What are /r/Arqbackup's favorite Products & Services?

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I’m a bit confused and can’t quite tell if there’s a bug. The release notes for 7.1.3 has a single item

> Fixed display issues in the preferences window when a "lifetime" license code is in use.

Now I’m also seeing what you are. My upgrade however was not consistent with either the 5 or 6 upgrade documented here, where it’d add a year with a 6 license (it hasn’t as I’m seeing expired 2020, or I’d be asked to go buy a new license if I had v5. That page doesn’t seem to mention lifetime licenses at all. I don’t know if there’s a site issue, but clicking “renew license” in the preference pane also results in an error page for me, not a renewal page.

Crossing my fingers those are being retained and grandfathered in, and there’s still just some display issues.

This might help answer some of your questions:

https://www.arqbackup.com/blog/next-up-arq-7/

Quite a bit of information in there (and a quick glance, it seems to answer your questions). I've been on Arq 7-PR since it was released and I'm very happy. It reminds me of Arq 5 (reliability) with a modern UI. Under the hood, there are many improvements, so I wouldn't necessarily compare it to Arq 5, if that makes sense.

It's nothing like Arq 6, which was arguably built during, and after, a bad LSD trip. (joking of course).

Like check this out:
Arq 6: More power, more security, more storage savings
April 7th, 2020
https://www.arqbackup.com/blog/arq-6-more-power-more-security-more-storage-savings/

>More secure
Arq 6 has a new password feature. You can set a password to prevent others from opening Arq and deleting backups.
It also switches to using SHA256 for checksums instead of SHA1 which is less secure.

Anyway, just a thought. Thats usually one of the reasons to consider bumping some software up at least a version before the latest. Knowing the developer is still keeping tabs on at least 1 version before the latest.

Seems to have been fixed: https://www.arqbackup.com/download/arqbackup/arq7windows_release_notes.html

>Fixed Issues

> Fixed an issue that could cause a crash when opening the preferences window for some license types.

>The dev has fixed this in version 7.1.5 on windows:
>
>https://www.arqbackup.com/download/arqbackup/arq7windows_release_notes.html

The dev has fixed this in version 7.1.5 on windows: https://www.arqbackup.com/download/arqbackup/arq7windows_release_notes.html

Still running 5 but watching this page update frequently which makes me happy:

https://www.arqbackup.com/download/arqbackup/arq6_release_notes.html

I have faith that 6 will be the new 5. YOU GOT THIS

I noticed this in my logs just now too. But actually got an update today to 5.11.4 which apparently fixes it...

https://www.arqbackup.com/download/arq5windows_release_notes.html

> Fixed an issue that could cause 'Illegal characters: [?] in path' errors when reading in-use files.

Seems to have done the trick, and looking more closely I'd say 5.11.3 caused the problem.

Contrary to what others are saying ("there’s nothing clearly spelled out in their documentation"), I find the documentation to be pretty clear. In principle, if you wanted to manually decrypt your files, you could using the instructions. I haven't tried myself, so I can't say for sure it's true. But I don't see any obfuscation on the part of Arq.

If you want a solution that is open source and fully in your control, you can use tarsnap. The source code is available, you can compile it yourself and point it to whatever storage resource you want. They guy who wrote it (and his brother) is one of the best cryptographers out there. It's a bit more work and less user friendly, so that's a tradeoff you'll have to decide on yourself.

That said, I agree that it would be nice to have a third party audit and verify a number of these things.

Sorry, I guess I don't understand what you mean by "upgrade". Maybe our pricing FAQ would help: https://www.arqbackup.com/documentation/arq7/English.lproj/arq7Pricing.html

This seems to be an issue with the keychain, not with Arq specifically. If you're upgrading from Arq 5 to Arq 7, Arq 7 tries to read your settings from your user keychain.

To avoid it, delete ~/Library/Arq (the Arq 5 settings); install Arq 7; add your storage location; adopt your backup set. Here's the help doc on adopting: https://www.arqbackup.com/documentation/arq7/English.lproj/movingToNewComputer.html

Here's Arq's documention for adopting backup sets.

