Amazon S3 Client Rant

I'm ranting. You've been warned.

WTF? I decided to stop using Amazon's S3 (Simple Storage Service). For me it was mostly used for archiving important files, and occasionally syncing a few dynamic files. I found it awkward to use and lacking in features offered by other companies offering me my own little space in the "Cloud".

The problem? I have to pull everything off of S3 and place it on my system, so I can upload it to the new company later. Sounds easy doesn't it.I am patient. I'll just download all the files (gigs of it). Ya right! It couldn't be that simple.

In the past I purchased two commercially offered clients to use the S3 service. I'll just use them.

1. Bucket Explorer (No link, they suck)

I went online and grabbed the latest version, since I haven't used Bucket Explorer in a while. I quickly found out that the new version won't accept my key (I paid for it). I guess updates aren't free. Okay, fair enough. Good thing I still have the old version's setup file handy. WTF? It won't let me use my old version because it says it is too old. Thanks Bucket Explorer. Paying for software and not being able to use it is just wrong. Dicks.

2. Jungle Disk (Again no link for them either)

That's it! Jungle Disk has lifetime updates. Yippee. I grabbed the latest and install with my auth/key. It actually let me.  Start 'er up! Okay, so I connect to a bucket, and use "Restore Files". Cool. Pick a destination - check. Select files and folders to restore - check. I realize it takes a while, so I leave it running all night.

I wake up to check it. Done. Wow! Let's see.... WTF? It only grabbed a few folders. Maybe I made a mistake. So I try again and select some of the folders that didn't transfer (at all). Click Restore... WTF? It's done in just minutes. That is not right. It seems while looking over the "Restore Files" interface, that Jungle Disk thinks many of my folders on S3 are empty. I quickly check (worried) with good old S3Fox (for Firefox) and find that all the files are actually still there. What the Hell Jungle Disk?  I adjusted Jungle Disk Desktop's "Restore Files" multiple times by selecting different backup dates, even though they are all the same for months, hoping that will work. WTF? The software still thinks the folders are empty.  How hard can this be? Screw this.


So what does a guy have to do? Download the free (there is a faster Pro version) of S3 Browser.

All I had to do is select one or more folders (wow, they are there) and download them to any destination folder. How hard was that Jungle Disk? I didn't have to set anything up, or adjust shit at all. It was super easy. Lesson learned? Just because you paid for software doesn't mean it is superior to free.

Ranting over.