The downside of this is that it doesn’t integrate well with other devices such as Windows PCs. Simply put, the more Apple devices you use, the more useful iCloud will be to you.
The native integration also means that there’s little in the way of setup-if you have an Apple device, you’ll already have an iCloud account, and all the software you need to start storing your files is built in. It’s easy, for example, to set up a folder structure on Finder, which will back up to iCloud, or to synchronize photos from your iPhone’s camera roll with the Photos app across your devices. It seamlessly integrates with the way Macs, iPhones, and iPads organize files. ICloud is a particularly well-designed service if you use Apple devices. iCloud has a maximum file size of 50GB, whereas, with Dropbox, you can upload files up to 50GB via the website or up to 2TB via the desktop or mobile apps. You can upload to either using the desktop app, mobile app, or web browser interface. With both iCloud and Dropbox, the process of uploading and syncing files is generally simple and easy.
That can easily take days or weeks to recover everything.īackblaze allows you to set a "to" date when viewing backup versions, so you could set that to a time before the ransomware hit and download everything all at once.Dropbox saves previous and deleted versions of files (Image credit: Apple, Dropbox) 02. With Dropbox, you would have to go through file-by-file, click "version history", and re-download each file individually. Imagine you got hit by ransomware that encrypted 100 files inside a single folder. This is true, but the history is only accessible per-file, not per-folder. Not all of it, but definitely a lot more than Dropbox would be getting. But with Windows, Backblaze backs up the user's "appdata" folder, which contains a lot of that personalization and app information.
It sounds like you have a Mac, which I'm not familiar with. A lot of that is stored in various clouds these days, but a lot of it also still isn't. You've migrated all your documents and photos to cloud services, but don't forget about application data - stuff like browser bookmarks, game save data, app configuration, etc. I have migrated everything into Dropbox with the exception of photos (which are in iCloud) and google docs/sheets (which are in Google Drive). Backblaze allows up to 360 days or forever.
Since Backblaze is a storage service and not a sync service, it is protected from ransomware in a way that sync services aren’t.ĭropbox version history maxes out at 180 days. Though I believe this plan would only work if I select “download originals to this mac” in Apple Photos, otherwise Backblaze will be duplicating a low res thumbnail. So if I delete a photo in iCloud I’ll have a second copy in Backblaze. This won’t apply to Google Drive since I don’t think Backblaze can pull from Google Drive?ĭropbox has version history but iCloud does not. I will have a duplicate copy of what is in Dropbox or iCloud in Backblaze. It’s a second backup in case Dropbox or iCloud service goes under.
I have migrated everything into Dropbox with the exception of photos (which are in iCloud) and google docs/sheets (which are in Google Drive).Ĭan anyone make a case for me still keeping Backblaze on top of Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive? I see the following reasons: I’m now wondering if I still need Backblaze. But I wasn’t, hence my reason for getting Backblaze as a “catch all insurance” for covering everything I forgot to put in Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive. If I was more organized I would have just had all files inside Dropbox. I was not organized at the time so I had important files both in Dropbox and outside of Dropbox. My original reason for buying Backblaze was that it backed up my entire computer. I currently have Dropbox Plus, iCloud, Google Drive, Backblaze. I’m a fan of Backblaze, but wondering if I can still justify keeping it.