If your NAS or drive disconnects

Updated

Is it connected?

The bottom of the sidebar shows your destination's name and either Connected or Offline. The Destination screen shows the same beside the destination's name.

While the destination is Offline, Back Up Now is dimmed, and Restore shows Destination Not Connected.

CloudBak reconnects by itself

For a NAS you connected to with Connect to Server, and for most shares connected in Finder, CloudBak connects again by itself, using the password saved in your keychain. It tries when CloudBak opens, when your Mac wakes, and when the network comes back, several times over the next 9 minutes or so. If the NAS still hasn't answered by then, CloudBak stops trying until the next time one of those happens.

A NAS that's asleep or turned off for the night looks the same to CloudBak as one that's disconnected. A backup or a scheduled backup that's waiting for it goes on trying, as described below. Otherwise, click Reconnect once the NAS is back.

If the NAS rejects the password

If the NAS rejects the saved password, those automatic attempts stop, rather than try it again and again: some NAS treat that as an attack and lock the account.

A backup that's waiting for the destination doesn't stop, though. A paused backup tries the saved password about every 20 seconds, and a scheduled backup that's waiting tries it about every 5 minutes, for up to 12 hours. If the password has changed on your NAS:

  1. If a backup is paused because the destination can't be reached, click Stop.
  2. Save the new password, as described in Your NAS password and the keychain.

If you can't save the new password straight away, set Settings › Schedule › Back up to Manually until you can, so a scheduled backup doesn't keep trying the old one.

If it disconnects during a backup

The backup pauses by itself, and Activity says The backup destination can't be reached. The backup will continue on its own when it reconnects. While it's paused, CloudBak tries to connect again about every 20 seconds, for as long as the backup stays paused, and the backup carries on as soon as the folder is back.

Files already copied stay backed up, because each one is recorded as soon as it's done. If the backup doesn't carry on once the destination is back, click Stop, then Back Up Now. The new backup continues from where the last one stopped.

Scheduled backups

A scheduled backup that's due while the destination can't be reached waits, and CloudBak tries to reconnect about every 5 minutes. It starts once it can. If it's still waiting after 12 hours, that backup is skipped. See Back up on a schedule.

Reconnect it yourself

  1. Make sure the NAS or drive is turned on and connected, and that your Mac is on the same network as the NAS.
  2. Open Destination and click Reconnect.

If reconnecting fails, the Destination screen says why:

  • The username or password wasn't accepted. The password saved for your NAS no longer works. See Your NAS password and the keychain.

  • Couldn't reach your server. Check that the NAS is on and on the same network.

  • This destination is a local drive. Connect it to this Mac and try again.

  • The backup folder isn't there any more, or CloudBak no longer has permission to it. If you moved or renamed the backup folder, click Change… and choose it again where it is now.

    CloudBak tells destinations apart by where the folder is, so a moved or renamed folder counts as a new destination. CloudBak asks you to confirm with Change Destination, and then stops keeping track of what it had backed up. The message says the next backup copies everything again, but the copies are already in that folder: the next backup recognizes the ones with the same size and date instead of copying them again. Activity shows how many files are already there.

For a share connected in Finder that CloudBak can't reconnect by itself, connect to it again in Finder.