Backup from QRecall – Missing Data

Hello everyone,

I've been using QRecall for a bit to back up my important files, and it’s been working well. But I hit a snag when I tried to restore an incremental backup. The main backup file looks fine, but I noticed that some files are missing in the restored version.

Here’s what I’ve done up to now:

I chose the right snapshot in the QRecall interface for the restore.
I made sure the incremental backup finished without any issues before I started restoring.
The file versioning looks okay for some documents, yet some files seem to be left out.
I even attempted to reindex the backup set, but that didn’t help. Has anyone else had missing files when restoring from an incremental backup? I would really appreciate any advice on what I could do to troubleshoot or if I missed something in the restore steps.

Thanks so much for your assistance!

Welcome!

Let me start by saying that QRecall does not store "snapshots" in the traditional sense. It stores "delta"—each layer stores only the differences between it and the previously captured version of each item. See QRecall > Help > Guide > Layers > Understanding Layers for a complete explanation.

You can focus in on a layer (or a group of layers) by adjusting the shades (top and bottom) to narrow your view of what's been captured. But if you then try to recall those items (with both upper and lower shades in place), you won't be recalling all of your items. You'll only be recalling the items that changed and were recaptured in that layer (or layers). See the warning "Recalling folders with top layer shaded" at the end of the help section QRecall > Help > Guide > Layers > Layer Shades.

james_smith wrote:I chose the right snapshot in the QRecall interface for the restore.
I made sure the incremental backup finished without any issues before I started restoring.
The file versioning looks okay for some documents, yet some files seem to be left out.

Did you "choose" your layer by adjusting the shades? If so, then recalling a folder of items would only recall the items in that folder that were recaptured by those layers. All unaltered items would excluded from the capture.

The solution is to use the shades to find the version of the items you want to recall. This is done using the bottom shade, and the bottom shade only. (Basically, you're hiding more recent version of the items to locate and earlier version of that item.) Now a recall will include all of the items.

If you want to use the top shade, remember to run the top shade back to the top before recalling a folder or package.