Timeshift doesnt seem to want to backup with the GUI open?

[MoralCode]

I've had the timeshift GUI open and my backup drive plugged in for a few hours today and the logs from /var/log/timeshift/2018-06-21_10-00-01_backup.log say:

[10:00:01] Main: check_dependencies()
[10:00:01] Another instance of this application is running (PID=7880)

I checked system info and process 7880 was my GUI instance of timeshift. Am i doing something wrong or is the GUI not designed to be left open all the time?

[MoralCode]

Seems like it also does the same thing when it happens the other way around...

[teejee2008]

Only one instance of Timeshift can run at a time

[hellcats]

@teejee2008 So the scheduled snapshots are disabled while the GUI is open? Is this by design?

[teejee2008]

yes. only one instance can run at a time.

[MoralCode]

@teejee2008 is there a particular reason for this? It makes sense to me to not have two processes running a backup at the same time but can’t the timeshift GUI/cron just kick off some kind of separate sub process or daemon that is specifically for backing up, then that can be limited to one process while still allowing the GUI to be accessed/open during a backup.

[teejee2008]

2 backups cannot run at same time since rsync snapshots will hardlink files to the "last" snapshot. It is possible to show the Timeshift GUI but many actions will need to be disabled so that it doesn't cause problems with running backups.

[Cylon-interrogator]

I have been struggling with the same issue. I like to keep my GUI open all the time to see the state of my backups and I was wondering why I was missing so many of my scheduled backups. Thought this was an error. I don't mean to sound like a moaner, Timeshift does a great job and it's free, so big thanks to the author, but this seems like a little unfortunate design choice. Maybe at least a little warning displayed by the app would be helpful ...

[jmaness]

I was also affected by this issue. I didn't realize hourly snapshots could not be created if the Timeshift UI was running. I too understand the issues related to rsync. Architecturally, the Timeshift UI should be a separate process from a timeshift daemon process.

I'm curious what happens when a daily snapshot attempts to run at the same time as an hourly, or does the daily snapshot point to one of the hourly snapshots?

[dbr]

I had the same confusion - no scheduled backups occurred while GUI was open. I had just installed and configured Timeshift, and so I left the interface open to check that new snapshots were being made. It made things feel unreliable - only a few hourly backups had been mean at seemingly-random (probably when the UI was closed post-reboot)

One additional point is the GUI has a large "Timeshift is active" text with a green shield icon next to it, which I found particularly misleading as it implies everything is running as normal.

This status info changes to "Scheduled snapshots are disabled" if the scheduled times are all unchecked - maybe this could say "Scheduled backups are paused while GUI is open" or something along those lines instead of "active"?

[lenix]

Same for me, was wondering why no new snapshots were made.

[Noexpert]

Same issue here on a headless server without GUI. When I search by the indicated process number or pgrep timeshift, nothing appears.