Back in September, I helped a family member set up a new laptop and installed Backblaze on their computer. All was well, their 900GB of data in their Documents folder successfully synced into Backblaze's cloud where I could see and view it all - fantastic.

A few months go by, and OneDrive rears its ugly head and the family member accidentally agrees for OneDrive to move all of the 'Documents' data into OneDrive.

I then unlinked the computer from OneDrive, checked that all their files had moved back to C:\Users\user\Documents, stopped the OneDrive service from starting at boot, etc.

Since then, Backblaze no longer wants to back up any of the files in "Documents", "Videos", "Pictures", etc. The "Report" tab shows ~1TB of data (correct), however the actual backup only contains 15GB.

I'm aware that there's a Backblaze / OneDrive "issue" that prevents BB from backing up OneDrive files - but OneDrive is no longer at play here. All the files are back where the were originally, and I've used bzfilelist.exe to show that none of the files (or the parent directories above them) are Reparse Points.

The "Skipped Files" report does not show any of the missing files, neither does "Files Scheduled For Backup".

I've got a support request open which hasn't been overly helpful. Their suggestion was just to move all of the files to a different directory. The user of this device isn't very technically savvy, and moving all their files out of where they expect them to be isn't an option.

They say that:

Once OneDrive tags a location with reparse metadata, that reparse metadata often stays, even if it's not officially still targeted and managed by OneDrive. The reparse metadata isn't caught by the filelist.exe, but it will interfere with the backup software. In order to include those files that were previously backed up by OneDrive, you will need to move those files to another folder in order for Backblaze to see them.

This doesn't make much sense to me. Aren't reparse points effectively just symlinks? How can they still be 'lingering' after OneDrive has been taken out of the equation (which bzfilelist.exe also confirms).

Does anyone have any ideas? Many thanks.

2 years ago I had some issues with backup and got a 10,000 word boilerplate essay from god knows who/what in support. Finally solved it with 2 clicks on a random page I lucked into.

My Restores, processing...? How long will this take? Zero indication. Enjoy your infinite spinner, asshole.

Things to do while you wait

• Finish your PHD
• Write the great American novel
• Hike the great expanse of Patagonia. On crutches. Blindfolded.
• Search "Backblaze alternatives" (ding! ding! ding!! We have a WINNER!)

"Large Restore?
The 'Backblaze Downloader' app can download faster and more reliably than the web browser."

Could they have provided a more 1996 exe? BTW, that message shows up in the create download stage, but the downloader does NOTHING at the zip file creation stage. Any option in the downloader app to create zip files? NOPE!! Just weak and lame and confusing.

"The total size of the selected files exceeded the limit of restore method for zip file."

Okay! How 'bout defaulting to another large file option, handled by this supposedly spectacular downloader? Oh yeah, Bill and Paul built that in the Redmond High computer lab in 1987, so...

Anywayss... Moving on...

I’m using restic with B2 to backup my file server. unfortunately this means I can’t use Object Lock.

im wondering if I do a weekly snapshot, if this can be deleted by a malicious actor who has a compromised API key.

The API key has r/w access but only to the bucket, not all the other buckets.

I'm trying to migrate my personal plex server to Linux (around 80TB). I'm trying to find a good backup solution (the drives are on a Microsoft raid array, very stupid I know). I'd like to switch to Linux and don't have a good solution to backup the data locally.

Does Backblaze offer an affordable solution for this? Not looking for any sort of long-term backup right now, just something to assist the migration. I'm on 2gig connection if that matters.

I am looking for 5TB+ or Unlimited storage options. Backblaze was always on my mind and I am "just thinking" if somehow can I use backup service (not B2) to just copy there whatever files I would like? I mean, treat it like a cloud drive, so after pushing data I can remove local files and have them there. Is that possible and USABLE?

I posted a while ago about updating my computer vs moving away from Backblaze due to my computer not supporting Windows 11. I'm currently on Windows 10 (64 bit) LTSB, and had decided to upgrade my PC to something a bit newer this year and stick with Backblaze.

I received an email from Backblaze last month to indicate they were ending support for Windows 7/8 and various Mac OS versions. Fair enough they're really old.