I think immutable backups have to be done with a new bucket though. But I'd contact Arq support via email with your scenario to make sure.

So there's a few things you could do here...

RClone or Syncthing will mirror files. Synthing is more for a continuous sync but RClone can be just as good.

Are you backing up:

Arq + MacMini -> 2Tb -> B2?

or

Arq + 2Tb to B2?

​

edit: wording

Not familiar with arq spec, but if you have the bandwidth to download and store the files, then hashdeep[1] can do the audit for you.

Basically generate a hashdeep file using the command "hashdeeep -rl $dir > $dir.hashdeep"

Then on the directory you want to verify, run the command "hashdeep -avvk $dir.hashdeep -rl $dir"

[1] https://github.com/jessek/hashdeep

Oh, and without documentation of any kind (even in-app), ArqAgent seems to be breaching the license of a few open-source libraries by using them without proper attribution:

• openssl: Stack part of OpenSSL 1.0.2o 27 Mar 2018
• libssh2: SSH-2.0-libssh2_1.7.0
• libicu: Copyright (C) 2014, International Business Machines Corporation and others. All Rights Reserved.
• zlib: zip 1.01 Copyright 1998-2004 Gilles Vollant - http://www.winimage.com/zLibDll

The GUI frontend is likely packing a ton of NodeJS and Electron libraries too, so with code analysis I wouldn’t be surprised by the number of open-source libraries it’s using without a proper license or attribution.

You wouldn’t see this kind of thing in a “proper” commercial or open-source software.

You could have it email a check at https://healthchecks.io/ - I use this to catch situations exactly like this. Saves filling up your inbox and makes it really easy to spot problems with routine jobs failing/crashing entirely :)

I am getting this error every time Arq attempts to backup. Thus, I am not getting any successful backups. I updated to the latest version 7.7.7.0, and restarted my computer. I noticed their latest release notes theoretically fixes this. Hopefully, they are working on a new fix. Any ideas...

16-Aug-2021 15:27:04 -07:00 Backup activity started

16-Aug-2021 15:27:04 -07:00 Arq version 7.7.7.0

16-Aug-2021 15:27:04 -07:00 Storage location: 01_Documents_Backup (Local:a29e0723-####-41b#-ac21-cb0e4880dd77:/08_Backup_Drivers/01_Documents_Backup)

16-Aug-2021 15:27:04 -07:00 Backup plan: Laptop-External (8551236-c3d12-4a##-b487-7cg8ba45269b)

16-Aug-2021 15:27:07 -07:00 Creating VSS snapshot for D:\

16-Aug-2021 15:27:10 -07:00 Created VSS volume for D:\

16-Aug-2021 15:27:25 -07:00 Error: Unexpected exception occurred during backup: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

16-Aug-2021 15:27:26 -07:00 Deleted VSS filesystem snapshot for D:\

16-Aug-2021 15:27:26 -07:00 Backup activity ended

i think the answer is here: https://www.arqbackup.com/blog/immutable-backups-with-arq-7/

Storage options that support object lock include AWS S3, Minio, Backblaze B2 and soon Wasabi.

so wasabi may not be supported yet.

Recalling from past posts and tweets: Arq 5 had slightly different storage formats between location services. If you had the wrong format, Arq simply wouldn't work — the software assumed every storage location had the proper storage format for its type.

Arq 6 onwards changed that — new data is created in a unified format. So, I guess it should work. If you're moving between two locations of the same type (e.g. both S3-compatible, or both SFTP) I'd assume it's pretty safe.

Worth noting this line from the changelog for version 7.1.6:

> * Fixed an issue where restoring from an older backup record (created by Arq 5) within a backup set adopted by Arq 7 that was moved/copied from a different storage location type could result in object not found errors.

They said that, upgrade to Arq 7 will not modify the original backups:

" we now just read that data, and reuse it for subsequent backup records where possible. "

. You can ask them how to use Arq 5 again after upgrading.

Personally I'm not using Arq 7 yet, feel this product is also a little bit rush. They have promises are not fulfilled, for example, a data format document.

In case someone else has similar issues, here is my solution.

