Get ready. The release of Backblaze Computer Backup 9.0 is rolling out now through the end of September.

Backblaze Computer Backup 9.0 is available today in early access, and restoring your files is about to get a whole lot easier.

What’s New in Backblaze Computer Backup 9.0?

Whether you’re a longtime user or just getting started with Backblaze, version 9.0 provides you with an unparalleled backup and restore solution. With our latest release, you get our most requested feature: a dedicated restore app for both macOS and Windows clients that makes the process of restoring your data even more intuitive, seamless, and streamlined than before. The new version also comes with essential bug fixes and performance improvements to keep your back up experience ahead of the curve for both security and speed. 

Backblaze Restore App: macOS and Windows Highlights

Whether you’re using our macOS or Windows clients, you can now recover your important data with even more ease.

Here’s a peek into some of the new features we have in store with our new Restore Client App: 

• Simplified restore initiation process. When you’ve lost important files, the last thing you want is a demanding process sitting between you and restoring your data. With the restore app, you authenticate your Backblaze account and initiate the restore directly from your desktop. Once authenticated, you can browse your file tree and kick off the restore process immediately.
• No limits for restore size. There are no limits to restore sizes inside of the restore app. Conserving disk space is important and you shouldn’t have to worry about downloading a .zip and having enough additional space to unzip it as well. 

Note that the Restore App requires minimum of MacOS 11 (Big Sur) or higher due to Swift UI compatibility. If you’re interested in a comprehensive tutorial on how to use the new restore app, we’re here to guide you. Let us walk you through the process.

We’re excited that our version 9.0 release compliments your already robust methods of accessing your data. To access your backup from anywhere, you can log in to www.backblaze.com to initiate a restore and use our iOS and Android apps to access your files on the go. 

Backblaze v9.0 Is Available in Early Access Today: September 13, 2023

We will be taking feedback and slowly auto-updating all users in the coming weeks, but if you can’t wait and want to download the early access release now on your Mac or PC:

1. Go to: https://www.backblaze.com/status/backup-beta
2. Select your operating system and download the v9.0 app.
3. Install the early access release on your computer.

Please note, since this is in early access you might hit some bugs. Please reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions or if you want to give feedback—we always like to know how things are going.

The post Restore Like Never Before: Introducing Backblaze Computer Backup v9.0 appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

When you’re working hard on an IT or development project, you need to be able to find instructions about the tools you’re using quickly. And, it helps if those instructions are easy to use, easy to understand, and easy to share. 

On the Technical Publications team, we spend a lot of time thinking about how to make our docs just that—easy. 

Today, the fruits of a lot of thinking and reorganizing and refining are paying off. The new Backblaze technical documentation portal is live.

What’s New in the Tech Docs Portal?

The documentation portal has been completely overhauled to deliver on-demand content with a modern look and feel. Whether you’re a developer, web user, or someone who wants to understand how our products and services work, our portal is designed to be user-friendly, with a clean and intuitive interface that makes it easy to navigate and find the information you need.

Here are some highlights of what you can look forward to:

• New and updated articles right on the landing page—so you’re always the first to know about important content changes.
• A powerful search engine to help you find topics quickly.
• A more logical navigation menu that organizes content into sections for easy browsing.
• Information about all of the Backblaze B2 features and services in the About section.

You can get started using the Backblaze UI quickly to create application keys, create buckets, manage your files, and more. If you’re programmatically managing your data, we’ve included resources such as SDKs, developer quick-start guides, and step-by-step integration guides. 

Perhaps the most exciting enhancement is our API documentation. This resource provides endpoints, parameters, and responses for all three of our APIs: S3-Compatible, B2 Native, and Partner API.   

For Fun: A Brief History of Technical Documentation

As our team put our heads together to think about how to announce the new portal, we went down some internet rabbit holes on the history of technical documentation. Technical documentation was recognized as a profession around the start of World War II when technical documents became a necessity for military purposes. (Note: This was also the same era that a “computer” referred to a job for a person, meaning “one who computes”.) But the first technical content in the Western world can be traced back to 1650 B.C—the Rhind Papyrus describes some of the mathematical knowledge and methods of the Egyptians. And the title of first Technical Writer? That goes to none other than poet Geoffrey Chaucer of Canterbury Tales fame for his lesser-known work “A Treatise on the Astrolabe”—a tool that measures angles to calculate time and determine latitude.