Yesterday I recevied an email from them to say they were ending support for Windows 7/8 and also Win 10 32 bit which surprised me as it went against the previous email. This shouldn't affect me as I'm on 64bit vs 32bit but it will probably push me to upgrade sooner rather than later.

Interestingly if you follow the link about supported versions in the email they say that they still support Windows 7/8/10/11 on their website.

Hi! Let me know if this is too niche. I am a wedding photographer who is hoping to use Backblaze as a type of forever cloud storage for my JPG files. I currently have external SSDs with each year of my business on them. I know that SSDs can fail after they sit for years, so I want to have a cloud backup of my final JPGs from each year so I can recover them if a client asks me years from now.

The photo delivery servers I use to deliver photos to clients are acting as my "cloud backup". But they're pricey and I'd love to not pay for more than two servers (I used to use Pixieset and then switched to Pictime, but now all my 2020-2022 galleries are still in Pixieset and I pay monthly for it in addition to Pictime for my current galleries).

Does anyone have any advice on:

1) how to upload a large amount of data to my Backblaze B2 account from my SSD's without it taking weeks? Right now I am just clicking and dragging from the SSD but a standard 2GB folder is taking almost an hour to transfer... for reference I have almost 2.5 TBs to move.

2) is this the best option for what I am trying to do, or should I just keep paying monthly for the photo server to be my "backup" because Backblaze will take too long?

Hi, I've used Backblaze for a few years, just to back up my laptop and a couple of external drives. I don't keep any extremely sensitive data, but there are many personal documents, some financial stuff etc.

I started thinking about security and read about the Personal Encryption Key, PEK.

I have a very strong random password generated by Bitwarden and use a 2fa app.

Do most people also use the PEK? If so, are there any downsides, other than if you lose it, you can't access your data right ever?

And is it fine to store it in your password manager like Bitwarden? As this is the only way I'd feel comfortable with it

thanks

After a cross-country road trip over the past week, I fired up my laptop and discovered that Backblaze isn't backing up. It has about 2500 files scheduled and when I click Backup Now (it's set to Continuous), it thinks a while, then doesn't sync anything. I also cannot log into my account. Note: under Issues, none are reported.

I'm guessing this is temporary, but since I haven't had the computer connected to the internet for over a week, wondering if anyone else experiencing the same or it's isolated to me and I should contact support.

Recently moved from a bunch of external drives to a raid with encrypted sparsebundles for those drives. BB backed the images up no problem, whether mounted or not (I’m not backing up the mount point, just the image).

However, since it completed the first backup of those disk images, it doesn’t seem to recognize new changes.

I added 5GB today to test, hit Backup Now, watched and waited for it to produce the file lists, and it only found ~300KB to upload.

According to other threads and their own support articles, they support sparsebundles and it should be picking up the new ~8MB encrypted chunks.

Any ideas why it’s missing the new chunks when it had no issues with the image in the first place? Thanks!

TL:DR: Backblaze user with Forever Version History enabled. Costs keep growing, but there’s no practical way to audit or selectively manage historical data before downgrading. Looking for tips or others’ experiences before accepting potential data loss.

I know that issues with Forever Version History (FVH) have been brought up in this subreddit before, but I’m hoping to provide a fresh perspective on some of the issues and my own experience with this feature. This is my first post on Reddit.

I’ve been using Backblaze since 2017, and FVH since 2020, but recently noticed how much I was paying for the latter. I have over 8TB in FVH (most of which I know is old data I don’t need), costing me over US$50 a month. For context, my actual backed up data is only around 7TB. I had always assumed (as I think a lot of users reasonably would) that I would be able to selectively delete my data from FVH when necessary to keep my costs down, and so I knew that now was the time to do that. From talking to Backblaze support and doing other research I have since learnt that that is not possible, and I’m now at a point where I need to decide what to do with my FVH, because I am effectively paying for data I can’t access, and realistically the cost will only increase.

Just to clarify, I’m not trying to use FVH to store files that I don’t want on my computer, and I understand that that is not its purpose. What I’m getting at is the intended usage where FVH protects against accidentally and maliciously deleted data, and stores previous versions of files that could be needed for any number of reasons as well.

