Resolve Common Installation Failures

If you have trouble installing the Backblaze Computer Backup software on your computer, you can contact Backblaze Support for help. However, there are some common causes of installation failure that you may be able to fix yourself.

Failed installations present in two ways. The most common is that the software installation fails and displays a message, either in the log or on your screen. Less common is that the software appears to install, but it hangs while analyzing the drive structure. This means that something actively prevented the installation, or a permission is locked by another process.

Antivirus Software

The Computer Backup software needs full access to your computer's disk so it can back up your data. Since this access pattern is also common for malware, some antivirus software may block its installation. You can fix this by temporarily turning off your antivirus software while Computer Backup installs.

Firewall Software

The Computer Backup software needs to access the internet to back up your data to the Backblaze servers. If your firewall is blocking the Computer Backup software, you can add a rule to your firewall software to prevent it from blocking Computer Backup.

Network Monitoring Software

Computer Backup sends a lot of data to Backblaze servers while creating your initial online backup. Some network monitoring software may detect this behavior as unusual and shut down the Computer Backup program. You can fix this by disabling the network monitor while Backblaze is creating your online backup.

Conflicting Backup Software

If you have other backup software running on your computer, it may interfere with the installation of Computer Backup. You can fix this by pausing or stopping the other backup software.

Insufficient Permissions on User Directories

The Computer Backup installer needs to have read, write, and execute permissions to install itself on your computer. If your computer is managed by an IT administrator, they may have changed your system permissions from the default settings. In this case, you should ask them to change your system permissions to allow Computer Backup to install.

On a Windows computer, the program directory should have all permissions available to the system. On a Mac computer, you can check the default permissions mask in Terminal by entering umask at the prompt. The result should be 0022.

Conflict with an Existing Account

When the Computer Backup software is installed, it automatically creates an account for the user and associates the computer with that user. In some cases, the user may have a pre-existing account, and the account credentials are needed to associate a new computer with that account. You can fix this by running the Computer Backup installation software interactively so that you can provide the existing account's credentials during setup, or you can download a customized installer from Backblaze.