Backup enhancement request

[lithgowlights]

I am new to xLights after coming from the dark side (LSP), so please forgive me if this exists. I understand the F10/F11 Backup function, but would like to see a user selectable option to backup ALL files, or all files except music. Due to the size this might have to be a compressed file, although storage is cheap, and we are not talking hundreds of gigabytes for the majority of users.

I have 2 PC's that are always on, so would like to backup all files to the remote PC with a single click. This could be as simple as the current setup, or as complex as you care to make it in terms of only updating changed files etc. I'd be happy with copying all the files except music across to the backup directory.

[dkulp]

Personally, I find all the effort around trying to enhance the backup and auto-save capabilities to be a waste.  It complicates the saving process, uses up key bindings that could be usable for more useful things (or already grabbed by the OS), etc...    My gut feeling is some of the autosave things are going to cause some crashes due to saves being kicked off while rendering.   And all of that needs to be turned off for people that are actually smart enough to have a good backup strategy. (like a Time Capsule)

If you need/want backups, here's a suggestion:  use a backup program.     Here's a list of free ones:

http://www.techradar.com/us/news/software/applications/best-free-backup-software-11-programs-we-recommend-1137924

[Gilrock]

I've kinda felt the same way.  I've never used the built-in xLights backup stuff I just manually create copies of my directories when I feel like it.

But so you know lithgowlights don't take any of this personally because you're not the first person asking for this backup stuff.  We've just been hit with so many different requests for different variations of backups in the past few months its felt crazy to me.  I was about to joke that the way xLights has been going pretty soon we'll have F5 backs up the entire show directory, F6 backs up all show directories, F7 backs up the show directory minus mp3 files, F8 backs up the show directory minus fseq files, F12 backs up your entire PC.

By the way we've never considered FSEQ files to need backups because you can always recreate an FSEQ file from the XML sequence.  And those are one of the big files.

[jnealand]

I keep my what I call my master copy of all my files on a USB flash drive.  Whenever I do major work, I synchronize my show directory from the computer to the flash drive.  If I am going to work on another computer I synchronize the files from the flash drive to that computer.  I use syncback from 2brightsparks.com.  I can be set to only copy changed and new files, so I am not copying music and other files that have not changed in months.  There is a free version but I buy the SE version because it lets you sync to a named drive rather than a drive letter.  I have a usb drive that looks like a santa claus and I named it SantaUSB.  Now I sync to / from SantaUSB on every computer no matter what the drive letter is when I plug it in.  Works good for me.

[kevinp]

I personally have never used the internal backup solution provided by the developers.  I have all of the options for auto saves turned off within xLights, even the yet/soon to be released "save on open" option.  Like Dan, I have Time Capsule set up so I never have to worry if I have a copy of my show directory or not.

You can always manually make a copy of your show directory and keep it in another location like others have suggested too.