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Remotely Accessing Your Carbonite Safe Files

  • This article is for Windows and Mac

You can log into your Carbonite Safe account from any computer to remotely access your files with Anytime Anywhere Access.

Sign into your account with the button below to view a list of your computers that are backed up with Carbonite.

View Files

After you log in, use the View files button to remotely browse, search, and restore backed up files from your account.

The backed up files and folders will be organized in your account the same way that they existed on your computer. However, it may take up to 24 hours for new or changed files to appear.

To view the most up to date backup status of your files, you can use the Carbonite Backup Drive (Windows) or the Carbonite software (Mac).

Restoring Files with Anytime Anywhere Access

To restore a copy of the files, follow the instructions below.

  1. Navigate to the file location(s) within Anywhere Anytime Access.
    In this example, we navigated to the user’s Documents folder. You can also use the search bar to type in a file name or file extension.
    Anytime Anywhere Access: View Backed Up Files
  2. Select the checkbox(es) next to the files and folders you wish to download.
    Anytime Anywhere Access: Select Files for Download
  3. Click Download to begin downloading your files to the computer.
    Anytime Anywhere Access: Click Download
Please ensure that your browser remains open during the download process to avoid interruption. If your internet connection is interrupted while restoring with Anytime Anywhere Access, the download will fail, and you will need to restart it. Logging out of your Carbonite account after initiating a download will not stop files from being restored.

The downloaded files will appear as .ZIP file in the Downloads folder or to the location that you specify on your computer.

If you are having trouble downloading a single file and it does meet the Restore Selections and Size Limits, please try adding a second small file to the download.

Opening Restored ZIP Files

Downloading multiple files from Anytime Anywhere Access at a time will compress the files into a single ZIP file to make the download faster.

You can extract the downloaded file to view all the restored files and folders by doing the following:

  1. Navigate to the ZIP file in Windows Explorer.
    The restored file(s) by default should be in your Downloads folder.
  2. Right-click the ZIP file and select Extract All.
    Windows File Explorer: Right-Click on the ZIP file and select Extract All
  3. Check Show extracted files when complete and click Extract.
    You can click Browse… if you want to manually extract the files to a different location on your computer.
    Windows File Explorer: Show files when complete and Extract

After the extraction completes, the restored folders will appear as they appeared in Anytime Anywhere Access.

Windows File Explorer: View Restored Files

Restore Selection and Size Limitations

Carbonite's Anytime Anywhere Access feature is best for remotely accessing small amounts of files and folders. It is not intended for complete restores. Depending on the type of download, there are different limitations per session.

Single Files Multiple Files and Folders
Selection Limitation 5000 selections 200 selections
Size Limitation None 10 GB

The following file types will be inaccessible via Anytime Anywhere Access:

  • Windows Encrypted Files
  • Mac Package Files (such as Apple Photos)

Anywhere Anytime Access is unable to load folders with many child files or folders directly in it. If you believe you have over 200 files/folders within a directory and you are unable to view the content of this folder online, we recommend rearranging your file structure to reduce the number of items within a folder.

Restoring Hidden Files

In some cases, you may be unable to locate hidden files when browsing through Anytime Anywhere Access. However, if you know the name of the backed up file, you can search for it and it will appear in the search results for you to restore.

Inactivity Time Out

Anytime Anywhere Access will time out due to inactivity. However, any downloads of files that you initiated will continue if there is no disruption to the internet connection.

You can use the browser’s download manager to view the progress of the restored files.

Deleted Files Alerts

As you explore your backed up files on Anytime Anywhere Access, you may notice deleted file alerts on some of your files. These notices appear based on the Carbonite Safe retention policy.

Anytime Anywhere Access: This file was deleted from your computer. It is available to restore for the next 30 days.
Put simply, this means that if you delete files from your computer, Carbonite will remove those deleted files from the backup after 30 days.

Currently Unavailable Alert

When attempting to access your files online, you may receive the alert “Carbonite’s Remote File Access is currently unavailable. Please try again later.”

If you receive this alert, Carbonite is performing maintenance and Anytime Anywhere Access may be inaccessible. However, you can use your computer that has Carbonite installed to restore files (Mac) or try again in 24 hours or later.

After the maintenance completes, your access to the backup through Anytime Anywhere Access will return to normal.

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