Duplicati forgets update

1

Hi,

Some time ago, I updated to 2.6.0.3. However, Duplicati always goes back to version 2.0.5.1, after each reboot. This leads to these “database version too new” errors.

When I exit the GUI Tray Icon and run the correct version from C:\ProgramData\Duplicati\updates, the version is back to 2.6.0.3, but only until the next reboot. In the same folder, there is a file named “current” and which contains a single line “2.6.0.3”.

The following topic seems to be related:

I tried restarting the service and killing all Duplicati processes, but without success.

Hope that you can help me with this.

Best regards

Thomas

2

Do you mean the Windows service from Duplicati.WindowsService.exe which you once ran by hand?

If you are saying you start Duplicati at reboots rather than at user login, that implies a Windows service.

However this conflicts some. While some people run Duplicati.GUI.TrayIcon.exe with –no-hosted-server:

--no-hosted-server
Set this option to not spawn a local service, use if the TrayIcon should connect to a running service.

Above doesn’t give you a Duplicati server to use. It’s only a user interface to Windows service Duplicati.

You don’t generally want multiple Duplicati actually up, because it gets confusing which one you’re using.
Initial Duplicati generally is on port 8200 (look for this in browser URL), but later use port 8300 and higher.

Another way to look into this is to ask what user Duplicati is run as. Windows service is usually SYSTEM.

Technically you mean the 2.0.6.3 folder under updates? Can you right-click it and see if Properties says:

Contains: 701 Files, 90 Folders

and check for any obvious new or updated files in at least the top-level folder, e.g. sort the view it by date?

Modified folders could explain why a direct launch works, but such “altered” files aren’t eligible to be run by the initial C:\Program Files\Duplicati 2 launcher when it looks for installed updates. Can you also go there and see what changelog.txt says that version is? It might be 2.0.5.1, or maybe 2.0.5.1 is an earlier update.

What I’d like ultimately is the Program Files “base version” and any updates folders you can find, including
C:\Users\<Duplicati user account>\AppData\Local\Duplicati\updates ones, if any are installed.

If you have a Windows service, can you also run Services App to see what Path to executable it has?

3

Hi,

Thank you so much for your reaction. I am trying not to miss any of your questions:

Duplicati is registered as a Windows service, running with SYSTEM privileges. What I did is stop the Windows service in the Services tab of the task manager and then kill all Duplicati processes. After that, I navigated to C:\ProgramData\Duplicati\updates\2.0.6.3 and launched GUI.TrayIcon.exe from there. That started all processes to be able to access the web gui and to run my backup job without getting the Database version error.

This is an interesting one. If I look into the task manager, I actually see two intances of GUI.TrayIcon.exe running. Both located in C:\Program Files\Duplicati 2.
TaskMgrDuplicati

This is just after the reboot. I did not mess with processes and services, today.

703 Files, 91 Folders.
All files are from 2021-06-27. That is probably when I upgraded.

Changelog.txt from C:\Program Files\Duplicati 2 says:

2020-01-18 - 2.0.5.1_beta_2020-01-18

This beta release is a collection of additions and improvements from many contributors.
Since it is released more than a year after the last beta, there is a large number of changes.

Not sure, what you want me to check. There is no update folder under C:\Users\<Duplicati user account>\AppData\Local\Duplicati\

That points to C:\Program Files\Duplicati 2\Duplicati.WindowsService.exe

4

There should be no Windows service related Duplicati process stil up after stopping Windows service.
When the service is up, there should be two Duplicati.WindowsService.exe and a Duplicati.Server.exe.

Maybe you killed two Duplicati.GUI.TrayIcon.exe that started as the logged in user, due to default install:

Installing Duplicati on Windows

Select which components you want to install. Pay special attention to Launch Duplicati at startup. If it is selected, the Duplicati Tray Icon Tool will be started automatically after logging on to Windows.

