Backup tasks have disappeared

Hi,

I’m new to Duplicati and have spent some time, yesterday, to read documentation, create 2 backup tasks (to 2 different online storage) and ran them…

But, this morning, as I started my laptop and open Duplicati, these tasks have disappeared from Duplicati dashboard!?

I’m using the latest 2.0.3.3_beta_2018-04-02 release, I’m the only user of my laptop, but yesterday I was on my home network, and today on my office network…

Any help would be appreciated :slight_smile:

Thank you

If you are running Windows and just received a major update, Windows doesn’t know how to properly migrate Duplicati during the update. It retains Duplicati’s configuration as part of the upgrade backup. See this post for information on restoring your backup jobs.

I had already read this post before, but it doesn’t match to my case… Last Windows update was on May, 31th and I have installed Duplicati yesterday for the first time. Thank you @handyguy for your help…

Any other idea?

Hi @lebrac, welcome to the forum!

is it possible you’re running both the service (likely at localhost:8200/) and an unconnected tray-icon (likely at localhost:8300/)?

If so, my guess is you’ll find your tasks on the 8200 port.

Hello @JonMikelV,

I don’t know If both Duplicati servers were running simultaneously when I used Duplicati for the first time, but I don’t think so. because I paid attention to add --no-hosted-server to Duplicati shortcut as mentioned by the documentation. Furthermore, the only TCP/IP port which works is 8200 ; 8300 sends me to a connection error page.

I had a look to AppData\Local folder and found a sub-folder named “Duplicati” with 3 .sqlite files and a sub-folder “control_dir_v2”

On the other hand, there is a sub-folder named “Duplicati” in the c:\ProgramData folder, which only contains an “updates” sub-folder.

What I don’t understand is that I was able to run both tasks before they disappear and that there are backup files on both online storage!?

Thank you for your help

The updates folder is where Duplicati keeps updates that are installed via the GUI. I believe it’s usually found in one of these places:

  • C:\ProgramData\Duplicati\updates\ (when running as a service)
  • C:\Users\[your ID]\AppData\Local\Duplicati\updates\ (when running solely as tray icon)

The C:\Users\[your ID]\AppData\Local\Duplicati is where you should find the following files:

  • dbconfig.json (general job info)
  • Duplicati-server.sqlite (global settings / logs)
  • XXXXXXXXXX.sqlite (individual job settings / logs & backup info, one per job)

Since only 8200 works, you’ve confirmed you’re not running both service & tray icon - so that’s good, but let’s confirm how yours is being run.

If you go to the main menu “About” -> “System info” page you should see a “System properties” section right at the top which should look something like one of these. The important line is “StartedBy” where it should either say “Tray icon” or “Server”.

APIVersion : 1
PasswordPlaceholder : **********
ServerVersion : 2.0.3.6
ServerVersionName : - 2.0.3.6_canary_2018-04-23
ServerVersionType : Canary
StartedBy : Tray icon
APIVersion : 1
PasswordPlaceholder : **********
ServerVersion : 2.0.3.6
ServerVersionName : - 2.0.3.6_canary_2018-04-23
ServerVersionType : Canary
StartedBy : Server

Hello @JonMikelV,

Thank you for these explanations…

Actually, my C:\Users[my ID]\AppData\Local\Duplicati folder contains these folders and files :

  • contol_dir_v2 sub-folder
  • Duplicati-server.sqlite
  • XXXXXXXXX.sqlite
  • YYYYYYYY.sqlite

but no dbconfig.json file.

The “About > System info” page shows no “StartedBy” key in the “System properties” section, only the following:

