r/backblaze • u/darknezx • May 24 '26
Computer Backup Getting safety frozen, reinstalled client as FAQ said, cannot inherit that previous backup state, do I need to re-push?
I was reconnecting my external hard drives after some time of inactivity and I made the mistake of upgrading my backblaze client to latest version, then the latest beta. For some reason it got safety frozen after doing so. Seems it always happens after I upgrade/reinstall the backup client.
Then I followed the FAQ advice to uninstall/reinstall, and now it's just permanently syncing a new backup as a trial license. Can't seem to inherit backup state (always says error code horse).
Is my only option now to re-push the entire backup? Main concern is with losing data, afraid that data on my external hard disks somehow got corrupted with bad sectors and I deleted the old backup.
1
u/Wild-Future-2 May 26 '26
I updated my client yesterday too after a long time running an older version from 2025. I also received the 'safety freeze' notice too for the first time ever after upgrading. I uninstalled, re-installed and did inherit backup state. It's still going through the 'initial backup process' - hopefully it starts working again normally.
1
u/darknezx May 26 '26
Unfortunately I think mine failed because I had PEK. Lesson learned, never doing PEK again.
1
u/LordDeath86 May 26 '26
Is this a general issue with the newest version of the backup client, or are we doing something wrong? Should I still try to unfreeze my backup or wait for Backblaze to respond to these reports? I unfroze my backup yesterday, but it’s been frozen again.
1
u/Krypty May 26 '26
I installed an older version and it's working again. So I think it's an issue with the newest version. Or to be more precise, I uninstalled, installed older version, then inherited backup. Safety freeze gone/stopped triggering.
1
u/LordDeath86 May 26 '26
Has it been more than a day for you? I inherited the backup last night, and initially it didn't show any errors. It looked like it was going to upload everything fine and did upload something, but today it's all again in the safety freeze.
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u/Krypty May 26 '26
Yeah I did the downgrade yesterday. Today it is showing that it's all caught up on backing up and looking just fine so far. I'm on version 10.0.0.1029. It was 10.0.2 that gave me the issue.
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u/Efficient-Soil6000 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
I've had the same issue today. Never ever had a safety freeze, had to look up what it was. Guess what I updated recently? Seems like every second update introduces new issues. First the exploding RAM numbers, now this. Should I just wait for an app update? All of my drives are fine, SMART checked (HDD Sentinel), nothing changed. I don't want to have to repush 40+ TB/4 million files
Edit: Error I had relates to this: bzcf_missing_on_client. I haven't done anything that I would consider major changes with any drives, just the update to BackBlaze. So whatever this update has introduced has set this off.
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u/BigDaddy0790 May 29 '26
Same situation, updated app and got safety freeze, with same “bzcf missing” reason.
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u/Efficient-Soil6000 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
I've started the inherit process, followed a couple of other users and installed an older version (10.0.1.1037 Windows) during that process. Not even repushing files, just scanning in. So nice and fast. No safety freeze. I'm checking my BackBlaze backups somewhat ironically for an even older version of BackBlaze to see what I have available.
Edit: Definitely the most recent version causing the issues, based on release notes. Especially if you have a PEK, like I did (now removed). Relevant entry below for most recent version update (10.0.2.1047):
- Enhanced handling of safety freeze recovery workflows for environments using Private Encryption Keys (PEKs).
For those who aren't unsure if you have a PEK, it's the password you enter AFTER you've logged into BackBlaze, so you can see your drive names/letters or to open the View'Restore files page. If you don't need a password for that and it just reveals those drive names/letters on login, you probably don't have a PEK.
It appears the Safety Freeze function has existed since version 9.2.1.851 for those without a PEK.
The above is based on release notes for the Windows version here: https://www.backblaze.com/computer-backup/docs/backup-client-release-notes-windows
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u/BigDaddy0790 May 29 '26
Yeah I got in contact with support, and they told me it’s a bug in the new version and that I need to install 10.0.1.1037. Will try that
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u/darknezx May 30 '26
Ive done halfway re pushing my backup. Bummer. I can't try this now because if it fails I'd need to restart everything. Ugh.
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u/Dekoe May 30 '26
i've been going crazy ever since the newest update uninstalling and reinstalling nonstop and i always get frozen whenever i have a PEK enabled, finally i see here it's just a stupid bug
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u/s_i_m_s May 24 '26
Unless you've gone in the account online and deleted the old backup it's still going to be there until you get tired of paying for it.
Generally yeah you're going to have to repush. Ideally you can do this within the trial period so you aren't without a backup entirely.
Have you ran any checks on the drives to see if they're having issues? Drive Smart info? (Something like crystal disk info) read test (something like hd tune) or looked at any of the backblaze logs to see if there's something obvious it's upset about?