Fab's AutoBackup 7 Pro - a must have tool for techs

[Larry Sabo]

Have you enabled the "DontProcessCloud=1" option under "[CONFIG]" section of autobackup.ini file ? If so, then it explains why OneDrive files were skipped.

Thanks for the prompt reply, @fabs. It was indeed set to 1 and has now been changed to 0. I don't recall setting it to 1 but there's a lot I don't recall.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Perhaps you plugged the drive after you started Fabs ?

I don't think so. How would Fabs see and back up the other data without issue if that were the case?

 

[fabs]

I don't think so. How would Fabs see and back up the other data without issue if that were the case?

The additional folders tree (excluded folders tree too) may not be refreshed in real time so you may have pointed an issue with it. Now, I need to figure out if that's fixable or not. If not, then it will be recommended to start Fab's after drive is plugged.

Edit: that's what's happening. After drive is plugged, I clicked the "refresh list" item in the drive selection menu and I've been able to choose it BUT it was not under additional folders tree. Let's see if I can make it refresh too.

Edit 2: For now, please plug drives in BEFORE Fab's is started to avoid such an issue.

 

[GTP]

Hey @fabs I havent updated for a while now and I'm not sure if my license is still current.
My username/password doesnt seem to work on the website anymore?

Using the right login details certainly helps...

 

[fabs]

Hey @fabs I havent updated for a while now and I'm not sure if my license is still current.
My username/password doesnt seem to work on the website anymore?

Using the right login details certainly helps...

Sure it helps
I've checked your license and updates have expired on February 16th 2021

 

[MudRock]

Sure it helps
I've checked your license and updates have expired on February 16th 2021

Hey @fabs !

I don't know if your provider gives you any mechanism, but it would be handy (and I'm sure a revenue booster) to email out renewal reminders?

Maybe a little box on the main screen a month before that says something like "Renewal incoming" or similar? I know you don't usually get the prompt until you try to update, and since AutoBackup tries to update itself, and no notice unless you try to manually update. Might help you close some more renewals too.

 

[fabs]

Hey @fabs !

I don't know if your provider gives you any mechanism, but it would be handy (and I'm sure a revenue booster) to email out renewal reminders?

Maybe a little box on the main screen a month before that says something like "Renewal incoming" or similar? I know you don't usually get the prompt until you try to update, and since AutoBackup tries to update itself, and no notice unless you try to manually update. Might help you close some more renewals too.

This is almost fully DIY so my provider will not help at all. Perhaps I could try to code something using a php script in host crontab. It was simpler before I had to deal with slow Fab's startup because it hanged while trying to check for updates by itself.
I could also try to add a routine in it so it will prompt user to check for updates (for example once a month). That's better than an email in my opinion since customers are not all newsletter subscribers.

 

[fabs]

Hello,
Fab's AutoBackup 7 Pro and Fab's AutoBackup 7 Home & Office V7.8.2.4705 have just been released.

Here is the change log for both versions:

Fixed:
- There were errors when restoring / transferring Mozilla Thunderbird profiles.
- Any external drive plugged in after Fab's AutoBackup has been started did not show up in additional folders and excluded folders tree views after source drive list refresh. Thanks for feedback @Larry Sabo !

Grab it from your orders history's details on the shop's website at https://store.fpnet.fr/account.php?language=en or using the bundled updater tool (click the "Download Fab's AutoBackup 7.X" link within the program and get the updated files).

 

[Haole Boy]

Anybody else having permissions issues w/ Fabs and OneDrive? I just did a 'Restore data' using Fabs and OneDrive is puking on permissions on the Restore_log, Installed_Software_List, Installed Software list folder, printers list folder. All of them show 'No access permission to the item'. Only these Fabs-specific files are having problems, all user data files are OK.

I used username 'Jane' to run Fabs to restore the data. When I go to the Properties -> Security for any of these files / folders, the Permissions for Jane is set to 'Special Permissions'. When I view the Special Permissions, nothing is checked (unless I'm interpreting this wrong).

Administrators is the Owner of the file, and has Full Control, and Jane is a member of the Administrator's group. So, I'm puzzled as to why OneDrive, running on Jane's userid is choking on these files.

If I change the permissions for Jane, then OneDrive does it's thing and everything gets synced.

