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Few WANTED features for SB

An area of the forum to post ideas for new products or discuss things that are not related to 2BrightSparks products
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Rootman
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Few WANTED features for SB

Post by Rootman »

Been using SB for years, it's really helpful for backing stuff up.

A dew things that I would like to see:

1) Profile backups - a check box to DELETE the current profile backup files before doing the new backup. Old jobs and groups that were deleted a while back still remain in the backup folder because SB does not CLEAN the folder first.

2) Have the option that a GROUP (a folder) in the SB interface not be runable, that is it is JUST a group and can't be run itself - so you would be forced to pick out a job underneath it instead of the entire group. I have a few jobs that I don't want to run together but still reflect similar functions that I want grouped together and have on more than one occasion accidentally run the entire group.
Conrad Chung
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Re: Few WANTED features for SB

Post by Conrad Chung »

Rootman wrote:1) Profile backups - a check box to DELETE the current profile backup files before doing the new backup. Old jobs and groups that were deleted a while back still remain in the backup folder because SB does not CLEAN the folder first.
This is by design, to safeguard against situations such as when you accidentally and unknowingly delete a profile but didn't realize it until a day or later. SyncBackSE/Pro, by default, would have backed up your profiles daily after scheduled backups run, for example.

If we provided an option to clean up old profiles and users enabled it, they might be upset once they realize a day later to find their backup of the missing profile has also been dumped….

There is also the issue that if the program auto-deletes a corrupt profile on loading (which it does for corrupt profiles), it might not be wise to also wipe out the backup copy of it on closing, therefore leaving you with no backup of the profile at all.
Rootman wrote:2) Have the option that a GROUP (a folder) in the SB interface not be runable, that is it is JUST a group and can't be run itself - so you would be forced to pick out a job underneath it instead of the entire group. I have a few jobs that I don't want to run together but still reflect similar functions that I want grouped together and have on more than one occasion accidentally run the entire group.
I'll pass this on to my Development Department for their consideration.
Rootman
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Re: Few WANTED features for SB

Post by Rootman »

Personally, I have the backups covered by doing backup of the profiles themselves to backup media as well as the %WEEKDAY% variable in the backup destination making several backups per week. Myself, I would want the CLEANUP checkbox more than any "protection" that NOT cleaning the backup directory affords.

I've updated my OS, PC and reimaged too many times since I started using SB years ago, and had to reinstall SB and been caught by this a few times. I restore the profiles - and restore all the other profiles that I had deleted weeks, months even a year or better before. I have quite a nested "mess" of profiles that I change and update regularly.

I would say offer the CLEANUP function and make a stern popup that using it will delete all the backup folder profile backups - much the same type of warning that the file and folder deletion profile options do in SB itself when chosen when defining a sync profile.
Conrad Chung
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Re: Few WANTED features for SB

Post by Conrad Chung »

You can do a search on the term 'housekeeping' on this forum which will list steps on how to create a 'dummy' profile which deletes unwanted files.

Of course, you'll probably need to add filters so that you can Exclude file-names of profiles which you do not want to be deleted in such a profile.

But then again, since there are multiple folders care of the %WEEKDAY% variable, how would you tell the profile which backups to flush? You also mentioned that you may have 5 (or 7) of them. Should we wipe all of them? It gets very complex very quickly.
Rootman
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Re: Few WANTED features for SB

Post by Rootman »

I don't really see what is so complicated. S check bo with CLEAN BACKUP FOLDER OF CONTENTS BEFORE SAVING? is all that is needed. Simply wipe the directory that WILL be written to of all files, then save the current profiles. It's all up to date and current that way.

I have been using Syncback for years, had a lot of computers in that time and seem to always get caught when reinstalling by restored profiles that I had deleted months ago. I have a fairly complex nested set of profiles and having odd things pop back up that I thought were gone is just a pain.

I typically try and manually delete files every once in a while and then open and close SB to save them all fresh. Seems a simple checkbox and supporting logic could make that happen automatically. Default it to UNchecked, and have a POP up warning that "ALL backups will be deleted before saving" and only dweebs like me that know what it's for would use it.

It was just an idea, one that I know I would appreciate. SB is one of the FIRST things I set back up when redoing my PC. I rely on it to backup a lot of stuff AND restore it when need be.
Conrad Chung
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Re: Few WANTED features for SB

Post by Conrad Chung »

Rootman wrote:I don't really see what is so complicated. S check bo with CLEAN BACKUP FOLDER OF CONTENTS BEFORE SAVING? is all that is needed. Simply wipe the directory that WILL be written to of all files, then save the current profiles. It's all up to date and current that way.
As already explained previously, What would happen if during the the period when the entire backup folder contents are wiped, and while SyncBack is trying to save backup the current state of profiles but identified that one or more of the profiles are somehow corrupted, and then proceeds to delete your live profiles? You would be left with no backup nor any actual profile...
Rootman
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Re: Few WANTED features for SB

Post by Rootman »

[quote="Conrad Chung"]
As already explained previously, What would happen if during the the period when the entire backup folder contents are wiped, and while SyncBack is trying to save backup the current state of profiles but identified that one or more of the profiles are somehow corrupted, and then proceeds to delete your live profiles? You would be left with no backup nor any actual profile...[/quote]

Well, I personally would be left with the OTHER daily backups in the other folders defined by the %WEEKDAY% parameter and all the backups of these backups that I made by copying my profiles with Syncback and backing up the rest of the data I back up religiously - and that is why I use Syncback - to get multiple copies of may data - which INCLUDES my backed up Syncback profile. I have learned this the hard way :(

I have personally LOST Syncback profiles due to corruption and by LOST I say LOST permanently, that's because I fooled around and set a single profile backup directory instead of using the %WEEKDAY% parameter and then FAILED to back up my backup profiles elsewhere. I then had to recreate my profiles from scratch. This is when I started to get serious about backing up my profiles. And that's when I started wishing the Syncback could clean the profile directory so that the contents actually reflected the set of profiles I run currently - instead of the profiles I run AND all the other profiles I created and deleted since the last install / reinstall - and sometimes that's a LOT, I have come to depend on Syncback for a lot of stuff.

I am simply saying that I would appreciate a good CLEAN backup of the CURRENT state of profiles, rather than all the profiles AND everything else I have created and deleted since I installed. Like I said I've had multiple laptops over the years. Even more OSs and reimaged OSs that I have had to reinstall Syncback to. It would really be nice to just import what's there without having to pick through all the cruft it's left in the backfolder as well.
Conrad Chung
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Re: Few WANTED features for SB

Post by Conrad Chung »

Hi, I've since escalated your request to my Technical Director and his response is that your suggestion is a valid one and we would look into this further. However, do note that implementation may take a while as we are still swamped with bug fixes and other outstanding tasks. But we hope to come up with something in due time.
mickyj
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Re: Few WANTED features for SB

Post by mickyj »

Hi, for the next release we've added an option where you can specify the number of days of profile backups to keep. The default is 30 days, but you can change this to whatever you like (including keeping forever). On exit, SyncBack will delete all the profile files older than that number of days.
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