Deleted file missing from backup

Support
1

Hi, I am new to Duplicati and I have been using Duplicati for a couple of days. I configured Duplicati using GUI on Windows and scheduled the backup running every half an hour 7 days a week. As I checked the backup log, it has been working well with no issue every half an hour.

However, I noted from the Restore that there are only 2 versions of file backup. Should Duplicati create 48 versions a day if it runs every half an hour?

I performed a test by creating copy of a document file in the backup location and allow the backup run the day before. After the backup ran successfully, I deleted the document file and let the backup run again. My goal is to recover the deleted document file from Restore. As I checked Retore, the deleted document files are not there. Please let me know what I did wrong in the configuration?

Below is the command lines of my configuration:
“C:\Program Files\Duplicati 2\Duplicati.CommandLine.exe” backup “file://D:\Duplicati Backup?auth-username=xxxxxxx” “C:\Users\xxxxxx\BackupTest\” --backup-name=“BackupTest” --dbpath=“C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Local\Duplicati\WPGOINHNKU.sqlite” --encryption-module=aes --compression-module=zip --dblock-size=50mb --retention-policy=“1W:1D,4W:1W,12M:1M” --disable-module=console-password-input --include="*"

Your help would be much appreciated.

2

Hello and welcome!

Depends on your retention settings.

--retention-policy=“1W:1D,4W:1W,12M:1M”

The first part of this policy says:

  1. for the first week keep only 1 backup per day
  2. beyond that for the first weeks keep only one backup per week
  3. beyond that for the first 12 months keep only one backup per month
  4. then beyond that delete all backups

If you would like Duplicati to keep all backups that first week (the ones made every half hour), then you could change your backup policy to:

1W:U,4W:1W,12M:1M

Which means to keep an “unlimited” number of backups (eg, all of them) that first week.

3

Thanks heap for your prompt response!

4

Only if each run has changes to backup. If you really want, you can set upload-unchanged-backups.

--upload-unchanged-backups = false
If no files have changed, Duplicati will not upload a backup set. If the backup data is used to verify that a backup was executed, this option will make Duplicati upload a backupset even if it is empty.

If you look at a log, you should see a summary of what changed in the source files. For one example:

image

Having nothing to backup, there is no Restore version. From job Complete log, there was no upload.

“BackendStatistics”: {
“RemoteCalls”: 5,
“BytesUploaded”: 0,

If you prefer to see all the dates, you can ask for that, and the cost will be more space and less speed.
Either way, the @drwtsn32 explanation of retention should be what you see for the backups you took.

EDIT:

This part wasn’t clear to me. It should be in the backup that ran successfully before its deletion, however sometimes files that come and go too quickly may exist only in a backup that the retention policy deletes, similarly to how a file that only existed between backups winds up never in any.

If you recall what you did when (or test again), you can see if that file was in a backup that was deleted.

5

Thank you ts678. Changing the backup retention policy fix my issues. All good.

6

Thanks to drwtsn32 for that path. I was just trying to get into some other seemingly confusing areas.

Good to hear. Thanks for letting us know.