pCloud Uploads Are Slow. The Client, Not the Service, Is Usually Why.
Slow pCloud uploads are routinely blamed on pCloud. The bottleneck is usually the desktop client, not the service. There are two paths into pCloud, and they behave very differently.
Where the slowness usually comes from
Section titled "Where the slowness usually comes from"The pCloud desktop client, the thing that mounts a P: drive and syncs folders, does a lot of work per file. It stages uploads through a local cache, so the final stage of an upload touches disk on your machine.[1] It serializes work, so small files queue up and take a long time.[2] And it does not always recover cleanly, so people end up reinstalling it and testing their connection while the real cause sits in the app.[3]
The same account and the same connection produce two very different results depending on which path the bytes take. The client path crawls. The API path runs at the speed your connection allows.[4]
That split is why the common workaround is to zip a folder first, upload the one big file, then unzip it in the cloud. It is a workaround for the client's behavior with many small files, not for the service.
The API path is the fast path
Section titled "The API path is the fast path"pCloud exposes a normal API. Files upload over it with a single request, and the API does not carry the client's cache or serialization. Terabyte-scale libraries move over that path at full connection speed. It is the same route Blober takes.
What Blober does differently
Section titled "What Blober does differently"Blober is a desktop app, but it does not use the pCloud client or the P: drive mount. It talks to the pCloud API directly, without the command line:
- you pick the source and destination in a file browser instead of typing rclone flags;
- each file uploads as its own request with progress shown;
- a file that fails on a transient error (pCloud returns 4xxx for throttling and 5xxx for temporary failures)[5] is retried automatically;
- completed files stay done when a task is interrupted, so a dropped connection does not restart the whole job.
The guide on connecting pCloud covers the authorization, which takes seconds because Blober ships the public app keys.
What Blober does not change
Section titled "What Blober does not change"Two limits stay honest. If pCloud is throttling a specific account or a busy network path, no tool changes that, and Blober does not pretend otherwise. And pCloud has no resumable upload for a single large file, so a multi-gigabyte file that fails retries from the start of that file.[6] The difference is that the rest of the task is untouched and the same file does not fail silently in a queue while you wait.
If uploads from the pCloud client have been the problem, try a Blober workflow before you abandon the plan. The files you are trying to upload will tell you whether the service or the client was the slow part.
Frequently asked questions
Section titled "Frequently asked questions"Does Blober make pCloud upload faster?
It removes the desktop client's cache and serialization, which is the reported bottleneck. It does not override server-side throttling, so results depend on the account and the connection.
Do I still need to zip folders before uploading?
No. Zipping was a workaround for the client. Blober sends the files as they are.
What happens if a file fails mid-upload?
Blober retries the file and keeps the task going. Files already uploaded stay uploaded. A single large file that fails starts over because pCloud has no resumable upload, but nothing else in the job is redone.
Does Blober use the pCloud Drive cache on my disk?
No. It streams through the API, so it does not fill the local cache the desktop client uses.
I have a lifetime plan. Does that matter for uploads?
No. Blober connects to the account either way.
Is this the same as rclone?
The upload path is the same idea. Blober is the part rclone is not: a visual app where you browse both sides, build the workflow, and watch progress without editing a config file.
Get Blober
Section titled "Get Blober"Blober is a one-time purchase with a lifetime license. No subscription, no transfer fees, no per-GB cap. It runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux.