I have been running backups successfully for several years. Last October, I set up a new PC, and I’ve been running backups since then.
However, it seems that on or around June 26, the backups stopped, and when I attempt to log into the web interface, I get the following message, even though I am positive that I am using the correct password:
"Remember to enter a password, if you can’t remember the password open the duplicati client on the machine in question and make sure you open it through the tray icon then go into settings to change the password."
Note that I am not running the client interface, and I am running the Duplicati Windows Service (on Windows 11 Pro)
I stopped the windows service and ran the Duplicati.Server.exe process, and it displayed a URL for the web interface. I launched that, and it required me to set a password. When the web site came up, there were no configurations listed. So I used Task Manager to end the task, and I restarted the Service, but got the same message listed above.
Any suggestions for how to get my Duplicati working again?
That happens because when you run Duplicati.Server.exe you are not running in the SYSTEM context, you are running as a regular user (Administrator or local user). In this case a new folder will be created in %APPDATALOCAL%\Duplicati and this has an empty database configured with the password you entered.
To get the password reset on the Windows Service is a bit tricky because you cannot impersonate SYSTEM (you can, but such tools are often blocked by security software as they have dark uses as well).
To reset the password, use a two-step process:
# Stop the Duplicati Service, then
Duplicati.WindowsService.exe UNINSTALL
Duplicati.WindowsService.exe INSTALL --webservice-password=temppass
# Start the Duplicati Service
# Stop the Duplicati Service, then
Duplicati.WindowsService.exe UNINSTALL
Duplicati.WindowsService.exe INSTALL
# Start the Duplicati Service
For Duplicati 2.3+ the UNINSTALL/INSTALL commands will restart the service, but IIRC 2.2 does not.
The first two commands re-registers the service to start with a fixed password: temppass. At this point, every time the service starts, it will reset the password to temppass.
The next two commands re-registers the service so it starts without resetting the password.
You can now log in to Duplicati running as a service and set the password on the Settings page.
One modification to your advice was that I needed to run the first “INSTALL” line in your instructions with all of the switches that I used in my original installation, in addition to the --webservice-password switch. (Such as the --server-datafolder" switch.)