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Known Conflicts With The CrashPlan Application

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Applies to:
  • CrashPlan for Home
Need enterprise or small business documentation?
This article is intended for CrashPlan for Home users. For Code42 CrashPlan and CrashPlan for Small Business documentation, read this page on our enterprise support site.

Overview

Certain applications are known to conflict with the CrashPlan app. If you encounter a conflict, you may be unable to back up and see the message "Destination unavailable. Backup location is not accessible", or you may be unable to open the CrashPlan app and see the message "Unable to connect to the backup engine, retry?" This troubleshooting article lists applications that are known to cause conflicts and provides tips for resolving the issue.

Affects

CrashPlan app running on computers with conflicting software. Several conflicts have been resolved in CrashPlan app version 4.3 and later.

Antivirus and security software conflicts

Antivirus software is designed to protect your system against unknown applications and unauthorized Internet activity. Consequently, you may need to add CrashPlan as an approved application in your antivirus or security software in order for the CrashPlan app to function properly. The following antivirus and security applications have been known to prevent CrashPlan connections.

Applications Known To Cause Conflicts
  • Avast
  • AVG
  • Avira
  • BeyondTrust PowerBroker (version 6.5)
  • Charter Security Suite
  • CleanMyMac
  • Covenant Eyes
  • Intego NetBarrier
  • Intego VirusBarrier
  • Little Snitch
  • McAfee
  • One Periodic Hands Off!
  • Qustodio
CrashPlan Version Updates
When the CrashPlan app is upgraded to a later version, antivirus and security software may consider it a "new" application and block its activity. If this occurs, re-add CrashPlan as an approved application.

For more information on using CrashPlan and antivirus software, see CrashPlan for Home And Antivirus Software.

Troubleshoot antivirus or security applications

If you are using one of the applications listed above, consult the manufacturer's documentation on how to add an exception for a blocked application, then add an exception for CrashPlan that allows for incoming and outgoing communication. See External Resources below for links to instructions for commonly used applications.

If you are using an antivirus or security application not included in the list above, you can determine if it is conflicting with CrashPlan by temporarily disabling or removing the application. For additional information, see Check For Conflicts With Your Firewall Or Antivirus Software.

Port Requirements
Some firewall software may require you to enter specific ports when adding an exception for the CrashPlan app. In CrashPlan version 4.3 and later, the ports required for computer-to-computer backup and communication with the CrashPlan service can vary from the defaults (4242 and 4243). The port that the CrashPlan service is using can be found by Identifying Ports Used By The CrashPlan app.

Other known conflicts in CrashPlan app version 4.2 and earlier

There are several other applications that have also been known to cause conflicts, including:

  • App Tamer
  • FishEye Software
  • FoxyProxy
  • Juniper Network Connect (VPN)
  • Quassel IRC (see the Quassel FAQ for information on changing the listening port)
  • Trilead VM Explorer
  • Tune Connect
  • Verizon V Cast

If you are using one of these programs, consult the manufacturer's documentation to determine if you can modify the ports used by the application. You must resolve the port conflict between CrashPlan and the other application in order to use both applications. 

Identifying port conflicts

Peer-To-Peer Port Requirements
The CrashPlan app utilizes port 4242 for computer-to-computer backup. If you do not want to utilize computer-to-computer backup and a conflict is detected on that port, contact our Customer Champions for assistance disabling computer-to-computer backups. If you plan to utilize computer-to-computer backup, follow the steps below.

If you are not using one of the applications known to cause conflicts, you can use the steps below to determine whether or not there is a port conflict by verifying the status of ports 4242 and 4243.

Note: CrashPlan also uses port 443. If your computer is behind a firewall that blocks SSL (secure socket layer) connections, then you won't be able to connect.

Version 4.3 And Later
The steps below use the default ports for computer-to-computer backup and communication with the CrashPlan service (4242 and 4243). In versions 4.3 and later, these ports may be different if other software is using those ports, or if you have installed CrashPlan for multiple user accounts on the same computer. If step 2 reveals a different application is using those ports, or if another user installed CrashPlan on the same computer, identify the ports used by the CrashPlan app.

