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Blue Host corrupts full cPanel backups after 1GB on Site Backup Pro

Blue Host Logo* Caution * Always verify your full cPanel backups from Blue Host when the downloaded file is more than 500MB in size. Well, actually, you should always verify your backups, no matter what.

This has been a major problem with Blue Host for at least a full year now, as I write this on 2/9/2016. I have had this problem occur with at least a dozen different customers over the past year when they migrate away from Blue Host.

The problem is that while they (Blue Host) offer unlimited hosting plans, this unlimited aspect does not apply to their backups. So, if you exceed 1GB in total usage, ANY full cPanel backup that you run will consequently be a corrupt download. If you try and download the full cPanel backup, you may notice that each time, your download is a different size varying between 500MB and 999MB. Every single one of these downloads, regardless of size will be corrupt.

The saddest part is that there is never any error message or warning. Blue Host will happily let you download an incomplete and corrupt file. I recommend that you always verify your Blue Host cPanel backups and never assume that you have downloaded a good backup file.

* Workaround * I have managed to workaround this problem by having the customers Blue Host username and password, which is also the cPanel username and password. To their credit, Blue Host will speak with you and provide support without you having to bother your customer if you’re working on their behalf. By contacting customer support, you can request that they do one of two things. 1) You can request that they perform a manual full cPanel backup on your behalf, and that they place that full tarball or zip file into the home directory of the customers website. Please note that they will need to request this from a senior technician as the first line of support cannot perform this task. 2) Alternately, you can request that they increase your backup area to a sufficient amount above 1GB so that you can download an already existing backup from within the Site Backup Pro area. Again, this must be performed by a senior technician, and not the first line of support.

Today was the first time I’ve ever heard the support person tell me it was a “one time courtesy” that the’ll perform this task for me. In the past, they’ve always performed this manual backup without any push back at all.

It really does strike me as odd that they would only provide this service once, when clearly there is a problem with their full cPanel backup interface. If it’s not going to provide you with a stable backup file, then they ought to remove the option from the Site Backup Pro area entirely.

To be clear, I’m talking about the free version of the Site Backup Pro. It is quite possible this is not a problem if you’re using the paid version of this interface. I have no experience with the paid version of the interface to know how that version behaves. It is conceivable that the 1GB backup area limitation is removed when you upgrade to the paid version of backups.

Hoping this information is useful for others.

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