[Release] XBMC Backup

Hi Rob,

First off great add-on!! I've been doing things like this manually, or by a combination of Rsyncs and other syncs across various instances of XBMC and platforms for some time now and also saw the need for this addon, but without having the expertise to create it!

From some testing it looks like this creates a complete new backup/overwrite each time it is used...

Would an optional update/complete backup (a change of sub-folder name i.e. not the date, would then be required perphaps) be possible Based

i.e. if file no longer exists on destination but exists on source =add, if exists=do nothing, if does not exist on source but exists on destination=remove

Thanks for your work!

Cian

(2013-05-13 05:48)prkid Wrote:  Rob,

I reset my system and proceeded to include a new account on my Mac and provided all the privileges. I then used the browse for path and it gave me an error (could not connect, actually, did not get through the whole path). Thus, I typed in the path where the privileges abd sharing was set. Below is the log url. I lloked and can not really determine at what point my path was set (does not show up!!!). Maybe you can shed some light. Thank you!

http://xbmclogs.com/show.php?id=18572

The log doesn't show the path being set since that is just a setting. The settings file is a text file that gets saved, nothing actually happens until you try to run a backup with the addon. If the XBMC browser gave you an error than that is most likely the problem. Since this addon uses the same virtual file system that XBMC uses when you are browsing for the path. If XBMC can't communicate with it, then you can't write to it. Typing the path manually gets it into the settings, but when you run the addon you'll probably have the same problem.

(2013-05-13 14:24)ciantm Wrote:  Hi Rob,

First off great add-on!! I've been doing things like this manually, or by a combination of Rsyncs and other syncs across various instances of XBMC and platforms for some time now and also saw the need for this addon, but without having the expertise to create it!

From some testing it looks like this creates a complete new backup/overwrite each time it is used...

Would an optional update/complete backup (a change of sub-folder name i.e. not the date, would then be required perphaps) be possible Based

i.e. if file no longer exists on destination but exists on source =add, if exists=do nothing, if does not exist on source but exists on destination=remove

Thanks for your work!

Cian

Thanks for the suggestion. I think the biggest issue with something like this is not knowing the file modified dates (these aren't available with the XBMCVFS implementation). In the case where a file exists on the source and destination, you would want to know which was newer so you could copy the source -> destination if it needed an update.

What purpose would this serve you as opposed to how the addon functions now? Obviously instead of multiple restore points you'd end up with 1 main one, but with the backup rotation feature you could trim this down to one anyway. Is it the constant file name rather than the rotating name with date that would better fit your use case or are you more concerned with the bandwidth of transferring all the files every time? Just trying to get a little more information.

Dropbox isn't the fasted cloud location
This morning i made a backup and this evening it is still buzzy.

Is it possible to backup The watched/unwatched status of my movie library?
I used the xbmc backup's default setting. And i see after restoring The watched status is gone.

The watched status of your videos is stored in the XBMC database. If you've backed up the database it should be there. One thing to keep in mind after a restore is that you should probably reboot XBMC to make sure all the restored files/settings take effect.

I see your post regarding Dropbox too. Yes, it is not the fastest transfers ever. One thing that really slows it down is if you have multiple skins in your addons folder, these can be hundreds of MBs in size. Depending on the system you are using it would actually be more efficient to install the native Dropbox client for your OS and then backup to that folder. This way the backup would happen locally and the Dropbox software could send it all up to the cloud in the background. The direct to Dropbox feature was implemented for folks with systems like OpenELEC that may not be able to install a native Dropbox client.

I would suggest putting your feature request into the XBMC ticket tracker - http://trac.xbmc.org. That way the devs can see it - I'd imagine what you are proposing would need to be added to the xbmc core as you'd want to do this from the main movie/tv menus.

(2013-05-17 14:58)robweber Wrote:  The watched status of your videos is stored in the XBMC database. If you've backed up the database it should be there. One thing to keep in mind after a restore is that you should probably reboot XBMC to make sure all the restored files/settings take effect.

I see your post regarding Dropbox too. Yes, it is not the fastest transfers ever. One thing that really slows it down is if you have multiple skins in your addons folder, these can be hundreds of MBs in size. Depending on the system you are using it would actually be more efficient to install the native Dropbox client for your OS and then backup to that folder. This way the backup would happen locally and the Dropbox software could send it all up to the cloud in the background. The direct to Dropbox feature was implemented for folks with systems like OpenELEC that may not be able to install a native Dropbox client.

I would suggest putting your feature request into the XBMC ticket tracker - http://trac.xbmc.org. That way the devs can see it - I'd imagine what you are proposing would need to be added to the xbmc core as you'd want to do this from the main movie/tv menus.

Nevermind the future request it was ment for yatse.

I only edited the backup location from local to dropbox and back to local. Did not edit the settings which to backup. It could be my backup was before settings those watched/unwatched flags, i don't remember.
I am using a Raspberry Pi. People who are using Raspbmc/Openelec/XBMCbuntu can also use the SFTP protocal and Openelec have SMB shares setup out of the box. But i understand your point about the Dropbox client.

Thx.

I agree with what a few other folks have said - create a folder in your local dropbox folder, and set XBMCbackup to backup there. Then dropbox will eventually get the upload, it may take a little while but it'll get there. Either way, you still have a local backup on disk in the meantime.

I go overboard - I back up to local dropbox, which is in turn backed up to dropbox, and is also included in crashplan and time machine backups.

I'm anal retentive about not losing data