Windows

Step 1: Determine port status

  1. Open Command Prompt (All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt)
  2. Enter netstat -ano | findstr "4243 4242"

Sample output:Netstat command

The results of the netstat command must show the following ports as LISTENING or ESTABLISHED:
*.4242 or 0.0.0.0:4242 and
*.4243 or 127.0.0.1:4243

If not, then your firewall or router may be blocking the connection. Follow the instructions provided by the manufacturer on how to open or allow ports, then open ports 4242 and 4243 to correct the issue.

Step 2: Identify process running on ports

Next, you can determine exactly which process or service is running on these ports. You can do this using the Process ID (PID) found in the far right column of the netstat results. In the example in Step 1, we can see that ports 4242 and 4243 are in use by processes with the PIDs 2700 and 3052.

  1. At the command prompt, enter: tasklist /FI "PID eq <PID>", where <PID> is replaced with the actual PID of the process you are investigating.
    For example: tasklist /FI "PID eq 2700"

Sample output:Tasklist command

  1. Following the example above, repeat the command with any other PIDs returned in Step 1 to identify all of the processes involved.

The resuts of the PID command should list either, "CrashPlanService.exe", "CrashPlanDesktop.exe", or "CrashPlanTray.exe" under Image name. If not, then another piece of software is using the ports that CrashPlan needs to function. Consult the application’s documentation to change the port, or shut down the application.

OS X and Linux

Step 1: Determine port status

  1. Open Terminal (OS X: Finder > Applications > Utilities)
  2. Enter the command netstat -an |grep -E '(4243|4242)'
    Sample output:
tcp4       0      0  *.4242                 *.*                    LISTEN    
tcp4       0      0  127.0.0.1.4243         127.0.0.1.57205        ESTABLISHED
tcp4       0      0  127.0.0.1.57205        127.0.0.1.4243         ESTABLISHED
tcp4       0      0  127.0.0.1.4243         127.0.0.1.49302        ESTABLISHED
tcp4       0      0  127.0.0.1.49302        127.0.0.1.4243         ESTABLISHED
tcp4       0      0  127.0.0.1.4243         *.*                    LISTEN

The results of the netstat command must show the following ports as LISTENING or ESTABLISHED:
*.4242 or 0.0.0.0:4242 and
*.4243 or 127.0.0.1:4243

If not, then your firewall or router may be blocking the connection. Follow the instructions provided by the manufacturer on how to open or allow ports, then open ports 4242 and 4243 to correct the issue.

Step 2: Identify process running on ports

To verify which application currently uses the ports:

  1. Open Terminal
  2. Enter the command sudo lsof -i TCP:4243,4242

Sample output:

COMMAND     PID     USER   FD   TYPE             DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
java         67     root   81u  IPv4 0xbb1c79fe1bbc6661      0t0  TCP localhost:4243 (LISTEN)
java         67     root   94u  IPv4 0xbb1c79fe24ed5661      0t0  TCP *:4242 (LISTEN)
java         67     root  105u  IPv4 0xbb1c79fe1c157661      0t0  TCP localhost:4243->localhost:49302 (ESTABLISHED)
java         67     root  109u  IPv4 0xbb1c79fe1c6b60b9      0t0  TCP localhost:4243->localhost:57205 (ESTABLISHED)
CrashPlan   848     erik    5u  IPv4 0xbb1c79fe1b9da249      0t0  TCP localhost:49302->localhost:4243 (ESTABLISHED)
CrashPlan 42010     erik   68u  IPv4 0xbb1c79fe224e1661      0t0  TCP localhost:57205->localhost:4243 (ESTABLISHED)

The Command column should display either java or CrashPlan. If not, then another piece of software is using the ports that CrashPlan needs to function. Consult the application’s documentation to change the port, or shut down the application.

Under the hood

CrashPlan requires certain ports in order to function. CrashPlan may not need to use these ports all the time, but it still needs to prepare them for use (open the socket). If another application is already using these ports, CrashPlan can't run.