Set up CrashPlan Essential or Professional

CrashPlan Essential

Your user account is already created with the email address you signed up with, so no further action is necessary. CrashPlan Essential plans allow for one user account.

CrashPlan Professional

The CrashPlan console offers a few different ways to add users, giving you flexibility to quickly add one user or add multiple users at once. See Add users from the CrashPlan console for details. 

User types

CrashPlan offers the following user types:

• Administrators can manage users and organization-wide settings. See our tutorial on adding users for more information about administrator privileges and how to make a user an administrator.
• Non-administrator users only have access to devices on their user account and cannot manage other users or subscription information. 

To protect all of your data, it's important to back up all your devices. First, ensure your devices meet our system requirements.
Once you add a device to your account, you'll be billed automatically on your monthly renewal date. Each user on the account can add up to 2 devices.

Download and install

After confirming your hardware and software meet our system requirements, add devices as follows:

1. Sign in to the CrashPlan console. 
2. Go to App Downloads.
3. Download and install the CrashPlan app.

For detailed instructions, see Install the CrashPlan app.

Sign in and complete setup

Once you've installed the CrashPlan app, sign in and complete setup to start backing up your data. 

1. Enter your account's Email address and Password, then click Continue.
   The device appears in the CrashPlan console on the Active Devices page.
2. Click Add destinations.
   
3. To back up to CrashPlan cloud, select CrashPlan PROe - West
   
4. To back up to a local destination: 
   1. Select Add Local Destination.
   2. Select the device or folder to which you want to back up, and click Open.  
5. Click Save.
6. Click Done. 
   Your backup starts automatically.

Now that you've set up your users and devices, make sure you're backing up your most important data. Consider backing up the following: 

• User files: CrashPlan is designed to back up the files that matter to you, not system and application files. To be sure you are backing up the right files, see What should you back up? 
• External drives: To back up an external drive, see Back up external hard drives. 
• NAS: You can use CrashPlan to back up network attached storage (NAS) on Mac and Linux. For details, see Back up networked storage or NAS devices. 

Now that you've set up your account, users, and devices, test out restoring one or more files so that you're familiar with the process before disaster strikes. You can restore files from the CrashPlan app or CrashPlan console. 

Restore from the CrashPlan app

Restore from the CrashPlan app when possible, as it offers you the most flexibility. See Download files from the CrashPlan app for details. 

Restore from the CrashPlan console

The CrashPlan console provides an option for restoring files when you are not near one of your devices. However, when you restore from the CrashPlan console, you can only download 1 GB per session. See Download files from the web for details. 

Replace your device

If you recently reformatted or replaced a device or hard drive, follow the steps in Replace your device to use the CrashPlan app to transfer files, move your backup, and update settings from a previous device. 

Using the default settings, the CrashPlan app usually works quietly in the background. However, you can check the status of your backup, to make sure things are working as expected, from the following locations:

• The CrashPlan app
• Your device's notification area (Windows) or menu bar (Mac)
• The CrashPlan console 

Backup status reports

CrashPlan for Small Business backup status reports are sent via email and keep you informed about the health of your devices' backups.

Report types

• Backup Status Reports: These reports are sent to each individual user. They provide information about the device or devices under that individual user account.
• Backup Status Reports for administrators: These reports provide information about any device in your organization that has a backup warning or alert, for all users and all devices.

Configuring reports

From the CrashPlan console, you can configure how often you receive these reports. You can also configure who receives the backup status report for administrators. 

Troubleshooting backup

If your backup status reports indicate an issue with your backup, see What to do after receiving a backup alert to determine the cause and how to resolve it.

Your subscription renews automatically each month and you are charged for each active user in your organization.