One thing to note: these files were originally on the Desktop. I have moved them to a folder located on the Desktop. Jane is the Owner of that folder, and has full control.

Mahalo for your assistance!

Harry Z

 

[fabs]

Anybody else having permissions issues w/ Fabs and OneDrive? I just did a 'Restore data' using Fabs and OneDrive is puking on permissions on the Restore_log, Installed_Software_List, Installed Software list folder, printers list folder. All of them show 'No access permission to the item'. Only these Fabs-specific files are having problems, all user data files are OK.

I used username 'Jane' to run Fabs to restore the data. When I go to the Properties -> Security for any of these files / folders, the Permissions for Jane is set to 'Special Permissions'. When I view the Special Permissions, nothing is checked (unless I'm interpreting this wrong).

Administrators is the Owner of the file, and has Full Control, and Jane is a member of the Administrator's group. So, I'm puzzled as to why OneDrive, running on Jane's userid is choking on these files.

If I change the permissions for Jane, then OneDrive does it's thing and everything gets synced.

One thing to note: these files were originally on the Desktop. I have moved them to a folder located on the Desktop. Jane is the Owner of that folder, and has full control.

Mahalo for your assistance!

Harry Z

It looks like an old bug I had with cloud files (it was mostly OneDrive, once again...) and their permissions that was fixed on July 2018: https://www.technibble.com/forums/t...-a-must-have-tool-for-techs.78308/post-647553

Those exports and reports are not processed the same way as user files so it looks like this issue still exists for them.
I'm installing a W10 Home machine with folders (Desktop, Documents and Pictures) redirected to OneDrive (gosh, I hate this !) to reproduce the issue and fix the problem. An update release will follow.

Edit: The issue I was talking about was with files belonging to user profile synced with OneDrive. In your current case, there's nothing I can do since these are items stored on "public" desktop in a first place. This explains why they have quite different permission settings and why OneDrive rejects them. Windows does not change permissions when moving them from a public folder to another one that belongs to user's desktop (or any One drive synced folder). A simple work around for this would to save logs and reports somewhere else so desktop remains "clean" from Fab's stuff. This can be defined in the autobackup.ini file.
Here's something that can be used :

[CONFIG]
LogStoragePath=%AutoBackupDrive%\LOGS
ReportsStorage=C:\Fabs_ExportsAndReports

LogStoragePath defines where logs will be stored for every job.
About ReportsStorage variable, make sure the path you set is always writable. If folder does not exists, Fab's will try to create it. If it fails, default paths will be used instead. Here, it could be something like C:\LOGS. Avoid any drive root like C:\ as Windows does not like this at all.

No Fab's update is needed as all of this is already handled.

 

[Haole Boy]

It looks like an old bug I had with cloud files (it was mostly OneDrive, once again...) and their permissions that was fixed on July 2018: https://www.technibble.com/forums/t...-a-must-have-tool-for-techs.78308/post-647553

Those exports and reports are not processed the same way as user files so it looks like this issue still exists for them.
I'm installing a W10 Home machine with folders (Desktop, Documents and Pictures) redirected to OneDrive (gosh, I hate this !) to reproduce the issue and fix the problem. An update release will follow.

Edit: The issue I was talking about was with files belonging to user profile synced with OneDrive. In your current case, there's nothing I can do since these are items stored on "public" desktop in a first place. This explains why they have quite different permission settings and why OneDrive rejects them. Windows does not change permissions when moving them from a public folder to another one that belongs to user's desktop (or any One drive synced folder). A simple work around for this would to save logs and reports somewhere else so desktop remains "clean" from Fab's stuff. This can be defined in the autobackup.ini file.
Here's something that can be used :

[CONFIG]
LogStoragePath=%AutoBackupDrive%\LOGS
ReportsStorage=C:\Fabs_ExportsAndReports

LogStoragePath defines where logs will be stored for every job.
About ReportsStorage variable, make sure the path you set is always writable. If folder does not exists, Fab's will try to create it. If it fails, default paths will be used instead. Here, it could be something like C:\LOGS. Avoid any drive root like C:\ as Windows does not like this at all.

No Fab's update is needed as all of this is already handled.

