Preload settings path is not rooted, ignoring: var/lib/Duplicati/preload.json

[Toggenation]

New installation of duplicati-2.3.0.4_stable_2026-07-09-linux-x64-gui.deb on Ubuntu 26.04

Ignores /var/lib/Duplicati/preload.json despite having what I think are correct perms (owned by root and 600 perms)

Added DUPLICATI_PRELOAD_SETTINGS_DEBUG=1 in /etc/default/duplicatiand get the following when I run journalctl -f and restart Duplicati with systemctl restart duplicati.service

duplicati-server[1251]: Preload settings path is not rooted, ignoring: var/lib/Duplicati/preload.json

Had to add DUPLICATI_PRELOAD_SETTINGS=/var/lib/Duplicati/preload.json into /etc/default/duplicati to get it to read preload.json in this default location.

Just posting here so others don’t have to chase an answer.

[kenkendk]

@Toggenation

Ignores /var/lib/Duplicati/preload.json despite having what I think are correct perms (owned by root and 600 perms)

As @viktoriyanavrotskaya mentions, Duplicati somehow maps its own internal path without a leading slash.

@Toggenation

Had to add DUPLICATI_PRELOAD_SETTINGS=/var/lib/Duplicati/preload.json into /etc/default/duplicati to get it to read preload.json in this default location.

For the next stable release the /var/lib/Duplicati/preload.json is no longer default loaded, but having the environment variable set works, so this will already be “future proof”.