Backblaze Reviews 218

this product is garbage. i paid this company for years and when it came time to download files that i backed up on their system, most of what was downloaded was corrupted. i lost hundreds of photos, memories and work files because of this. you get what you pay for. when i complained, they claimed it was a unzip issue and refused to refund me. terrible company and service.

What a pos.

I had to revert my Mac to a previous snapshot and the end result was a frozen backup and despite following instructions I still cannot inherit the backup state.

It seemed good until I hit an issue and teen it revealed itself to be totally useless.

Bye.

The number of negative reviews posted on this backup service prompts me to restore certain elements. I have been using this service since 2013, the price starting from $ 95 has increased sharply to over $ 130.
This service works perfectly and at a very good price-performance ratio. The backup software is quite simple and well done and the backup is relatively fast with a fiber connection. The private encryption key, although the method used does not completely respect zero-knowledge, still provides additional security in the event of hacking of the service.
The backup software works fine, but it is true that for files of several hundred gigabytes, the hash system of the encrypted file into chunks takes some time when you do not have a computer with great computing power and data. 'an SSD hard drive. A tip to know is that defining the location of the cache is essential for the backup to run smoothly. Ideally, you should put the cache on a hard drive that has the necessary space to save the largest files present in the backup. Otherwise the backup may go badly and the backup software may crash. An automatic warning would be welcome in these situations which unfortunately is not the case and can lead to backup freezes which annoy users who mis-set the software.
The size of the backup is really unlimited which is very rare for this kind of low cost service. I managed to save more than 4TB of data with no problem.
The upload and download speed is satisfactory if you have a good fiber or adsl plus connection. After that, you will find faster services, but they will be much more expensive and will mainly be intended for synchronization, which is not the case with this service.
Regarding two-factor authentication, I had a problem because I was no longer receiving the verification code by SMS. With a French number there may be some malfunctions. I was able in-extremis to recover access to my account because I had fortunately archived the card number with which I had paid my subscription. Yet it had expired and I had destroyed it. So I advise you to keep the credit card number used in case of problem in two-factor authentication. This should be clearly indicated when activating two-factor authentication, otherwise you risk losing access to your data.
Customer service is quite good and responds to questions fairly quickly and appropriately, although the lack of help and documentation in the languages of the countries in Europe where the service is marketed is a limitation.

In terms of faults, the most obvious is that this is only a "cold" backup service. That is, the time to retrieve files from a zip container of several hundred GB takes tens of hours. The download of the restoration is a little faster than the upload but takes a lot of bandwidth and the specially designed transfer software can crash at times but when it is restarted generally everything works if the computer which downloads the restoration is not not used for anything else. However, the service of sending data to a hard drive is more suitable when you have hundreds of GB of data to restore. I perform several random restore tests each year, I have always been able to recover my data which is identical after checking with my source data. The only problem encountered is the crash of the restore download software which requires a lot of bandwidth and puts a lot of strain on the computer's CPU.
The marketing of the service can be misleading, but the service is rather designed as an ultimate archive backup that you do not need immediately (either personally or professionally). This is the strongest criticism to be made on this service, even if the data on the website allows us to understand it, aggressive marketing may suggest that this service can be as efficient as competitors allowing synchronization (dropbox, one drive, google drive etc.). For the files you need quickly in the event of your hard drive crash or theft, I advise you to place them directly on a synchronization service mentioned above and especially to have a physical backup on a hard drive which allows rapid restoration ( with duplicate for example). On the other hand, to back up personal data that you do not handle regularly, this service is perfect for long-term backup.

Backblaze is great until you need a restore. God forbid you are stuck with the slowest and worst download in the history of downloads. Half the time it doesn't work. We are searching for a new enterprise solution.

From a hobby developer standpoint (1) for standard server backups to cloud, using rclone on a Linux CLI was a charm and uploads are fast and (2) for integration with a server app, the API with HTTP requests is intuitive and well documented. Probably a detail for many, but uploads are done with client (customer) making a POST request → no need to implement dealing with POST/GET *from* B2 and no corresponding CORS headache :)
Also, bucket restrictions/permissions are very easy to understand and use. There is no 'limbo' for files like on other providers.
Finally, pricing is clear and inexpensive.

Update: Their software was not backing up OneDrive for unknown reasons, no errors were reported and the support is none the wiser. It will happen again then - with One Drive or something else. It's not in their engineering culture to report on errors, apparently.

Today I realized my documents were not syncing with OneDrive since October - that's expected from Micro$oft service...
Backblaze was not backing up any documents that were held there, i.e. nothing from Desktop, My Documents or Pictures was being backed up! All setting were compatible with their software according to their documentation. I created a support ticket and will see what they will come up with...
Also - my laptop is docked for 2 months now and there are still 1654 files not backed up...
I am afraid that it's another company selling false sense of security. I bought their service after a zoolz fiasco.

