[SOLVED] Timeshift wants 1.3T or more to backup

[danneauxs]

Maybe I don't understand Timeshift. I have my Mint 18.3 mate system installed on a 120G drive. I have 3 other drives with various partitions installed in the machine. I want to use TS to back up to one of those drives. The drive I select has 600G free formatted ext4. TS gives me an error stating I don't have enough free space (<1.3T). Is it trying to back up all the attached drives? I can't get past step 2 which select the location to back up to so I can't even see what it wants to backup. I had to change the mount points of my drives to get PLEX to see them correctly. They are mounted in /media/ whereas the drive I want to use to backup is mounted at /disks/. Also in Caja the media folder shows as 41k with 9 items, in double commander /media is 1200G. I think timeshift is reading my drives as part of the filesystem?

Any thoughts?

TIA

Edit: just unmounted drives one by one until I only had the 120G left. TS still told me I didn't have enought space (<1.3T).

[JerryF]

In Timeshift, what are your settings for Schedule, User, and Filters?

Shutter-020.jpg

Shutter-021.jpg

Shutter-022.jpg

[danneauxs]

never go to there. timeshift started and ran the wizard. Received this screen.

2.png

[/img]

Tried to "Create" and got

1.png

Since I never got to that part there was not scheduled tasks.

Under users Nothing was selected, but I copied your example but there is no "exclude all" radio button.

3.png

anything else to check.

[gm10]

Seems to be the same bug mentioned here: viewtopic.php?f=47&t=271785

I guess you could try running the command line version in a terminal, might just be a bug with the GUI.

[danneauxs]

Read that one a the other day. Didn't really pertain as that person was able to do a backup. I can't even get that far. Guess I'll look into CLI commands for now. I have 2 pcs and the other one worked fine but doesn't have as many drives installed.

[AZgl1800]

I thinking the same thing, turn OFF all Auto backups, and mine runs just fine now on the Dell N5010.

Never had that issue before until recently.
I have noticed a couple of Timeshift updates in Update Manager, maybe one of them introduced this "new feature" ?

On this ASUS TP500L the auto backups seem to work just fine....
I label all of the Manual backups which are made prior to, and just after Updates.

[HaveaMint]

I have three drives installed and I had to go into timeshift settings under filters and exclude the drives I don't want backed up.

[AZgl1800]

I have three drives installed and I had to go into timeshift settings under filters and exclude the drives I don't want backed up.

that makes a lot of sense.

[HaveaMint]

I have three drives installed and I had to go into timeshift settings under filters and exclude the drives I don't want backed up.

that makes a lot of sense.

If I don't filter the other drives out my backup would (don't know the term) loop because my destination for the backup is on one of the other drives. It would also be HUGE with all the storage of stuff n things on the other drives. Also unless your using an external to store the backups on you should either unplug or make sure it is filtered out.

[AZgl1800]

Good lessons learned here.

I use a combination of locations for Timeshift to a separate partition delegated to Timeshift on the PC.
the minimum is a Daily with 3 saved.
Manuals are done when Upgrades are performed,and then Labeled as to what was done.

then once in a while, I will plug in an extUSB 6TB drive and change the location to reflect that, and do a Manual just to have something off the PC as backup.

[danneauxs]

I have three drives installed and I had to go into timeshift settings under filters and exclude the drives I don't want backed up.

Yeah, thought about that, but I unmounted all but the system drive so timeshift shouldn't have seen them I'm assuming. But it still wanted over 1.3T. I'll go in and try excluding them.

[HaveaMint]

I have three drives installed and I had to go into timeshift settings under filters and exclude the drives I don't want backed up.

Yeah, thought about that, but I unmounted all but the system drive so timeshift shouldn't have seen them I'm assuming. But it still wanted over 1.3T. I'll go in and try excluding them.

Plus adding you hidden files in your home partition can add up on space, things like .minecraft .thunderbird and the such can start to add up in space requirements. I don't use timeshift to backup anything on my home partition, I use the app Backintime for home.

[JerryF]

I have three drives installed and I had to go into timeshift settings under filters and exclude the drives I don't want backed up.

Yeah, thought about that, but I unmounted all but the system drive so timeshift shouldn't have seen them I'm assuming. But it still wanted over 1.3T. I'll go in and try excluding them.

I posted pretty much the same what Haveamint said, but it didn't take Filters is where you'll exclude the other drives and/or partitions.

Even though you manually unmount, Timeshift will still see those drives/partitions.

[Night Wing]

From what I've here about Timeshift and at another forum, Timeshift is "not" instilling confidence in me. Those Automatic Updates looks like they will install newer kernels too. That is not what I want. I read previous comments how some people were updating their kernels for security reasons and then they had problems. I don't kernel update and I didn't update. If something is working, I'm NOT about to "fix it".

I also only install Level 1, 2 and 3 Updates. I don't install Level 4 and 5 updates. For me, I think Timeshift is going to cause problems for me. Timeshift may be Mint 19's "new star", but I don't like the way Timeshift is going to "nag" me to use it for my Mint Updates. This nagging reminds me of the KB3035583 update which was Microsoft's so called important "Get Windows 10" nag. Since I have four Windows 7 hard drives, I had to "hide" that KB update 48 times over a 12 month period. I'm not about to go through that again with Timeshift since I've got five linux Mint hard drives.

