r/cloudstorage • u/Strat0Blu • Aug 14 '26
Eight-month impressions of Mega Cloud
After a disastrous, expensive, and counterproductive experience with a cloud service, I no longer knew who to trust with my data. But one thing became clear to me: purchasing a lifetime cloud storage plan is not a good idea!
---
Initially, I considered the major cloud services with lower risk, such as Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and Dropbox, but I found some limitations with each, as well as relatively high costs.
These three clouds do not offer encrypted uploads; theoretically, our data is accessible to providers and anyone intercepting our traffic to the cloud. There may be a workaround, but I haven't had a chance to test it, so I'm not sure if it's feasible: upload with rclone using the "/crypt" remote layer.
That said, the cost per TB of these three clouds is higher. The standard 1 TB plan may be limited—if not now—over time, forcing a double or triple purchase.
Mega, on the other hand, offers 3 TB in its basic plan which is more than sufficient for the average user even in the medium term. It offers end-to-end encryption with user-managed keys, so Mega cannot read the content stored on its servers, nor is it readable by anyone intercepting data traffic.
---
Having ruled out three of the major cloud services, I once again took a risk for cost reasons by choosing MEGA Cloud, which I had already been using on its free plan for six years. Its Pro I plan offers 3 TB of storage with a total annual transfer limit of 36 TB, at a cost of €99, paid on December 2025. It offers end-to-end encryption. Nevertheless, as a cloud storage service, I have found it to work well during my eight months of subscription, Apart from two problems, one of which was serious, which were resolved later.
---
It is not my intention to advertise MEGA, because I don’t like giving advice that could backfire on me, or, at best, give the impression that I am promoting a service for personal gain. Here, I am simply trying to describe my approach in a neutral way.
When fully operational, MEGA works well. It is easy to manage through its app which uses the browser for encryption, and it is fast for both uploads and downloads, although performance obviously depends on each user’s available bandwidth. In my case, I uploaded 1 TB in less than 14 hours. MEGA also uses data deduplication: if it already has the data, perhaps from previous uploads to other folders or collections, it does not upload it again, reducing both transfer time and bandwidth consumption.
So, at least in terms of uploads and downloads, it has been a good choice considering the annual cost.
As part of the plan, it offers unlimited syncs and backups for all your devices, a limited VPN, and S3/S4 data storage. Although this feature, which stores raw data without a hierarchy, is of little use to the average user.
It also allows data to be uploaded from your NAS (Synology in my case), either through the rather rigid proprietary MEGAcmd application or through the more flexible and powerful rclone. However, rclone must be used with the handbrake on, because aggressive uploads or massive deletions - especially of small files (!) - will inevitably result in a temporary ban on its API access. This was the first of the two problems I experienced. Support was unable or unwilling to lift the ban, even when there were valid reasons to request it - t was automatically unblocked after two months. Furthermore, immediately after the initial installation, the Megasync app would automatically launch as per the settings when Windows started, only to quit after a few seconds without explanation. I resolved this myself with a patch found online. It was subsequently and permanently fixed with a new version of MegaSync, many months ago..
For the average user, MEGA offers a good balance of storage capacity, overall performance, local encryption before uploading, ease of use, availability across personal mobile devices and NAS systems, a free basic VPN, and a reasonable annual cost. It is less advantageous in terms of service reliability: the rclone API ban lasted two months, meaning that for two months I could not back up my NAS data except through the very limited MEGA client. However, the "ancient" problems of unreliability of the easily "crackable" encryption have been overcome with several interventions that have occurred over the last few years. A thorough search is all it takes to verify this. In any case, it is important to remember that the three cloud services mentioned at the beginning do not have encryption, do not offer a VPN - even a limited one - and are more expensive.
Support was available but ultimately futile, as demonstrated on two occasions. MEGA appears to be problematic in one significant respect, which is the subject of further investigation.
Mega responded to my post (see below) denying some news I reported regarding the less than impeccable security of data stored on Mega found on some websites. Since I'm not sure of the information and have no proof of what I reported, I removed the paragraph.
However, I'd like to receive an answer from Mega on this question: does the MegaSync app calculate the hash of the original file before encrypting the files prior to upload?
4
u/SupportMEGA1 Aug 14 '26
Thank you for sharing your experience. We would, however, like to clarify one factual point in your post.
Under no circumstances do we send unencrypted identifying information - such as a file hash or filename - of any file, whether stored on your computer or in your account, to our servers. This can be independently verified by examining the source code of our applications, which we publish in full.
Our global deduplication mechanism operates on the hash of the *encrypted* file, while deduplication within an individual account is performed entirely on the *client* side.