After An OS change for unrelated reasons, I reinstalled Backblaze or at least tried to. Response from support is usually one reply every 24 hrs, different agents every time, faults not addressed and after 4 weeks I decided no more, they are crap. Worked fine for cirst year or so but when needed, a waste of money. AVOID, use incremental backup, usb discs and a fireproof box.

Endless obstructions and non-transparent squeezing of money. The endless sequence of actions required to attempt a backup cannot be explained other than as bull**it abuse. Backblaze was co-caused by my transfer to the emergency coronary unit at the hospital, just before Christmas. Have an instinct for self-preservation and avoid it by far.

I had a crash and had to restore my OS. I hoped to restore files from Backblaze, but the restore process is tedious, like trying to fill a jug with an eyedropper by selecting individual files, etc. OR they will charge you $99 for a USB drive containing all your data. Why can't I just download my whole database at once?

Mac OS user. Backblaze customer for several years + it had worked fine. At their urging, I added 2 Factor Verification to my account. A few months later, my Mac died. I could not login to my BB account, as the 2FV wasn't working (turns out I had set it up with an old work phone that I no longer had access to; and they ONLY allow 1 phone number), and the backup codes that I had did not work either. So, I have to join the chorus of people saying that Backblaze would not give me my data that they had, even though I had the right email address and credit card info (and was a customer in good standing. Their 'technology' is more important that the customer :( They do NOT have a phone number, so you can't talk to anyone. The CEO does not respond to emails. Some of tech people were 'nice', but ultimately said I was SOL. I eventually paid several hundred $ to a data recovery company, then cancelled Backblaze. Like a lot of folks, I highly recommend you look elsewhere for your backup needs - when you need them most, they won't be there for you. I wish I knew earlier.

I’ve been using Backblaze for some time now, and my experience was mostly positive. Easy to use, and easy to manage bandwidth issues on uploads.

So why 1 star?

I am in the process of moving. I did a final backup (local disks and cloud, i.e., Backblaze) powered everything off and sent it off to storage. I won’t be in a new home for some months. I get an email that they had not seen my external drive for 14 days and they will delete my backups if I don’t reconnect. I contact customer support and explain the situation. My options are to pay them more money to preserve my backup (which I am already paying for, btw) or try to retrieve my computer from storage, set up long-term internet service in my temporary situation, re-connect to their servers, and set some bit so that they will preserve my backup. A backup I am already paying for. They will literally not lift a finger to help me. It’s all on me. Do yourself a favor: don’t bother with Backblaze. Seek a different service. I know that is what I will be doing.

I suppose most people don't write positive reviews but are always quick to call things out when they have a bad experience. However reading a lot of these here, there seems to be some unrealistic expectations and dare I say people who may think they are more IT savvy than perhaps they are. Backblaze works... when used as designed and if you have a decent upload speed to jet your data out then it will work expected. I have a feeling some people here have not realised where the problem exists or how Backblaze hashes files and behaves looking for dupes or previously uploaded files. I have been using Backblaze for three or four years and just had my first major drive failure, I have opted to restore to a $189 drive which I will return for a refund and only pay for the return shipping - this is entirely reasonable. What a great service! And yes, I got an encrypted drive with all my data on it, no problems. No stress, I just had to be patient for a few days while they wrote out my restore and sent me the drive. Overall this is one of the best value for money services you can get and it works, and actually I think they go above and beyond with the refund program! If you forget your passwords and keys to your data well, what do you expect? You want it secure and only you can access it, then that's your responsibility to remember the key! If you have a slow upload speed or don't understand what that really means then yes it will take a long time to sync your data, if you keep removing your external drive or turning off the PC, what do you expect? if you need to download ALL that data or think it will magically reappear in moments when YOU have a problem - that's not realistic. Backblaze works and isn't expensive, I genuinely think they provide a unique and wonderful service I am grateful for... the costs of off sight backups can be huge, they are doing it for next to nothing. Whatever limitation they have in terms of speed and a clunky client - who cares, use it as designed and with the correct expectation - your data is safe. What a price, what a great product. Thank you Backblaze.