Mahalo for the quick and informative reply. Much appreciated. I did a test, and the 'Save logs in' function accomplishes what I need (the reports end up in the folder I want them to be in, and OneDrive seems to be happy with the permissions)

 

[fabs]

Hello,
Fab's AutoBackup 7 Pro and Fab's AutoBackup 7 Home & Office V7.8.3.4791 have just been released.

Here is the change log for both versions:

Added:
- Intuit QuickBooks user settings are now supported.

Removed:
- Internet Explorer 11 start page and settings support for Windows 11 have been removed as there is no Internet Explorer in it. Favorites are disabled in backup mode in Windows 11 but still supported for restore or transfer since they can be imported in Microsoft Edge.

Fixed:
- There could be error messages when closing the program. They did not have any consequences on backup / restore / transfer jobs, it was just cosmetic.
- Windows Defender kept deleting Nirsoft tools. They are handled differently now as they are downloaded in password protected zip archives. This way, Defender does not detect them. At startup, Fab's AutoBackup sets %tmp% folder as excluded from Windows Defender real time protection, extracts Nirsoft needed tool to this folder, run it and remove it when it is done. %tmp% folder exclusion is removed from Windows Defender when Fab's AutoBackup is closed. If any other anti-malware is running on the machine, it still needs to be manually disabled before running Fab's AutoBackup if you plan to grab passwords and/or product keys.

Grab it from your orders history's details on the shop's website at https://store.fpnet.fr/account.php?language=en or using the bundled updater tool (click the "Download Fab's AutoBackup 7.X" link within the program and get the updated files).


Edit : This V7.8.3.4791 is replaced with V7.8.3.4799 since it had an issue with new activations and asked for license details at every start. please get V7.8.3.4799 instead
Edit 2 : those fixes have introduced other issues with nirsoft tools: they could not be selected even if they were here. V7.8.3.4800 is online :/

 

[fabs]

Sometimes it's quite hard to be a developer. Fixes done earlier today introduced new bugs with Nirsoft tools : Fab's could not even find them despite the fact they were here.
7.8.3.4800 is online now

Sorry for all of this!

 

[GTP]

I'm waiting till things improve here and business becomes better than a trickle before purchasing a new Fabs license.
ATM I really cant afford it.
The old version still works (thanks @fabs) unlike a lot of other software that stops working when you stop paying.

This Covid-19 pandemic has just about ruined me.

 

[fincoder]

The change to avoid Defender removing ProduKey was enough for me to renew my license today.

Sorry to hear the pandemic has affected your business. I've been doing reasonably well during the pandemic. In the recent NSW regional lockdown I was quite busy with contactless drop-offs and pickups at the front door of my shop. Lots of refurbs and even some new computers sold due to home schooling. Last year the JobKeeper (gov wage subsidy) for 6 months was quite generous.
EDIT: I should add my business runs on the smell of an oily rag!

 

[GTP]

Last year the JobKeeper (gov wage subsidy) for 6 months was quite generous.

Sorry for hijacking the Fabs thread, but just a quick response to @fincoder...
The Govt assistance package between April and July gave me a total of $12,000.
It helped enormously. Finished now though.
I hope they introduce an assistance package again.

 

[fabs]

I'm waiting till things improve here and business becomes better than a trickle before purchasing a new Fabs license.
ATM I really cant afford it.
The old version still works (thanks @fabs) unlike a lot of other software that stops working when you stop paying.

This Covid-19 pandemic has just about ruined me.

I'm not sure that your download link is expired. You should double check @Barcelona . Just in case

 

[GTP]

I'm not sure your your download link is expired. You should double check @Barcelona . Just in case

Hmm pretty sure it had expired but I'll check again to be sure.
Thanks @fabs

 

[seashore]

The change to avoid Defender removing ProduKey was enough for me to renew my license today.

+1. That has pushed me to renew too.

 

[sapphirescales]

This Covid-19 pandemic has just about ruined me.

Man, sorry to hear this. This pandemic has been hard on everyone but I imagine it's been worse for some and better for others. It was really rough for me in the beginning but thankfully I've managed to weather this storm and bounce back.

+1. That has pushed me to renew too.

I'm nowhere near the point of having to renew, but if I was, this would have pushed me to renew too. That's what I love about @fabs. He actually improves his program instead of letting it rot on the vine while charging ever increasing monthly subscription fees like 99% of other software companies like to do nowadays. Kudos for maintaining your software and adding new features on a consistent basis.