FTP from Windows 10 64bit simply doesn't work yet, right?

Support
1

I try to backup to a server I can access via FTP (not SFTP). I tried FTP and FTP alternative, both give me an OK when testing, but the jobs just fail after a hand full of MB. Tried 6 different source directories, just ONE succeeded ONCE. And that was when I only filled it with 40MB of files. Nothing above that ever run through successfully. Tried for two different machines, for more than three weeks now.

It always quickly aborts with “Error while running” but the “general” log is empty. the “remote” lists a couple of “LastAccess”-entries, and stuff like
** Jun 23, 2019 3:34 PM: put duplicati-b1b4978c4f5f641c1941dc162b19zzbdf.dblock.zip.aes*
{“Size”:52369669,“Hash”:"+sxz+FRu+mNlqutFE/0eMOnf61geKBTZG/zB+zQuHVg="}.
for the files it was able to succeed to generate and upload.

What ca I do? Thank you!

2

Hello @EponkWagpy and welcome to the forum!

First thing might to get some log info, for example from server logs About → Show log → Live → Retry which will show how well (or not well) the individual transfers are going. You get five tries before a failure, however –number-of-retries can increase that if you like. It’d be best to find source of retries if they occur.

If live logs are too unwieldy, or you want longer-term logging for study or post, you can use option –log-file at some –log-file-log-level, perhaps again at level retry, although there are more detailed ones if needed.

Does your FTP server have any logs that would show how it sees things? It’s easier than network debug.

Sometimes testing with a different FTP client and a Duplicati default-sized file might be a worthwhile test.

Duplicati’s largest files tend to be the ones sized by “Remote volume size” on the web UI “Options” page. Testing with that dialed way down (e.g. reduce from 50MB to 1MB) might be interesting just for debugging.

Is the FTP server on a reliable local area network or someplace remote on the Internet (a security issue)? Equipment in the network (e.g. a home router) could also affect FTP, due to network address translations.

3

Thank you for answering, but I will stop trying to make this work:

  • I encountered so many and different errors
  • the error-messages and logfiles make no sense to me at all (and I always thougth of me as a tech-guy)
  • using the “repair” and “reset” buttons never did anythnig comprehensible for me

Result: With now 20+ trys of setting up an backup (which was always seccessfull) I only had ONE successful backup-run.

The frustration-to-success-ratio is to bad for me - I won’t bother anymore.
Maybe I’ll try again in a couple of months.

4

If at all possible, use another protocol than FTP. It was designed in the early days of the internet and is broken in multiple ways.

5

Even its own specification cautions. Does that mean it’s a feature, not a bug? :wink:

FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL (FTP)

A comment on transfer modes.  The stream transfer mode is
inherently unreliable, since one can not determine if the
connection closed prematurely or not.

I wonder if Duplicati should warn users more about FTP issues when they pick it?
Warning constantly would be annoying. Can Amazon Cloud Drive warn plan help?
As vendors change or disappear, having some good ways to warn would be good.