* Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings 3.6 giving errors

[Gary_G]

Mike;

I'm trying your plugin, since the alternative sends my FH7 installation into some sort of loop.
However; I'm getting some odd errors with your plugin. Could you help me understand what I'm seeing?

Here is how I've configured the backup directory.

Screenshot 2024-02-27 at 5.49.21 PM.png (60.78 KiB) Viewed 597 times

Here is the error message I'm getting.

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[Mark1834]

Gary - I assume the alternative you are referring to is the newer Windows backup plugin. Once Mike has explained the message you are getting (which looks to me like requesting permission to overwrite an existing backup), could you expand on what you mean by "some sort of loop" please? I've tested the plugin updating a dated backup on a network drive (so a similar \\... path to your example), and it works fine.

[tatewise]

Gary, you did not say so, but I guess you are performing a Restore operation from your Backup Folder to the Settings Path: C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\...

The dialogue above the WARNING Message will show the full path and file details.
( Error Messages will be in red. )

It is warning that a file in your Backup Folder dated 14 Dec 2021 has no equivalent file in the Settings Path.
However, your backup folder is dated yesterday, so that file has vanished from the FH settings since then!

Perhaps a customisation file that existed when you performed the backup has been subsequently removed or changed by you from within FH. Alternatively, you have performed a clean install of FH on a new machine so none of your customisations in the backup will have equivalent files in the Settings Path.

I could be more precise if you included the Restore tab Status that accompanied the warning message or you expanded the WARNING popup window to show the filename.

P.S. Like Mark, I would be interested in why his version does not work. It may be a Mac related problem.

[Gary_G]

Mark;
What I felt was some sort of looping in the Windows backup program could easily been due to my running Windows 11 (ARM 64-bit) under Parallels on an M1 Mac Mini. It's unlikely you were able to test on that platform. I didn't mean to imply that it was solely due to the plugin. I tried the alternative, because, having just finished the initial setup my FH7 environment, I really needed to get a snapshot before going further.

The issue manifested as a rapid refresh of the plugin panel and then of the FH7 panel as a whole. I ended up manually terminating the spawned processes to break out and be able to shut down FH7. If it helps; I've never seen this happen with any plugin that I've tried. Perhaps that indicates it's due to how the plugin interacts with the Windows O/S, as this aspect is unique to this plugin.

[Gary_G]

Mike;
I believe the issue is not specifically relating to a Mac, but may be due to running FH7 and the plugin under a virtual machine (Parallels). The reason is the way the virtual machine represents external paths to files. [I "think" CP had an issue with this and RM9 media imports at one time, but that seems to have been fixed.]

I've included a sequence of screenshots in which one can see the different way the Settings path is represented vs. the other paths. I made sure to not change the default backup directory this time, in order to remove a potential source of error. However; I did check the option to form dated sub-directories. I should note that the plugin did actually store files in the requested location, but I can't say if all were stored. I just told the plugin to "Keep all files". The upside is that it didn't crash and terminated properly.

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Screenshot 2024-02-28 at 5.53.44 AM.png (90.87 KiB) Viewed 517 times

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[Valkrider]

Gary

On my Mac I backup to a folder on the C drive like the settings path that you have rather than to a \\Mac drive. It works fine for me. May be worth changing your backup location to reflect a Windows file location.

[tatewise]

Gary, I suggest you try Colin's advice and use a Windows path for the Backup Folder.

I am still mystified by the Delete File : WARNING.
That is not helped by your screenshots which still do not show the Backup tab at the point of the message.
I would expect the Settings File: to show Family Historian\Source Templates\Standard\Essentials.fhst and the Status: to say Discrepancy check for a similar filename.

[Gary_G]

Mike;
Sorry about not showing the Backup tab. The board seems to limit the number/size of attachments.
Here it is:

Backup Tab

Screenshot 2024-02-28 at 5.50.26 AM.png (87.69 KiB) Viewed 480 times

As noted; I think it is that the Windows program is getting confused by the virtual machine paths. Colin's suggestion might work, but I need to find out if I can use a standard windows syntax to map to a native Mac directory. Backing up to the virtual machine "C" drive does little good as far as keeping a safe copy goes. I need to have it placed outside the virtual machine, in case that gets corrupted.

[Gary_G]

Mike;

I tried something different and it worked well.

For Parallels users, the correct way to set the backup path is to select a Mac drive mapped as follows. In my case it comes up as the "Z" drive. This give the Windows program the type of path structure it expects and places the backup outside of the virtual environment. This is a much safer way to do the backup when running FH7 on a virtual machine.

Screenshot 2024-02-28 at 8.11.25 AM.png (93.15 KiB) Viewed 476 times

[mjashby]

Gary,

It may be that using the UNC path to the file location that is causing the problem. Does Parallels not allow use of the Windows Drive letter identifiers for 'networked' drive locations?

It's more than 10 years since I used Parallels, so I can't remember the Parallels options, but when using a VirtualBox VM my equivalent Windows file path to a 'network shared' Documents location is Z:\Family Historian\Backup\FH Settings and both Backup Plugins work using that location format (although Mark's Plugin does throw a Warning about being unable to use UNC paths and defaults to using the 'Windows Path').

EDIT: I see you've found the above. The solution/work-around is 'normal' when using non-network aware Windows software.

Mervyn

[tatewise]

Thanks guys. That clears up the mystery. The \\Mac\Home\... path must have confused the plugin/FH.

[Mark1834]

That’s exactly how it works on Linux/WINE as well. The hosting file system is mapped to Z:\, so in my case I’m free to choose a location in the same WINE bottle (C:\, unwise, as Gary noted), somewhere else on the Linux host (Z:\), or on my NAS (mounted in /mnt, as per usual Linux convention).

All either plugin does is copy two folders and two Registry keys, so choose whichever you feel more comfortable with (simpler and quicker vs. more detailed configuration options if you want fine control over the operation).

[Gary_G]

Thanks, Mark. I'll likely look into both options again in more detail at some point. Right now, I'm just anxious to make sure I can save the configuration and roll back (if I make some configuration error).

I think that mapping virtual machine drives in a workable way (for FH7) might be something that should be mentioned somewhere in the knowledge-base. There seems to be enough people out there that use non-Windows platforms and who might find the drive-mapping to be a stumbling block. They might also unknowingly back up within the virtual machine, which is not a good idea. A short article, possibly under importing or setup, might avoid this.

[Mark1834]

Possibly, but the KB is for helping users get the most from FH, not to teach them general PC skills (as Mervyn said, it’s about using emulators and VMs effectively, not specific to plugins or even FH).

Interesting though that both FH and my plugin are perfectly happy with UNC paths (e.g. \\OMV\Shared\FH7\Backup as in my first post) when running in native Windows, but not apparently in a VM trying to access the host filing system.

[Gary_G]

Mark;
I've noticed other posts and articles on getting FH running on VMs. Also; advising users that UNC paths may cause issues for some FH plugins running on non-native Windows platforms, and suggesting a known solution, may avoid unnecessary posts in future.

[ColeValleyGirl]

An amendment to one or more of the articles about running FH in a non windows environment seems a easonable suggestion.

[Gary_G]

I'd certainly go for that, Helen. It probably only needs to be a sentence or two.
However; I'll leave that to those who know what section and which article to amend.