AlternativeRealities » USB AutoBackup

OS X Lion compatibility

Paul Huckstepp — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 07:28:34 +0000

OS X Lion is out and quite frankly after reading about some of the so called ‘improvements’ I’d much prefer to stay on 10.6, I mean why try and get rid of ‘Save As’ and scrollbars. That said I do need to ensure that AutoWallpaper and USB AutoBackup function correctly on the updated OS, and will no doubt upgrade shortly once the mad rush of downloads has subsided.

If anyone out there is running Lion and either AutoWallpaper or USB AutoBackup please let me know of your findings.

Update: I’ve successfully upgraded my MacBook to OS X Lion and can confirm that AutoWallpaper 5.6 and USB AutoBackup are working properly. If anyone does find any compatibility issues please let me know.

Update 2: It appears that Lion’s enforcement of locked folders can cause settings to not be saved in AutoWallpaper. I’m looking into this and hope to have a solution soon.

USB AutoBackup 1.8

Paul Huckstepp — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 10:51:15 +0000

A new version of USB AutoBackup has been released that adds an exciting new feature. Versioning. This feature allows you to specify the number of versions/iterations of the files that are backed up. This means that if you make a serious error with one of your files you will always have a previous version to fall back on.

This option is enabled (with 30 versions) by default and is available for all types of backup profiles. To change the option just open the main USB AutoBackup window, go to the options tab and you will see the new versioning checkbox and settings.

USB AutoBackup 1.7.224 released

Paul Huckstepp — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 08:38:13 +0000

A small update that adds a new feature to the tiny but mighty automatic backup app.

Version 1.7.224 adds a new entry to the tray icon menu (status icon menu), this new item allows you to quickly and easily open explorer (finder) windows to the source and backup locations you have configured in USB AutoBackup.

This is ideal if you’ve lost your drive, or deleted a file by mistake. You can simply right-click (left-click on Mac version) the icon, select ‘Open Backup Location’ and then select either the source or backup option for the drive in question.

http://www.arsoftware.co.uk/products_usbautobackup.php

Best laid plans…

Paul Huckstepp — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 06:54:54 +0000

As regular readers may know I had laid down some big plans for the coming week, I had planned on devoting all the time needed to complete the AutoWallpaper 5.5 update, and also an update for USB AutoBackup to allow for subscription based licensing, as well as a number of other research and development projects I’m looking into. Well all of that is about to be posponed

My day job inbox has swelled to biblical proportions over the course of the week and one project in particular (I can’t discuss it) has such a short time frame and is so complex that I cannot take my week off and still have time to complete the project. So, with great frustration and regret I have had to cancel my time off.

My new plan is to proceed with the AW update during the weekend and finish as much as I can, however, the USB AutoBackup is needed quite soon for a series of educational licences so that will take precedence.

I will post again when I know more. At present I’m unsure when my next break from work will be

To Sleep Perchance to Dream

Paul Huckstepp — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 07:26:28 +0000

The temperature during the night in my part of the UK has gone up considerably in the last few weeks and is making it very difficult for me to sleep, or at least get a restful nights sleep. My clock is displaying a minimum temperature of 27 degrees Celsius and during the day rises to about 28-29C.

That is have the knock on effect of making it difficult for me to do any decent amounts of coding. However, progress on AutoWallpaper 5.3 is coming along very nicely most of the smaller routines have now been completed and it only leaves the more complex parts to do. Hopefully I’m still on target for a late July release.

I haven’t had to release any Unity ScriptEditor updates for the last few weeks but I may find new additions when I finally get a chance to begin my own 3D game development (Asylum, and Incident Zero-working title).

Also, I have decided to drop the price of USB AutoBackup to a crazy low $5.99. I will have to change the payment processor from ShareIt to PayPal though, as shareIt will be taking $2.50 + 5% from each sale leaving me with practically pennies, especially after converting to pounds sterling.

USB AutoBackup 1.5 released

Paul Huckstepp — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 14:05:28 +0000

It is here, the significantly faster USB AutoBackup. Please note that the first backup after installing the update will be a full normal backup but after that the speed increase will been very noticable. Also, if you use dated backup folders the first new backup of each day will be a full backup and will take longer.

http://www.arsoftware.co.uk/products_usbautobackup.php

USB AutoBackup 1.5 coming soon

Paul Huckstepp — Mon, 31 May 2010 15:05:12 +0000

It’s been quite a hectic few weeks. With the release of UnityScript Editor I continued a fast paced process of adding new features and fixing bugs and have already clocked up to version 1.6.5. With USE I’m using a slightly different version numbering than I usually use, the .6 is actually the release build number and the .5 is an indication of the amount of changes. So in this case .6.5 is the 6th release and has a few bug fixes over .6.0.

Anyway, I’m very pleased with the current release and the progress of the project and hopefully this will continue and become the number one editor for Unity3d (UnityScript).

The big news this week however is the imminent release of USB AutoBackup 1.5 (UAB). I had a bit of a brain wave over the last few days. As some of you may know if you have a very large number of files on your USB drives the backups can take quite some time, this is because UAB had to scan through and see if each file was different to the backup one. However, in version 1.5 I have massively improved the speed of this process. Using my own 8Gb pen drive as an example, version 1.0 would take about 1.5 minutes to scan through and backup where necessary on startup, but with version 1.5 the backup process takes less than 5 seconds (given that only a small number of files have actually changed). I’m in the process of running through the necessary tests but the update should be out very soon.

AutoWallpaper 5.5 progress is going well; The update was originally scheduled for June but I’m going to have to push that back to July I’m afraid. I haven’t had nearly enough time to sit down and plough through all the code changes required. But don’t worry the wait will be worth it. The update will speed up category processing, massively improve random wallpaper selections, and resolve a few other bits and pieces that have been hanging around.

USB AutoBackup 1.0.167

Paul Huckstepp — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 10:02:19 +0000

A very quick post to inform everyone that a new update is available for USB AutoBackup. This update corrects a new issue where a profile was created for a folder on a USB drive rather than the USB root. This is an important update so please ensure that you download and install it as soon as you can.

USB AutoBackup 1.0.162 released

Paul Huckstepp — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 14:24:56 +0000

A critical update has been released for USB AutoBackup. A bug was found that caused UAB to crash. Basically if you created a profile for a brand new completely empty USB drive UAB would try to copy zero files and crash. Whoops. So, I’ve corrected the problem and released a new update.

The update also fixes the web updater that was keen to take everyone to the AutoWallpaper download page rather then the USB AutoBackup one; and also a fix that allows a backup profile to have a source folder within a USB drive rather than just it’s root.

A quick round of updates

Paul Huckstepp — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:53:07 +0000

Both AutoWallpaper and USB AutoBackup have had small updates this month.

Firstly, the update for AutoWallpaper. This new release brings the ability to duplicate the selected wallpaper from monitor 1 on any number of other monitors. To use this option all you have to do is edit the effects configuration for a secondary display and check the ‘Use primary monitors wallpaper’ under the Image Processing tab.

The new update also fixes a couple of issues with importing files with meta information.

Finally, a very minor update (1.0.150) has been released for USB AutoBackup, this patch corrects a glitch with the registration process.