Why am I receiving a pop-up about a missing or duplicate .bzvol?

What is .bzvol?

The Backblaze software that you have installed on your computer writes a unique file called .bzvol to the root of each hard drive backed up to us.

This is to identify and differentiate between the drives that are included in your backup. If this file is damaged or missing, it can cause duplicate or damaged entries for the same drive, and can generate the warning pop-ups you are seeing regarding a missing or duplicate .bzvol

Could Cloning my Drives cause Problems with the .bzvol?

Yes, cloning a drive that is selected to backup will cause the .bzvol file to be cloned. This confuses our program, because it causes two different drives to have the same ID. If you do clone your drives, you'll want to make sure to exclude the .bzvol file from your cloning software, and you will also want to remove the .bzvol file from the cloned drive.

On Mac, you can remove the .bzvol by opening Finder, then press Shift+Command+. (period) together to reveal hidden files. Check the root of the desired drive by opening it in Finder, then select any instances of .bzvol  found and move them to your trash.

What do I do if my Drive is Shown Twice in the Backblaze Software Settings?

If you clone your drives, please see the above section first. If you are seeing your drive appear twice in the software settings, you can do the following:

1. Make sure all external drives selected for backup are attached.
2. Restart your computer.
3. Within 5 minutes of booting up, open the Backblaze system preferences
4. Click Settings.
5. In the list of hard drives to back up, locate the hard drive in question and check the box (you may see an “unplugged” version of that drive - that’s OK). If there are duplicate entries for the same drive, select all of them.
6. Backblaze may alert you that one drive will replace the other, click OK to dismiss.
7. Click OK to accept the Settings changes.
8. Restart your computer once again.