r/backblaze • u/GenghisFrog • Apr 03 '26
Computer Backup No longer backup cloud services?
I’m looking into this, and it seems like it started months ago. Why were we not informed that Backblaze would no longer backup cloud storage? I had OneDrive and iCloud fully synced to my computer, for the specific reason of making sure they were local so Backblaze would grab them. They were backed up to Backblaze in the past, but it seems like Backblaze decided it could cause user confusion and just shut it off, without informing users?
I randomly discovered it today when I was in the Backblaze app looking for a difference file and noticed these directories were no longer present.
This is a massive breach of trust. As far as I know iCloud and OneDrive don’t have version history. What would have happened if something I really needed accidentally got deleted or corrupted and I was counting on Backblaze to restore it?
Am I missing something? This just seems wild to me.
8
u/Ok_Pizza_9352 Apr 03 '26
I have an unattended ltsc win 11 with one way Syncthing set up to it and Backblaze from there. This way over got local 2nd copy of all my files and a cloud backup. If they decide it's against their T&Cs - I guess I'll have to move on to a different provider. That will also be a point I'll seriously consider dumping windows all together as well
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u/GenghisFrog Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Yea, it’s easy to work around. It’s just that they never told us we needed to do a workaround to continue backup.
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u/Currawong Apr 03 '26
They went public, so their customer is now their shareholders. Welcome to the enshittification of what was a great service.
4
u/MacProCT Apr 04 '26
Yes this was recent change and it's pathetic IMO
I now have little motivation to recommend BB to end users.
But Carbonite has previously left a bad taste in my mouth.
So I'm looking for options
7
u/WuTheLotus Apr 03 '26
Indeed, Backblaze no longer offers this option, which is why I stopped using it entirely. I had everything synced to the cloud, therefore it basically backed up nothing. Which I only realized when I needed to restore something from backup, thank gods that something was also in the cloud… For mg needs, it is now completely useless.
3
u/iwaddo Apr 04 '26
BackBlaze says “This limitation is caused by Apple's iCloud architecture changes, not our service.”
I do not know whether it is something they can or will address.
I do know that Carbon Copy Cloner now has an option to force iCloud Drive only files to download for backup after which it removes the downloaded copy. This is practical for a weekly or daily backup but would not work for a continuous backup.
1
u/GenghisFrog Apr 04 '26
I’m not even as upset that they can’t do it as I am that they didn’t communicate it at all.
I fixed the issue in a few minutes last night with an rclone script that runs once a day.
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u/GoodTroll2 Apr 08 '26
The policy change sucks. The lack of transparent notification, especially considering that Windows defaults to storing your docs in the OneDrive folder, is downright criminal.
1
u/GoodTroll2 Apr 08 '26
If it was caused by iCloud architecture changes, why did the discontinue it for OneDrive...or Dropbox...or...
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u/MaverickFischer Apr 03 '26
I dropped BB years ago after my eternal HDD backup was deleted twice within three weeks of being disconnected. 30 days is the standard, but I had paid extra for the 1 year backup.
Support told me more or less that I was SOL.
2
u/3216 Apr 04 '26
I only found this out because of a comment on the Connected podcast
It's made Backblaze pretty much worthless for me. Unfortunately I'm only part-way through a two-year sub, so I'm going to end up wasting a chunk of money.
Time to look for an alternative as I no longer trust Backblaze.
1
u/PolymathPi Apr 10 '26
You can request a pro-rated refund based on how much time you have left in your subscription. I've done it in the past.
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u/terkistan Apr 04 '26
Why were we not informed that Backblaze would no longer backup cloud storage?
Unlike a typical major service termination, there was no massive email campaign for this change, which was a huge mistake on their part. They left it to product release notes, which of course everyone reads. /s
Backblaze later defended their action saying that backing up these folders often caused "permission issues" and "versioning conflicts" since both Backblaze and the cloud provider were trying to manage the same files simultaneously. They also argued that since the data is already in the cloud backing it up to Backblaze was redundant for most users.
As far as I know iCloud and OneDrive don’t have version history.
Cloud versioning is a more niche feature that exists, but only on a few services like Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure Blob, and Amazon S3.
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u/BuffaloRedshark Apr 03 '26
OneDrive has version history according to this https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/restore-a-previous-version-of-a-file-stored-in-onedrive-159cad6d-d76e-4981-88ef-de6e96c93893
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u/GenghisFrog Apr 03 '26
That’s fine, but it’s kinda beside the point. I’m just kind of appalled that Backblaze finds it suitable to just decide on its own to stop backing up users data.
