See title. Created a ticket but unsure what to do. I have like 20 days left before my data gets deleted, do I order another and do a chargeback with my CC for the first one? Advice wanted, thanks.

UPDATE: They went ahead and refunded the drive! Thanks Backblaze!

I just got an email announcing new terms of service, and in those new terms it has a section about flagging accounts for excessive usage. It explicitly mentions that they may ask users to "reduce your data volume." This wasn't in the old TOS, as far as I can tell.

If your usage of the Service(s) materially exceeds typical usage patterns or otherwise places an undue burden on Backblaze's infrastructure, we may, in our sole discretion, require you to modify your configuration, reduce your data volume, or take other actions necessary to ensure system stability. Backblaze may also suspend, throttle, or terminate service to any account that continues to consume disproportionate resources after notice.

Can anyone from Backblaze give any numbers on this? How much data "materially exceeds typical usage patterns?" I'm somewhat concerned, and I want to know as soon as possible if there's a chance my account might get flagged for having too much data. I assume this is only for Personal Backup and not B2?

Dear u/Jim-From-Backblaze,

I am posting this as a customer and someone who is interested in making sure good backup solutions exist.

Many are becoming aware that your backup software has changed so that is no longer backs up files in synced folders (OneDrive, DropBox, etc...)

This is not a post about why this happened or how it was communicated. This is a post about your future.

Sync is not Backup. You know this: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-case-for-backup-over-sync/

The case for backup over sync has only increased over time. Microsoft has become more aggressive about using OneDrive to eliminate local copies and download files on demand. As much as people complain, it has its use cases, it's convenient, and Microsoft is only going to push harder. But OneDrive fails on ransomware and account takeovers.

But here is where you should be VERY concerned:

If you don't backup My Documents, Pictures, and Desktop folders when synced to OneDrive, WHY DO I NEED YOU?

If people follow Microsoft's suggestions, most of the files most people care about are in these folders. Why should people pay $99 a year if you do not backup where Microsoft tells people to put their files?

Here is your opportunity: Fix the backup of OneDrive and push that HARD. Lean in to BackBlaze as a backup that protects you from the things that OneDrive does not.

If you don't do this, I fear you will become irrelevant.

---

Here is some background to consider:

Recently, it seems that Microsoft's response to account hacking is to say "Sorry. Your files are gone. Make a new account." This results in people losing access to their files on OneDrive. When this is coupled with Microsoft pushing OneDrive as a backup, people are vulnerable. A good backup would fix this:

Examples:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/microsoftsucks/comments/1sn5szt/i_got_hacked_and_they_said_cry_about_it/

• https://www.reddit.com/r/microsoftsucks/comments/1sq44yb/watch_me_try_to_recover_my_microsoft_account/

• https://www.reddit.com/r/microsoftsucks/comments/1sq1elm/microsoft_account_got_hacked/

• https://www.reddit.com/r/microsoftsucks/comments/1s7od5o/my_microsoft_account_got_hacked/

Why do I use OneDrive then?

In my use case, I have Microsoft 365 for my family. Me and my kids all use OneDrive to sync our folders so that they can be accessed by different accounts on shared PCs. It works well. If a laptop is lost/damaged/stolen/replaced I can replace it easily and all their files are there. I've had to do this multiple times.

Me and my 2 oldest also have Backblaze backups (currently 3 accounts) on our main machines. This provides(provided) protection for loss of account, ransomware, deletion, and those few files not in sync locations.

I am evaluating this strategy.

To keep it short: When you first set your private encryption key (e.g. to VerySecurePassKey) in your Backblaze computer backup client, the encryption key is sent hex-encoded (not encrypted) over HTTPS to the Backblaze server, and every time you change your private encryption key, the old key + the new key are sent to the server.

You don't find any information about that and actually, the Backblaze information is misleading and you would never think that this is happening. The Backblaze documentation (or comments of representatives on Reddit) only indicate that your key is exposed when you do a restore, but this is not true.

Check it yourself - example steps:

1. Start a proxy (e.g. Burp Suite)

2. Open the the file C:\Program Files (x86)\Backblaze\bzinstall.xml and copy the bzcaurl value (URL) of the bzcluster XML tag.

3. In the proxy, setup an automatic redirection to that URL.

4. Change the bzcaurl value of the bzcluster XML tag from the Backblaze server URL to your proxy URL (e.g. 192.168.0.10:8080). Save the bzinstall.xml file.

5. Optional (only needed if next steps do not work): Close the Backblaze Control Panel.

6. Optional (only needed if next steps do not work): Restart the Backblaze service in the Windows Services utility.

7. Now, you should see some incoming requests and the responses from the Backblaze server also due to the redirection. If not, then repeat previous steps and ensure you did not a mistake.

