How to enable network share support in MozyHome and MozyPro Desktop Edition

Update: 28th Feb 2010 - Due to the reported problems people have been having with the existing approach below, I have created the following program for MozyHome & MozyPro. It runs in the system tray and checks various Mozy registry keys (not just the one below), and if they have been changed by Mozy, it resets them back to the values that allow Mozy to backup and restore from the network.

Download the 'Mozy Network Share Enabler' here
Download the 'Mozy Network Share Enabler' here (64 Bit only) version.

This is a free program, and is not supported by runPCrun or Mozy, and it's use is at your own risk. It currently works with MozyHome 1.16.4.0 and MozyPro 1.14.1.6. 

If you'd like to thank me, there are a few options.

  • Feedback, both positive and negative to help me develop it further. Use the comments on this page (no sign up required, just a captcha)
  • Use this Mozy referral code to sign up for a free 2.5Gb Mozy account & my father will get an extra 0.5Gb on his free account.
  • Buy me a cup of coffee (or a beer) using the donate button and I'll inform you about any future updates using the email address you donate from.
Many thanks to everyone that performs any one of these actions - Dan

mozy network backup and restore

runPCrun recommend MozyPro for our business clients (usually in conjunction with an in-house backup solution, you can never have too many backups and they are faster to recover larger data volumes). However MozyHome* is a good product in itself for home users and I use it myself for my personal data.

When I initially tested MozyHome, there was a "add network share (BETA)"  option which could be enabled. Since I use a Networked Attached Storage (NAS) device for my personal data at home (so my wife can easily access our photos etc.) this was perfect and so I subscribed.  Unfortunately updates to MozyHome since have removed this option. When I contacted MozyHome support their (obvious) answer was that "we don't support that".

Since I was loathe to stop my subscription (it was only a month or so before that I'd finally uploaded 40Gb of my personal photos) I had a root around and found that while MozyHome had removed the option from the GUI, there was still an entry in the registry for this option.

All you have to do is open regedit (type 'regedit' at the Start > Run in XP or Windows button > Start search in Vista) and edit the following key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\mozy\optionsnetworksharesupportValue data REG_DWORD = 1

 or with MozyPro Desktop Edition (the Server edition comes with network support)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\mozypro\optionsnetworksharesupportValue data REG_DWORD = 1

 

Now when you right click on the top level of the file system

 

When you click on this, the Add Network Share dialog box pops up.

 

And the share pops up now in your File System view for you to select what needs to be backed up.

 

Once backed up, it will also pop up in the Restore view.

Please note that I've found with the last few updates when MozyHome updates itself, it resets this value to 0, but the backup still functions properly. However it doesn't allow you to change the backup settings until the value is set back to 1 and the UNC share re-added. The restore view always works.

Hopefully MozyHome will not change this policy or remove it completely in future updates.

*This has some referral or partnership with this supplier via the link given. Check out our stance on reviews and recommendations.
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Comments

Thanks for the great tip. I've just bought MozyHome and was quite disappointed not to be able to backup network disk!

I followed these directions, I can enable the network share backup and then add a network share but Mozy keeps changing the registry back to "0" before any backup is completed... ;-(

It doesn't matter as the values that are set for the backup do stick. Have a look in the "Restore" tab and you should see the files that have been backed up.

nope - Mozy seems to ignore any network share and just backup local. At the end of the backup the registry key is changed back to 0 Any tips?

what version of MozyHome are you running?

1.8.8.1

Bummer - I'm having the same problem. It resets the value to zero and doesn't backup - I tried a few other "options" in the registry but it doesn't seem to work. Version: 1.8.10

Well I'm unable to help anyone at the moment as for some reason I can't login to my MozyHome and haven't been able to for a few weeks. I'm waiting for "higher level technicians" to help and I've been told "Once I receive a response from this department I will let you know."

Doesn't work :( I guess mozy will loose to elephant or other bloatware. It's silly for mozy to disable such important feature, as I keep many of my private files on home server.

Yes. I've stopped MozyHome now because I too have a Network Attached Storage device and I was simply having too much trouble.

One way to avoid having to reset to registry key is making the permissions "read only" for the system account.

Nice idea! I feel I should have thought of that. :)

I'm getting fed up of resetting this value to backup my NAS storage. Nice idea - can you explain how I do that?

Giving this a try with 1.10.4.2... I guess we'll see.

The reason they do this is they figure people with network storage are 'big files' guys and they want to push you onto the pro plan. Makes sense I guess - a whole company would put all its stuff on a network and the IT guy could back up it all using Mozy on one PC. If you read their terms and conditions, if you want network, buy pro, simple. I guess their 'unlimited' plan starts to cost them too much if people upload many terabytes of data. My solution is to use 'synctoy' to copy the relevant folders from the network drive, on a schedule, to a spare hard drive in my desktop PC. But it's a two stage solution (network -> local, local -> mozy) so it may take some hours/days for my 'new' files to get backed up onto Mozy. Will Smith London

Any updates on this? I would like to purchase Mozy (not the Pro version), and I have a NAS device...thanks!

The suggestion about setting the SYSTEM account to read-only works! I'm running with MozyHome ver. 1.16.3.4 and it works.

I'm on 1.16.4.0 and like the network thing is already 1... Can someone give me an older version or something?

I'd really love to use this but I just installed version 1.16.4.0-9388 and the "networksharesupport" d-word is already in the registry and is set to 1.  When I try to right-click on the "file system" tab I don't get anything.  I tried changing the value to 0, but nothing happens either.  Any ideas?  Does anyone know where to download older versions? Thanks!

The article is now old and the techniques have changed. Install the Mozy Network Share Enabler program to enable share support in Mozy now.

I am running Mozy Home 1.16.4.0. I used the "Mozy Network Share Enabler" and tried to add a network share, but it the ball just keeps spinning, and doesn't add the share. :-( Any ideas?

Perhaps check that if the share you are connecting to needs authentication? Sometimes (especially with Vista) you need a username and password to connect to a share (and you may not know this, as your authentication settings have been stored by Windows) If the dialog pops up allowing you to add a share, then the network share enabler has done its job, any further issues are due to Mozy or Windows.

Running Mozy Share Enabler under Windows 7 I get an error stating Mozy Home or Mozy Home Pro was not detected. Ran in Administrator mode.

Thanks for your feedback, I will test further in Windows 7 and respond here (shortly, I'm on holiday at the moment)

I really like the discussion about this here. I have suggested it to some of my Mozy-using friends. The one thing I was wondering is if anybody has been able to figure out how to do something similar on an Apple computer? I have been trying to figure it out, but so far, no good.

I am running Mozy Share Enabler under Windows 7 x64 I get an error stating Mozy Home or Mozy Home Pro was not detected. When I change the registry entry, I am able to enable and back up the share, but it does not show up in the restore.

I've just got back from my holiday, and I will investigate Windows 7 i386 and x64 compatibility in the next few days. Please check back shortly.

Created a x64 version. Tested on Windows 7 x64. If Vista x64 still doesn't work, please let me know!

Appreciate your efforts Dan. Ran the Share Enabler and got "Internal error: Cannot access 64-bit registry keys on this version of Windows" for both the regular Share Enabler and 64-bit version. I'm running WinXP SP3. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks, a minor mistake on my part while compiling the setup wizard did that. Fixed.

Hi, Thanks for putting these instructions together and creating the little app, but it is not working for me. Running Vista 32bit and 1.16.4.0. It just keeps reverting back. Any ideas? Many thanks.