What is the process for restoring from backup on a different device?

Support
#1

I’m a new user to Duplicacy. I’ve configured it to run weekly off my NAS, which uses Unraid.

I think I’ve got the actual backups themselves figured out. I’ve gotten everything uploaded to Backblaze B2, and things appear to be working fine.

My question is, let’s say in the future I have a house fire and lose everything. What is the process for getting back into my Duplicacy and restoring things from Backblaze? I have all my encryptions keys and logins and whatnot for Duplicacy saved, so that’s less my concern.

Moreso, I’m confused about how to get Duplicacy up and running on a new system (as remember, in this hypothetical my Unraid box burned up in the fire) and download everything, when the license is tied to the old Unraid server’s hostname. Does that make sense? Would it matter if I wanted to just start restoring files to a Windows PC? It would then have a different hostname from what the license is tied to, right? So would I have to purchase a second license to get this restore going?

I’d just love to have a clearer picture in mind of precisely what I would do in this scenario. This is all with the GUI version of Duplicacy, FYI. Thank you in advance for any guidance/information.

1 Like
#2

This shall help Backup Drive Crashed - how to restore encrpyted Duplicacy backup from offsite storge or this How to restore from scratch? or this How to restore files on a different machine? or this How do you restore backup on a new computer in web ui? …

#3

Thank you! Reading through those, it sounds like accessing the backup is pretty trivial.

I didn’t see mention in those posts, however, of how to manage the license concern. If, say, I was trying to restore on a Windows PC (backups were all made on Unraid NAS), how would I get Duplicacy to understand I have an active license? Thanks!

#4

I haven’t read any of the linked posts, but you don’t need a licence to do a restore. Only backup jobs require a licence. To transfer a licence, it should be a simple matter of changing your hostname in the customer section on duplicacy.com, then putting the key into the software (under backup tab).

#5

Great! That is exactly the kind of clarification I was looking for. So thank you.

Sounds like I now have a firm understanding of the restore procedure, if I (knock on wood) ever need to use it. Appreciate you both.

#6

Please do try try restore at least a few files to a completely new machine: just to confirm that you have all the bits and pieces available (such as storage account credentials, passwords, etc) outside of the current machine (password manager is a good place to store those). That way you will have a confirmation that the procedure is working and if it does not — making adjustments now will be much less stressful then when everything is on fire…

#7

Good idea. Just tested a few files (videos, a Word doc, a .zip), and all seemed to work fine on my Windows desktop. Happy to have everything working as I intended. Thanks again.