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🦉 WE READ 96 OWNER COMMENTS
Backblaze Personal Backup: what owners actually say
Owners love the unlimited model and simplicity but hit walls with slow restores, the 30-day external drive deletion rule, and a product that quietly assumes you're a low-data user
What owners complain about
- 30-day external drive deletion COMMON
Multiple owners report that if an external drive stays disconnected for 30 days, its backup is deleted. Users call this rule 'terrible' and a dealbreaker for rotating-drive backup strategies.
- Restore process is painfully slow SOME
One owner restoring ~350 GB reports the zip download took a week to prepare. The USB hard drive shipped restore — marketed as the fast option — took the same amount of time. They described restoring as 'a nightmare' compared to how smoothly backup works.
- No NAS or network drive support SOME
Owners repeatedly request NAS backup support and note it's still missing. This forces users with network-attached storage to find alternative solutions or work around it.
- 'Safety freeze' with no clear cause FEW
An owner was 'safety frozen' with no explanation, and couldn't determine if any of their large backed-up dataset was missing. The support documentation didn't help them verify data integrity.
- Encryption key errors masquerade as corrupt backups FEW
An owner had a password manager auto-fill a hidden field with the wrong password. The front-end reported 'backup corrupt,' but the data was fine — the encryption key had silently changed. This could panic users into thinking their backup is gone.
What owners love
- Straightforward flat pricing
Owners chose Backblaze specifically because of its simple, predictable pricing model — one price for unlimited storage, no complexity.
- Set-and-forget automatic backup
Users praise the small downloadable app that runs quietly and backs up continuously without intervention. Multiple owners describe years of hassle-free operation.
- USB hard drive restore option exists
Even owners who experienced slow restores acknowledge the shipped-USB-drive service as a thoughtful option for large recoveries, even if execution didn't always meet speed expectations.
- Genuine, transparent company culture
Multiple commenters — including Backblaze engineers — describe direct, honest engagement with users on forums. Owners appreciate that founders historically posted openly and even encouraged heavy data uploads before the company scaled.
- Good Mac experience
At least one owner specifically cited the 'nice Mac app' as a deciding factor over competitors.
Surprising patterns
- Backblaze's own data shows 32.59% of Personal customers back up essentially 0.0 TB — the unlimited model is subsidized by customers who barely use it. The company reportedly breaks even at around 2 TB, meaning heavy users are a net loss.
- There is intentionally no Linux client — commenters say it's because Backblaze knows Linux users tend to store far more data, making them unprofitable on the flat-rate model.
- Backblaze ships ~21 identical copies of the same executable on purpose. An engineer wrote custom code to do this for performance and crash-isolation reasons, which became a point of public debate — but owners are unlikely to ever notice or care.
WHO SHOULD SKIP IT
Owners with NAS setups, large datasets (multiple TB), or who need fast reliable restores should look elsewhere — the product is built around and financially optimized for non-technical users with modest data.
Synthesised from 96 real owner comments across 6 platforms. Every point is grounded in the comments — no marketing, no AI guessing. How we do it →