this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2023
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[–] NateNate60@lemmy.world 109 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There is no data loss on Google Drive, and there is no war in Ba Sing Se.

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago

This is why you do 3-2-1 backups. If you've ever worked for any company, you should know that eventually budgets will get cut, and the service will degrade until something breaks. It doesn't matter whether you're dealing with some family run small business, or the world's largest and most advanced tech company. No system deserves absolute trust, especially long term. I personally rotate 2 local, and 1 or 2 separate cloud providers, depending on how important the data is. Everything not shared is encrypted locally.

[–] Wussy@lemmy.world 108 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's just their latest addition: Google Gaslight.

[–] Nobody@lemmy.world 21 points 9 months ago

Google will be happy to explain the fix after you sit through 7 hours of unskippable Youtube ads. Then 7 more.

[–] the_q@lemmy.world 43 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Get a NAS and start de-Googling yourself.

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 23 points 9 months ago (1 children)

But I like Googling myself

[–] Sanyanov@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Don't forget to make backups!

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

A raid counts as a backup, right?

[–] Hacksaw@lemmy.ca 4 points 9 months ago

LMAO Yes! Exactly in the same way that walking backwards towards a cliff counts as backing up. Technically it is a backup, but in practice a disaster is imminent lol.

[–] JFowler369@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

RAID is redundancy. It saves your data if a or two drive fail, but does not help you if the entire RAID system dies (power surge, fire, water damage). Generally if it is on the same system it is not a backup.

[–] Akinzekeel@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

It's on my todo list I swear

[–] aniki@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

After Christmas, I think I'm going to spec out a simple two drive 10tb RAID server running a pair of K80s so I can run my NAS and my models on one beefy machine and have all my backups automagically when I am home.

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

A raid is not a backup.

But also look at Unraid and maybe more, smaller drives.

[–] weLookAbove@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I'm new to the scene. If a raid isn't a backup, then what is?

[–] limelight79@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago

It provides redundancy in case a drive fails, but there's no protection if you accidentally delete a file. That's why they say "RAID is not a backup."

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Something where your files won't disappear due to a single errant command or ransomware.

[–] Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Raid can be redundancy, backup is when the data is offsite(be it cloud or drive offsite) to prevent situations like fires or floods from destroying your data. If all your data is in the same place, its still not safe

[–] aniki@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Fair point. I'll probably run a RAID5 with extra drives and replicate to a cloud location for DR. Should be more than sufficient for my needs and the rate I generate data. I haven't done any specing out yet -- just brainstorming.

[–] danielfgom@lemmy.world -4 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Doesn't help me when I'm 200km from home and need that file or note or picture.....

[–] danque@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Actually it does. I have a nasPi running openmediavault with portforward and i can get access it anywhere in the world. Japan, usa, eu it doesn't matter as long as there is internet.

Don't wanna fiddle with the tech stuff. Get a Synology and make your life easier. Best thing is you can upgrade it yourself. No longer bound by 200gb or 1tb but all the way to 10tb and more! With redundancy as well. No this not an ad for Synology but damn does it work good.

[–] WestwardWind@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

What you're saying is technically true but do you know what was a horrible experience?

A few weeks ago when I, in Japan, needed to download many 5+ Gb project files I had backed up on my home server in the US after a hard drive failure and I was hamstrung by my shitty domestic up speed limit.

At least with large web file hosts like Google, iCloud, and mega you're not restricted by your inferior domestic upload speeds. Being able to access the server from anywhere is only half the battle

[–] ichbinjasokreativ@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Or you could rent a server from a hosting provider and keep your data there. Not as safe and private as self hosted, but still better than google drive or similar.

[–] the_q@lemmy.world -4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This is just you being a contrarian and rubbing Google's shoulders.

[–] desconectado@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago

How is acknowledging a bad connection by your ISP contrarian? Are you saying his problems do not exist?

[–] Kuvwert@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago

You can remotely access anything from anywhere with some setup

[–] the_q@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Oh really? Hmm I guess me being able to access all my files anytime, anywhere is just some kind of magic that only I know! I'm a wizard!

[–] danielfgom@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Seriously? How's it doing that without exposing your home network?

[–] the_q@lemmy.world 0 points 9 months ago

Exposing isn't the same thing as being insecure. You can setup things like a reverse proxy to help secure yourself.

[–] pl_woah@lemmy.ml 41 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Hey, slightly better than Apple forums, where all their software is perfect and nothing is ever wrong

[–] misk@sopuli.xyz 58 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Hey, that's not true. Apple forums reps will ask you to factory reset everything twice, then refer to store for servicing and then ghost you.

