Is there a way to have Sense do an incremental backup rather than a complete backup?

Fitman-NJ

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May 21, 2024
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Hello! If I recall correctly, it seems like I've seen posts mentioning incremental backups using the Sense app...which take a matter of minutes. Whenever I backup to either of my two USB drives (rotating them), Sense does a backup of the complete database. I began the most recent backup about 7AM this morning, and now, 6 hours later, it's only 34.6% completed. The database is something like 1.2 GB, so not that large by most standards.

Is this normal behavior, or am I missing something? Since Sense does not offer bulk editing, I've been deleting 100's of unwanted music files, one-by one ( it's very annoying and extremely time consuming not being able to delete more than one file at a time). This results in most of my backups being smaller than the current backup restoration size. Could this be the reason why Sense is choosing to do a full backup versus an incremental version?

Will we ever get a bulk editing function in Sense so that the user can do major pruning/modification of the music database more efficiently? Thanks.
 
Solution
Hi,
Sense does indeed do incremental backups, i think the confusion comes in here when you are doing this to more than 1 USB drive. It is essential that you make sure to select RESET BACKUP CONFIGURATION when swapping from one back drive to another. Perhaps the simplest way to describe this is Sense does not 'auto-detect' backup drives that are being hot-swapped out. It operates on the basis you are using one USB drive, but if you are running 2 USB backup drives this is absolutely fine, you simply must make sure that you reset the backup configuration when switching drives, and make sure of course to choose EXISTING backup when re-configuring.
You should have no problem maintaining multiple USB backups as long as you keep this in mind.
Hi,
Sense does indeed do incremental backups, i think the confusion comes in here when you are doing this to more than 1 USB drive. It is essential that you make sure to select RESET BACKUP CONFIGURATION when swapping from one back drive to another. Perhaps the simplest way to describe this is Sense does not 'auto-detect' backup drives that are being hot-swapped out. It operates on the basis you are using one USB drive, but if you are running 2 USB backup drives this is absolutely fine, you simply must make sure that you reset the backup configuration when switching drives, and make sure of course to choose EXISTING backup when re-configuring.
You should have no problem maintaining multiple USB backups as long as you keep this in mind.
 
Solution
I have previously followed the instructions here to make to 2 initial backups.
Today I tried to run a new (incremental) backup, the 1st one worked and the backup screen said that there were x artists, x albums, x tracks since the last backup. Backup worked.
I powered down the system (soft power down) , attached the 2nd usb drive , powered back up but the backup screen said 0 artists, 0 albums, 0 tracks since last backup (listed todays date as last backup). When I started the backup it failed. I had loads of space on the drive etc.
Any ideas??
 
Hi,
Sense does indeed do incremental backups, i think the confusion comes in here when you are doing this to more than 1 USB drive. It is essential that you make sure to select RESET BACKUP CONFIGURATION when swapping from one back drive to another. Perhaps the simplest way to describe this is Sense does not 'auto-detect' backup drives that are being hot-swapped out. It operates on the basis you are using one USB drive, but if you are running 2 USB backup drives this is absolutely fine, you simply must make sure that you reset the backup configuration when switching drives, and make sure of course to choose EXISTING backup when re-configuring.
You should have no problem maintaining multiple USB backups as long as you keep this in mind.
Thanks, Stephen, I guess that I WAS missing something...
 
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I have previously followed the instructions here to make to 2 initial backups.
Today I tried to run a new (incremental) backup, the 1st one worked and the backup screen said that there were x artists, x albums, x tracks since the last backup. Backup worked.
I powered down the system (soft power down) , attached the 2nd usb drive , powered back up but the backup screen said 0 artists, 0 albums, 0 tracks since last backup (listed todays date as last backup). When I started the backup it failed. I had loads of space on the drive etc.
Any ideas??
It is the same as per my last post - when you connect the next USB drive, the system is not paying any attention to it and is only displaying the information of the last successful backup, which was to your other drive. The Backup page does not automatically refresh to reflect the different statuses of different USB drives; you will need to go to RESET BACKUP CONFIGURATION, then go back to CONFIGURE BACKUP and choose EXISTING backup. This will then refresh the statistics relating to your second USB backup drive.

If you did indeed do this step, then the issue could be elsewhere, do you know how long ago it was you last made a backup to that drive?
 
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