Duplicati is a free software that is designed to backup all your data on cloud storage services like Google Drive, One Drive and Amazon Cloud Drive/S3. It is a practical solution to ensure that your files and folders are secured with AES-256 encryption. Duplicati is open source and it works with the most popular platforms such as macOS, Windows and Linux. It is compatible with SSH, FTP, WebDAV and other standard protocols. The web interface is supported by any browser, including mobile ones. You can access the interface on the go and from any location. Duplicati can also run on a NAS setting.
How to create your first backup
Once Duplicati is installed, a setup wizard will be launched and you will be presented with the necessary steps to create your first backup. First you will need to name your backup, then you can select the data that you want to backup and you have the option to set a password to protect the backup. Then you just need to select the location where you want the backup to be stored. After that, you just have to enter your credential to access the cloud service of your choice. It is important to keep your password secure, but easy to remember. Duplicate advises to write it down and save it to ensure that you have it handy. This is crucial because if you forget it or lose it, you won’t be able to recover your files.
Features
Duplicate carries out incremental backups by default, but there is an initial full backup to ensure that all your data is backed up. After that, only the changes performed since the last backup will be backed up. This helps to save cloud storage space and reduces the time of the backup process. Full backups can still be performed on a monthly basis, but you can adjust the time to make them more frequent. Duplicati offers great performance and it will allow you to backup files to your cloud storage service without hassle. However, you may come across issues when trying to backup locked/open files. The good thing is that if a backup is interrupted, it is possible to continue it and the content of the backups are regularly tested to identify any corrupt storage systems on time.
There are also advanced settings that will allow you to create backups according to your needs. Thanks to the scheduling functionality, you will be able to define when to backup and how often you want the process to take place. In addition, you can set bandwidth and file size limits and choose who many full backups you want to keep. It is also possible to choose when you want to remove old backups and to define filters to exclude certain files form your backups. Furthermore, your setup files and current settings will also be backed up, which is very convenient. One of the most practical features of Duplicati is the ability of pausing backups. This means that if you need to focus your bandwidth resources on another task (downloading a file, streaming or anything else), you can simply pause the backup and resume it at a later stage.
Apart from allowing you to backup your files to the cloud, Duplicati also supports the option to restore the data in a simple way. The same setup wizard used for creating backups is employed for restoring the data. all you have to do is to select the backup that you want to restore and then you can choose a folder to restore the files to it. Additionally, you can restore all the backups, or individual files. Duplicati offers a good set of features and great functionality, particularly considering that it is a free tool. The main downside is that at the moment, it doesn’t support Dropbox, which is still the service that many people use for their cloud storage needs.
Conclusion
Overall, Duplicati is an excellent client to ensure that your data is kept secured while stored and to back it up regularly. It allows you to backup to a variety of cloud storage services and to local drives and network locations as well. It provides a comorehensive backup solution with encryption.