They refuse to give me access to my own files. I have been trying to access my account for several months. My computer was hacked earlier this year and my external hard drive was stolen during a move, so Backblaze, my backup storage, has tons of my old files. These are the only copies I have of these files now. There are many irreplaceable files, such as photos, videos, design files, and personal documents, that I cannot get access to and may lose forever. I've been through hell and back jumping through their hoops trying to gain access to files that are MINE not THEIRS, but they refuse to treat me with any dignity or respect. When I ask for help, I get the same response over and over. They do not care. They don't care at all. I think it's pretty evil to make it so easy to lose access to files like this and then refuse to talk to the customer who is loosing tons of files they never intended to lose. Why else would I have been paying $6 a month (and sometimes $12 a month because they are jerks and made me pay for 2 accounts for a long time). I'm very, very upset and really sad. I cannot believe that this company is doing this. It's like I'm a nightmare and can't wake up. I've shed tears over this. I've been frustrated and upset to the point that it's affect my life. I spent and insane amount of time trying to jump through their hoops with no success. It's the worst experience I have ever had with any company I have ever done business with. DO NOT TRUST THIS COMPANY. PLEASE. SAVE YOURSELF THE AGONY.

It's doesn't do its job, it supposed to do the backup in the background automatically but every time I check is days and days behind.
When I try to launch the back up manually keep telling me I'm offline (which is not true) or that the service is under maintenance and try later.
Can't be trusted to do your backup in the background

After using BackBlaze for almost one year my "C" hard drive failed. Thankfully, I was able to recover all data from it.
I had Windows 10 running but with only 8GB RAM new Windows 10 updates made my computer too slow, and I was getting hardware incompatibility reports. I opted to go with Windows 7.
I contacted Backblaze Support and followed all their instructions but could not inherit the earlier failed drive setup.
It reaches "Inheriting Backup State: Updating Backblaze resources" and stops with the error message, "Please contact Backblaze support with error code: Horse".
It appears Backblaze's Inherit Backup State cannot inherit a Windows 10 setup to Windows 7, and the inherit process repeatedly failed.
Apparently, downgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 7 does not constitute a "NEW OPERATING SYSTEM".
I was very disappointed in that the first time I actually needed to use BackBlaze Recovery Options their system failed to perform as advertised.
Their support team did contact me and offered step-by-step instructions which I carefully followed but the instructions did not work.

Very, very bad when it comes to hosting videos and images. When using this platform we had tons of complaints from users when it came to uploaded video's and images buffering. We finally closed our account today when we noticed we kept getting charged even though we no longer used this platform. They also make you jump through hoops, just to delete your account, and customer service will provide you little to know help in getting it done quickly. Overall I had a bad experience and wouldn't recommend this platform to anyone.

Like so many others, I trusted some early positive reviews of Backblaze--and then, like everyone else, I discovered later that this was a terrible mistake. When I actually needed to restore my data after my laptop was stolen, it was expensive, frustrating, time-consuming, and kafkaesque. They charged hidden fees; their FAQ didn't cover any of the questions I actually had; and their customer service (when they did finally respond) gave me incomplete, misleading, and incorrect information. I ended up spending four hours on the phone with Apple Support to rectify the errors that Backblaze customer service representatives had led me into. One star for the fact that I was eventually able to restore my data, and a second star for the fact that, after strenuous insistence, they reimbursed me for the hard drive I returned.

They have two products, backup and storage. This review is about the backup product, I know nothing about their storage one but based on this experience I will never use it.

TL;DR: even if you decide to go with them, test if you can actually get ALL your files back during either the trial or the refund period! Chances are some of them will be missing or your restore will fail and support won't help you. Best to find this out early while you still have your originals.

Backup makes you download their program which basically starts syncing your stuff to their servers with the idea that they keep everything (it's advertised as unlimited) for 1 month after you delete/lose it (with an option for a paid extension) which should be plenty of time to get it back in theory. You are only allowed to use this one program and in practice it's spotty and unreliable (Windows in my case). Even if you disable every exclusion rule that can be disabled and leave it running for months some files just won't get backed up for no apparent reason even if you keep telling it to "Backup Now". It will happily claim that you're all backed up though, only to find out during a restore attempt that they never had those files. Their support is useless, they will only read from a script and not deviate from it so you won't be given any explanation or answers to unusual questions.

What they're really selling is a false sense of comfort/security thinking that all your files are safely backed up. Avoid, unless you like the idea of playing Russian roulette with your files.

Difficult to use, multiple errors during restore attempts that all failed. Given that I was unable to use this, the fact that I paid $110 for a two year license is highway robbery.

Backblaze has excellent marketing and relatively slick software, that leads you to believe your files are being backed up.

However, as others have encountered, if you ever find yourself in the unpleasant situation of actually having to use Backblaze to restore lost files, you may find that your backups are incomplete.

Moreover, there is a high probability on macOS of irreversibly screwing up your Backblaze backups if you use a combination of local backups alongside it.

Backblaze's customer service is on par with a basic chat bot, replying to any inquiry with dry, incomplete, or incorrect answers. In trying to assist me with my issue, they asked for my encryption password, which you can only set once and never change again. No, sorry, you don't get one of my most secure passwords sent over cleartext by email. I asked if screen sharing was possible and they said it was not, end of story. Backblaze deleted, and they couldn't seem to care less.