By Alexandra Burlacu email: a.burlacu@mobilenapps.com | Jan 11, 2013 08:22 PM EST
Popular file sync/store/share service Dropbox went down after experiencing some difficulties, affecting synchronization both from the Web site and desktop application.
As expected, the issue prompted many disgruntled users to point fingers at Amazon Web Services (AWS) again, especially since AWS has just recently apologized for some technical issues that took down Netflix for some users over the holidays. All files uploaded to Dropbox are encrypted and stored on Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3).
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The cloud provider is now once again under fire, and many Dropbox users have flooded Twitter to check whether other users were experiencing similar problems when trying to access the service.
Dropbox took it to Twitter to discuss the issue via its Ops account and assured its users that their data remained safe, although they could not access it for a while.
"We are aware of an issue currently affecting people's use of Dropbox," the company said in a statement to the media. "We apologize for any inconvenience you may be experiencing as we work to resolve the issue. For the latest updates, please see https://twitter.com/dropboxops."
"Our engineers are still working on the issue. Your data is safe, syncing/uploading from the webpage/desktop application are affected," the company tweeted on Friday, Jan. 11. "Creating/joining shared folders and creating shareable links to files, also affected. We appreciate your patience as we resolve this issue."
In another update on Twitter, Dropbox finally announced that its users should now be able to create shareable links again. Moreover, the company further promised that its engineers are working on resolving any remaining issues as soon as possible, and restore the service to its regular state.
Numerous apps use Dropbox as a service layer, so when Dropbox goes down, people start to fret. On the upside, while downtime always highlights the risks of relying on third-party data syncing, Dropbox is quite a reliable service overall.
Dropbox had not experienced any downtime for 72 days, and before that it just had some planned maintenance. Overall, Dropbox' uptime takes it among the top performers, especially when it comes to syncing services. Moreover, it seems that this week was not very favorable for cloud services, as Microsoft Hotmail and Outlook.com email went down as well.
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