Backblaze has stopped backing up OneDrive and Dropbox folders and maybe others • Hacker News Board

Re: Backblaze has stopped backing up OneDrive and Dropbox folders and maybe others

#691

Post by julianozen » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 1:56 AM UTC

Backblaze-Jim wrote: post #678

julianozen wrote: post #335

We are going to drop blackblaze over this We discovered this change recently because my dad was looking for a file that Dropbox accidentally overwrote which at first we said “no problem. This is why we pay for backblaze” We had learned that this policy had changed a few months ago, and we were never notified. File was unrecoverable If anyone at backblaze is reading this, I pay for your product so I can install you on…

Hello, Jim from Backblaze here. I wanted to offer some insight into what happened with backing up cloud-synced folders. It is true that we recently updated how Backblaze Computer Backup handles cloud-synced folders. This decision was driven by a consistent set of technical issues we were seeing at scale, most of them driven by updates created by third-party sync tools, including unreliable backups and incomplete rest…

Hey Jim,

Appreciate the thoughtful response. I recognize the challenge that cloud-synced folders introduce into the file storage ecosystem and the challenges with online/offline files + storage loopholes that could take a cause an engineering challenge.

That being said, we’ve been nearly 6+ years backblaze users and we probably can’t rely on backblaze if it can’t support these tools that are now pretty standard services to have installed. As I mentioned above, the promise for us was “pay for backblazd and never worry about whether our files are backed up”. We’ll be looking for an announcement if you can bring back Dropbox support.

Julian

Re: Backblaze has stopped backing up OneDrive and Dropbox folders and maybe others

#692

Post by GCUMstlyHarmls » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 4:57 AM UTC

subhobroto wrote: post #590

rsync wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your kind words. Just to clarify - there are discounted plans that don't have free ZFS snapshots but you can still have them ... they just count towards your quota. If your files don't change much - you don't have much "churn" - they might not take up any real space anyway.

I don't think a lot of people know you also support Borg 1.x (if you don't absolutely correct me!) It would be incredible if you started to look into S3 compatible object stores, unless you have made a business decision not to support it. Thank You for providing an affordable option for self hosters.

Depending on the usecase, rclone can expose an S3 endpoint via `rclone serve s3` to route to another protocol, eg sftp.

I mention it not to shill rsync.net, but to shill rclone, because when I discovered it I was even more impressed with it.

Obviously having to run a command and apply some amount of plumbing is different to a service just providing that API at the outset so the applicability for users will differ but still, rclone is very cool!

Re: Backblaze has stopped backing up OneDrive and Dropbox folders and maybe others

#693

Post by GCUMstlyHarmls » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 5:02 AM UTC

ramses0 wrote: post #266

GCUMstlyHarmls wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use rsync.net. You can use basically any SSH tool or rclone interface. They have a cheaper plan for "experts" if you want to forgo zfs snapshots, https://www.rsync.net/signup/order.html?code=experts .

rsync.net and rclone are great, my brain understood restic easier than borg for local backups over usb (ymmv), and plain old `rsync --archive` is most excellent wrt preserving file mod times and the like. There is 100% a difference between "dead data" (eg: movie.mp4) and "live data" (eg: a git directory with `chmod` attributes)- S3 and similar often don't preserve "attributes and metadata" without a special secondary…

You can do restic+rsync.net too if you didn't know. `rclone serve restic --stdio` on their end exposes the restic REST server over stdio, then with some fiddling of restic, telling it to use rclone as the repo address, and configuring its rclone args to actually invoke `ssh rsync.net`.

Again, with regards to my other comments, I am not affiliated with rsync, just rclone is cool. You can use the same trick with any host with ssh and rclone installed.

Re: Backblaze has stopped backing up OneDrive and Dropbox folders and maybe others

#694

Post by NR-backblaze » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 5:13 AM UTC

julianozen wrote: post #335

We are going to drop blackblaze over this We discovered this change recently because my dad was looking for a file that Dropbox accidentally overwrote which at first we said “no problem. This is why we pay for backblaze” We had learned that this policy had changed a few months ago, and we were never notified. File was unrecoverable If anyone at backblaze is reading this, I pay for your product so I can install you on…

Natasha from Backblaze here. This is a situation people rely on backups for, and I can understand how frustrating it is to run into this when you need a restore.

I also want to be clear, this wasn’t about saving on storage. It came from cases where backing up cloud-synced folders (like Dropbox) was leading to unreliable or incomplete restores because of how those files are managed under the hood.

When Dropbox began using reparse points for synced files, those files no longer behaved like standard local files. Because of that, Backblaze Computer Backup can’t reliably back them up or restore them. The current behavior is focused on ensuring we only back up data we can reliably restore, and we are actively exploring ways to better support Dropbox and data touched by other sync services.

Re: Backblaze has stopped backing up OneDrive and Dropbox folders and maybe others

#695

Post by NR-backblaze » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 5:18 AM UTC

wafflebot wrote: post #348

julianozen wrote: post #335

We are going to drop blackblaze over this We discovered this change recently because my dad was looking for a file that Dropbox accidentally overwrote which at first we said “no problem. This is why we pay for backblaze” We had learned that this policy had changed a few months ago, and we were never notified. File was unrecoverable If anyone at backblaze is reading this, I pay for your product so I can install you on…

I'm going to drop Backblaze for my entire company over this. I need it to capture local data, even though that local data is getting synced to Google Drive. Where we sync our data really has nothing to do with Backblaze backing up the endpoint. We don't wholly trust sync, that's why we have backup. On my personal Mac I have iCloud Drive syncing my desktop, and a while back iCloud ate a file I was working on. Backblaz…

Natasha from Backblaze here. Just wanted to let you know that we do backup iCloud data, as long as the files are stored locally on your device (not just in iCloud as “optimize storage” / cloud-only files).

