Need to Change File/Folder Selections on Existing Job

Hello Bob,

Thank you for your question. I will definitely help you with this.

If I understood you correctly, you are looking for a way to modify your existing files/folders backup task and add/remove files from the next backup. This can be down by navigating to the tasks&log from the main program menu. Right click on the task and select edit:

After opening the task, navigate to "What to backup" and you can expand and select/disselect the folders and files that you want to backup:

If you have additional questions please let me know.

Thank you.

Anton,
Would you mind clarifying your response.

We have been led to believe that editing a posting (using the edit function) is a "no no". From personal experience, I know it is difficult or next to impossible for an edited task to function properly the next time the task is run. Either the target will be wrong; or the increment number will be wrong; or the task won't function. Usually, the support response has been to "create a new task". What makes the problem in this thread to be different from the past where editing has been discouraged?

While the user should be able to edit an existing task, past results have not indicated that editing a task has a much slimmer chance of succeeding that simply creating a new task.

A clarification would be appreciated. Thank you.

Hello GroverH,

Thank you for bringing up this interesting question.

While over the years there have been issues with scheduled backup tasks, which required the user to recreate them instead of editing them, by default our software should not experience any issues with editing a backup task and continue to run it.

Depending on the situation, environment and the error message we may definitely recommend to re-create the scheduled task. Also, sometimes re-creating the task is needed to make sure that the initial "error" environment has been removed or to create a fresh instance of the "error" environment so that we can watch it fail, study the errors and come with a solution.

I would really appreciate if you could let me know in case you have additional questions.

Thank you.

Anton,
Thank you for the clarification.

A reason to edit a task would be to
...adjust the validation setting; or
...adjust the pre/post setting; or
...adjust the e-mail notifications; or
...change the number of desired incremental/differential backups.

If the archive storage folder already contains ongoing incremental *.tib files, then the chance of a successful edit really depends upon the skill & knowledge of the person performing the edit.

The initial alert message can be confusing and easily mis-understood. For a successful edit, the user must know what the true next incremental number is to be; and the proper archive target location; and whether the correct setting is to create a new or add to existing selection. Maybe even to change the target location so a new series is to be started afresh.

For all the above reasons, my responses include a suggestion that a new task be created rather than perform an edit where the outcome is unsure. The only acceptable edits is from the right click context menu where the user can select the rename or change schedule options. I agree the user should be able to edit a task but because of the many variables, creating a new task seems to have a better chance of success.

Gentlemen,

First, I thank you both for your suggestions and input. As Anton suggested, I was able to edit the existing backup job and make changes to my previous file/folder selections. I run my backup job manually each week, so I don't need to worry about scheduling the task. I performed a backup and did a test restore without any problems. I will say that for the record, I'm performing a full backup each time, rather than an incremental one. Over time, I've found this to be a much cleaner approach, and while it takes a bit longer each time, I'm confident in knowing that everything is backed up with each execution. In addition, external USB drives and SATA drives are very fast these days, so backup time is certainly acceptable.

I will add that in the past, I used Backup MyPC by Stomp. This product was very simple and straightforward, and creating, changing and managing backup jobs was a snap. With the wide array of products we have today, there should be no reason that a tool shouldn't provide a straightforward means of editing file and folder selections on an existing backup job. Having to delete and re-create a job just to make changes should be a thing of the past. Besides, should one be expected to remember all of his or her original selections?

Again, thanks for your assistance and insight.

Regards,
Bob