That is an important factor. I’ll need to assess my needs. Fortunately for me, most of my files are text-based. I have relatively few videos and my photos are all in iCloud. What could complicate the picture for me is adding my wife’s MBA to the backups.
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Correct. If you don’t want to use Arq Premium you can use another storage provider. Currently the cost to renew Arq is $24.99/year.
I used AWS when I started using Arq and now use Backblaze B2 and Google Drive.
You can store more than that. It’s not a hard limit, just an up charge for more storage.
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Right. But that upcharge would get expensive enough for me that iDrive makes better financial sense.
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This is really disappointing, at least without some actual technical explanation of why they can’t back up files synced from iCloud Drive.
Apple is probably not completely innocent here either: Trying to navigate to the location of the iCloud Drive files in Finder is (as far as I can tell) impossible. Even going there in the command line and running “open .” only opens the Finder in the standard iCloud Drive view (rather than along the real path).
For now, my “solution” will be to use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the contents of iCloud Drive to an external drive on my home server (which is backed up to Backblaze) every hour. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than nothing.
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Apple continues to deny access to areas of the Mac that were once accessible. Even to a user with root privileges. You can still see iCloud Drive in the Terminal using standard Linux commands. At least for now.
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Yup, and if you use the Terminal like that, cd to the directory, and run “open .”, it opens the Finder not at the path location where you ran the command, but in “iCloud”. I REALLY hate what they’re doing with cloud file access.
(I’m not actually opposed to limiting what root can do under ordinary circumstances, as long as there’s a way around that, which I think Apple still provides.)
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I purchased Carbon Copy Cloner sometime ago, but I’ve never used it. Perhaps I should.
I have almost exactly this on my Mac Mini - so that is connected to the Dropbox account that holds the ‘in play’ videos and upcoming ones for ScreenCastsONLINE so that the team can readily access. CCC copies this to an external SSD, which of course can then go to Backblaze, and in turn the SSD regularly copies to the NAS in my studio. So I won’t feel this change as much - I just didn’t have something similar for iCloud Drive, but am setting up now.
Also looking at something like Hyper Backup on my Synology to mirror the NAS in the Studio to one I have at home, but that’s just because I come from a tech background and have seen backups go wrong, so very risk averse.
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How are you currently cloning your two SSDs then?
(Using the similar SuperDuper?)
In a nutshell, it’s a nice and easy to use front end for rsync and (task-specific) replacement for cron, though that’s oversimplifying and maybe detracting from the work that goes into CCC. At my age I value nice and easy to use 
I use it to periodically copy things from my home server’s internal SSD to external drives, all of which are backed up by TimeMachine and Backblaze. With iCloudDrive syncing things and CCC copying them, all of my important, day to day files are automatically backed up with an automatic 3-2-1 scheme no matter where I am.
I’m not cloning them; I only use them as backup drives, which to date has been with BackBlaze. I’m wondering if in addition to my backups, I should clone the drive on my MBP. However, I’m not certain it is necessary if I have multiple backups of what I care about–my documents. I’m not concerned about applications, settings, and the like as I can always reinstall everything fresh if needed or desired.
That said, I may not be appreciating the value of cloning the drive.
I don’t have a home server. I have a MBP and two iPads. I thought my MBP was being continuously backed up by Backblaze, but I was wrong. I’m now using Time Machine to back it up to two external SSDs and I plan to move to Arq today or later this week. With the combination of external SSD backups via Time Machine and offline backup, what is the value of cloning my MBP’s drive?
When Time Machine works I can be back in business almost as fast as the time it takes to restore my data. But if I have to do a clean install it helps to have a list of the apps I had installed. Along with their settings and software licenses, etc.
I also keep a copy of my non-App Store installers on an external drive. Most/all will prompt me to update if they are out of date.
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I would be very wary of using an SSD as a TimeMachine backup device due to the lifespan of SSD drives. Spinning drives are far safer and won’t “wear out” at the same speed as an SSD device. And yes, I know the internal drive in macs are SSD and that is a worrisome thing for me as well. SSDs are better but still not at the lifespan of good high quality spinning drives.
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Yes, that is convenient, but if I have to do a reinstall of my Mac, I prefer to do it from scratch to eliminate any cruft that has accumulated. It takes a lot longer but is worth it to me. 
I have heard that SSDs are more reliable than HDDs because they have no moving parts. Based on your comments, perhaps my understanding is wrong? It won’t be the first time.
The downside of SSDs with the NAND Flash based chips is that they have a limited life span by default. While normal HDDs can – in theory – last forever (in reality about 1o years max.), an SSD lifespan has a built-in “time of death.” To keep it simple: An electric effect results in the fact that data can only be written on a storage cell inside the chips between approximately 3,000 and 100,000 times during its lifetime.
A backup drive will have multiple read/write cycles. Using an ssd as a backup drive will be more likely to fail than an HDD.
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Well, 1. I stand gratefully corrected. 2. This explains why I’ve experienced several SSD failures in the last few years.
The next time I need a backup drive, I`ll get an HDD
Thank you and @OogieM for the correction and information.
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HDDs are slower but also cheaper.
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