If iCloud is set to keep full copies on disk, Backblaze will treat those like normal files and back them up.

More details here: https://www.backblaze.com/computer-backup/docs/en/back-up-ic...

Happy to answer any questions if anything’s unclear.

Re: Backblaze has stopped backing up OneDrive and Dropbox folders and maybe others

#696

Post by NR-backblaze » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 5:21 AM UTC

therealpygon wrote: post #544

wafflebot wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to drop Backblaze for my entire company over this. I need it to capture local data, even though that local data is getting synced to Google Drive. Where we sync our data really has nothing to do with Backblaze backing up the endpoint. We don't wholly trust sync, that's why we have backup. On my personal Mac I have iCloud Drive syncing my desktop, and a while back iCloud ate a file I was working on. Backblaz…

Same. Specifically I was considering Backblaze for our company’s backups (both products, computers and their bucket for server backups. That is no longer the case as of the news.

Totally fair. If you end up taking another look, happy to help.

Re: Backblaze has stopped backing up OneDrive and Dropbox folders and maybe others

#697

Post by NR-backblaze » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 5:25 AM UTC

betadeltic wrote: post #683

Backblaze-Jim wrote: post #680

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hello, Jim from Backblaze here. I wanted to offer some insight into what happened with backing up cloud-synced folders. It is true that we recently updated how Backblaze Computer Backup handles cloud-synced folders. This decision was driven by a consistent set of technical issues we were seeing at scale, most of them driven by updates created by third-party sync tools, including unreliable backups and incomplete rest…

I'm missing the WHY this wasn't communicated. Isn't it obvious you need to let your users know there is a new constraint they don't expect? Seems incredibly short-sighted to me.. The trust you build for years gets destroyed in seconds..

Natasha from Backblaze here. Fair criticism. This should have been communicated more directly.

For context, this was driven by changes on the Dropbox side in how synced files are handled, which affects how reliably they can be backed up. But even with that, it should have been surfaced much more clearly.

Re: Backblaze has stopped backing up OneDrive and Dropbox folders and maybe others

#698

Post by tmault » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 5:44 AM UTC

NR-backblaze wrote: post #677

Hello everyone. Natasha from Backblaze here. I wanted to offer some insight into what happened with backing up cloud-synced folders. You are correct that we recently updated how Backblaze Computer Backup handles cloud-synced folders. This decision was driven by a consistent set of technical issues we were seeing at scale, most of them driven by updates created by third-party sync tools, including unreliable backups a…

Hey Natasha, thanks for coming here. Out of interest I thought I'd see if the fact that cloud services are not backed up was highlighted on the product page so it was clear to new customers https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup/personal ... it's not mentioned anywhere.

So I think you're setting up new customers with the same expectations I had after 14 years of service.

Support just told me 'Backblaze not backing up files stored by OneDrive is not a change in policy. It is the enforcement of policy that has existed since the inception of the Computer Backup service.'

It may be right, but it makes me feel like I have been buying a different product from you than I thought over the last 14 years & disintegrated trust in milliseconds...

Re: Backblaze has stopped backing up OneDrive and Dropbox folders and maybe others

#699

Post by jaredklewis » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 6:56 AM UTC

julianozen wrote: post #335

We are going to drop blackblaze over this We discovered this change recently because my dad was looking for a file that Dropbox accidentally overwrote which at first we said “no problem. This is why we pay for backblaze” We had learned that this policy had changed a few months ago, and we were never notified. File was unrecoverable If anyone at backblaze is reading this, I pay for your product so I can install you on…

What are you going to use instead?

Re: Backblaze has stopped backing up OneDrive and Dropbox folders and maybe others

#700

Post by Barbing » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 7:22 AM UTC

eek2121 wrote: post #577

Barbing wrote: post #522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>doesn't understand how much they would need to pay...how to check how much they would need... ...even nearly any frame of reference for anything storage related, much less gigabytes

The solution to this is so simple that it would blow your mind. In regulated industries in the U.S. there is a law called "Know Your Customer" (KYC). If businesses actually made an effort to know their customers, they would not have any issues at all. The real issue is that everyone scrambles to make a sale, and nobody stops to determine if they should actually make that sale. Funny enough, I blame all of this on mar…

I wonder if this could be pitched as a money-making scheme. As you have financial products that aren't for sale but to qualified buyers...

Force businesses to only sell to qualified buyers and make it incredibly easy for businesses to qualify buyers at the lowest possible cost. The end result in my fantasy world is that a business ends up with some document, some self attestation, that they've educated the customer. The benefit that actually matters much more than the attestation no one should ever see would be the educated customer.

Clearly, this is way too much just for a little storage.

But I also would be curious to know if there's another customer qualification concept like this. (And I just thought of one. Scuba diving! Customer pays to learn, otherwise you're in deep (reputational) doodoo when they drown.)