WARNING! MediaFire Cloud Storage - 2 Thumbs Down

Recently I heard about MediaFire, a cloud storage service. According to their welcome page "With 50GB of free space, you can use MediaFire to backup all your important files—and even your not-so-important ones too."

It's important to note that there is no fine print, no caveat, no details and no other mention of the amount of space given to you when you sign up for MediaFire. 

So let me ask you how much space you BELIEVE you are given when you create an account - 50 GB?

Well if you thought that, you're wrong. You get 10 GB on signup. Yes, you can jump through hoops and earn more free space UP TO 50 GB but contrary to the implied message on their welcome page you do not start with 50 GB

Now I have no problem completing tasks to obtain more free space. What I have a problem with is the sneakiness of the message! Be aboveboard and honest and tell newcomers that they start with 10GB and can earn 40 more.

That was Strike One for me. 

But I started earning my extra GB. I created an avatar for which I was to get 1GB. It never got added to my account. I completed two other "tasks" and earned 4 GB. If I linked my Facebook and Twitter accounts I could earn more. I didn't like the sound of that as there is no need for my Social Media accounts to be linked. That was Strike Two. 

Then I started reading about some issues with MediaFire - among other issues was one that concerned me -  that private files were sometimes inadvertently shared with strangers. That was Strike Three and at that point I decided to delete my account.

Easier said than done! I could not find any way to delete the account I had opened. I consulted the Help File. The instructions were simple and clearly explained but when I followed them I had no "DELETE MY ACCOUNT" button on the page where it was supposed to be. Finally I wrote to Customer Support for help. 24 hours later I had my answer. Here is what they said:

"The delete button appears after the account has been open for at least 7 days.  Until then, the account cannot be deleted. "

Are they kidding me?? A new customer is held hostage for 7 days and cannot leave the service? Strike Four. I was flabbergasted and very annoyed so I replied that I did not wish to keep my account open for 7 days. I demanded they delete my account for me since I had no way of doing that.

I should note that I also posted on their Facebook page, and tweeted them on their Twitter account with no response.

Five days passed and MediaFire Customer Support had not responded. Strike Five.  I wrote again thanking them for providing me with such terrific material for the negative review I would be writing on my blog. I mentioned the review ould be posted on Twitter, Pinterest, Google + and Facebook. I demanded they delete my account on my behalf.

Within 2 hours I had a response. Interesting that it took a threat of a negative review to elicit any response let alone such a quick one! Strike Six

Their response? Here it is: 

"Unfortunately that is the only way to delete an account. We are not holding any hostage. We are ensuring that you have time to test the services we offer and it is our way to reduce the amount of garbage accounts.

After seven days from when you created your account you will be able to log in and delete it."

On Day 7 I followed instructions in the Help File, found the DELETE MY ACCOUNT button which had magically appeared on my page, and deleted my account. 

On Day 9, using a different browser, I returned to MediaFire and tried my login information. I did this because at this point I do not trust this service. Lo and behold MY ACCOUNT STILL EXISTS! I can see my files, my account name, the fact that I earned more GB and have a total of 14 GB of space etc.

On the Account and Billing Information page, which is where the DELETE MY ACCOUNT button appeared after 7 days of being held hostage, that button is no longer there. 

I will be writing to MediaFire Customer Support again but meantime I urge others to give MediaFire a pass. Use a reliable cloud storage service such as Dropbox which does not use trickery or strongarm tactics to keep its customers. 

And wish me luck in getting my account deleted once and for all.

Is Your Genealogy Family History Backed Up and Safe?

Recently this story appeared on a British website Burglars steal a laptop holding family history

It seems a local chauffeur had his home broken into and several items stolen. Among the stolen items was a laptop which contained a 12-year family history project which his father, aged 87, had been working on. 

And you guessed it, there were no backup copies. Ouch! 

The prudent thing to do is protect your genealogy research! Back it up in a cloud storage site, on a flash drive, on an external hard drive, or wherever. Make more than one copy and don't have them all in one home. Give one to your brother or sister or son or daughter or a friend. 

That way if you have a fire or flood or are burgled, all your family data will not be lost. Remember that old adage - don't put all your eggs in one basket

That holds true for genealogy research and family tree data as well. Keep it safe and don't lose what you have probably spent years compiling.

