Frequently Asked Questions

An incremental backup is a backup of latest changes since the last backup (any level) so that when a full recovery is needed the restoration process would need the last full backup plus all the incremental backups until the point-in-time of the restoration. The purpose of an incremental backup is to preserve and protect data by creating copies that are based on the differences in those data and thus minimize the amount of time needed to perform the backup. With incremental backups, successive copies of the data contain only that portion which has changed since the preceding backup copy was made.

On managed encryption accounts, the keys are held in the cloud and not on the client side. On UltraSafe accounts, the key is held locally and no part of it is stored server side. These accounts are unrecoverable should the password be forgotten.

The initial backup will always take the longest. Subsequent backups will only upload the block level changes you make on your files, so it will run much quicker. Other factors include the speed of your internet upload, the amount of data that you selected for backup, and your computer's processing speed. EasyBackupPro backs up data at the rate of about 2 to 4 GB per day for your initial backup. However, if you have a fast connection and left undisturbed, you can backup up–to 8 to 9 GB in a single day.

TYes you can, but do not schedule them to run at the same time because if there are files that need to be backed up by both applications, then there are chances that the backup will crash.

1. EasyBackupPro checks files to see if they have been changed before backing up – if a file has been backed up to the account, that particular file will not be backed up again until after they have been modified/changed.
2. By default, the software will only upload the changes of the file (for files over 500KB) every time a file has been modified after the first backup.
3. For example, if your original file is 1MB in size, and after the first backup, it was modified and the size increased to 1.1MB, only 0.1MB (i.e. the changes) will be uploaded to your backup account.
4. The changes uploaded are calculated based on the last full backup (i.e. differential backup).

Yes. Local backup does have a –password protection– function that allow separate password to be set for the recovery of local backed up files.

No, Anyone who has access to the account will have access to the files. Because you are using only one Username and Password, naturally, there is only one login and access to the data backed up under that account.

Yes, our system provides full backup for open files. Note that there are some files however that still should not be backed up directly even though EasyBackupPro does support open files backup. Some examples of open files that cannot be directly backed up by EasyBackupPro Online Backup are SQL, Exchange, SAGE, Intuit, QuickBooks & Quicken and MYOB.

Backing up Quickbooks while open is not transactional consistent and not recommended by Intuit. EasyBackupPro can backup Quickbooks while closed. In order to backup Quickbooks properly:

1. Schedule the Quickbooks local backup utility,
   • File > Save Copy or Backup and choose Backup copy.
   • FChoose Local backup and click on "Options".
   • FSelect the location to save the files. By default it will have a path that it will save to.
   • FWhen you click Next you have the option to "Save it now". If you choose "Only schedule future backups" then Next, another window opens where the Automatic Backup settings are configured.
   You can also refer to this link for more information on how to schedule backups in Quickbooks. http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/pages/inproducthelp/Co...
2. Schedule EasyBackupPro Online Backup to backup the Quickbooks backup file.

EasyBackupPro Online Backup can backup mapped drives to EasyBackupPro server as well as to restore data from EasyBackupPro server to mapped drives as long as the user has rights to the drives.

To view the used space on your account, please login to the EasyBackupPro application. Click on Menu > Classic View

On the Top of the screen, click on "Refresh". Once the refresh is complete, you can see the used space as well as the data that has been backed up.

In order to update or change your credit card or billing information on your EasyBackupPro account please click on the link below.

You will be prompted to enter your account user name that is used when logging into the EasyBackupPro application.

1. Go to our website and
2. Click the "Forgot Password" link.
3. Key in your EasyBackupPro backup username and email address, and submit the form
4. The system will prompt you to fill in the answer to your secret question, fill this in and submit the form. Your password will be sent to your inbox.

Note: If you've selected to use "UltraSafe™" during your signup, you'll not be able to retrieve your password. EasyBackupPro cannot help you to recover your password.

Go to myaccount.sosonlinebackup.com and login with your user name and password.
1. Click on Billing > Show payments

1. Launch the EasyBackupPro Online Backup software. The shortcut can be found on the desktop or in the Start menu.
2. Login
3. Click the Restore button, Restore the Restore Online
4. Select the date and click next
5. Now you can right click on any Computer and click Delete, or simply expand to delete folders or files on the right hand side. There are 2 examples below.

