Will Not Backup All Files

Smartware will not backup files with a .mat extention.  It puts them in window called ready to backup and says something about pending.  It does this on several computers.

The .mat extension is confusing.  Sometimes it is a Microsoft Acess Table Shortcut.  For others it is a MATlab format.  In my case it is MATLab.

How do I get Smartware to back it up?

Hello there,

Try to do a file backup instead of a category backup to see if that helps you backup those files, this is in case you have a category backup setup which looks for specific file types.

Hope this helps you out.

I have tried both Catagory and File Backup.  They both reject .mat files.

I got an answer from technical support.  It seems that Smartware takes everything threw a file extension filter.  See this document for the filter:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3644/session/L3RpbWUvMTQxNjk1NDQ1NC9zaWQvbHhCbTNsOG0%3D

In other words if you use MATLab then automatic backup is useless.

You may also want to note that some programs put data with there executables in the \Program Files folder.  They are not supposed to but some do.  Automatic backup willl never handle these files either.

In general Smartware’s rules on what to backup are simple and inflexible.  Smartware stupidly follows these rules and will not work in many people.  I wonder how many people thought they had a backup and did not.

Good post!!  Had similar problems - your post cleared things up.  Unfortunately now, I have to find a different backup s/w solution. Thanks

I’m having this isue with WD SmartWare Pro on one computer but not on another with Quicken financial software files that have a .QDF file extention.

On my Windows PC, SmartWare backs up to a WD MyBookLive network drive. I have SmartWare configured to do continuous catergory backup. The Quicken files are in a Google Drive folder and are backed up virtually instantly when updated.

On my Windows notebook computer, SmartWare Pro backs up to a non-WD USB drive attached to the notebook. With SmartWare configured to do continuous category backup the Quicken files in a Google Drive folder are included in the initail backup but thereafter do not back up when they are updated. The .QDF file extention is included in the list of SmartWare category backup filter specifications referenced in an earlier post.

When I switch SmartWare on the notebook computer to do File backup instead of Category backup, the missing Quicken files that weren’t getting backed up are backed up virtually instantly whenever they are updated. So, is there something wrong with the SmartWare category backup filters that causes continuous category backup to a non-WD drive to fail whereas continuous category backup to a WD drive succeeds?

UPDATE:

Well, that didn’t work after all. Files are not getting backed up now with File backup either. Next I am scrapping using the USB drive with the notebook computer and backing it up to my network MYBookLive drive when at home. I’ll just copy files to a flash drive when I’m away from the home network. Wasted $20 and lots of time on SmartWare Pro I guess.

UPDATE 2:

Another failed attempt to deal with SmartWare not backing up changed files. I set up backups of my notebook to my network MyBookLive but that stopped working too, just like the local USB drive. My final solution is to use Comodo Backup on the notebook backing up to USB flash drive(s).