Overview
Use the CrashPlan app to restore files whenever you have access to one of your devices. The CrashPlan console is convenient for restoring files when you are not near one of your devices. However, the CrashPlan app offers you the most flexibility. This article describes how to restore files from the CrashPlan app.
Considerations
- If you need to restore all of your files because you recently replaced a device or the hard drive containing your operating system, see Replace your device using CrashPlan.
- If you notice the CrashPlan app is restoring more files than you expect, see our considerations for restoring metadata.
Restore files from the CrashPlan app
Video guide
Restore a single file
- Sign in to the CrashPlan app.
- See a list of backed-up files:
- Click Restore Files.
- (Applies only if you have multiple devices) From the menu, select the device that originally backed up the files you want to restore.
- (Optional) If you want to restore an earlier version of your files, click As of Today to select a previous date from a calendar.
- Navigate to the file you wish to restore.
Learn more about finding files (including hidden or deleted files) below. - Mouse over the file, and click the download icon
.
Your download is added to Downloads with the default files options. Download Activity displays the status of your download.
Restore multiple files
- Sign in to the CrashPlan app.
- See a list of backed-up files:
- Click Restore Files.
- (Applies only if you have multiple devices) From the menu, select the device that originally backed up the files you want to restore.
- (Optional) If you want to restore an earlier version of your files, click As of Today to select a previous date from a calendar.
-
Select the checkboxes for the folders and files you want to restore.
Learn more about finding files (including hidden or deleted files) below. - Select Restore Files.
The Restore Files Options (or Get Files Options) window appears.
- Update the options to specify the restore location, naming guidelines, and permissions for your restored files.
- Click Go.
Your download is added to Downloads. Download Activity displays the status of your download.
Restore tips
- It is safe to close the CrashPlan app while the files restore in the background.
- If you are restoring a large amount of data, consider optimizing your computer settings to prevent disruptions.
- Alternatively, if you don't want to restore all of the files at once, you can shut down or put your device to sleep and restoration will resume where it left off when it is powered on again.
Find files to restore
Search
To restore a specific file, first search for it by providing all or part of the file name or extension. Click the search icon and enter your search term.
| Search Rule | Example | Results |
| Search for any part of a file name | win |
winter.txt, winters.txt, winner.txt |
| Searches are not case-sensitive | Winter.txt |
winter.txt |
| Spaces are treated the same as any other character |
|
Winter Campaign-Ad 1.mp4 (0 results found) |
|
Question mark ( ? ) is a placeholder for one character |
|
winters.txt |
| Asterisk ( * ) is a placeholder for any number of characters, including no character | win*.txt |
winter.txt, winters.txt, winner.txt |
Toggle between searching and browsing
You can click a folder within your search results to resume browsing. To return to your search results, click the search icon. Your search term is retained until you clear the term, close the search bar, or exit the Restore files or Get files view. Files selected for restoration remain selected when toggling between search and browse.
Deleted files
The CrashPlan app stores deleted files based on your deleted file retention settings. To see or search for deleted files:
- From Home, navigate to a list of backed-up files:
- Click Restore Files.
- (Applies only if you have multiple devices) From the menu, select the device that originally backed up the files you want to restore.
- Click the options menu.
- Choose Include deleted files.
Deleted files are shown with a trash can icon to the right of the Date Modified column. - Select the files that you want to restore.
- Click Restore Files.
After you enable Include deleted files, your deleted files appear in the file browser and can be restored. You may also search for deleted files by entering a term in the search bar.
Previous file version
To browse all of the file versions backed up for a particular file, mouse over the file in the Restore files and click the versions icon . All versions of the file backed up prior to the selected As Of date display.
To restore a previous version, you can either:
- Mouse over the version and click the download icon
- Select the radio button for the version. Then, either browse back to the folder containing the file to select additional files, or click Restore Files or Get Files to view options for restoring the file.
Hidden files
Some temporary and system files are hidden in the Restore Files view because you do not typically need to interact with these files. Hidden files and locations do not appear in the file selection list by default. To view hidden files:
- Choose the options menu
.
