This is odd indeed, but easy to reproduce. I discovered it by accident (long story). The bottom line is that after deleting files from the archive, and then emptying the trash, they can mysteriously RAPIDLY reappear in the archive after a backup. Let me explain....

1. Start by doing a manual backup just to get everything up to date.

2. Delete a large file from your archive. Something that would take a noticeable time to back up again. In my case, it was an Outlook .pst file a bit over 1GB.

3. Go to the Trash and "delete the trash file permanently". Verify, using both the iDrive app and the web interface, that the file is gone and that the Trash is empty. It's really gone now, right? (...but just wait!)

4. Run a manual backup again. The backup operation will quickly complete (i.e., in the normal amount of time it would take to scan through all the files in your backup set). In my case, that's about 5 minutes, but it would have taken more than an hour to actually push the 1GB file up to the archive from scratch.

5. Note that in the backup log, it will say "Files backed up now: 0" - so iDrive is saying that it didn't need to back up any files (even though we just deleted one of our files from the archive...hmmm).

6. Now go look in your archive, and VOILA!, the big file that you deleted and purged from Trash has mysteriously reappeared in its proper place.

So somehow, even after deleting a file from my archive and emptying the trash, iDrive has a copy of my file somewhere that it can quickly add back to my archive. Somehow, this makes me a little nervous! So I expanded my experiment (at some risk, but I wanted to know!).

1. I deleted ALL my files from the archive. That was 28,000 files, just over 100GB of data.
2. I "permanently deleted" them from the Trash. Everything looked like it was gone.
3. I ran a manual backup. Guess what - it took just 5 minutes (the normal time to scan through my files), and at the end, iDrive said "Files backed up now: 0", and when I looked online, all my files were magically back in my archive!!!

So, iDrive folks, what the heck is going on here?

Summary: Archive cleanup does not compare your local files to the iDrive Archive as one would expect. Rather, it compares your local files to what's in a LOCAL DATABASE (cache of backed up files) that gets built during the backup operations. Unfortunately, several things can cause the local database to NOT be in sync with the contents of the actual iDrive Archive, and therefore Archive Cleanup does NOT result in a 1-1 correspondence between the local filesystem and the online archive.

Requested remedy: Archive Cleanup should compare the set of local files with what's actually in the online archive, not to the local cache. I realize there is a network efficiency to comparing everything locally (and this method might be 'good enough' 90% of the time), but there should be some way to force Archive Cleanup to do a REAL, FULL compare to ensure that the archive and my filesystem are truly in sync.

Discussion: I've been plagued for months by Archive Cleanup not 'finding' files in the archive to delete that had been locally deleted. The support folks told me this was because I had upgraded my hard drive (not a very compelling answer, but that's as far as we got). Then, last week, I was in a support session because Archive Cleanup was reporting some bogus filenames for deletion (files that didn't exist locally OR in the archive). The support person said we had to rebuild the database (WHAT database I thought!) by...

1. Recording my backup set details
2. Exiting iDrive
3. Going to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\IDrive\IBCOMMON
4. Renaming or deleting the folder with my iDrive username
5. Restarting iDrive
6. Setting up my backup set details again, and
7. Doing a manual backup

Running Archive Cleanup after this, it did indeed clear out the bogus filenames. But I noticed that while Archive Cleanup was running ('scanning' my thousands of files) that there was NO network traffic. Then the light bulb went on and I started experimenting. I discovered...

1. You can start iDrive, then disable all your network connections, and then run Archive Cleanup! Yes, it 'scans' my thousands of files and reports locally deleted items - all while disconnected from the internet. How? It's comparing my local files to the local database, not to the actual archive.

2. If I do the 7-step process above, but skip step 7 (which rebuilds the local database), and then run Archive Cleanup, it INSTANTLY completes telling me everything is in sync. This only makes sense if iDrive thinks the database represents what's actually in the archive (doesn't take long to compare an empty database of files!).

