borgbase
No backups possible - Passphrase seems to be lost by Vorta
Description
Since today, Vorta fails to do any operation that requires the repo passphrase.
To troubleshoot, I tried deleting and re-adding the repo to Vorta, but the issue persisted. Also, when I export the repo and check the option Also export borg passphrase, there is an empty "password": "", line in the JSON file.
This happens both with my NAS at home and my offsite backup on BorgBase.
I did not change my borg passphrase recently. Was there an update to Vorta recently? It worked fine yesterday, and as far as I remember, I had no updates yesterday or today...
Reproduction
- [x] I tried to reproduce the issue.
- [x] I was able to reproduce the issue.
OS
Kubuntu 25.04 , KDE Plasma 6.3.6
Version of Vorta
0.10.3
What did you install Vorta with?
Flatpak
Version of Borg
1.4.1
Logs
2025-08-19 14:48:21,765 - vorta.scheduler - INFO - Setting timer for profile 1
2025-08-19 14:48:21,771 - vorta.scheduler - DEBUG - Catching up by running job for Sophos (1)
2025-08-19 14:48:21,777 - vorta.scheduler - DEBUG - A job for repo 2 is already active.
2025-08-19 14:48:21,780 - vorta.scheduler - DEBUG - Paused 1 until 2025-08-19 14:58:21
2025-08-19 14:48:21,918 - vorta.borg.jobs_manager - DEBUG - Finish job for site: 2
2025-08-19 14:48:21,919 - vorta.borg.jobs_manager - DEBUG - No more jobs for site: 2
2025-08-19 14:48:22,267 - vorta.notifications - DEBUG - notification not suppressed
2025-08-19 14:48:22,269 - vorta.scheduler - ERROR - Error during backup creation.
2025-08-19 14:48:22,270 - vorta.scheduler - DEBUG - Override existing timeout for profile 1
2025-08-19 14:48:22,270 - vorta.scheduler - DEBUG - Paused 1 until 2025-08-19 14:58:22
2025-08-19 14:48:22,271 - vorta.scheduler - DEBUG - Nothing scheduled for profile 1 because of timeout until 2025-08-19 14:58:22.
2025-08-19 14:49:36,369 - vorta.keyring.abc - DEBUG - No module named 'objc'
2025-08-19 14:49:36,373 - vorta.keyring.abc - DEBUG - Using VortaKWallet5Keyring
2025-08-19 14:49:36,381 - vorta.keyring.kwallet - DEBUG - Saved password for repo ssh://[email protected]/volume1/Borg Repo/remote.borg
2025-08-19 14:49:39,532 - vorta.views.source_tab - DEBUG - Added item number 0 from 1
2025-08-19 14:49:39,860 - vorta.views.source_tab - DEBUG - Added item number 0 from 1
2025-08-19 14:49:45,014 - vorta.keyring.abc - DEBUG - No module named 'objc'
2025-08-19 14:49:45,018 - vorta.keyring.abc - DEBUG - Using VortaKWallet5Keyring
2025-08-19 14:49:45,019 - vorta.borg.borg_job - DEBUG - Using VortaKWallet5Keyring keyring to store passwords.
2025-08-19 14:49:45,040 - vorta.keyring.kwallet - DEBUG - Retrieved password for repo ssh://[email protected]/volume1/Borg Repo/remote.borg
2025-08-19 14:49:45,088 - vorta.borg.jobs_manager - DEBUG - Add job for site 2
2025-08-19 14:49:45,089 - vorta.borg.jobs_manager - DEBUG - Start job on site: 2
2025-08-19 14:49:45,154 - vorta.borg.borg_job - INFO - Running command /app/bin/borg list --remote-path /usr/local/bin/borg --info --log-json --json ssh://[email protected]/volume1/Borg\ Repo/remote.borg
2025-08-19 14:49:48,170 - vorta.borg.borg_job - ERROR - passphrase supplied in BORG_PASSPHRASE, by BORG_PASSCOMMAND or via BORG_PASSPHRASE_FD is incorrect.
2025-08-19 14:49:48,458 - vorta.borg.jobs_manager - DEBUG - Finish job for site: 2
2025-08-19 14:49:48,458 - vorta.borg.jobs_manager - DEBUG - No more jobs for site: 2
2025-08-19 14:49:48,460 - vorta.scheduler - DEBUG - Nothing scheduled for profile 1 because of timeout until 2025-08-19 14:58:22.
2025-08-19 14:49:56,235 - vorta.keyring.abc - DEBUG - No module named 'objc'
2025-08-19 14:49:56,240 - vorta.keyring.abc - DEBUG - Using VortaKWallet5Keyring
2025-08-19 14:49:56,262 - vorta.keyring.kwallet - DEBUG - Retrieved password for repo ssh://[email protected]/volume1/Borg Repo/remote.borg
2025-08-19 14:50:04,429 - vorta.keyring.abc - DEBUG - No module named 'objc'
2025-08-19 14:50:04,433 - vorta.keyring.abc - DEBUG - Using VortaKWallet5Keyring
2025-08-19 14:50:04,454 - vorta.keyring.kwallet - DEBUG - Retrieved password for repo ssh://[email protected]/volume1/Borg Repo/remote.borg
2025-08-19 14:50:04,468 - vorta.notifications - DEBUG - success notifications suppressed
Our last release was in December last year. But I'm hoping to get a release out in the next weeks.
Regarding your error, I would look into this one first:
ERROR - passphrase supplied in BORG_PASSPHRASE, by BORG_PASSCOMMAND or via BORG_PASSPHRASE_FD is incorrect.
Also, when I export the repo and check the option Also export borg passphrase, there is an empty
"password": "",line in the JSON file.
Is this expected behavior?
I recreated the backup profile to my NAS from scratch, and verified the correctness of the repo passphrase. IIRC, profile creation fails when a incorrect passphrase was provided. Even with this new profile, the issue persists.
The Vorta/ repo passphrases are stored in the keyring/ password vault of your OS.
Depending on your settings, the keyring/ password vault of KDE should be unlocked when you log in to your account.
Perhaps there was a change/ update in KDE?
Try to access the keyring manually. In Cinnamon/ Gnome there is an app called "Seahorse" or "Passwords and keys" - try to find the equivalent app for KDE. This app allows browsing the passwords that are saved in the keyring, i.e. all the passphrases of Vorta can be seen there.
Also check if your keyring is unlocked automatically when you log-in. If it is not unlocked, then you should be asked for your user password to unlock the keyring, when a program tries to use the passwords that are stored in the keyring.
Hope this helps.
Here is some information about the keyring in KDE Plasma and howto access it: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/KDE_Wallet
It looks like Vorta has issues saving data to kwallet, when i open it i see an entry but if i try updating the entry myself through kwallet manager i get an error
From some simple heuristics i can tell that it cannot make the item in kdewallet, this seems to be the issue for me at least, when i removed the old entry from Kwallet and rebooted vorta was unable to make a new entry, Perhaps kwallet API changed or something?
Workaround is going into settings and turning off "use system keychain" If security is an issue here, change your repo password for the time being, change it back when the keychains work again
@daPhipz passphrase supplied in BORG_PASSPHRASE, by BORG_PASSCOMMAND or via BORG_PASSPHRASE_FD is incorrect.
Did you set borg env variables, by any chance?
What does printenv | grep BORG return?