# Can't Run Incremental Backups **URL:** \ **Category:** Backups\ **Created:** [November 17, 2025, 9:00am UTC](https://forum.hestiacp.com/t/cant-run-incremental-backups/20607 "2025-11-17T09:00:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mredig](https://forum.hestiacp.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@mredig](https://forum.hestiacp.com/u/mredig)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 9:00am UTC](https://forum.hestiacp.com/t/cant-run-incremental-backups/20607/1 "2025-11-17T09:00:51Z")
My tone is constructive criticism, not anger, fwiw. The first part is more feedback for the docs and the second is my plea for assistance: ### Feedback I used the [documentation](https://hestiacp.com/docs/server-administration/backup-restore#setting-up-incremental-backups) instructions to set up incremental backups, but much of it is VERY unclear. Ultimately, while following the instructions as closely as possible, I’m now in a state where every time I run `v-backup-user-restic [user]` I get `Error: incremental backups are disabled` even tho the web ui clearly shows the configuration I set with `v-add-backup-host-restic:` ![image](https://forum.hestiacp.com/uploads/default/original/2X/0/03a753dcec160ebe9dc7dcdd2b5e533291ff06fa.jpeg) (this screenshot is not pre-save, it is after I’ve done setup with the command line and reloaded the page) So, documentation issues first: ![image](https://forum.hestiacp.com/uploads/default/original/2X/7/79caeaf1e978f2eec291a7112ba02a6a498084e2.jpeg) > ## **Setting up Incremental Backups** > > Enable Incremental Backups in the user packages. > > ### **Using Rclone** > > Since 1.9 we include Rclone by default in Hestia Installation. Run `rclone config` as the `root` user and then select the option `n`. Follow the instruction on the screen, then save when completed. First, this section immediately follows the rclone backup section. It then proceeds to talk about rclone immediately before showing commands that have no connection to rclone at all (apart from the string `rclone` being a literal argument in a followup command This is very confusing. Are we using rclone to setup incremental backups? Or are we using restic? Why do you mention that you include rclone by default when we need to be using restic here? That would be a useful point of information in the previous section _about_ rclone, but in this section it’s just confusing. Another extreme point of confusion is the line for adding the backup location: `v-add-backup-host-restic ‘rclone:target:/folder/’ ‘30’ ‘8’ ‘5’ ‘3’ ‘-1’` sepcifically the `rclone:target:/folder/` part. What DOES `rclone` represent here? Is it a schema, like `http` and it should be a literal part of every implementation? Or is it a standin for the rclone remote we will be backing up to? And `target` - again, the rclone remote or the remote directory/bucket? Does folder need to include the bucket for s3? And it’s not unique to this example, but the following positional arguments have no explanation in the documentation either. So, my final understanding of this section is that “maybe restic uses rclone as a dependency? Maybe? I’ll try a few different variations of leaving `rclone:` as a literal prefix to my remote, bucket and path in the argument, a couple without, try using `:` as a separator for bucket→path and remote→bucket as well as`/`, but alas, nothing worked. ### Plea for help In the end, every time I made a change and tried running, I got `Error: incremental backups are disabled` which is demonstrably false - misconfigured? Sure, if not definitely. ```bash root@controlpanel:~# v-backup-user-restic admin Error: incremental backups are disabled ``` P.S. - As much as I might sound like a cranky, entitled Karen, I really love this project and greatly respect the effort people have put into it. I’m just tired and can only provide direct feedback without the energy to be more tactful. ---
**Author:** ![csmyrnos](https://forum.hestiacp.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/ee59a6/32.png) [@csmyrnos](https://forum.hestiacp.com/u/csmyrnos)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2025, 6:33am UTC](https://forum.hestiacp.com/t/cant-run-incremental-backups/20607/2 "2025-11-22T06:33:58Z")
I’m new to Hestia and I ran into the same issue… I found I had to enable incremental backups in the package settings assigned to my user (and admin) accounts: ![image](https://forum.hestiacp.com/uploads/default/original/2X/b/b9f3077c4fc9e9d9fbe7d4c5060fdb23149ed3e8.png) Once I did that, I was able to see the Incremental Backup button in the backup section. I also added this to my panel cron jobs to run incremental backups once a day: 10 05 \* \* \* sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-backup-users-restic I set the regular “v-backup-users” to run once a week, and the incremental backups to run daily. I sync everything to a Backblaze S3 bucket via rclone. Hope that helps! ---
**Author:** ![mredig](https://forum.hestiacp.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@mredig](https://forum.hestiacp.com/u/mredig)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2025, 9:08am UTC](https://forum.hestiacp.com/t/cant-run-incremental-backups/20607/3 "2025-11-24T09:08:59Z")
I think you dislodged me! I’m still troubleshooting, but I’ll mark as solution once I can be sure. Thank you so much! ---
**Author:** ![mredig](https://forum.hestiacp.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@mredig](https://forum.hestiacp.com/u/mredig)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2025, 9:31am UTC](https://forum.hestiacp.com/t/cant-run-incremental-backups/20607/4 "2025-11-24T09:31:08Z")
Any hints for how to format the repository string? My latest error is that the repository I’m now getting the error `Fatal: repository does not exist: unable to open config file: does not exist\nIs there a repository at the following location?\n[repo string I provided]`which I assume is because the string is invalid somehow ---
**Author:** ![csmyrnos](https://forum.hestiacp.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/ee59a6/32.png) [@csmyrnos](https://forum.hestiacp.com/u/csmyrnos)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2025, 10:31pm UTC](https://forum.hestiacp.com/t/cant-run-incremental-backups/20607/5 "2025-11-24T22:31:06Z")
I used “rclone:[rclone config name]:[s3 bucket name]/ For example… If my rclone config was called “backblaze” and my backblaze s3 bucket was called “mybucket” then my repository string would be: rclone:backblaze:mybucket/ I’m not sure if the trailing “/“ is required but that is how I have mine and it is working. This requires rclone to be pre-configured for your s3 storage provider per the instructions in the documentation. ---
**Author:** ![mredig](https://forum.hestiacp.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@mredig](https://forum.hestiacp.com/u/mredig)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2025, 10:10pm UTC](https://forum.hestiacp.com/t/cant-run-incremental-backups/20607/6 "2025-11-27T22:10:29Z")
Okay, I had to resolve a couple other things that I believe are bugs. It appears that @csmyrnos ‘s string is the correct setup, combined with the discovery that we have to enable it in the package, so major credit there! Doing my best to recall everything, here’s what I ended up doing: 1. Create an [rclone config](https://hestiacp.com/docs/server-administration/backup-restore.html#how-to-setup-rclone) 2. Now, let’s say my bucket is named `foobucket`, the repo string for `restic` should be `rclone:MyS3Backup:foobucket/[optional-path]/`- the trailing slash appears to be required. 3. CRITICAL - the docs explicitly state 4. Now when I run `v-backup-user-restic admin` it uses the actually created repo to run the backup! 5. Unfortunately, step 3 will need to be repeated for each user you want to backup Hopefully this will help someone out there who was having similar issues as I was! P.S. - don’t forget to back up EVERY `/usr/local/hestia/data/users/[username]/restic.conf` file! Use a password manager or something to do so - it’d be pointless to store it alongside the repo itself. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://forum.hestiacp.com/uploads/default/original/1X/d9a5b68bf50ced83e880b56452e592b204761b19.png) [@system](https://forum.hestiacp.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 10:11pm UTC](https://forum.hestiacp.com/t/cant-run-incremental-backups/20607/7 "2025-12-27T22:11:01Z")
Closed on December 27, 2025, 10:11pm UTC This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.