1. Login into client application with your backup account credentials
2. Locate the Menu on the top of the wizard/Home screen
3. Click "Menu" and choose "Options"
4. Chose "Folders" locate at left panel and you will be able to see four types of EasyBackupPro Folders:
   • Local Backup folder
   • Recovery folder
   • Temp folder
   • Cache folder

You can just use the default folder path assigned by the application or you can change the folder path by clicking "..." button Click "Save" button to save the changes you have made or click "Cancel" in case if you don't want to save the changes made by you

To change the Cache settings, you must be in the Wizard View.

If you are in Classic View and you want to go back to Wizard, click Run Wizard.

1. Click the Menu drop down > Options > Folders
2. You can now set the location of the Temp, Cache, and Packages folder to a different location as recommended to a larger drive, click Save when you are finished.
3. Click Caching Option, here you can turn off the Cache feature and backup like an old school Incremental backup.

Only the files that change will be backed up. But if you turn off the Cache by clicking Retransfer Entire File, all of your large files will take much longer to backup if they change. However, if you do not want to turn off the Cache feature, you can change the size of files that do get cached. I suggest changing it to a high number like 200MB or even 1GB.

Here is how you do it: go to the install folder of EasyBackupPro C:\\Program Files (x86)\\EasyBackupPro Online Backup and look for a file named sstorage.exe.config and open this in Notepad. Then click edit, click find, search for. "intellicache" change the value = "500" to something higher in KB like 204800 which is 200MB.

Also you can go into the Cache folder on any system and just delete files that will never change like images, PDFs, videos, small files, etc. If you are using version 5.0.2 and above, these are the keys you will find in Sstorage.exe.config

Floor is the minimum file size, and Ceiling is the maximum.
Note: For users having version 5.2 and above, not all file types will be cached.

Here's the list of file types that will not be cached.

iso,sys,cab,exe,msi,dll,ocx,bmp,djvu,gif,ico,jpeg,jpg,png,psd,264,3gp,aac,aiff,ape,asf,avi,dat,flac,flv, mkv,mov,moov,movie,mp21,mp2v,mp3,mpeg,mpeg4, m2a,m2v,m4a,m4e,m4v,md5,mp4,mp4v, mpg,mpg2,mts,ogm,ogv,ogx,pmf,mpe, qt,rm,rmd,rmp,spf,spi,spx,swf,ts,vob,webm,wm,wma, wmv,xvid,7z, ace,arc,arj,bzip2,cab,gzip,gz,jar,rar,zip,pdf

1. You can view the data that has been backed up online, by launching the EasyBackupPro Online Backup software, clicking on the Restore tab at the top, and then clicking on Online Restore. If the EasyBackupPro Online Backup software is not installed, you can download it here: http://www.sosonlinebackup.com/downloads
2. Screen two of the recovery wizard will give you the option to search for specific backed up data . You can select a particular backed up date, size, or search by file name. Leave all options as is and click next if you would like to restore the latest version of all backed up data.
3. You can see in this screenshot below that there are three computers backed up under the account. Now you can choose what you want to recover. You can recover all your systems, just one system, drive, folder, or file. Click on the plus symbol next to the folders on the left to drill down the folder structure. Highlighting the folder name will show the files and folders within the folder on the right side.
   Note: You can choose computers > files > folders that you wish to restore by checking the box next to it. Adding a check mark next to the root folder (computer name), will select all backed up data for the computer
4. This last step allows you to choose where you want the file(s) to be restored to, and if user wishes to include the original path of the files > folders in the backup. If you select "include original path" then EasyBackupPro will rebuild the entire directory and file structure of the original system. If you're doing a full recovery this is useful. If you're only recovering a single file, you probably want to un-check this option. Click Finish to start the recovery process.
5. Below screen shows that the data recovery has completed. You can click on the Open Destination Directory to go to folder that contains the recovered files and folders.

You can just use the default folder path assigned by the application or you can change the folder path by clicking "..." button Click "Save" button to save the changes you have made or click "Cancel" in case if you don't want to save the changes made by you

1. EasyBackupPro Online Backup can usually backup open files, but Quickbooks files use a special data caching process that means when the Quickbooks program is running you cannot simply select the Quickbooks data files, and get a consistent backup of the data (you can select those files, and EasyBackupPro will back them up, but this is not recommended).
2. Quickbooks files can be backed up correctly when the application is closed.
3. An alternative solution (and the one we recommend) would be to create backup files using "Quick books Backup Utility", then use EasyBackupPro to backup these backup files.

