Carbonite

I have been with Carbonite for years. Recently my husband purchased a computer that I added onto my Carbonite account and bought 2 years of Carbonite on his laptop. I happened across an ad for Carbonite stating that you can have 1-3 computers on one account. Carbonite didn't bother to inform me that I didn't have to pay for another computer since I only had 2 on my account, instead they took my money. When I discovered I didn't need to buy another subscription I asked for a refund and was told it was too late it was past the 30 days. I have not seen anything regarding 30 days it must be in the fine print somewhere. Carbonite has max limit of how many files you can restore at one time and even when restoring within the limits it is an extremely slooooow process. As to where files are kept there's no consistency. Unless you know the exact name of the file good luck finding it. When Carbonite is updating the files it slows the computers down to a crawl. I would not recommend using Carbonite for backing up any computer.

Carbonite worked slowly for us - support was not great either. This was our experience and we tried to cancel and that was challenging/impossible to get reimbursed for future years we would not use.

Carbonite recently lost 950,000 files (yep almost a terabyte). I caught it in time, but after 7 months of back and forth about where the files where, they finally admitted they deleted per their 30 day policy - this was after being assured by two techs that my files would be put back into the proper folders. I lost 15 years of work, and about 2 days arguing with the company. This is after spending roughy $1,000 for backups. At the end I asked that they ship me a disk copy of my remaining files, for which the charged me $280 dollars. Talk about insult to injury. In addition to all this there system is clunky, slow and is almost impossible to get your information from - it is pretty much a repository and even that doesn't work sometimes. Stay away from them, there are faster, cheaper, more flexible options out there that don't just delete 950,000 files.

Backup is simple and automatic. Want to restore? Good Luck! You can only restore 10G at a time and at a very slow rate. Need to restore the whole backup? Depending on the amount of data, as much as a month when your computer is unavailable to use. Support is horrible. They interrupt and don't listen. I had to repeat my email address 9 times because of that. You can expedite the restore with a hideously expensive service where they send you a disc. Wait time is high. I used the call back and they called but did not connect so I had to call back and wait. And further, if you do restore? You can't choose the date of the backup to restore. If you just select folders it can take as much as a year to get what you need because of the 10G backup limitation. USELESS Service that creates more problems than it solves.

I have a copy of Carbonite, a separate disc included with a Serif product I purchased. I've been trying to install it since Dec. 10 last year to replace an earlier subscription that has expired I was unable to transfer that product to my new computer). However, I couldn't install the new one because, according to the set-up dialogue: "The Activation Code you entered is already in use." If so, I told a technician, they're induclging in a scam and in a follow-up message another technician replied that there was a mistake and told me to find another number. After the 6th back-and-forth email exchanges yet another tech told me that "We have reviewed your email and related history and believe that due to the complexity of your issue, we would be much more successful and quicker resolving this issue
Over the phone or by chatting with us." I responded that if they could not resolve the issue by email when they have all the time to study it, how much more difficult would it be with the phone or chat when everyone is obviously under
Time pressure. Anyway I complied but until now there is no resolution to the situation. I have since decided not to waste my time anymore. Although the techs were polite and many surveys came my way to give an opinion of their
Service, I'm still holding an empty bag. Has anyone encountered this kind of problem with Carbonite?

The tool gives a good value for the price when it comes to backup desktops, but the opposite when it comes to server-level backup.
I came across many tools after that but finally, we found a good value for the price of backing up desktop/server level from Gs Richcopy360, it was a good experience.

I am extremely satisfied with Carbonite. I worked with a tech support guy named Mike. He helped us locate precious files (pictures) that were in a separate drive. He took the extra time and asked the right questions to help me find these files. He then went above and beyond to help me delete duplicates and straighten out my filing system. I like that Carbonite is clear in warning you that they will only keep files you have deleted 30 days. Their customer assistance is the best I have experienced. They are clear and helpful!

Would not recommend. The list of downloaded pages is very difficult to navigate. There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason in how the files are listed. If you know the name of the file you are OK, because you can do a search. It may have downloaded all the necessary files. It is hard to tell. The worse is when I did not renew, I am being harassed to renew. A flashing notice comes up and can't be deleted because it does not stand still long enough. It has been several days and I am still getting the very annoying and intrusive notices. For this reason alone I would not get Carbonite back-up again.

Years subscribed to Carbonite and the very first time I needed was useless. I need to order a hard drive containing my files to be delivered but no one told me that I needed to return before a deadline or be charged $147. Carbonite assures that they sent a email warning me about this but I never got that email. They never warned me on the phone either. The only warning was in the box containing the hard drive that I opened when back in town a month after the deadline passes. I called and they say they will never return the charge. Useless.

