[SOLVED] Timeshift and changing disk mount space

[Suwakoto]

Hello there.

I have two disks in my machine, one SSD and one HDD. The SSD is where the system lies, and HDD is used for data storage. I have set up Timeshift to make five daily backups, and to save them on the HDD, to save precious solid state space.

However, this has the unintended side-effect of every so often (probably when the backups are made) unmounting the disk from /media/[username]/[partition_name] to /run/timeshift/backup. It becomes unavailable in the file explorer, and I have to open the Disks utilit, unmount and remount it in order to access the files on it again.

Is there any way to stop Timeshift from doing that? Or if there isn't, is there at least a way to automatically (for example through a script) remount it after the backup is done?

[linux_trojan]

I have this trouble too sometimes. The problem was mounting disks as root, then using the browser as user. I started mounting disks as user. Have your checked your permissions? By the way, I dont use timeshift.

[motoryzen]

Hello there.

I have two disks in my machine, one SSD and one HDD. The SSD is where the system lies, and HDD is used for data storage. I have set up Timeshift to make five daily backups, and to save them on the HDD, to save precious solid state space.

However, this has the unintended side-effect of every so often (probably when the backups are made) unmounting the disk from /media/[username]/[partition_name] to /run/timeshift/backup. It becomes unavailable in the file explorer, and I have to open the Disks utilit, unmount and remount it in order to access the files on it again.

Is there any way to stop Timeshift from doing that? Or if there isn't, is there at least a way to automatically (for example through a script) remount it after the backup is done?

I'm willing to bet that Linux_Trojan is correct. This is also why I immediately choose to not do automatic backups in timeshift and instead just doing them manually as I want full access to my backup drives at all time while I'm not manually doing a backup.

[sanmig]

It’s advisable to use a dedicate partition for Timeshift, have it not running automatically and never 5 times a day.
TS takes care of your system which usually does not change 5 times a day.
Do not use TS for your data (home), in case of a restore you'd set everything back at once.

Every time TS runs it will search and compare SSD and HDD (you can hear it rumble), often useless because of no big change in system files.

The second but most important point:
TS will fill up the (TS) partition with small increments until it’s completely unusable for TS -
But it will not warn you that it can’t backup any more!
In the contrary, you’ll hear the rumble and think all good, until realizing there were no backups made since months.

My advice: Use TS with care and manually before you are going to play / install / update.

[sanmig]

It’s advisable to use a dedicate partition for Timeshift, have it not running automatically and never 5 times a day.
TS takes care of your system which usually does not change 5 times a day.
Do not use TS for your data (home), in case of a restore you'd set everything back at once.

Every time TS runs it will search and compare SSD and HDD (you can hear it rumble), often useless because of no big change in system files.

The second but most important point:
TS will fill up the (TS) partition with small increments until it’s completely unusable for TS -
But it will not warn you that it can’t backup any more!
On the contrary, you’ll hear the rumble and think all good, until realizing there were no backups made since months.

My advice: Use TS with care and manually before you are going to play / install / update.

[sanmig]

sorry, double posting!

[AndyMH]

However, this has the unintended side-effect of every so often (probably when the backups are made) unmounting the disk from /media/[username]/[partition_name] to /run/timeshift/backup. It becomes unavailable in the file explorer, and I have to open the Disks utilit, unmount and remount it in order to access the files on it again.

One of my niggles about timeshift, if the destination partition is already mounted, timeshift still insists on mounting it again at /run/timeshift. I suppose the argument is that if it used the existing mount point the user might unmount it during a backup. I'm happy to take that risk. Linux will let you mount a partition in different places in the filesystem simultaneously, you should still be able to use the existing mount point.

Sanmig has already pointed out your problem, I have timeshift setup to automatically take snapshots daily and that is too often.

[Suwakoto]

I have this trouble too sometimes. The problem was mounting disks as root, then using the browser as user. I started mounting disks as user. Have your checked your permissions? By the way, I dont use timeshift.

I actually mount it as user, it doesn't ask for my password when I mount or unmount it (except for when it's mounted by Timeshift in /run/timeshift/backup).

One of my niggles about timeshift, if the destination partition is already mounted, timeshift still insists on mounting it again at /run/timeshift. I suppose the argument is that if it used the existing mount point the user might unmount it during a backup. I'm happy to take that risk. Linux will let you mount a partition in different places in the filesystem simultaneously, you should still be able to use the existing mount point.

Indeed, if Timeshift happens to be doing its thing when I'm actively using the HDD, it doesn't unmount it (I guess it gets mounted in two places at once?). It is only if I happen to not be using the disk for long periods of time that the issue occurs.

It’s advisable to use a dedicate partition for Timeshift, have it not running automatically and never 5 times a day.
TS takes care of your system which usually does not change 5 times a day.
Do not use TS for your data (home), in case of a restore you'd set everything back at once.

Every time TS runs it will search and compare SSD and HDD (you can hear it rumble), often useless because of no big change in system files.

