To start off, IDrive offers what may be the best free tier available for individual users. So well, in fact, we’re not even sure why Pro Softnet bothers making two separate products. We liked the business-centric IBackup in our review, so how does its sister service stack up? Quite well. (Music files must be copied to iDrive One from a computer.IDrive is the consumer-targeted online backup solution from Pro Softnet, the same company that makes IBackup.

The app is a fairly basic affair, with separate tabs for the three supported media types, and thumbnails sorted from newest to oldest. On the plus side, backup and streaming was lightning-fast on my iPhone 6s Plus and iPad Pro, which support 802.11ac connections. Switching networks takes just a few seconds, but doing it each and every time you want to access stored content becomes downright inconvenient after a while. I found this approach unwieldy, although iDrive confirmed this is how the product was designed to be used. Although iDrive One can be configured through a rather ugly web portal, there’s no way to piggyback onto existing networks the unit can be set up to access an available Internet connection at the same time, however. Mobile backup and streaming requires a free app on your smartphone or tablet, which must be connected directly to one of the unit’s dual Wi-Fi networks. The free iDrive One app can be configured to automatically back up Camera Roll photos and/or videos each time it’s launched. (Local Mac or PC backups offer 256-bit AES encryption.) Personal cloud However, it’s a missed opportunity considering this product was designed to provide unencrypted backup for photos and videos on iOS and Android devices. That makes iDrive One considerably less portable, but it’s too big to be considered pocket-friendly anyway.

There’s no built-in rechargeable battery the unit is powered by an included AC adapter and USB 3.0 cable.

Idrive photos review