I’ve just finished setting up my Nucleus with the generous help of posters in this thread.
Now I want to set up regular backups for my Roon database (i.e. not my media).
Ideally I’d like to backup my Roon database to an external hard drive - say ‘BackupHD’ - connected (either via USB or Thunderbird) to my iMac (late 2017, running 13.6.1).
You have to go here and navigate to the desired location…set up scheduled backups or do a backup now and go to where you want to put it. Just click your way there.
That’s what I’m trying to do, Jim. An trying each option in the Settings > Backup window in turn. But I am unable to select any volume to back up to. I get the errors in my OP
Each device (HD, USB Thumb) connects - LED flickers - and the UBS Thumb does appear in the relevant place.
But, as you saw in my OP, I can’t actually select a folder and/or back up to it. See those errors I screen grabbed
In this image of your’s you would back up to Roon database backup, not RoonBackups. Well, not if that’s your thumb drive. Maybe you should remove that. Is your HDD properly formatted?
Maybe someone else can do a better job of walking you through this.
One level higher than RoonBackups. That’s a folder Roon creates when it does the backup. I would probably use file manager or whatever to create some sort of meaningful subdirectory like mine above.
And, unplug the SanDisk. That’s just adding confusion at this point. That is, if that’s not your HDD.
Yes, the external drive I’ve been trying to get to work per your first post is formatted (APFS). I also created a folder in it, ‘Roon’ just in case Roon OS needs at least one object to make the device appear. It won’t.
But it won’t mount on the Nucleus USB bus.
I can add folders in macOS’s Finder to the Thumb drive.
Only the Thumb drive will mount in Roon.
I did that and created a folder, ‘Nucleus Roon database backups’ (on the thumb drive).
That shows up and I select it, but when I start a backup nothing happens!
So that’s why you can’t backup directly to that drive then. Please use a supported drive format:
If you want to use this drive connected to your iMac (with all the potential drawbacks of that solution) then you have to share your backup folder first (on your iMac). What to put into the “Add network share” mask should be clear then, as you just setup the share and MacOS shows you all the needed information on the respective screens. See also:
Just don’t follow the steps to set it up as a watched folder, set it up as a backup folder instead.
Could it be that the errors I get with the Thumb drive as formatted now are because, when migrating (successfully), the Nucleus could read; but it can’t now write?
I hear you loud on clear on advantages and disadvantages of a third drive.
So I think what I’d rather do is find a way to back my Roon database up simply to my iMac’s Macintosh HD (boot drive) via Samba.
But - as I put in my OP - I can’t get the syntax correct to do that (originally, in the OP, to a tertiary HD), which I now see as a poor solution.
Am I right that because the source/host (the Nucleus) is Linux I do have to use a smb:// shared mount somehow?
I’ve set up sharing (System Settings > General > Sharing > File Sharing with a Roon folder in ~/Music).
But not sure what to do next to get Nucleus to connect to it. They are, of course, both on the same (local Ethernet) Network.
Just don’t follow the steps to set it up as a watched folder, set it up as a backup folder instead.
This page has what I think is for watched folders via Windows. I kind of want it the other way around, don’t I. What is implied by its being a backup folder, please?
I do see how that is a better solution - with a second best a thumb drive.
OK, this is my last word of advice, take it or leave it. Plug a HDD or SSD into your Roon Nucleus USB port. Set up some different backup routines using the Roon backup system to back up daily and on any other frequency you want. Have those backed up into different directories on your backup HDD. Have your backup routine save as many of those as you want. Schedule them at different times of the night so they don’t step on each other.
I’ve said just about everything I know about this so I’m signing off. Good luck, I know you’ll figure it out.
I don’t know where you got that idea from as it is an article for MacOS.
If you setup the share as a backup folder in Roon you can use it to backup Roon’s database to it while, if you would set it up as a watched folder, Roon would use it to read in music files from it.
Fill out the “Add network share” template in Roon with the information displayed to you in the screens on MacOS while setting up the share in MacOS. See also the screenshots in the help article I linked. If you think the actual screens of your iMac look very differently from the ones in the help article, feel free to post screenshots of them here.
PS: If it is inconvenient for you to have the iMac running all the time when Roon wants to do a backup or to hard to setup a share on MacOS, I suggest you follow Jim_F’s advice and use a USB storage device connected to your Nucleus formatted with a suitable file system like ExFAT instead.