APIVersion : 1
PasswordPlaceholder : **********
ServerVersion : 2.0.3.3
ServerVersionName : - 2.0.3.3_beta_2018-04-02
ServerVersionType : Beta
BaseVersionName : 2.0.3.3_beta_2018-04-02
DefaultUpdateChannel : Beta
DefaultUsageReportLevel : Information
ServerTime : 2018-06-07T09:10:54.5570808+02:00
OSType : Windows
DirectorySeparator : \
PathSeparator : ;
CaseSensitiveFilesystem : false
MonoVersion :
MachineName : XXXX
NewLine :
CLRVersion : 4.0.30319.42000
CLROSInfo : {"Platform":"Win32NT","ServicePack":"","Version":"6.2.9200.0","VersionString":"Microsoft Windows NT 6.2.9200.0"}
ServerModules : []
UsingAlternateUpdateURLs : false
LogLevels : ["Profiling","Information","Warning","Error"]
SuppressDonationMessages : false
SpecialFolders : [{"ID":"%APPDATA%","Path":"C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\config\\systemprofile\\AppData\\Roaming"},{"ID":"%HOME%","Path":"C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\config\\systemprofile"}]
BrowserLocale : {"Code":"fr","EnglishName":"French","DisplayName":"français"}
SupportedLocales : [{"Code":"cs","EnglishName":"Czech","DisplayName":"čeština"},{"Code":"da","EnglishName":"Danish","DisplayName":"dansk"},{"Code":"de","EnglishName":"German","DisplayName":"Deutsch"},{"Code":"en","EnglishName":"English","DisplayName":"English"},{"Code":"es","EnglishName":"Spanish","DisplayName":"español"},{"Code":"fi","EnglishName":"Finnish","DisplayName":"suomi"},{"Code":"fr","EnglishName":"French","DisplayName":"français"},{"Code":"it","EnglishName":"Italian","DisplayName":"italiano"},{"Code":"lt","EnglishName":"Lithuanian","DisplayName":"lietuvių"},{"Code":"lv","EnglishName":"Latvian","DisplayName":"latviešu"},{"Code":"nl-NL","EnglishName":"Dutch (Netherlands)","DisplayName":"Nederlands (Nederland)"},{"Code":"pl","EnglishName":"Polish","DisplayName":"polski"},{"Code":"pt","EnglishName":"Portuguese","DisplayName":"português"},{"Code":"pt-BR","EnglishName":"Portuguese (Brazil)","DisplayName":"português (Brasil)"},{"Code":"ru","EnglishName":"Russian","DisplayName":"русский"},{"Code":"sk-SK","EnglishName":"Slovak (Slovakia)","DisplayName":"slovenčina (Slovensko)"},{"Code":"sr-RS","EnglishName":"Unknown Locale (sr-RS)","DisplayName":"Paramètres régionaux inconnus (sr-RS)"},{"Code":"zh-CN","EnglishName":"Chinese (Simplified, China)","DisplayName":"中文(中国)"},{"Code":"zh-HK","EnglishName":"Chinese (Traditional, Hong Kong SAR)","DisplayName":"中文(香港特別行政區)"},{"Code":"zh-TW","EnglishName":"Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan)","DisplayName":"中文(台灣)"}]
BrowserLocaleSupported : true
backendgroups : {"std":{"ftp":null,"ssh":null,"webdav":null,"openstack":"OpenStack Object Storage / Swift","s3":"Compatible S3","aftp":"FTP (Alternatif)"},"local":{"file":null},"prop":{"s3":null,"azure":null,"googledrive":null,"onedrive":null,"cloudfiles":null,"gcs":null,"openstack":null,"hubic":null,"amzcd":null,"b2":null,"mega":null,"box":null,"od4b":null,"mssp":null,"dropbox":null,"sia":null,"jottacloud":null,"rclone":null}}
GroupTypes : ["Stockage local","Protocoles standards","Propriétaire","Autres"]
Modules back-end :aftp amzcd azure b2 box cloudfiles dropbox file ftp googledrive gcs hubic jottacloud mega onedrive openstack rclone s3 od4b mssp sia ssh tahoe webdav
Modules de compression : zip 7z
Modules de Chiffrement : aes gpg

The “Server Status Properties” section shows this:

lastEventId : 1230
lastDataUpdateId : 2
lastNotificationUpdateId : 0
estimatedPauseEnd : 0001-01-01T00:00:00
activeTask :
programState : Running
lastErrorMessage :
connectionState : connected
xsfrerror : false
connectionAttemptTimer : 0
failedConnectionAttempts : 0
lastPgEvent :
updaterState : Waiting
updatedVersion :
updateReady : false
updateDownloadProgress : 0
proposedSchedule : []
schedulerQueueIds : []
pauseTimeRemain : 0

Darn. I guess that was added after 2.0.3.3. :roll_eyes:

Let’s try this. If you run Task Manager (ctrl-shift-escape) and select the Services tab, do you see a Duplicati service running? It would look something like this:
image

Hello @JonMikelV,

Yes, Duplicati service is running and starts automatically whith computer

image

and Task Manager show this:

image

Thank you for your help :slight_smile:

The Duplicati.Server process is monitoring the Duplicati SERVICE to make sure it stays running.

