Purchasing An Additional Carbonite Safe Subscription

You can purchase a Carbonite Safe subscription for each computer that you’d like to back up.

Carbonite Plans and Features

This article covers the Carbonite Safe plans, features, and prices.

Carbonite Certifications

Below is a list of certificates and/or compliance with various financial and privacy-related protocols and standards.

Carbonite Safe Server Backup supporting RAID setup

Allowing Carbonite Through a Windows Application Firewall

If Carbonite is having trouble connecting to the Internet or running properly, it could be restricted by your firewall. Allowing Carbonite to connect to the Internet through the application firewall helps ensure Carbonite is able to perform its tasks successfully.

Confirming Account Ownership for Carbonite Safe

We don't release account information or grant the ability to change account information to individuals who aren't the account owner.

Deactivating Automatic Renewal for Carbonite Safe

Customers enrolled in automatic renewal can log into their Carbonite account and deactivate it at any time. If you wish to cancel your subscription, you may simply ignore the email notifications you receive regarding account expiration.

Changing Your Credit Card for Carbonite Safe

You can change your default credit card through your Carbonite account.

Unlimited Backup for Carbonite Safe

Carbonite Safe plans will allow you to backup unlimited amount of data on one PC, where one PC includes one internal hard drive.

File Size Limits

Carbonite sets size limits for individual files based on your Carbonite plan to avoid backup complications. However, you can manually select user files larger than these sizes to add them to your backup.

FAQ: When does my Carbonite trial expire?

When does my Carbonite trial expire?

Changing Your Security Questions for Your Carbonite Safe Account

You can sign into your Carbonite Safe account to change your security questions and answers. These security answers can help you sign into your account when you attempt to reset your password.

Difficulty Backing Up Drives Encrypted by Software

While enabled, disk encryption programs prevent Carbonite from performing backup operations.​

Finding Your Computer's Name

Carbonite uses the name of your computer to identify your backup. The computer name is different from the manufacturer's brand name, such as HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc. If your Carbonite subscription is for a computer that is no longer in service and you have multiple computers listed under your account, you can use these instructions to find the computer names for your operational computers.

Message: "Subscription Date is Invalid"

If you receive a pop-up notification from the Carbonite software stating your subscription date is invalid, please reboot your computer to resolve the issue.

Renewing Your Carbonite Safe Subscription

You can renew your Carbonite Safe subscription to continue backing up your files.

Upgrading to a Carbonite Safe Backup Pro Plan

You can upgrade your Carbonite Safe Basic, Plus or Prime plan to a Carbonite Safe Backup Pro plan to backup multiple computers, drives, and servers.

Setting Up Two Factor Authentication for Your Carbonite Safe Account

You can secure your Carbonite Safe account with two factor authentication. When enabled, it requires you to verify a security code sent to your phone when attempting to sign into your account.

Account Ownership for Carbonite Safe

The credit card holder on the Carbonite account is the account owner. If there is no credit card on file, then the owner is the person whose email address is associated with the account and who can successfully answer the security questions.

Supported Operating Systems for Carbonite Safe

Carbonite supports current Windows and Mac operating systems in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Changing Your Email Address for Your Carbonite Safe Account

You can sign into your Carbonite Safe account to update your email address.

Viewing Your Expiration and Renewal Dates for Carbonite Safe

We will remind you to renew your Carbonite subscription prior to expiration if you are not enrolled in automatic renewal. If your subscription is not renewed, your backed up files will be removed from our servers within 30 days of your subscription expiration.

Storage of Data After Deleting Files from Your Computer

When Carbonite scans for files to back up, it also removes deleted files from the backup to keep it up-to-date. Depending on your plan, Carbonite removes deleted files after 30 or 60 days from the date they were deleted from the computer.

Difficulty Installing Carbonite

In most cases, you can install Carbonite easily from your account. However, there may be some instances where Carbonite cannot install properly on your computer.

Latest Product Versions

Carbonite Safe is available for Windows, Mac and Windows Server Operating Systems. You can upgrade to the latest version by reinstalling Carbonite from within your account.

Virtual Machines

You can use Carbonite to back up data files located on a Virtual Machine. Files located on Virtual Machines must be visible to your computer's file management system for Carbonite to be capable of backing them up. Carbonite recommends that you do not attempt to back up the operating files of Virtual Machines.

