How to force a full rsync backup?

[geba]

I use rsync backups on a local file system (details below). I have just noticed that my backups consume a lot less space that I'd expect - 1.2 GB for all backups combined, when my Nextcloud app alone has over 6 GB of data in its "appsdata" folder. It seems that Cloudron only backs up the files that have changed since the last backup, without ever checking whether that backup still exists.

How can I force Cloudron to do a full backup, including files that were previously backed up and have not changed since?

Some details on my backup strategy for context: my final backup location is a sever I have at home that I don't want to expose to the internet. So I tell Cloudron to do backups to its local file system, and then I have rsnapshot on my home server fetch those backups. Occasionally when I run low on storage on the Cloudron server, I delete old backups there. This worked fine for years; I assume a (fairly) recent Cloudron update introduced the change that Cloudron explicitly excludes unchanged files from backups. (Which seems rather pointless when using rsync on a local drive, because rsync can take care of that itself, but I suppose it makes sense for many other backup cofigurations).

[girish]

@geba said in How to force a full rsync backup?:

It seems that Cloudron only backs up the files that have changed since the last backup, without ever checking whether that backup still exists.

yes correct. We don't check the remote as to whether files disappear. That would be a lot of work since you are not supposed to delete files in backups.

To answer your original question, to force a full rsync - simply change the backup format in the UI to tgz and then save and change it back again to rsync. It will start afresh.

[geba]

@girish Thanks, that works.