Back In Time - ArchWiki

# Back In Time

Back In Time is a simple backup tool for Linux inspired by “flyback project” and “TimeVault”. The backup is done by taking snapshots of a specified set of directories.

Back In Time provides a Qt4 GUI which will run on Gnome, KDE and all other DE's.

## Installation

Stable releases of Back In Time can be installed as backintimeAUR from the AUR. An unstable branch exists with backintime-gitAUR.

Alternatively, pre-compiled binary packages can be installed from coderkun’s repo.

As Back In Time uses rsync internally make sure the rsync package is installed.

Back In Time will automatically install a startup entry in `/etc/xdg/autostart`. If you want to launch the GUI, then run `backintime-qt4`. If you want to backup files other than your home user files, then consider starting Back In Time with `pkexec backintime-qt4` instead.

## Configuration

The configuration can be done entirely via the GUI. All you have to do is configure:

- Where to save snapshot
- What directories to backup
- When backup should be done (manual, every hour, every day, every week, every month)

## Troubleshooting

### Can't find snapshots folder

If you see the error message in the status bar that BIT cannot find the snapshots folder although the snapshots are visible in the sidebar and the backup process is working correctly, then you are likely to have leftovers from a previous failed backup cron job. The status bar displays the content of the file `~/.local/share/backintime/worker.message`. Thus deleting or renaming this file will remove the error message.

## See also

- Back In Time website
- Upstream Bug Tracker

Category:

- System recovery