right corner lets you access your account while the top-left one holds the app menu.

sugarsync-mobile-explorer

The mobile app doesn’t disappoint either. It’s easy to use and gives you the option to automatically backup your photos and videos. It also lets you share your files and save them for offline access.

File Sharing & Syncing

75 % – Good

Once you transfer your files online, you’re going to want to share them. Sharing should be fast and easy. Plus, you should be able to share directly to the big social networks, individuals and groups. You should also be able to protect your shares using content controls, such as password protection, expiry dates and permissions.

SugarSync doesn’t have those sharing protection features, though. If you need to keep your shares safe, your best bet is to use a service from our best cloud storage for sharing article.

sugarsync-share

That said, SugarSync lets you share files using the web, desktop and mobile clients. The web client lets you share links directly to social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook. You can share folders the same way or invite people via email to collaborate on them. When you share folders by invitation, you can choose to give permission to “edit” or “view.”

The “shared by me” and “shared with me” pages help you keep track of shared files.

If you’re using the desktop client, you can share from it by right-clicking the file or folder and choosing “copy public link.” There’s also a “shared by me” page that shows what you’ve shared. That’s useful, and it’s not something all services offer.

The mobile app lets you share content by copying a link, sending it via email or using other methods depending on the apps you have on your smartphone.

Speed

70 % – Decent

SugarSync took around 42 minutes and 15 seconds on average to upload a 1GB zipped folder, which is much slower than the 23 minutes it should theoretically take. The download took twice the time it should, averaging two minutes and five seconds. If SugarSync takes too much out of your bandwidth, you can throttle it from the preferences menu of the desktop app.

We were using an ethernet connection in Belgrade, Serbia, with an upload speed of 6 megabits per second and a download speed of 100 Mbps. We weren’t close to SugarSync’s servers in the U.S., but that didn’t have as much of an affect on other services that have servers there, such as Dropbox. Block-level sync would speed transfers up, but SugarSync doesn’t use it.

 First attempt:Second attempt:Average:
Upload time00:42:2000:42:1000:42:15
Download time00:02:0100:02:1000:02:05

Security

75 % – Good

sugarsync-security

Having good security for the files you store online is no joke. Hackers won’t hesitate to target your data with ransomware or man-in-the-middle attacks.

They might try to steal your login credentials, too.

Cloud services use many methods to secure your data against potential threats. For example, the TLS protocol prevents man-in-the-middle attacks from succeeding, while encryption secures your data in transit and at rest. Private, end-to-end encryption prevents anyone other than you from reading your files.

Two-factor authentication will stop hackers who’ve stolen your password from accessing your account. Still, you should make sure you have a strong password from the start. You should make use of our strong password guide because SugarSync doesn’t offer two-factor authentication.

The service uses AES 256-bit to encrypt your files at rest and the TLS protocol to protect them in transit. Unfortunately, it’s not a zero-knowledge provider. That means company employees could read your files. To avoid that, you can try any of the services on our best zero-knowledge cloud services list.

You can use Boxcryptor to scramble files and protect your privacy further. Read our Boxcryptor review to learn more about the useful add-on.

Privacy

80 % – Good

Even though SugarSync isn’t a zero-knowledge service, it won’t sell your information to advertisers and doesn’t go out of its way to monitor your data like some providers do. Plus, its privacy policy says it doesn’t seek to collect or process your sensitive personal data. If it needs to do so, it will be in accordance with applicable law.

Sensitive personal data includes race or ethnicity, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, physical or mental health and more.

Processing your personal data is required for: providing services to you, financial management, conducting surveys, investigations, compliance with applicable laws and other reasons.

SugarSync doesn’t disclose your personal data to third parties unless they’re legal and regulatory authorities, external advisors or in connection with legal proceedings.

If you decide to terminate your account, SugarSync promises not to retain your personal data for longer than necessary.

As a user, you have the following rights:

  • To request access to, or copies of, your relevant personal data.
  • To request correction of inaccuracies in your relevant personal data.
  • To request, on legitimate grounds:
    1. Erasure of your relevant personal data.
    2. Restriction of processing of your relevant personal data.
  • To object, on legitimate grounds, to the processing of your relevant personal data by SugarSync or on its behalf.
  • To have certain relevant personal data transferred to another entity, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, to the extent applicable.
  • To lodge complaints with a data protection authority regarding the processing of your relevant personal data by SugarSync or on its behalf.

The policy is easy to read and has a useful summary text at the top for those who don’t like legalese. It also complies with the General Data Protection Regulation, EU’s privacy law. You can learn more about it in our GDPR guide. That’s good to know because SugarSync keeps its servers in the U.S., a country not known for having the best privacy laws in the world.

Customer Service

66 % – Decent

sugarsync-help-center

Good technical support is paramount when the app doesn’t behave like you want it to. You first stop if that happens with SugarSync is the help center. It’s split into categories that hold answers to many issues. If that doesn’t help, you can go to the user forums, but they aren’t that active and many questions go unanswered.

Many of the questions in the general section of the forums deal with account cancellation because it can be difficult to end a subscription.

That said, you can get assistance directly from SugarSync by creating a help request or making a phone call if you’re using a Business plan. If you’re an individual SugarSync customer you can subscribe to SugarSync Live. The cost is $99.99 per year and it entitles you to phone support from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST on weekdays. Email support works during those hours, too.

We asked a couple of questions via the request form and got an answer in 13 hours. That’s slower than most services. If you need faster responses and top-notch technical support, you should try Google Drive.

The Verdict

SugarSync is on the best cloud storage comparison list, but it’s far from the top. It has a solid set of features, but lacks good collaboration capabilities. It can’t protect your shares as well as it should, either. Its expensive pricing plans add to the list of drawbacks.

ITs security is strong, and its lack of private encryption is mitigated by the integration with Boxcryptor. Even if you don’t get the add-on, SugarSync’s privacy policy doesn’t have suspicious clauses and it adheres to the GDPR.

The desktop and mobile apps are attractive and easy to use, which is good considering the lackluster web app. We can’t praise the transfer speeds, though. That said, they should get better the closer you are to SugarSync’s servers in the U.S.

What do you think about SugarSync? Does it have too many drawbacks for you to consider it or have you found your match? Let us know in the comments below. Thank you for reading.

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46 thoughts on “SugarSync”

  1. I have been a sugarsync customer for over 8 months now. Overall, I’m quite happy with the product but of course there are some glitches that you can only experience after using it extensively. The drag-and-drop functionality for example is something that is not working properly for me. I always have to select my files manually that I want to sync.

    In terms of ease of use I think sugar sync is on the easier side (I’m not a tech person so I want my backup service to be easy to use). I backup and sync around 30 GB of files and have not run into performance issues yet. Backups feel fast and synchronization speed is okay.

    If you’re looking to share photos with your friends and family sugar sync is definitely a great option. One of my friends works in tech support and for him sugar sync does not offer enough features that would allow him to customize his backups so if you are an advanced user might choose a different service. Or you might combine sugar saying (or dropbox for that matter) with another backup service like CrashPlan.

    Reply
  2. I had to make a choice between sugarsync or dropbox. Finally, I went with sugarsync because I can choose any folder that I want to sync. Dropbox limits me to only one central folder and that was something I didn’t want.

    Overall sugarsync is okay, there are no major issues I ran into until now (I must say, I have not been using the service for long time). Can’t say anything about support, because I didn’t contact them.

    Sometimes I feel, sugarsync could be a little faster because I was used to dropbox which always worked fine for me in terms of speed. Sugar sync also launched a new beta version that looks a lot nicer and is easier to use than before.

    I can recommend sugarsync if you are willing to give up some of the third party integration that dropbox allows you. But of course that depends on your needs.

    Reply
    1. SugarSync has terrible customer service. They do not care at all if you are happy or satisfied with their service, there are no refunds. They never let you know your subscription is set to be auto-renewed so if you don’t put in a reminder for yourself, they charge you and won’t refund. Somehow they charged an expired credit card they had on file. They have NO PHONE NUMBER unless you pay for support. This is ridiculous, DO NOT USE SUGARSYNC!!!!

      Reply
      1. I had the same thing happen Melissa. I am very annoyed with them. A simple courtesy email for a product we haven’t used for 2 years would be expected.

        Also, they charged me via PayPal where the Recurring Payments and Billing Conditions state “if the customer signed up for the Automatic Payment through an online method, you must provide a simple and easily accessible online cancellation procedure.”

        To cancel an online account, I had to contact them through online chat between the ours of 10am and 2pm PST. This is between 5am and 9am AEST. I do not consider this to be an “easily accessible online cancellation procedure”. I had to wait a long time for a response too.

        Reply
        1. I had the same thing happen to me as well. I first called last year and asked to reduce my storage allotment. They said I could do that but they wouldn’t give me a pro rated refund even though I was using less storage space. So then I asked to cancel as of this year. They said again that there were no pro rated refunds so if I cancelled at that time I would simply have paid the money for no service for the last nine months. So I asked that my account be cancelled as of my anniversary date. They said that I could not do that at that time but that I needed to contact them just before the expiration date. Then they told me that I couldn’t cancel by email. Then they auto-charged my card without notifying me that the charge was going to take place and despite the fact that I had previously asked to cancel. After they auto-charged my card, I complained and they told me I had to cancel on their website, but that they still wouldn’t refund my auto-charged amount. This despite the fact that their terms of service clearly state that one can cancel via email, phone, or on the website. Be very wary. If you use them, don’t allow them to keep your credit card information on file.

          Reply
          1. The same thing happened to me. I have incurred $150.00 in charges incurred after a data loss that destroyed my confidence in their service.

            They are scammers.

            Cancel your recurring payment with your bank or Paypal, whichever you used.

      2. SugarSync Customer Service is BAD. *** warning Will Rodgers *** warning***…. Do not deal with these people. In the early days, they seemed pretty good. But they have truly gone to hell in a handbag. Some companies get better as they get big…this one sure did not. I warn you….do not sign up.

        Reply
      3. I had a similar experience to Melissa and Yolande. Cancellation was difficult, they autorenewed without any warning, and refused to provide a refund. Very difficult to work with. And the desktop app that runs the synching will drastically impact system performance.

        Reply
  3. I handle IT matter for a non-profit organization. They asked to set up a syncing and backup program for their office and portable computers. After extensive research I chose SugarSync. SugarSync was easy to set up and provides worry free and flawless backup of important files. The president of the organization, who travels extensively to Africa, India and within the U.S. is very well satisfied with the SugarSync service. I definitely recommend SugarSync for businesses and organization looking for reliable file backup.

    Reply
  4. You cannot backup external drives! This is a wrong information you gave here. I test currently the service and Software with my iMac5k. But frankly, the connection is such slow and yes it´s not my internet connection! So i was coming to your website to find a better provider, but could not find any better one, not yet.

    Happy new year & all the best 🙂

    Reply
  5. I never had a problem with the software, but I’m not happy with their business practices. When they went to a “pay only” service they offered one year for $35. I signed up because I was using it with school. After a couple of months I transferred everything to Microsoft Onedrive. Last week I got hit with a $75 renewal fee that is apparently not refundable. I do not like companies that do business this way. A simple reminder that your renewal is coming up is all that it would take from a legitimate company who cared about keeping customers. I’ve email the support team via the provided form twice this week. I still haven’t received a response. There is not phone number to call.

    Reply
    1. Hi Jeff,
      I had the same thing happen to me. I wish they kept their free tier, I don’t use much bandwidth or storage. I paid for the half price year and didn’t expect the renewal cost. I had just lost my job at the time of their silent renewal and it took a serious chunk out of my remaining savings.

      I’ve just done a fair bit of reading around the net and it looks like MEGA has nearly all of the same features I liked, but also has much better encryption. The downside seems to be a lack of file versioning (keeping old versions of your files, or deleted files in a trash folder). I liked that about sugarsync, and used it often.

      We’ll see how we go. The free 50gb is really nice!

      Reply
  6. I was a paid customer over a year. You might be shocked to find that although you’re paying for backup, your files may not be getting backed up.

    I ran into several situations where SugarSync claimed I was all synced up but files were out of what between the local client and the server. I could modify files, backup, and still the server would not get the modified versions. Since the server didn’t get the modifications, the other clients in the sync didn’t either.

    I happened to find out it wasn’t syncing during some other task, and not when I needed the backups, thankfully. If you rely on them for your important data/pictures/music/etc, you might want to random spot check deep into files/directories and make sure your files are being backed up.

