Xdrive's New Clothes

AOL is unveiling a new media sharing and storage service, BlueString, which gets a positive write-up from Rafe Needleman at Webware. I remain more skeptical (I give it a ten minut.es write-up here.)

Rafe is reliable on this kind of thing, so I take his word for it, but I'm nervous about AOL after a post on my blog more than two years ago became a sort of crash-site for angry users of AOL's Xdrive product, which BlueString builds on and cherrypicks from. Complaints about Xdrive have been posted as recently as last month, in which there were three, and center on:

• not being able to log in to access data
• not being able to reach customer support within a reasonable time
• charging errors
• difficulties in cancelling the service
• allegations that AOL customer service are not technically trained in Xdrive support
• problems uploading and downloading files

I certainly could find no telephone number on the Xdrive website, except via a Google site search, despite the website's claims that:

At Xdrive, we pride ourselves on providing a higher level of support than you will find with any other product on the market. Our trained customer care professionals receive ongoing education about the latest changes to Xdrive's products and services. From walking you through registration to help you use our products, we are focused on delivering exceptional customer care.

(The number, by the way, is (866) GO-XDRIVE or (703) 433-0141, but only during the U.S. day.)

I'm afraid I can't confirm the authenticity of any of the other complaints and allegations, but I suspect that users of BlueString might be wise to bear them in mind when using the service, and not to store anything there they haven't got backed up somewhere else.

First hands-on: AOL's BlueString | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

del.icio.us Tags: xdrive, online storage, storage, AOL, bluestring

Comments

[Robert Blatt]

First of all, a disclaimer, not only do I work for AOL but I am responsible for both the Xdrive and BlueString products.

With that said, over the last year we have made tremendous efforts to improve the reliability and performance of the underlying infrastructure that drives both Xdrive and BlueString. We use Keynote monitoring 24X7 to measure consumers' ability to login, upload, and access their online assets. Over the last six months these numbers have consistently been above 99% availability. If consumers who use this blog are continuing to have problems please post so that we can understand and rectify.

With respect to customer support, we both understand and agree with the challenges that people have been having. We have recently increased our focus and our resources to address this issue. Changes like this always take a bit of time but I am confident that we will have the same kind of success that we have had in improving the product.

Finally, look for a new, easier to use interface for Xdrive during the first quarter of 2008. We are working hard to erase the boundary that currently exists for consumers between their desktop and the internet.

[Robert Blatt]

First of all, a disclaimer, not only do I work for AOL but I am responsible for both the Xdrive and BlueString products.

With that said, over the last year we have made tremendous efforts to improve the reliability and performance of the underlying infrastructure that drives both Xdrive and BlueString. We use Keynote monitoring 24X7 to measure consumers' ability to login, upload, and access their online assets. Over the last six months these numbers have consistently been above 99% availability. If consumers who use this blog are continuing to have problems please post so that we can understand and rectify.

With respect to customer support, we both understand and agree with the challenges that people have been having. We have recently increased our focus and our resources to address this issue. Changes like this always take a bit of time but I am confident that we will have the same kind of success that we have had in improving the product.

Finally, look for a new, easier to use interface for Xdrive during the first quarter of 2008. We are working hard to erase the boundary that currently exists for consumers between their desktop and the internet.

[Robert Blatt]

First of all, a disclaimer, not only do I work for AOL but I am responsible for both the Xdrive and BlueString products.

With that said, over the last year we have made tremendous efforts to improve the reliability and performance of the underlying infrastructure that drives both Xdrive and BlueString. We use Keynote monitoring 24X7 to measure consumers' ability to login, upload, and access their online assets. Over the last six months these numbers have consistently been above 99% availability. If consumers who use this blog are continuing to have problems please post so that we can understand and rectify.

With respect to customer support, we both understand and agree with the challenges that people have been having. We have recently increased our focus and our resources to address this issue. Changes like this always take a bit of time but I am confident that we will have the same kind of success that we have had in improving the product.

Finally, look for a new, easier to use interface for Xdrive during the first quarter of 2008. We are working hard to erase the boundary that currently exists for consumers between their desktop and the internet.

[Steve Dubin]

My experience is everything AOL touches they destroy. (Mailblocks was great. AIM mail is the pits) Midas in reverse. XDrive used to have knowledable people answering the phone. AOL quite frankly, in a word, sucks. Their on phone "technicians" are minimum wage call center people who read a script in a book. If they can't solve the problem (it's not in the script) they refer you to email tech support. The website states a response will come in 12 hours. I'm into my 36th (sent two messages( still waiting for a response). I am currently looking at alternative sites because I'm fed up with the typical AOL BS. I run a business and need my backups when I need them. Not when some tech somewhere decides to check his email. If you need offsite backup and protection for your files look elsewhere.