After that history lesson, we ourselves waxed a bit poetic about the “old days” when we wrote long manuals in word processing software that were meant to be printed, compiled long indexes for user guides using desktop publishing tools, and wrote more XML code in structured authoring programs than actual content. These days we use what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editors in cloud-based content management systems which make producing content much easier and quicker—and none of us are dreaming in HTML anymore. 

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Overall, the history of documentation in the tech industry reflects the changing needs of users and the progression of technology. It evolved from technical manuals for experts to user-centric, accessible resources for audiences of all levels of technical proficiency.

The Future of Backblaze Technical Documentation Portal

In the coming months, you’ll see even more Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage content including many third-party integration guides. Backblaze Computer Backup documentation will also find a home here in this new portal so that you’ll have a one-stop-shop for all of your Backblaze technical and help documentation needs. 

We are committed to providing the best possible customer-focused documentation experience. Explore the portal to see how our documentation can make using Backblaze even easier!

The post Things Might Look a Little Different Around Here: Technical Documentation Gets an Upgrade appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

Announcing Backblaze Computer Backup 8.5! Our latest release builds on version 8.0’s speed boosts and brings with it not only a redesigned application for Mac and PC, but an improvement to our Safety Freeze feature, which prevents your backups from becoming corrupted. Here’s a brief overview of what’s new for this release:

macOS and Windows:

• Safety Freeze enhancements: improved efficiency and reduced false-positives.
• Visual refresh: We’ve completely refreshed both of our client apps.
• Minor text, bug, and performance improvements: We’ve cleaned up some of the language to make things easier to understand and have tightened up some of the code.

macOS:

• SwiftUI redesign: the macOS app has been completely redesigned from the ground up using SwiftUI.

In More Detail

Safety Freeze Enhancements

Our Safety Freeze feature is designed to protect your backups and prevent them from being corrupted if something goes wrong on your computer. Over the years we’ve updated the feature based on feedback and tried to make it more transparent to the end user. With the updates in version 8.5, we’ve added a self-healing component which attempts to fix some of the false positives that caused an erroneous Safety Freeze to occur, especially when a user is moving from one computer to another.

Visual Refresh

With the Swift redesign on macOS, we felt now would be the perfect time to also change some of the visuals in our apps. We’ve updated both of our client apps to make them better looking, simpler to use, less cluttered, and easier to understand.

SwiftUI Redesign

In preparation for macOS Ventura, we’ve rewritten the macOS app in SwiftUI. There’s nothing but good news here. This refresh helps future-proof our macOS app and also keeps the same system efficiency you know and love from Backblaze-built applications.

General Performance Improvements

Everyone’s favorite: “general bug fixes and performance improvements.” We’ve also updated and simplified a lot of our client text to go along with the visual refresh and deliver a better, easier-to-understand overall app.

Backblaze v8.5 Is Available Today: September 20, 2022

We hope you love this new release! We will be slowly auto-updating all users in the coming weeks, but if you can’t wait and want to update now on your Mac or PC:

1. Right click on the Backblaze icon in your menu or taskbar.
2. Select Check for Updates.
3. Download v8.5 from the Backblaze Updates page.

Also, this version is now the default download on www.backblaze.com. Please reach out to support if you have any questions or if you want to give feedback—we always like to know how things are going.

The post Announcing: Backblaze Computer Backup v8.5 appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

Announcing Backblaze Computer Backup 8.0! As a great philosopher once said, “8 is great”—and we couldn’t agree more. Our latest version is pretty great: It cranks up the speed—letting you upload at whatever rate your local system can attain—all while reducing stress on key elements of your computer by an order of magnitude.

