Using Backblaze for Online Backup for Lightroom.

[John Cicchine]

Lightroom Version Number

LR Classic 9.2 the lastest version.

Operating System

1. macOS 10.14 Mojave

I just purchased Backblaze to back up my photos online and I have only one more external hard drive to back up but with the last hard drive it cannot be backed up to Backblaze because it was previously used for Time Machine. I am in the process of transferring my files on that hard drive to another hard drive temporarily then I plan to erase and reformat the drive then re-import the photos back to it and then hopefully I can backup the drive to Backblaze. But I forgot to ask anyone here is Backblaze good for online photo editing and is what I just described I am doing good or should I try a different software for online backup? I am also getting a message that there was a problen tranferring the folder (see attachment) but all looks good from what I can see.

As always I appreciate any suggestions. Thank You Very Much.

John

 

[LouieSherwin]

Hi John,

Hard to say exactly what has happened but obviously Lightroom is not dealing with the situation. The truth is that Lightroom is not the best tool to use to move large amounts of images from one drive (HD or SSD) to another. Any number of minor or major errors can cause it t abort as it has for you.

By far the best way to move your images from one drive to another is to do it outside of Lightroom. You can find the instructions for how to do this here: move photos to another hard drive. Use Option One in the referenced article. This will be a bit more complicated as you have already moved some portion of your images. However, you can still these instructions for the remaining images.

If you haven't already backup your catalog. Next you will have to examine both drives carefully to figure out exactly where Lightroom stopped. There may be one folder that is only partially moved, i.e. you should see this folder on both the source and destination drives. If there are images in the corresponding folder on both drives you can clean that up first by simply selecting the images from the folder on the source drive and drag them to the corresponding folder on the destination drive. Once that is complete quite and backup Lightroom again.

Not follow the instructions for moving the rest of your images as described in Option One. Once all the images are moved and reconnected to Lightroom on the new destination drive it is strongly recommened to do a complete local backup of both your catalog and all your images.

There was at least one poor soul who did not make a new backup and after they erased all the source drives the new drive crashed and they lost their entire image archive, years and years of images.

-louie

 

[Roelof Moorlag]

But I forgot to ask anyone here is Backblaze good

Yes, Backblase is used a lot by photographers for offsite backup. However, don't trust only on this backup. A good rule of thumb is the 3-2-1 approach: 3 copies, 2 different media type and 1 offsite (see for more this source)

 

[John Cicchine]

Hi John,

Hard to say exactly what has happened but obviously Lightroom is not dealing with the situation. The truth is that Lightroom is not the best tool to use to move large amounts of images from one drive (HD or SSD) to another. Any number of minor or major errors can cause it t abort as it has for you.

By far the best way to move your images from one drive to another is to do it outside of Lightroom. You can find the instructions for how to do this here: move photos to another hard drive. Use Option One in the referenced article. This will be a bit more complicated as you have already moved some portion of your images. However, you can still these instructions for the remaining images.

If you haven't already backup your catalog. Next you will have to examine both drives carefully to figure out exactly where Lightroom stopped. There may be one folder that is only partially moved, i.e. you should see this folder on both the source and destination drives. If there are images in the corresponding folder on both drives you can clean that up first by simply selecting the images from the folder on the source drive and drag them to the corresponding folder on the destination drive. Once that is complete quite and backup Lightroom again.

Not follow the instructions for moving the rest of your images as described in Option One. Once all the images are moved and reconnected to Lightroom on the new destination drive it is strongly recommened to do a complete local backup of both your catalog and all your images.

There was at least one poor soul who did not make a new backup and after they erased all the source drives the new drive crashed and they lost their entire image archive, years and years of images.

-louie

Thank You Louie.

 

[John Cicchine]

Yes, Backblase is used a lot by photographers for offsite backup. However, don't trust only on this backup. A good rule of thumb is the 3-2-1 approach: 3 copies, 2 different media type and 1 offsite (see for more this source)

Thank You Roelof.

 

[Zenon]

I have an external drive backed up to another powered external drive. I also back up to a portable every month or so. When I go to the bank I exchange the portable with the one in safety deposit box and update the exchanged one.

