EarthLink Online Backup Information and FAQs

Summary

EarthLink Online Backup allows you to securely back up, store, share and access all your digital content safely! Your documents, music, videos and photos are securely stored and easily accessible from anytime from https://onlinebackup.earthlink.net or from the included mobile app.

Whether you’re at home, a friend’s house or work, EarthLink Online Backup delivers your digital content from anywhere with an Internet connection. Play music, view photos and videos, and share your files with family, friends and colleagues. All your digital files are consolidated into one, easily accessible location.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the System Requirements for installing EarthLink Online Backup?

Following table describes system requirements for all EarthLink Online Backup Desktop applications on PC and Mac and EarthLink Online Backup Mobile Apps on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android:

Supported Operating Systems

Windows: Windows 10 and Windows 11 (both 32-bit and 64-bit)

Mac: OS X v 10.7 or newer

Supported Browsers

Currently release versions of Chrome, FireFox, Edge and Safari

Supported Mobile Devices

iOS (Current Release)

Android (Current Release)

What levels of storage are available with EarthLink Online Backup?

There are three tiers of storage available.

50GB
250GB
500GB

I'm not sure how much storage I need. How do I decide?

How much storage you need depends on how you want to use it. If you are backing up your harddrive, you might want to check how much space you are using on your harddrive and then get an appropriate plan. If you are mainly wanting to use it as a place to storage pictures and videos then it will depend on how many photos or videos you have.

You can store 1000-2000 digital photos on as little as 50 GB of space. However, if you are backing up HD video files you may want to use the 250GB plan. If you are an avid photographer/videographer storing large amounts of HD video and high resolution photos, the 500GB may be a better choice.

How do I sign up for EarthLink's Online Backup?

EarthLink Online Backup can be signed up for by contacting EarthLink Sales or by logging into your existing EarthLink account at https://portal.earthlink.net, clicking on My Plan Details and selecting Online Backup from the list of available products under Other Available Services.

I've signed up for EarthLink Online Backup. How do I download the software?

Visit https://onlinebackup.earthlink.net, login with your Online Backup account credentials and then select your operating system from the options under Download.

How can I get started?

Sign in to your online console
Download and install the application for your device
Once the app is installed, sign in with your credentials
Select what files you wish to backup
Set your backup schedule, security settings, whether to enable Hybrid+ and bandwidth throttling
Once completed, your backup will start automatically.

Do I have to install software?

The EarthLink Online Backup allows you to schedule automatic backups of your system. It is not a requirement that you install the software on your computer or device. Online Backup is available from https://onlinebackup.earthlink.net, but you will need to manually add file you want to save online if you do not have the software installed. To manually save files, just visit the website, click on My Computers, click on Vault and drag and drop your files. You can right click in the Vault and create a New Folder if you want to sort your files into folders.

How many computers can I backup?

You can install EarthLink Online Backup on as many computers as you like. EarthLink Online Backup is only limited by the amount of total storage you are using.

Are shared files encrypted?

Yes, they are encrypted

Can I share files and folders with people whether they have EarthLink Online Backup account or not?

The person does not need to have EarthLink Online Backup account to open the shared file; therefore, you can send it to whoever you want. The shared files, photos, and folders are links you can share via email, chat, tweet or even post them on your Facebook wall. The link will open a webpage to view or download the contents.

Does sharing make my file public for anyone to access?

It depends where you post the shared link. If you post it on a website, then anyone who has access on the site can see the file. However, if you send it to a person and the person does not share the file with others, it is as private as an email. Before you share files with friends, you can setup the parameters of the shared file(s). Go to Add Sharing Settings to restrict the number of times your file can be downloaded or enable option to send yourself delivery notifications when sharing files.

What is the maximum file size that I can share?

You can share any file no matter how large as long as you have enough space in your account to store it.

What happens if I delete a file from my machine by mistake and want to restore it?

EarthLink Online Backup does not delete files from the backup, even if you have deleted them from your machine. If you have deleted file(s) from your machine, you will find your file(s) still available under your EarthLink Online Backup backup. To restore these files:

Method 1:

Refer to the My Computers tab.

Select the computer containing the files you want to view.

By default, the deleted files will appear and their names will be displayed in red, so select the files you want to restore and click on the download button. But if they didn’t appear, go to More menu and click on Show deleted.

You can type the name of the file you want to restore in the Search box, and it will appear directly in the results.

Method 2:

Click on the EarthLink Online Backup icon in the system tray and select Open Dashboard.

Click on Restore.

Select the computer that you want to restore data from, using the drop down menu next to Computer Name.

