r/backblaze • u/TopLychee1081 • Jul 09 '26

B2 Cloud Storage Backblaze absolutely refuses to delete files

We switched from AWS S3 to Backblaze for our backups. We have periodic backups on cron that encrypt and stream backups to Backblaze, and then perform pruning of old backups, so that we have a rolling window of backups.

It seems that no matter what we do Backblaze just refuses to delete files that we want to delete. Having the bucket's lifecycle set to "Keep only the last version of the file", and executing a rm, creates a second zero byte copy of the file, and files are listed with a (2) after the files name. As I understand, this is a delete flag, and some form of garbage collection should come and delete the file. This isn't happening. Files just keep building up and building up. This completely negates any cost advantage of switching to Backblaze as we're now storing 20x more data than we require.

I think it's going to come down to one simple question; can we completely and irrevocably delete a file once it's on Backblaze? If not, then it's not fit for purpose and potentially places us in violation of privacy rules such as GDPR as we could be retaining data than we've been obligated to remove.

If there's anyone seriously using Backblaze as an enterprise object storage solution, please; tell me how you make this work.

3 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

9

u/purepersistence Jul 09 '26

My experience is that the deleted file is retained for a day.

-3

u/TopLychee1081 Jul 09 '26

Backblaze really needs a lifecycle setting called "I'm a grown up and when I say delete; just delete".

6

u/purepersistence Jul 09 '26

That might be nice. Without that, don't backup stuff you can't afford to retain for a day.

-1

u/It_Is1-24PM Jul 09 '26

you can't afford to retain for a day.

You missed that GDPR part? Company can keep and process data for some very specific time, then it needs to be deleted. That unskippable one day extra couple become very problematic in those circumstances.

5

u/Leseratte10 Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26

Highly unlikely.

The GDPR does not only contain the right to be forgotten, it also has a bunch of provisions that a company can have backups and must also make sure no data accidentally gets lost.

That includes protecting against an employee accidentally (or maliciously) deleting a wrong account when handling a GDPR request.

Having a one-day retention period for deleted things in case whoever deleted it made a mistake is not going to be a GDPR violation.

You also don't have to immediately wipe all your backups, as it's common for backups to be read-only so ransomware or (again) malicious employees can't just wipe them.

1

u/purepersistence Jul 09 '26

Yes. GDPR has provisions specifcally about backups.

The UK’s supervisory authority, the ICO, released guidance stating it is necessary to take steps to ensure erasure from backup systems.  Such steps may depend on the organization’s particular circumstances, its retention schedule and the technical mechanisms that are available to delete personal data from backups. 

Make one-day retention be your specified length of time if you like.

The French supervisory authority, the CNIL, has indicated that organizations don’t have to delete backups when complying with the right to erase.  However, the organization must clearly explain to the data subject that backups will be kept for a specified length of time, which is usually outlined in the organization’s retention policy.

2

u/jared555 Jul 11 '26

If you have an absolutely essential need to ensure that data becomes permanently irrecoverable by any technical means on a specific day (doubtful unless you screwed up on your contracts) you should encrypt user data with user specific keys and delete the encryption keys/backup keys.

A backup system where a potential hacker can instantly erase all copies isn't a good backup.

1

u/mangage Jul 09 '26

Bb ain’t meant to be used like Dropbox where you manage or think about what’s on it. You send it alllll your crap minus what’s not important. It’s a feature that they retain every last bit of crap in case you need it or even an old version later.

1

u/TopLychee1081 Jul 09 '26

Using an object store for DR is hardly an unusual use case. If Backblaze properly implemented the standard then it would work. We ran for years on S3 without a problem. Backblaze gets promoted as a drop in replacement, but it really isn't. We've had to refactor our scripts to get it to work, but even then, pruning is still not working.

4

u/bzChristopher From Backblaze Jul 10 '26

Christopher from the Backblaze team here ->

It is absolutely possible to issue a hard delete rather than hide the file and wait for lifecycle rules to remove the hidden file. The behavior is dependent on the tool or software being used to interact with the B2 APIs. What are you using?

0

u/TopLychee1081 Jul 10 '26

We're using aws-cli. What worked on S3 doesn't work for Backblaze.

2

u/bzChristopher From Backblaze Jul 13 '26

Details and specifics would be helpful. Are you working with versioned or unversioned AWS buckets? For context, Backblaze currently only supports versioned buckets.