As of Ventura 13.3, things should be much better. What is your issue currently? Define unstable? Lets make sure it is not hardware.

We went to annual support, as MacOS changes so much version to version right now, its easier for users to plan once a year, then every new MacOS need to upgrade their SoftRAID. And in the future, we are not going to be tied to MacOS releases for larger versions of SoftRAID.

We hear you however, and who knows what the future will bring.

Thanks for listening.

This may be the case. I will check. Or it may be a bug. This is a difficult decision. On one hand, with expired support, upgrades were not made available, on the other, we were offering support. I am not sure what the official policy is on this.

I understand. But who pays for supporting you? try to get quality support from one of those inexpensive box enclosures. that costs money.

If you think this is unaffordable, I understand. But companies need to be there now, and in 5 years, when you need them.

Few people keep their enclosures more than 4 years before replacing or upgrading them. Since we offer 3 years free upgrades, that is at most, 1 year for paid support for the average photographer/videographer. Most buy new drives/enclosures every three years.

Remember you are complaining about support for hardware that is out of warranty. And we need to (and are happy to do so) support users with Thunderbolt enclosures bought in 2014 for example. I do not think of any other RAID product that is willing to do that. Or in the case of hardware RAID, supply spare parts. Its not available, unless you can find it on ebay.

if you have a Drobo, what kind of support will you get?

Consider what an average photographers data is worth? Considering the value, do you not want the drives (and software) that hold that data to be fully supported, tested and reliable for every MacOS version that comes along?

Its easy to ask for everything for free. But somewhere, there is a cost. We do not make money selling your data (like google/facebook, etc). Our prices are very competitive, and quality excellent. We have Customer Support reps on hand every business data to take your call, and 365 days a year to answer emails or reply to the forum.

And you want that for free, for life? For a $100 product, essentially?

A product that is responsible for managing tens of thousands of dollars of your precious information? What quality of support and upgrades would you expect "for free"?

I'm sorry but I don't have every year over 100$ to pay this, I can't afford it and my clients are not willing to pay for this overpricing either.

Question: my year of software support expired in mid-July.  I renewed today, and my new contract expires in... mid-July.  Why would it not expire one year from today?  If I had waited until January, would it still expire in July?

You are welcome to respectfully argue your point of view.

Note that your data is never withheld from you. Your volumes are always mountable. Please do not accuse us of holding back data. That has never happened and never will.

MacOS undergoes tremendous changes every year. It requires extensive engineering to keep up with these changes.

How does a business cover these costs? Raising the prices on new customers? Or offering extended support for customers using the product and needing support? (after their warranty has expired)

IWe do want your business. Remember, when you purchase a new set of drives in a Thunderbay, you get 3 years of extended support and upgrades. Its only after that, when your warranty expires, that we ask for support (and upgrades) to keep supporting you.

Your alternatives are using non RAID, or Apple's free RAID. (which you can always do with a Thunderbay), or buying USB hardware RAID that is not worthy of your data. I certainly would not trust my data to one.

Thunderbolt enclosures with RAID are much more expensive and if you compare costs you will see Thunderbays are still less expensive if you compare with a 5 year expected lifespan of an enclosure. And multiple enclosures only require one license.

I think it is the perception you are arguing for. Free often means "minimal" support. Or, a frustrating lack of support when you want it.

I can think of several times I have tried to get support these days from other companies, where you cannot reach the company at all? Or they ignore you? Or give bogus answers? Many users give praise to OWC because we truly try to give great support to our users.

Look at the big picture and you should see we offer exceptional long term value to our customers.

As fellow @steve-nuns , I feel cheated, disgusted and what is worse and he denounced a year ago, OWC continues without warning their future customers that they will have this overcharge if they want to continue to recover their work in the future.

This, in my town, is called hiding the truth and "cheating" your customers.
I am very sorry OWC, for my harsh words, but I already tell you that all fellow photographers I know and have OWC products (many of them, OWC customers thanks to my recommendation) are as angry as I am with this, we do not understand it and we WILL NOT BUY OWC again because we feel cheated.

We understand that it is not free, but to pay 89$ EVERY YEAR to be able to rescue our works from a simple set of discs seems to us a tremendous abuse... Have we gone crazy?

OWC never again (a pity I feel about this).

PS: I hope you don't delete this comment, I'm trying to be respectful from my angry state. Thanks

I disagree that SoftRAID licenses are not perpetual. A Subscription means your application stops working, when the subscription ends. What changes with SoftRAID are MacOS upgrades. that causes issues that must be addressed. about 20-25% of users wait a year or more before upgrading to the latest, despite Apple pushing these upgrades hard. Those users can use SoftRAID "forever".

We still have users running SoftRAID 5.x, some that are running 4.x. That is not how subscriptions function. Try running Adobe after your "subscription" expires, even if you are on an older version, on an older MacOS.

We will be upgrading our pages over time, SoftRAID 7 is not yet released, and further changes will be made to these pages.

These are difficult changes to make, but to keep SoftRAID and Thunderbay's a viable offering, we must make them.

thanks.