That would normally give you a completely different set of Duplicati jobs, as the SYSTEM one’s database would be in the SYSTEM profile and the manually launched one would be in profile for starter of Duplicati.
Even if the jobs were compatible, the individual job databases in one would be stale compared to backup.

There are ways to set database location, e.g. with --server-datafolder option on the server launch, or
a DUPLICATI_HOME environment variable set in advance. --portable-mode can also move the database.

So I’m not certain what you got or what version it was, but it’s almost certainly 2.0.6.3 if you launched that.

This is normal in default operation of any semi-recent software. The first one looks for latest update to run.

So that one doesn’t apply, however C:\ProgramData\Duplicati\updates\2.0.6.3 looks like it’s too large with one extra folder and two extra files. Also, in Properties you should be able to verify the size of the files as:

Size: 99.3 MB (104,154,162 bytes)

You likely must sort and not just look at the date, if you actually ran Duplicati then. Is anything a bit newer?
You can search for * in the Explorer search box, change View back to Details, then sort by Date modified.

If that doesn’t work:

2.0.6.3_beta_2021-06-17 has a .zip file install that you can unzip then compare to the 2.0.6.3 in updates.
If it’s worth installing and running a program to compare two folders, such programs exist, e.g. WinMerge.

Wherever the extra contents came from, it’s enough to get your updates\2.0.6.3 disqualified as an update.

I was also asking about any other updates besides 2.0.6.3 in the updates folder. Is that it? Is there 2.0.6.1?

5

Hi,

I think that you are right with that. Today, I set the startup type of the Windows service to manual and rebooted. After the reboot, the processes Duplicati.WindowsService.exe and Duplicati.Server.exe were gone, but I still had two instances of the Duplicati.GUI.TrayIcon.exe.

If I remember correctly, the course of action was the following:

  • I installed the Software more than a year ago and in deed chose the option “Launch Duplicati at startup”.
  • Then I learned that shadow copies only work, if Duplicati runs with administrator privileges. So I enabled that.
  • In order not to get the elevation prompt, on every startup, I disbled the Duplicati Autostart in task manager and set up the Windows service.

Looks like disabling the autostart has had no effect. I can however not find Duplicati.GUI.TrayIcon.exe.
in any startup folder.

Regarding the update, the course of action was as follows:

  • I updated to 2.0.6.3, I think it was sometime in May or June.
  • The same day, I ran a manual backup job.
  • When running the backup job again, after two weeks, I got the error: " The database has version 11 but the largest supported version is 10. This is likely caused by upgrading to a newer version and then downgrading. If this is the case, there is likely a backup file of the previous database version in the folder C:\Users\Tournesol\AppData\Local\Duplicati."
  • The About section of the web gui at that time stated: " You are currently running Duplicati - 2.0.5.1_beta_2020-01-18. Update [2.0.6.3_beta_2021-06-17] is available. (The same as it is saying now).
  • I then clicked on the update link provided, not being aware of the fact that I already had installed that same version before.

The fact that I updated twice to 2.0.6.3 might explain the difference in the number of files.

Searching for * and then sorting by date shows a folder named “updates” from 2021-07-11. All other files and folders are from 2021-06-27.

The updates folder contains subfolders 2.0.5.1, .2.0.6.1 and 2.0.6.3

My excuses for not doing all the homework, you gave me. To me it looks like that at the moment, no further analysis is needed but that two things should be done:

  1. Get rid of the autostart which starts Duplicati with local user privileges.
  2. Re-enable the Windows service.
  3. Fix the update.

The first item, I would not know how to do that. Can the update be fixed by removing the 2.0.6.3 folder and click the update link again?

6

You won’t find a copy (that would be a maintenance headache if it even worked), but there’s a shortcut in
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp

It currently looks disabled in Task Manager? Note that you need Administrator privileges in effect to control. Alternatively, Settings → Startup Apps will prompt you for elevation. Task Manager doesn’t know to do that.