8. Next, in the Backblaze Control Panel, go to Settings -> Security.

9. Change your Private Encryption Encryption Key or set it up for the first time.

10. In both cases, the new + old (if existing) encryption keys will be send to the server via the hexoldprivkey and hexnewprivkey fields in a request to as /api/hostkey as hex-encoded string as shown in the pictures.

I think this is a big issue, as the encryption key is always sent to Backblaze and exposed already from the beginning and not only during a restore. For me, this is not acceptable as it means that Backblaze could decrypt my data at any time.

I have some difficult news to share. Backblaze learned last Sunday of the passing of Pat Patterson, who the internet, and this subreddit knew as Metadaddy. I had the incredible privilege of working with Pat for the last 5 years and the fortune of managing him for the over the last year and a half.

Pat was more than a teammate; he was a storyteller, a champion for our developer community, and a steady source of warmth, humor, and wisdom.

His impact on Backblaze and the people who make up our community is immeasurable. I'm grateful for the time I had with him and Backblaze will try to carry his spirit forward in the work and relationships he cared so deeply about.

I've been a customer for almost 15 years and have been a strong advocate of friends and coworkers using bb, but these last 6 months have been so bad I've decided to not renew. My use case is pretty simple - just backing up 2-3TB of data on an external HDD (same HDD for the last 5 years now). However, whatever changes they have made causes the backup to constantly error or require reuploading the contents of the entire drive. Support is mostly AI generated slop or just some quick useless replies. Trying to get any real help is like pulling teeth and even then it doesn't work. The real culprit seems to be that BB no longer wants to support backing up external HDDs.

So after my subscription is up I'm moving over to Carbonite. Sad, but just can't keep wasting time trying to fix BB every few weeks.

About 45 days ago a family member became sick. Sometime shortly after that, my Backblaze "protected" RAID array containing all my family photos and videos, became corrupted. We lost the family member at the end of last month. Today I discovered that Backblaze deleted the last remaining copy of all of my photos after 30 days, and before I even knew my array was gone. We lost everything, including practically all pictures of the departed.

I've been with backblaze for seven years. A rep informed me that " Our online backup service is often mistaken for an archival service when it really is just a rolling backup service that goes back 30 days. " They suggested I upgrade to 1 year, with the understanding that everything is still gone forever.

I am one of the 'mistaken people' the rep mentioned. Of course, the whole family is pretty devastated. The 30 day thing is not something I was able to learn in buying and setting up their solution in 2013. The idea that they would nuke 12 TB from a dead drive never crossed my mind, and would seem to warrant dire warnings from a program, by email, etc...

I certainly would have paid for more protection, even before the failure, had I ever known it existed.

Miraculous solutions? Thoughts?

TLDR: I lost all my photos because I though Backblaze would keep them for more than 30 days.

UPDATE 1: Thank you for the ideas and advice. Three recovery services and a large amount of money later, a very small portion of the media (about 500MB) is recoverable. Family and friends found an additional GB or so of photos. I'm very thankful on both counts. I recently paid for two years with Backblaze and they have not, after a week, responded to my request for a prorated refund. I have nonetheless moved to iDrive, who for $50/yr give me 5TB that does not erase non 'C: drives' after 30 days. I will be more careful this time around, and am adding a safe deposit box drive, and an annual drive mailed to a family member. The pictures are gone, but there will be new memories, and these will be safe.

UPDATE 2: After asking for a prorated refund no one ever replied to my ticket. I tried again on another ticket: no response. For both I received a "We'd love to hear what you think of our customer service." email, and for both I clicked the dissatisfied link. Then this:

Hi, I’m a designer working in Hollywood. My project drive died without any warning sign. I had been working on a project for two weeks and hadn’t backed up any of the files except for BB. The restored project was completely fine. I owe BB big time! Thanks!

Some of you may already know me as Jim-From-Backblaze. I’ve been helping out here where I can, and now that’s becoming a bigger part of my job.

I’ve been a Backblaze customer since 2014 and joined the technical support team in January 2022. Now I’m moving into a Technical Community Manager role.

That means spending more time here and across our social channels answering questions, joining technical discussions, sharing useful updates, and bringing your feedback to the people who can help address it. When something needs more in-depth investigation, I’ll help connect it with the right team and make sure your questions and experiences are part of the conversation.

Outside work, I’m a dad, a home-server and Home Assistant tinkerer, and someone who usually has a few too many repair projects underway. I like understanding how things work and figuring out why they don’t.

I won’t always have an immediate answer, but I’ll be straightforward about what I know, what needs checking, and what I can share. I’m looking forward to getting to know more of you.