If you right click on the “Processeur” column and select “Command line”, are there any differences between your red & blue Duplicati processes?

I’m going to hit up @Pectojin here to see if he has any thoughts on how you’ve got two Duplicati processes. When I look at my Background processes list I only see:

  • Duplicati.server (when the service is running)
  • Duplicati.GUI.TrayIcon (when I have the tray icon)

My intuitive guess would be that one is started as a service and one as a startup item. With the startup one being run as user and the service running as administrator.

Hi @JonMikelV and @Pectojin,

In reply to @JonMikelV

image

I followed the intuition of @Pectojin and stopped the Duplicati service, then removed --no-hosted-server from the tray icon shortcut and as soon as I restarted Duplicati (with the shortcut), I found my two disappeared tasks. Yet I was sure to have activated the service and added --no-hosted-server to the shortcut before creating the tasks?! :confused:

The question now is how to recover / transfer these tasks in a configuration with only the Duplicati service enabled, and clean / delete the configuration with the server started by the Duplicati trayicon? Will the data already saved online be kept?

Thank you both for your help

Yes, the uploaded data is perfectly safe. It’s just a matter of getting your Duplicati service configured to resume backing up there.

If your service launches Duplicati as an administrator now, but the old startup task ran as your user, then you should be able to just copy the Duplicati configuration from your user folder to the administrator user folder.

Something like:

C:\Users\[my ID]\AppData\Local\Duplicati
->
C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Duplicati

Bear with me if that’s slightly off, I don’t have a Windows machine to verify on right now :slight_smile: @JonMikelV can probably verify.

Alternatively you can stop the service and start the old startup item. Then when you connect to the Web UI it should show you the config you previously set up. You can export each job to a config file and then, once you go back to using the service, you can import the job configs and recreate the database.

Unfortunately, it’s not quite as simple as one might like (at least on Windows).

By default Windows generally runs services as “Local System account” (also seen as “Local System” or “LocalService”) in which case Duplicati settings should be found in C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Duplicati.

However, if you’ve decided to run the service under a different profile (perhaps as your own login so that you can get easier access to mapped drives) then it would likely be as @Pectojin suggested and found in something like C:\Users\[my ID]\AppData\Local\Duplicati\.

Assuming you didn’t change the defaults for the Duplicati service, you’ll probably need to move (or copy if you just want to test it out first):

  • From C:\Users\[my ID]\AppData\Local\Duplicati\
  • To C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Duplicati

Note that you will likely find SOME files (possibly including dbconfig.json and Duplicati-server.sqlite) in the destination folder. Most likely these are “empty” and can be overwritten, but if you’re unsure go ahead and just rename them.

The files directly in the Duplicati folder are what’s most important to be moved followed by the whole updates folder. You don’t need to do anything with the control_dir_v2 folder as it’s basically recreated with each run.

Hi both,

Actually, I have followed @Pectojin second option, that is export / import jobs, and it has worked well.

But, by default, as said by @JonMikelV, Duplicati files have been created in C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Duplicati, that is in the system folder and I’m not comfortable with that…

Can you confirm that I can move Duplicati folder with all files in an other location, for eg. C:\Users\[my ID]\AppData\Local\Duplicati\ even using Duplicati service under Local System profile?

@JonMikelV you were talking about a dbconfig.json file in the Duplicati folder, but I do not see any file with that name. Is it saved in another folder?

Finally, is there a reason for the trayicon to appear twice in the task manager?

image

Thank you very much for your effective assistance

This wasn’t the OP’s cause but matches the OP’s issue (Backup disappeared) for others who come across this:

My root cause was that I had a Windows 10 workstation update that created a new \Windows folder. The configuration was left in the \Windows.old directory structure (C:\Windows.old\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Duplicati).

  • I shut down the Duplicati service
  • Renamed the SQLite file that was in the new Windows folder structure
  • Copied over the files from the .old folder structure.
  • Restarted the service
  • The job was right back where it belonged.

Yes, I took the opportunity to export the configuration at that point and keep it separate from the system. :slight_smile:

1 Like