Backup forum

RHL · 2019-05-07 16:39:48

IDrive 3.5.4.7 on MacOS Mojave.

IDrive always fails because of missing files or directories.
All of the missing items are Mac mail files (in users/library/mail). The number of missing files varies between 4 and about 20.
I set IDrive to do a Verify operation immediately prior to the nightly scheduled backup, because I thought that would synchronize the backup database with the actual file structure. That made no difference. It still reports missing files and calls it a failed backup.
I did the following operations manually (and in this order) first thing in the morning after a failed backup:
Cleanup operation --> no files to delete --> manual Backup --> failed with the same missing files as the night before
Verify operation --> manual Backup --> failed, but with fewer missing files
Cleanup operation again --> 3 files deleted --> manual Backup --> still fails on missing files

As far as I can tell all the other files (over 110GB) backed up correctly. And every once in a while (every 10 days or so) the backup reports success.

IDrive support has been less than helpful. They want me to set the limits for reporting an error so I don't get the error messages. That's like when Tom and Ray (the Car Guys on NPR) used to tell people to put black tape on a warning light.

One final strange clue: I run IDrive on a second iMac (same version of IDrive and MacOS) and it never gives errors. Each night the backup succeeds, including that user's mail files.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Because of the lack of the problem on the second iMac I don't know if the issue is in IDrive itself or some Mac setting.

SteveA · 2019-05-07 17:42:20

Did the missing files exist at the time of the scan?

I don't have any experience with the Mac version of IDrive (or Macs in general), but this sounds similar to the problem I had on a Windows machine where some files were deleted between IDrive's scan and the actual backup, so it remembered them forever and kept trying to back them up.

The work-around for me was to create the filenames it was looking for, run a backup, then delete them and remove them from my IDrive account.

Not ideal, and I imagine a tedious task if there are more than a few files involved!

RHL · 2019-05-07 19:28:50

Thanks for the reply.

No, the files don't exist at the time the backup or at the time of the verify scan or at the time of the cleanup operation.

For a couple of files in an easily-accessible directory your solution might work, but these are temporary mail files buried deep in the directories where MacOS keeps mail. So not an option. Plus there are usually too many and they keep changing.

SteveA · 2019-05-07 19:37:27

Is there a common pattern in the temporary filenames that you could use to exclude them?

There is an Exclude files / folders from backup section in the Settings area of the IDrive application (at least, there is in the Windows version!)

RHL · 2019-05-07 22:24:43

That's an excellent idea. Unfortunately, all the files/folders at issue are in the folder users/[username]/library/mail along with several hundred other files/folders and the missing ones have names that keep changing. If I excluded ...library/mail I would also exclude backing up all of my email.

Thanks for the suggestion, though. What I would really like is for IDrive to either tell me what I'm doing wrong or fix a potential problem with their product. That isn't likely to happen, as I have communicated with them several times on this issue and gotten only their band-aid advice.

SteveA · 2019-05-08 00:37:37

Maybe there just isn't a way to identify these transient files.

I guess a setting that took file age into consideration could work - the file has to be x hours old before its considered for backup, but this could be risky and would make continuous backup redundant.

Another solution could be to exclude your mail directory and have a scheduled task that archives it to another folder, or a compressed archive (zip etc), which is in a area that is backed up. I do this with folders from a Linux box which isn't directly backed up to IDrive.

Of course you shouldn't have to do this and IDrive should find a solution.

I think their support operators are just Call Center bods with a troubleshooting script. Suggestions for change don't seem to get through to the software developers.

Its a shame they shut down their forum because I think some real IDrive employees used to read that.

I don't think they'll ever post here, although I suspect they know we exist

Backup forum

Announcement

#1 2019-05-07 16:39:48

IDrive keeps failing on missing files

#2 2019-05-07 17:42:20

Re: IDrive keeps failing on missing files

#3 2019-05-07 19:28:50

Re: IDrive keeps failing on missing files

#4 2019-05-07 19:37:27

Re: IDrive keeps failing on missing files

#5 2019-05-07 22:24:43

Re: IDrive keeps failing on missing files

#6 2019-05-08 00:37:37

Re: IDrive keeps failing on missing files

Board footer