diff --git a/src/backups.js b/src/backups.js
index 54fe2f5be..4ee32f681 100644
--- a/src/backups.js
+++ b/src/backups.js
@@ -856,7 +856,7 @@ function runBackupUpload(uploadConfig, progressCallback, callback) {
 
     let result = ''; // the script communicates error result as a string
 
-    shell.sudo(`backup-${backupId}`, [ BACKUP_UPLOAD_CMD, backupId, format, dataLayout.toString() ], { preserveEnv: true, ipc: true, nice: 15 }, function (error) {
+    shell.sudo(`backup-${backupId}`, [ BACKUP_UPLOAD_CMD, backupId, format, dataLayout.toString() ], { preserveEnv: true, ipc: true }, function (error) {
         if (error && (error.code === null /* signal */ || (error.code !== 0 && error.code !== 50))) { // backuptask crashed
             return callback(new BoxError(BoxError.INTERNAL_ERROR, 'Backuptask crashed'));
         } else if (error && error.code === 50) { // exited with error
diff --git a/src/shell.js b/src/shell.js
index 81342e465..20d1588e8 100644
--- a/src/shell.js
+++ b/src/shell.js
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ var assert = require('assert'),
     util = require('util');
 
 const SUDO = '/usr/bin/sudo';
-const NICE = '/usr/bin/nice';
 
 function exec(tag, cmd, callback) {
     assert.strictEqual(typeof tag, 'string');
@@ -42,11 +41,6 @@ function spawn(tag, file, args, options, callback) {
 
     if (options.ipc) options.stdio = ['pipe', 'pipe', 'pipe', 'ipc'];
 
-    if (options.nice) {
-        args = ['-n', options.nice, file].concat(args);
-        file = NICE;
-    }
-
     debug(tag + ' spawn: %s %s', file, args.join(' '));
     const cp = child_process.spawn(file, args, options);
 
diff --git a/src/tasks.js b/src/tasks.js
index fc499f6e6..f28224025 100644
--- a/src/tasks.js
+++ b/src/tasks.js
@@ -40,7 +40,6 @@ exports = module.exports = {
 let assert = require('assert'),
     async = require('async'),
     BoxError = require('./boxerror.js'),
-    child_process = require('child_process'),
     debug = require('debug')('box:tasks'),
     path = require('path'),
     paths = require('./paths.js'),