How can the database and the archive get forever out of sync (and Archive Cleanup therefore forever somewhat broken)? Well, anytime the local database gets rebuilt from scratch. Examples include...
- The iDrive support people tell you to remove it (not too common, but this was the case for me)
- You upgrade the hard drive in your computer (most people then reinstall apps and copy their data files, but do NOT copy the system appdata folders during upgrades - in fact, there are good reasons not to copy the appdata folders)
- You buy a new computer and just move your data files over to it (VERY common)

Bottom line here is that there are several common, credible ways that the local database can get out of sync with the real archive, and this will keep Archive Cleanup from properly doing what it is advertised to do. So, iDrive, PLEASE provide a method for doing a true Archive Cleanup based on the actual files in the archive, and not on a local approximation.

[Submitted to support and assigned ticket # ID00544040 ]

I am new to iDrive.
I tried to clean up my macbook today. By accident I dropped some files in the finder on the ALIAS iDrive on my desktop. Finder moved the files somewhere. this is NOT the iDrive Sync folder, which I have on my desktop, too.
Opening iDrive, I can see them in the Folder iDrive, but this folder does not exist - it is the ALIAS on my desktop.
I can click to backup, but the backup does not start. I cannot access the file via the web-interface.
I cannot restore, because these files are new and not back-upped.....
When opening iDrive, these file are listed in red - perhaps this is a hint for somewhat?

iDrive is 3.1.0.5 on OS X 10.9.5

Can somebody help me to get access again, please!
thanks a lot in advance

After trying iDrive for a few days I think I cannot use it for three reasons.

1) Adding or changing an private encryption key requires deleting your account and starting over. Very bad if you have 100+ GBs of data or a paid account.
2) 1 TB of sync space is not so useful if it only syncs one directory.
3) Needs some control of syncing, even if it is something as simple as a .ignoreSync file. We really don't want temporary, cache files, and lock files synced across machines. This is even worse considering #2.

Anyway, that's my feedback. I'd love to hear that I missed something or you're working on it.

The latest iDrive keeps creating a temporary directory in the root folder of my Mac called "evs_temp". Except for the default folders, Applications, Library, System, etc... I do not want any third party directories stored here.

From Googling this directory, it keeps coming back as something related to the iDrive API software. However, I am not an iDrive developer and I've never installed any iDrive API software.

1. What is the purpose of this "evs_temp" directory?

2. If it's just a temporary directory necessary for iDrive to properly function, then why is the "evs_temp" directory not invisible?

3. Can this "evs_temp" directory be moved or deleted?

4. Is this "evs_temp" directory related to large backups being interrupted or the local database issue? http://forum.idrive.com/topic.php?id=178

Hi,
I am trying to package idevsutil for Arch linux. Can I know what is the license under which idevsutil is released?

I use a limited user for my work, while Windows iDrive runs in Admin.

Although I can backup C:/users/~/My Documents and its folders without difficulty, I get an error message in the log, saying there's no permission, if I try to backup any of :

c:/users/~/My Music, c:/users/~/My Pictures or c:/users/~/My Videos.

I was under the impression that Admin could access anything, and, using properties, I can see no difference between these folders.

There's virtually nothing in these folders (I use Public Music, etc.), so I can simply put them on the exclude list, but I'd like to know why it's happening.

Hey,

I'm considering using IDrive to backup all my company's
servers. The REST API is interesting and might make up for the
lack of SFTP/SCP/FTP access.

My company has sensitive data so I do the encryption myself using
the open-source tool duplicity (internally using gpg). Has anyone
already written a backend for duplicity to use IDrive's REST API?
I'm pretty sure my boss won't let me spend office time on this...

Cheers,

Mat.

Is there a way to know which files the CDP is not monitoring because of the 500 mb restriction?
Does it just skip over any file/folder that is over 500 mb in the backup set?
And therefore this file/folder could only be updated by way of the actual scheduled backup or backups?
Are sub-folders figured separately from the parent folder?

If CDP is being used with the "real time" setting, are scheduled backups still active, because I've noticed most of the time when opening the program there is a note saying "backup in progress" instead of the usual "next scheduled event" note?

If CDP is being used with the "real time" setting, does the default backup set still need scheduled backups?

I think it would nice if the CDP could just take over the complete backup operation, after the initial full backup.

