Backup options

[flip]

Over the years I've had my share of data losses due to inadequate backing up. The main reason is laziness, a lesser one is that until the cloud came along off-site backups were either expensive or difficult to manage. On-site backups always feel a bit like spare shoelaces - difficult to find when you need them and invariably the wrong length.

I have had a contract to create and maintain a website for a primary school. Initially I used a different web design program but invested in XWD as a standby option and when the first supplier introduced their responsive product that requires serious brains to understand I moved over to XWD. Until v15 I've been very happy. At the same time I was motivated to do something serious about backing up and bought space on an apparently reliable cloud service. So far the actual backups of other data have been more than adequate but it completely messed up XWD.

The problem appears to be XWD's autoback ups. If these take place while the cloud service is updating my files (including XWD naturally) I acquired a copy of the XWD files marked CONFLICTED. It caused so much difficulty I've now removed XWD from the files backed up to the cloud, so I'm pretty well back to where I was 30 years ago as far as backing up is concerned.

I describe this at length for two reasons, first I don't think I can be the only person with this problem and secondly I wonder if turning off XWD's auto backup would jeopardise any other security built into XWD. I realise I could just try it but I'd rather ask if anyone else has experience. If not I will try and of course, post the result. BTW I've intentionally omitted all reference to the other design prog and the cloud service in case this offends the forum rules.

Many thanks

Philip

[Acorn]

Philip, no idea if this helps generally, but I point my Xara Backup Folder completely away from the default and rely on Dropbox backups to work their magic just for the main filename.
I cannot see though why you are getting conflicts as the backup filenames are different to the main filename. My settings are backup changes every 10 minutes with up to 10 backup copies.

I always close a saved, published design file as a final ta-da.

What I don't understand are the statements "updating my files (including XWD naturally)" & "removed XWD from the files backed up". I assume you are not trying to put the Xara Desktop application in the Cloud.

The alternative is to work on a local copy throughout the day and rely on Xara Backups. Copy the latest version across into a folder that is automatically backed-up into your Cloud service as a when you need.

Acorn