Arq Cloud Backup

I’ve had a range of back up options going for a while. Carbon Copy Cloner, Time Machine, Synology NAS and to date I have used Amazon Glacier with Arq encryption for cloud backup . I’ve just switched my off site cloud back up to Arq Cloud Backup. It’s $5.99 per month or $59.99 per annum for 1Tb of storage from unlimited computers so I have put my Mac Mini and MacBook Air onto it. This will be less than I paid for Amazon Glacier. It was a straightforward upload, just took time and from what I an see will be easier to download data than off Glacier… Any else any experiences of Arq Cloud Backup? thanks

I am not a tech person, but use Backblaze for back up. Question? what is the difference b/w Arq Cloud Backup vs Backblaze? thank you

If you used BackBlaze you could CCC one of those computers to an external drive always connected to the main (for BackBlaze’s sake) machine, and BackBlaze would back it up as part of their unlimited one-computer (plus connected storage) plan for $60/year (or two years for $110).

I use and like BackBlaze for its ease of use. The main downsides are that

  • it backs up only data, but excludes macOS files and apps, and
  • versioning is limited to 30 days

If I wanted to back up absolutely everything, and have unlimited versions, I’d probably pay double for CeashPlan Business. But given that I already have local CCC clones, and have never personally needed to get old file versions, BackBlaze has been a simple set-it-and-forget-it solution I don’t ever think about.

I use Arq for encryption to send to B2.

I’m having a lot of problems with bugginess for Backblaze. Processes slow down my Mac, filling the memory. I have switching to Arq on my to do list unless someone has a fix for BB.

Did you check to see what processes are doing in Activity Monitor?
Did you contact BackBlaze about your problem?

I just looked at Activity Monitor on my iMac (username macmini from transferring over my files from my old mini) and it’s barely doing a thing on my system…

My top CPU hogs

My top RAM hogs

Yes. When BackBlaze runs amok, bz* processes begin consuming gigabytes of memory. I notice this when the Mac slows down.

One of the more frustrating parts of this whole process is that it comes upon me slowly and I don’t notice it’s building until abruptly I realize that each keypress and mouse movement is taking a second or more to register. No wonder my productivity is moving down and my blood pressure is moving up!

Yes. Several times. They were at first quick to respond with unhelpful suggestions, and then they stopped responding.

My workaround has been to initiate backups manually once or twice a day. That seems to work. Still, I’d prefer continuous backups.

1 Like

I’ve had similar problems. My Backblaze seems to take forever ‘Processing File Lists’ which causes other programs to really slow down. Alfred always takes an extra second or two to appear after pressing the keyboard shortcut and it has become really frustrating.

I’ve always resorted to pausing Backblaze whenever I really need to concentrate on some tasks, which negates the point of automatic, continuous backups.

I’ve just installed Arq based on the conversation here and it’s encrypting / uploading files to their cloud without any slowdown on my Mac. Thanks for the suggestion.

1 Like

Glad I could be of help – but I shudder at the responsibility of taking responsibility for another person’s backups! I’m just an amateur at this kind of thing.

1 Like