I lost a bunch of master tracks a while back with a hard drive crash, and I had a backup plan with this online site that just decided to shut down. As a secondary plan I also had a few master tracks saved on the site DROP BOX. 
 
 I hadn't been on DROP BOX's site for a while. So they changed my password AUTOMATICALLY. Which is all good and well, but MY EMAIL ADDRESS CHANGED DURING THAT TIME PERIOD. I contacted their support and give them ALL the proper credentials, even with my PREVIOUS EMAIL address and password and they agreed that IT WALL ALL CORRECT. But they wouldn't allow me access to my files because I was unable to accept an EMAIL to the ADDRESS CONFIRMATION TO THE EMAIL ADDRESS I NO LONGER USED WITH THAT ACCOUNT. I was ALSO told that it is their policy to CHANGE the password every few months for security and they would not allow me access to my master tracks after my hard drive crash even though I knew my old EMAIL address and password WHICH THEY CHANGED THE PASSWORD! I could no longer ACCESS MY OLD EMAIL account because I cancelled it. Why did I cancel that email account? That's not the point. I had the credentials and should have been able to get my files. 
 
Either way, just thought I would warn EVERYONE that drop box's policy on this even when talking with their techs and them agreeing that I KNEW THE PASSWORD & email address and not allowing me access to my files is something to really think about when using their service. 
 
What ever the case. I use One Drive for my Mixdown files, which so far is great, but it's too limited so I don't store Master tracks or cakewalk bundle files on it. I back them up on my new External hard drive I purchased. It just really ticks me off that I have multiple master tracks on a site that want allow me to access them when I know the email and password but no longer have that email address but the thing is THEY AUTOMATICALLY CHANGED THE PASSWORD so I have no way of verifying anything. It's a STUPID AUTO FILE grab policy in my opinion.  
 
I also recently just upgraded to a new PC XPS 8700 and got a Sandisk 2TB backup Hard drive which I am using for master track backups. 
 
The so called : "CLOUD BACKUP" failed me badly!!!!!!! And that is my entire point when it comes to master tracks and songs. 
 
It's not like I can't play the same stuff again and probably do better, but it's the fact that I trusted a well known site to take care of my data and they more or less just blocked me for some reason or another from my master tracks like they did. 
 
Something to think about people. That's my entire point. But here's the thing, we don't all have golden slippers and endless amounts of money and we do what we can and sometimes are forced to put trust in others because of our situations. So don't call me STUPID. I'm just poor and tried to do the best I could at the time, and I feel like DROP BOX just SCREWED ME OVER and also I had ONE SONGS MUSIC STOLEN by a WELL KNOWN ARTIST, so go figure.................
 
I will no LONGER USE DROP BOX!!!!!!!!!! EVER!!!!!!!!!!
 
Just wanted to mention my TRUE STORY for others. Nothing I can do about any of it now except move on and remember not to make the same mistake again................ 
 
Good day everyone......... 

You really do not need any form of cloud storage in order to back up easily.  I do this sort of work for a living and what I have ever done is simply backup the folder I am currently working on at the end of major development days onto a second hard drive.  Then once a project is fully in bed as they say I just burn a DVD or two of the whole thing, catalogue that and put that in my archive.
 
You don't really know who or what they are doing to your precious files either.  Some of my clients would not be happy knowing their material is up in a cloud somewhere either.  It is over rated.  Also it takes time to upload all that stuff too where as dragging a folder onto a second drive is pretty fast.
 
If something only exists in one place digitally you are asking for trouble.  But the second place does not have to be the cloud either.
 
Thanks for the info though.  I have never been a fan of Drop Box anyway.  Google drive seems to work fine for sending large files here and there though.

Bummer experience.
 
I've been using dropbox for a long time without changing my password.  I also use box.com.
 
Neither for backups though.  I use my own cloud via NAS on my own network.

The whole point of sending a confirmation email to your email address is so that they have an extra layer of protection for your benefit. They are basically saying hey, if you don't access Dropbox for a while, we're going to reset your password and then require an extra security step to let you back in. As such, merely having your old Dropbox password and email address is not considered to be sufficient credentials. Responding to a verification email sent to that email address would confirm to them satisfactorily that you are the true owner of this account. 
 
Given their security policy, it is your responsibility to maintain ownership of the email address the account is linked to. They cannot simply bypass a layer of security just because you ask them to. Otherwise what would be the point of having this two-stage verification? I hate to be brutal, and I'm not trying to win any popularity contests here, but Dropbox didn't screw you over, you screwed yourself over by not making yourself aware of their verification policy and by abandoning the email address in question. You saved your master tracks on Dropbox because you wanted them to be safe, but you screwed up by cancelling the email address that Dropbox account was linked to. When abandoning that account for whatever reason, it was your responsibility to consider whether or not there was anything important associated with it. As soon as you clicked "confirm" on the cancellation, you were clicking "confirm" to losing everything associated with that address unless you took prior steps to secure it. Which would have meant logging into Dropbox, changing your credentials and responding to the verification email they sent you. 
 