- Select Show hidden files to view hidden files.
Hidden Windows files are always listed
CrashPlan does not support metadata for hidden Windows files. Therefore, hidden files in Windows always appear on Restore screens in the CrashPlan app and CrashPlan console, regardless of whether you've chosen to show or hide them.
Files options
The CrashPlan app suggests default settings for restoring your files. You can change these settings before restoring your files.
Customize options for restore or get files
If you modify the default settings, the CrashPlan app will use the modified settings until you either exit the Restore files view or close the CrashPlan app. However, when you use the download icon for a single file, the CrashPlan app will always use the default options.
Save selected files to
By default, the CrashPlan app restores files to your device's Downloads folder. To change the restore location, select Downloads.
Choose one of the following locations:
- Desktop
- Original location
Original location is disabled if you are restoring files to a different operating system than the original device. - Other (opens a file browser for selecting a folder on your device)
Original location no longer exists
If you restore files to their original location, but that location no longer exists, the CrashPlan app recreates the folders used by the original location.
For example, suppose you back up the folder C:\Users\Jim\Documents. Later, you replace your device and use a different username. Your new Documents folder is located at C:\Users\James\Documents. If you restore your Documents folder to the original location, the CrashPlan app creates a folder labeled Jim under the C:\Users directory and restore the Documents folder there. In this scenario, you probably don't want to restore files to their original location.
If file already exists
If a file is restored to a location that already contains a file with the same name, the CrashPlan app defaults to renaming the original file with the prefix original1. Choose how the CrashPlan app handles matching file names by clicking Rename:
- Overwrite: If a duplicate name is detected, the CrashPlan app replaces the existing file with the restored file.
- Rename: If a duplicate name is detected, the name of the restored file remains unchanged but the CrashPlan app renames the existing file on the device with the prefix original1.
Rename your files
If you aren't sure whether you want to rename or replace, choose the rename option. You can always delete duplicate files later.
Permissions
Restore files with Current permissions instead of Original permissions to avoid file access issues. For example:
- If you did not originally have permissions to a directory where files were backed up, restore the files using Current permissions to give yourself access to the restored files in that directory.
- If files were originally backed up on a different device, restore the files using Current permissions to give yourself access to the restored files on your current device.
Restore files to a different operating system
These considerations apply if you are, for example, moving from a Windows device to a Mac device.
- Restore your files to a specific location rather than the original location because the device you are restoring to has a different file-system structure than the original device.
- The option to save selected files to Original Location is automatically disabled when restoring files from a different operating system.
- Some file metadata may be lost when restoring files to a different operating system. To preserve all file metadata, restore to a device with the same operating system as the original.
- Filenames containing characters that are illegal on the operating system you restore to cannot be restored to that device. Restore those files to a device of the same operating system or use the CrashPlan console to restore those files.
How to restore Mac files to a Windows device
If you plan to restore Mac files to a Windows device, use the more restrictive Windows naming rules with your Mac files to prevent any potential problems.
Only Linux devices honor case-sensitivity
Files whose names differ only in capitalization are recognized as distinct files on Linux devices when you select files for backup, as well as when you select files for download. On Windows and Mac devices, files whose names differ only in capitalization are treated as the same file. When you restore two or more Linux files whose names differ only in capitalization to a Windows or Mac device, the files have "original<number>" prefixed to their names to differentiate them from one another.
Restore an external hard drive
If you try to restore files that were originally stored on an external hard drive, and that hard drive is not currently connected to the source device, the CrashPlan app treats the files as missing. To restore:
- If you are replacing the original drive (due to failure or another loss), see our guide to Download files after replacing a drive using CrashPlan.
- If you are not replacing the drive, but it is not currently available (or you don't want to connect it because you are only restoring a few files), you can select Show deleted files to restore the files.
Restore order
External resources
- Microsoft: Windows file permissions
- Peach Pit: Understanding Mac file permissions