Check the box next to Show/Restore Deleted files in order to be able to view the deleted items. The deleted files\folders will appear in gray.

Select the files you wish to restore and click on Next.

Select the restore location (Original or alternative location), the replace existing file options and the time frame that older versions was backed up in, if you want to restore all the files from the initial seed backup (beginning of your backup) until a certain day, you can use the Restore Date Range option in which you can select the From date to be an old date (i.e. 1/1/2014) and the To date to be the desired or current date, then click on the Next button.

Method 3:

Click on the EarthLink Online Backup icon in the system tray and select Open Dashboard.

Click on Settings → Advanced Settings → Make sure the Enable Windows right-click options option is selected → Save.

On your computer, right-click the location you deleted the file(s) from → EarthLink Online Backup → View all deleted files.

What is Vault

Vault is a place where you can directly upload files/folders from anywhere to your EarthLink Online Backup account, with a simple drag-drop for those files/folders. You can also copy any of your backed up files/folders from your Instant Storage to the Vault for sharing purposes, as adding Instant Vault to your account provides the ability to share data between collaborators without altering the structure of your original backed up files.

To upload data to the Vault, you can apply one of the following methods:

Method 1:

Refer to the My Computers tab.

Select the Vault option from the left hand menu.

Drag-drop files/folders from anywhere into the root of this Vault, or create a new folder there, and drag-drop the data into it.

Method 2:

Refer to the My Computers tab.

Select the Instant Vault option from the left hand menu.

Click the Upload icon while you are inside the folder you want to add the data into it, and browse to select the data.

How can I get more space?

While logged in to your account, select “Get more space” tab

Do your filters support regular expressions?

Yes, EarthLink Online Backup filters support regular expressions, but you should enable the option for the regular expressions by doing the following:

Right-click on the EarthLink Online Backup icon in the system tray, and select the Open Dashboard option.

From EarthLink Online Backup dashboard, click on Data Selection.

Click on File Filters.

Click the Add button to add new filter, or click the Edit button to edit one of the existing filters.

Check the Regular Expression box beside the option of including or excluding file types or expressions, and type the wanted regular expression.

Save your changes.

Examples of Regular Expressions are available below.

Commonly used Regular Expressions

EarthLink Online Backup users can apply filters on their data selection in order to tell EarthLink Online Backup to include/exclude some data (files/folders) depending on a certain Regular Expression.

The following are the most common cases that our users are asking for:

Description	Regular Expression
Exclude any file/folder with word temp in its name, such as: C:\Users\UserName\Desktop\Data\Temporary folder C:\Users\UserName\Desktop\Data\Only temporary file.txt	temp
Exclude any file with the archive.pst as a part of its name in your data selections, such as: C:\Users\UserName\Desktop\Data\archive.pst C:\Users\UserName\Desktop\Data\Old Archive.pst	archive.pst
Exclude files with .txt and .tmp at the end of their names (extensions), such as: C:\Users\UserName\Desktop\Data\File.txt C:\Users\UserName\Desktop\Data\File.tmp	(txt$\|tmp$)
Exclude files end with such patterns: _100x100.jpg OR 150x150.jpg OR 200x200.jpg, such as: C:\Users\UserName\Desktop\Data\Image_100x100.jpg C:\Users\UserName\Desktop\Data\Pic_200x300.jpg	_\d{3}x\d{3}\.jpg$
Exclude any file/folder which ends with txt (regardless the extension of the file), such as: C:\Users\UserName\Desktop\Data\Test TXT C:\Users\UserName\Desktop\Data\File.txt C:\Users\UserName\Desktop\Data\Document txt.dox	(?i)^.(txt\..\|txt$\|txt\\.*)
Exclude any folder which have the Thumbnails as a name, such as: C:\Thumbnails\	(?i)^.\\Thumbnails\\.

How to select what EarthLink Online Backup backs up?

During the initial installation of EarthLink Online Backup agent, you will be asked to select what you wish to back up.

Select Data Selection from EarthLink Online Backup Dashboard.

Right-click the files or folders on your computer, and select Add to backup or Remove from backup.

Use the Vault from the Web Portal.

How to use file filters to include or exclude certain files in EarthLink Online Backup

Right-click on the EarthLink Online Backup icon in the system tray (taskbar), and select the Open Dashboard option.

From EarthLink Online Backup dashboard, click on Data Selection.

Click on File Filters.

In the File Filters window, click on the Add button.

Select one of the following options:

All Selections (All files, Folders, and Smart Selections): Apply created filter to all the data selected in the backup.

