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Incremental Backup Scheme Not Deleting Old Backups

I have a daily backup set for Incremental and retaining 3 versions of the image file. It's not doing that. It's making random combinations of full and incremental backups and not deleting the old ones. I have files dating back over 1 month old. For example, one group is full, incremental, incremental. Next group, full, incremental, incremental, incremental. Next group, full, incremental, incremental, incremental, incremental, incremental, Next group, full, incremental, etc. They're all random. They are even combinations where is does three full backups in a row with no incremental backups in between. The online help is very little help because the broken English is hard to understand. Aomei really needs to hire an interpreter when writing help files.

Comments

  • edited July 2019
    Did you backup to an external drive? Or NAS?
  • Mostly to a NAS, but some are from the NAS to a PC. No external drive.
  • Can you create a new backup task to test the Scheme?
  • I can do that. Will running it manually be the same as running it on a schedule? I don't want to wait three days the test this theory.
  • The test backup scheme seems to be deleting the old files ok, although it's hard to tell which is the full back up and which is the incremental since I used a single file for the test and all the backup files are similar in size. The first file in the set is supposed to be the full backup and the others should be incremental, correct? Why is the first file in the set larger than the other two if they only back up the changes in the file?
  • edited August 2019
    Why is the first file in the set larger than the other two if they only back up the changes in the file?
    -- The first file is a full backup?
  • edited August 2019
    I've included a screenshot of the properties of one of the backups as an example. It was created on January 5. It is set for Incremental with versions set to three. As you can see, it's very random in its operation. The set between 3/1 and 5/1 is the only correct one. There is no pattern to the other backups as it is supposed to be [Full] [Incremental] [Incremental] [Full] [Incremental] [Incremental], etc.
    All of the files listed here, dating all the way back to January, are still on my NAS drive. Nothing has been deleted. This is what I'm talking about.



  • I think you didn't create a new task to test the Scheme, right?
  • Yes I did. I talked about it a couple of posts ago. Here, let me repeat:

    "The test backup scheme seems to be deleting the old files ok, although it's hard to tell which is the full back up and which is the incremental since I used a single file for the test and all the backup files are similar in size. The first file in the set is supposed to be the full backup and the others should be incremental, correct?"

    You're not addressing my problem. What can you tell me about the above screenshot?

  • Did you tick the option "Create a full backup and always retain it before performing the scheme"?
  • No. It is unticked.
  • I'm confused. Did you set the backup to run once a month? If the Scheme is working, why is the backup not deleted?
  • Yes, the backup is set to run once a month. Why the old files are not being deleted was one of my original questions. That's why I'm here; hoping you could tell me why they are not being deleted. 
  • The screenshot I sent you is from the original backup that's not working right. I said the test scheme I created worked correctly. The original one is the problem.
  • Did you enable Backup Scheme when the backup was created?
  • Here, let me quote from my very first post. "I have a daily backup set for Incremental and retaining 3 versions of the image file."  The only way it can be "set to Incremental and retaining 3 versions of the image file," is having the scheme enabled.
    So, yes, I had the Backup Scheme enabled when I created the backup.
  • Can you upload the "tasks2.2.xml" file in "C:\ProgramData\AomeiBR"?
  • Your website wouldn't allow an .xml file so I had to zip it.
  • OK, so what's the name of this task that didn't work?
  • I have a daily/nightly backups set for Full Backups and retaining 3 versions of the image file. Backup Scheme is broken and not removing the 4th, 5th, 6th etc. old backups. There are no read or write errors in any logs (Backupper nor Windows)... Backup Scheme doesn't  consistently work, and has been reported to be broken for years now... No NAS, Backup scheme enabled when task created, Multiple tasks created and none have worked consistently, created backups to 2 new external drives, drives tested multiple times, tasks all have unique names, so it all comes down to, it's most likely not the customers fault, but Backup Scheme is not working as advertised. Please fix it ...
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