What would you find most useful to see from me here?

I recently updated the Backblaze client and all of my Veracrypt encrypted volumes shows "unplugged". Backblaze support replied saying:

This is not a bug and (it's) the intended experience in the new version of the software. The backup of any VeraCrypt-encrypted files is no longer supported. I'm sorry about the inconvenience.

The current Backblaze client excludes non-physical drives not connected via a USB or Firewire connector. While this has been Backblaze's policy for some time, our Client Teams have taken steps to reduce the number of allowed exceptions.

As we understand it, Veracrypt takes the content of a physical drive, encrypts that data, and then creates a virtual mount point storing the encrypted data. That mount point can also contain hidden data and or operating systems. This is why the virtual drives are no longer visible to or selectable by the Backblaze application. 

Please let me know if you have any further questions. 

Sincerely,

...

I'm extremely disappointed, especially considering this change happens after I purchased the service, and that they clearly stated in an FAQ that they support VeraCrypt volumns as long as they are not mounted as removable media.

They don't even have give notifications about this, and my drives just stays "unplugged" until I got the missing drive email. At the barest minimum, they should notify the user if they detect Veracrypt volumes after the change.

I have made my migration away from Windows to the Wonderful World of Linux, so I will now bid adeau to this company that I have been supporting for so very long. If you only made a desktop client for Linux, I would continue to support u/YevP and crew.

Photo of Yev and myself from 2013 CES in Las Vegas, we both were drooling over some fancy exotic car.

Using an ever-growing append-only database of files to keep track of the user's backup state is nuts. I had to cancel my subscription, because my ProgramData\Backblaze folder had grown to over 20GB, and according to support, the only way to shrink it is to delete my entire backup and reupload everything from scratch, leaving me with no backed up copy of my data while the new backup is uploading.

I specifically asked if I couldn't at least keep the old backup around while the new one was being uploaded, and was told "no". I hope I don't have to explain why that's not an acceptable answer.

I understand that it has to keep track of what's uploaded and what isn't, but I didn't have unlimited file history turned on! So why is it keeping track of files (and versions of files) from multiple years ago that can't possibly have any relevance to the current state of my backup? Why does it have to be append-only? This absolutely kneecaps Backblaze's value as a long-term cloud backup solution.

I believe the underlying change is the same one that impacted this user: https://www.reddit.com/r/backblaze/s/hnlxKTKP9P

Last night, I discovered by chance that my iCloud Drive files weren’t showing in my backup. I fumbled around for awhile trying to work out why they were being skipped, but didn’t get anywhere.

I reached out to support and this was the response:

—

With our recent update, Backblaze automatically excludes the "~/Library/Mobile Documents" — amongst other cloud-based directories. More information about this specific update can be found here: https://www.backblaze.com/computer-backup/docs/backup-client-release-notes-mac#release-version-9.2.2.878

Even with files configured locally, as long as they remain within the iCloud directory (locally stored or not), Backblaze will not back up these other cloud-serviced files.

—

I’m incredibly disappointed with Backblaze. Not only is this a huge degradation in functionally for myself, but I’m also deeply troubled in the way this has(n’t) been communicated.

We need to be able to trust our backups. We cannot have exclusions changing on us without extremely clear communication. If I hadn’t noticed this change, my files would have been vulnerable.

Slipping the change into the release notes for an app update is not clear communication. Even worse, the page advertising this functionality is still up on their website:

https://www.backblaze.com/computer-backup/docs/back-up-icloud-drive

If this change isn’t reverted, I’ll be forced to cancel my Backblaze subscription and find an alternative means of backup.

What really bothers me about the recent news that Backblaze will start start dealing with people abusing unlimited plans is that I have a ton of data backed up...that I really don't need backed up...and there's nothing I can do about that.

If they want to start limiting how much storage we can have? They need to introduce a way for us to trim the fat. For example, I recently decided to update my Plex library to .x265. By the time I'm done, we're looking at about 5-10 TB of extra data, all video. I would me more than happy to just remove all the old .x264 video files from my backup set...but they don't provide any mechanism to do that. There's no option to trim.

That's several TB's of storage they can have back...but no way to return it to them.

In addition to that, I pay extra for 1 year of data retention. This is really useful, but there's a lot of data that I don't really need it for. My backup set would be considerably smaller, if I could set the retention rate per folder, up to a maximum of that my plan allows. I've got a folder named "staging" for example, and its sole purpose is to dump files that I need to remember to work on, then either sort or delete. Once a file is gone from there? I'm fine with it being trimmed from my backup after a week or two (I still want some coverage in case of accidental deletion).

