What to do when disk space is full?

[CodingChipmunk]

2025-01-18 19:59:19 +01 - [Error-Duplicati.Library.Main.Operation.BackupHandler-FatalError]: Fatal error. IOException: There is not enough space on the disk. : ‘\?\G:\Duplicati\duplicati-b3ffd6181211d4a2791e4006ef4b76b6f.dblock.zip’

I backup daily with “Smart backup retention” enabled. Recently, I’ve backuped many media files and my storage is now full. How do I delete old backups? AFAIK there’s no way to do that using GUI, right?

Thanks in advance!

[ts678]

@CodingChipmunk

AFAIK there’s no way to do that using GUI, right?

That’s the easy part, if you’re willing to use The DELETE command in GUI Commandline.
The COMPACT command (or button) is the hard spot, as that’s what actually frees space.

@CodingChipmunk

Recently, I’ve backuped many media files and my storage is now full.

The below is meant to avoid that, but maybe you blew right through the last bit in one shot?

–quota-warning-threshold (Integer): Threshold for warning about low quota
Set a threshold for when to warn about the backend quota being nearly exceeded. It is given as a percentage, and a warning is generated if the amount of available quota is less than this percentage of
the total backup size. If the backend does not report the quota information, this value will be ignored.
* default value: 10

The problem with compact is it needs a bit of space to do repackaging to remove wasted space. Previously this was a known amount, not too much, roughly 50 MB default Remote volume size.

@kenkendk

At the end of the compact process, it will then delete all volumes that are no longer needed. This design is intended to be robust, but has the downside that you will need more space for a short period.

@ts678

@ts678

Fixed storage compact might fail?

Another worsened scenario is destination filled, and you must fix it using delete + compact. Previously, if one could get enough free space for a dblock, later space is increasingly free.
Redesign might turn what is usually a tricky situation into a much harder one. Any way out?

Developer fix would be welcome, but lacking that, a procedure to solve would be nice as well.

Possibly you are in a fortunate position where manual cleanup is possible, but that’s very ugly.

[ts678]

Continuing on a different point while hoping for answer:

@CodingChipmunk

my storage is now full. How do I delete old backups?

Are you familiar with Duplicati’s storage use? It only backs up changes, so use grows slowly.
This also means that a delete of a version might free up only the changes unique to that one.

Compare about backup sizes of different versions? is technical discussions, and led to a tool:

Duplicati BackupExplorer which I haven’t used, but it might help answer question of data use.

At some point you might just need more disk space, which is one way to also assist compact.

Compact - Limited / Partial (if done) might be another way to limit the compact space needed. Previously this was sought after more to limit time, but now there’s also space to worry about.