vinkosaidthis

Please see my blog (http://www.vinko.com/weblog/2007/04/problem-with-mozy.shtml) for my experience with Mozy's new Mac OS X client.

At the moment I definitely cannot recommend it for any Mac users.

I like Mozy a lot—in fact, enough that I admin this entry on iusethis. But people have a right to post negative reviews without getting moderated into oblivion. Stop it!

I started using this back when it wasn't "public" - someone posted the download link to the Mac client on a few blogs a month or two before it got released.

All in all, I haven't had any problems with it - my only beef is that I can't specify my own backup sets (it just doesn't seem to work for me) and the transfer rates are rather low at times (though it may just be network issues on my end).

This app is a serious step forward for Mac backup -- it means that MacBook/Pro users with a broadband connection only have to remember to leave their notebook on overnight, rather than connect an external drive (which inevitably one forgets to do most of the time.)

The main concern I have with it is that it saturates upstream capacity, which means it's not really practical for use during the hours that you're using your computer. Saturating upstream means that other incidental upstream requests such as "access this webpage" or "send my voice as part of a skype call" get substantially delayed, reducing the speed in both directions of the broadband connection.

It'd be great if the developers could do say, 15 seconds of full-bore uploading, measure the maximum speed they're getting out of the connection and then back off a tiny bit to let other net applications have a little breathing space on the upstream link. (I've already emailed the developers with this feedback.)

I can't seem to get past the config screens.

I can't seem to get past the config screens. After checkmarking "retrieving account information" and "scanning backup sets", it just hangs so I have to cancel or quit.

angharad: have you tried emailing support? support@mozy.com

Turns out that Mozy currently requires the user to have admin rights to the system. I found that hint in a blog comment.

A less pressing problem is that its built-in file browser cannot follow linked files.

I use SuperDuper! for backing up my hard-drive every other day but I'd been looking for an offsite backup service to ease my paranoia of having all my gear stolen/burnt. I've been testing out Mozy for a few weeks and I'm very happy with it. Unlike some people I didn't have any configuration issues. It just sits in the background, quietly uploading my files.

I'd be extraordinarily cautious about using this software for backups you rely on.

This worked well for me with the free version for a month or so - even allowed me to recover a file I deleted by mistake. All was good - so I shifted to unlimited.

Since that time it's been grief. Hung screens, etc - all that jazz. But worse than that - much worse - is that it isn't actually backiing up some of my files. I get a nice "Your Files Are Backed up Message" - but they ARE NOT on the server. If I look at the mozy logs there are thousand of lines of error messages about scan databases / caches / etc being locked.

I can deal with beta software. I can deal with problems. I can't deal with backup software that SAYS IT'S DONE THE JOB - and hasn't.

Support has been very responsive - but we haven't solved the problem. Until I see a couple of months of FLAWLESS performance - I'd stay away from this as a trusted solution.

Carbonite is coming soon. Works perfectly on my PC's. Looking forward to the Mac version.

I think the key here is to not put all of your backup eggs in one basket - in addition to keeping backups of things like Camino and Safari profile folders on Mozy, I also back up to an external HD, DVD-R, and FTP. While I like Mozy I'd strongly recommend against anyone using Mozy as their sole backup option.

I see solutions like Mozy to be "convenience backups" - places to backup files that aren't critically important to me, and yet would be nice to have backed up somewhere.

In any case, I'm still having intermittent communication problems with their server; whenever that happens, my system hangs somewhat, until the connection times out or until I force quit Mozy. And ttague is right - if a backup fails for some reason, it doesn't tell you (You can tell though, from the date it displays of your last backup). Nevertheless, it works often enough, and when it works, it works pretty well. Overall, I'd recommend it to anyone who likes living on the technological bleeding edge of things.

Yeehaw! This version has bandwidth throttling, making it possible to run it as an always on trickle-uploader without compromising your browsing speed or VoIP reliability.

I just upgraded to version 0.6.2.4 and it forgot all my preferences; login details, files/folders to backup and backup history. A minor inconvenience really as all my files were still backed up online and didn't need to be re-uploaded.

@sleggat: I upgraded to 0.7, and my preferences still work with the new version. :)
However, Mozy will stop working if you move it from the Applications folder (eg: to a subfolder called "Backup").

The best thing is that every person that clicks on the link and starts using Mozy, will get another 256MB of free backup space. https://mozy.com/?ref=742EE0

@tafkas:
From https://mozy.com/account/referrals:
For every person that clicks on that link and starts using Mozy*, you'll both get another 256MB of free backup space.

@ norz: Even better

Mozy for Mac is still in beta but I've found it much improved over the past few months. I've definitely got Mozy in "set it and forget it" mode at this point, with little or no tweaking or bugs to report. I get occasional "connection errors", but in the end I have very current backups with no intervention.

One thing to note: If you move a bunch of files around on your drive (say 10GB of photos for example), Mozy will initially report upon its next backup that 10GB will be uploaded. It's actually smart enough to compare the files on your HD with those on the server and only upload those that are actually changed. It'll take an hour or two to do the comparison if there are a lot of files, but it does a great job of uploading only what's necessary.