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Old backups are not being cleaned up

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In spite of configuring the backups to hold no more than 5 recent version chains, my computers is not cleaning out the old version chains.  I'll have to manually delete the old files before my NAS is filled up entirely.

Looking for the best approach to trying to correct this undesirable backup behaviour.  I seem to remember someone saying that just modifying the existing backup scheme does not work reliably, and that I should start a brand new backup scheme configuration and keep my fingers crossed.

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Automatic cleanup works fine for me but there are some aspects that you need to be aware.

First, if you configure to store no more than 5 recent version chains, you need storage space to hold these 5 version chains plus a further new Full backup file for the backup.  This is due to how automatic cleanup works, only when the next new version chain, i.e. #6 chain, has been successfully started by a new full backup image.

Next, making changes to your backup task can have a side effect of resetting your version chain count, so if you have edited your task after making 3 version chains, this could cause more than your 5 chains to be kept, but more common is that the number of incrementals or differentials before a new full backup is made is reset, so if you configure to create a new full backup after making 5 incr/diff backups but edit the task after 3 incr/diff backups, you may see 8 backups before a new full is created.

If you need to make changes to your task, then it is better to clone the task settings then use the cloned task to make the changes, then remove the original task and start again with the cloned task.

How do you clone a scheme ?

Dropdown arrow at the end of your existing backup name...

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