[scott]

Since creating a Bluestring account I have had nothing but trouble logging in, uploading photos, and viewing photos sent to family and friends. I read about Bluestring in the NYTs... I think the atricle was misleading and it is hard for me to understand why anyone would stick with this product!

[XDMOlson]

Hello Xdrive Team,

Thanks for taking the time to post here in regards to the issues that Xdrive consumers are currently encountering when using the Send a file feature in the Web Interface (legacy) application and yes even in the New release of the Xdrive Desktop Lite - Beta application.

I've yet to test the Send a file feature using the Xdrive Desktop (legacy) application V161 but I do know that consumers are still reporting issues with the CompleteLog.txt file running continuously and Error Code 1638 during backups which states that an upgrade to V161 is required yet consumers are already running the new release V161.

The new Xdrive Desktop (legacy) application V162 has just been released tonight. I do not know what issues they addressed and resolved in this release of the Xdrive Desktop (legacy) application but let's hope that it addresses the backup issues and the CompleteLog.txt files that runs continuously.

Get the new Xdrive Desktop (legacy) application V162 at http://www.xdrive.com/downloads

I'll point posters from dev.aol.com to these comments.

-XDMOlson

[Xdrive Product Team]

Xdrive Users:

We expect to roll out fixes to both of these issues, the error with backups as well as issues with the send-a-file feature very soon. Thank you for your patience.

In the meanwhile, users who want to share files can share folders as a workaround.

We also encourage users to employ the many other types of uploading to Xdrive for those files they want to save between now and when the fixes are rolled out. Options for this include: uploading using the new Xdrive Desktop Lite application, using the standard Xdrive web interface, or using the AutoCopy or drag-and-drop features of the Xdrive Desktop Client.

More information is available at www.xdrive.com.

Again, we appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to deploy fixes to the cited issues.

Sincerely,
The Xdrive Team

[rbrinkle]

The Xdrive problems on Error code 3302 have disappeared for many months.

Well their back.

It is impossible to upload a file to Xdrive. The following message appeared is a red box.

0 files were successfully uploaded. Open failed Error Code: 3302.

No help. No documentation. Not even the 95 page manual has anything on Error Code: 3302.

[rbrinkle]

The Xdrive problems on Error code 3302 have disappeared for many months.

Well they're back. (excuse the grammatical error in the previous post)

It is impossible to upload a file to Xdrive. The following message appeared in a red box.

0 files were successfully uploaded. Open failed Error Code: 3302.

No help. No documentation. Not even the 95 page manual has anything on Error Code: 3302.

[Al Mollitor]

I know this is an old post, but I thought I'd add that I just recently started getting the 3302 error message and can't upload to Xdrive. Couldn't find any help or contact info on the Xdrive site. God knows what will happen if I need to recover my data. Scary stuff!

[Al Mollitor]

I know this is an old post, but I thought I'd add that I just recently started getting the 3302 error message and can't upload to Xdrive. Couldn't find any help or contact info on the Xdrive site. God knows what will happen if I need to recover my data. Scary stuff!

[Al Mollitor]

I know this is an old post, but I thought I'd add that I just recently started getting the 3302 error message and can't upload to Xdrive. Couldn't find any help or contact info on the Xdrive site. God knows what will happen if I need to recover my data. Scary stuff!

[Thomas Braun]

Three days ago I began getting the 3302 error and there is no contact in AOL or documentation that helps to solve the problem. My email is thomasbraun321@gmail.com
If someone knows how to solve the problem pls let me know. I have deleted my backups, reinstalled xdrive, etc etc and keep getting the 3302 error. Pls HELP!!!!!!

[Man Woong]

So...

IS the 3302 error fixed? Because I'm getting it and it's very very annoying! If it's a problem that's been around before, why isn't there documentations about it?

Please let me know how to get around this problem. Thanks.

[James Breubaker]

I am getting error 3302 too and I am closing my xdrive account now that I 've found they have not fixed this problem for months!!!

[Mansoor]

xdrive s**ks use adrive it the best and also have remote download link facility.

[arun]

0 files were successfully uploaded. Open failed Error Code: 3302.

[Fetish Clothing]

Very pretty! I like your blog...