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Arq 1.7 is out!

This release is mostly focused on budgeting. There’s a new view that shows current S3 space usage, and a new menu item to trigger Arq Agent to enforce the budget.

Get the new version by selecting “Check for Updates” from the Arq menu, or download it from http://www.haystacksoftware.com/arq/

Here are the details:

Release Notes for Arq Backup Version 1.7

Feature Additions

  • Added a view showing S3 space usage.
  • Added S3 data trimming interval as a preference.
  • Added ‘Trim S3 Data Now…’ menu item to Arq Agent.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue that caused Arq Agent to crash when pausing and resuming.
  • Fixed issues with trimming backups (calculating and enforcing budget).
  • Ask for permission to launch Arq Agent (the first time) before launching it.
  • Fixed issues with license key editing.
  • Fixed an error that occurred when clearing the pause minutes field.
  • Fixed an issue where, after backup versions were rewritten, Arq Agent was returning the wrong backup-version ID to Arq, and Arq was erroneously displaying zero backup versions.
  • Fixed an issue with daily-backup scheduling that caused backups to run continuously for an hour.
  • Reduced memory usage during Arq Agent startup.
  • Fixed an issue where S3 “not found” results were being logged as errors.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 26th, 2010 at 9:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

25 Comments

  1. Could you explain what TRIM S3 Data does? Thanks.

    Comment by Martin — December 27, 2010 @ 8:54 am

  2. In Arq you can set a budget for S3 usage. Arq trims the S3 data to stay under this budget: it drops the oldest backup versions until the total S3 data is below the budget amount. It always keeps at least 1 backup though, even if that means the S3 usage is over budget.

    Comment by Stefan Reitshamer — December 27, 2010 @ 9:06 am

  3. THank you Stefan.

    Comment by Martin — December 29, 2010 @ 5:58 am

  4. Arq seems not to fully pass the extended Backup Bouncer test according to http://blog.dr3do.me/post/2497015803/backup-bouncer-test-arq-1-7-1. Could you please comment on that?

    (There might be good reasons for not supporting all kind of metadata.)

    Comment by Martin — December 29, 2010 @ 8:48 am

  5. That blog post uses a new, extended version of Backup Bouncer that I wasn’t aware of: http://www.bombich.com/groups/ccc/wiki/7ba51/Improvements_to_Backup_Bouncer.html

    I just became aware of it yesterday (when Boris, the author of the blog post, sent it to me). I’ll make sure Arq passes all of those new extended tests.

    Comment by Stefan Reitshamer — December 29, 2010 @ 9:04 am

  6. Thanks, Stefan!

    Comment by Martin — December 29, 2010 @ 10:16 am

  7. I’m thinking about purchasing Arq, any plans to make Arq available on the Mac App Store?

    Comment by Paul Grave — January 9, 2011 @ 2:50 pm

  8. No plans to put Arq in the app store right now.

    Comment by Stefan Reitshamer — January 9, 2011 @ 3:18 pm

  9. It would be great to be notified when a new version of Arq is released. While launched the Arq app notifies users of new versions, I don’t launch the app much (just let the background app do it’s thing until I need to make some changes).

    Just a thought.

    Comment by Rob — January 12, 2011 @ 2:22 pm

  10. Actually you can tell Arq Agent to check for updates. In the preferences, Advanced tab, check “Arq Agent checks for application updates”. Then Arq Agent will periodically check, and notify you if there’s an update available.

    Comment by Stefan Reitshamer — January 12, 2011 @ 3:42 pm

  11. Will Arq be available in the App Store soon? I’m looking to purchase a copy, but would prefer to buy it in the App Store. Thanks!

    Comment by Adam Parnes — January 14, 2011 @ 5:45 pm

  12. I’ve started looking into getting Arq into the Mac App Store. Whether it actually makes it into the store or not is mostly up to Apple’s reviewers. Even if it does get approved by Apple, it will continue to be available through the Haystack Software store, with the same automatic updates and great customer service as it’s always had.

    Comment by Stefan Reitshamer — January 15, 2011 @ 9:19 am

  13. I’m trying out Arq, and I can’t work out how one goes about changing the S3 access or encryption keys. I realise that this will make old backups useless, but it would be good to know how to do it if necessary.

    There doesn’t seem to be a way to get back the initial dialog.

