Why you should not use JustCloud for your backups!

Today I wanted to share with you my experience using the services of JustCloud to backup my personal file.

I started looking for a cloud backup solution about 2 years ago, since I had accumulated a considerable amount of personal data I did not want to lose and as I knew that personal backups such as external disks and USB keys are not safe enough (they can get damaged easily, they can get stolen or lost etc…).

I looked at a few different online comparisons  and found out that JustCloud was the best rated one, so I decided I would give it a go.

Their services looks relatively cheap at first sight, but you will very limited with the basic package and very quickly harassed to buy extra options. Sadly, the service focuses on how many devices you use as opposed to how much data you’re using, so it becomes quite expensive when you have multiple computers, which is my case.

All this worked fine for the 2 years I’ve been using their product and lately I received an e-mail saying I had to renew my subscription. I then decided I would try to retrieve some of the data I had previously stored in order to see if it was really worth it compared to a simple Google Drive solution.

I tried both via the UI and via the FTP method, none worked on my first laptop. It was impossible to connect to the FTP and their software was stopping the recovery procedure a few seconds after it started.

I got in touch with their support team via the online chat. As expected, they were completely useless and essentially only asked very basic questions trying to understand my problem… which was “I cannot retrieve my files at all, I want them all back”. After a couple of minutes, the guy told me they were “aware of the issue I was facing” but he needed to escalate my request to the development team who would get back to me about 4 days later.

First, this is completely unacceptable. If you pay for a backup solution the whole point is to have your backup available on demand, not to have to wait days until somebody helps you out. In particular, they should be going absolutely crazy knowing a client cannot recover his files as the is the key of their services; this is in fact the only thing I am paying for!

Needless to say they never got back to me and yesterday suspended my account because I had not renewed. I did get in touch with their subscription department telling them that a technical issue was ongoing on their side and that they should not suspend the account, but never got a proper answer. There is probably nobody behind this department as most answers I got were automatic reminders, signed by a person I could not find on LinkedIn, for example.

The funniest thing is that today I got an e-mail from the same fake sales person, saying that now that my account was suspended, they were offering me a discount to renew, without of course mentioning anything about my issue not being solved.

I did manage to recover part of the files using another computer. But since I had not lost the originals, I compared and there were several files missing! Clearly this service cannot be trusted.

I would strongly encourage you not to trust JustCloud and to advise anybody using their service to recover their data as soon as possible and seek for a new solution.

I have not considered asking for a refund of the past 2 years of services, although I sincerely feel the service I paid for was not provided as my data could not be recovered. If you have experienced the same and wish to push for a refund, get in touch with me and we might be able to get something back if there are more of us.

I have found multiple articles such as this one where other users share the same experience.