Backblaze’s Policy Switch

Backblaze here seems to be taking a very narrow definition of local storage. Files synchronized with services such as Dropbox and Google Drive very often are also stored in full on the user’s computer.

However, the difficulty arises with changes made to how the cloud services deal with placeholder files, where a file is stored online but there’s no copy on the user’s machine. Services such as Dropbox use placeholders to save space on customers’ computers and to save their own bandwidth, by not having to constantly synchronize every file with every device the user owns.

Historically, if users decided to keep their files stored locally, Backblaze could see they weren’t placeholders and was able to back up the full file. However, changes made by services such as Dropbox and OneDrive last year mean that all folders in a Dropbox/OneDrive account are marked with a “reparse point” which makes it impossible for Backblaze to tell if files contained within that folder are the full file or merely a placeholder.

Backblaze doesn’t want to give customers’ the impression its backing up their files when it might only be backing up a placeholder (effectively a shortcut to where the file is stored online) so has decided the best thing to do is to stop backing up files from the cloud services entirely.

That could leave users thinking their data is being backed up when it isn’t, unless they’ve happened to read the release notes. Backblaze says it will better communicate with customers to make them aware of the change in policy.

Services such as Dropbox are not backup, even though many people think they are. They have limited windows to restore files and provide no protection if you’re locked out of your account for any reason. Backing up Dropbox files to Backblaze provided another copy of the file held on separate infrastructure, providing an extra layer of protection for users.

The Backblaze website page promoting its personal computer backup service makes no mention of excluding files synchronized with Dropbox or other cloud services. In fact, the feature table comparing Backblaze to other services claims “all user data included by default”, while other services are listed as “varies”.

Worse, the Backblaze website still includes a 2016 blog post called “Backblaze and Dropbox” which claims that “Backblaze backs up all of your computer’s essential data to the cloud—that includes the contents of your computer’s Dropbox folder.”