CrashPlan supported metadata

Updated April 01, 2026 22:16

Overview

This article details the specific types of file metadata (such as modification dates, access permissions, and extended attributes) that CrashPlan supports and restores across different operating systems.

Considerations for restoring metadata

Supported metadata is included in your restored files. However, there are several considerations based on how you initiate the restore:

Zip restores: Metadata cannot be included with files restored via the Zip restore method. To preserve your metadata, you must use the CrashPlan app restore or Device "push" restore methods.
Different operating system: If you restore a file to a different operating system than the one where the file originated, the CrashPlan app may not be able to include metadata supported by the original operating system. For best results, restore files to devices using the same operating system.
Metadata included in separate files: Sometimes, metadata can be included in a separate file. This can result in confusion when you restore files and find there are more files restored than expected. For example, Alternate Data Streams metadata is supported on Windows NTFS systems, but when you restore a file containing this kind of metadata to a non-NTFS file system, the metadata is placed into separate files.

Supported metadata by operating system

CrashPlan has tested and supports restoring the specific types of metadata listed below for each operating system.

Application-specific databases
Some applications (such as Lightroom) store metadata in a separate, active database file that may not back up while the application is in use. To ensure this metadata backs up and restores successfully alongside your files, configure the application to write metadata directly to the files themselves. Please note that CrashPlan technical support cannot assist with configuring these third-party applications.

Mac

Supported	Unsupported
Data fork Resource fork Owner information for regular files and directories Symlink owner information POSIX permissions Locked flag Modification date Creation date Finder comments (.DS_Store file) ACLs BSD Flags, which can be set via chflags Extended attributes (for example, xattr) (up to 1 MB backed up)	Other named forks Aliases

Restoring to a non-HFS+ file system
When restoring a file to a non-HFS+ file system, any information not in the data file is stored in a “dot-underscore” file. For example, if you copy an HFS+ file named MyMug.jpg to a FAT 32 volume, there will be a file named ._MyMug.jpg in the same location.

Windows

Supported	Unsupported
Alternate Data Streams (ADS) Archive Created date DACL (Discretionary Access Control List) DACL is supported only when restoring to the same device that backed up the files. Directory Normal Modified date Readonly Temporary	Accessed date Compression attribute Encrypted Hidden Not_Content_Indexed Offline Reparse_Point Sparse_File System

Linux

Supported
Permissions: UGO, RWX uid gid