Dec 19, 2018 - offered by If the Mega icon does not show up in the chrome://apps/ page you can always type into the address.
MEGA was founded by the notorious Kim Dotcom in 2013. He doesn’t work there anymore, but the company goes on and advertises as “the privacy company.” It’s not as capable as the top services on our list, but it has some interesting features, including zero-knowledge encryption, which you’ll learn more about in this MEGA review. The service is among the. The protection extends to your shares, too, because you can use private encryption to protect them and make sure only people you authorize can read them. MEGA doesn’t shine in the department, though, because it lacks integrations and editing features. If you need those, refer to our article. That said, it has, strong security, an enjoyable user experience and capable sharing options.
If that’s what you need, stick with us as we discuss in more detail in the sections below. Alternatives for MEGA.
Aside from standard cloud storage features that let you move your work to the cloud and avoid potential data loss because of hard drive, MEGA has an interesting feature and a couple of add-ons. That feature is chat, which you can initiate with contacts you’ve added to MEGA. It uses encryption to secure your communication in real time. The MEGAbird add-on lets you send large files using Mozilla Thunderbird. For those who want to take a more hands-on approach, MEGAcmd is a command-line tool that lets you use your IT magic to work with files. Lets you have multiple versions of the same file and replace the current one with a previous version if someone makes a mistake or deletes a file. It’s enabled as a default in MEGAsync settings.
If you upload or sync a file with the same name as an existing file in the same location, a new version of it will be created. Files that have versions are indicated by a clock icon. If you think strong versioning capabilities will benefit you, read our. MEGA can preview your photos and play videos, too. It’s a nice option for media, but not quite good enough to land on our list of the. Still, that capability doesn’t extend to documents and MEGA doesn’t offer integrations with Microsoft Office.
$ 29 78 monthly Storage 15 GB 200 GB 1000 GB 4000 GB 8000 GB Details You can earn more free storage, but it expires 1TB transfer 2TB transfer 8TB transfer 16TB transfer The transfer quota is the amount of data you can transfer between your devices and MEGA per month. MEGA advertises the Pro I plan as the most popular, and it’s not hard to see why. It offers 1TB of storage, which is a good amount, but can’t quite match the best deals on the market, such as the 2TB plans from pCloud or Sync.com. PCloud’s plan is cheaper, offers more space and gives a discount if you pay for the year.
Sync.com requires you to pay for the year in advance, but the cost per month is only $8, which is even better than pCloud. For more information about those plans, read our. MEGA doesn’t give you a discount, but offers two months free for if you purchase a one-year Pro plan. The free plan used to be a huge lure for new users because it offered 50GB of storage.
That changed in 2017 and now the service takes 35GB away after one month. Despite that underhanded move, MEGA is still one of the. You can complete achievements, such as installing the desktop client and the mobile app, but the storage you gain that way will vanish after 180 days.
Even if you invite friends, you get storage that disappears after a year, which is a big contrast to services that don’t place such time restrictions. MEGA’s desktop client has an attractive interface that consists of a sync folder and a system tray icon that manages your sync and lets you access the settings. The desktop app presents information in a clear manner and won’t confuse you. It works on Windows, macOS and Linux. The web interface is easy to use, fast and straightforward. You can navigate through folders using the cloud drive menu on the left or the “recents” page, which you can access using the menu to the left.
Besides recent files, you can use the menu to view your contacts and content shared with you, open chat and get to your dashboard. Secondary features are located in the menu at the top right corner of the screen. You can perform general actions using the top menu, while individual actions require you to right-click a file. The mobile app, which is available for Android and iOS, is easy to use, too. The file browser takes most of the screen, while the bottom menu lets you view your camera uploads, access chat, view shared folders and your offline files.
You can also set the app to upload your photos and videos automatically. The chat feature takes advantage of MEGA’s encryption to secure your messages. It’s an interesting addition, but it’s probably redundant considering the many dedicated chat apps on the market. If encrypted messages interest you, read our guide. File Syncing & Sharing. When you install the desktop app, you can choose to sync everything from your web account or choose specific files.