The second but most important point:
TS will fill up the (TS) partition with small increments until it’s completely unusable for TS -
But it will not warn you that it can’t backup any more!
In the contrary, you’ll hear the rumble and think all good, until realizing there were no backups made since months.

My advice: Use TS with care and manually before you are going to play / install / update.

My machine is quite noisy, so I can't say I've noticed hearing any "rumbling" as a result of backups being made. As in, I don't even know when they're being made

I was thinking of switching around the partitions to make one dedicated for Timeshift. That way, it could unmount that and I wouldn't care, as all my files would be on the other one. However, that'd require resizing the current partition (there's just one, taking up the entire disk), which Mint warned me extensively may lead to data loss last time I've done it, so I wouldn't be thrilled to do it again. Besides, your second point comes in here - I frankly don't know how much space to leave for it. I certainly don't want to give it too much (I'm running low on space, anyway), but give it too little and the issue you've mentioned may appear. If I have to monitor the state of the disk (and possibly resize it later on), the process isn't really a "set up and forget" kind of deal, at which point I may as well just do the backups manually.

Indeed, in hindsight 5 backups a day is overkill. I just picked that because that's what the default value is for daily updates. I guess I'll switch from that to doing a manual backup once a week or so. Also, my home folder is encrypted, so Timeshift can't back it up even if I wanted it to.



Thanks for the responses, everyone

[AndyMH]

Just reread your original post alongside timeshifts settings - you weren't doing 5 daily backups, you were backing up daily and keeping five daily backups = same as me. You can still run it automatically, just disable daily and enable weekly and choose how many you want to keep (default = 3).

If you want to go for a dedicated partition for timeshift (I don't bother, I have a dedicated internal/removable drive for all my backups, one large ext4 partition), then size around 60GB.

Resizing a partition should not lead to data loss, it's never happened to me, but always have a backup.

Also, my home folder is encrypted, so Timeshift can't back it up even if I wanted it to.

I hope you have a robust backup regime for home. Do not use timeshift for home, there are complementary alternatives, I use backintime.

[sanmig]

However, that'd require resizing the current partition (there's just one, taking up the entire disk), which Mint warned me extensively may lead to data loss ...

Working on partitions is dangerous and may lead to data loss, always be prepared by backups of important stuff!

One partition only - and neither MBR nor GUID partition table (check using Disks):
No partitioning (e.g. adding a partition) is possible, restart from zero (-1) with that drive.
MBR or GUID drive: Resizing may lead to data loss but usually does not … However …

In any case, additionally to TS and data file backups, a full drive backup (e.g. using AndyMH’s foxclone) is the fastest way to recover from playing with drives and partitions.
(Disclaimer: I’m a N00b with painful experiences, others may chime in here)

My Mint system was 28GB, TS partition was 60 GB, stopped silently (!) after about 7 month using the TS default (system grew to 34GB in that time, now I’m at 60GB system). Retried and it happened again.

Encryption: I think when you log in it’s open, so TS (and other stuff) has access.
I’m very privacy sensitive but don’t encrypt, because I know:
When anything goes wrong, everything will be lost, likely including the backups.
YMMV.

In your first posting please add [SOLVED] in front of the topic if you consider it closed, so others can identify solved threads: viewtopic.php?f=90&t=267264

Edit: AndyMH was faster to reply ...

[mikeflan]

Indeed, in hindsight 5 backups a day is overkill.

My guess is you are not doing 5 backups a day. You are doing one per day for 5 days in a row.
If you are doing 5 backups a day you have 'Hourly' checked:

There is nothing wrong with keeping 5 daily backups at a time.

[Suwakoto]

My guess is you are not doing 5 backups a day. You are doing one per day for 5 days in a row.
If you are doing 5 backups a day you have 'Hourly' checked

Just reread your original post alongside timeshifts settings - you weren't doing 5 daily backups, you were backing up daily and keeping five daily backups = same as me. You can still run it automatically, just disable daily and enable weekly and choose how many you want to keep (default = 3).

Well then... I guess I was confused by the terminology myself. Indeed, I had Daily enabled, with frequency set to 5. But if that means it only backs up once a day, then it means Timeshift is annoyingly unmounting my drive even when it isn't backing stuff up, because it does so a couple times a day.

Encryption: I think when you log in it’s open, so TS (and other stuff) has access.
I’m very privacy sensitive but don’t encrypt, because I know:
When anything goes wrong, everything will be lost, likely including the backups.
YMMV.

I hope you have a robust backup regime for home. Do not use timeshift for home, there are complementary alternatives, I use backintime.

Timeshift lets me backup the folder as a whole, but if I select to only include hidden files, it throws an error because of the encryption. So I guess it doesn't quite have access through the encryption, since it can't differentiate hidden files from non-hidden.

My home folder is basically just temporary storage, anything I actually want to keep is stored on the HDD, and I make duplicates of those files to put on my laptop. Anything else, like configuration files, I don't really care about. I mean, I recently reinstalled my system (after a failed switch to Arch), and I was up and running everything like before in a matter of a few hours, despite not transferring anything over from the old home folder.