Popular Backup Solution CrashPlan Discontinuing Personal Subscriptions

[MacRumors]

Code42, the company behind the popular cloud backup solution CrashPlan, today announced that it is sunsetting its CrashPlan for Home subscription options in the near future. Starting today, Code42 will no longer offer or renew CrashPlan for Home subscriptions.

In a video message, Code42 CEO Joe Payne said the company is ending its personal subscription options to focus solely on the business and organization market.

For existing Home customers, Code42 suggests they purchase a CrashPlan for Small Business plan or switch over to Carbonite, another backup service.

Customers who choose to use CrashPlan for Small Business can transfer their data within minutes. A Small Business plan is priced at $10 per month per device for unlimited upload space, but current CrashPlan for Home subscribers can get a 75 percent discount for the next 12 months. Code42 is allowing users to migrate cloud backups that are 5TB or smaller.

Customers who choose Carbonite can get 50 percent off of select Carbonite plans. Carbonite pricing starts at $60 per year for unlimited storage on a single device.

Current CrashPlan for Home subscribers can continue using CrashPlan until their subscriptions expire, but once that happens, they will need to choose a new backup solution. CrashPlan subscriptions are non-refundable, so customers will want to wait for their subscriptions to end before transferring to a new plan or service.

Code42 is earmarking October 22, 2018 as the end-of-support date for CrashPlan Home, with the company planning to honor all subscriptions until that date. Subscribers who have subscriptions that extend beyond October 22, 2018 will see their accounts upgraded to a CrashPlan for Small Business account with Code42 promising to send along additional information on the upgrade process before the service is discontinued.

Article Link: Popular Backup Solution CrashPlan Discontinuing Personal Subscriptions

 

[MrGimper]

Glad this made the news.... I've just migrated to small business, was a seamless process.

 

[jonnysods]

This is unfortunate as we have been using this on our family computer for the past 4 years.

I moved my iCloud libraries into my dropbox premium folder and use it now as a backup for our family pics.

The only thing is, crashplan backedup everything, my application support folders, all that great stuff. But as long as the pics and video are 'safe' and backed up out of the home I'm ok.

 

[netnothing]

Glad this made the news.... I've just migrated to small business, was a seamless process.

Good to know as that's what I'll probably do. Not a bad deal since you get free backups for your current term PLUS the 12 months after at the 75% off.

I've actually had good luck with Crashplan - coming from Arq and Glacier which was kind of a nightmare for me. Hate S3 billing as they nickel and dime for everything. Plus Arq had the software bug that wiped out all my Glacier backups.

Did the Mac client auto-update for you after the migration?

 

[thisisnotmyname]

OK, so anyone have recommendations for a replacement? Given they just dropped service on me I'm not going to give my business to their other offerings. I don't know anything about carbonite, are they a good service? I'd like a solution where I alone control the encryption key, preferably has support for Linux or even dedicated apps for NAS devices, version control, and preferably unlimited space. Anyone have ideas?

 

[belvdr]

OK, so anyone have recommendations for a replacement? Given they just dropped service on me I'm not going to give my business to their other offerings. I don't know anything about carbonite, are they a good service? I'd like a solution where I alone control the encryption key, preferably has support for Linux or even dedicated apps for NAS devices, version control, and preferably unlimited space. Anyone have ideas?

Same here. I need Windows, Linux, and macOS support, preferably from a single product and not in the cloud.

 

[bwintx]

OK, so anyone have recommendations for a replacement? Given they just dropped service on me I'm not going to give my business to their other offerings. I don't know anything about carbonite, are they a good service? I'd like a solution where I alone control the encryption key, preferably has support for Linux or even dedicated apps for NAS devices, version control, and preferably unlimited space. Anyone have ideas?

I chose a combination of Arq software and Backblaze's B2 service, based on the following extremely informative MacRumors thread:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/arq.2017935/

 

[thisisnotmyname]

Good to know as that's what I'll probably do. Not a bad deal since you get free backups for your current term PLUS the 12 months after at the 75% off.

I've actually had good luck with Crashplan - coming from Arq and Glacier which was kind of a nightmare for me. Hate S3 billing as they nickel and dime for everything. Plus Arq had the software bug that wiped out all my Glacier backups.

Did the Mac client auto-update for you after the migration?

