backuplist+ 6.2
Considerations:
I will list backuplist+ issues on this page when they arise. If you have something to add, or need help, please email me.
Be sure that "Ignore Permissions" is left un-checked ( in the Get Info box) for any disk you are copying too. If this box is checked, there can be problems with file permissions and incremental backups will NOT work correctly.
Permission issues: backup list is a simple copy utility. On OSX (Unix), unless you are the "Administrator of your account, you will only have access to your personal Home folder. Items belonging to the system, and other users Home folders will be off limits. This means backuplist will not work and you will get an"Access" error if you try to copy files from those areas to your backup folder. If you are not the Administrator of your computer, you should then put files in the backup list that are only within your Home folder (this does include all the files on the desktop- but not those inside your The Macintosh HD icon (again, unless they are in your Home folder.) A bit confusing if you aren't use to the OSX Folder structure. You can, of course, change permissions for your system and other files by going to "System Preferences" and clicking on "Accounts". there you can change yourself to Account administrator, if no one else is already that. That is why I made the first backup location choice, "Home Folder." Other logical choices would be any mounted disc, external drive etc. which should usually allow you access.
All external discs must be in Mac OS extended format (not FAT etc) to work properly with file copying and this applescript application
Empty Folder syndrome: A few people have said they attempted a backup and nothing was copied - the backup folder was empty. I haven't been able to verify this since no one has given me any information. Please let me know if this has happened to you.
Another scenario happened where someone performed a system clone and it copied over 30Gb of data but it wasn't present on the destination, though the disk showed 30Gb extra space! There is one possible explanation for this. This is a good excerpt taken from the MacFixIt Forums
"Sometimes, backup programs that cannot find an intended destination (or target) volume for a backup create a folder with the same name as the destination, and put the folder into the /Volumes directory. There are cases in which the entire startup volume has been backed up on itself, in a folder inside /Volumes. If the amount of missing space is about the size of your user folder, such a backup is likely to be the explanation. If you use Carbon Copy Cloner or another backup or cloning utility and have its preferences configured to create a backup on a schedule, and the intended destination volume is not mounted or is sleeping at the scheduled time, the backup is created in the /Volumes directory.
To check the size of the normally invisible /Volumes directory on the active startup volume, open a new Finder window. Select the startup volume in the list at the left, then choose column view (the one at the right of the three views). From the Finder’s Go menu, choose Go to Folder, and paste in:
/Volumes
The /Volumes directory becomes visible in the Finder; find its size by selecting it and typing Command I. My /Volumes directory is reported to be 12K."
I think there are other times when the destination path is incorrect and this could also happen then. Sometimes disks have the name in the finder of "SomeDisk" but the system calls it "SomeDisk 1" because there is (or was) another disk with the same name mounted. I have seen this happen and backuplist gives an error "No disk by this name" ... so check the invisible volumes folder if there is a backup in progress and nothing appears at destination.