​

Just wanted to give it another try and luckily stumbled upon a section in the Arq7 docs about deleting Arq via the following script:

https://www.arqbackup.com/documentation/arq7/English.lproj/troubleshooting.html

#!/bin/bash

killall Arq launchctl unload /Library/LaunchAgents/com.haystacksoftware.ArqMonitor.plist /bin/rm -f /Library/LaunchAgents/com.haystacksoftware.ArqMonitor.plist sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.haystacksoftware.arqagent.plist sudo /bin/rm -f /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.haystacksoftware.arqagent.plist /bin/rm -rf /Applications/Arq.app /bin/rm -rf /Library/Logs/ArqAgent /bin/rm -rf "~/Library/Application Support/Arq" /bin/rm -rf "/Library/Application Support/ArqAgent"

this did the trick and after reinstalling v7 it works now!

Got this from support:

There is a list of snapshots under the 'Restore' tab. If you look at the latest snapshot it shows added/modified/deleted for items that are, so you can look at what's changed that way.

Also, it's possible to include the list of the uploaded files in logs/email reports in Arq 7: https://www.arqbackup.com/blog/next-up-arq-7/

This just started happening to me today, too. Running version 5.17.1

Looks like this is still the version released in early October.

Oh, I didn't realize an automator flow isn't the same as a script. I followed the instructions here: https://www.arqbackup.com/blog/nas-backup/

​

And it worked correctly.

​

Well, should have looked for that 2 years ago.

Hi,

there is an advance for the Mac version. You may study this in the release notes of the former Arq versions and you see it just recently with the Arq 7 beta version (Mac version available, Windows version is not), see: https://www.arqbackup.com/blog/next-up-arq-7/.

I am running version 5 because my test runs with version 6 yielded issues:

- with VSS not working correctly

- backups got stuck after the initial backup

- restore did not work on some files

- slow backup speed

- sluggish GUI

Arq 5.19.2 is out. From the release notes:

>Changes
>
>• Added a workaround for Google Drive's new 500,000-item per-folder limit.

I have not seen anything specifically stating it is the same, but it would require a completely separate backup format and the accompanying code.

Here's a writeup of the format (not sure if it's completely up to date with Arq 6): https://www.arqbackup.com/docs/arqcloudbackup/English.lproj/dataFormat.html

OS X isn't easier. Unlike Arq 5 which was an app bundle you drag to /Applications, Arq 6 uses an installer and puts stuff in all kinds of places when it installs.

I used a combination of UninstallPKG, ForkLift, and Lingon-X to fully get rid of all of it. Make sure not to delete Arq 5 stuff (for some things it's not immediately obvious which ~/Library items are Arq 5 vs Arq 6).

The Arq developer provides the following below at the bottom of their homepage, but I still preferred using my UninstallPKG utility to get rid of all traces of the Arq 6 package installation.

From https://www.arqbackup.com -

How do I uninstall Arq 6 for Mac?On Mac, click the Settings tab. Then click the Uninstall button.
To manually uninstall Arq 6 on Mac:

1. Quit Arq if it's open.
2. Delete the Arq application from your Applications folder.
3. In Terminal, run these commands:
   launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.haystacksoftware.ArqMonitor.plist /bin/rm -f ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.haystacksoftware.ArqMonitor.plist sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.haystacksoftware.arqagent.plist sudo /bin/rm -f /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.haystacksoftware.arqagent.plist
4. Delete Arq 6's configuration files in /Library/Application Support/ArqAgent

We haven't seen that particular problem, but we shipped 6.2.4 with fixes for things that might be related.

Please click Settings and check your version number.
If it's not 6.2.4, please install the latest (you won't lose any settings):

Go to Add or Remove Programs, remove Arq 6, download https://www.arqbackup.com/download/arqbackup/Arq6.2.4.msi and double-click it to install.

If that doesn't resolve it, please email [email protected]. We're about 3 days behind on email, but working to catch up. We brought on extra staff to help.