I was starting to have some complaints with Crash Plan anyway, I've been with them for many years now and originally they offered a service to ship drives back and forth, that was dropped. Then they throttled connection speeds (confirmed by their customer service) which is just a backdoor method of limiting "unlimited" storage. Then their Java based application didn't make any attempts to properly manage memory (yes I know the footprint is controlled by Java but you can partition your usage internally to avoid bumping up against it), again that acts as a defacto throttle on "unlimited" as you'll run out of local resources (RAM) well before you can back up a modern large hard drive. Anyway, I still don't like being forced out but I'd probably have been looking for a replacement in the next year or so anyway I suppose.

 

[guzhogi]

My school district used to use Crashplan, but it dropped Mac support for in-house backup servers. I think we're going to use Google Drive as our Backup service. Not that great, but since we're education, we get the business suite for free.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

I chose a combination of Arq software and BackBlaze's B2 service, based on the following extremely informative MacRumors thread:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/arq.2017935/

Thank you, been a while since I've heard about Back Blaze but I seem to recall their cloud storage being interesting. They were marketing their own appliance at one point too, correct?

 

[0098386]

Well that's a shame. I didn't plan on renewing when my 4 year plan was up - apparently they stopped selling such long plans a while ago so a similar length plan would cost much more.

 

[bwintx]

My school district used to use Crashplan, but it dropped Mac support for in-house backup servers. I think we're going to use Google Drive as our Backup service. Not that great, but since we're education, we get the business suite for free.

The Backblaze blog entry for the Crashplan announcement would caution you that Google Drive is sync, not backup:
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/crashplan-alternative-backup-solution/
[doublepost=1503423440][/doublepost]

Thank you, been a while since I've heard about Back Blaze but I seem to recall their cloud storage being interesting. They were marketing their own appliance at one point too, correct?

Apparently so, called Storage Pod. Wasn't aware of it, but Googled around and, yep.

 

[MrGimper]

Good to know as that's what I'll probably do. Not a bad deal since you get free backups for your current term PLUS the 12 months after at the 75% off.

I've actually had good luck with Crashplan - coming from Arq and Glacier which was kind of a nightmare for me. Hate S3 billing as they nickel and dime for everything. Plus Arq had the software bug that wiped out all my Glacier backups.

Did the Mac client auto-update for you after the migration?

Yes they did auto update which was nice. The main niggle with the business services is that they’ve dropped the computer-to-computer backup option. Gutted.

 

[jhfenton]

My CrashPlan subscription is good through March 31, 2018, so I have a few months to figure out where to move my 9TB of data. (We have a 1G fiber connection, so backing it all up to a new source shouldn't take more than a few days to a few weeks, depending on the service's upload speed.)

I have to think this spells the death knell for CrashPlan, though. They say they're doing it to focus on enterprise customers, but what enterprise would trust CrashPlan after they exit the consumer market in such an inglorious fashion.

They could have doubled the pricing or achieved the same thing through tiered pricing, and I would have stayed put out of inertia (and the knowledge that I'm backing up a ton of data). But they chose to quit. Once a quitter, always a quitter.

 

[netnothing]

Yes they did auto update which was nice. The main niggle with the business services is that they’ve dropped the computer-to-computer backup option. Gutted.

Thanks for the info. I didn't use the computer-to-computer option.

Do you know if they have an iOS app for Crashplan for Small Business? When I started the upgrade, it initially had both my iPad and iPhone listed - because I have the Crashplan app on both to be able to get a file if needed. What's weird is in their calculator, they wanted to include those in the future pricing?!? Not sure why since they don't backup data?
[doublepost=1503423944][/doublepost]

My CrashPlan subscription is good through March 31, 2018, so I have a few months to figure out where to move my 9TB of data. (We have a 1G fiber connection, so backing it all up to a new source shouldn't take more than a few days to a few weeks, depending on the service's upload speed.)

I have to think this spells the death knell for CrashPlan, though. They say they're doing it to focus on enterprise customers, but what enterprise would trust CrashPlan after they exit the consumer market in such an inglorious fashion.

They could have doubled the pricing or achieved the same thing through tiered pricing, and I would have stayed put out of inertia (and the knowledge that I'm backing up a ton of data). But they chose to quit. Once a quitter, always a quitter.

Isn't that what they kind of did - double the pricing? For everything except the family plans - you are going from $60/yr to $120/yr in the Small Business option.

And they are giving you that Small Biz plan for the remainder of your current term - and then giving you 12 months after that for $2.50 per month.

