If you are like me, and want to connect your cloud storage to your local machine, you inevitably go through all the different options available to you. First you try the cloud provider’s tool, which works better in some cases than others, and then you go out looking for a third-party tool that does it better.
Unfortunately for me, I found ExpanDrive before I found WebDrive or StableBit Cloud Drive. It worked well enough at the time, so I went ahead and bought it. Not only that, but I went ahead and purchased a lifetime license so I would be able to continually get updates to the software. So far so good. I install the software and use it heavily to move my local files up to OneDrive. It works pretty well, but occasionally breaks and needs to be restarted or tweaked to work.
Then they put out a new release — version 7.0.
Everything went to hell. The software constantly crashes or loses connections to my cloud provider, causing very slow file uploads, repeated uploads, or general handle-holding just to get the file to where it needs to be. That doesn’t include the occasional file misplacement, where instead of uploading the file to the proper directory, it simply uploads it to the root directory of my OneDrive. It has done this multiple times. We’re up to release 7.3.5 now. Same problems, and the software is considerably less stable than it was when I bought it! Now I can’t even open some of my cloud folders without ExpanDrive giving up and booting me out of the drive I was in. Sometimes this happens three or four times before I can finally copy the file.
I finally had enough this past weekend. Somewhat in tandem with my search for a new backup solution, I have also been looking for new ways to map my cloud drives in a similar manner. As I mentioned before, I have stumbled upon WebDrive and StableBit, which are considerably more user-friendly, and provide a lot more capabilities and features than ExpanDrive did. Oh, they’re also both cheaper than ExpanDrive was.
I will report back when I make my decision on which program I decide to use. So far, from my limited utilization, WebDrive is definitely ahead, although StableBit Cloud Drive has some cool features that would be useful for sensitive files and encryption. I’m currently trying out both until my free trial ends, and then I’ll make a purchasing decision. I’ll probably use whatever I choose to build a homebrew backup solution that meets my requirements, because as I mentioned earlier, I have given up on CrashPlan, and the other options available are sub-par at best.