All posts by Caitlin Bryson

How to Back Up Your Twitch Stream

Post Syndicated from Caitlin Bryson original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/how-to-back-up-your-twitch-stream/

Every month, millions of viewers tune in to their favorite channels live streaming League of Legends, Call of Duty, Dota, and more on Twitch. With over two million streamers creating live content each month, video games and streaming go hand in hand.

Whether you’re streaming for yourself, your friends, an audience, or you’re trying to build a brand, you’re creating a lot of great content when you stream. The problem is that most services will only protect your content for a few weeks before deleting it.

Whether you want to edit or rewatch your content for fun, to build a reel for a sponsor, or to distribute content to your adoring fans, backups of the raw and edited content are essential to make sure your hard work doesn’t disappear forever. Outside of videos, you should also consider backing up other Twitch content like stream graphics including overlays, alerts, emotes, and chat badges; your stream setup; and media files that you use on stream.

Read our guide below to learn:

  • Two methods for downloading your Twitch stream.
  • How to create a backup of your Twitch stream setup.

How to Download Your Twitch Stream

Once you finish a stream, Twitch automatically saves that broadcast as a video on demand. For most accounts, videos are saved for 14 days, but if you are a Twitch Partner or have Twitch linked to your Amazon Prime account, you have access to your videos for up to 60 days. You can also create clips up to a minute long of your streams within Twitch or upload longer videos as highlights, which are stored indefinitely.

Download Method #1

With this method, there’s almost no work required besides hitting the record button in your streaming software. Keep in mind that recording while streaming can put a strain on your output performance, so while it’s the simplest download method, it might not work best depending on your setup.

Continue reading to learn how to simultaneously stream and record a copy of your videos, or skip to method #2 to learn how to download without affecting performance during streaming.

  1. If you, like many streamers, use software like OBS or Streamlabs OBS, you have the option of simultaneously streaming your output and recording a copy of the video locally.

  2. Before you start recording, check to make sure that the folder for your local recordings is included in your computer backup system.
  3. Then, go ahead with streaming. When you’re done, the video will save to your local folder.

Download Method #2

This second method for downloading and saving your videos requires a bit more work, but the benefit is that you can choose which videos you’d like to keep without affecting your streaming performance.

  1. Once you’ve finished streaming, navigate to your Creator Dashboard.
  2. On the left side of the screen, click “Content,” then “Video Producer.” Your clips and highlights live here and can be downloaded from this panel.

  3. Find the video you’d like to download, then click the three vertical dots and choose “Download.” The menu will change to “Preparing” and may take several minutes.

  4. Once the download is ready, a save screen will appear where you can choose where you’d like to save your video on your computer.

How to Download Your Stream Setup

If you’re using streaming software like OBS, most services allow you to export your Scene Profile and back it up, which will allow you to re-import without rebuilding all of your Scenes if you ever need to restore your Profile or switch computers. In OBS, go to the Profile menu, choose “Export” to download your data, and save it in a folder on your computer.

If you also use a caption program for your streams like Webcaptioner, you can follow similar steps to export and back up your caption settings as well.

How to Back Up Your Twitch Streams and Setups

Having a backup of your original videos as well as the edited clips and highlights is fundamental because data loss can happen at any time, and losing all your work is a huge setback. In case any data loss wreaks havoc on your setup or updates change your settings, you’ll always have a backup of all of your content that you can restore to your system. We recommend keeping a local copy on your computer and an off-site backup—you can learn more about this kind of backup strategy here.

Downloading your live streams will mean saving a collection of large files that will put a strain on your system to store. By creating a cloud storage archive of data you don’t need to access regularly, you can free up space on your local system. It’s quick and easy to organize your content using buckets where you simply drag and drop the files or folders you’d like to upload and save to the cloud. Take a look at how to set up and test a cloud storage archive here.

The difference between computer backup and cloud storage is that data is stored in the cloud for both options, but in backup, the data in the cloud is a copy of the data on your computer. For cloud storage, it’s just saved data without mirroring or versioning.

If you prefer to back up your files, computer backup services automatically scan your computer for new files, so all you have to do is make sure your local recordings folder is included in your backup.

Nowadays with our data scattered across multiple platforms, it’s all the more important to make sure you have a copy saved in case your media becomes inaccessible for any reason. Take a look at our other posts about downloading and backing up your data:

Let us know in the comments about other helpful backup guides you’d like to see!

The post How to Back Up Your Twitch Stream appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

Wishful Thinking: Extended Version History in Real Life

Post Syndicated from Caitlin Bryson original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/wishful-thinking-extended-version-history-in-real-life/

When it comes to your data, sometimes you just need to roll back time. Fortunately, with Extended Version History now available, Backblaze can save old and deleted files for up to 30 days, one year, or even forever—depending on the option you choose—so that you can access old versions of your files and restore files that you’ve previously deleted over a longer stretch of time.

