Backblaze has issued a fix for a bzfileids.dat error message that was preventing the backup service from running properly on a Mac.
Mac users running Backblaze’s software may have been interrupted by an error message stating that “Backblaze has stopped working properly on this computer”, followed by a warning stating “your bzfileids.dat file is too large, please contact Backblaze customer support.”
When users initially attempted to look up the error message on the support section of Backblaze’s website, the site advised users to delete their Backblaze backups and start again, a process that could take many days or even weeks to complete for large backups.
However, the company has since revised its support advice with a workaround that appears to fix the problem. On my own MacBook Pro, backups have since resumed after following the procedure below.
How To Fix The Backblaze bzfileids.dat Error
Backblaze’s support website has been updated with the following fix:
1. Navigate to: https://secure.backblaze.com/update.htm
2. Download the installer for your computer.
3. Please do NOT uninstall Backblaze.
4. Restart the computer. Please DO NOT skip this step.
5. When the computer is up and running, open the installer and click install now.
6. Restart the computer one more time.
7. Open the Backblaze application on your computer by clicking on the Backblaze icon in the Menu Bar then selecting Backblaze Preferences from the top of the list
8. Hold down the option key on your keyboard and press the Restore Options button in the application
9. Let the process run for three to four hours.
In my experience, the process was completed in only a few minutes, not a matter of hours, but I had to manually press the Backup Now option in Backblaze’s software to trigger the software to backup files added to my system since the problem occurred.
Other Backblaze customers on Reddit are reporting the fix has solved the problem for them too. “I can confirm it worked for me!” wrote one Reddit user. “It took less than an hour for the files to be scanned and everything to work normally again (disclaimer: I only have about 600 GB backed up in comparison to other people on here who have backups in the terabytes).”
Others didn’t find the workaround before deleting their backups and starting again, but that also seems to work–albeit with a long wait to backup everything again. “Already deleted my computer and reinstalled and re added it and backed up everything again,” wrote another Reddit user on the thread linked to above. “It’s back to normal. But really sucks I lost all my history.”
Backblaze’s status page reports: “We have deployed a fix for Backblaze Computer Backup users on macOS encountering an error message stating “bzfileid.dat file is too large.”
