Backup and sync are not the same thing, and the difference shows up on your worst day

The question almost always arrives in the same shape: "I already use Drive — do I need backup?"

The answer depends on a distinction almost nobody makes until they need it. A sync service and a backup service solve different problems, and neither one covers for the other.

What sync actually does

Syncing means keeping two copies identical. You change the file on your computer, the service changes it in the cloud. You delete it on your computer, the service deletes it in the cloud.

That faithfulness is the product. It is why the folder looks the same on your phone and on your work computer, and it is exactly what you want day to day.

The problem is that faithfulness cannot tell intent apart. It replicates what you did, not what you meant to do.

The three cases where that turns into a loss

Deleting by mistake. You remove a folder thinking it was a different one. Within seconds the deletion reaches the cloud. Most services keep a trash bin for 30 days, which helps — as long as you notice within those 30 days. A folder of photos from 2019 can go years without being opened.

Overwriting a little at a time. A file gets corrupted, or someone saves over the good version. Sync, obedient as ever, propagates the bad one. By the time you notice, the good version has already been replaced everywhere.

Ransomware. This is the worst case, and the fastest growing one. The malware encrypts your files. The synced folder is a folder like any other: encrypted files look like modified files, and sync does its job — it uploads the encrypted version and replaces the good one. Your cloud copy was destroyed by the very service meant to protect it, diligently.

What backup does differently

Backup is not chasing sameness. It keeps past states somewhere your computer does not control.

Three properties, and all three matter:

1. It is separate. The backup is not a folder on your computer. Nothing running on your machine, malware included, sees the destination as a file system it can modify.
2. It has history. There is yesterday's version, last week's, the one from three months ago. You do not recover "the file": you recover the file as of a date.
3. It does not get deleted along with it. Deleting on your computer does not delete in the backup. That is the opposite of sync, and it is precisely where it saves you.

This is not a choice between the two

There is no contest here. Sync and backup coexist fine, because they do different things:

• Sync to work: the file follows you across devices.
• Backup for the bad day: the file comes back as it was before the problem.

Anyone using only sync is well served on convenience and unprotected on recovery. Anyone using only backup has protection and a worse workflow. Most people need both, and are already paying for one.

How to check what you have today

Three questions, and they answer themselves in minutes:

If I delete a file right now, how long until it disappears from the cloud? If the answer is "immediately, but it stays in the trash for 30 days", you have sync with a short safety net.

Can I recover a file as it was six months ago? If you cannot, you do not have history — you have a mirror.

Does my backup run on its own? A backup that depends on someone remembering is a backup that does not exist. The test is to look up the date of the last backup that ran. If you had to go looking for where to check, that is already the answer.

What this has to do with what we build

NubliVault Desktop is backup, not sync. You pick the folders once, it runs by itself every six hours sending only what changed, and it writes to a cold archive vault — separate from your machine, somewhere nothing running on it can reach.

Two things we would rather say before you find out:

Delivery takes up to 12 hours. Cold storage is what makes the price possible, and its price is retrieval time. You browse the contents of the backup instantly, pick what you want, and the files arrive later. For the day your computer died, 12 hours is acceptable. For a file you open every week, it is not — and for that case sync is still the right tool.

We can open your files. They are encrypted on your computer before they go up, but we keep a protected copy of the key, because that key is what lets us rescue you when the computer is lost along with everything on it. We wrote a whole article about that choice and what it costs. If you need a backup that not even the provider can open, NubliVault Desktop is not the right product today.