Restoring a file just prior to that big “oops” moment or salvaging a deleted file you didn’t think you’d need again is a great feeling, but it’s a little hard to describe in the abstract. The more we thought about it, the more we realized that there are plenty of things other than data that we wish had retain/restore capabilities. Here are the top 10 things in real life that we wish had Extended Version History! We hope they help convey why Extended Version History could be valuable for you.

Where Extended Version History Would Be Great in Real Life

Haircuts

We’ll admit it—during shelter-in-place—more than a few of us have given ourselves poorly-advised, unskilled haircuts at home. It usually starts out well, your new hair actually looks pretty good, and you start feeling confident!

“This isn’t so hard,” you think, “so maybe I’ll just go a LITTLE shorter.” And then disaster strikes.

You’ve gone too short and your hair is ruined. What we wouldn’t give for the ability to restore back to the moment just before that last snip!

To take it a step further, with Forever Extended Version History, you could even go back to that one perfect haircut from a few years ago that your stylist has somehow never been able to recreate. Great hair for life!

Reading

Re-reading can be wonderful, but nothing compares to the thrill of reading an incredible book for the first time. Short of losing your memory, there’s no way to get that feeling back—but with Forever Version History, you could shift back to before your first read. Meet the characters all over again, follow every plot twist, and experience every page-turning moment again like new!

Eating

That second pint of ice cream seemed like such a good idea at the time. But now that you’ve finished off that mint-chocolatey goodness, your stomach is feeling… less than pleased. What if you could restore yourself to a single-pint state, while retaining the memories of that delicious second helping? We’d be on board, and just think of the endless “tasting” opportunities!

Avocados

Avocados are delicious, especially when you catch them at the perfect level of ripeness. Unfortunately, that level usually seems to be about a three-hour window between “rock hard” and “completely mushy.” If only Extended Avocado History existed—then you could avoid the sinking feeling of cutting into one and realizing you were too early or too late. Someone contact the Avocado Board!

Baking

We heard a few of you have taken up baking during the shelter-in-place orders. And by “heard,” we mean we’ve looked for yeast at the grocery store for months and it’s never in stock. We hope you enjoy your sourdough starter!

But whether you’re making cookies, pies, or sourdough, there’s nothing worse than smelling that burning odor and realizing you’ve just wasted time and a good portion of your ingredients on an inedible product.

Wouldn’t it be great to rewind back to just before smoke started billowing from your oven, saving you from having to throw out your charred baked goods and start over? We think so. (With our standard 30 Day Version History, you can at least recover old recipes you’ve saved over.)

Coffee

Ah, coffee. Delicious, caffeinated, and a crucial part of most morning routines. Until you spill it down the front of your brand-new shirt or across your laptop keyboard, and suddenly everything is terrible. Your shirt is ruined, your laptop is making funny noises, and now you have no coffee.

Being able to restore back to a pre-spill moment would save your clothing, your technology—and your morning. Backblaze has a lot of experience with helping people after spills…

Plants

Some people have green thumbs. Some seem to be death incarnate for our little vegetal compatriots. And there truly is no worse feeling than doing your absolute best and watching your newest plant friend slowly die, again.

Did you water too much? Did you not water enough? Did you leave it in direct sunlight or shade? By the time you figure it out, it’s usually too late. But if One Year Plant Version History was real, you could find the issue and revert back to when your plant was healthy—and this time, do it right. And just think about your never-ending cherry tomato yields!

Hiking

A seven-mile hike sounded like such a good idea at the time. But now you’re four miles down the trail, and you’re ready to be done. Too bad you’ve still got three more miles, and turning around would just make the trip back even longer!

Being able to restore back to an earlier point on the trail—maybe a mile or two—would let you cut your hike short and head back to the start, giving you the fun hiking experience without the pain of those last few miles. Sign us up.

Dates

The first date has been going so well. Conversation has been easy, the chemistry is there, and you feel like a second date is imminent. Then you make one comment, and you know as soon as it starts exiting your mouth that it’s coming out wrong.

You backpedal, you explain, you apologize—but the damage is done, and that first impression is ruined. The chance to rethink or rephrase would be everything in this moment, and Dating Version History would let you skip back a moment and save your potential future relationship. Also great for business meetings (ask that question that you’re a bit nervous to ask, get the answer, then go back in time and nod knowingly to yourself)!

Naps

It’s coming up on mid-afternoon, and you’re starting to feel a lull. Perfect time for a power nap, so you’ll awake refreshed and ready to take on the rest of the day. Except instead, you slept for four hours, and now you’re groggy and your sleep schedule is a mess. Sleeping through alarms happens to the best of us, but it can easily turn an energizing nap into a sleepy evening. The dream fix? Using Nap Version History to get back to that perfect 90-minute nap time, wake up, and finish off your day strong!

Conclusion

Okay, sure, we get it—this is all a tad unrealistic. But there’s one area of life where your keenest regrets CAN be corrected with a quick visit to our restore page: your backup! So check out our version history page and explore your options for gaining greater peace of mind! And if you’re an existing customer, you can upgrade easily right here.

The post Wishful Thinking: Extended Version History in Real Life appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.