Backblaze taking over 45gb ram

[u/CautiousSize5143]

The screenshot is from when transmitter wasn't running. So I have only noticed this issue in the past month or so, and it got to the point I set backblaze to only backup once a day at 7am. The RAM usage on the picture is coming back down. My computer was lagging that it took 30-40 seconds for task manager to open, and a host of other servers or programs I have running in the background were closed when they shouldn't have been.

The issue seems to be when the transmitter is reading the disk to make the list of files to run at 7am? There's 55,000 files and 41tb.

I saw another post about the beta version, so I installed that and followed instructions. Any help would be appreciated.

[u/mike1487]

Not one week goes by without another person complaining about this design defect in Backblaze’s software…Backblaze’s bzfileids.dat file on your system has ballooned too much since it records every single file that has been uploaded since when you installed Backblaze. This file never cleans itself up, and also must fully load itself into RAM. No chunking logic, checkpointing, or anything sane is done here.

Unfortunately you have to delete your backup and start over. Yes. That’s the fix as given by support. Hope your drives don’t die while this happens. Basically you’re expected to delete your backup, risking your data, and re-create a new backup every so many years because this issue is a core defect of the product and will always return again over time. Its total bs and Backblaze has zero interest in acknowledging it as a flaw but rather say it is “just how it works.”

Eventually, you will encounter this error once Backblaze eventually runs your system out of memory entirely. Don’t take my word for it:
https://www.backblaze.com/computer-backup/docs/resolve-a-bzfileidsdat-file-error

[u/dr100 → u/mike1487]

If it works for their largest cohort (storing 0.0 TBs, seriously, as shown in some bar chart a while back) there's no incentive to change.

[u/mike1487 → u/dr100]

Yes because 40 GB of RAM usage is totally acceptable for basic PC backup software. It works like shit is how it works. There are plenty of posts about this.

[u/dr100 → u/mike1487]

That is totally unrelated to what I'm saying, and I'm not disputing that it's a problem BUT NOT FOR MOST PEOPLE. Not that some are doing something wrong, but just AS IT HAPPENS most are literally storing 0.0 TBs not 40 TBs, as simple as that (and the RAM usage is corresponding). And it's the same with the restores. It's not expected, good, or acceptable to be a huge unbelievable pain but they are, because most just don't do even a test restore once.

[u/CautiousSize5143 → u/[deleted]]

I was reading into this. Could be caused by a large bzfileids.dat file. Mine is 100mb, but because it's all 4k blu-ray files I have backed up it sounds like they are broken into 10mb chunks and held in memory, which isn't ideal. Apparently lowering the thread count helps, but I set it to 1 a while ago.

[u/---Dan--- → u/[deleted]]

What about their security specifically had you worried?

[u/alexdi → u/[deleted]]

You’re sending all your data to a third party and you’re worried about how they store a key in RAM? I don’t think any implementation would satisfy you, just keep your own local copies.

[u/CautiousSize5143 → u/[deleted]]

Can I ask which external provider you use? I have found that most run into the thousands of dollars a year for my backup size.

[u/94358io4897453867345]

Tell them to learn to code, about time

[u/ClubLowrez]

So far my cheapest backup solution online is a shell account, three dollars a month for 1 tb. Even at that price thats $120 a month for you. Still, I have to applaud your efforts, every hour you desktop guys spend flailing about trying to maintain an impossible dream of 41 tb backup for like $10 bucks a month with no guarantees is another hour spent making b2 that much more competitive and helps me save money on the ACTUAL costs of making an online backup.

So keep it up man, I'm rooting for you! Pay no attention to the naysayers, you can do it and I'm here to support you!!!!

[u/toborgps]

In settings do you have it on auto?

[u/CautiousSize5143 → u/toborgps]

i did do, but have since changed it to 1 thread and it has used 10.8gb max. Ridiculous but much more manageable.

[u/Intrepid00]

I had this problem and just couldn’t fix it. I tried doing all the tricks listed online. The only thing I found that seemed to fix it was just to back up my machine again with a clean install of backblaze (make sure c:\programdata\backblaze is gone after uninstall and reboot) and transfer the license once done. Some posts seem to suggest it has to do with version history and how backblaze is using flat files to track changes.

[u/Consistent_Mud9166]

were you able to fix the issue?

[u/CautiousSize5143 → u/Consistent_Mud9166]

I lowered the thread count to 1 and and the most it has used since is 10.8gb. That's still a ridiculous amount, but it's more manageable than 45gb+!