    Comment by Julian — January 21, 2011 @ 2:41 pm

  14. To start over with Arq, you can quit Arq, quit Arq Agent, delete the Library/Arq folder and then launch Arq.

    Comment by Stefan Reitshamer — January 22, 2011 @ 9:39 am

  15. Would it be possible to add a new backup preference? You have hourly and daily, would it be possible to add weekly – ie once every friday at 1pm etc?

    Comment by Karl — January 31, 2011 @ 9:52 am

  16. It’s on my to-do list.

    Comment by Stefan Reitshamer — January 31, 2011 @ 10:03 am

  17. You dear sir, are a legend :)

    Comment by Karl — February 3, 2011 @ 8:31 am

  18. Love ARQ! I’ve been using it for a few months now and I’m quite impressed. One question: my AWS charges are double what I expected. Poking around to find out why, it looks like I have a 55Gb backup set and in January, had 40Gb of bandwidth charges. This is puzzling because I’m not aware of changing anywhere near 40Gb worth of files. Most of my 55Gb are large static disk images that I don’t touch at all (and in fact show as not having been backed up since early December), so where 40Gb of bandwidth usage could have come from is a total mystery.

    Is there any way to find out from ARQ what it’s sending by way of bandwidth usage, so I can figure out what’s up with that 40Gb?

    Comment by Stever Robbins — February 11, 2011 @ 10:54 pm

  19. Unfortunately Arq doesn’t give much help yet in the way of analyzing network usage.
    You could set the log level to “Debug” in the preferences and watch the log (in Console.app); it’ll log every file it uploads to S3. That might give you some idea of what it’s uploading.
    Arq will eventually show what’s added/changed/deleted between backup versions.

    Comment by Stefan Reitshamer — February 12, 2011 @ 2:41 pm

  20. I see a few people are requesting that Arq be in the App Store. I just want to say that, if you do so, please also make it a stand-alone download. A lot of people can’t upgrade to Snow Leopard due because of older connected hardware that isn’t supported, and I’ve been disappointed that the App Store isn’t Leopard compatible.

    Comment by Rob — March 17, 2011 @ 11:18 pm

  21. All Haystack Software apps will always be available through the Haystack Software store, with the same features. Going “App Store-only” is much too risky for my business.

    Comment by Stefan Reitshamer — March 18, 2011 @ 5:41 am

  22. Will Arq work with Amazon’s new “Cloud Locker” storage?

    I assume the answer is no, but I’d love a definitive answer.

    Comment by Chucky — March 29, 2011 @ 7:25 am

  23. Thanks for such a well-crafted piece of software that does a great job of taking care of offsite backup. I use TimeMachine for backups too as well as a couple of SuperDuper clones of the built-in hard drives but… they are all local (I know I should put one clone offsite but then I would have to go retrieve it periodically to refresh the image). Using Arq and my already-in-place AWS3 account give me the extra piece of mind that I’ve been looking for. The path to Arq has taken me to using DropBox and iDisk for backup however I don’t like their (lack) of security in that the password used for encryption is available to them as well. Now that I have really secure, off-site storage I wish there was a way to use it to replace my use of MobileMe for synch of AddressBook, iCal, etc. between my iMac/MBPAir/iPad/iPhone.

    I also wanted to add my support to your policy of always maintaining a separate product from the App Store. While the App Store is nice is some ways, it really doesn’t provide anything more than what I get from dealing directly with you. To be honest, sometimes I cruise the App Store just to look for new software I don’t know about but… then I always go to the developer’s website to see if I can purchase direct. I assume the extra 30% you make by not selling through Apple will help you that much more to stay in business and continue to enhance your products.

    Comment by Art — March 29, 2011 @ 10:57 am

  24. Amazon’s Cloud Drive is totally separate from S3, and doesn’t have an API, as far as I can tell. If you hear different let me know!

    Comment by Stefan Reitshamer — April 1, 2011 @ 2:23 pm

  25. Thanks!
    I’m always going to maintain my own store, and any versions of products I get into the app store will be the same versions as in my own store.
    Arq doesn’t really fit the Mac App Store rules. Also, it’s very hard to support people who buy through the Mac App Store — I don’t have their contact info, and they seem to just post negative reviews instead of contacting me so I can help them.

    Comment by Stefan Reitshamer — April 1, 2011 @ 2:27 pm

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