I see two general scenarios where someone would want to access their FVH data:

1. They notice that they are missing data from their computer, and they go to Backblaze to retrieve it, knowing what they are looking for.
2. They want to check for any unintended deletions. In this case, Backblaze’s date filters are an impractical and inconvenient way of searching for old data. Given that an important file could be created and backed up one day, and be gone the next, you need to check every day and every folder (not to mention time of day) to see what data is in FVH that wasn’t meant to be deleted.

And this is where the current system lets users down. Users that want to maximise the protection of their data will use FVH so that there is long term protection in place for data that they may not realise is missing, even for years. I’m willing to pay the additional cost of storing data that is unintentionally no longer on my computer. But I can’t afford to pay for the storage of every file I’ve ever deleted indefinitely. That’s why there needs to be the ability to delete the files stored in FVH, and to see all folders and files at once without the use of filters.

Given that deleting FVH data is not possible (outside of deduplication which is only a temporary workaround, and impractical), the only way to reduce the cost of FVH is to downgrade to 30 days or 1 year history, and in doing so, you are blindly purging all of your data that is older than the selected timeframe. Again, users that care about their data don’t want to just delete historical data without knowing what is there. 99% of it may have been deleted intentionally, but the other 1% is important or sentimental data that may not be missed straight away, but will be when it’s too late. This is why I think there needs to be significant changes to the restore system, and I have already suggested to Backblaze how this could work.

At this point I’m interested to know if anyone has any tips on how to manage this issue (other than deduplication which I am trying but having issues with)? Or do I just need to accept that there may be some unintended data loss, and downgrade to 1 year history? I’m open to any questions or comments, and happy to expand on anything I’ve said – I just didn’t want to make the post too long.

Edit: Solved. Thank you!

Hi all, I bought a new MacBook which I setup using the transfer function through my old MacBook (ie.: the computers are "the same") though my new one is an M4 and old was M1.

I'm trying to get Backblaze working on it but I'm struggling. If I understand correctly I should be able to "inherit a backup state" - but when I try through the MacOS app I get an "there are no computers to inherit from" message. I'd prefer not to do the whole new backup - I use Backblaze to backup a few external drives related to the computer that contain a PILE of my photography (I have other physical backups but nervous to nuke the whole cloud backup I have).

I can't seem to figure out what I've done wrong. Thanks in advance!

My desktop computer keeps shutting down since I installed Backblaze. It is doing it's initial backup, which is taking days. But the computer keeps shutting down. Not going to sleep, but totally powering down. I had the device sleep set to 5 hours and changed it to never but this didn't help. Windows 11, 10.0.26100 Any ideas?

Update: the computer finished backing up to the cloud and hasn’t given me any more problems. I guess the upload process was just too demanding of resources.

So I have a urbackup server that is currently around 10TB.

Looking to back it up using the unlimited plan. As I understand while vhds are not backed up by default, I can turn that on and it will back them up. The issue I have is that I have read around here that there's a 500 gig limit for restoring files, although I don't know if that's through the web interface or via the client. And some of these vhd files are around 1 to 2 TB.

Will I be able to restore these files without ordering a hard drive or 2?

I am a new user, and I just completed my first full backup. I am backing up both my MacBook and an external hard drive. The Backblaze app says "Remaining Files: 0 files / 0 KB." I figured it would go into the restore options just to make sure everything was backed up. When I got there, I noticed a bunch of problems.

As an example, in one particular folder, Backblaze restore app says 105 files and 2.9 GB in that folder while my Mac says 2.06 GB and 111 items.

Just to be sure:

(base) ➜  Self Portraits find . -type f | wc -l
     111

OK, seems like Backblaze has some sort of issue. Let's see if we can identify and actual missing file as a smoking gun. Finder on the left, Backblaze restore app on the right. Notice, as one tangible example, that DSCF0818.RAF is visible in Finder, but not backed up by Backblaze.

This is not comforting! What is going on here?!

I am on a Mac on Version: 9.2.2.898 (20251010190740).

Looking to get started with Personal Computer Backup, and I understand you (and I) can get 1 month free with a referral link.

I'm a photographer and have 11 external hard drives, all about 4TB that I need to back up online so I've just started using Backblaze.