Seems to me, with a single backup, that's a decent deal for now (to not have to re-upload everything again).

 

[Pipper99]

OK, so anyone have recommendations for a replacement? Given they just dropped service on me I'm not going to give my business to their other offerings. I don't know anything about carbonite, are they a good service? I'd like a solution where I alone control the encryption key, preferably has support for Linux or even dedicated apps for NAS devices, version control, and preferably unlimited space. Anyone have ideas?

Backblaze has worked very well for me. A number Mac tech podcasts have been recommending it like ATP and Gruber's podcast.

 

[netnothing]

Backblaze has worked very well for me. A number Mac tech podcasts have been recommending it like ATP and Gruber's podcast.

I looked into Backblaze but I preferred Crashplan because BB doesn't store unlimited versions, and BB works on a backup everything and deselect vs. the only select what you want to backup.

Also hate having to use the web interface to request a zip file for a restore.

 

[jhfenton]

Glad this made the news.... I've just migrated to small business, was a seamless process.

I would consider it, but they will not migrate backups of more than 5TB. I'd have to start from scratch and upload all of my data again. That's not too big a deal (a few days to a few weeks), but I don't trust them enough at this point to give them another chance to burn me.

 

[SeattleMoose]

I use real hard drives (private/always available) and a fire proof safe. Got Carbon Copy Cloner?

 

[belvdr]

I use real hard drives (private/always available) and a fire proof safe. Got Carbon Copy Cloner?

Depends on the safe. I am a former firefighter and saw many safes that couldn't protect the contents because the fire burned for so long.

 

[jhfenton]

I looked into Backblaze but I preferred Crashplan because BB doesn't store unlimited versions, and BB works on a backup everything and deselect vs. the only select what you want to backup.

Also hate having to use the web interface to request a zip file for a restore.

It was the same for me a few years ago. I tried Backblaze and CrashPlan and chose CrashPlan for essentially the same reasons as you.

 

[MrGimper]

Thanks for the info. I didn't use the computer-to-computer option.

Do you know if they have an iOS app for Crashplan for Small Business? When I started the upgrade, it initially had both my iPad and iPhone listed - because I have the Crashplan app on both to be able to get a file if needed. What's weird is in their calculator, they wanted to include those in the future pricing?!? Not sure why since they don't backup data?
[doublepost=1503423944][/doublepost]

Isn't that what they kind of did - double the pricing? For everything except the family plans - you are going from $60/yr to $120/yr in the Small Business option.

And they are giving you that Small Biz plan for the remainder of your current term - and then giving you 12 months after that for $2.50 per month.

Seems to me, with a single backup, that's a decent deal for now (to not have to re-upload everything again).

I downloaded the CrashPlan Pro iOS app and could log into my “new” account and download a file.

 

[jhfenton]

Thanks for the info. I didn't use the computer-to-computer option.

Do you know if they have an iOS app for Crashplan for Small Business? When I started the upgrade, it initially had both my iPad and iPhone listed - because I have the Crashplan app on both to be able to get a file if needed. What's weird is in their calculator, they wanted to include those in the future pricing?!? Not sure why since they don't backup data?
[doublepost=1503423944][/doublepost]

Isn't that what they kind of did - double the pricing? For everything except the family plans - you are going from $60/yr to $120/yr in the Small Business option.

And they are giving you that Small Biz plan for the remainder of your current term - and then giving you 12 months after that for $2.50 per month.

Seems to me, with a single backup, that's a decent deal for now (to not have to re-upload everything again).

But I would have to re-upload everything. They will not migrate any backups larger than 5TB. I have 9TB.

 

[netnothing]

It was the same for me a few years ago. I tried Backblaze and CrashPlan and chose CrashPlan for essentially the same reasons as you.

I only have 1.1TB of backup data, so I'll probably give their small business migration a try. Carbonite for Mac stinks from what I hear, and I've been down the Arq path and didn't like always being charged for every little thing.
[doublepost=1503424735][/doublepost]

But I would have to re-upload everything. They will not migrate any backups larger than 5TB. I have 9TB.

Yeah, having 9TB of data backed up really stinks for this situation. Wonder why the limit for migration?

 

[bwintx]

I use real hard drives (private/always available) and a fire proof safe. Got Carbon Copy Cloner?

Yep, I do that, too. CCC does my in-house backup to an external SSD and Backblaze B2 is my off-site backup (e.g., https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/). And, for good measure, I use Time Machine with a second external SSD.