Now a universal binary application!
New in this version: Backuplist+ 6.1 is an important update to the major release of version 6.0. There is a fix for a potential loophole causing data loss. There are some other important bug fixes especially for use of expert options. This upgrade is highly recommended for all users of Backuplist+.
Known issues
What are those "S" and "A" buttons for?
There are two kinds of files that you want to back up: personal documents and system preferences. One way to do this is to backup your Home folder ( or even your whole Hard drive.) Your Home folder is the one with your name on it (in the main Users folder on your hard drive.) The Home folder contain your Documents, photos, music, and other files that you have created. It also conatins all the preferences for your personal work space on the computer, such as the dock, sidebars, desktop etc.,basically your computer as you have set it up. Each user has their own set of preferences for their own computer set up and these are stored in the Hoem folder Library folder. These also include your email accounts and messages, Browser bookmarks, Ical calendars, Address book contatcs, and all the preferences for all the applications you use.
If you don't want to back up the whole Home folder every day, or week, you can Press the "S" button and this will collect all the important system preferences you would need to restore your copmputer to its present state. It stores all the single preference files in a sepearate folder called "System Preferences" that appears in the list window. These take up very little space. Some of the more important folders, like Mail, Safari, Widgets, Fonts, Calendars, etc. will appear seperately in the list, since they can be quite large, so you can include them or not in your backup.
You can Press the "A" button to add any third party application preferences such as those for Adobe Photoshop, Filemaker, Quark, Indesign, Word, etc ..... These will appear as a seperate special folder called "App Preferences" in the list. You can edit what goes in this by choosing "Edit Application List" in the File menu and entering the name sof any apps you want to include. Backuplis+ will scan for any preference files with the name of these applicastions and add them to the "App preferences" set. You can edit the final list by choosing "Edit Application preferences." And that's it
When these special folders are backed up, any files found in your Home Library will end up in the Special folder named "User Preferences" in the backup folder. Follow instructions there for restoring them, if necessary.
Reasons for backups not working:
Repeatedly being asked for password even though it is entered in the settings box. If it still happens sometimes it can be fixed usually by restarting and/or repairing permissions with Disk Utility (in the Utilities folder.) It is always a good idea to repair permissions before any major backup operation so correct permissions are being copied over.
External drive, or partition, has "ignore ownership on this volume" checked. Always leave this unchecked! You find this by control-clicking on the disk icon and choosing "Get Info" from the menu. The check box is at the bottom under "Permissions details".
External drive, or partition, not formatted with Mac OS extended format. "Fat" volumes don't work well for example. You can format the disk or partition using Disk Utility, or check it's format there by pressing the "I" button for info.
External drive is full, so backup will not complete. You would be surprised how often this happens!
No password was used (in the settings panel) and you are asked for password during backup or get a message saying it isn't possible.
Other issues with backuplist+
When calculating sizes the size shows a dotted line. Try again, it usually comes around on the 2nd try!
Occasionally when calculating sizes there will be an error message "applescript error". Ignore it!
International users have reported problems with the progress bar updating and size calculations - this has hopefully been fixed.
The error "missing value" has been fixed as well as several other errors.
backuplist+ is freeware. If you wish you can make a donation to support future releases of backuplist and Birthdaybook. Go to Donate page.