We wrote a blog post after the announcement post explaining that there were problems, and apologizing for it, and explaining what we're going to do about it moving forward. https://www.arqbackup.com/blog/arq-6-next-steps/

The release notes for Arq 5 on Windows are here: https://www.arqbackup.com/download/arqbackup/arq5windows_release_notes.html

The Arq 5 release notes file is here: https://www.arqbackup.com/download/arqbackup/arq5_release_notes.html

We shipped Arq 5.18 today with a workaround for Google Drive and Google Cloud Storage. Something at Google's end changed with regard to OAuth and Arq (on macOS only) was getting a "400 error" from Google. Arq 5.18 works around that by sending you through a web browser to get your OAuth refresh code, which is what Google wants.

We're not talking about the same platform. That link is to the Mac version. Here's the one for Windows. v5.16.6 is the last before v6. https://www.arqbackup.com/download/arqbackup/arq6windows_release_notes.html

At last there seem to be frequent releases now so I'm watching this (https://www.arqbackup.com/download/arqbackup/arq6_release_notes.html) until the biggest ones are resolved. In the mean time I'm giving Backblaze a shot during the trial period. Not sure how I feel about it yet as the nice thing about Arq was always that you know exactly what was in the backup.

AFAICT: there's a new metadata format, with the features described in the blog post/release notes, and the first time you run you get two options:

• "The slow way": migrate old metadata, keeping past snapshots
• "The fast way": discard all old metadata, keep file content — you lose all past snapshots, but first backup is still faster than going from zero because file content is still there

These improvements are insane: https://www.arqbackup.com/download/arqbackup/arq6_release_notes.html

Outstanding. Wish we knew this was coming today. When can we update through app?

Are you running the latest version (5.17.3)? The changelog mentions OneDrive quotas: https://www.arqbackup.com/download/arqbackup/arq5_release_notes.html

There’s an update out today (5.17), though the release notes (as of the time of writing this comment) don’t say what’s in 5.17. But my guess would be Catalina support- the creator kept saying Arq would be updated by the time Catalina was released.

Release notes: https://www.arqbackup.com/download/arqbackup/arq5_release_notes.html

This is the response from Arq support when I asked a similar question in March 2019:

———

By default Arq keeps every backup record. There are 2 options for limiting that: 1) In the preferences you can check a checkbox to thin the backup records from hourly to daily to weekly as they age. 2) You can set a budget: https://www.arqbackup.com/docs/pages/budget.html

Time-based retention rules are definitely on the roadmap for the future.

———

As mentioned in other replies, if you choose to thin the backup records and do not set a budget, your weekly backups (including items which were deleted and no longer exist) will survive indefinitely.

Like you I came from CrashPlan and was initially a bit put off by the simplicity of the versioning compared to CrashPlan. In reality, the thinning option proved more than adequate for me.

I see in Arq's preferences an option to Thin backups from hourly to daily to weekly.

This is what Arq's website says about the option.

I assume that by thinning backups, you lose files that were deleted. So if you were doing hourly backups:

Hour 1 backup: Create file my_file.txt Hour 2 backup: Delete file my_file.txt . . . Hour 24/Day 1 backup: Create a daily backup of the machine as-is right now / delete previous 24 hourly backups.

So after the first day, the file my_file.txt created in the first hour is lost forever. If you do not have the Thin backups from hourly to daily to weekly enabled, then the first hourly backup, and therefore my_file.txt, will exist forever and you may go back and get it at any time.

Am I understanding this correctly?

Hi,

If you do not plan to use Arq on the old computer, I would suggest following these steps:

1. Make sure Arq does not run backups on the old computer; delete Arq on the old computer
2. Download Arq installer on our website and install the app on your new computer.
3. Add the destination, give Arq the cloud credentials;
4. 5. Under 'Restore Files', find the destination, select old computer's name and click 'Adopt This Backup Set' to make Arq access backup data from the old computer.

The article below shows how to adopt the backup set: https://www.arqbackup.com/arq_help/pages/recovering.html

After crashplan I have been using arq with Google Drive and Wasabi. I also use idrive.com. Now I am looking for a replacement for arqbackup. I bought lifetime updates for 1 user with unlimited users in May 2018. Now it is 1 install per computer. What other software are people using. I haven't looked in nearly 2 years.