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If you'd like assistance setting up your For Safety Sake backup, restoring from a backup, or if you have any other questions, feel free to contact us.

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Guides & Frequently Asked Questions

Windows Download & Installation Guide

1. Download the Home Backup or Business Backup client from http://www.forsafetysake.us/downloads
2. Find the installation file that was just downloaded (probably in your downloads folder). The name will start with 'obm-win', but could be quite a bit longer. Double-click to start the installation.
3. If asked to allow 'For Safety Sake Backup Client Installer' to make changes, click 'Yes'
4. Continue through installation prompts to install For Safety Sake
5. Once Installation has completed, click 'Finish' to launch the For Safety Sake Client.
6. If asked whether to allow 'Oracle Java SE Runtime Enviroment 7 to make changes to your device', click 'Yes'
7. If you have already created a FSS account, select 'Login', otherwise, select 'Free Trial'
8. Click on 'Backup Sets' to create your first backup
9. Click 'Add new backup set'
10. Select the backup set type that you'd like to create
11. Select the folders that you'd like to backup, as well as additional options.
12. Setup one or more schedules for your backup set to automatically run
13. Add multiple backup destinations if desired.
14. Select 'Sequential' or 'Concurrent' for your backup mode. Sequential will backup to each destination, one at a time. Concurrent will backup to multiple destinations at once.
15. OpenDirect is typically used for backing up Virtualized systems and is usually disabled otherwise.
16. Select your Encryption settings. We recommend leaving encryption disabled unless there is a specific reason that it needs to be enabled. The connection between your computer and the server is already encrypted via SSL.
17. If encryption is enabled, make sure to note down & save the encryption key provided. THIS KEY IS REQUIRED TO RESTORE YOUR BACKUP. IF THE ENCRYPTION KEY IS LOST, YOUR BACKUP CAN NOT BE RESTORED.
18. Once your backup set has been created, you can create your first backup by clicking 'Backup Now'
19. Select the backup set that you have just created.
20. Your backup will begin to transfer. You can view the estimated time left until backup completion, what has been backed up, how long the backup has been running, and how fast it is transferring.
21. Once the backup has completed, you can click the 'Close' button to return to the main menu.
22. You can go to the 'Review' section to view specific details about your backups, restorations, and usage.

MacOS Download & Installation Guide

Download the Home Backup or Business Backup client from http://www.forsafetysake.us/downloads
1. Open the downloaded file (.dmg file, usually in Downloads folder)
2. Double click 'obm.pkg' to start installation
3. Continue through installation prompts to install For Safety Sake
4. Enter in computer/login password if asked for it
5. Once finished, if you are asked you can move the installer to the trash
6. Find FSS Business in your Launchpad or Applications folder and double click to open it
7. If you have already created a FSS account, select 'Login', otherwise, select 'Free Trial'
9. Click on 'Backup Sets' to create your first backup
10. Click 'Add new backup set'
11. Select the backup set type that you'd like to create
12. Select the folders that you'd like to backup, as well as additional options.
13. Setup one or more schedules for your backup set to automatically run
14. Add multiple backup destinations if desired.
15. Select 'Sequential' or 'Concurrent' for your backup mode. Sequential will backup to each destination, one at a time. Concurrent will backup to multiple destinations at once.
16. OpenDirect is typically used for backing up Virtualized systems and is usually disabled otherwise.
17. Select your Encryption settings. We recommend leaving encryption disabled unless there is a specific reason that it needs to be enabled. The connection between your computer and the server is already encrypted via SSL.
18. If encryption is enabled, make sure to note down & save the encryption key provided. THIS KEY IS REQUIRED TO RESTORE YOUR BACKUP. IF THE ENCRYPTION KEY IS LOST, YOUR BACKUP CAN NOT BE RESTORED.
19. Once your backup set has been created, you can create your first backup by clicking 'Backup Now'
20. Select the backup set that you have just created.
21. Your backup will begin to transfer. You can view the estimated time left until backup completion, what has been backed up, how long the backup has been running, and how fast it is transferring.
22. Once the backup has completed, you can click the 'Close' button to return to the main menu.
23. You can go to the 'Review' section to view specific details about your backups, restorations, and usage.

Linux Download & Installation Guide

For assistance in setting up our Linux client, please contact us at the from above.

How do I perform a Manual Backup?

