Do you use either CrashPlan or Backblaze to backup your personal data files on your Mac? Starting with macOS Mojave (aka macOS 10.14), Apple implemented tighter privacy restrictions. Consequently, you now need to explicitly grant permissions to CrashPlan and Backblaze so these applications can access all of your files and folders on your Mac. Here are instructions on how to grant these permissions.

macOS Mojave imposes new privacy restrictions that disallow, by default, access to certain data belonging to certain Apple application such as Mail, Messages, Safari, and Photos. macOS Catalina applies these privacy changes even more broadly, preventing applications from accessing any external hard drives and network volumes.

To further complicate the matter, macOS does not conveniently ask you to grant access to an application when that application tries to access that data. Instead, you’re required to complete a long list of steps to pre-approve the application. As a result, when you download an application specifically to back up your most precious data, that application can’t back up that data until you specifically go out of your way to grant access to that data.

Here are step-by-step instructions to grant these permissions to CrashPlan and BackBlaze:

If your Mac is using macOS 12 Monterey or older, use the instructions listed in Section 1.

If your Mac is using macOS 13 Ventura or newer, jump to Section 2.

Section 1 – if your Mac is running macOS 12 Monterey or older

1. Click on the Apple menu and select System Preferences
2. Click on the Security & Privacy icon
3. Click on the Privacy tab
4. Click the padlock icon in the lower left corner to unlock this screen so you can make changes. You’ll be prompted to enter your computer user account password, then click the Unlock button.
5. On the left-hand side of Security & Privacy click on Full Disk Access
6. On the right-hand side click the + icon
7. Navigate to your Applications folder and click on CrashPlan or BackBlaze, whichever one you use
8. Click Open
9. The following message appears: CrashPlan will not have full disk access until it is quit
10. Click Quit Now
11. Optionally, click the lock in the lower-left corner to re-lock Security & Privacy
12. Restart your Mac. This step is required for both CrashPlan and BackBlaze.

Section 2 – if your Mac is running macOS 13 Ventura or newer

1. Click on the Apple menu and select System Settings
2. Click on the Privacy & Security icon
3. On the right-hand side, under the Privacy heading, scroll down to and click on Full Disk Access
4. Turn on the toggle for Backblaze or CrashPlan
5. When prompted, use TouchID or enter your password to unlock Privacy & Security settings and allow this change
6. The following message appears: CrashPlan will not have full disk access until it is quit
7. Click Quit Now
8. Close the System Settings window
9. Restart your Mac. This step is required for both CrashPlan and BackBlaze.

In case, you need additional guidance, you can read the instructions provided by the developers of CrashPlan and BackBlaze.