Here’s what’s new for our app on your Mac and PC:

• Performance Boost: As we’ve described in the past, thread count matters, but until today your max threading was set to 30. You now can run up to 100 threads concurrently if your system and network are up to it. From go-kart to highway speeds in one update! It’s like nitrous for uploads.
• Smarter Gas Pedal: If you’re worried about stressing your motor, we’ve greatly improved our autothrottle, which will keep your bandwidth and system load in mind if you don’t want to.
• Easier on the Engine: We’ve reduced the client’s load on your HDD or SSD by up to 80% by reconfiguring how reads and writes happen before encryption and upload.
• A New Coat of Paint: Sometimes it helps to look faster, too, so we updated our brand a touch to keep up with what’s under the hood.

There’s more detail below for those who need it, but these are the major improvements. We look forward to hearing about how they work for you, your machines, and your data.

Version 8.0 in Detail

Performance Boost

If you feel the need for speed and have the bandwidth at your home or office to match, version 8.0 is going to help you get backed up a lot more quickly. We’ve increased the maximum number of threads to 100 (up from 30). That means our multi-threaded app can now perform even more backup processes in parallel. Threads have also gotten a bit more intelligent—if your maximum selection of threads would cause too much system load, we’ll use fewer threads to maintain your system’s overall performance.

Optimizations

In addition to making our threading more intelligent, we’ve also taken a magnifying glass to our autothrottle feature and introduced smart throttling. If you have autothrottle enabled, and you’re using a lot of your available memory or bandwidth, we ease off until more system resources are available, helping reduce strain on the system and keeping your bandwidth clear—we’ve made that process more efficient and a lot speedier. If you don’t have autothrottle enabled, the backups will go as fast as your manual throttle and threading are set to.

We’ve also re-architected the way we handle file copies. In our previous 7.0 version of Backblaze Computer Backup, the client app running on your laptop or desktop made a copy of your file on your hard drive before uploading it. In version 8.0, this step has been removed. Now the client reads the file, encrypts it in RAM, and uploads it to the Backblaze data center. This results in better overall system performance and a reduction in strain on HDDs and SSDs on your laptops and desktops.

General Improvements

One last minor (but helpful) update we’ve made under the hood is how we handle uploads and the transmission of larger files. In version 8.0, you’ll get more information about what is getting uploaded and when. When we transfer large files, sometimes the app will appear to “hang” on uploading a part of that file, when in reality that file’s already been transmitted and we’re starting to work on the next batch of files. The UI will now reflect upload status more clearly.

And if you haven’t checked out our mobile apps, we’ve been making improvements to them (like uploading files to Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage) over the last few months as well. Learn more about them at: www.backblaze.com/mobile.html.

The Look

With our rebrand efforts in full swing, we thought it would be nice to update our icons and apps with the latest Backblaze look.

You’ll notice our icons have gotten a little smoother since our latest and greatest visual identity is in full force, but we have kept the clean feel and easy UI that you’re used to.

Backblaze Computer Backup 8.0 Available: July 6th, 2021

We hope you love this new release! We will be slowly auto-updating all users in the coming weeks, but if you can’t wait and want to update now on your Mac or PC:

• Perform a “Check for Updates” (right-click on the Backblaze icon).
• Download from www.backblaze.com/update.htm.

This version is now the default download on www.backblaze.com.

Join Us for a Webinar on July 29th at 10 a.m. Pacific

If you’d like to learn more, join us for a webinar where we’ll be going over version 8.0 features and answering questions during a live Q&A. The webinar will be available on BrightTalk (registration is required) and you can sign up by visiting the Backblaze BrightTalk channel.

The post Announcing Backblaze Computer Backup 8.0 appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

We recently released an update for Backblaze Computer Backup: version 7.0.2! This release comes with improvements to our Safety Freeze feature, and some enhancements to the Mac and Windows applications. Enjoy!

What’s New for Windows & Macintosh:

• Improvement: Safety Freeze
  • Safety Freezes exist to protect your data from corruption, but lately, they’ve been a touch over-cautious. This improvement updates Safety Freeze to reduce the amount of false-positives users experience.

• Bug fix: Multiple hard drives listed
  • Some users experienced duplicate volume listings in the application, which led to confusion. This release addresses that issue.

• Minor improvements to logging.