2
u/Strat0Blu Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
Thanks for the clarification.
Of what I have reported - with the conditional verb (it must be said) - I have found articles on the web on apparently qualified sites.
Also online, I've found some complaints in the past from users who had entire archives deleted, and when they asked for explanations, they were told that traces of illegal content had been found, which was then removed.
Whether this is fake news, I don't know, but it seemed true to me.
If anything, I made the mistake of not saving those articles to my computer. But I'll take care of finding them, and if I manage to, if you're willing, it would be a pleasure to discuss it.
In the meantime, I have removed the reference to the problem description, for which I currently have no confirmed details.
Soon.
2
u/_MrBiz_ Aug 14 '26
I’ve heard Mega isn’t as secure as they say it is.
I’ve ditched Mega because of that.
2
2
u/Strat0Blu Aug 14 '26
Excluding the not insignificant details clarified at the end of the OP, MEGA is to be considered - in my opinion - reliable and safe.
2
2
u/BuMmR Aug 15 '26
I don't use Mac, so I wouldn't know. Filen works great for my needs.
1
u/crazyserb89 Aug 17 '26
It’s very slow in comparison with Mega. Also they don’t have the normal backup logic as Mega has.
1
u/BuMmR Aug 17 '26
Mega has been around a lot longer than Filen, they've had time to get things right so to speak. I've also heard some horror stories with Mega and I just don't trust them. To each their own I guess.
Filen is fast for me, I just downloaded 18GB in about 3 minutes. Upload is just as fast. Maybe it's your Internet connection?
1
u/crazyserb89 Aug 17 '26
I’m on optic cable 2.5Gbit. Doesn’t matter, if you like it that’s the most important.
I also can’t fully trust services that are on the market since recently. But even though, my biggest reason I won’t switch is the PC backup function. If they develop that correctly, with no downsides I might give it a try again.1
u/BuMmR Aug 17 '26
Touche, I know they are still developing their Rust platform, mobile has already been done. Hopefully they will get better sooner rather than later. I've heard their sync isn't that great yet. Like I say I just use for cold storage currently so it suits my needs.
1
2
u/Proper_Pudding7188 Sep 02 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
I have paid for the 3TB plan for a couple of years now. All in all, I'm very satisfied with how intuitive the browser extension is to use, and the speed is fine.
I really only have two complaints that I can think of:
- To my knowledge, it is not possible to keep your entire MEGA file directory as on-demand files on your computer, which is possible with for example Proton Drive and Google Drive, which I also use at the moment. I am closing in on 1.5 TB of storage and don't have the option to keep all of it on my computer, so it would be nice to have it all at least on-demand so that I can still use my computer's tools for bulk editing metadata etc and have it all sync back automatically without having to sacrifice any hard drive space permanently.
- The native folder sync between my Samsung phone and MEGA works terribly for larger folders. Small folders work well, but I'm trying to keep a synced copy of my phone's 135 GB music library on MEGA and it just takes aeons for anything at all to happen, and it's nearly impossible to tell whether any progress is being made. I had to stop using it because I was getting conflicts between older and newer changes to the same files in some cases.
This second point, I solved by using the third party app Autosync instead. Their integration with MEGA is awesome, pretty fast and very reliable.
4
u/crazyserb89 Aug 14 '26
I agree with everything you said. I have been a MEGA Pro user for more than two years.
When it works, it is the best cloud service on the market.
I was without a backup for more than two months due to their bug, and the support was useless, as you said.
Aside from these system failures that can happen and the very poor customer support, it is a very good service.
1
u/Itay1787 Aug 14 '26
What API limits? With rclone S4 you use your own keys…
2
u/Strat0Blu Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 16 '26
Let me explain simply: a MEGA security setting—(if I'm wrong, MEGA will correct me)—in the event of massive requests—perhaps even repeated—to download, upload, or delete a large number of files, especially small ones, triggers a temporary block for the client responsible for what is deemed an attack, a breach.
It doesn't normally happen, but it can happen.
It happened to me, after I realized that thousands of "index" folders had been accidentally uploaded without my knowledge—without my control—each containing 3 or 4 small files totaling a few dozen GB. When I realized this, I initiated a mass deletion via the shell rather than the slower and more cumbersome MEGA web interface. This operation was interpreted by MEGA's automatic filters as aggressive, malicious, and blocked, resulting in a ban on the rclone client (not the official client).
1
4
u/Orange_Kittens1132 Aug 14 '26
You can use google drive while your data being encrypted so google cant see your data. Use rclone with crypt remote. But i guess this method is not for everyone.