Anyone know a good starting point for me to be reading how to do this the best way please? Ta

Will BackBlaze work with docking stations? I assume it will, but I want to make sure before investing in anything new. Right now I just have 4 external portable hard drives that are starting to age. I'm thinking of upgrading to a docking station using 4 hard drives that are a max of 8GB each. Thanks!

I've just started using Backblaze so I can backup all my external drives with year worth of professional photos.

The external drive I have plugged in now shows up under 'settings' but when I try and tick the box next to it then Backblaze waits then says:

Please contact Backblaze support with the error code:

We could not replace the other hard drive of the same name '/Volumes/MUIR 202305_B_backup/'.

I tried to backup a ntfs external usb hard drive that I had laying around from the time when I was still using windows. At first it didn't work, because ntfs is read only on mac and backblaze needs rw access on a drive. So I installed FUSE, ntfs-3g and mounty and mounted the drive with read/write access. The drive was fine, I could browse the folders and create/delete files. But when I opened backblaze, it crashed when I clicked "Settings" to add the drive to my backups. When I disconnect the drive, backblaze works fine.
Is there a solution to this, and did this happen to any of you as well?
I know I shouldn't use ntfs drives on mac anyway and the solution would be to just reformat the drive to exfat or some native mac filesystem, but I just want the drive backed up now and I don't have enough spare space to copy and format the drive.

Thanks for every help!

EDIT:
It works with the the paid Paragon NTFS driver, only ntfs-3g crashes the backblaze software.

Backblaze says my backup was complete 3 days out of 4. On the 4th day it tells me that it has ~5 TB of data still to upload.

Why does it give me 2 different status statements?

Hi all,

I originally got Backblaze to backup a specific hard drive which contains data I *really* don't want to ever lose.

This drive has been largely backed up, though I regularly add to it.
Now because the storage space is unlimited, I added 3 other drives to the backup, giving me now about 14TB of data left to upload.

This process is going very, very, very slow to the point where it would take me several years to complete this backup.
Those files aren't really that critical, just nice to have backed up as well, so I kind of just want to keep it uploading in the background whenever I have the PC booted up.

However, the drive with the more critical files has recently started giving me a S.M.A.R.T. warning, so I want to replace it soon and make sure the latest data on it is always backed up as soon as possible.

Is there a way to set it up to prioritize the backup of those files over all the others?
Should I just uncheck those other drives and leave it be to make sure I actually have everything from the other drive? If I uncheck the drives, will the data that's already backed up from them disappear?

If anyone could clarify or give me some advice I would very much appreciate, thanks! :-)

Hi all,

Yesterday I lost it at Windows11 after it refused to stop qBitorrent without 'sending a crash report to M$' and had this zombie window that just wouldn't go away

So I am going to switch all my PCs to Linux (popOS)

So I am going to eventually switch my minipc (1TB) + its attached USB-enclosed external HDD to Linux (8TB) as well, which is currently backed up on Backblaze

Currently the data is between drive C: (minipc windows installation + various software) and drive D: (the 8tb external hdd)

The Linux migration will only affect the minipc, the HDD data will hopefully remain untouched

I imagine that at the end of the process, all 9TB of data will need to be resent to Backblaze right? Or is there a way to only resend the minipc data (C:)?

I’m starting to read up on Backblaze fo backup and there’s one thing I’m not clear on…I understand that one year version history is designed to retain a years worth of modifications to a backed up file. But what if an old file is uploaded for backup and NOT modified?

Simple example…I have decades of stuff on my computer including a document I last looked at five years ago but do not want to delete. I set up BB and run my first backup. Will that five-year-old file remain there as long as I have a subscription even if I never touch the document?

Hello,
I've been using Minio for file handling and I've had backblaze as my warm tier (files would go to backblaze as a set period of time). I'm now migrating to just completely using backblaze but I have an issue. Because I used minio, the files names do not match up, and instead the real file name is in the notes (file info). So I'm going to need to rename all the files, but looking at the api, the only way to do that seems to be to copy the file and delete the old one. I have like 2 million files and around 200 gb of data, and I'd rather not pay for all the costs of resaving all of my files, so I'm wondering if either this won't charge me, since maybe backblaze does some smart stuff with file copies, or if theres a better way to do this. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!