Specific Path: Apply the created filter to the files in this location only.

Select one of the following two options:

Include only the following extensions or expressions.

Exclude only the following extensions or expressions.

Type in the extensions or the regular expression

If you like to exclude files depending on their date or size, check the boxes next to:

Do not backup files larger than…

Do not backup files older than …

Save your settings.

How can I exclude files from EarthLink Online Backup?

You can exclude files from being backed up by EarthLink Online Backup in many ways:

Drag-drop the files into the No- EarthLink Online Backup Zone folder on your desktop.

Delete the files from EarthLink Online Backup.

Use the File Filters.

Using the option Remove from backup in the context menu. This will also delete these files from the backup.

Open EarthLink Online Backup client on your machine → Settings → Preferences → Refer to the Auto-exclude tab → Click on Add to add the files/folders you want to exclude.

How can I share files and folders?

Method 1:

Make sure EarthLink Online Backup context menu option is enabled.

Right-click any file/folder uploaded to your EarthLink Online Backup account → Click Share.

A web page will open, and you’ll have your file/folder will be selected. Please click the Share icon on the upper right corner.

A share window will appear and it contains three tabs:

Users: Type the name(s) of the user(s) you want to share the data with, and select the type of the access to give the user(s).

Link: Contains the link which you can send it via email, chat, or post it on your wall or website.

Email: Type the email(s) of the people(s) you want to share the data with.

You can also click on Add Share Settings in which you can:

Set a name for the share.

Set a password for the share.

Ask for a download notification.

Determine when the sharing link will expire.

From your computer, you are allowed to share maximum 10 files and folders per share.

This method cannot be used on Mac machines.

Method 2:

Refer to the My Computers tab.

From the left hand menu, select the computer which contains the needed files/folders, then browse for the file/folder you wish to share or search for it by typing its name in the Search box.

Check the box next to the file’s name and click on the Share icon.

The share window will appear and you can select the sharing method that you prefer and add share settings.

Method 3:

Go to EarthLink Online Backup app on your mobile device.

Browse for the file you want to share.

Long press on the file and then click on Share link to get the sharing link.

Sharing folders from EarthLink Online Backup app is not supported.

You can share the files with any one you want, whether they have EarthLink Online backup account or not.

What photo images can be previewed from my EarthLink Online Backup account

EarthLink Online Backup supports image previews (thumbnail and large) for the following photos/images in the My Computer tab inside your EarthLink Online Backup online account for easier access: .JPG and .JPEG photos.

The following raw image file types: .TIFF, .CR2, .RAW, .DNG, .NEF, .RAF, .ORF, .SRF, .SR2, .ARW, .K25, .KDC, .DCR, .MOS, .PNX, .CRW, .CR2, .TIF, .MRW, .PEF, .MEF, .RW2, .A7 and .A7R

How can I restore older versions of my files?

Method 1:

Refer to the My Computers tab.

From the drop-down menu of your Computers, select the computer that you want to restore from.

Select the files which you want to restore. If you proceed and click on Download you will download the latest version of the file, but if you want to restore older versions, then from the More menu select the option to Show versions.

or you can just click on the file that you want to show its versions and select Show versions. Please note that you can view the versions for one file each time.

Now, from the window that will appear, click on the version that you want to download.

Method 2:

Right-click on the file that you want to restore older version of it and select EarthLink Online Backup → Show versions.

Now, you will be directed to EarthLink Online Backup web portal and the window shown above will appear. Click on Download next to the file’s version that you want to restore.

Right-click EarthLink Online Backup agent in the system tray and select the Open Dashboard option.

Click on the Restore option.

From the window that will appear, select the name of the computer that you want to restore from.

Select the file that you want to restore an older version of it, and click on the Show Versions option next to it.

From the versions window, click on the version that you need to restore, then click the Save button.

Select the restore location, the restore options and the time frame that you want to restore from then click on the Next button.

EarthLink Online Backup will start with the restore process, and you will notice that a red cloud icon appears in the system tray.

If you can’t see EarthLink Online Backup option in the context menu when you right click on any file, please enable this option as explained in this FAQ

How can I restore backed up files?

From the website:

Go to My Computers tab

Select the computer that you want to restore from

Select the files you wish to restore

Click on the download icon

From your computer:

Open the desktop software and click Restore

Choose the machine that you want to restore its files from the drop down menu next to Computer Name.

Select the files you wish to restore, and click on Next.

Follow the restore wizard

What is Hybrid+?

Hybrid+ doubles your backup protection by creating a copy of every backed up file to a local server, external or network drive; ensuring faster recovery when needed.