If you opt to choose files, you’ll have to create a new sync, which will include the root folder on the web to sync everything. In that case, you’ll have to create a sync that targets the root folder to sync everything from the cloud. That’s cumbersome and we’d prefer to have a one-click solution. You can choose to add any folder to MEGA by right-clicking it and choosing “upload to MEGA.” That will copy the file to your sync folder and your web space. You can do the same by copying a file to your sync folder manually or using the “upload” option from the system tray. A better approach would be to enable the context menu to add the selected folder as a new sync directly.
As it stands, you have to go into the settings menu to achieve the same result. Note that it will only work if you haven’t chosen to sync everything.
An interesting feature MEGA offers is the ability to stream files that are not synced to your computer. MEGA’s web app lets you share your files by generating a link that you can protect with a key. That makes them zero-knowledge, so only people you give the key to can read them.
You can attach the key with your link, which means anyone with the link can access it, or send the key separately. You can attach expiry dates or passwords to links, too. It has a “shared with me” page, but it doesn’t have one that shows what you’ve shared with others. You can share a folder by generating a link, which works the same way as it does for files, or inviting others via their email address.
If you do that, you can set “read-only,” “read and write” and “full access” permissions. To invite others to upload to your folder, including non-MEGA users, you can turn it into a “MEGAdrop” folder. The desktop app lets you share, too, but only by generating a link. You can’t invite others to folders or generate upload links.
It took around 36 minutes, on average, to upload a 1GB zipped folder, which is 10 minutes slower than we would expect. On three attempts, MEGA uploaded our files in around 25 minutes, but it took more than an hour in another. With that taken into account, MEGA has a problem maintaining consistent speeds, not achieving fast ones. We were using a WiFi connection in Belgrade, Serbia, with an upload speed of 6 megabits per second and a download speed of 102 Mbps. Users have reported they achieved faster speeds when they turned off the “use http” setting in the bandwidth tab of the desktop app.
Keep in mind that you might see different results if you are closer to MEGA’s servers in Europe, Canada and New Zealand. Though MEGA doesn’t have, which speeds up transfers to the cloud by only moving changes that have occurred in uploaded files, a company representative told us in an email that the feature is in the works. Security & Privacy. Using a cloud storage service can be a risk if it doesn’t have the proper because there are many dangers on the internet, such as hackers who won’t hesitate to target your data with ransomware. They might try to steal your login credentials, too. Cloud security uses many protocols and encryptions to protect your files in transit and at rest. They include the TLS protocol to stop man-in-the-middle attacks, to prevent access to your account if someone steals your login credentials and to ensure your privacy by keeping anyone but you from reading your files.
Because MEGA emphasizes its privacy, it’s no wonder it uses private encryption to encrypt files on the client side. The level of at-rest encryption is AES 128-bit, which isn’t as strong as AES 256-bit, but that shouldn’t matter because cracking either would take millions of years. The TLS protocol adds another layer of protection to files in transit. MEGA offers two-factor authentication, too. Its is public, as well, so anyone who wants to check MEGA’s security can do so.
MEGA Privacy Its data centers are in Luxembourg, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Canada and New Zealand, which were determined by the the European Commission to have an adequate level of protection under Article 45 of the General Data Protection Regulation. To learn more about laws that govern data, read, our guide to the and our article on which countries have.
MEGA even extends GDPR’s data regulations to, not just those that are from the EU. Article 16 in the states that MEGA will not sell your files, account data or metadata to a third party unless allowed by its policy, so you won’t have a scandal on your hands.
You can find what the policy allows and considers “lawful and appropriate” in the Article 14, which says MEGA is entitled to provide your files, chats, account and website usage data to law enforcement if required by law in any jurisdiction. That won’t amount to much considering its zero-knowledge encryption, but there’s metadata that remains in unencrypted form. The help center is organized well. It’s split into categories that make it easy to find the answer you’re looking for and there’s a helpful search bar at the top. You can use an FAQ list to locate a question quickly, but if you can’t find an answer, you can contact support using the message form.
We used it to ask a question and received a response in just 20 minutes. That’s an impressive response time, to say the least, which is helpful considering there’s no chat option. The support team assured us in an email that it works 24/7, though. Plus, Pro users get priority support. MEGA doesn’t take your privacy for granted, so it makes sure nobody but you can read your data. The main resources it uses for that are zero-knowledge encryption and a strong privacy policy that extends the GDPR rules to all MEGA users. When you add strong security features, an enjoyable user experience and capable sync and sharing options, you get a good service.