Hi,

Yesterday I upgraded my QNAP TS-112P to version 4.1.1 and since the upgrade I cannot login to the iDrive app. The iDrive app was also upgraded to the latest version.

The password is definitely correct - as I logged into the app fine before the upgrade and no other application on the QNAP is having the same problem.

Please help!

Jim

Hi,

I am using iDrive from a Synology DS214se. I installed the version 2.03.03 for this NAS without any issue. I bought a 1 Tb space and started to upload. I have no error... but files are skipped. I noticed that any folder further than the 5th level is no more taken into account. Typically, here is the log of what has been backed up for my folder "Musique".

[Fri Oct 3 18:40:50 2014][SUCCESS][/volume1/Famille/Famille/Musique/Contenu recueils.fp7][100 KB]
[Fri Oct 3 18:40:50 2014][SUCCESS][/volume1/Famille/Famille/Musique/Essais][15 KB]
[Fri Oct 3 18:40:50 2014][SUCCESS][/volume1/Famille/Famille/Musique/Recueils partitions.fp7][56 KB]

But here is the real content of this folder:

drwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 704 15 fév 2014 .
drwxrwxrwx@ 1 login staff 602 14 jan 2014 ..
-rwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 15364 27 sep 18:48 .DS_Store
drwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 264 28 avr 2013 .lacie
-rwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 102400 15 fév 2014 Contenu recueils.fp7
drwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 264 15 jan 2001 Crescendo
drwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 296 15 fév 2014 Disques Famille
-rwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 15360 16 nov 1998 Essais
drwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 264 21 sep 2000 Finale
drwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 500 5 jan 2014 Gospel Melody
drwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 264 26 oct 2012 Karaoke
drwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 264 31 mai 2012 MP3 non iTunes
drwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 874 17 fév 2013 Madrijazz
drwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 840 20 oct 2003 Midi files
drwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 264 19 nov 2012 Orgue enregistrements
drwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 296 5 avr 10:57 Partitions achetées
-rwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 57344 15 déc 2013 Recueils partitions.fp7
drwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 264 25 sep 21:07 Repertoire orgue
drwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 264 15 déc 2013 Scan partitions
drwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 636 13 déc 2012 Textes chansons
drwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 264 5 jan 2014 Vente HS6
drwxrwxrwx 1 login staff 432 13 mar 2013 iTunes Sandrine

We can therefore see that the three files have been backed up, but none of the folders.

The related _ERROR file log is empty.... so there was officially no error during the backup.

I can not imagine that the software on purpose limits to 5 the deepness of the folders. If this is an official limitation, this make the software unusable as I probably have 70% of my files that are stored further than the 5th level... Does someone know if there is a way (still using the app on the Synology as this was the reason for my choice of iDrive) to remove or workaround this limitation ?

Thanks for any help.

Best regards.

Hi,

In the preferences for backup, there is an option "... for backup" with two items: "mirror path" and "relative path".

The behavior of "mirror path" is quite obvious as expected: the full path from Synology root is kept in the backup. The behavior of "relative path" however is quite strange. When selected, the backup task will put ALL the files at the root location you selected on iDrive. This means that if your file is in (absolute path) for exemple: "/Volume1/Family/MyData/home_made/myfile.txt", the backup on iDrive (assuming you selected the default "/Syno214" root for the backup) will be: "/Syno214/myfile.txt".

In facts all the files, wherever they are on the NAS, are put in the root directory defined... with of course may name conflicts and is in any case not a good idea.

Is that a bug or a chosen "feature" ?

Best regards.

why does the reference-screen allways popup when i am turning on my computer. Is there a chechbox wher i can avoid this?

Is there any way to create a second, user-named backup set in the Windows client? I need to have two backup sets for two scheduled backups from a PC: one for the PC's data, and one for a Synology DS411j.

The Synology already has a backup set which was seeded via IDrive Express run on the PC. I cannot, however, use the Synology client to maintain that backup set because the Default Location dialog box will not save a new backup location (ticket #ID00552601). I need to maintain that backup set from the PC until a fix is found for the Synology client.

No support for Synology 213+?