The restore is intelligent enough to minimize recovery time by checking your local hybrid storage for the file before restoring it from the web; reducing time and bandwidth resources.

What are the benefits of using Hybrid+?

Maximize your protection by creating two copies of your backup.

Zero Restore time: Save time and resources by restoring hybrid copies from the local repository instead of the online storage.

Easy to use: No extra configuration, just enable Z EarthLink Online Backup Hybrid+ and set the storage size.

Flexible: You can disable/enable Hybrid+ at any time, not just at the beginning of the backup.

Limit Size: Limit the amount of space Hybrid+ takes of your drive. When EarthLink Online Backup reaches the size limit, it will automatically purge older files to make room for the more recent.

How can I access my files?

From the web portal:

Refer to the My Computers tab.

Select the computer containing the files you want to view.

From your mobile device:

Download EarthLink Online Backup mobile app.

Tap on the EarthLink Online Backup App.

From your computer:

Right click on the EarthLink Online Backup icon in the system tray, and select the Open Dashboard option.

Click on Restore.

From the drop down menu, select the computer containing the files you want to view.

How secure is your service?

We use modern encryption methods to both transfer and store your data.

Files are encrypted before leaving your machine using 256-AES. You can specify your own encryption password

Data is transferred over a 256-AES SSL encrypted layer.

The website and client software have been hardened against attacks from hackers.

Data is encrypted with 256-AES Server Side encryption.

Data is stored on Amazon AWS storage; all files are duplicated through multiple facilities across the globe ensuring 99.9999% availability and reliability.

Options in Windows context menu?

EarthLink Online Backup provides the following options in the Windows context menu:

Add to backup: This option will appear when right-clicking a file/folder which is not included in the backup.

Remove from backup: This option will appear when right-clicking a file/folder which is included in the backup.

EarthLink Online Backup: This option enables you to View deleted files and to Show version.

Share: Files should be backed up to the Instant Storage for this option to be activated.

You can enable/disable the context menu options from your computer:

Right-click on the EarthLink Online Backup icon in the system tray, and select the Open Dashboard option.

From EarthLink Online Backup dashboard, click on Settings.

From the left panel, select the Advanced Settings.

Check or uncheck the box beside Enable Windows Right-click options.

Save.

How to backup Mails on MAC Operating System?

Open EarthLink Online Backup client on your Mac device
From EarthLink Online Backup dashboard, click on Data Selection

Refer to the Smart Selection tab, and select the Mail category

Click on Save button

How to backup Outlook

Open EarthLink Online Backup client on your PC or Mac device

From EarthLink Online Backup dashboard, click on Data Selection

Refer to the Smart Selection tab, and select the Mail category

Click on Save button

How do I uninstall EarthLink Online Backup?

EarthLink Online Backup can be uninstalled from your Window's Add/Remove Programs menu. Simply click your Windows Start button, go to Control Panel and look for Programs and Features or your Add/Remove Programs menu. Select EarthLink Online Backup from the list of installed programs and then click the Remove/Change/Uninstall button at the top of the window. Follow the on screen instructions to remove the software.

Uninstalling EarthLink Online Backup will have no affect on the files you have backed up to the server.

If I decide to cancel EarthLink Online Backup, how long will my backup up files be available to me on the server?

Cancelling your EarthLink Online Backup will immediately remove your access to backed up files on the server.

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EarthLink Online Backup Information and FAQs

EarthLink Online Backup Information and FAQs

Summary

How do I sign up for EarthLink's Online Backup?

I've signed up for EarthLink Online Backup. How do I download the software?

What happens if I delete a file from my machine by mistake and want to restore it?

What is Vault

How can I get more space?

Do your filters support regular expressions?

Commonly used Regular Expressions

How to select what EarthLink Online Backup backs up?

How to use file filters to include or exclude certain files in EarthLink Online Backup

How can I exclude files from EarthLink Online Backup?

How can I share files and folders?

What photo images can be previewed from my EarthLink Online Backup account

How can I restore older versions of my files?

How can I restore backed up files?

What is Hybrid+?

What are the benefits of using Hybrid+?

How can I access my files?

How secure is your service?

Options in Windows context menu?

How to backup Mails on MAC Operating System?

How to backup Outlook

How do I uninstall EarthLink Online Backup?

If I decide to cancel EarthLink Online Backup, how long will my backup up files be available to me on the server?

Related Articles

EarthLink Perks FAQs

EarthLink Billing FAQs

Online Presence Builder

EarthLink Email FAQ Update

The EarthLink Web Hosting Control Center