Downloading a Restore

For information on how to create a Restore please see here, and for all of our Restore guides please see here.

With your Backblaze Personal Backup account, you have the option of creating downloadable .zip restores of up to 500 GB in size.

Once your restore is ready to be downloaded, it can be found in the "My Restores" page of your account, linked on the lefthand side of the page. The status of the Restore can be seen under the Restore's name, if it says "Available", then the Restore is ready to be downloaded.

Before you download a Restore, you will want to make sure of the following:

1. That the Restore is shown as "Available" on the "My Restores" page of your account

2.  The password for your Backblaze account is the same as it was when you created the Restore.

3. That there is enough space on your computer to accommodate the size of the downloaded Restore.

For larger Restores, we recommend using the Backblaze Downloader, as it is equipped to handle Restore Downloads more quickly, and reliably than a browser generally can.  In addition to reliability, and the ability to handle larger downloads, the Backblaze Downloader can also resume paused or interrupted downloads.

The Backblaze Downloader can be found at the top of your "My Restores" page, and can be downloaded by clicking on the button labeled "Download Backblaze Downloader"

You can see our guides on using the Backblaze Downloader for Windows here and for Mac here.

Restores can be downloaded via your web browser, but this option is not recommended for larger downloads. It is important to note that download via a browser will be subject to the limitations of your browser and the stability of your internet connection.

Most browsers are unable to accommodate larger downloads and will time out, unlike with the Backblaze Downloader, a timed out or interrupted download with not be able to be resumed when you are downloading through the browser.

When your Restore has successfully finished downloading it will appear as (yourfilename).zip. If the file that has been saved to your computer appears as ending in bztemp, or there are extra characters at the end of .zip, this indicates that the files have not fully downloaded, since those extensions mean a temporary download file has been created as a placeholder for the completed file. Clicking or unzipping this temporary file will not display your requested files or may show as empty.

In the instance of a temporary download file being created, you will want to either allow it to finish downloading, which will be indicated by the file ending in .zip, or cancel the download and download it through the Backblaze Downloader instead.

Another way to facilitate large Restore downloads, is to save the Restore to B2 as a Snapshot, as this will allow you to create Restores up to 10TB. The option to create a Restore that is saved to B2 can be found at the top of the "View/Restore Files" page.

It is important to note, that much like downloading a normal Restore, browsers will often time out trying to download larger Snapshots, and that the Backblaze Downloader cannot be used to download a Snapshot.

Larger Snapshot downloads can be done by using the Command Line Tool, or for an easier option, free integrations such as Cyberduck are a good way to facilitate the download of large Snapshot Restores.

Please also note that both Restores and Snapshots can be ordered on drives, which are eligible for refunds if the drive is returned within 30 days, you can find out more about our Restore Refund Program here. In many cases ordering a Restore on a drive is the simplest option for retrieving a large Restore. You can find our guide for how to order a Restore Drive here and on how to order a Snapshot Drive here.