Adjust your backup settings.

# Preferences

To configure Déjà Dup, choose EditPreferences.

# Backup location

Use this drop-down list box to specify the backup location that Déjà Dup uses when backing up or restoring:

# Cloud Services

The first few backup locations are cloud storage services provided by various companies. For a small fee per gigabyte, they hold your data for you. A cloud service like this is recommended because it is an easy way to keep your data offsite (meaning out of your home: in case of disaster or theft, your data will still be safe). You can choose from Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud Files, and Ubuntu One.

These services costs money. Read their rates carefully before using it.

# Removable Media

You may see removable media like external hard drives or thumb drives listed.

# Remote Servers

Choose the type of remote server to which you want to connect. Then you can enter the server information. Alternatively, if you know your server's URL, choose Custom Location and enter it.

# תיקייה מקומית

You may also want to choose a local folder as a backup location. Note that backups can be quite large, so make sure you have enough free disk space.

# Encrypt backup files

Encrypting your backup files is recommended to keep your data safe. If you don’t have exclusive physical control of your backup location, or if it is stolen, an encrypted backup prevents others from looking at your personal data.

If on, you will be prompted for a password. Keep this password safe, you will need it to restore your data.

Encryption is enabled by default.

# Include files in folders

Select a list of directories to backup. Press the Add or Remove buttons to modify the list. If you are only interested in backing up your own data, the default of Home Folder is sufficient.

# Except files in folders

Select a list of directories to not backup. Press the Add or Remove buttons to modify the list.

Some of your data may be large and not very important to you. In that case, you can save yourself some time and space by not backing them up.

Some locations are always excluded by default:

~/.adobe/Flash_Player/AssetCache

~/.cache

~/.gvfs

~/.Private

~/.recent-applications.xbel

~/.recently-used.xbel

~/.thumbnails

~/.xsession-errors

/proc

/sys

/tmp

# Automatically backup on a regular schedule

Turn this option on to have Déjà Dup automatically backup for you. This is recommended so that you don’t forget to do it yourself. Backups are more useful the more recently you have made them, so it is important to regularly do so.

Automatic backups are disabled by default.

# How often to backup

Choose a schedule for automatic backups.

Automatic backups are scheduled weekly by default.

# Keep backups

Choose the minimum amount of time to keep backup files. If you find that the backup files are taking up too much space, you may want to decrease this duration. Due to implementation details, files may be kept a bit longer than the chosen time. But no files will be deleted early.

Backups are kept forever by default, but still may be deleted earlier if the backup location begins to run out of space.