With the above said, I'm going to take the "Discretion is the better part of Valor" approach which translates to; "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions". Since Mint 19 (Tara) Xfce is now officially available, I'm going to download the 64 bit Iso, burn a live DVD disc for it and once Mint 19 is installed and I get to my Desktop on my experimental laptop with it's linux Mint 19 hard drive, the first thing I'm going to do is not disable Timeshift, I'm going to uninstall Timeshift using the Synaptic Package Manager. Then I'll configure Mint 19 to my liking and then I'll install the new Mint Updates for Mint 19 without Timeshift.

Then I'll take Mint 19 for a week's test drive and if everything runs like a well oiled machine without any problems during that week, then I install Mint 19 on my other four linux hard drives on my other three computers which are currently running 64 bit Mint 18.3 (Sylvia) Xfce.

[gm10]

I read previous comments how some people were updating their kernels for security reasons and then they had problems. I don't kernel update and I didn't update. If something is working, I'm NOT about to "fix it".

Your choice, of course, but open security vulnerabilities in your kernel are only "working" as long as nothing exploits them. Sticking your metaphorical head into the sand doesn't make them go away. And to roll back a kernel update you don't even need timeshift, just select the previous kernel from the boot menu and then remove the problematic one.

For me, I think Timeshift is going to cause problems for me. Timeshift may be Mint 19's "new star", but I don't like the way Timeshift is going to "nag" me to use it for my Mint Updates

Timeshift is not going to nag you at all, unless you set it up to run automatically it will never even run on its own. The update manager has a warning to set it up, but you can disable that in the preferences.

[JerryF]

From what I've here about Timeshift and at another forum, Timeshift is "not" instilling confidence in me. Those Automatic Updates looks like they will install newer kernels too. That is not what I want. I read previous comments how some people were updating their kernels for security reasons and then they had problems. I don't kernel update and I didn't update. If something is working, I'm NOT about to "fix it".

I also only install Level 1, 2 and 3 Updates. I don't install Level 4 and 5 updates. For me, I think Timeshift is going to cause problems for me. Timeshift may be Mint 19's "new star", but I don't like the way Timeshift is going to "nag" me to use it for my Mint Updates. This nagging reminds me of the KB3035583 update which was Microsoft's so called important "Get Windows 10" nag. Since I have four Windows 7 hard drives, I had to "hide" that KB update 48 times over a 12 month period. I'm not about to go through that again with Timeshift since I've got five linux Mint hard drives.
...

Timeshift has nothing to do with the Automatic Updates. It'll only backup what you have at a particular moment of your system. If you choose to have the Update Manage include kernels, that's your choice, but you can disable that in Preferences.

[AZgl1800]

From what I've here about Timeshift and at another forum, Timeshift is "not" instilling confidence in me. Those Automatic Updates looks like they will install newer kernels too.

ummmm, you are grossly misinformed....

it will ONLY copy the apps you have installed.
it has NEVER failed me once, and I use it a lot.

it does has a temporary hiccup in that with AutoUpdates, on some computers, it reports that the target does not have enough space left... that will get fixed "any day now".

leaving your PC unUpdated is like running WinXP... well, maybe not quite that bad, but bad enough.
just takes one troll to find you and do it up bad.

and having Timeshift copies would allow you to fix it in 3 minutes or less.

[danneauxs]

Finally got it working. I excluded my extra drives but it still reported needing 1.3T. I logged out and in. Still 1.3T. Rebooted same thing.

Went in to setting and unchecked the automatic daily backup (which I had set manually from settings since I couldn't get far enough into the wizard to set it there). After that, manual backup worked fine. Rechecked the autobackup for daily and bam it works now.

Excluding drives is not intuitive and not part of the wizard that first runs when using timeshift for the first time. It would have help if the second step was selecting what to back up and showing the space needed to do so. Else skip the wizard completely and go to the main program.

[HaveaMint]

Finally got it working. I excluded my extra drives but it still reported needing 1.3T. I logged out and in. Still 1.3T. Rebooted same thing.

Went in to setting and unchecked the automatic daily backup (which I had set manually from settings since I couldn't get far enough into the wizard to set it there). After that, manual backup worked fine. Rechecked the autobackup for daily and bam it works now.

Excluding drives is not intuitive and not part of the wizard that first runs when using timeshift for the first time. It would have help if the second step was selecting what to back up and showing the space needed to do so. Else skip the wizard completely and go to the main program.

I had a bit of a learning curve on the setup for sure. My first run was not a good one to say the least with one of my other drives having close to 200 movies on it and the other drive had all my backups and timeshift saves along with my game server saves on it from another PC. It said it would be done in a few hours and I went "WHAT oh hell no" I then checked what root was using on the disk vers what TS was saying and they were not even close. It was then I snapped that the other drives were part of the process and filtered them out.

[AZgl1800]

I like your signature: "Tune for maximum Smoke and then read the Instructions".

as electronics was my avocation for over 50 years, we always joked "Oops! Let all the Good Smoke Out"

and the non-techies around us just looked at you with a blank face.