I use Drobox and Bitcasa as my cloud storage and I also have Western Digital MyBookLive for a personal cloud storage system networked to all my laptops and computers. 

As well I have Western Digital Passports for a portable external hard drive system where I can store my files. You can read my review of all of these at Five Cloud Storage Services Revisited

I also like to create  books on Shutterfly which hold a summary of the family ancestors along with photos and scanned documents. I keep one copy for myself and gift other copies to my children and siblings. The more places I can put my family trees the more chance they will survive. 

If you've never created a book using Shutterfly you may want to watch my Shutterfly video tutorials showing how at Creating a Memory Book - Video Tutorials 

Credits: image of burglar by chanpipat  and image of "Cloud Computing Devices" by ddpavumba on FreeDigitalPhotos.net
 

Procrastination, My Word For the Day and a Lesson Learned

My Western Digital My Book Live 2TB Personal Cloud Storage has not been co-operating with my Mac laptop for several months. I can access MyBookLive from my Windows main computer but not from my Mac. 

Yes I've been meaning to check into the problem and fix it..... because that is where I do my backups of important files. MyBookLive is like having your personal cloud computing system and it's really very cool. 

Of course I also have external cloud services. The two I use daily are Dropbox and Bitcasa. But I don't do a complete backup with them because I don't put private or confidential information in the cloud. 

So MyBookLive which I have password protected, is where my monthly backups live. Except I haven't done any monthly backups in, well, months! Lately my Mac has been overheating. It gets so hot I think I could fry eggs on it. This morning I booked an appointment at the nearest Genius Bar (which happens to be a 2 hour drive each way...)

Of course they strongly suggest you backup your computer before bringing it in. That's a wise precaution and I have a feeling my Mac will be staying for some in-depth work, so I do want to back it up. That was a problem so I got to work on fixing MyBookLive.

Well, long story short, that has not been easy nor completely successful. I've managed to fix it enough that I can manually transfer files from my Mac to MyBookLive. That's a tedious and very slow process!

But I cannot use Mac's built in Time Machine to transfer (which would get everything and be far less tedious) because my very poor Internet connection via satellite, will not connect to Western Digital to allow for firmware updates. And without that update, Time Machine can't connect to MyBookLive and start the transfer. 

If I'd begun solving this problem when it first arose I would not be in this mess. 

Procrastination. Yep that's my word for the day. I'm going to write 100 lines of "I will not procrastinate". Well, maybe I'll write it out tomorrow.....


Credits: Image by Stuart Miles on FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Five Cloud Storage Services Revisited

In 2011 I wrote about cloud storage and the different free cloud services available. It's at Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining for those who want to have a look. Time for an update!

Here is a list of 5 free Cloud Storage services you might want to try:

1. Dropbox. This is my all-time favourite. With Dropbox I can store, sync, and, share files online for free. Not all cloud services will sync. If that's not important to you, don't worry about it. But I like to have at least one service that will automatically sync my uploaded files to all my devices. You get 2 GB of free space but you can get more with referrals. If you still need more you can always subscribe to Dropbox Pro, available in 100 GB, 200 GB, and 500 GB plans. You can even get more than 500GB with their Business Plan.

2. Google Drive. 15 GB of free space plus the use of Google spreadsheets and docs makes this a great choice.  I use Google Drive quite a bit and it's easy to share editing of files with others.

3. Bitcasa: 10 GB of free storage and surprisingly, for $99.00 a year you can have unlimited storage with their Infinite Plan. I like this option very much and am probably going to sign up for Infinite.

4. Amazon Cloud Drive: 5GB of free storage. I use this for genealogy certificates.

5. SugarSync: 5GB of free storage makes this another option. You can pay for 60GB, 100GB or 250GB plans if 5GB isn't enough for you

I haven't included SkyDrive as I don't care for it. But lots of people do use it and you can get 7 GB of storage so you might want to check it out too.

