Need new cloud backup service

December 31, 2019 4:46 AM

I need a new cloud backup service for my home computers, external drives, AND file server/NAS. Can you recommend one?

We’re a Mac household. I have a MacBook that I periodically connect to two external drives, one with movies and music and one with photos. I also periodically clone those drives to a local backup, which is ok, but also stresses me out.

I also have a two-drive Synology NAS that has our most of our financial info, like tax returns and bank statements.

I’d like a backup service that will back up both our computers, the external drives (when connected, obviously) and the NAS files. Security is a concern, or course. I used to have a family plan on Crashplan that I liked, but they stopped offering home plans (and that was before I got the NAS). I know Wirecutter recommends Backblaze, but I don’t think it will backup the NAS through the basic service, and I’m no expert on the Synology NAS apps and what they can do!

Alternatively, I’m open to other solutions (I.e., adding a larger NAS and migrating all the drives to that and reducing the sources I’m uploading from to just the computers and the NAS). I really don’t know how best to do these backups and I’d like some additional peace of mind. Thanks!

posted by Admiral Haddock to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

I like Arq. The software, not the cloud service (the cloud service might be fine, but I haven't used it). You can hook it up to many of the plain cloud file storage services (I use Amazon S3), and it'll handle the rest (incremental backups, encryption, scheduling, etc.). I guess one downside would be that you have to sign up for and manage whatever service you want to use separately. I believe you'd also need to have the NAS mounted to a computer when backing it up, which might or might not be a problem depending on your habits (the first time will take a very long time).
posted by brentajones at 6:36 AM on December 31, 2019

I back up my Synology to Backblaze B2 via Cloudsync. Volume based pricing, only slightly fiddly to set up.
posted by zamboni at 8:08 AM on December 31, 2019 [1 favorite]

I use Arq also on a Mac. I back up to 3 destinations. 1 local to my NAS and 2 cloud based. One of which is using the Backblaze B2 storage tier which ends up costing me less than $4 USD for around 600GB of data.
posted by eatcake at 2:38 PM on December 31, 2019

Backblaze B2 via Cloudsync in use here - no complaints at all!
posted by nostrada at 2:47 PM on December 31, 2019

rclone is what you're looking for. Don't use Arq.
posted by turkeyphant at 8:28 PM on January 2, 2020

I used Arq with Amazon Cloud Storage and it never, ever worked right. Every few months it would come back with "Oops, sorry, that whole backup set is no good, you have to start over." Tech support did not see this as the make-or-break problem I did.
posted by wnissen at 1:12 PM on May 13, 2020