It could be even better if it had more competitive prices, productivity features and consistent speeds. Still, it has a with 15GB of storage, which makes it enticing to test the service and see if it works for you. What do you think about MEGA? Is its strong adherence to privacy a good reason for you to try it or switch from the service you’re using now?
Let us know in the comments below. Thank you for reading. I dont recommend their service and here is why: i signed up for their 2tb plan. Their platform is easy to use, especially with the drag and drop. However, after uploading a couple of folders, i conducted a comparison between both (uploaded and locally stored) and found out that the size doesnt match at all! I emailed their support.
Very unreliable support service thats available on “bankers hours”! Paying 20 euros for a plan that isnt backed up by available support is just a waste of time.
I am still searching for a cloud service that provides real unlimited plans or anything above 2tb of storage. The size reported for the uploaded file may not mean it has not been stored correctly or completely. The reported size of a file depends on a lot of factors, including the possibility that the web site actually runs compression on the stored content to save disk space. If you do a bit of reading about how files are stored, you may discover that the reported size on disk may not really reflect the actual number of bytes in the information contained in the file. I shall not go into the extensive topic of how data is stored, but you can research it for yourself.
Did you try to down-load the file to your computer (in a separate storage location, so it does not overwrite the original) and run a comparison with the original? This exercise might allay some of your concerns Sometimes a bit of testing and some knowledge about how computer storage is done and reported by a directory listing can help allay your fears. Study a bit, then re-evaluate your concerns. Your concern about the size reported may or may not be a real issue Check it out. I loved it easy upload, etc etc. All the good stuff.
But twice now, within a month, I’ve been locked out of my account and no way to get in. These are photos I’ve moved from my computer to regain storage space. No way would I ever use Mega again. I’m currently in a situation where I get an error message saying I don’t have the correct Firefox extension. But I do I downloaded it yet again. But still, I get an error message saying Mega is not accessible for me. Have I lost all the photos I stored there?
![Mega nz app Mega nz app](http://cloudstorageboss.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Mega6.png)
I still don’t know the answer to that. This is infuriating!! I use MEGA to backup and Sync my files alot. I’ve been using it for a good 6+ months now so I guess I can give you the good/bad/ugly Firstly, MEGA is by no means a perfect service. It has flaws.
I would say that generally speaking however, 8/10 times in daily use, what I expect and what I get are the same thing; my files accessible, and at a reasonable speed. I am using Mega to backup my photos on my computer. I like the ease of the drag and drop feature to upload, and the fact that I can upload whole folders at a time.
However, for some reason some of my files will not upload and under status it says “file is locked”. There is not further explanation as to what this means or why it will not upload. This is very frustrating, as it is a large amount of files. Please explain why this is happening and is there a way to get these files to upload? Not very user friendly. I could rarely log into the web portal, regardless of the browser i was using. I was never able to log onto the app for my iPhone either which is very frustrating.
I had 16GB of data saved to the service and got an email the other day saying that i had used my 50GB quota. Found out there was somehow 34GB of stuff in my rubbish bin?? Tried to log in to the web portal to delete the stuff from my rubbish bin and surprise surprise i couldn’t log into the web portal.
Also, even if i wanted to add more space, the prices for the pro accounts are very dear. Their support took quite a while to respond to my queries as well. I established a new free Mega account yesterday, and experienced nothing but troubles in trying to sync the cloud with only a 136MB of initial data!
Upload speeds were extremely slow (taking 3-4 seconds for 4KB gif files!), other simple files (e.g., a 69KB PDF file) caused the sync to hang, and worst, after supposedly syncing a folder with over 3,000 small files (Mega says syncing was complete; I reinitiated it, and it said the same thing) the cloud storage was still over 500 files short! I was a former user of DropBox, and switched to Copy.com several years ago, and had absolutely no problems with either (unfortunately, Copy.com is discontinuing its service as of May 1).
Initial setup and syncing for both were a breeze and automatic. Mega is slow and error-prone – I spent the last entire day attempting to have it (un)successfully sync only 136MB of files that Copy.com synced in just a few minutes! I cancelled my Mega account in less than 24 hours. Having done lots of research on the topic of cloud storage, my conclusion is that if you want your files to be completely secure, there are currently few other options as safe as MEGA.
An interesting interview in this regard (conducted by cloudwards) can be found here:. As for the upload and download speeds, I’ve compared them with Dropbox, Livedrive, Spideroak and Sync.com and found them to be the fastest (I’m based in Southern Germany).