It's December 2, and Carbonite still uses Covid as an excuse for absolutely TERRIBLE customer service. Yesterday, the wait time was 55 minutes, left a call-back #, no one ever called back. I have a priority case because my entire back-up was erased from the Carbonite system. I pre-paid a full year, so it's not for a lack of $$. I'm now on hold a second day. Was transferred over to as a priority. Been on hold now for42 minutes. I'm cancelling. This company is the WORST!

Carbonite technical support agents are extremely limited in their technical support knowledge. They are only trained on carbonite's proprietary software. From personal experience, don't expect any assistance with regard to importing from any restored files they put back on your computer. THEY DON'T! THEY CAN'T! THEY WON'T PERIOD! Responses for requests for technical support is mostly 'boiler plate' jabber and nothing more. When an technical support agent can't help, they pass you off to another agent who mirrors what the prior agent says. Getting to a supervisor is near impossible. They don't respond to my inquiries. This is only one reason that cabonite gets less than 3 STARS in most online reviews.

I have been a Carbonite customer for 7 years. Every year my bill got automatically deducted from a credit card I had on file with them. During my last billing cycle they claim to have notified me that my credit card had expired, and as a result permanently terminated my account with my 33,000 files! I couldn't believe it when they told me this. When I asked them if they could resend their warning emails so I could see them with my own eyes, they said I'd have to take it up legally with their marketing department. I have never been so disappointed and dissatisfied as a customer in my entire life. The entire reason this business exists is to help people feel safe and secure about their information. They were completely resigned to the fact that there was nothing they could do to help me recover my files. They took my money for 7 years and I lost all my files. This should never happen to anyone. I'm in shock that they were so unhelpful!

TERRIBLE company... Was having issues with deleting files as our limit was reached, and Carbonite just STOPS backing up your files, and customer service just gives you a run around and says "you need to buy more space" when the files that were backed up actually just were double and triple copies and needed to be deleted!
Then, as everyone else here says... NO REFUNDS after we canceled service!
The worst customer service... total jerks... and terrible backup service! AVOID CARBONITE!

I've had Carbonite on my MacBook for some years and a few times used it to recover lost files so the fact that it seemed to get "stuck" on some files, and I needed their tech staff to fix this remotely, was something I'ld forgive.
Not any more. On 26 June 2021 it stopped backing up. Each time I pressed "resume" it immediately stopped. No help from tech staff who just pointed me to their FAQs pages.
Mysteriously the MacBook's 250 Gb hard drive was being used up. Four weeks after 26 June it filled up completely, I couldn't open Mail or even TextEdit. I didn't suspect Carbonite at the time but...
At the local Apple store, a staff member overviewed disk usage with a tool called DaisyDisk. He found the Carbonite program (client) had written 113.4 Gb of error messages to a log file—without ever telling the folk back at Carbonite server-side that something was wrong. There was no disk space to make a screenshot so I attach photos of the DaisyDisk display, that I took with my phone. He deleted the log and the machine came back to life.
Since I reported this, Carbonite staff have completely blanked me. There have been no responses to my emails, though I quoted Case number etc that had they issued me previously.
Carbonite might have offered an OK service once, but now—maybe the best is if we all help it to implode.

Cannot even get one stinging file I need, Save you money. Service is nonexistent Not what is was once

I wasn't going to write a review but after 30 days of back-and-forth emails, I've decided to make sure no one ever uses this service.
I have managed to keep track of my work since I started composing on a Mac SE in 1990, yet Carbonite corrupted ALL my creative work - musical compositions I have composed over the past 15 years. I connected my computer to a wired connection and spent days backing up files. The app said the back-up was complete, and there were green circles by all the folders, however the backup apparently did not finish.

When I reached out to customer support, I was told I needed to see a green dot next to every file in every folder, even if the app said it was complete, to verify the upload. It is extremely unreasonable to ask the customer to double check the App by sorting through 80 gigs of files. Nonetheless, after the restore, I had a file tree filled with nothing but corrupted files.

If that weren't enough, I was using the free trial when I reached out to them about issues getting my files back. It took them so long to get back to me, the free trial ended, and I had to pay for the service to get help. I was told I could get a refund. 25 days later, I am still going back and forth over email with DAYS between responses waiting to get a refund. I've been asked to give the last 4 of my card number, my address, the amount of data I backed up, my account creation date...on and on trying to prove I paid them so I can get a refund. Why is this so difficult to get done? Once my account hits 30 days, I won't be eligible for a refund according to their policy. I do not feel confident I will ever see the refund.

I STRONGLY suggest you look elsewhere for cloud backups. The loss of my original work was tragic, and now I've had to pay them for this crappy service, and their total inability to resolve customer issues with any sense of efficiency or urgency.