Posts: 10
Threads: 3
Joined: Sep 2023
Reputation:
0
Hi, I have a tablet under Android 12, so just fat32 is supported for backup devices. The msb file generated by the backup function is larger than 4Gb. So, how can I do ?
Posts: 931
Threads: 84
Joined: Feb 2017
Reputation:
28
If you have a windows machine as well, use the companion to back up to that.
This also has the advantage that your backup and master files are not both on the same device
Geoff
Samsung Galaxy Tab A6
Posts: 931
Threads: 84
Joined: Feb 2017
Reputation:
28
You could test using a USB cable with the Companion to see what sort of time the transfer takes (probably faster than wifi)
I see you have tried backing up to dropbox and are awaiting a response to having no backup file afterwards.
As a matter of interest, how long did that backup take?
Try using a different service (google drive?)
Might be worth keeping a copy on one of these cloud services and synching from the tablet to the cloud (keep it one way)
As this doesn't preserve your files if something goes wrong with the sync (you could have a damaged database and an identical damaged backup), occasionally take a full backup as well (I know that is what you are tryig to do now!)
Geoff
Samsung Galaxy Tab A6
Posts: 10
Threads: 3
Joined: Sep 2023
Reputation:
0
With Dropbox, Mobilesheets said that everything was ok after a couple of minutes !! (but no file was written)
For information, the same (successful) backup with another tablet (a Lenovo P11+ which supports exFat) to an external SSD via USB takes about 5mn !
Posts: 931
Threads: 84
Joined: Feb 2017
Reputation:
28
Ta for the 5 mins.
What is the name of the problem tablet (so others with large databases can avoid it)
Geoff
Samsung Galaxy Tab A6
Posts: 13,320
Threads: 301
Joined: Apr 2012
Reputation:
234
02-27-2024, 03:43 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-27-2024, 03:50 AM by Zubersoft.)
When backing up to the cloud, it doesn't actually generate the backup file in the cloud directly - it has to create the backup file on the device first, and then that file is uploaded. If your device doesn't support files larger than 4 GB, then it shouldn't be possible to backup to Dropbox. I'm surprised this didn't generate an error message of some kind though... I'm not sure I can explain that. The companion app is different - the backup file doesn't have to be created on the tablet first as the data can be streamed over WiFi to the companion app. There is no way it should take several days to backup over WiFi. Even with 2.4 Ghz wifi, the transfer rate is around 8 MB/s. With 5 Ghz, it's going to be much faster.
I always planned to try to allow backups to be spread over multiple files, but due to the fact that the vast majority of Android devices use exFat and can write files larger than 4 GB, I decided it wasn't worth the effort.
Mike
Posts: 10
Threads: 3
Joined: Sep 2023
Reputation:
0
The solution should be sure to split the file as many tablets are under android 12 which doesn't support extFat...
Posts: 13,320
Threads: 301
Joined: Apr 2012
Reputation:
234
02-27-2024, 04:42 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-27-2024, 04:46 AM by Zubersoft.)
My Samsung Tab S4 is running Android 9 and can generate backup files over 4 GB just fine. exFat is not the only file system used on Android that can handle files larger than 4 GB. My Samsung Tab S4 uses ext4 and I imagine most Android tablets below 12 must use that as well or I would have heard about this more often. You are the first person to report this issue in a very long time, so either the vast majority of users have libraries smaller than 4 GB, users are not backing up their libraries, or most devices are using a file system that can generate files larger than 4 GB.
Mike