If a backup did not complete, or if you'd like to backup outside of the automatic schedule, you can always manually perform a backup.
1. Double click on the For Safety Sake Home or For Safety Sake Business icon on your desktop or in your taskbar. If asked whether you'd like to allow the app to make changes, click 'Yes'.
2. From the FSS main menu, select the 'Backup' tile.
3. If you have more than one backup set, select the one that you'd like to manually complete and click the 'Backup' button in the bottom right corner.
4.Your backup time will depend on if you have completed a full backup already and how many files you have changed since your last backup. It could be very quick (30 seconds) or take a long time (possibly several hours).
5. Once the backup has successfully completed, the progress bar will turn green, with a green checkmark next to 'Backup Successfully Completed'. Click 'Close' to return to the main menu.
You can view a full backup history and additional information about each backup by going to the 'Report' tile.

How do I Restore a Backup?

1. Click on the 'Restore' tile
2. Select the backup set that you'd like to restore from
3. Select the backup destination you'd like to restore from
4. Select the backup date you would like to restore from and select the folder & files that you would like to restore.
5. Choose where you'd like to restore your files. We recommend that you restore to an alternate location, like your desktop, and then copy the folders/files over to the needed location.
6. Continue with restoration or change temp directory if you'd like
7. Your backup restore will begin to transfer. You can view the estimated time left until backup completion, what has been backed up, how long the backup has been running, and how fast it is transferring.
8. Once the backup restore has completed, you can click the 'Close' button to return to the main menu.

How do I know when my backup is scheduled to run?

1. Double click on the For Safety Sake Home or For Safety Sake Business icon on your desktop or in your taskbar. If asked whether you'd like to allow the app to make changes, click 'Yes'.
2. From the FSS main menu, select the 'Backup Sets' tile.
3. If you have more than one backup set, select the one that you'd like to view
4. On the left-side menu, click 'Backup Schedule'. This will show you whether a scheduled backup is turned on for this backup set, as well as the date & time of the scheduled back. You can also add additional scheduled backups.
5. If you click on an existing backup schedule or add a new one, you can set how often the backup runs, what time it starts, and whether it stops at a specific time or continues to run until the backup is completed.

I have run out of Quota, what is that and how do I get more?

There are several steps you can take depending on the situation. As time goes on it is only natural for a user to gain more personal data and files. Not all of this may need to be backed up into your cloud backup service, for instance files that are already stored in a cloud service, such as iTunes, Google Drive or other services can be easily recovered and downloaded if there is a catastrophic failure. As an example iTunes keeps track of all the music you have downloaded and purchased from their store so you may not need to have a double backup of your iTunes music folder. Also some content you are backing up you may just not care about anymore, for instance that old college term paper from 15 years ago you could care less if you lost it.

Remove Old Content. Do you really need it? Cleanup the files on your computer and delete old content that you know you don't want to keep. This should include emails, documents, programs and anything else--esepecially leftover files in your Downloads folder. That old installation file that you used to install Google Chrome six months ago? It doesn't need to be taking up space on your backup. Setting aside a 'digital spring cleaning' once per year is reccommended in any case.
Archive Old Content. If you have old stuff that you want to keep but don’t need access to it, move it to a USB drive and store it in a safe place, like a safe in the attic. You can always reload it at a later date. FSS Backup will keep track of files that you move or delete and remove it from your on-line backup account over time.
Increase the amount of on-line storage. Increasing your backup's storage is very affordable. For $2/month we’ll add 10Gb of storage to your account. That’s $24 a year to store those priceless family photos you just spent hours scanning from slides.
Remove from Backup. Not everything needs to be backed up. For instance software that can be easily reinstalled from a disc or redownloaded shouldn’t be backed up. It is much less expensive to redownload your purchased movie from iTunes than to have it included in your backup (though we dp suggest that you backup a list of those movies so you can easily get them again). Folders like the “Downloads” folder often don’t need to be backed up at all and is the first place to look when deciding on folders to deselect from your backup.

How do I deselect a file from my backup set?

1. Double click on the For Safety Sake Home or For Safety Sake Business icon on your desktop or in your taskbar. If asked whether you'd like to allow the app to make changes, click 'Yes'.
2. From the FSS main menu, select the 'Backup Sets' tile.
3. If you have more than one backup set, select the one that you'd like to view
4. On the left-side menu, click 'Source'. This will allow you to check and uncheck the main folders of your backup set. You can turn on filters and add a filter to automatically exclude certain types of files from your backup.
5. If you click on 'I would like to choose the files to backup', you are able to check and uncheck specific files and folders to include in your backup.

Utilities

You can check the health of one or all of your backups by running a CRC check , rebuilding the index, or both.
You can reduce the size of your backup by removing files from your backup that are no longer required
Delete one or more of your backups. BE AWARE THAT DELETED BACKUPS CANNOT BE RESTORED
Use this option if you would like to restore & decrypt a local, encrypted backup.