Even though PayPal, VISA and MasterCard have recently put pressure on MEGA regarding their zero knowledge policy (the US wants to have access to all our personal files and would therefore do almost anything to destroy platforms such as MEGA), MEGA did NOT change its security and encryption policies, thereby even accepting that PayPal no longer offers its services to them. That’s why I believe MEGA deserves our support now more than ever! Generally seems good – but beware of Syncing issues that delete data. I just moved a whole load of files from Dropbox over to MEGA, by dropping them in a folder synced to mega. Speed was excellent (using University wifi in northern England).
Last night I checked every folder had the correct number of files. I noticed this morning that some folders I moved within the local mega sync folder had completely vanished, along with all their content, and 2 files had zero file size. Even after I forced MEGASync to scan.
I had to restore them from Dropbox ‘recently deleted’, a feature that is not available on MEGA. (MEGA does have a trash can, but files moved out of the MEGASync folder, or deleted from a local synced folder don’t appear in it, unlike Dropbox, which even allows you to restore old versions of files that have changed).
I found Dropbox utterly reliable, always syncing within seconds. MEGA sometimes syncs so quickly I don’t even notice the spinning syncing logo appear; but often it just sits there saying it’s up to date when it is not. A few minutes later it might start chugging away. Conclusion: massive free space, and secure; but Dropbox is way more solid & reliable at syncing. Honestly I’ve never had such a problem with MEGA. A few times it Will kinda stall on an upload but I think that was just poor interaction with the gui because it would show no progress and then all of a sudden be complete. Also never had a missing file either.
I’ve been using it for about 2 years now I think. I honestly prefer the mobile android version over the pc one just because it’s a lot more user friendly. I do have advice for anyone uploading huge files though. My suggestion is that you zip your files, one huge file will upload and download quicker than like a thousand small separate ones.
Also, I think it’s safe to assume that those who are subjected to such slow speeds should probably not blame mega specifically. There are a few things you should take into consideration like firewalls and your internet settings before blaming mega.
I only say this because so many people my self included think the speeds are great. Sure, Maybe mega isn’t the most universally grand service but I think you might want to consider it’s purpose, security. It doesn’t promise everyone’s set up will be compatible, though it would be nice it promises safety. On top of that 50gb for free is a hell of a deal. Well there’s my 2 cents ciao. Can anybody help me?
I have been using mega for several months already to download some videos. However, last night, i got this message: Bandwidth quota exceeded Your download could not proceed because it would take you over the current free transfer allowance for your IP address. To enhance this limit, you can register an account.
This will not only give you ample extra bandwidth but also 50 GB of secure storage space in the cloud – for free. I am already logged in and I have been researching about it online and its said that it will refill after 10 or minutes. My computer has been shut down for more than 6 hours and more than 24 hours since I tried using mega again but i still get this message. How do i get to download again from mega? Hope someone can help me. I am about to quit using mega, I am currently looking at alternatives. Initially I fond the syncing brilliant, although it takes ages to complete the first sync, sometimes days if it is a large folder.
One first sync is over new or updated files in the sync are upload almost instantly. My big problems are when I lost a few discs which affected two syncs, for one of syncs I was able to recover the data from the disc except for a few files, the other I could not.
I recreated folders on a new machine and configured folders to sync with the mega folders, I expected the mega syncs to restore missing files. Both syncs reported that there were pending downloads, 10 in one case and 29000 in other but neither ever completed.
With mega browser interface you can select a folder to download. The folder file download did not seem to do anything, the download folder as zip file also had issues. Initially the folder I wanted to download was 4.5gb and when attempting to download it warned you that it would create a zip64 file but then did not appear did show it was doing something on by showing a percentage complete on tab heading, after 6 hour it had reached 17% and then stopped.
I realised there was a sub folder that I no longer required a deleted this sub folder from the mega backup. The brought the size of backup down to 3.95gb when I then tried to download folder as a zip it did not give me message regarding zip64 but surprised me to start downloading the zip file. It did take 2 hours to complete the download. Normally I would expect to download a 4gb file in under an hour. If you ever want to recover a really large sync folder, I would suspect you would find it almost impossible. The 10 files in other sync I could identify and download individually. I have only used free version, I do not know if things are better if you pay but I am looking for something better.
