Backing on External Drive w/ Time Machine Hidden Directories

Support
#1

I am trying to back up my external drive to the cloud with Duplicacy.

I also use Time Machine on macOS 10.12.5 to backup up this same external drive to a local NAS.

It appears that Time Machine creates system directories on the external drive that are hidden. When Duplicacy tries to backup these directories to the cloud, it gives an error message saying that it unable to backup these directories. The error message popped up a few times already during the current backup, and I am not sure if the backup stops when this error message appears. It becomes a hassle if I have to click ok in order for the backup to continue.

I set my “Finder” so that I am able to see these hidden system files. In Duplicacy “Repository” menu, I tried to exclude these directories, but it doesn’t seem to show up in the selection window. It appears that Duplicacy backup process can see these hidden directories, but the “exclude directories” menu can not.

How do I backup my external hard drive and have Duplicacy skip the hidden directories such as ".mobilebackups "?

Lastly is there a way to backup multiple “Repository”? For example, on the same Macbook, I would like to backup my external hard drive along with certain folders on the local hard drive.

#2

“exclude directories” uses the directory select dialog provided by the OS, so I don’t known why it doesn’t show hidden files if your Finder is set to do so.

I would suggest just editing the .duplicacy/filters file under the repository directory – this is the file to write the pattern to after you select a directory. The syntax for the include/exclude patterns can be found at: https://forum.duplicacy.com/t/filters-include-exclude-patterns/1089

Currently the GUI version can only support one repository. You can create symlinks that point to other folders under the repository directory and Duplicacy will pull all of them in when backing up. The next major update of the GUI version will support multiple repositories.

#3

Thanks for the help. I have applied your solutions and the backup is currently in process.

I now get the following error message occasionally during the backup process - “Failed to upload the chunk xyz: googleapi: Error 401: Invalid Credentials, authError”

Do you know what this error message means?

#4

Which backend are you using, Google Cloud Storage or Google Drive? How often did you get the error?

#5

Google Drive - Based on the time stamp in Duplicacy Error window that pops up, it appears to happen about 40 minutes after the hour, every hour.

I am backing up about 600 gb, which will take some time. Is this some type of time out authentication error?

Looking at the bottom of the main Duplicacy window, it appears that the files are still being uploaded even with the Duplicacy Error window opened. When I hit ok on the Duplicacy Error window, it appears to stop the upload process and starts scanning the chunks again to re-start the upload process. Is this normal?

#6

I think this may be caused by the authentication token expiring after 40 minutes. I’ll take a look at it.

#7

I tested a 6 hour backup job and didn’t have this error.

Can you post the logs here? And did you get your Google Drive token via https://duplicacy.com/gcd_start?

#8

Update: I was able to reproduce the error with a 24-hour backup job. Now testing if a retry on 401 is the right fix.

#9

I did get my token from the link you show above.

I took a screen shot of the Duplicacy Error window with 3 instances of the error messages. I tried to look for the error in the log, but wasn’t not able to scroll back in time far enough. It looks like I can not attach images in this forum.

Also not sure how much this matters for debugging purposes, but I am using 0 for the Rate Limit and 20 for the Threads.

#10

Can you try this 2.0.5 build: https://acrosync.com/duplicacy/duplicacy_installer_win64_2.0.5.exe

#11

Is there a MacOS version? I don’t have any Windows PC.

#12

Version 2.0.5 is now available from the home page. Here is the direct link to the MacOS version: https://acrosync.com/duplicacy/duplicacy_gui_osx_2.0.5.dmg

#13

I am using 2.0.5 for MacOS now. I decided to start new backup from the beginning instead of resuming what I was trying to upload before.

I am now getting multiple instances of the error shown below. Any suggestions on how to fix this error? The error seems to cause the backup to stop for over an hour before it resumes uploading again.

23:32:06.442    Packed Lightroom/Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata/2/2443/24435566-C695-48DD-B617-AB1D9663CF1C-fd2d50b5fb551118a074199ea15f7f0f.lrprev (854416)
23:32:07.021    Failed to read 0 bytes: read /Volumes/External Drive/Lightroom/Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata/2/2445/24455AA4-2AA3-4DE2-A8E2-975EC98B2E09-fd2d50b5fb551118a074199ea15f7f0f.lrprev: input/output error
23:32:07.185    Incomplete snapshot saved to /Volumes/External Drive/.duplicacy/incomplete
#14

This could be that the file was locked by another process during that time, or it may indicate a disk error. Can you look at /var/log/system.log to see if there is more information?

#15