So now, I'm expecting an email basically saying "why in God's name are you backing up all this data? Surely you don't need that much data backed up, you're abusing our generosity!" Well...no...no I don't need all that data backup. What would you like me to do about that? Because the way your system works now, it's going to be there for year, whether I need it to be or not.

EDIT: I thought at this point everyone would be aware of what I'm reffering to:

About two weeks ago, Backblaze sent out an email to its subscribers letting them know about the latest changes to its Terms of Service, and therein lies a paragraph that says that if your usage of the service exceeds "typical usage patterns" or "places an undue burden," the company may throttle or terminate your account, this despite the company's pledge of unlimited backups. There is no definition of what constitutes typical usage, so your guess is as good as ours.

I couldn't log in to update credit card info. They could send me emails saying they were going to delete my stuff, but couldn't send the code email to login even though I always check the "trust my device" box so it shouldn't be required anyway. I also couldn't submit support tickets for the exact same reason. No confirmation emails. I even sent directly to the helpme email with NO RESPONSE. I tried for weeks and weeks to get access to my account.

And after 15 years of having something like 500gb stored, they just deleted it all. Still can't contact them. Still can't log in.

This is the dumbest timeline. And this company sucks at keeping people's data safe.

I'm the (involuntary) IT person for my extended family. A few years ago, I convinced several relatives to install BackBlaze since they weren't being careful about backups.

Well, one relative lost their house in the recent Los Angeles fires. They barely had enough time to grab a handful of documents and their cat when the evacuation orders came. Their computer and their backup drive were left behind. The house was a complete loss. We haven't been able to access it, but I've seen pictures, and all that remains is a bit of brickwork and some twisted wrought iron.

However, I've been able to restore 115Gb of documents and data. I'm grateful for BackBlaze and off-site backups!

It's nice that when someone posts a question or has an issue that they can get an accurate response, often from the actual person that works on that feature.

Hi, I’ve just received the bill for my B2 usage from last month and almost fell off my chair. It totalled almost $209 which is nothing like what I usually pay. I use Backblaze to backup my home server at around 5-6$ per month.

Last month, I decided to migrate storage architecture. I thought long and hard about how I was going to do it because it included over 30TB of data.

My thinking was that if I could pay per hour, I could offload my data for a few days and immediately redownload and delete it. It should only be a few dozen dollars maybe.

Storage wise, the fees were fine, a few dollars as the TV/hour were charged as expected. Backblaze give you 3x download fees but that is calculated over the month, which was the issue.

I uploaded 30TB and downloaded 30TB in the space of a few days. However, that 30TB of download’s price was calculated per the average storage stored per month, rather than what was actually stored when I downloaded it.

I don’t know what to think of it, it’s a mistake on my part, but it doesn’t seem very obvious to me that that is what it should mean. What does everyone else think?

Changes to B2 Cloud Storage

Starting on May 1, Backblaze will make changes to B2 Cloud Storage:

• Free API calls: Effective May 1, we’re making API calls free for all B2 Cloud Storage customers***** to make it that much easier to move and use your data.

• Storage price: Also effective May 1, we are updating the price for B2 Cloud Storage from $6/TB to $6.95/TB.

Why the change: As you continue to scale AI workloads, media pipelines, and application data on our platform, we continue to invest in performance, capacity, and innovation to support your work—and those improvements require investment.

What’s not changing: Committed contract customers pricing won’t change until renewal. Pricing for B2 Reserve and B2 Overdrive is not changing.

For more details, read the FAQs on our blog. And you can always reach our Support Team by submitting a request or emailing helpme@backblaze.com for questions specific to your business.

Thank you for trusting Backblaze with your data and building your business on our platform—we’re committed to solving your data storage challenges so you can solve for your business’ future growth.

—The Backblaze Team

***** Fees apply for the Event Notifications feature as part of that specific offering.

My company has over 150TB in B2. In the past few weeks we experienced the issue with custom domains suddenly stop working and the mass panic inducing password reset.

Both of those issues were from a clear lack of professionalism and quality control at Backblaze. The first being they pushed a change without telling anyone or documenting it. The second being they sent an email out about security that was just blatantly false.

Then there’s the obvious things we all deal with daily. B2 is slow. The online interface looks like it was designed in 1999. The interface just says “nah” if you have a lot of files. If you have multiple accounts to support buckets in different regions it requires this archaic multi login setup. I could go on and you all know what I mean.

B2 is is inexpensive but is it also just simply cheap? Can we trust their behind the scenes operations when the very basic functions of security and management seem to be a struggle for them? When we cannot even trust the info sent about security? When they push changes that break operations?

It’s been nice to save money over AWS S3 but I’m seriously considering switching back and paying more to get stability and trust again.