I see no reason to blame Dropbox here, they were just sticking to their security guns and did nothing wrong. Passwords get hacked, accounts get stolen, it happens all the time. I had a Hotmail account hacked and stolen by Nigerian scammers a few years ago. Companies are a lot more serious about online security these days, and so should you be. Don't presume that things you upload to the cloud are going to be there for you forever even if you lose some of your security credentials. If it were possible to simply call them up and plead for access you didn't have sufficient credentials for then it just makes a mockery of security. Personally I think this throws a good light on Dropbox because it shows they are serious about the security of your data. I totally understand the emotion involved in losing personal data and for that reason I understand that you're not going to accept my views here, but whatever, they are what they are. 
 
With that being said, I think cloud backups are an essential part of data backup these days. Doesn't matter how many external drives or DVD's you save to, if they're all in the same location then you risk losing them in a fire, flood or burglary. A cloud backup gives you an additional level of backup security. I would seriously consider using Crashplan if you can spring for the $60/year cost ($5 per month). It works flawlessly, you get a version history (excellent for rolling back on projects you've screwed up) and you can also encrypt your data with a key. 

Got to agree with this ^^^^^.
 
If you changed your email address it was your responsibility to update any accounts associated with it, simple as that really.

As a footnote, I wouldn't entirely trust bundle files for back-ups. I went through some back-up DVDs from about 5 years ago recently, and only about half the bundle files would open successfully.

I am considering using cloud storage, BUT only as a third line defence after my local USB drives and my NAS drive which is in another building.

sharke
The whole point of sending a confirmation email to your email address is so that they have an extra layer of protection for your benefit. They are basically saying hey, if you don't access Dropbox for a while, we're going to reset your password and then require an extra security step to let you back in. As such, merely having your old Dropbox password and email address is not considered to be sufficient credentials. Responding to a verification email sent to that email address would confirm to them satisfactorily that you are the true owner of this account. 
 
Given their security policy, it is your responsibility to maintain ownership of the email address the account is linked to. They cannot simply bypass a layer of security just because you ask them to. Otherwise what would be the point of having this two-stage verification? I hate to be brutal, and I'm not trying to win any popularity contests here, but Dropbox didn't screw you over, you screwed yourself over by not making yourself aware of their verification policy and by abandoning the email address in question. You saved your master tracks on Dropbox because you wanted them to be safe, but you screwed up by cancelling the email address that Dropbox account was linked to. When abandoning that account for whatever reason, it was your responsibility to consider whether or not there was anything important associated with it. As soon as you clicked "confirm" on the cancellation, you were clicking "confirm" to losing everything associated with that address unless you took prior steps to secure it. Which would have meant logging into Dropbox, changing your credentials and responding to the verification email they sent you. 
 
I see no reason to blame Dropbox here, they were just sticking to their security guns and did nothing wrong. Passwords get hacked, accounts get stolen, it happens all the time. I had a Hotmail account hacked and stolen by Nigerian scammers a few years ago. Companies are a lot more serious about online security these days, and so should you be. Don't presume that things you upload to the cloud are going to be there for you forever even if you lose some of your security credentials. If it were possible to simply call them up and plead for access you didn't have sufficient credentials for then it just makes a mockery of security. Personally I think this throws a good light on Dropbox because it shows they are serious about the security of your data. I totally understand the emotion involved in losing personal data and for that reason I understand that you're not going to accept my views here, but whatever, they are what they are. 
 
With that being said, I think cloud backups are an essential part of data backup these days. Doesn't matter how many external drives or DVD's you save to, if they're all in the same location then you risk losing them in a fire, flood or burglary. A cloud backup gives you an additional level of backup security. I would seriously consider using Crashplan if you can spring for the $60/year cost ($5 per month). It works flawlessly, you get a version history (excellent for rolling back on projects you've screwed up) and you can also encrypt your data with a key. 

You do have a point. And it's my fault for not being more cautious. But I think people should be made more aware of their automatic password policy change. I understand why they change the password. Every so often I have sites even with me knowing the email and using the same email address & password send a confirmation to my phone before allowing me in, perhaps dropbox has that now, but it does me no good at this point. 
 
I'm going to look into Crashplan. I use Onedrive to keep my music and mixdowns on, so far so good for that purpose, but I am using the free Onedrive, microsoft seems to change their storage space size for free users every few years here lately it seems. 
 
Thanks for the information. 

Even if my uplink was greater than 750Kb, I prefer to not use clouds.  I have fireboxes ...  That may change if I ever have access to real broadband though
 
Good post james

jamesg1213
As a footnote, I wouldn't entirely trust bundle files for back-ups. I went through some back-up DVDs from about 5 years ago recently, and only about half the bundle files would open successfully.

 
I've been considering getting a blue ray burner for my PC and saving all my master tracks to a few disc and keeping 2-3 copies in a few different places along with saving them to my external hard drive. I'm to the point now, I don't wanna lose any more masters.  I just wonder how reliable blue ray disc are.