To Backup using Quick Books:

1. Open Quickbooks. Select "File" and "Save Copy or Backup" from the menu.
2. Click the radial button beside "Backup Copy." Click the "Next" button.
3. Select "Local Backup." Click "Options."
4. Choose the "Browse" button. Select where to save your backup from the pane in the "Browse for Folder" window. Click "OK."
5. Click "OK" in the "Backup Options" window. Choose "Next."
6. Select "Save it Now" from the "Save Copy or Backup" window. Type a file name for the backup in the area next to "File Name." Click "Save.".

You can also refer to the Help Topics within Quickbooks on how to create a local backup of your Quickbooks company files.

To recover files without using client backup software, log into https://myaccount.sosonlinebackup.com/login.aspx

Once the page loads, you will notice is a row of links at the top of the page. You have the choice of either searching for a specific file, browse your files by directory or browse by category (pictures, videos, music and documents)

Browse allows the user to browse through the machines and their drives that are using the backup software.

Search allows the user to look for a file by typing in the name or file extension.

Locate the file you want to recover, and navigate your cursor to the right of the page, in the same column of the file.

You will notice two options, Share and Recover.

Click Recover and choose a destination to recover the file to. (Note: there is a 500MB limit for recovery using the webportal)

This is a work around on how to view the sizes of particular folders on EasyBackupPro.

First download and install the software: http://www.sosonlinebackup.com/sos-backup-software-download.htm

1. Login and select the restore tab
2. Wait for your files to collect here, then select next
3. On this screen place a check mark next to the particular folder you want to see the size of and then hit next. (you can select more than one folder at a time)
4. This screen will show a list of the folder/s and the size of each.

1. Please login to EasyBackupPro application
2. Click on Menu > Classic View
3. Once refresh completes, You will be able to see the computers listed in the Left Pane.
4. Select the file or Folder you need. Right click on it and select Recover.
5. RECOMMENDED: New Location, click the browse button ... to the right, then select the C: drive or another drive letter, Click OK.
   NOTE: If Include original path is ‘checked’. It will download the files with the entire tree structure
6. File recovery starts with the following screen
   Once the recovery is complete. Click on Open Destination Directory to view the download files.

1. Login into client application with your backup account credentials
2. Click Restore
3. Click Online Restore
4. Chose the date for which you want to recover files/folders
5. Click Next
6. You will be able to see only the files/folders of chosen date and older than chosen date
7. Chose file(s) and folder(s) you want to restore
8. Click Next
9. Provide the destination folder path where you want to place the recovered file(s)/folder(s) and click FINISH OR
10. Just click FINISH to accept the default destination folder
11. You will be able to see Recovery Status window and please wait till all chosen file(s)/folder(s) are recovered

1. Click on "Menu" found on the top of the EasyBackupPro software application and select "Options".
2. Select Email backup reports in the options provided.
3. To disable, un check the send email reports check–box.
4. To enable, check the send email reports check box, you can also change your email address.

Start off by verifying that the backups did run, to do so go login to my accounts system and then click on Reports and History. Uploaded data info will be there.

If there is none then the backup didn't launch, if there is some activity this means the backup did run, but the report didn't generate because it either got interrupted or the mail was sent and I went to spam or was somehow blocked.

To check to see if is an issue with the mail going to spam or not being delivered you can test by running a backup and entering an email address from another domain like Gmail to see if that is received. If it goes there then the issue is either your provider or your account settings.

If the backups are not completing then we will want to first check what version of the software you are running. If it is out of date that is likely the issue, and you will want to update the client to the latest release by using the link below. We are currently running version 5.7.2. To check what version you are running go to Menu and click About.

In order to remove a device/machine from your EasyBackupPro Back up account we will first want to install the application onto your new machine.

Once the application is installed open it up and click on Menu from the top left hand corner then choose Classic View.

This will load all your online data in a windows explorer like view.

Your computers will be listed by name.

Select the desired machine and from here you can right the file or folder or entire device and select Delete from the menu. You will also have the option to Recover at this menu in case you wish to recover something to your new machine before deleting from the old back up.