Listed below are the features and enhancements:

1. Added support for DS414J.
2. Added the loader for Backup/Restore set to show the progress.
3. Removed the dependency on IPKG packege.
4. Removed the dependency on sendmail, grep, ps and sudo packages.
5. Removed the dependency on customized perl and using perl available in App center.
6. FIxed the Backup/Restore location selection issue.
7. Fixed the file/folder icon mismatch issue on Backup/Restore Set.
8. Fixed loader issue for Add new Backup/Restore set.
9. Fixed the scroll bar flicker issue in scheduler page.
10. Fixed the Default Backup Set duplicate entry issue.
11. Fixed the backup issue for directories if full path exclude is present.
12. Fixed the full path exclude item disappearing issue due to permissions.

My client is running backups but the filecount never increases in the number of backups.It's run for 7hrs overnight and about 9hrs+ each day for the last week. Never makes progress. Thousands of retries are recorded in the log each time. Anyone ever run into this?

Other clients on my account are running fine. I've tried reinstalling, rebooting, but nothing has worked.

Here's the summary of what ran overnight for 7+hrs. Nothing else going on, on my internet connection at the time.

[Total retry attempts : 1648]
[Start Time: 10/6/2014 10:30:48 PM]
[End Time: 10/7/2014 6:00:17 AM]
[Files considered for backup: 16806]
[Files already present in your account: 11360]
[Files backed up now: 0]

EDIT: Ticket ID00553382 has been open on this for a few days.

Hi,

i'm missing the option to do a archive cleanup from the Synology package. I have moved some files and realized that these was backed up twice. Would somehow need to remove old files which is no longer availible on the NAS.

HI I have a feature for future editions of Idrive programs and the idrive account login. The feature that I want to talk about is called two step verification. The way this works is you set two step verification up on your idrive account by putting your cell phone number or landphone number into the space provided during setup of two step verification when you go to you login to your idrive account on the net or when you login to your idrive desktop client. The first thing you do is enter your username and password and push continue. Then the next space provided your cell phone sends you a text message automatically and you have to enter a six digit number and then you push verify and then you are logged into your idrive accout either through your idrive account on the idrive site or though the idrive program on your desktop or laptop computer.

If you choose to provide your landline number during two step verification then after you put your username and password and push continue then your landline phone will ring and a voice on the other end will say the six digit number witch you will put in the space provided and then push verify. After this six digit number is verified on the site or desktop client you are automatically logged into your account.

I should also mention that this feature is safer then just a password because if a hacker gets your account password and you have two step verification setup on your cell phone a hacker will not beable to get into your account on the idrive website or the idrive Client with out your cell phone and a six digit number.

I should also mention that every time you login into your account with idrive and you have 2 step verification setup two step verification will send you a different six digit number every time you login to your account or into the idrive Client for stronger security.

2 step verification should be optional for people to Enable in idrive settings in the idrive Client on their desktop computer or phone and also have 2 step verification so that it can also be enabled and disabled in the settings on the idrive website.

Thanks idrive team
keep up the great work

A tech in Live Chat support told me that the Synology client backs up its data in a form that is unusable by a Windows client, and vice-versa. He claimed it was because the "architecture" was different.

In other words, I would not be able to use a Windows PC to restore a file to the PC from data that had been backed up by a Synology client. It would also mean that users cannot use the IDrive Express service to do the initial seed backup for a Synology server (using a PC that is drive-mapped to the server), then use "Relative path" to subsequently maintain that backup data with the Synology client.

Is this true? If so, then two critical use cases were not considered:

1. Synologys are typically used as home servers, a centralized location for data that is used by many different devices, and is not present locally on those devices. If the Synology fails, this centralized data would be unrecoverable. It would also mean that the data would be inaccessible to users on the road, who suddenly find they need a file that exists only on the home server.
2. The IDrive Express seeding service would be useless where it is needed most: the initial account seeding for home servers which typically have many more gigabytes of data than the individual PCs, Macs, and other devices.

Many people do not turn on desktop or laptop computers for days, while the data on a home server may be changed continually by phones and other hand-held devices. We need a headless backup solution, but the lack of both of these capabilities would make the Synology client useless to me.