IBackup allows historical view of your data through use of its Snapshots technology. You can consider snapshots as something that allows you to retain changed data history for a period of time. Available daily snapshots have been set to 10. This may change without notice.

Please note that the additional storage requirements for Snapshots will have no impact on your data usage and is free for Enhanced backup and Workgroup accounts.

Once you enable Snapshots view, You should be able to see the files stored in your IBackup account during the previous days under the newly created directories with appropriate names. The backup directories will have meaningful names with date extensions or nightly.* or weekly.* extensions.

nightly.0 extension refers to the most recent snapshot.
nightly.1 extension refers to a day older snapshot in relation to the most recent snapshot.
nightly.2 extension refers to 2 days older snapshot in relation to the most recent snapshot.

You can restore the files which you need from these directories just as you would, for any file or directory.

Please note:

a. Snapshots view can be enabled for the Main IBackup accounts only and NOT for sub-accounts.
b. You should disable snapshots view once you are done with them, else it will clutter your IBackup account unnecessarily.

To Enable Snapshots View

1. Click on "Preferences" under "Account Maintenance" section after successful login.

2. Check the option "Enable Snapshots View".

To Disable Snapshots View

1. Uncheck the option "Enable Snapshots View".

2. The newly created directories will be removed from your IBackup account.

Please note that the snapshots view is disabled on logout.

To enable Snapshots

1. Click on the 'Snapshots' icon available on the tool bar

Or

1. File -> Preferences

2.Check the option 'Enable snapshots view' under the 'General' tab.

To Disable Snapshots

1. Click on the 'Snapshots' icon available on the tool bar again

2. Uncheck the option "Enable Snapshots View".

Do I need to specifically enable snapshots to be able to preserve and view previously stored data?

Snapshots are maintained on the IBackup side for every user except for subscribers of Economy Plans. You do not need to take any specific action. However, to view the snapshots, you need to enable them on your IBackup for Windows or the Web-Manager client.

Snapshot view is automatically disabled after exiting out of the IBackup for Windows and Web-Manager clients, as otherwise it would clutter the screen with displays of snapshots directories for subsequent logins.

Does snapshot data (previously stored data) increase my stored data and reduce available quota?

Your available quota is dependent on the storage requirements of the most recent view of your data. Snapshots certainly do require additional space, however, the additional space is not charged to your usage. In otherwords, snapshots do not increase your storage requirements. It is free.

How do I use snapshots feature to restore from a previously stored data file using rsync on Linux?

While IBackup for Windows and Web-Manager provide you in-built mechanisms to view previously stored data with 'enable snapshot view' feature, for rsync on linux and other platforms, you have to do the following:

1. Login via Browser, and Click on "Preferences" under "Account Maintenance" section and check the option "Enable Snapshots view".

2. After enabling the snapshots view, keep your browser session open. Note down the directories from which you would like to restore. Then, using rsync and with the directories noted, apply necessary rsync commands to restore the data from snapshots.

Close the Web-Manager session when you are done with the restore.

I lost a file on my desktop which was probably backed up 4 days ago, how do I restore?

You can restore files that were backed up earlier using the Snapshots feature available with IBackup. Snapshots are point in time images of your data.

First you will need to enable snapshot view (To enable snapshots, Go to "File" -> "Preferences" section of the application and Check the option "Enable Snapshots" under the "General" tab.). Once snapshots are enabled, you should be able to see snapshot folders with names like nightly.0, nightly.1 etc. at the top level of your account.

Then, if you know the folder where the file existed, try to navigate to the file/folder starting from folder nightly.3 . This could possibly contain the data that you backed up 4 days ago. If it does not, try nightly.4.

Once you find the right file, simply restore it. (IBackup does not have the concept of separate full and incremental backup files as incrementals are directly written on top of full backup).