Checking Your Backup Progress

When Carbonite finishes backing up a file, the status indicator in the Carbonite application will update. If Carbonite does not appear to be moving, it is most likely backing up a large file.

Selecting Excluded File Types for Backup

You can select excluded file types for backup in the Carbonite Properties menu.

Resetting Your Carbonite Password

You can reset your forgotten Carbonite password by following the instructions in this article.

Customer Data Backup Location

Depending on the services you choose, your user data may be stored with Carbonite’s third-party cloud storage provider.

FAQ: What Does Carbonite Do When an Internet Connection is Not Present?

What does Carbonite do when an internet connection is not present?

Restore Speed

Recovering small amounts of data (a few files here or there) usually takes only a few seconds or minutes. Restoring all of your data will take longer depending on how much data you have and the speed of your ISP.

Provision for Use Outside of the United States

You may have the benefit of consumer guarantees and warranties provided under the applicable local law ("mandatory warranties"). Where any statute applies to give you the benefit of Mandatory Warranties, and that statute does not permit Carbonite to exclude or limit the application to these Mandatory Warranties (or would render void any attempt to do so), then those Mandatory Warranties apply to Carbonite's Terms of Service for your benefit, and nothing in Carbonite's Terms of Service excludes or limits those Mandatory Warranties or liability for breach of them. This applies to all of the Terms of Service, including any terms in relation to the Disclaimer of Warranty or Limitation of Liability. Additional country-specific terms are provided below.

Ports and Subnets Carbonite Uses

Carbonite uses a specific set of ports in order to install, back up, and restore successfully.

Important Things to Know About Carbonite Safe as You Get Started

This article contains information about Carbonite Safe that you may not be aware of when first installing the software.

FAQ: What Is Cloud Backup?

What Is cloud backup?

Changed Files

How does Carbonite back up changed files?

Shutting Down Your Computer During Backup

For backup operations to be performed, there must be an active Internet connection and the computer must be powered on. Shutting down the computer will stop the backup. Once you connect to the Internet again, your backup will automatically resume from where it left off.

Storage of Data After Expiration

Carbonite keeps your backed up data on our servers for a limited time after expiration in case you decide to continue with your coverage Depending on your expired account status, Carbonite will permanently remove your backed up data after 30 or 60 days.

How to Speed up Your Backup and Restore

The speed of your Internet connection is the primary factor for how fast you can back up or restore your files. Your backup and restore speed will also depend on the speed of your computer, the amount of data selected for backup/restore, and the amount of strain your other programs and services have on your internet connection.

Transferring Carbonite Safe Between Windows and Mac

You can transfer your existing Carbonite Safe subscription from Windows to a Mac computer.

Downloading Your Carbonite Safe Files with Anytime Anywhere Access

You can log into your Carbonite Safe account from any computer to view and download your files with Anytime Anywhere Access.

Requesting a Courier Recovery Drive for Carbonite Safe

You can request Courier Recovery to receive a copy of your backed up files on an external hard drive.

Carbonite Safe Backup Pro Dashboard

As an administrator, you can view the backup status, review alerts, view the billing information and billing history, invite users and administrators, add computers, and perform other actions through the Dashboard. As a Billing Owner, you can perform all the same actions as an administrator as well as manage the billing information for your account.

File Types Carbonite Backs Up for Carbonite Safe (Mac 2x)

Carbonite is designed to back up all the unique and irreplaceable files on your computer. Included in your backup are your text documents, spreadsheets, financial documents, photos, music, etc. With the Carbonite Safe Basic plan, video files are not selected for back up by default. They need to be added to your backup manually.

Updating to the Latest Version of Carbonite Safe (Mac 2x)

You can update Carbonite to the latest version through the update file in this article.

File Types Excluded from Backup for Carbonite Safe

Carbonite does not back up operating system files because they can cause system conflicts when restored. These files are typically reinstalled when you upgrade the operating system on your existing computer or when you purchase a new computer.

Changing Your Carbonite Safe Backup Pro Security Questions

You can only update your security questions through our website.

Changing Your Carbonite Safe Backup Pro Password

You can change the password associated with your Carbonite account after signing in on our website.

Changing Your Email Address for Carbonite Safe Backup Pro

You can only change the email address associated with Carbonite after signing into your Carbonite account on our website.