[–] watcher@nopeeking.link 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Lucky for me I've had a beyond excellent experience with Apple support representative - though not through forum (phone).

The resetting was a bit of a pain, yes. But ultimately it led to a proper and timely resolution.

[–] misk@sopuli.xyz 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I'm well entrenched in Apple ecosystem, to the point I hate their guts and their "reset will fix everything" mantra.

Story time.

Lost one of the earphones in my APP2. Went to my local authorized service center to get a replacement since according to Apple they're the only ones that are able to put it into the case. Alright, I guess you need to order replacement part so that doesn't matter.

Couple of days later I pick them up, lady at the counter says to reset them when I'm home. Weird, they could do it themselves, I thought, but had little time to get into that debate. I come home, do the reset procedure, and nothing, keep getting earphone mismatch error. I read up on the internet that it could be mismatched firmware and on advanced gymnastics required to get it fixed, which brings me nowhere after trying for multiple hours.

I return AirPods to the service center and say - you did the service, you fix it. Week later I'm asked to pick them up, get them, return home and... it's the same as before. I return them again, tell them not to call me until they make sure everything works, they take them in, call me couple of days later and this time I check them at the counter - and it's the same fucking thing again.

In the end they replaced both earphones for free while out of warranty but I lost so much time I'm seriously pissed with Apple still.

[–] watcher@nopeeking.link 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I've dealt with authorized service centre, which has replaced my MacBook Air motherboard due to a faulty NVMe.

[–] misk@sopuli.xyz 1 points 9 months ago

I just hope they returned it in working condition and if not, didn't play dumb and ask you to factory reset.

[–] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 23 points 9 months ago

They. Are. Lying.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Perhaps a "syncing" issue could remove files from your computer before uploading (that still doesn't explain the claims of missing web documents, though).

If you hold shift while clicking on the Drive system tray/menu bar icon, you'll get a special debug UI with an option to "Recover from backups."

Google locked the issue thread on the Drive Community Forums at 170 replies before it was clear the problem was solved.

Taking away the space to diagnose the issue and communicate fixes adds to the sense that Google is more interested in PR damage control than helping users.

It also doesn't allow people to reply to the "solution" post, so it's hard to evaluate the fix's efficacy since Google shut down the easiest avenues for user feedback and support.

Drive isn't just a consumer product, it's also aimed a businesses looking for terabytes of file storage, with paid tiers that can be priced into the stratosphere.


The original article contains 737 words, the summary contains 155 words. Saved 79%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] jwt@programming.dev 5 points 9 months ago
[–] might_steal_your_cat@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago

It's fixed because we said so!

[–] cybersandwich@lemmy.world -5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

A couple things:

You are responsible for making sure your data is backed up. If you only had it on Google drive, you fucked up. Their durability 99.99999 or whatever is fantastic, but you should always do your own due diligence and back up your files. Again, if your only copy of data is on one medium, even if it's Drive-- you've messed up.

I know thats semi- victim blaming(or straight up victim blaming) and that doesn't excuse Google for screwing up. But shit happens. If you had this somewhere else, this is just a minor annoyance. Restore and move on.

That said, Google has always sucked at customer service. That's probably because, with Google, you are often the product, so they don't really have a good culture of taking care of customer issues. They seemed to have bungled the comms on this.

But people being people, even if this is fixed there are always going to be people that swear it's not. Because they are either crazy, vengeful, or because they truly Believe a file should be there (even if they are simply misremembering/wrong). At some point a company has to move towards and nip the complaints in the bud because there is always a subset of people that will continue to bitch about it forever.

[–] deweydecibel@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Google sets the default on things like the Drive for Desktop app to "streaming". It literally removes the original version of the file from your computer and puts it solely in the cloud. This is an advertised feature.

Google tells the customers not to worry. It is not the customer's fault for not knowing better when the companies that sell this shit tell them, routinely, "Just put it in the cloud, my man. We got this, s'all good bro."

Consumers should be better educated and more aware, it's true. It's not news that there's a lack of widespread tech literacy and awareness of best practices among average people.

But that's in part because companies don't tell them the truth. They mislead, lie, and omit. They seek to make the user trust them so they stay as customers. Google can't make such service that advertises itself as set it and forget it and not be held to blame when their customers find out their promises were shit.

But people being people, even if this is fixed there are always going to be people that swear it's not. Because they are either crazy, vengeful, or because they truly Believe a file should be there (even if they are simply misremembering/wrong). At some point a company has to move towards and nip the complaints in the bud because there is always a subset of people that will continue to bitch about it forever.

Ah yes, the classic presumption it's always user error and "vengeful complainers" right around the point where the dev gets tired of trying to help.