Please can you add more obvious feedback about the progress of a backup? Something like a green progress bar or a coloured swatch while the backup is in progress would be very helpful for me.
My backups can take 30-60 minutes to complete and, while they’re working, I want to be doing other stuff. For me, that means I wander off to work on one of the other machines in the room.
It then becomes annoying to have to keep getting up and walking back again, so that I can read the tiny text message on the new backup page.
A big green bar / orange bar / red bar that I can see from several metres away would be a major improvement to the new UI.
This runs all the way to the right of the screen, so easy to see when nearly done.
Granted it’s not big (legacy UI was bigger), but you don’t need to see text details.
I don’t see that during the “starting” phase, or the “counting” phase (I have a lot of files). I’m periodically checking out the new UI (I still like the old one), so maybe I’ve missed an option somewhere?
I think that’s how it is. Until it’s looked around, it has no idea what it’s up against,
therefore there’s no chance of estimating progress towards finish. It’s a hard job.
I expect the old UI and new UI to share behavior limits, but old UI has bigger bar.
looks like it’s going to try, even if it’s imperfect. This is recent, to allow GUI work.
It still looks at completion towards total, and I’d guess the GUI will guess a time.
The old UI, as expected and explained, also omits “starting” and “counting”.
So basically new UI changed the color and size. Old “greened” background:
If this happens to be Windows, there are two options that might ease issues.
Please read Advanced options help text, as the docs sometimes lag behind.
usn-policy can sometimes (if journal holds) avoid having to count lots of files.
This should reduce the amount of time it spends while not showing progress.
snapshot-policy can get a point-in-time VSS snapshot during computer uses,
if that sort of concern is why you go to some other computer during a backup.
Both of those are required by Windows to have administrative privilege, which
is a little awkward to get. UAC prompt, SYSTEM service, or other mechanism.
Next Stable (or current Beta) improved Windows installer can help set service.
Thank you for your suggestions but, the machine is running Arch Linux. I assume that’s why it takes a while to count the 100,000+ files. That PR looks like exactly what I want, though!
In my case, the number of files doesn’t change much - just the data that are in them. So, perhaps it could cache the count and use it for the next run’s estimate?
That would be nice. Bar shows progress, but it’s hard to visually estimate rate.
Since Duplicati backs up only new and changed data, data changes increase
difficulty of estimate even after counting is done. It doesn’t know until it looks.
was the developer speaking to that idea (and other points I’ve written here).
The idea there was to only cover the usage of an obscure advanced option,
but history could possibly work into any advanced progress/completion goal.
It is not accurate, but at least there is “something” (except for the very first backup)
Meanwhile, there is progress bar that shows up after early idea of work faced.
Another unknown in timing is whether or not compact will run after the backup.
The thing that takes the time for me is the “counting” phase. I don’t think I have ever noticed it be in the middle of actually backing up the few changes that have been made to the data.
With the old front end, the progress through the counting phase was obvious but, with the new UI, I haven’t noticed any progress bar; hence the ticket. If it’s coming, then that’s great. I look forward to seeing it in an AUR update, soon.
Perhaps mine is an unusual case, but I really don’t need this to be perfect. It will also be useful to me, even if it says nothing on the first run after a change to the configuration. My backup runs every day on a similar set of data and the configuration almost never changes. Duplicati has always been a reliable “fire-and-forget” thing that I update probably only once or twice a year (if that).
But, if it works against your plans, then I’ll stay with the old GUI for as long as I am allowed.
My old UI on latest Stable works just like new UI – no bar during counting phase.
I watched green bar become visible after that, already partway done due to work,
because Duplicati doesn’t wait for count to be done before it starts actual backup.
That was on my production backup. This is from one counting about 100000 files.
If it was showing progress on the count, it should show some by now. It does not.
If you’re saying current Duplicati on old UI has a green bar, can you screenshot it?
I’m on 2.3.0.4_stable_2026-07-09 on Windows. I don’t have AUR Duplicati handy.
Possibly its behavior is different, or version might differ, or developer might explain,
however the developer comment I quoted in part suggests to me it can’t yet predict
completion of counting until counting is completed (until when/if history gets used).
Presumably you’ve seen the blue progress bar after the counting phase is done.
Regarding “hence the ticket”, you closed it, so I assumed you saw bar as shown,
and could glance at its length (or visibility at all) to gauge when the end got near.
Another approach is to just set a notification when backup is done. There are lots
of reporting options you can set up. Your system might also allow local sound, etc.
I tested 2.3.0.108_canary_2026-07-20 and got the same no-bar during its counting.
When that was done, the bar popped about like this due to backup during counting:
There is also a per-file progress bar in the job area that shows during the counting.
Don’t be confused by that. You’ll see it come and go as each file gets read through.
Progress information seems to be getting attention lately. Maybe good news?
There are no details given, e.g. is it progress, progress towards completion (needs information on total amount of work, I’d guess), or something else. Seeing progress standalone might be useful to some people, to give assurance work is progressing.
I mention this in my issue linked above. Duplicati counts pretty slowly compared to another backup program I use, and speed matters. Backup is done when it’s done.
From showing where my old UI progress bar first showed, I can see how seeing no progress in status bar (while seeing file-level progress below) could be bothersome.
The two things seem to have merged in my mind. I just tried it and I you’re right that there’s no progress bar in the old version, but the text is much larger and clearer.
I remember that I can tell how far through the process is with the old UI but not with the new UI. I think my subconscious must have created the idea that there is a progress bar when, in fact, it’s only that I can see the numbers from across the room with one, but not with the other.
Sounds like you use your own knowledge of typical count to estimate progress.
Maybe this will happen someday (per above), but for now let’s call it a UI issue.
I zoomed browser to 500% then measured with a cm stick. 2 cm on old.
About 1.5 cm on new. Still easily read, and the zoom took only seconds.
New UI appears to use same font for status bar as in job’s details below.
Old UI appears to give status bar a font boost, which is interesting since
new UI seems to have 50% more space before it runs out of room (now).
Combined with a font that’s about 75% the size of old, lots of space now.
I don’t know future plans for the unused space to the right of current text.
There’s lots of information one might want to display, so font size matters.
https://github.com/duplicati/ngclient/issues
is where you can request status bar font be increased to match its old one.
I am not skilled enough with fonts to say if the font type was “better” before.
There has not been prior issue on font there, and this usage is a bit special.
At least it can be recorded, because the forum is a poor way to track “asks”.
OK, thanks. It’s already taken up more of our time than I expected. Thanks for your suggestion. I think I’ll just stick with the old GUI for as long as I can.