What’s New for Macintosh:

• Bug fix: Location Services
  • This feature has been reworked to reduce the amount of pop-ups received when Locate My Computer is enabled on more recent macOS versions. This also fixed an issue where disabling Locate My Computer on the web would still result in a pop-up asking for Location Services permission.

Release Version Number:
Mac — 7.0.2.464
PC — 7.0.2.463

Availability:
Now!

Cost:
Free for Backblaze Computer Backup consumer and business customers and active trial users.

Upgrade Methods:

• Immediately when performing a “Check for Updates” (right-click on the Backblaze icon and then select “Check for Updates”).
• Immediately as a download from: https://secure.backblaze.com/update.htm.
• Immediately as the default download from: www.backblaze.com.
• Auto-update will begin rolling out in the next few weeks.

The post Backblaze Computer Backup Release 7.0.2 appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

We’re releasing an update today for Backblaze Computer Backup: version 7.0.1! This release comes with improvements to our Inherit Backup State feature, and some enhancements to the Mac and Windows applications.

What’s New For Windows & Macintosh:

• Inherit Backup State
  • Has been rewritten to increase the upper thresholds for inheriting a backup state. In the past, some edge-cases existed where log files were too large to be inherited, resulting in a failure. This has now been fixed.
  • The process has also been cleaned up to remove unnecessary older files, which should result in better performance and less system resource usage.

• .Bzvol Enhancements
  • Fixed a bug which sometimes showed duplicate volume listings in the apps, which led to confusion.
  • Fixed a bug with .Bzvol which resulted in no files appearing to be selected in some cases.

• Minor security enhancements and improvements to logging.

Release Version Number:
Mac — 7.0.1.434
PC — 7.0.1.433

Availability:
April 9^th, 2020

Cost:
Free for Backblaze Computer Backup consumer and business customers and active trial users.
Upgrade Methods:

• Immediately when performing a “Check for Updates” (right-click on the Backblaze icon and then select “Check for Updates”).
• Immediately as a download from: https://secure.backblaze.com/update.htm.
• Immediately as the default download from: www.backblaze.com.
• Auto-update will begin rolling out in the next few weeks.

The post Backblaze Computer Backup Release 7.0.1 appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

Announcing Backblaze Cloud Backup 7.0: The Version History and Beyond Release!

This release for consumers and businesses adds one of our most requested enhancements for our Backblaze Cloud Backup service: the ability to keep updated, changed, and even deleted files in your backups forever by extending version history. In addition, we’ve made our Windows and Mac apps even better, updated our Single Sign-on (SSO) support, added more account security options, became Catalina-ready, and increased the functionality of our iOS and Android mobile apps. These changes are awesome and we’re sure you’ll love them!

Extended Version History

Have you ever deleted a file by mistake or accidentally saved over an important bit of work? Backblaze has always kept a 30-day version history of your backed up files to help in situations like these, but today we’re giving you the option to extend your version history to one year or forever. This new functionality is available on the Overview page for Computer Backup, and the Groups Management page if you are using Backblaze Groups! Backblaze v7.0 is required to use Version History. Learn more about versions and extending Version History.

30-Day Version History

All Backblaze computer backup accounts have 30-Day Version History included with their backup license. That means you can go back in time for 30 days and retrieve old versions of your files or even files that you’ve deleted.

1-Year Version History

Extending your Version History from 30 days to one year means that all versions of your files that are backed up — whether you’ve updated, changed, or fully deleted them from your computer — will remain in your Backblaze backup for one year after being modified or deleted from your device. Extending your Version History to one year is an additional $2 per month and is charged based on your license type (monthly, yearly, or 2-year). As always, any charges will be prorated to match up with your license renewal date.

Forever Version History

Extending your Version History from 30 days or one year to forever means that Backblaze will never remove files from your Backblaze backup whether you’ve updated, changed, or fully deleted them from your computer, or not. Extending Version History to forever is similar to one year, at an additional $2 per month (prorated to your license plan type) plus $0.005/GB/month for versions modified on your computer more than one year ago.

This is a great new feature for people who want increased peace of mind. To learn more about Version History, pricing, and examples of how to restore, please visit the Version History FAQ.