NOTE: DATA DELETED FROM THE SERVER CAN NO LONGER BE RECOVERED SO BE SURE YOU NO LONGER NEED THIS DATA PRIOR TO DELETING IT

If the file no longer exist on the server but it is no longer being picked up by the Online backup application we may need to deselect the data source then re-add it. Please see below.

1. Start the software
2. Click setup online backup
3. Uncheck the files you want to backup.
4. This will clear those particular files form the local database, next out to finish and close the application (uncheck run back up at the end of this wizard)
5. Then, open the software again
6. Click setup online backup
7. Recheck the files
8. Start the backup again.

There are a few ways to tell if your backups are running. This is perhaps the easiest and most informative way.

Please open up a web browser and navigate to https://myaccount.managedoffsitebackup.net/.

From here, please log in with your EasyBackupPro backup account.

Once in, locate the menu bar at the top and locate the Reports option.

Hover over reports to get the Backup History option to populate, and click it.

Once the Backup History page loads, please locate the calendar and alter the FROM date to when you want the reporting to start.

Once the dates are set, click Search and you will be able to see all the times within the date threshold your machine(s) have backed up.

In order to enable Live Protect, follow the below instructions.

Please login to EasyBackupPro application with user name and password.

After logging in Click on "Setup Online Backup".

The files from your computer would be listed in a tree view on the left hand side, kindly use the drop down to select the file to enable "Live Protect"

Select the files from the right hand view, right click on the file and select "Enable LiveProtect"

You can also select all the files in a folder by clicking "Select All"

Once the files are selected with the "Live Protect" feature, you will notice that the file name turns to green indicating that its enabled.

This feature can be used only at file levels and not folder levels.

When your backup is running, there is an EasyBackupPro logo (couple of upward arrow marks) in your task bar. You can pull up the details of your currently running backup set by right clicking on the icon and selecting "Show".

At the end of the data transfer you will be able to see the status log of backup process if the data being was transferred successfully. Details on the Upload Agent (the backup window that shows up when a backup is running) provide you with an indication on the status of the files being backed up. If the Status is "Transferring" then it means that the file is still in transit. If it's "OK" then the server has confirmed that the file has been backed up successfully.

• We have the option of delivering backup email reports after each backup completes. Please refer to the screenshots below on how to check if you have configured EasyBackupPro to send you an email report.
• Click on Menu—> Options
• Select "Email Backup Reports"
• Check the box "Send email backup reports at the end of the backup" to enable the email backup reports and enter your email address, you can also add multiple email address. And you will be notified with the backup status at the end of the backup.

In the client software, at the wizard view, you may also run "Restore Online" and recover your files to verify successful upload to our data center.

You can also log in to My Account and check for your files from there. A recover/share option is available on the My Account website. Please follow the steps below to confirm the backed up data via Web Portal.

• Login with your User credentials.
• Place the mouse pointer on "Reports" for further options.
• Click on "Backup History" to check your backup history on a daily basis by using the calendar filter
• Or, Click on "Machine Backup Details" to get the information on the total used space with respective to the additional computers (if installed), also you can also find the last backup date of you backup activity.

Locally based backup are quick for backup and restores and EasyBackupPro Online Backup software is able to do that as well through its Local Backup function.

However local backup without having redundant hard drive and offsite storage only provides a STORAGE service and NOT a true BACKUP service.

You may be able to store your data in the NAS but if anything were to happen locally to the data (disaster, media corruption, etc.); you will not be able to retrieve the data as compared to EasyBackupPro Online Backup.

For a backup to be classified as satisfactory and sufficient backup, the facility must be able to provide automatic backup, offsite storage and able to keep a fully versioned history of files in the backup.

EasyBackupPro only uses data centers that are level Tier III, Tier IV and SAS 70 compliant across the SOS global data grid (and now SSAE 16). Tier IV data center is considered as most robust and less prone to failures.

Tier IV is designed to host mission critical servers and computer systems, with fully redundant subsystems (cooling, power, network links, storage etc) and compartmentalized security zones controlled by biometric access controls methods.

It has Redundant capacity components and Dual-powered equipment with multiple uplinks. All components are fully fault–tolerant and dual–powered including uplinks, storage, chillers, HVAC systems, servers, etc.