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BUG: Cannot create backup of database

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marcdeo

Posted: Thursday, August 14, 2025 2:36:33 PM

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I'm trying to backup the database in MyMovies 5.41 on Windows 11 but I get this message after a few minutes:

"An error occurred while backing up the database. The database has not been backed up"

I have optimized the database first and I said "yes" to clean it when asked by the backup function (I have also tried saying "no" to the cleaning but it ends in the same way).

What am I missing?

File Attachment(s):
14-08-2025 14.29.32-log.zip (1,663kb) downloaded 61 time(s).

manni

Posted: Tuesday, August 19, 2025 1:52:56 PM

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marcdeo wrote:

The backup feature is buggy as hell in 5.41 / 5.42 PR (Windows 11 Pro 24H2). It almost never completes here. Most of the time, CM just crashes to the desktop.

I managed to complete one yesterday evening after disabling my Anti-Virus (Avast), so you might try that too, it could be trigering A/V in some way.

It also takes twice the disk space (40GB vs 20 with 5.40) and it takes one hour to complete when it does (maybe one out of 20 attempts). Of course, when it fails, the old backup has been deleted, so if you don't copy it somewhere first, you've lost your backup.

There is no sign of a fix coming for this and the many other bugs I reported in 5.41/5.42 and no reply from support, so I'm attempting to go back to 5.40 today, as I have at last a successful 5.42 backup (the last one was three weeks ago). Wish me luck!

5.40 was much more robust and less buggy, never had any issue with back ups and they took a quarter of the time and half the disk space.

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marcdeo

Posted: Tuesday, August 19, 2025 11:58:29 PM

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Thanks for replying Manni, I was starting to think that it was just me...

Going back to 5.40 may be an option - if I ever get a complete backup from 5.41...

Let me know how it goes, if you manage to use your new backup with version 5.40!

manni

Posted: Wednesday, August 20, 2025 12:52:24 AM

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marcdeo wrote:

It didn't go well: https://mymovies.dk/forum.aspx?g=posts&t=47748

I would try to disable your anti-virus before running a backup (or adding an exclusion for MyMovies), it seems to help here.

marcdeo

Posted: Friday, August 22, 2025 3:00:10 PM

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Hm.... That does not sound good for Windows users...

I tried turning off the Windows built-in virus scanning but it did not make any difference. I don't use any other virus software on that machine...

manni

Posted: Friday, August 22, 2025 3:09:38 PM

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marcdeo wrote:

Maybe my first successful backup in a long while after disabling the A/V (Avast) here was a fluke/coincidence. I'll try to do anyther backup later today and see if it helps again.

binnerup

Posted: Friday, September 5, 2025 9:05:04 AM

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There is an updated Pre Release now, which holds more logging.

It also does not delete the prior database backup until the new successfully have been created.

Having trouble installing or upgrading to My Movies 5? Click here for troubleshooting.

Having a problem? Searching our Knowledge Base is always the first step.

How can I produce a log file in My Movies for Windows?

How can I fully uninstall My Movies for Windows

manni

Posted: Friday, September 5, 2025 1:17:43 PM

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binnerup wrote:

There is an updated Pre Release now, which holds more logging.

It also does not delete the prior database backup until the new successfully have been created.

Thanks Brian for the update.

I have installed 5.42PR2 and enabled high log, here is some feedback (on Dell XPS 9720 with i7, 64GB RAM, 2x2TB fast NvME SSDs (200GB free on system drive, 150GB free on data drive) :

1) I wasn't able to install over 5.42PR1 (that had been clean-installed a few weeks ago after my failed attempt to revert to 5.40). It got stuck at "validating installation". I killed it after 10-15 minutes.
2) I uninstalled 5.42PR1 manually and was able to install 5.42PR2 after that, though not without another installation message referring to the need to enable some option and reboot, but the enabling failed, I didn't reboot, and the installation completed fine
3) I tried to do a backup with Avast active and enabling the "clear the database option" in CM at the beginning of the backup oeration. After almost two hours, CM was still cleaning the database, so I aborted the backup manually and made a zip of the log (happy to email it to you if you want).
4) The previous backup (40GB for 4,000 titles) wasn't deleted, so that's a nice improvement.
5) I'm currently trying a backup without the "clean the database" enabled. I expect it to fail, as 9 out of 10 backup attempts fail when Avast is enabled. I'll also zip the log and will email it to you if you want me to.
6) Assuming the backup attempt fails, I'll disable Avast and will make another attempt, that I expect to be successful. 100% of my backup attempts with Avast disabled are successful.

Note that I never had backup completion issues with any of the A/V I've used before 5.41 (Norton 360 for decades and Avast more recently). This started with 5.41. I suggest you do some tests with Avast enabled/disabled (I use the Free version).

I'll update the thread when I've completed 5 & 6.

binnerup

Posted: Friday, September 5, 2025 1:29:53 PM

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Thanks of the update - I think that the install thing is not a general thing, but a Windows MSI hick-up.