Let's talk about having your own personal cloud storage and external hard drive systems. I use Western Digital MyBookLive which hooks up to your home network and gives you your own private cloud storage. It's easy to drop files into it and it also creates a backup of your computer hard drive.  I bought the 2TB version at Amazon and there is a 3TB version available too. The WD My Book Live 2TB is on sale, down from $164.99 to $109.99 while the WD My Book Live 3TB is down from $199.99 to $153.98

It's a bit of work setting it up but once you do, it's easy to use. You can even set up different folders for different family members and can password protect the folders if you wish.

I also use the WD My Passport 1TB Portable External Hard Drive Storage. In fact I have three of them! I can't live without them. They range in size from 3TB down to 320 GB so there's bound to be one that suits you. These are also your own private storage but the beauty is their portability.  The size is 4 x 1 x 3 inches! I have all my genealogy photos and documents on one and I can take it with me to plug into a relative's tv (if they have a USB port) or their computer to share with them

Hopefully these ideas will help you if you're struggling with what cloud service or what type of external back up system to use.

Credits: "Computer Computing Global Social Networks" by KROMKRATHOG on FreeDigitalPhotos.net

MEGA is Here - 50 GB Free Cloud Storage

I've discovered MEGA. MEGA is a new free cloud storage service based in New Zealand. I signed up yesterday and today I am happily uploading files into my 50 gigabytes of storage space. Yep, you heard me right. 50 GB. Free.

From the MEGA website "We are a dedicated group of technologists who were given the time, opportunity and Internet access to build an awesome cloud storage service that will help protect your privacy. We have programmed this Internet service from scratch in Auckland, New Zealand. Unlike most of our competitors, we use a state of the art browser based encryption technology where you, not us, control the keys."

This is very interesting because that is exactly what MEGA does. You register and create an Encryption Key. That's kind of like a password. The difference with an Encryption Key is that NO one but YOU knows what it is. MEGA doesn't know. Their programmers and staff don't know. That's the good part because it means there is no way for hackers or anyone else to see your stuff.

The caveat is that if you lose your Encryption Key you have lost all your files too. Because no one but you can get them ---- as long as you have your key.

50 GB of free cloud storage is pretty awesome but there's even more. A Pro Membership will buy you up to 4TB of storage. Yep for $29.99 a month you can have 4 TB of storage. $19.99 gets you 2TB and $9.99 provides you with 500GB.

That's impressive.

One tip - take their advice and log in with Chrome. I ignored the popup explaining that Chrome would give me a better experience and logged in with Firefox. I couldn't get my files to upload so I switched to Chrome and they uploaded very quickly.

I was worried because  living where I do with limited access to high speed Internet, I have what is commonly referred to as "last resort Internet service" (a 4G Satellite service) . I wasn't sure if the speeds would be high enough to allow me access to MEGA. But so far so good.

You may find it a bit sluggish since it seems everyone is jumping to sign up. If you do just be patient and wait a few days for the initial rush to die down. I'm pretty happy about having yet another spot to store my genealogy files but I'll still be uploading directly from my iPhone to Dropbox since MEGA doesn't (yet) have that capability. 

Credits: 
Image by scottchan at Free Digital Photos
Thanks to Dick Eastman of EOGN for his blog post alerting me to MEGA

Ancestry.com Releases Family Tree Maker 2012 with TreeSync™, Allowing Family Tree Updates from Anywhere via the Cloud

Update of the No. 1 Selling Family History Software Makes Researching & Sharing Family History More Rewarding Than Ever

PROVO, Utah (Sept. 29, 2011) – Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online family history resource, today announced the release of Family Tree Maker® 2012, an improved and expanded version of the world’s No. 1 selling family history software. Now with its new TreeSync™ capabilities, Family Tree Maker 2012 enables family history enthusiasts to sync their desktop family trees and their trees online at Ancestry.com unlike any other desktop software available on the market.

“We have a long-term vision to make family history simple and more accessible to the masses,” said Eric Shoup, Senior Vice President of Product for Ancestry.com. “Now with the combination of Ancestry.com, the Ancestry mobile app and the new Family Tree Maker, users can work on their family tree anywhere, anytime.”

Family Tree Maker 2012 introduces TreeSync, which enables family historians to sync their online tree at Ancestry.com and their desktop family trees, including photos and other historical records they have attached. This enables Family Tree Maker users to bring their desktop tree online to share with invited guests and continue their research from wherever they are.

The new software comes with a free membership or free trial to Ancestry.com that gives users access to billions of historical records, and millions of memory-making historical photos, stories and family trees. Membership with Ancestry.com connects Family Tree Maker 2012 users to the largest family history community in the world, and helps users find other members who might be researching the same ancestors so they can compare notes and discover more together.

Other improvements in Family Tree Maker 2012 include:

·         An easier-than-ever user interface to get users started right away

·         Upgraded help content and video tutorials

·         Improved content-generation and editing options to create engaging “Smart Stories” about family history and family members

·         The ability to combine families into one harmonized tree, bringing step-families and adoptees into the main family tree

·         Simple generation labels and text boxes to make family trees more interesting and informative

Expert users of earlier Family Tree Maker releases will find new power-user tools in Family Tree Maker 2012, including:

·         Upgraded personalization capabilities enabling users to add their own images, adding narrative text and displaying explanatory generation labels to charts

·         Index report of every individual in a family tree with birth, marriage and death dates

·         Chart the line of descendancy between an ancestor and any descendant in your family tree

 

Memopal - A Warning!

On April 4th I installed Memopal, an online cloud storage system. I included it in my comparison of cloud storage systems on April 6th.  I've had nothing but problems every since but it took me until earlier this week to figure out what was happening.

First thing I noticed was that my MacBook Air was running very slowly. There was an annoying lag between me typing and the actual text appearing on screen. Everything was sluggish.

Then a browser window began to open unexpectedly and without my doing anything. The window was at the Memopal website where a prominent notice announced I was out of space and needed to purchase more. That was puzzling since I'd set the Memopal options to download one small directory from my computer hard drive.

At first I ignored what was happening. But the Memopal browser window began opening several times daily. So I logged into the Memopal website and discovered that much of my hard drive had been uploaded to it. I was stunned. Everything was there, not just the folder I'd selected originally. Oddly enough the website also stated that of my specific amount of free storage, I'd used double that. Huh? How could I use twice what I was allowed?

I began deleting the files on the website. That wasn't as easy as it sounds. Then I found Memopal on my computer (did I mention I had to download a program to use Memopal? Big mistake on my part!) and shoved it into the Trash can. But it would not go and a message came up telling me Memopal could not be deleted because it was open. Hmm... I hadn't opened it, I just found the application on my hard drive and selected it for deletion.

So I opened the application and immediately saw that it was busy downloading my entire computer's hardrive! Another look showed me that it had been doing that for over a week, presumably running unnoticed in the background. No wonder my computer was so sluggish.


I was able to "pause" the download but I could not stop it permanently. Every time my computer was turned back on the download resumed. I could not cancel it. I could not delete Memopal no matter what I did as my Mac continued to inform me the program was open. A visit to the Memopal website revealed that all the files I'd deleted several hours earlier were back. I deleted those files a half dozen times over the next several hours and they still kept reappearing.

In the Memopal program on my computer I had 3 options - download my entire computer (recommended by Memopal!) or download one folder or one other choice. I could also limit the file size in MB. I reset the options to "one folder" chose the specific folder (a test folder with nothing of importance) and set the size to no file bigger than 1 MB.

I started the download process but instead of downloading the folder as instructed it began downloading all files on my hard drive.  I spent almost 4 hours trying to solve this problem before finally figuring out how to access the actual contents of the application that I'd installed on my computer. Even though I could not delete the application itself I was able to delete the contents, that is, the scripts that made the application run. That stopped the download and I went back to the website and once again deleted all the files from my computer that were there.

Then I cancelled my account - again, not a  simple task. It required an email to "support" and then a wait for a response. That took over 24 hours.

So - I recommend that you avoid Memopal! I am still worried about my files being downloaded to the website but that's done so all I can do is change all my passwords and hope that I did not have any sensitive information on my hard drive. A lesson learned.

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

There's been a lot of discussion about clouds recently. Cloud computing that is. Are you in the cloud? I am and it's not only easy, it's fun and a great way to save and share important things.

Got a new find in your genealogy research and want to have multiple copies in safe places? Typed out great-grandma's recipe and want to share it with your cousins? Scanned 100 old family photos and want to make sure you have backups? Need to work on a project in collaboration with others? At your hotel for a genealogy conference and just remembered you left your notes at home? Don't worry, the cloud has your back!

