View your backed-up files

Overview

To help protect your data from loss, CrashPlan automatically collects and stores every version of every file you have selected for backup across all your computers. After you've started backing up your files with the CrashPlan app, you may want to see which files have been backed up. To view your backed-up files, follow the steps below.

Steps

As soon as a file is backed up, it's ready to be downloaded using the CrashPlan app or the CrashPlan console.

Using the CrashPlan App

To view your backed-up files in the CrashPlan app:

1. Open and sign in to the CrashPlan app.
2. Click Restore Files.
   • If you have multiple devices, select the device that originally backed up the files you want to restore from the menu.
   • If you back up to multiple destinations, select the desired destination from the Restore files from menu.
   • If multiple backup sets use the same destination, select the backup set that contains the files you want.
3. Review the list of backed-up files. Click a folder name to view its contents.

Using the CrashPlan Console

To view your backed-up files on the CrashPlan console:

1. Open and sign in to the CrashPlan console.
2. Go to Administration and select Devices.
3. Click the device that contains the data you want to view to open its Details page.
4. Click the Restore menu.
5. Review the list of backed up files. Click to expand the folders and files to see more.
   Only files backed up to the CrashPlan cloud can be seen from the web. 

Tips:

• The As Of field sets the newest available version of the information.
• Select Include Deleted files to view all available versions.
• Files with multiple versions have a small arrow to the left of the file name. Click the arrow to see a list of dated versions.
• If your files were backed up to a local destination, such as an external drive, you must use the CrashPlan app.

When was this file or folder last backed up?

To see when a file or folder was last backed up, view its history, not its Date Modified timestamp. From Home or Details, click Restore Files or Get Files. Then, mouse over a file and click the versions icon (clock) to see all versions backed up for that file.

Folder versus file changes

Because folders typically do not change as often as files do, the Date Modified column of a folder tends to stay the same. A folder's Date Modified does not show changes to the individual files within it. To see the last time a file was changed, click the folder to see the Date Modified column for the files within that folder.

Restore files

Checking to make sure you've included all of your important files in your backup selection is a great idea. It's also the perfect time to test restoring a few files just to be sure you'll know how to retrieve your files when you really need them.

See Restore files from the CrashPlan app for CrashPlan for step-by-step instructions.