Backup with DéjàDup

1 SET BACKUP LOCATION

You can use Gnome’s online accounts feature to back up to Google Drive, a Nextcloud instance and more. You can also use a network location such as Samba or SSH, or a local folder. We recommend using an external hard drive and unplugging it afterwards. If you use a truly local folder, be aware that anywhere you can write to could be hit by a ransomware attack.

2 CHOOSE WHAT TO SAVE

Add any folders outside your home directory you want to include in the backup, and exclude any inside that you don’t. The ~/.cache/ folder is not necessary and often takes up lots of space – it’s where Chromium’s cache is stored. If you use Steam then you’ll want to exclude ~/.steam as well. Gnome’s Disk Usage Analyzer is a useful tool to see what’s taking up space.

3 INITIATE THE BACKUP

Hit the Back Up Now button. You may be prompted to install Duplicity and you will be prompted for a password. If you use one (encrypting off-site backups is a good idea) then for pity’s sake don’t forget it; in fact, just use a password manager, like we tell you to later in this feature. Click the Forward button and start to feel secure in the knowledge that your files are safe.

4 SET UP A SCHEDULE

Just as with yoga, regular practice is the key to backup heaven. Click the Scheduling tab to choose the frequency and longevity of backups. If you backed up to a location that isn’t available when an automatic backup initiates, don’t worry, you’ll be warned. Also beware of running out of space – old backups will be silently removed in this event, which may not be ideal.

5 BE SURE TO BE SURE

This step is optional, but a belt-and-braces approach is always good if you truly care about your data. So consider manually copying your encrypted backups somewhere else: a USB key, your home server, somewhere in the cloud, it doesn’t matter. Redundancy is good and since you encrypted your backups (didn’t you?), losing the storage shouldn’t be a concern.

6 TEST YOUR BACKUPS

Making backups is all very well, but you need to be sure they are viable and that you know the drill for restoring them. Click the Restore button, plug in your storage device if that’s how you did it, choose your backup location and choose the date to restore from. The most recent is shown first. For this test, restore to a specific folder so nothing is overwritten.