I have not tried MEGA, but wanted to learn about it, so I have read all the posts, here. My reactions are: – For serious file back-up and security of your files, it is likely much more wise to purchase a physically small hard drive with some good, reliable back-up software and use that drive, which is not vulnerable to “cloud” file-storage changes of rules or idiosyncracies, and the price is reasonable enough, considering the alternatives. — Then, unplug it after each back-up session and store it in a safe place until needed for another back-up or restore session. Large capacity drives, such as the WD Passport 3Tb drive, offer a good amount of secure (if you use it properly) and reliable back-up for around 100USD, and is not subject to the whims of on-line (cloud) storage companies or hackers, when used wisely.
– For file sharing, MEGA looks good, but caution in what is stored, how it is stored and maintaining both the original file(s) in a safe, locally accessible place, such as on a back-up drive mentioned above, and using reasonable caution about keeping good records for your access to the account and the files stored there. Keep good records of passwords, web address and what is being stored, in a safe place or places (more than one copy is wise). If you are concerned about others either gaining access to your files or other information, putting that stuff in a publicly accessible place that is the target of a lot of hackers and others, such as NSA, etc. Is not the most reasonable thing to do.
Remember that if you stick your chin out far enough, you are inviting someone to try to hit it for you and “on line” is an excellent place for some anonymous person or agency to cause you some real pain! OK None of the other Cloud storage services that I have tested have come even close to the transfer speeds of Mega.nz. I’m on Comcast HSI and I can do about 300Mbit down and about 35Mbit upstream. My test show that upload to Mega is between 500KB per second and 750KB per second. I was able to transfer a 1GB file in about 30 minutes. Downloads are nothing short of incredibly fast using the Mega App on the PC. It topped my downstream speed at 35MB per second!!!
Yes 35 megabytes of data every second!!! So if transfer speeds are important to youGo with Mega.nz Cons: You can only pay in Euros. With MegaSync installed I can actually get a shareable link and view previous versions of a file through two options in the context menu. I’ve been using Mega for years alongside Dropbox on all my platforms (Windows, Linux, Android). Overall, a bit slower transfers than Dropbox because it can’t update in blocks or de-duplicate, thanks to zero-knowledge, but otherwise it’s practically identical to Dropbox without the pointless (for me) collaboration tools. The only think missing oddly is two-step verification. I am guessing it will be added soon.
The major advantage of Mega is zero-knowledge as a matter of principle and compliance with EU’s GDPR and other data protection requirements.
Full of Features! MegaSync includes all the standard features that users have come to expect in a cloud-based synchronization software.
Need a specific folder excluded from the sync? Want to exclude certain file types from being synced? The tool has that option. Only want to sync specific directories? Use selective sync to pick the directories you want.
With Mega's cloud service, you can even sync folders from other users, so long as they've granted you permission to do so. Manage contacts and shared files, plus shared-file permissions through Mega's web interface.
![App App](http://tecnodiario.es/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/tecnodiario-es-desinstalar-tutorial-quitar-megasync-app-en-apple-mac-osx.png)
You can also install the sync tool on multiple computers and keep all your devices up to date with your latest file changes. Mega gives options to restore deleted files from the rubbish bin located in the web interface as well as options to see the status on each of your files sync status. Viable for small businesses, Mega cloud storage could be used to replace expensive on premise file server hardware. Quick Set-Up Setup is as easy as this: create an account with Mega's cloud service, download the tool, install the tool and then point MegaSync to the folder that you require to be synchronized to Mega's cloud service. The tool does the rest.
Preferences are accessed through an icon that appears in the bottom task bar, the program runs as a service that starts when the computer is turned on. Account information is saved securely so the program logs into Mega's cloud service automatically, without needing any input from the user. The user interface itself, both in preferences after installation and the installation screens themselves are attractive and easy to understand. This is one tool that does its job simply and effectively giving you peace of mind. Reach for the Clouds MegaSync understands that users want to utilize cloud storage and makes the process easy. By using a Mega's free cloud account and Mega's free sync tool, users can upload all their important files to the cloud for redundancy, ease of sharing and backup in the case of disaster. Using the intuitive sync tool setup and menus in conjunction with the feature rich web interface itself, users have many options to manage their files.
Sign up for the free Mega account, download their sync tool and start syncing files today!