What is it and Why Do I Want It?

There are many different types of cloud computing and several models of use, but I just want to describe the cloud services  I use and how and why I use them. You can Google "cloud computing" to read detailed definitions and descriptions.

I Love Dropbox!

My all-time favourite and most-used cloud service is Dropbox. With Dropbox I can store, sync, and, share files online for free. Not all cloud services will sync. If that's not important to you, don't worry about it. But I like to have at least one service that will automatically sync my uploaded files to all my devices.

Here's a brief look at how Dropbox works. Let's take an example of writing the story of Grandpa Harvey's life. I've saved my file to my computer hard drive but I want a backup and I want to be able to work on the story from my iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Laptop or other computers. All I need to do is "drop" my file into my Dropbox Account (2 GB of free storage space). Dropbox automatically syncs the file to all my devices that have the App installed. I can also access the files from any computer simply by going to the Dropbox website. I can also give other family members or contribuotrs access to the file and they can participate in the story writing, or simply enjoy reading it.

With Dropbox I can take a photo from my iPhone camera and immediately send it to Dropbox. When my husband is out photographing cemeteries for our Cemetery Walk series on Olive Tree Genealogy You-tube Channel, he can send each photo as he takes it to Dropbox. Dropbox notifies me on all my devices and my main computer immediately that a file has been added to my space. That gives me  immediate access to the tombsotne pictures hubby is taking.

Comparison of Free Cloud Services

Dropbox
2GB of free storage plus ability to earn extra free space up to 8GB. No size limit on files. Sync files automatically. Available as an App for iPhone, iPad and other mobile devices. Able to access files from any computer (Mac, Windows, Linux) or mobile device. Sign up for your free Dropbox Account of 2GB and get an extra 250MB free through this link.

Amazon Cloud Drive
5 GB free storage. Does not sync. Access files from any computer. Amazon promotes their cloud storage as a great way to save videos, music and photos. 5 GB is about 1,000 songs, 2,000 photos or 20 minutes of videos.  When you purchase songs or albums from the Amazon MP3 Store, you can  save your purchases to your Cloud Drive.

Memopal
3 GB free storage space. Get an extra free 500 MB with friend invites. Available as an App for iPhone. Use this link to immediately get 3.5 GB of free storage on signup    UPDATE MAY 5, 2011. I do not recommend this cloud storage service and will be writing a blog post to explain why



Box.net
5 GB free storage space. 25MB file size limit. Mobile App access. Website

Windows Skydrive
25GB free storage but file sizes limited to 50MB.  Create, view, edit, and share Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files online with SkyDrive even if you don't have Microsoft Office installed on your computer. Note: I find Windows SkyDrive slow but I love the online Excel and Word programs! It allows me to use my familiar Excel and Word even on my MacBookAir.

Google Docs
1GB free. With Google Docs you create and share your work online.

Summary

Each of the free cloud storage services above with the exception of SkyDrive  allow users to pay for  expanded storage and more features.

Why do I use so many? I like to keep my cloud storage semi-organized by type of files or work. For example I use Amazon Cloud Drive for my scanned photos. I use DropBox for files I'm actively working on and files I need to easily and quickly share between computers.

I use Memopal for backup storage of my main website Olive Tree Genealogy. Box.net isn't one of my favourites but it's useful for backup of final versions of the Family History books I've published. It's downfall is the small file size it allows.

I'm not a huge fan of Google Docs so hardly ever use it but I include it here because it is good for teamwork participation. Windows SkyDrive is one I'm just starting to explore and I love being able to work in Excel and Word from my MacBook Air, but I find it the least user-friendly.

You can read what PC World had to say about Google Docs vs SkyDrive vs Amazon CloudDrive.  Spoiler: The author likes Box.net the best. Don't ask me how that got into the mix when the title is "Cloud fight! Amazon Cloud Drive vs. Google Docs vs. Microsoft Skydrive"

My Top Three

My personal choice for my top three cloud services are Dropbox, Memopal and Amazon CloudDrive. Try them. See which one works for you! Don't forget to use these links for Dropbox and Memopal to get your extra free storage space when you join! You won't be sorry you dipped your toe into the cloud.