I don’t know what happened but until 2 months ago I successfully created backups without this database encryption error. They were tests, but I didn’t have that error, and I was on Windows 10.
Then I switched to Windows 11 and I wiped the disk C, so there was no trace of previous Duplicati settings.
Yet, now I installed it again fresh but this time won’t let me proceed because of this encryption error.
I saw threads on how to fix it but I don’t know exactly how to do all those command line things without doubting my every single move and ask assistance all the time (eg: it says to use “arguments”, but I don’t know where to write them).
So is there a way to just have it working like before? I tried reinstalling it, but no luck.
Is it due to a recent version, or is it due to Windows 11?
Assuming you are talking about the server database:
I don’t know which version of Duplicati you are using but mine (2.2.0.3) only displays a warning if the database is unencrypted but looks like it is still working - can you provide more information about when and which error message you see?
If you want to get rid of the warning, you can either leave the database unencrypted and disable the warning or enable the encryption.
For disabling, the commandline argument --disable-db-encryption does what you want. Depending on how you launch Duplicati, you may set it in different ways. If you launch Duplicati.GUI.TrayIcon.exe using a shortcut, you can right-click and open the properties of the shortcut and modify the “Target”-property in the shortcut tab. Here you just need to add following text at the end of the field --disable-db-encryption. If you have no other arguments configured, it might look like this afterwards: “C:\Program Files\Duplicati 2\Duplicati.GUI.TrayIcon.exe” --disable-db-encryption. Then press the “Apply” button to save the changes to the shortcut. There will be no more warnings when launching Duplicati using the shortcut.
For enabling encryption, it works similarly (as described here), but this time the arguments in the “Target”-property will tell Duplicati where to find the encryption key: “C:\Program Files\Duplicati 2\Duplicati.GUI.TrayIcon.exe” --secret-provider=wincred:// --settings-encryption-key=$duplicati-server. The --secret-provider argument defines in which interface (called “secret provider”) the encryption password is available (in this case, Windows Credentials Manager) and --settings-encryption-key defines which entry in the secret provider provides the password. Of course you need to enter the credentials in the chosen secret provider accordingly before using the shortcut. This is an example of the described setup in Windows Credentials Manager:
The text written in the “Target”-Property can also be used to launch Duplicati using the commandline (cmd.exe). Therefore, you just need to launch cmd.exe (probably with elevated rights), paste the text from above and press ENTER.
Depending on your Duplicati version there might be constraints in how your encryption key can be named. If in doubt, just use a key name only consisting of alphabetic characters like $duplicatiserver.
There is also the option to use environment variables to set the encryption key as described here.
