Now that you or your Community Administrator (IT administrator) has installed the Connected Backup agent on your computer, let us help you use it to its full potential.
The agent will guide you through the next couple of steps, and we strongly recommend that you not skip them. In fact, we recommend the following:
1. Check your backup set immediately after you install the agent on your computer. Be sure that Connected Backup will include the files you want backed up.
Select the Backup Set tab or button to see which files will be backed up. Each file has a checkbox next to its name. If the box is checked, your backup will include the file. If the box is unchecked, your backup will exclude it. You can change the status of the file by clicking the box.
If you want to include or exclude more than a few files, you should consider using Advanced Rules to change your backup set. See "Make Your Backups More Efficient."
2. Run a backup immediately after you have checked the backup set.
(Although your computer may run a little slowly during the backup, you can continue to use it. This first backup may take a few hours.)
First, close all applications. (You do not need to do this for future backups, but note that Connected Backup will not include open files.) Then, you can run a backup either one of two ways:
After the initial backup, you can schedule regular backups and run additional ones whenever you like.
You may get an error message. When your first or any backup is complete, you may get a message in red that says "x files were not backed up." It may refer to files that are almost always open, even when you perform a backup—usually files that run services like anti-virus protection. You don't need to backup such files, so you may want to exclude them. (See "Check your backup set" above.)
Note: If you have a Full System account and you want to use the heal feature (that retrieves your data files and your application and system files in case of a system failure), you must have run a full system backup two times at some point before the heal. The first backup and any other backup (automatic or manual) are sufficient to prepare your computer for a heal in the future.
3. Do a test retrieve. We recommend that you do a test retrieve with a single file or folder and save it to a new location. (You can delete the duplicate after the test.) If you encounter any problems with the retrieve, check your backup set (see step 2 above) or see your Community Administrator.
Instructions for how to retrieve a file or folder are on the How-To's page.
According to its standard rules, Connected Backup automatically excludes certain file types—such as audio (.wav) or video (.mov)—but you can speed up your backups and increase your storage space for other data by excluding additional file types from your backup.
We suggest you consider excluding the following types of files:
Note: Although files are encrypted, some users exclude personal files for privacy reasons.
Get help excluding and including files from your backup:
You can get to the Account Management website any one of three ways:
You can use the Account Management Website to
Use the Frequently Asked Questions.
