Upgrade on windows 10 to 2.1.0.5_stable lost configuration

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1

I recently updated to 2.1.0.5_stable_2025-03-04 from 2.06 something beta, which had been running fine. I’m just running on a local PC, not interested in centralized management.

I had two backup tasks… one to AWS, another to a local USB drive. After the upgrade, no tasks were shown. How can I recover them?

C:\Users\robert\AppData\Local\Duplicati contains

04/11/2025  10:19 PM            65,536 Duplicati-server.sqlite
04/11/2025  09:45 PM            57,344 backup Duplicati-server 20250411094503.sqlite
04/11/2025  09:45 PM               247 machineid.txt
04/11/2025  09:45 PM               283 installation.txt
04/11/2025  03:01 AM       356,638,720 CCUFVBVCYD.sqlite
09/27/2023  03:01 AM       287,993,856 backup CCUFVBVCYD 20230928030000.sqlite
11/06/2021  11:13 AM            57,344 Duplicati-server20250411-214503.bak
09/06/2021  01:53 PM           425,984 EPBEMHUIYF.backup
09/06/2021  01:26 PM           471,040 CCUFVBVCYD.backup

The last local drive was 4/11 3am… so that’s probably the CCUFVBVCYD.sqlite file? My Amazon backup probably ran fine on 4/10, but I don’t see any sign of it.

Can I restore the pre-upgrade configuration?

2

Hi @rmeden, welcome to the forum :waving_hand:

I am not sure what has happened exactly.
Duplicati is designed to upgrade the database automatically, so you should certainly see the new files. I assume the dates align with the update?

What you can try is:

  1. Stop Duplicati
  2. Rename Duplicati-server.sqlite to something like upgraded Duplicati-server.sqlite
  3. Copy backup Duplicati-server 20250411094503.sqlite to Duplicati-server.sqlite`
  4. Start Duplicati

This should make it upgrade once again, but perhaps the same will happen.

Can you check if you have multiple versions of Duplicati running?
Can you check if you have multiple Duplicati-server.sqlite files present on your system?

Finally, can you try using an SQLite tool (such as SqliteBrowser) to open the file and look at the table “Backup” and see if your backups are there? You can also open the backup and check if it somehow got lost in the upgrade.

3

(in C:\Users\robert\AppData\Local\Duplicati )
No luck… the `Duplicati-server 20250411094503.sqlite’ had an empty backup table.

I searched my system and found in the recycle bin a Duplicati.old from 2022. Interestingly when I tried to open the Duplicati-server.sqlite in that directory with DBBrowser it says it’s not a database file. A few of the other files that may have had been an old Duplicati-server.sqlite also report not a “database file”. My password safe does have a Duplicati password, but I wasn’t able to open it with DBBrowser(SQLcipher) either… maybe Duplicati used to use a different encryption engine?

I did find a C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Duplicati\Duplicati-server.sqlite file, it was recent, but I couldn’t open it… it may be one of the newer encryption files and I didn’t create/copy a password when prompted because I just access it locally.

Out of curiosity, what are the CCUFVBVCYD files? They’re pretty large.

What may have happened is I started a Duplicati upgrade twice??? I dunno… I’m in the processes of moving houses and was tried.. probably should have waited! :slight_smile: (of course upgrades worked flawlessly before)

I just tried a “Direct Restore from Backup files” on my USB drive. It worked fine. I can see the directories backed up, which is the hardest part of re-creating my setup! I should probably add the C:\Users\robert\AppData\Local\Duplicati directory to my backup! :slight_smile: This really proves the strength of Duplicati… even without the config, restores were easy.

Probably not a bad idea to do an export of my backups from time to time though… it’s been so set and forget I don’t think about it.

Thanks!
Robert

4

Before 2.1, Duplicati on Windows used SQLite RC4 encryption that is now removed.
The 2.1 DB upgrader uses internal code that can decrypt it. Did other data show up?
From the database size going up, I had hope.

Which tool can open encrypted DB lack of luck says reading old DB with old Duplicati possibly is the best path, if you want to look into old DBs. Ones ending at 2.0.8.1 had

--unencrypted-database: Disables database encryption

which would leave you with a clear-text readable DB after quitting Server or TrayIcon.

Downgrade from 2.1.0.2 to 2.0.8.1 (probably should be 2.1.0.5 now) details the steps.

Great thought, although it’d be great to nail down what went wrong here.

The Duplicati-server.sqlite database is probably available, although I see activity in it periodically during backup that puzzles me. Job database for the job will be changing. Backing up changing job database is pointless, but it can be backed up another time. What’s important is that it’s current with destination, or all sorts of confusion will occur.

Usually random-letters.sqlite are job databases. If you have a big backup, it’s large
That’s one reason for some controversy between DB backup versus DB recreating.

If you have some advanced options or excludes, it might be worth looking into old setup.

If you don’t want to really downgrade, you can install 2.0.8.1 from .zip somewhere else, copy some backup Duplicati-server.sqlite somewhere else, and point to that folder with a

--server-datafolder: Duplicati needs to store a small database with all settings. Use this option to choose where the settings are stored. This option can also be set with the environment variable DUPLICATI_HOME.

option given to Duplicati.GUI.TrayIcon run from old .zip install. You can unencrypt it too. Nothing will touch your new install, and you have your choice of browsing setup in GUI, comparing tables against 2.1 to see what converted (and what unfortunately didn’t), etc.

Just some ideas.

5

I tried opening the old Duplicati-server.sqlite files with various version… even the 2.0.6 one I thought I was running, but the backups weren’t found.

I was really hoping to be able to recreate this and see what happened, but I think those files were probably from old tests and were empty. The only thing I can think of is I somehow started the upgrade twice…

I don’t think I do any excludes.. I’ll just get the directories from the current backup and build a new one… (exporting the JSON in my documents folder)

Thanks for your help (and of course for the great tool)

Robert

6

The upgrade process will leave a backup of the encrypted database when decrypting.
The upgrade from 2.0.8.1 will also leave a backup of the database when upgrading to the new schema.
It sounds like you searched everywhere, but could not find the backups (they contain Duplicati-server.sqlite and a timestamp in the filename).
I cannot think of anything that would cause the tables to be cleared if they were not already empty.
Even trying to upgrade twice at the same time should just give “file locked” errors.
If an upgrade runs after, it will not do anything as the format is already in place.

As @ts678 mentions, to open the old databases you need a tool that supports RC4 encryption, and I think only old SQLite tools supports that. The default password for the RC4 encrypted databases (if you have not changed it, which pretty much no-one did) is Duplicati_Key_42 IIRC.

7

Duplicati 2.1 supports that for its own upgrade need when decrypting the 2.0 RC4 format.

Whether or not it could or should be extended for additional purposes is another question.

SQLiteRC4Decrypter.cs in Duplicati uses that, though technically 2.0 used AppName not hardcoded Duplicati. If anybody ever did their own builds with a chance, upgrade may fail.

Knowing the default key isn’t necessary if one is willing to let Duplicati 2.0 decrypt the DB:

but doing it without downgrade is awkward. Directions for a 2.0 on-the-side were given…

BUT

made me think that this was tried on the backup database copies, but Backup table was empty, which is pretty weird if I read it right. Or maybe DB renaming let old Duplicati read backup database renamed (or copied) to Duplicati-server.sqlite, but showed no backups.