Backups no longer possible - claims passphrase has changed

Support
1

Hello

Multiple backup jobs were running fine for weeks and now suddenly fail with the message “Passphrase cannot be changed for an existing backup”.

Of course the passphrase was never changed. It still works for backup verification and restoring files; I also get the warning message if I try to change the passphrase in the GUI (not supported for existing backups).
This applies to all backup jobs which use different passphrase and different backup schedules.

error message in the log:
2025-01-14 20:06:16 +01 - [Error-Duplicati.Library.Main.Controller-FailedOperation]: Die Operation Backup ist mit folgenden Fehler fehlgeschlagen: Die Passphrase für eine existierende Sicherung kann nicht geändert werden UserInformationException: Die Passphrase für eine existierende Sicherung kann nicht geändert werden

I am running “Version”: “2.1.0.2 (2.1.0.2_beta_2024-11-29)” under Windows11
I am not aware of any changes on my computer.
I searched for similar problems here in the forum and the internet but could not find anything similar.

2

Hi @thomas83 welcome to the forum.

That error occurs if you set the option --allow-passphrase-change=true and run a backup, because passphrase change is not supported.

I can see how the message implies that the passphrase was changed somehow, but that is not the case. It simply guards against attempting to change the passphrase.

If you figure out where you have set --allow-passphrase-change and remove it, it should fix the issue.

Since multiple backups have the issue, I would guess this is in the global settings.

3

Thanks, that did the trick. I cannot remember that I changed that option and the message is a bit misleading but… whatever. It works now.

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