Backblaze, a popular unlimited cloud backup service trusted by developers for over a decade, quietly stopped backing up files stored in OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, and other cloud storage folders months ago—and never told anyone. The change surfaced today on Hacker News with 894 points as users discovered critical data gaps only when attempting file recovery. Version 9.2.2.877, released in December 2025, buried the exclusions in release notes under “Improvements” with zero user notification.
This isn’t just a service change. It’s a broken promise that exposes a dangerous assumption thousands of users made: cloud sync services with 30-day retention aren’t the same as backup services with 1-year retention. Users trusted Backblaze as redundant protection beyond cloud providers, not realizing sync ≠ backup until it was too late.
The Change No One Saw Coming
Robert Reese, a 10-year Backblaze customer, discovered 383GB of OneDrive data was no longer backed up. No email warning. No prominent documentation update. Just a quiet policy shift that fundamentally altered the service’s value proposition.
The release notes framed exclusions as “Improvements” to “prevent performance issues, excessive data usage, and unintended uploads.” Excluded services include OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, iDrive, and even .git directories. Backblaze claims it “aligns with policy to back up only local and directly connected storage.”
However, users only learned about the change when they needed it most. One Hacker News commenter lost git history. Another discovered Dropbox had overwritten a file, expecting Backblaze to preserve the old version—it didn’t. The exclusions had been silently active for months.
Sync Isn’t Backup: The 30-Day vs 1-Year Gap
Cloud storage services like OneDrive and Dropbox keep deleted files for 30 days. Backblaze kept them for up to 1 year. That retention gap was the safety net for accidental deletions, file corruption, or sync errors that took weeks to notice.
Imagine accidentally deleting a critical folder and not realizing it for 45 days. Dropbox’s 30-day retention means it’s gone forever. Backblaze’s year-long retention was supposed to catch it—but now, if those files lived in a cloud sync folder, you’re out of luck on both fronts.
This reveals a fundamental misunderstanding many users had about their backup strategy. Sync replicates changes instantly, including deletions. Backup preserves history independently. When Backblaze backed up cloud folders, it provided true redundancy. Without it, users have single-point-of-failure protection masquerading as backup.
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The Technical Justification (and Communication Failure)
Backblaze’s technical reasoning holds water. When OneDrive and Backblaze both try to access the same file—one to sync, one to backup—lock conflicts occur. Files upload twice (once to the cloud service, once to Backblaze), wasting bandwidth and creating storage redundancy. Performance degradation is real.
The problem isn’t the decision. It’s the silence. Burying a fundamental service change in release notes under “Improvements” without emailing affected users is inexcusable for a backup provider. Trust is the foundation of backup services—if users can’t trust notifications about what’s actually backed up, the entire value proposition collapses.
As Robert Reese wrote: “I have trusted Backblaze for a decade…Now I find that Backblaze has broken my trust in a fundamental way.” The technical conflict could have been resolved with advance warning, migration tools, or clear opt-in exclusions. Instead, users learned about it during failed recovery attempts.
Fixing Your Cloud Backup Strategy
Immediate actions for Backblaze users: Check Settings → Exclusions to verify what’s actually backed up. Move critical files out of cloud sync folders into local-only directories if you’re staying with Backblaze. Test recovery on a sample file—if you can’t restore it, you don’t have a backup.
Better yet, implement the 3-2-1 backup rule: Keep 3 copies of data (original + 2 backups), on 2 different media types (local SSD + cloud storage), with 1 copy offsite (cloud or remote location). This creates true redundancy independent of any single provider’s policy changes.
Ironically, Backblaze’s own backup guide recommends the 3-2-1 strategy—turns out you need it to protect against Backblaze itself. If your critical data lives in cloud sync folders, consider alternatives like IDrive (explicitly supports cloud folder backup) or DIY solutions like Restic with B2/S3 storage for full control.
Key Takeaways
- Backblaze silently excluded OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and iDrive folders in December 2025 without user notification—users discovered gaps months later during failed recovery attempts
- Cloud sync services (30-day retention) aren’t backups—Backblaze’s 1-year retention was the safety net that no longer exists for cloud-stored files
- The technical reasoning (performance conflicts, lock contention) is valid, but burying the change in “Improvements” release notes instead of emailing users destroyed trust in a service built on trust
- Test your backups regularly—only verified backups count. Check Backblaze exclusions now if you’re a user
- Implement 3-2-1 backup strategy (3 copies, 2 media types, 1 offsite) with multiple independent providers—never trust a single backup service without diversification
The broader lesson extends beyond Backblaze: “unlimited” services add limits over time, providers change policies without loud announcements, and relying on a single backup provider is risky. Proper backup strategy requires diversification, regular testing, and healthy skepticism about service promises that seem too good to be true.
