Problem
You are experiencing one or more of the following issues in your CrashPlan environment after cloning or restoring a computer's system state:
- Devices share an identity: Changes made to the CrashPlan app settings on one computer (such as the device name) unexpectedly update on another computer. Backups may also never reach 100%.
- Automatic duplicate renaming: A new device unexpectedly appears in the CrashPlan console for a user with "- duplicate 1" (or 2, 3, etc.) appended to the name, and the user is prompted to sign in again on that device.
Environment
- CrashPlan app
- CrashPlan console
- One of the impacted devices was recently cloned or restored from a non-CrashPlan backup.
Cause
The CrashPlan app ties every backup archive to its source computer using a unique computer ID (GUID). These issues occur when multiple devices attempt to connect using the exact same ID.
This happens when a system state is exactly duplicated. Common causes include:
- Using Mac Migration Assistant or Time Machine to restore a Mac from a backup.
- Cloning a virtual machine that has the CrashPlan app installed and running both virtual machines at the same time.
- Using a third-party utility, such as Carbon Copy Cloner, to duplicate a system state onto a new device.
Resolution
How you resolve this issue depends on whether the CrashPlan cloud has already automatically intercepted the duplicate ID.
Scenario 1: CrashPlan automatically detected the duplicate
If the CrashPlan cloud detects multiple devices using the same ID, it automatically assigns a new ID to the duplicate device and appends "- duplicate 1" to its name. To clean up your environment after this happens:
- Update the device name on the newly created device to remove the "- duplicate 1" tag and give it a unique name.
- If the original, duplicated device is no longer in use, deactivate the device in your CrashPlan environment.
Scenario 2: Devices are actively sharing an identity
If the cloud has not automatically renamed the device, and your computers are actively sharing an identity (e.g., settings are syncing between them), you must manually force the new device to generate a new, unique computer ID in one of the following ways:
- Manually assign your computer a new ID using the CrashPlan command-line interface.
- Uninstall and reinstall the CrashPlan app on the newly cloned or migrated device. Reinstalling the app forces it to generate a brand-new computer ID.