Should I turn off FileVault if I use online backup service?

I spoke with Carbonite support on this today. The problem with Carbonite and FV is that Carbonite sees every write to a file from FV as a new file, so is trying to upload masses of files each day ... the system them becomes clogged and if the backup is taking more than 50% of system resources Carbonite stops backing up.

I looked at BackBlaze with says it supports FV .. .but then they told me only if my screen lock is turned off, seemingly then again defeating how most people operate their computers.

You may not expect my answers. Backup is actually not the issue. It is RESTORE after a disaster, such as a drive stops working completely.

To do a complete Restore over the Internet could easily take THREE DAYS or longer. In addition, a minor change in that company's policy or the company going out of business or attacked by hackers could leave your Backups unavailable to you. None of those are acceptable to me.

If you want so save some subset of all your files, (for example your pictures) using an online backup service, that seems fine -- as long as that is not the ONLY Backup you have.

My suggested alternative:

For under US$100, you can have a large, slow external drive right on your desk. Time Machine (built into MacOS) can be making incremental backups in the background at low priority, while you continue to do your regular work. Or you can use a stand-alone backup program like CarbonCopyCloner, SuperDuper, or ChronoSync and do it manually or on a schedule of your choosing.

You can leave your drive encrypted and have Zero issues with encryption while making either an encrypted or an unencrypted backup to a an external drive. In addition, local backups of MacOS format drives does not tie up your Internet connection because these online Backup companies are too stupid (read: do not care about Macs or you) to use the tools inside MacOS to stop reading every file to make one incremental Backup.

If that is what Carbonite is doing, they are FAR, FAR dumber than they appeared.

The Mac maintains a list of modified folders, know as the "File System Event Store", which Time Machine consults when making its backups. They could use it if they cared to.

There may be a problem with your Photos Library (where it sees the entire Library as changed rather than individual photos) but there are common work-arounds that could be applied to make that a non-problem as well. (if they cared, which clearly they do not.)

I posted on your other thread about BackBlaze and the locked screen foolishness -- they simply do not understand the elegance and grace of FileVault, and they don't understand screen locking either.

If it works, it works. But I've seen other reports of Carbonite not working with FileVault: FileVault is Preventing me to backup with Carbonite

Thank you for the reply. I do have an encrypted external drive dedicated to the Mac's Time Machine -- couldn't live without it. I was wondering more about an online/cloud service as additional backup in the unthinkable case of, say, a house fire that destroys your computers and your external drives. Sounds like there's no good online/cloud alternatives out there that would work with FileVault?

This concerns me as well since I'm using both FileVault and Carbonite. Do you use/recommend an alternative online backup service that plays well with FileVault? Thank you for your insights.