---
title: "B2"
description: "Backblaze B2"
date: "2015-12-29"
---

<i class="fa fa-fire"></i>Backblaze B2
----------------------------------------

B2 is [Backblaze's cloud storage system](https://www.backblaze.com/b2/).

Paths are specified as `remote:bucket` (or `remote:` for the `lsd`
command.)  You may put subdirectories in too, eg `remote:bucket/path/to/dir`.

Here is an example of making a b2 configuration.  First run

    rclone config

This will guide you through an interactive setup process.  You will
need your account number (a short hex number) and key (a long hex
number) which you can get from the b2 control panel.

```
No remotes found - make a new one
n) New remote
q) Quit config
n/q> n
name> remote
Type of storage to configure.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
 1 / Amazon Cloud Drive
   \ "amazon cloud drive"
 2 / Amazon S3 (also Dreamhost, Ceph)
   \ "s3"
 3 / Backblaze B2
   \ "b2"
 4 / Dropbox
   \ "dropbox"
 5 / Google Cloud Storage (this is not Google Drive)
   \ "google cloud storage"
 6 / Google Drive
   \ "drive"
 7 / Hubic
   \ "hubic"
 8 / Local Disk
   \ "local"
 9 / Microsoft OneDrive
   \ "onedrive"
10 / Openstack Swift (Rackspace Cloud Files, Memset Memstore, OVH)
   \ "swift"
11 / Yandex Disk
   \ "yandex"
Storage> 3
Account ID
account> 123456789abc
Application Key
key> 0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789
Endpoint for the service - leave blank normally.
endpoint> 
Remote config
--------------------
[remote]
account = 123456789abc
key = 0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789
endpoint = 
--------------------
y) Yes this is OK
e) Edit this remote
d) Delete this remote
y/e/d> y
```

This remote is called `remote` and can now be used like this

See all buckets

    rclone lsd remote:

Make a new bucket

    rclone mkdir remote:bucket

List the contents of a bucket

    rclone ls remote:bucket

Sync `/home/local/directory` to the remote bucket, deleting any
excess files in the bucket.

    rclone sync /home/local/directory remote:bucket

### Modified time ###

The modified time is stored as metadata on the object as
`X-Bz-Info-src_last_modified_millis` as milliseconds since 1970-01-01
in the Backblaze standard.  Other tools should be able to use this as
a modified time.

Modified times are set on upload, read on download and shown in
listings.  They are not used in syncing as unfortunately B2 doesn't
have an API method to set them independently of doing an upload.

### SHA1 checksums ###

The SHA1 checksums of the files are checked on upload and download and
will be used in the syncing process. You can use the `--checksum` flag.

### Versions ###

When rclone uploads a new version of a file it creates a [new version
of it](https://www.backblaze.com/b2/docs/file_versions.html).
Likewise when you delete a file, the old version will still be
available.

The old versions of files are visible in the B2 web interface, but not
via rclone yet.

Rclone doesn't provide any way of managing old versions (downloading
them or deleting them) at the moment.  When you `purge` a bucket, all
the old versions will be deleted.

### Bugs ###

Note that when uploading a file, rclone has to make a temporary copy
of it in your temp filing system.  This is due to a weakness in the B2
API which I'm hoping will be addressed soon.

### API ###

Here are [some notes I made on the backblaze
API](https://gist.github.com/ncw/166dabf352b399f1cc1c) while
integrating it with rclone which detail the changes I'd like to see.
With a couple of small tweaks Backblaze could enable rclone to not
make a temporary copy of all files and fully support modification
times.