    All this lead to (yet another) interaction with support, who takes days to respond and are quite unhelpful.

    Reply
  7. I have one question that is important to me.
    Does SugarSync allow to edit a word document while you have it open on the cloud? If yes, does the edited document update automatically back to the source computer in my instance my desktop?
    Does the mobile version of SugarSync support the above?

    Reply
    1. In a sense, yes. If you open the same file in more than one place, Sugarsync will create one version for each place it was open. You will have to manually merge the multiple docs into a single one and delete the other copies to get a unified edited document.

      This is unlike editing a Word doc on One Drive (both by Microsoft) where the edits in the Word docs are automatically merged (by Word). Note: You won’t find a generic cloud service that will do application-specific document merges (except possibly for text docs).

      Reply
  8. I’ve been a sugarsync user for 5+ yrs. In the beginning I was thrilled with SS, but each year they slip down lower and lower in support and they keep creeping up in cost.

    I use this for my business so I need this to be bulletproof and when there is a problem I need answers FAST. SS charge an extra $99/yr if you want phone support. OK that’s alot but if the support was good and timely I’d gladly pay it. Sadly, its not. Often it takes 15 minutes or more to reach a human and then its hit or miss whether that human is well trained.

    There are many great things about SugarSync but they are slowly dwindling. And I don’t think I can recommend it any more.

    Reply
  9. The service is okay, but just try to cancel your account. You have to open an online chat with customer service … and here I am waiting … 7 minutes so far, and I’m now sixth in line to be serviced. Signing up is easy, but they really make it a struggle to cancel.

    Reply
  10. I have been using SS for years and am very happy with it. I’ve paid for a 2nd subscription for my son in college. It took me awhile to choose, but SS’s ability to let me choose folders to sync was the big deciding factor. They recently DOUBLED my storage allowance for same price!

    I use 4 different device types and have no issues (MAC & PC for full sync, iPhone & iPad for mobile access.) I also have some files in cloud-only backup that I don’t need sync’d.

    One feature that has been a life saver for me is being able to send someone a URL to share a file. At least 50 times, I have been in a taxi, restaurant, or out of the country and I need to give access to important files. SS allows me to create a URL and email it to my colleague without sending the file itself. Often, these files are 25MB+ so saves cell/roaming data costs.

    Also, just got a new Mac laptop. I installed SS first, told it to sync, and in the morning ALL my work files were ready. People couldn’t believe how fast I had my new Mac up and running.

    I love being able to edit text files right in the mobile app (editor needs work) – or swipe through a folder of photos as if they were local. Family is always surprised I can pull up an old photo in a heartbeat.

    Yes, it costs, but it’s worth it to me. Imagine losing your personal photos? Irreplaceable. I’ve tried a local hard drive but it’s too easy to fail unless I want to setup special redundant / mirrored storage. I still sometimes dump a snapshot of my files to a drive but I don’t rely on that.

    The only gripe I had was years ago after first installing it at home… Underpowered PC was consumed trying to upload files… Seemed to take days. Since then (and upgrading home PC) I’ve had to issues.

    Reply
  11. They make it very difficult for customers to cancel their service. Despite being an internet company, you cannot cancel directly from the site. In this day & age that says a lot about how the company values its customers.

    Be prepared to be locked in for several years if you sign up or avoid & choose a company that doesn’t have shady practices like this.

    Not one to trust & the author of this site lacks credibility if he is recommending it.

    Reply
  12. I’ve had it for years and they once bailed me out via backup-restore in a HUGE way. Great support. Really not complex – and their pricing reflects the quality of the product.

    I don’t waste money. I use this product because my data are important to me and I feel safe.

