Backup Modes

Warehouse offers 4 backup modes which help you solve a variety of backup of scenarios on a task-per-task basis. The following explanation uses the terms source and destination which refer to the source folders and destination folder respectively.

Update

Any changes made on the source (added files/folders, modified files etc...) are transferred to the destination. No files are deleted on the destination but modified files will be overwritten to reflect changes on the source.

Archive

Changes to the source are transferred incrementally to the destination and stored by date like Apple's TimeMachine. Although it may appear there are hundreds of duplicate files in each archive only new or modified files will occupy disk space. For example if you had a source folder containing 1GB of files which was archived 5 times without adding or removing any files the 5 archived folders will still collectively occupy only 1GB of disk space despite each containing hundreds of seemingly duplicate files.

Note: As of 10.6 the Finder does not always report the correct size of archives in the Get Info window (command-I).

Synchronize

Any changes made to the source (added files/folders, modified files etc...) are transferred to the destination. Any files on the destination that do not exist on the source will be deleted.

Warning: please use this mode with caution as it could lead to data lose if used carelessly.

Bidirectional

Bidirectional backups are similar to the update mode except added or modified files on the destination are transferred to the source also (no files on the source or destination are deleted). This mode is useful for synchronizing folders on 2 Macs (perhaps connected on a network) or when you have made changes to the destination you want reflected on the source.

To change the backup mode:

  1. Select the task you wish to edit.
  2. In the Options pane select one of the items in the Mode popup button.