Carbonite Trouble: Old Versions of Files May Be Lost for Some Users, Contrary to Specs

Just found that Carbonite's behavior doesn't always match the official specifications. Users are led to believe that multiple versions of their files are being stored and will be available for back-up. That may not be the case!

Carbonite's claim: "Carbonite will keep up to three months' worth of old versions of the files in your backup. For example, if you edit a document daily over the course of three months, Carbonite will save one version for each of the previous seven days, one version for each of the prior three weeks, and one version for each of the prior two months."

But upon checking, most of my files only had the most recent version available. A few heavily edited files had versions only for the past week - nothing more. Even for files I edit almost every day (contacts, for example). 

Carbonite tech support has been frustrating. You have to wait for long periods in their online chat process and they don't pay a lot of attention to what you say initially, so it can take a long time to get a simple answer. And they they hang up on your quickly in you don't respond in 30 seconds or so. 

I finally was told that lost old versions is an "issue" - not a bug - that can be fixed by running a file they sent me. They send me bizarre instructions:

Please follow the steps below to fix the issue you are experiencing with your status files:

1. Save the attached file to your desktop.
2. Double-click the .zip file to "un-zip" it to your desktop.
3. Click Start; My Computer
4. Drag and drop CarboniteFixStatusfast.ex_ from your desktop onto your C: drive icon shown in the My Computer window.
5. Click Start; Run
6. Within the Open text field, type cmd and then click OK.
7. If the command prompt next to the blinking cursor says anything other than C:\ , type in cd\ and press Enter.
8. Type REN c:\CarboniteFixStatusfast.ex_ CarboniteFixStatusfast.exe (exactly as shown here) and press Enter. (This will rename CarboniteFixStatusfast.ex_ to CarboniteFixStatusfast.exe.)
9. Type in c:\carbonitefixstatusfast.exe /f (exactly as shown here) and press Enter.
10. The carbonitefixstatus utility will scan your backup status file and display a list of any corrections it made. When it has finished, click OK.
11. Type exit and then press Enter to close the command prompt window.

Step 8 actually did not work, but since it's just renaming, I just used Explorer to rename the file. Why not tell users that and spate the torture of typing out long commands in an interface without copy and paste. So I renamed it in Explorer, used the CMD window to run the file with /f, and then it scanned and said all was OK. Except nothing was fixed and I still don't have access to old versions beyond a week. 

Now I''m told my case is being escalated and I should here something from someone in a few days. I'm not holding my breath. 

There are other users who have had this problem, so check and see if it affects you. If you know you can't restore old versions, you can at least create mutliple versions with different names and back those files up - but it won't help for files that need a specific name. 

This is one of a couple of time-consuming Carbonite problems I've had. Nice when it's working - but check to be sure it does.

tags: software  

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