MacOS and Windows Application Updates

More Efficient Performance For Uploads

We’ve changed the way that Backblaze transmits large files on your machine by reworking how we group and break apart files for upload. The maximum packet size has increased from 30 MB to 100 MB. This allows the app to transmit data more efficiently by better leveraging threading, which also smoothes out upload performance, reduces sensitivity to latency, and leads to smaller data structures.

Single Sign-On Updates for Backblaze Groups

We added support for Microsoft’s Office 365 in Backblaze Groups, and have made SSO updates to the Inherit Backup State feature so that it supports SSO-enabled accounts. This means that you can now sign into Backblaze using your Office 365 credentials, similar to using Google’s SSO.

Higher Resolution For Easier Viewing of Information

We updated the way our installers and applications look on higher-resolution displays, making for a more delightful viewer experience!

Windows Only

An OpenSSL issue was causing problems on Intel’s Apollo Lake chipset, but we’ve developed a workaround. Apollo Lake is a lower-end chipset, so not many customers were seeing issues, but now computers using Apollo Lake will work as intended.

MacOS Only

We’ve added support for MacOS Catalina and improved some MacOS system messages. MacOS provides some great new features for the Mac and we’ve changed some of our app’s behavior to better fit Catalina. In Catalina, Apple is now requiring apps to ask for permission more frequently, and since Backblaze is a backup application, we require a lot of permissions. Thus you may notice more system messages when installing Backblaze on the new OS.

Of Note: Backblaze Restores

In order to implement the Version History features, we had to change the way our restore page handled dates. This may not seem like a big deal, but we had a date drop-down menu where you could select the time frames you wanted to restore from. Well, if you have 1-Year or Forever Version History, you can’t have an infinitely scrolling drop-down menu, so we implemented a datepicker to help with selection. You can now more easily choose the dates and times that you’d like to restore your files from.

Backblaze 7.0 Available: October 8th, 2019

We will be slowly auto updating all users in the coming weeks. To update now:

• Perform a Check for Updates (right-click on the Backblaze icon)
• Download from www.backblaze.com/update.htm

This version is now the default download on www.backblaze.com.

Want to Learn More? Join Us on October 15th, 2019 at 11 a.m. PT

Want to learn more? Join Yev on a webinar where he’ll go over version 7.0 features and answer viewer questions. The webinar will be available on BrightTalk (registration is required) and you can sign up by visiting the Backblaze BrightTALK channel.

The post Backblaze 7.0 — Version History And Beyond appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

We’re releasing an update today for Backblaze Cloud Backup: version 6.1. This release comes with a performance boost and some underlying client efficiency changes for both the Mac and PC!

What’s New:

Windows & Macintosh

• Sped up throughput and improved RAM efficiency by increasing the large file transmission threshold
• SSO (Single Sign-On) support for the Inherit Backup State feature
• Error dialog updates to more clearly identify and explain previously added security features
• Minor bug fixes
• Reduced log sizing in some cases which could result in performance issues

Mac

• Underlying code updated to XCode 10.2, which should result in some performance improvements

Release Version Number:

Mac — 6.1.0.330
PC — 6.1.0.331

Availability:

April, 18 2019

Cost:

Free for Backblaze Cloud Backup consumer and business customers and active trial users.

Upgrade Methods:

• Immediately when performing a “Check for Updates” (right-click on the Backblaze icon and then select “Check for Updates”).
• Immediately as a download from: https://secure.backblaze.com/update.htm.
• Immediately as the default download from: www.backblaze.com.
• Auto-update will begin rolling out in the next few weeks.

The post Backblaze Cloud Backup Release 6.1 appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

Announcing Backblaze Cloud Backup 6.0: The Larger Longer Faster Better Release!

This release for consumers and businesses brings a lot of new functionality to Backblaze Cloud Backup: Restore by Mail drives that are twice the size, archiving with Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage, up to 50% faster backups, and a network blocklist feature to help avoid data caps. All that plus more efficient and performant Mac and Windows applications along with mobile enhancements and SSO support with Google. We hope you like it!