    Reply
  13. Something to be aware of… After several years subscribed to sugarsync, I found I wasn’t using it. for several reasons, but that’s not why I’m commenting. A while back, I got an email from them saying that my credit card wasn’t working anymore and that my account would be deleted if I didn’t fix that. That card had been changed due to fraud but I decided not to update the card number and replied that I wanted to discontinue. I deleted sugarsync from my computer and forgot about it. Then recently, I discovered that they were still charging me. So I contacted them right away and was informed even though they told me they were discontinuing my account, they kept billing me, and that was they way they do it. When I asked why they didn’t send an email saying they had reestablished billed, they said their policy was to keep trying your card. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice this continuing $4.99 fee per month until almost a year later (yes, my bad for not looking at those details), but here’s my complaint… When I contacted them to find out what happened and request a refund from the time they sent “we’re cancelling your account” email to now, I was told “no” by chat person, customer service rep, and supervisor. They repeated that their policy is to send the cancellation notice and keep keep trying to charge clients cards, and no they don’t alert you to that. I told them I thought that their integrity was off to send a cancellation notice without a restatement notice. I requested a refund of at least half the time of over-charging (6 months), thinking I had some fault in letting it go on so long. They finally said that “as a courtesy” they would refund just 1 month and again told me their policy was to keep charging after they send that cancellation email. I obviously didn’t read the fine print, but in case someone runs into something similar, I thought it worth the alert.

    Reply
  14. Been using for a 1 person small business for years. Overall a great service. Being able to back up any folder with a right click compared to moving files to 1 folder is why this is the best solution for me. A quick right click allows you to send a public read only link or a shared link where individuals can read and write to your computer. Only compliant is the uploads are sometimes slow and it makes my mac fan run way too often. Really like the service though. Oh, it also saves multiple versions of files, so if you overwright something by mistake, you have multiple versions in the cloud. The above review does not seem to mention these intracies. Typical poorly researched article found in today’s journalism. Writing on ipad so excuse errors.

    Reply
  15. Their cancellation policy stinks. I paid $99 per year for a few years, then began using another backup system. I saw the $99 charge on my credit card and contacted them to cancel effective immediately. They told me OK, but the $99 was never refunded. When I contacted them about it they quoted their policy of “no refunds”…..for any reason? I was forced to pay $99 for an entire years worth of service that I will not use. This is very poor customer service, bordering on a scam. Do not use this company.

    Reply
    1. Outside of your refund issue… We’ve used SugarSync for the past 4 years and have had our ups and downs with Customer Support but most companies are this way. They have been very helpful in such cases and in fact, have taken advice and implemented features that were needed based on feedback. It’s been a very good experience on our end.

      Reply
    2. I’ve had similar problems to the above. sugarsync used to have online chat so when problems arise they could be dealt with immediately. now they actually charge for customer service; otherwise it’s all done through email. Do you have any idea. how long it can take to get anything fixed when you have to go back and forth not in real time. when I first joined their customer service was excellent. now it’s one of the worst online services I’ve encountered. I’ll be switching to a different company as soon as I research the best one (obviously one where they’re actually willing to communicate with you). I will then cancel my plan (using the 4 hour window only on weekdays that they allow — what a scam to make it so difficult to discontinue.) I intend to ask for a refund for months not used, if this is denied, I will have my bank reverse the charges. taking money when not supplying a service (especially when the terms of that service have suddenly changed so customer contact is considered a privilege) is not a valid contract. With so many other companies out there now, I don’t understand why they’ve chosen yo get worse rather than better.

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  16. Our company has been using SugarSync for over 4 years and counting. We used to have an in-house server where 3 employees would connect to access shared files during work production. Since we’ve moved to SugarSync we have been able to covert our ‘In-house’ server to the cloud using SugarSync. Ever employee installs SugarSync on their company and connects to the folders that are shared. All employees PC’s and laptops are always current with the latest files. Any deletions go into SugarSyncs global trash for recovery if needed.

    Honestly, it has allowed our company to go mobile the past 4 years and we have since let go of our physical office and employees have moved home to their home offices. Works flawlessly. SugarSync wasn’t intended to be an online server but that is how it’s worked for our company and works beautifully.

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  17. Good article but I believe For the most part, you missed the main thing that makes SugarSync unique. You stated “The application may not offer anything unique”, although earlier in the article you touched on an extremely unique feature, and probably the most important reason to use sugarsync, the fact that you can sync anything, anywhere on your device without upsetting the hierarchy of you filing method… in other words, your files stay EXACTLY where you want them, not where they want you to put them. This is paramount for anyone that keeps a clean and organized device.

    The other very unique feature is that each device does NOT have to mirror all the other devices… you select what files you want to sync on each device individually. So, I have my desktop and laptop synced exactly, yet I only have a few of those files synced on my phone. My iPad has a few more than the phone, and my surface has even more than those two mobile devices, but not everything the desktop and laptop have.