The clear files process will indeed on large databases take a long time.

The previous backups were directly an SQL Server backup to a specific file, as we were using "FileStorage" where files are stored inside the SQL Server database.

We as such still do, but if we in the future want support for the SQL Server LocalDB option where you do not install database services, but can run it with a standard low-weight install of SQL Server, that option does not support FileStorage.

This means that all files must be backed up separately to the database - what the backup now does is that it backs up all files to a Zip, where it places all files, plus the database files itself - as the database files now contains FileStorage also, we get those files double.

But I think what happens for you with Avast is that it attempts to scan the created Zip file while it is still being created, which gives issues - this is not something we are going to make any sort of changes on - it is a problem with the Anti-virus.

You can choose to ignore "C:\ProgramData\My Movies" in your scanner settings, as well as the directory you back up to.

That a scanner scans a file meanwhile we are still working on it is a problem with the scanner, and not something we can work around.

But the explanation onto why this is different is that prior versions did not zip all these files.

It is a needed step to be able to restore your database backup later on an SQL Server LocalDB install.

manni

Posted: Friday, September 5, 2025 4:42:28 PM

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binnerup wrote:

Hi Brian,

Thank for the detailed explanation.

Regarding the time it takes to clean the database, I know it can take a while, but it's never taken almost two hours.

Question: Is this the same as optimising the database? I run that from time to time, and usually never clean the database before a backup.

The backup with Avast has unexpectedly worked, so I'm not sure if you've changed something in PR2, if Avast has changed something (it's been updated recently) or if it's just one of the 10% of successful attempts.

I won't change anything in Avast settings for now to see if this is a fluke or if backup is now working, and if it happens again I'll exclude the directories you mention.

Although the backup was successful, it took almost two hours, so it would be great if you could move to the new SQL method ASAP. Otherwise, please could you provide an option so that we can select only one method?

What's the point of having a backup for future compatibility for months if it doubles the space required and multiplies the time by 8-10, without any benefit to the user?

Personally, I'd like to have the option to go back to the previous backup method, it took 15-20 minutes, worked reliably and took half the storage space (20GB instead of 40Gb).

I really don't want to have to do slow, unreliable and space consuming backups for months while we wait for a hypothetical version that will support the new SQL method.

What's the ETA for that, and what's the reasoning behind forcing the user to have this dual method for months without any benefit?

Thanks again!

binnerup

Posted: Friday, September 5, 2025 4:46:37 PM

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manni wrote:

What's the ETA for that, and what's the reasoning behind forcing the user to have this dual method for months without any benefit?

The reason is that most users do not know the difference in this, and we want to ensure that they can restore the backups they create now, on a later version.

I cannot say when we will be moving, but plan is that for "Standalone" version installations, we would run on LocalDB - the primary reason is that 95% of all problems users have with our software is due to SQL Server.

binnerup

Posted: Friday, September 5, 2025 4:47:48 PM

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manni wrote:

Question: Is this the same as optimising the database? I run that from time to time, and usually never clean the database before a backup.

Optimize and clean will do the same thing - I expect that you perhaps save 1-2% of the space by doing clean, so I do not recommend that for daily usage.

The clean process is the same as it have always been.

Notice that your antivirus could also affect performance if it scans the log files each time the app writes to them.

manni

Posted: Friday, September 5, 2025 5:30:57 PM

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OK thanks, I hope I won't have to suffer that bloat for too long.

Categories are fixed in PR2, thanks for that too!

manni

Posted: Friday, September 19, 2025 10:48:37 PM

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I can confirm that moving from Avast to MD Defender (+DefenderUI) seems to have resolved the backup reliability issue here.
It still takes hours, but at least it doesn't fail.
So if anyone has issues creating backups, try disabling your A/V or moving to Defender.

binnerup

Posted: Saturday, September 20, 2025 1:52:09 PM

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Sounds good - indeed, it will take time, as it now needs to zip all cover files, ect. in the database.

marcdeo

Posted: Saturday, October 25, 2025 1:49:59 PM

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I just tried again with the new version of MyMovies for Windows and I'm still getting the saame error "An error occured while backing up the database. The database has not been backed up."

manni

Posted: Saturday, October 25, 2025 1:55:24 PM

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marcdeo wrote:

I just tried again with the new version of MyMovies for Windows and I'm still getting the saame error "An error occured while backing up the database. The database has not been backed up."

Did you try to disable your anti-virus?

marcdeo

Posted: Saturday, October 25, 2025 3:37:53 PM

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I don't have anti virus. I never did.

helmer

Posted: Tuesday, October 28, 2025 4:51:52 PM

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Currently having the same issue. Need to perform a backup, since I by mistake used the import feature (and wasn't really paying attention) and wiped out my current collection. My collection is not synced yet to my local instance, so I would love to have a backup before i press sync and everything is gone :-(

I noticed that PR2 should be able to resolve this (or at least provide more logging). Where can I find this version?

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