B4A backs up tens of thousands of empty folders :-(

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Adrian (Softland)
Posts: 1914
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:46 pm

Re: B4A backs up tens of thousands of empty folders :-(

Post by Adrian (Softland) »

Hi,

We are just trying to help you configure the backup as it is best for you. It's your decision if you accept our advice or you continue doing your way.

The section of the help file you mentioned does not apply for you. If 47 MB means a large file for you and "in time" means 2-3 days then you should continue making full backups every few days.

There is no drawback in your case. I just explained you several times what the difference will be: you won't have the empty folders backed up again every few days when the full backup is triggered.
Do you know you can monitor your backups remotely with Backup4all Monitor? You can read more here: https://www.backup4all.com/backup4all-monitor.html

David.P
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue May 11, 2010 1:22 pm

Re: B4A backs up tens of thousands of empty folders :-(

Post by David.P »

Support wrote:The section of the help file you mentioned does not apply for you.
I was under the impression that this section of the help file doesn't say anything why it would not apply for me.
Helpfile wrote:Automatically make full backup

Make full backup when all increments exceed % of full backup size

In time, the size of the incremental can outgrow the full version. For maximum efficiency, the size of the incremental should be kept as small as possible. This option will trigger the creation of a full backup when a certain percentage of the full backup will be exceeded (default is 50%).
That section is hard to understand anyway. From my understanding, "the size of the incremental can outgrow the full version" in any case only if you at the same time have checked the option NOT to save older backup versions from the "Type" page in the Backup options, i.e. only if every full backup REPLACES the last full backup. If you DO keep the older versions however, then the full backup can never be smaller than the sum of the incremental backups -- since everything that has ever been backed up is being kept anyway.

Recapitulating, since all I want B4A to do is save versions of my (changed) files every three hours, there is no point in doing a full backup (ever) indeed.

Thus, I will disable the option for automatically doing a full backup.

BTW and after all, this program is still INCREDIBLY difficult to set up. I have been power-using B4A since MANY YEARS, trying to set it up correctly during like dozens of hours, have reported back lots of bugs -- but every time again, it seems almost impossible to figure out the correct combination of the zillion options :ugeek:

Only one example: what do you think people understand when they are given an option like
B4A File Filter Options wrote:Date modified > one week ago
OK Image Date modified must be "larger than" one week ago then. Now this obviously means Image it is more than ("larger than") one week ago, thus like two, three weeks ago and so on. Wait Image no -- could it actually mean that "Date modified must be less than one week ago" (e.g. today or yesterday) ??? since only in this case the "date" (i.e. 2010-05-19) becomes larger (as a number).

But why on earth would anyone say "larger than one week ago" when actually what they mean is "less than one week ago"........... ImageImageImage

See, this is the kind of INCREDIBLE difficulties I run into EVERY TIME when I only TOUCH this program. (I'm not saying there is a better program on the market since if it was, I'd use THAT program instead.)

Adrian (Softland)
Posts: 1914
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:46 pm

Re: B4A backs up tens of thousands of empty folders :-(

Post by Adrian (Softland) »

Hi,

I'm glad you understand our suggestion and its meaning.

No other users complained about the file dates filter. Date modified > one week ago means Backup4all will back up all files newer than one week ago.
In order to understand these notations, I suggest you to imagine the axis time. It goes from left to right.
Here is an example:
-------(one week ago)------------(date modified)------(backup time)------------>
Do you know you can monitor your backups remotely with Backup4all Monitor? You can read more here: https://www.backup4all.com/backup4all-monitor.html

David.P
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue May 11, 2010 1:22 pm

Re: B4A backs up tens of thousands of empty folders :-(

Post by David.P »

Then I will try hard and hopefully remember that

Date
"modified larger than one week ago" in Backup4all terms actually means all files will be saved that have been
"modified less than one week ago".

Image

(Hint: sometimes it already has turned out to be advantageous when a program's user interface is NOT designed by a software engineer or mathematician)

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