If you think you still have a mystery start, you can use Sysinternals Autoruns to try to see what’s doing that.
If I recall correctly, its method of disabling is incompatible with the one that Task Manager and Settings use.

I wonder if there was a Duplicati or system restart before the backup. That sounds like a startup complaint. Duplicati doesn’t constantly check its folders for integrity, but at startup it will check before running updates.

This suggests that you were on the run-as-user (Tournesol) Duplicati rather than run-as-SYSTEM service.
Because Windows service starts at boot, it usually gets port 8200, so later user login start would get 8300.

Interesting theory to chase, though I don’t see how that would happen, especially for just a few extra things.

What’s in it? As usual, you can click on it to look. You located the one extra folder. Still looking for two files.
Was the extra updates folder right in the 2.0.6.3 folder, or down deeper somewhere? I wonder what did it?

I think that will do the trick, however instead of removing, you could cut-and-paste it to some distant folder for possible future exam. There have been a couple of reports of a problem like this, and I’d like to solve it.

This updates folder sounds like the one that belongs there. The updates folder below 2.0.6.3 seems wrong.
I think 2.0.6.3 and 2.0.6.1 are identical in terms of path names, if you want to see what 2.0.6.3 should have.

There’s a remaining possible mystery here. If you have C:\ProgramData\Duplicati\updates\2.0.6.1, I’m not sure why you didn’t wind up on 2.0.6.1 and run almost happily (the database would be compatible) instead.

7

Hi,

I managed to get rid of the autostarts of the TrayIcon. There was indeed a shortcut in the folder you mentioned and Autoruns showed me that I had also made an entry in the task scheduler (which I completely forgot about). It is amazing that Duplicati ran relatively smoothly, until some weeks ago, despite the fact that there were three different manners configured to start it.

The service is now running again and after moving the existing 2.0.6.3 folder to another location, I could download and activate the update again. This update now is surviving reboots.

Initially, the Home screen was empty, but after copying the profile from the local to that of the system user, I can now access my old backups and do no longer get that database version error.

That update folder in question was in the root of 2.0.6.3 and contained two files, installation.txt and README.txt.

Thanks for all your help!

1 Like
8

The default profile of the SYSTEM user is kind of dangerous because Windows version upgrades move it into C:\Windows.old. If you notice backups failing before Windows auto-delete, it’s recoverable. If not, you need the config Exports that you saved safely (or a good memory might do) so you can Repair databases.

Editing the Windows service to use --server-datafolder=<path> or --portable-mode (which puts the configuration in a data folder below the initial executables) is a safer plan, but unfortunately not the default.

This went wrong. Those files are usually in the main updates folder, instead of in update that they break.
It may help if you can find out what happened on 2021-07-11 right then, otherwise thanks for clues so far.

9

Wow. That advice came just in time, as there is a Windows update pending, just today.

It was a bit of a struggle to add that Parameter permanently. You need to edit the value of ImagePath under Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Duplicati

(I am noting it here, so that I can refer to this topic, should I ever need to reinstall Duplicati.)

2021-07-11, was last Sunday. Sunday is the day, where I usually run my manual backup jobs. Except from restarting the TrayIcon to get rid of that database version error, I do not remember having done anything special.

Thanks again for your help.

10

By the way: Is it save to delete all backup.sqlite files in the profile folder? Some of them are from 2018.

11

Monthly updates aren’t a problem (if that’s what it is – Patch Tuesday began roll-out two days ago).
These don’t make a C:\Windows.old. Version updates (generallly twice a year for Windows 10) do.

I had thought I used to be able to edit that in the Services app services.msc, but now it seems I can’t.
Duplicati.WindowsService.exe uninstall then install with desired options should be able to do it I hope.

It is possible to pass arguments to Duplicati.Server.exe, simply add them to the commandline:
Duplicati.WindowsService.exe install --webservice-interface=loopback --log-retention=3M

If all the jobs you care about are running, and the files are still old, that confirms that they’re obsolete.