Download files from the Code42 CrashPlan app
Who is this article for?
Instructor, no.
Incydr Professional, Enterprise, Horizon, and Gov F2, no.
Incydr Basic, Advanced, and Gov F1, no.
CrashPlan Cloud, no.
Retired product plans, yes.
CrashPlan for Small Business, no.
Overview
We recommend using the Code42 app to download files whenever you have access to one of your devices. The Code42 console is convenient for downloading files when you are not near one of your devices. However, the Code42 app offers you the most flexibility. This article describes how to download files from the Code42 app.
Considerations
If you need to download all of your files because you recently replaced a device or the hard drive containing your operating system, refer to our Downloading All Files On A New Device Or Drive guide instead.
Download files from the Code42 app
Download a single file
- Sign in to the Code42 app.
- From the list of your devices, select Get Files for the device containing the original files.
- (Optional) If you want to download an earlier version of your files, click As of Today to select a previous date from a calendar.
- Navigate to the file you wish to download.
Learn more about finding files (including hidden or deleted files) below. - Mouse over the file, and click the download icon
.
Your download is added to the downloads manager with the default get files options. The downloads manager displays the status of your download.
Download multiple files
- Sign in to the Code42 app.
- From the list of your devices, select Get Files for the device containing the original files.
- (Optional) If you want to download an earlier version of your files, click As of Today to select a previous date from a calendar.
- Select the checkboxes for the folders and files you want to download.
Learn more about finding files (including hidden or deleted files) below. - Select Get Files.
The Get Files Options window appears. - Update the get files options to specify the download location, naming guidelines, and permissions for your downloaded files.
- Click Go.
Your download is added to the downloads manager. The downloads manager displays the status of your download.
Find files to download
Search
To download a specific file, first search for it by providing all or part of the file name or extension. Click the search icon and enter your search term.
Search Rule | Example | Results |
Search for any part of a file name | win |
winter.txt, winters.txt, winner.txt |
Searches are not case-sensitive | Winter.txt |
winter.txt |
Spaces are treated the same as any other character |
|
Winter Campaign-Ad 1.mp4 (0 results found) |
Question mark ( ? ) is a placeholder for one character Code42 app version 5.3.x and later only |
|
winters.txt
|
Asterisk ( * ) is a placeholder for any number of characters, including no character Code42 app version 5.3.x and later only |
win*.txt |
winter.txt, winters.txt, winner.txt |
You can click a folder within your search results to resume browsing. To return to your search results, click the search icon. Your search term is retained until you clear the term, close the search bar, or exit the Get Files view. Files selected for download remain selected when toggling between search and browse.
Deleted files
Previous file version
To browse all of the file versions backed up for a particular file, mouse over the file in the Get Files view and click the versions icon . All versions of the file backed up prior to the selected As Of date display.
To download a previous version, you can either:
- Mouse over the version and click the download icon
to add the file to the downloads manager.
- Select the radio button for the version. Then, either browse back to the folder containing the file to select additional files, or click Get Files to view options for downloading the file.
Hidden files
Some temporary and system files are hidden in the Get Files view because you do not typically need to interact with these files. Hidden files and locations do not appear in the file selection list by default. To view hidden files:
- Choose the options menu
.
- Select Show hidden files to view hidden files.
Get files options
CrashPlan suggests default settings for downloading your files. You can change these settings before downloading your files.
If you modify the default settings, CrashPlan will use the modified settings until you either exit the Get Files view or close the Code42 app. However, when you use the download icon

Save selected files to
By default, CrashPlan downloads files to your device's Downloads folder. To change the download location, select Downloads.
Choose one of the following download locations:
- Desktop
- Original location
In version 5.1 and later, original location is disabled if you are downloading files to a different operating system than the original device. - Other (opens a file browser for selecting a folder on your device)
Original Location No Longer Exists
If you download files to their original location, but that location no longer exists, CrashPlan recreates the folders used by the original location.
For example, suppose you back up the folder C:\Users\Jim\Documents. Later, you replace your device and use a different username. Your new Documents folder is located at C:\Users\James\Documents. If you download your Documents folder to the original location, CrashPlan creates a folder labeled Jim under the C:\Users directory and downloads the Documents folder there. In this scenario, you probably don't want to download files to their original location.
If file already exists
If a file is downloaded to a location that already contains a file with the same name, CrashPlan defaults to renaming the original file with the prefix original1. Choose how CrashPlan handles matching file names by clicking Rename:
- Overwrite: If a duplicate name is detected, CrashPlan replaces the existing file with the downloaded file.
- Rename: If a duplicate name is detected, CrashPlan renames the existing file with the prefix original1.
If you aren't sure whether you want to rename or replace, choose the rename option. You can always delete duplicate files later.
Permissions
In most cases, we recommend downloading files with current permissions. That way, even if the file was originally backed up on a different device, you can still access the file on your current device. However, if necessary, you can download files with the original permissions.
To download files with the original permissions, click Current and select Original.
Download files to a different operating system
Download an external hard drive
If you are downloading files that were originally stored on an external hard drive, and that hard drive is not currently connected to the source device, CrashPlan treats the files as missing. To download:
- If you are replacing the original drive (due to failure or another loss), see our guide to Downloading Files After Replacing A Drive.
- If you are not replacing the drive, but it is not currently available (or you don't want to connect it because you are only downloading a few files), you can select Show deleted files to download the files.