Backblaze Restores — Now With The Power of B2 Cloud Storage

Larger Restores — Twice the Size

The amount of data individuals accumulate each year keeps growing. As you store more data, you need bigger hard drives to restore that data. Backblaze is increasing the capacity of our restore hard drives by 100% for our Restore By Mail feature. Flash keys can now hold up to 256GB and hard drives can now hold up to 8TB in restore data. Best of all, you can still use our Restore Return Refund feature to return those restore drives for a full refund.

Saving Data To B2 Snapshots

Backed up files can now be zipped and archived to a Snapshot in B2 Cloud Storage. These selected files will be available until you delete the Snapshot, even if the files have been deleted from your computer and backup. This capability lets customers do new things like keep a copy of all your old computer’s data even when migrating to a new one, save a collection of files (e.g. tax returns) in the cloud as an archive, or free up space on your hard drive by moving data to a Snapshot and then deleting the original copy. Just like files in Computer Backup, your B2 Snapshot can be downloaded over the internet or delivered on a USB hard drive. Learn more about Saving Data to B2!

Keep Restores Longer

Extend the life of your .zip restore by archiving it to B2 Cloud Storage. Your restore will be kept in a private B2 Cloud Storage Snapshot bucket as a .zip file until you delete the Snapshot. Use this feature if you need more time to download your restore or want to keep a permanent copy. Get the data later by downloading it directly to your computer or using our Restore by Mail service. Learn more about Keeping Restores Longer!

Mac and Windows Application Updates

Performance — a 50% Boost

We’ve increased the maximum upload threads to 30, creating speed increases up to 50% (depending on your computer and upload bandwidth). More threads allow more uploads to run in parallel thereby dramatically increasing backup speeds. Learn more about backup threads on Mac and Windows.

Efficiency

Logging and system resource usage have been streamlined so Backblaze continues to be nearly invisible on your computer.

Network Management

We’re not big fans of data caps here at Backblaze, and one bit of feedback we’ve received over the last year or so was that people were blowing past their ISP’s monthly bandwidth allotment while backing up using their hotspot or mobile device-tethered internet connection. With that in mind, we’ve added a blocklist feature so you can choose to prevent backups from occurring while you are connected to specific Wi-Fi networks of your choosing. Backblaze will still transmit little bits of data (we call them heartbeats) to let us know your computer is still active, but no backups will be transmitted. Learn more about Network Management!

Mobile Overhaul

Increased File Download Size

In the spirit of our increased maximum Restore by Mail hard drive and flash drive sizes, we’ve also increased the maximum size for downloads on our iOS and Android mobile apps. You can now download larger files, but keep in mind that your phone or tablet needs to have space available to hold them!

Security Enhancements

We’ve spent the last few months enhancing our sign-in security choices, and with the newest versions of our mobile apps, we’ve added support for 2FV via ToTP, biometric support, and SSO support.

Ease Of Use

We’ve cleaned up the mobile apps and made them a bit more intuitive to enable faster navigation and increased speed for browsing and downloading files.

SSO Support with Google

We’re rolling out SSO support for Gmail. Our Backblaze Groups have had SSO support for G Suite businesses for a few months, and now everyone can use this alternate sign-in method. You can enable SSO login from the My Settings page in your account and we’ll change your login preferences to SSO with the Gmail address associated with your account. New accounts can also be created using SSO on account creation. Learn more about Enabling SSO!

Backblaze 6.0 Available: January 17th, 2019

We will be slowly auto-updating all users in the coming weeks. To update now:

• Perform a Check for Updates (right-click on the Backblaze icon).
• Download from www.backblaze.com/update.htm.

This version is now the default download on www.backblaze.com.

Want to Learn More? January 30th, 2019 at 11am PT

Want to learn more? Join Yev on a webinar where he’ll go over version 6.0 features and answer viewer questions! The webinar will be available on BrightTalk (registration is required) and you can sign up here by visiting the Backblaze BrightTALK channel.

We hope you enjoy Backblaze Cloud Backup v6.0!

The post Backblaze Cloud Backup v6.0: Larger Longer Faster Better appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.