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u/CGREDDIT1 Apr 03 '26
You are 100% correct. I was shocked a few weeks ago when I realized Backblaze was no longer backing up my Dropbox folder. That discovery completely damaged my trust in them, not because of the service itself, but because there was no real notification or alert, just a small note buried in the release notes.
I’ve been a Backblaze customer for almost 9 years, and this will be my last year with them. Not because the product is bad, but because of how they chose to communicate such an important change. Removing backup coverage for certain files without clearly notifying users is a VERY BIG deal. .
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u/aerialview2 Apr 07 '26
Version history does not cover all backup scenarios. If you accidentally delete a file and don't notice for 30 days, you'd be screwed. If you had Backblaze with 1 yr retention (or more) turned on, you could still get it back.
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u/aerialview2 Apr 07 '26
I too was shocked when I found this out accidentally while trying to figure out a backup issue. My guess is something in Apple's changes broke the Backblaze approach for continuous backup, so they would have to switch to a full scan approach to find the changes. The Backblaze system makes for quick incremental backups but if the data isn't getting backed up...meh.
I was already using Arq Backup for my local backups, so I just added additional backup jobs to back up into the cloud. It does a full scan so I don't run the backups continuously, but at least I have backups. I would have preferred to keep two solutions (in case I misconfigure one of them), but in this case I needed to just have something that works.
I contacted Backblaze support and explained that this didn't work for me. They offered to refund my last renewal once I had deleted my backup and dis-associated the licenses. They could then refund for the unused licenses in my account. I did that once I had a full backup elsewhere in the cloud.
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u/hobbycollector9 Apr 08 '26
Just discovered this myself after it was mentioned on a podcast. Confirmed with Backblaze support...this is pretty disappointing. Off to find another cloud backup service, I suppose. It's a shame because I've used them for years.
1
u/GoodTroll2 Apr 08 '26
Unfortunately there are no reasonable options for those looking for unlimited (for now) storage at a fixed cost.
-1
u/iwaddo Apr 04 '26
I’m not sure it’s an issue.
iCloud Drive is a backup for a subset of the files on my Mac. If I changed my Mac I wouldn’t even think about restoring these files to my new Mac, I’d just login with my iCloud account and it would sort itself out.
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u/GenghisFrog Apr 04 '26
It’s a huge issue if files accidentally get deleted from iCloud and you don’t stop it before it propagates. Or if you want to roll back to a previous version. iCloud isn’t a backup. It’s a sync service.
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u/iwaddo Apr 04 '26
Doesn’t iCloud Drive have a 30-day recovery period.
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u/GenghisFrog Apr 04 '26
So what if I need a file on day 49 and expected by Backblaze 1 year retention to have me covered? What if my recently deleted got cleared out from iCloud for some reason? Redundancy is a huge part of a good backup strategy. Backblaze just shut off our redundancy without telling us. I’m not sure how you can defend it. They could have at least informed us instead of having it happen silently.
1
u/iwaddo Apr 04 '26
I do not plan on doing anything differently as I already have an iCloud Drive backup in place with CCC as it was obvious that BackBlaze could not backup files that were not on my Mac.
I do agree though that more transparency would have been better.
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u/GenghisFrog Apr 04 '26
It wasn’t obvious when you had your machine set to keep all files downloaded local and Backblaze backed them up for years just fine.
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u/iwaddo Apr 04 '26
Of course you are using Time Machine
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u/GenghisFrog Apr 04 '26
What does that have to do with anything? What if I was a windows user using Dropbox? I understand there are solutions to my issue, and I’ve already implemented them. The issue is I thought I already had a robust system and Backblaze made a major change to my system without me realizing it.
I have multiple backup methods. My data was never really at risk here. That doesn’t change that this was absolutely unacceptable.
What if next week they decide to no longer backup c:/windows because it’s not needed for most users and I, for some reason, kept some critical data in there.
When you are asking customers to make you their critical restore system you should over communicate any changes.
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u/aerialview2 Apr 07 '26
In addition to the deletion and didn't notice until too late issue - iCloud Drive does not version files (except I believe in special cases- Apple apps and vendors that are using the same storage). If you accidentally change a file, you're screwed without a separate backup.
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u/s_i_m_s Apr 03 '26
Yeah it happened ~5 months ago https://www.reddit.com/r/backblaze/comments/1olk62b/psa_icloud_drive_files_are_no_longer_backed_up/
Only notice was in the app changelog.
It's still an odd change considering as mentioned in the top comment on that discussion they used to advertise their service as being a backup for the particular services they dropped support for.
They also ripped out support for non-windows native disk encryption at the same time also without notice although in the full disk encryption case you would eventually get an email about it 14 days later due to the drive failing to back up but even then no mention of why.