If you use CrashPlan Home then you need to make a change. Code42, the company that makes CrashPlan sent out emails announcing that they are sunsetting their CrashPlan Home product and will focus on CrashPlan for Business. As of August 22, 2017 it’s no longer possible to renew or extend an existing CrashPlan for Home subscription. Additionally, everybody’s subscription was extended by 60 days at no additional cost. This way, everybody has at least 60 days to take action. If you recently renewed your annual subscription, say in August 2017, then you have 14 months, until October 2018, to take action.
What You Need To Do
You need to pick a new online backup service. Code42 lists two options, but I don’t fully agree with their options. Code42 recommends either switching to their own CrashPlan for Business or to Carbonite. I am not a fan of Carbonite’s online backup service for Mac. My recommendations are to switch to either CrashPlan for Business or switch to Backblaze. BackBlaze charges $50 per computer per year for unlimited storage. CrashPlan Pro for Business costs $120 per computer per year for unlimited storage. That said, Code42 gives you a discount on your CrashPlan Pro for Business subscription. It’s free until your current CrashPlan for Home subscription expires. Then they offer 75% off for 1 year. Then they’ll charge you the full $120/year/computer. While CrashPlan Pro for Business is more expensive than BackBlaze’s service, CrashPlan offers some advantages. First, if you migrate to CrashPlan for Business then you will not have to start all over. Instead, Code42 will migrate all of your existing online backups to their CrashPlan for Business servers. Second, it offers more granular control over what gets backed up, when it gets backed up and can send backup email reports to both me and you.
When You Need To Do It
You should switch before your current CrashPlan for Home subscription expires. Here’s how you can determine when your subscription expires. Click on the Finder icon on your Dock. This opens a Finder window. At the top of your screen, click on the Go menu and select Applications. Locate and then open the CrashPlan application. Click on Settings then click on Account.
It’s also useful to know that Code42 does not offer any refunds so if you still have many months on your subscription but you choose to switch to BackBlaze you will not get any refund from Code42.
Next Steps
1. You need to decide if you want to switch to BackBlaze or CrashPlan Pro or Business
2. You need to decide when you want to make the switch. You can make the switch anytime between now and when your CrashPlan for Home subscription expires.
3. Decide if you want to make this switch on your own or if you’d like me to assist in-person.
If you pick CrashPlan Pro for Business then visit this dedicated migration page [Note November 2023: this page is no longer available] and follow the steps to switch. Once you’ve followed their steps that’s all you have to do.
If you pick BackBlaze then I recommend that you read BackBlazes’ recommendations on how to make this migration. You don’t need to restore “deleted files” from your CrashPlan backups but you could, if you want to. After you sign-up for BackBlaze and get it setup on your Mac then I’d recommend that you uninstall CrashPlan from your Mac. This will stop your Mac from backing up to CrashPlan. Then, once your initial backup to BackBlaze has finished successfully, then you’ll want to login to your CrashPlan.com account and re-configure your Mac(s) so they don’t backup to CrashPlan Central servers. Part of this process will delete all backups of your Mac(s) so only do this after your Macs have been backed up to BackBlaze’s servers.