I've owned SP for some time, using it to provide an hourly backup for my studio's files. Two bugs appeared: an error of "too many open files"; and a "can't find disk XXX" even though the disk was clearly visible on the desktop. This happened with both Mac OS X Server 10.3 and 10.4. I lived with this for some time, finding that quitting SP and relaunching solved both problems - but this is backup software, it's commercially priced and shouldn't have these problems.

I reported them to tech support and was told: "Synchronize! Pro X asks to close every file it opens. It couldn't work properly if it didn't, because the maximum number of open files is 256, and Synchronize! Pro X routinely copies hundreds of thousands of files in its backups."

"I have no other reports of a similar problem, despite the fact that Synchronize! Pro X is in daily use on tens of thousands of computers worldwide."

"What this means to me is that your computer is not operating properly. If it were my computer, I would use Disk Utility to "Repair Disk". If the problem persisted, I would reinstall OS X in an attempt to eliminate the problem."

My knowledge of Macs is quite extensive and I didn't believe this. Sloth confirmed the existence of numerous temporary files. Tech support then commented: "Mea culpa! I've attached a version of Synchronize! Pro X that I believe no longer exhibits the problem."

I tried using the v5.0.8 beta but it wouldn't accept my serial number. What followed was numerous emails back and forth and a call to Hugh Sontag (both tech director and tech support) in the States. He absolutely refused to give me a working serial number, insisting this was user error. I'm positive it isn't but even if it is, what kind of company takes such an arrogant, intractable approach?

In the end, I gave up. I bought Tri Backup (at half the price) which works perfectly, especially as my server is working on a non-Intel machine (Tri Backup is PPC only).

The moral? Never trust *any* company that has a "lots of people use our product and no one complains" attitude.

Vic