I have set up a continuous backup of specified files and folders wich includes the Outlook .pst files for my e-mail accounts. Today is 31st August and these haven’t been backed up since 28th even though they have been modified several times each day and there is a tick showing against the drive in question in Backup. The fies in question are no larger than other files that seem to have been backed up more recently. I am using WD Smartware version 2.4.12 with Windows 7 SP1 64bit.
Another day has passed and one .pst file has been backed-up and one not. The backup plan is still showing in Backup as complete (blue tick and no unbacked-up files listed) and the archive bit on the file in question is definitely set.
How large are the files, and how frequently are they open?
Smartware has the tendency to “put off” backing up larger files until the end of its operations, and can’t work with files that are open in another application (at least I’ve never found a way to make it do so, although last time I looked was a version or two ago).
So it may just be a combination of the two which are causing the delay perhaps?
The files are 500Mb and 115Mb and they are open, on and off, throughout the day but probably only for about 30% of the time. What mystifies me is the fact that they are not being backed up and yet the Backup tab in WD Smartware shows a blue tick suggesting that everything is up to date. I would not expect to see this is if, “operations”, to use your term, are still in progress - particularly when it comes to initial switch on at the start of the day.
If you can, I’d suggest to leave the relevant file unopened and unaccessed for a couple of days (e.g. over the weekend) with Smartware active and see if that allows it to add it to the backup. This kind of thing is not unknown to happen, especially on larger files (often video files for example) and usually resolves itself with a bit of patience. Hence it’s better to eliminate it first before trying to look more deeply into whty that specific file may not be backing up.
Another alternative may be to make a manual copy (duplicate) of it and put it somewhere else where it won’t get accessed at all and then see if that file copy backs up or not.
Thank you for that Darren. It did occur to me this morning that once e-mail has been opened and then closed, the system may think it’s still active, preventing WD Smartware from backing up the file, so I left the e-mail for as long as I could (around 2 hours) at which point I had to use it so I opened it up after checking the file wasn’t up to date, made some changes, closed down and, hey presto, it backed up. So leaving it dormant for a while doesn’t seem to be the answer.
The issue for me is that if I ever need to use this backup the one thing that I really will need, probably above everything else, is to have the e-mail up to date. I also can’t run my life without regular access to the e-mail client, even at weekends, in order to give it an opportunity to catch up.
And I still don’t understand the presence of the blue tick and the lack of file info in Backup suggesting that everything has been properly, and fully, backed up when clearly it hasn’t.