    These two features are what makes sugarsync stand apart. If you’re just needing online backup, it’s absolutely NOT what you should be using…. far too expensive for that.

    Thanks for allowing me to comment.

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  18. Jimmy Flemming, your comment decided the matter for me. I had been seeking clear, real-world explanations of SugarSync’s two critical nuances; that is, flexibility in sourcing and targeting sync’s. Your emphatic and incisive response to the reviewer got my attention and your spot-on address of the subject met my need. My intuition had told me to pick SugarSync, but gut feelings aren’t anything one can take to the boss. Happily, your words lay it out for anyone’s cognizance. Not that the competition lacks advantages, but now I clearly see how to argue rationally in favor of SugarSync over exactly DropBox as collaboration tool for the use of our small advertising agency. Thanks for commenting!

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  19. Sugarsync is great …. if it works. And there lies the problem. I sync between 3 computers. Recently, on all of the 3 computers a larger number of files will not up- or download for no obvious reasons (normal pdf/docx/xlsx,png fiels with normal filenames). On one computer, Sugarsync only works after a fresh re-install. After turning the computer off and on, the database will not load. No solutions from the helpdesk. Leaving Sugarsync of no value in my situation. As result I will terminate my subscription and will have to ensure that my computers become in-sync again and remain that way through a different solution. Any suggestions?

    In 2 out of three helpquestions the helpdesk fixes the problem.

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  20. I’ve been using SugarSync for about 7 years now, and despite it’s rather hefty price tag I’m sticking with it (But please SugarSync … stop raising your rates – enough!). As other reviewers have noted, for me the real benefit of SugarSync is that it provides “quiet” backup of my files on multiple devices, and I don’t have to think about it, because once I initially setup SugarSync on a device it backs everything up I directed it to, unless and until I tell it to stop. I also use OneDrive and DropBox (in my office), and those products both serve a valuable purpose, but SugarSync is my “overall” back up of those files too – so basically when it comes to those files I’m backed up twice, and not depending solely on one company (for example, Microsoft) for backup of critical files. Also, SugarSync *did* “save” me once, when an IT guy inadvertently deleted all my personal files on a laptop, I was able to restore everything pretty much in minutes using SugarSync. So please, SugarSync, as a long-time and devoted user of your product, please beef up your customer service, and stop with the rate increases for a bit – I’m very pleased with SugarSync overall.

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  21. Have been using sugarsync for 4 years but continuously had issues with syncing failing on mac requring a full clean install to get running again, each time costing me time id rather not waste. Today my windows 10 pc stopped syncing all together. No service-status tells me whats going on. A lame post on facebook somewhere says they had issues. Finally fed up with problems and poor tec support. Time to find an alternative

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  22. I tried SugarSync, I only wanted to look and test it out, but had to use a card for a trial account. Cancelling is almost impossible! They didn’t reply on twitter, I could find an email address so ended up just putting in fake card details. Now they are emailing saying my payment has failed – well duh! For anyone suffering the same problem, here is their “support” email address: [email protected]

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  23. Just don’t! There are so many better services. You basically can’t cancel or downgrade to change your account in anyway, they will never refund you.
    They also never reply to email requests, you have to call them and even then they aren’t every helpful, Ive been double charged, will never see that refund. They even suggested I contact my financial institution to cancel my credit card to stop the charges, for real. I can’t believe it got such a high rating, it is a zero. Don’t do it!

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  24. Years ago I started using “free” SugarSync to sync Quicken data between my desktop and laptop for travel. 4 years ago I started paying. Then last month (April 17) I saw noticed it stopped backing up and syncing all my data. I called tech support who tried a couple of kludge fixes which failed. Finally on the third call I reached the tech with some knowledge of their product who told me that they do not do “active databases” including Quicken, my e-mail files etc. – sounds like the files I most want to back up since they change, and are “important” to protect. They do document this on their web site (“Data That Can’t Be Synced”) even though they have not given this info to tech support.
    I cancelled and on uninstall saw the program date was also April 17, 2018. So if you have files that rarely change, OK. But if you have “active data” files, SugarSync has decided not to support them. FYI: Microsoft’s OneDrive is much cheaper and does back up all my data.

