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How Long Does it Take to Back Up to the Cloud

  • This article is for Windows only

The length of time it takes to back up to the cloud depends entirely on a number of factors. The two most important are:

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Your Backup Size

Follow these steps to determine your backup size:

  1. Within the Dashboard, select the backup set whose backup size you are looking to establish.
  2. If you have performed a local backup to disk, the backup size will be listed under the Active Backup Cycles section.
  3. The backup size will be listed for every backup cycle.
Your Upload Speed (Bandwidth)

The length of time it takes to back up your data to the cloud is also based on your upload speed. It is always a good idea to determine your upload speed. It is common for the actual speeds to differ greatly from the speed advertised by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Speeds can vary based on a number of factors, including time of day.

To test your bandwidth, you can use a third-party speed test application or a website.

Bandwidth vs Backup Size

This chart estimates how long it will take to upload different amounts of data with common office connection types.

Cable/DSL bandwidth varies greatly by area and by provider, so always check your actual speeds to see where you fall on this chart.

Connection TypeUpload SpeedUpload 1 GBUpload 5 GBUpload 10 GBUpload 25 GBUpload 100 GBUpload 500 GB
Cable/DSL(slow)1 Mbps2.4 hours12 hours1 day2.5 days10 days50 days
T11.5 Mbps1.6 hours8 hours16 hours1.7 days6.6 days33 days
Cable/DSL(fast)5 Mbps30 minutes2.4 hours4.8 hours12 hours2 days10 days
Fiber Optic10 Mbps15 minutes1.2 hours2.4 hours6 hours1 day5 days
T345 Mbps3.2 minutes16 minutes32 minutes1.3 hours5.3 hours1.1 days
OC3156 Mbps< 1 minute4.5 minutes9 minutes23 minutes1.5 hours7.5 hours

If you have an unstable or slow internet connection, we recommend not using the Backup to Cloud operation. A Backup to Cloud operation creates a dependency between the backup and upload operations. Therefore, any performance issues in the upload operation will quickly become bottlenecks for the backup operation too. To avoid this problem, perform a Backup to Disk first, followed by an Upload to Cloud once the backup is complete. You can also use the Backup to Disk and Cloud option, which will begin the upload immediately after the backup to the disk completes.
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