Upgrading from Arq 5

If you had Arq 5 installed and you install Arq 7, when you first open the Arq 7 app, Arq will load the configuration from Arq 5 into Arq 7.

If any of the storage locations are unreachable at that time, Arq will report errors and load the others.

You can pick “Import Arq 5 Settings” from Arq 7’s menu to attempt loading the Arq 5 configuration again.

When you first edit a backup plan, or first back it up without editing, Arq 7 will read the remaining Arq 5 configuration that Arq 5 stored at the storage location and will populate the folder list and exclusions of the Arq 7 backup plan.

During the first backup, Arq 7 will create its own list of backup record files. It will read the list of backup records created by Arq 5 and create a small JSON file (usually about 2 KB) for each existing Arq 5 backup, containing metadata (UUID, creation date, etc) and a “pointer” to the directory metadata and file data referenced by the Arq 5 backup record.

Subsequent backup record files created by Arq 7 will reuse the Arq 5 file data where possible as part of its de-duplication logic but will “point” to new, Arq7-style directory metadata.

Browsing backup records created by Arq 7 from a new computer will be instantaneous thanks to Arq 7’s new data structure. Browsing backup records that “point” to directory metadata created by Arq 5 will require caching “pack indexes” before the backup record can be shown.

Modifications to data created by Arq 5

Arq 7 doesn’t “import” the Arq 5 data; it reuses it as described above.

If you don’t specify any retention or budget rules that delete backup records, the Arq 5 backup records won’t be modified.

If you do specify retention or budget rules, or you manually delete backup records, Arq 7 may delete data referenced by the (now unused) Arq 5 data structures.

Adopting a backup set created by Arq 5

If you click on a backup set created by Arq 5 and click Adopt, Arq 7 follows the same process for that backup set that it does when automatically using and Arq 5 backup set, as described above.

Do NOT downgrade

Please do not switch to an older version of Arq. Installing an older version of Arq on top of a new version of Arq is not supported for many reasons, including: