SyncBack is an accessible but robust file backup and synchronization program with extensive options, including locking file backup. Furthermore, its advanced copying techniques such as threaded file transfer and fast backup significantly shorten backup time.
Please refer to any program window for detailed context sensitive help by clicking the ‘Help’ button, as well as access a comprehensive online knowledge base.
Backups
Many businesses rely on backups as an essential way to recover from data loss caused by disaster or error, particularly companies storing confidential or sensitive information. Backups protect files from corruption or accidental deletion and offer the ability to recover older versions of files deleted accidentally or by mistake. Backup solutions available include tape backup, optical media and cloud storage – they can even be stored locally on an internal drive with its own folder – there is also the free SyncBack download on developer websites which makes using it even simpler!
Use the Restore wizard of SyncBack to quickly restore files from a backup to their original locations or roll back to a specific date. Its user interface offers an easy, straightforward process and provides a complete list of restored files and directories. Once chosen, SyncBack compares location information before asking which files should be restored via Actions; these actions allow you to selectively copy them between sources and destinations as desired.
Once you click “Restore,” SyncBack displays a window asking you to confirm your choices and providing the option of creating a Windows System Restore Point; this can help in case of system crashes during restore process. SyncBack then allows you to set your rollback date/time, scanning all backup files for changes and selecting versioned file from its destination that most closely corresponds with rollback date/time stamp – then showing those versioned files for review in its Differences window.
Based on your preferences, filters and selections can also be disabled in order to avoid accidentally copying files that don’t belong. Furthermore, selecting “Delete Files” enables you to delete items when running restore command – saving space in backups.
Restoring from a Backup
Have a backup of your data on a regular basis to prevent data loss due to tornadoes, floods, or fires. External drives or online storage sites offer added protection by creating backup copies for you at an alternate medium if they become unavailable due to natural disasters like tornadoes, floods or fires.
For free. But if you require more advanced features such as backing up to OneDrive or SharePoint or backing up automatically to multiple locations, upgrading to either Pro or SE versions may be necessary.
SyncBack can backup, sync and mirror folders and drives locally as well as to popular cloud services like Amazon S3, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box and OneDrive for Business (Office 365). The software offers FTP, FTPS and SFTP file transfers that support parallel or threaded transfers that reduce backup times dramatically. Furthermore, its software features 256-bit AES file encryption with meta data protection capabilities as well as ransomware detection.
Restoring from a backup in Windows is relatively straightforward. Just open the Backup application and choose to restore files from an earlier backup, select their location, and click Restore. Alternatively, the Windows Settings app allows for faster file and app restoration from devices, and iCloud Backup requires signing in with an Apple ID and password before you can restore.
Backup your devices easily with iMazing, an intuitive program designed to securely transfer information from a computer to any iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. The program runs in the background to ensure your device is always backed up; its Operations button lets you monitor its status. For any apps or data on your iDevice that requires immediate attention you can download them via App Store or iTunes after signing into Apple with your Apple ID.
Creating a Scheduled Task
SyncBack offers powerful tools for scheduling backups, synchronizations and other tasks to run periodically. You can create scheduled tasks either using the main window of SyncBack or, when editing profiles, by clicking the Schedule button on their When settings pages.
Once a scheduled task has been created, it will appear in Windows Scheduler as an event with its own ID and description. By using any tool to explore events within Windows Task Scheduler it is possible to determine exactly what happened with a given schedule (the details can be found in Event Logs).
Whenever a scheduled task fails to execute as intended, Windows Task Scheduler records it as an error and won’t retry executing it again. If you wish to change its associated rule and try again, then that must also be modified accordingly.
When setting up a scheduled task in SyncBack, you have two options for running it: when logged on or whether or not logged on (though beware that this last option only available to Windows Administrators).
Configuring an automated schedule when an external device, such as a USB drive with specific label, volume or serial numbers is inserted is also possible; to make this work a profile must be created under When-Insert settings page with its trigger enabled and turned ON.
Set an automated schedule to run automatically at specific dates or times – for instance you might wish to backup data at night before synchronizing on day 2.
With SyncBack V11 or later, you can set a profile to run whenever a file has been added or deleted from one of your source filesystems, and even initiate immediate synchronizations if there are any modifications.
Installing the SyncBack Monitor Service will alert you whenever a SyncBack profile hasn’t been run by the Windows Task Scheduler – such as due to changes in password security which prevent scheduled tasks from running as planned.
Creating a Backup Profile
SyncBack is an extremely flexible program that enables you to set up custom backup ‘profiles’ that define which files and folders should be backed up and where. Profiles can also be set up to synchronize between two locations or backup only specific file types, or you could even use it automatically transfer files across a network connection.
To create a new profile, open the main SyncBack window and select “New Profile”. In the Profile Setup window that appears, you can select which type of profile type (see screenshot below) you would like to create from among available options (see screenshot below).
If you select the Backup profile type, the program will move all files in the Source folder to their Destination folder, with exception for those which haven’t changed since running this profile previously. It then uses fast backup algorithms such as threaded and parallel file copying in order to speed up this process.
Mirror profile types allow you to update the destination folder by deleting any files already present, adding any missing ones and renaming existing files according to their source folders. Beware that using Mirror could result in data being lost as it deletes files that exist there without copying them on to its final destination at once.
Other options that you have are to backup just the changes made since last running the program or only those files added or modified since last time the program ran; or to only backup those which have been modified since. Furthermore, this program supports various filtering features for files including extension filtering as well as filtering by date/size/masks/wildcards etc.
The program supports the creation of groups containing multiple profiles, which allows you to run them all at the same time rather than one after another.
Use the When Insert option to set an event that triggers your profile when an external drive containing data with specific labels, volumes or serial numbers enters your computer – perfect if you regularly transfer files between home office and the internet.