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  25. Use Dropbox. Save yourself the massive headache of attempting to cancel this overpriced crap. Use Dropbox. Seriously. This company has disabled the button to cancel your PAID account, you must call them within THEIR business hours as their online chat purposely does not work. Legal action must be threatened to get them to enable the cancel button. Which in my case will take 1 year to cancel. They were also charging an expired credit card. Seriously, use Dropbox.

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  26. It did what it was supposed to do — until it didn’t. Today, I learned that their most recent upgrade no longer supports Windows XP, just like that. When I called to find out why they didn’t give notice, they claimed they DID give notice — in an e-mail dated 5/16/18. That would’ve been a whole 5 days notice if I had even received such an e-mail.

    Yes, I know XP’s obsolete, and I have it on two computers. But 5 days to go out and buy a new computer, set it up, and load software? Using SugarSync, I might not be able to even transfer the data in 5 days.

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  27. Unfortunately I cannot recommend Sugarsync at all. It is one of the more expensive cloud storage solutions however, I was willing to take on the extra cost as I thought some of the features were worth it. Sadly though, it has presented me with numerous problems over the years. Once at capacity certain functions cease to work. I receive endless notifications that the account is at capacity with no way of disabling them. Furthermore, I lose the capability to delete unnecessary files so there is no possible way of rectifying storage issues. This then makes sugarsync redundant as a storage solution. Files can no longer be downloaded and at times the website pages simply won’t load to show my files. This could be a great cloud storage solution yet the problems experienced when dealing with large volumes of information make it too difficult to use. It’s 1 star for me.

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  28. Save yourself the hassle and use something else. I can’t put it any other way. OSX is buggy, just stopping for no apparent reason and nary a warning that it does. Different computers showing different usage on the same account. Brutally slow downloads that frequently just stop …. seriously problem when trying to offline non-synced folders of any size. Shows all files synced, but if I close and open again, it suddenly finds a bunch more files to sync????? Customer support? …

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  29. NO. NO. NO. NEVER. Have used for years now but has stopped working and there is nothing I can do about it. Download used to takes about 5 mins for 1MB. But now it refuses to sync anything. Fresh installs etc., nothing. DO NOT BUY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. They can claim I was at my storage limit – no. I have bad a internet connection – no. Funny how it is always the customer’s fault and not theirs yet many people are complaining about this same issue.

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  30. The Hotel California of services. Once signed up, it takes hours of emails and phone calls to cancel.

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  31. STAY AWAY! Used to love it. Bugs recently have 1) deleted hundreds of older files from my system 2) turned thousands of file and folder names to all uppercase and 3) created thousands of duplicate files due to ‘conflicts’ – yet they were older files that were not open or modified. Spent an hour+ with tech support. No solutions. And they admit they have seen these issues before – not just on my system. They have ruined 5+ yrs of client files for work.

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  32. AVOID SUGARSYNC!! I used this service for many years. Recently, when trying to sync to new device, hundreds of files would not download. On further inspection, these files were corrupted/damaged on the SugarSync server but not corrupted/damaged on the source device. No refund forthcoming, no apology for damaging hundreds and hudreds of my files on their server. Very difficult to get through to technical support.

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  33. Impossible to cancel! If you have to use them at least use Paypal so you can cancel subscription. But if they make it too hard to cancel can you trust them really?

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  34. Terrible program. It stores moved and deleted files in the deleted items folder. That counts against storage limits. Then try and delete them! Impossible I’ve been on my computer for hours trying to delete files that should have been deleted automatically. I’ll be on the computer for the next two days. The “empty all” feature on the desktop app simply crashes the app. No files get deleted. On the web app, there is no “empty all” selection. You can only delete 200 “items” at a time. and it takes almost 5 minutes per 200. Downloading files? Be prepared to wait for hours to download significant numbers of files. I have the app on three computers. Each computer tell me I have different amounts of files in storage. Two tell me I am over my limit. One says I have almost 60% of my storage left.

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  35. SugarSync erased 10 years of family photos without sending me a single email about the account being suspended or pending purge. I was unaware because I used the service to store files and pictures not needed immediately (i.e. I don’t login in regularly). They literally erased all my stuff without a single email or call within 45 days. Unreal. Do not use them.

    Reply
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