 

[Linwood Ferguson]

It has been a long time since I looked at regular Backblaze (I use their B2 and like it), but they used to have a timeout where if an external drive is backed up, and then not connected for a while (vague memory says 30 days) they delete its backups. Which makes it not work well for people with lots of offline storage.

Again -- may not be true any longer, but if you keep some drives offline check that.

 

[John Cicchine]

I have an external drive backed up to another powered external drive. I also back up to a portable every month or so. When I go to the bank I exchange the portable with the one in safety deposit box and update the exchanged one.

Hi Zenon. That's great idea and what I would like to do once I find a bank that offers safe deposit boxes and I need to then open an account at the bank. I am a U.S. Citizen currently residing in the Philippines and from what I can see so far not many of the banks here have them. Plus even where I am from Northern New Jersey and the NYC area quite a number of banks there too are not offering safe deposit boxes to my surprise. But once again I think what you recommend is a great idea. Thanks again Zenon.

 

[John Cicchine]

It has been a long time since I looked at regular Backblaze (I use their B2 and like it), but they used to have a timeout where if an external drive is backed up, and then not connected for a while (vague memory says 30 days) they delete its backups. Which makes it not work well for people with lots of offline storage.

Again -- may not be true any longer, but if you keep some drives offline check that.

Hi Linwood. Thank You Very Much. I believe that what you said still applies to Backblaze but I think it says on their website if you turn off your computer first without ejecting your external drives then Backblaze will retain the date of your drives for up to 6 months. I am pretty sure I read that. Thanks again my friend!

 

[Roelof Moorlag]

That's great idea and what I would like to do once I find a bank that offers safe deposit boxes

It als can be friends, parents, children, work or another offsite location you regular visit. That is what i do.

 

[GaryG]

Backblaze now offers a feature called Extended Version History. For $2 a month they will keep versions for a year and for $2 month + $0.005/GB/Month they will keep the version forever. I've used them for over a year and haven't experienced a problem.

 

[John Cicchine]

It als can be friends, parents, children, work or another offsite location you regular visit. That is what i do.

Hi Roelof. My most sincerest of apologies for not writing back sooner. I will try to check your photos on Instagram as soon as I can. Thanks again for your help. John

 

[John Cicchine]

Backblaze now offers a feature called Extended Version History. For $2 a month they will keep versions for a year and for $2 month + $0.005/GB/Month they will keep the version forever. I've used them for over a year and haven't experienced a problem.

Hi Gary. Sorry for not writing back sooner. Thank You for the information about Backblaze. I am planning to upgrade to that plan I estimate at the beginning of next year. For now I am happy to at least finally have the plan that I have. Thanks again my friend.

 

[iwaddo]

I use Backblaze (with a private key) and it seems to cope admirably with Lightroom Classic.

Two other things I do to protect my catalog are

1. Save my Lightroom catalog backup to a folder on my iCloud Drive so it is also backed up to by iCloud Drive. (Dropbox works equally well)
2. I am a Mac user so I have created a Folder Action which runs a script that executes every time I backup my catalog, the scripts deletes copies of my catalog backup that are over 90-days old. (I have them on my Time Machine and Carbon Copy Clone as well).

 

[LR_Ukbrown]

A freeish method to make backups is to use Jeffrey's "Folder Publisher" Lightroom Plugin to create apublish service to your local google drive and then publish your photos to your local google drive folder. This is then synced to google drive.

Pros:- Unlimited storage of photos when picking google standard photos (uses own compression) but I cannot see any difference
All your photos are accessible from anywhere
The cost of the plugin is a dollar or more
Change a photo, just republish and all changed photos are updated to google drive (i currently have 20,000 one start or more photos up there
You can give people read only links to folders in your google drive e.g.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OF92vTmUFWsVkIw3afaugr_5qycS2E_O?usp=sharing
Cons:- not a backup of lightroom, catalogue, just exported photos

I use Acronis for a local backup, carbonite for a complete backup to the cloud and the folder publish plug in so i can share photos with other people and as another off site backup