Back up to external hard drive
David Allen
l have a new seagate external hard drive , I have also purchased your latest 2020 upgrade bu l cannot export any backups to the hard drive. All my backups finish with .moneydancearchive but there is no line in the lower area to click on to save the backup all i get is an error file saying basically <html>Error: <b>Moneydance was unable to find the file: /Volumes/seagate/Copperfields.moneydancearchive (Permission denied)<b>
<html>
please help
Dave Allen
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1 Posted by derekkent23 on Nov 29, 2020 @ 11:34 AM
I am not support staff, just a user.
Hi David
I am running Moneydance 2021(2008) on Windows 10.
I use Dropbox as by Moneydance location for both manual (Export Backup) and auto backup set under preference – backup. far safer than connecting a drive that could be stolen or damaged when your home burns down.
But to test I did an Export Backup to an external USB Westgate 1TB drive. No problems.
Don’t understand your comment “but there is no line in the lower area to click on to save the backup”
Does this relate to using Moneydance EXPORT BACKUP?
(Permission denied) sounds like your trying to save to an area of the drive that is restricted.
2 Posted by David Allen on Nov 29, 2020 @ 01:15 PM
Hi Derek,
Many thanks for your reply
have enclosed a picture of what i am getting when l try save, the error message comes up when l try to save, but as you can see under where it says name thereis no file to save to unlike when l save to iCloud the hard drive is just belt and braces,
Cheers,
Dave
3 Posted by derekkent23 on Nov 29, 2020 @ 01:32 PM
I am not support staff, just a user.
Hi David
I am a Window and Linux user and am not familiar with Mac.
I think you will have to wait for Support or a Mac user to help.
Sorry.
4 Posted by David Allen on Nov 29, 2020 @ 01:35 PM
Hi Derek,
Thanks anyway
5 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on Nov 29, 2020 @ 02:18 PM
I think you need to do some diagnostics outside Moneydance to prove the disk is OK for Mac...
In finder,
Navigate to your external disk and create a directory/folder called anything
Go to Finder.Go to downloads on your main disk and find any file of a reasonable size.
Right click and copy the file
Navigate to your external disk and the folder you created. Make sure you are in the folder
Finder>Edit Menu>Paste and paste the file
Did it copy OK? Do you now have this file on your external drive?
Next CMD-SPACE and type disk utility
On the left, navigate to your external disk.
take a screen shot on this and each of the folders and send that.
6 Posted by David Allen on Nov 29, 2020 @ 06:10 PM
Hi Stuart,
l have a MacBook air the latest model, my seagate external drive backs up the time machine no problem and will back up other stuff as you will see from the enclosed photo’s but when l try to backup Moneydance every thin is greyed out and l get the other message, thanks very much for trying to help, l may just stick to the iCloud for my backups if l have no luck with you,
Cheers,
Dave
7 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on Nov 29, 2020 @ 06:26 PM
Two comments:
1/ did you run the test I suggested and do you have the screen shots of Disk Utility?
2/ The Moneydance file name looks far tooooooooo loooooong. Perhaps this is breaking the system. With MD closed - try renaming your very-long-filenamexxxxxx.moneydance file to something like finances.moneydance (you will need to select open other when you restart moneydance)....? Let me know?
8 Posted by David Allen on Nov 29, 2020 @ 07:12 PM
Hi Stuart,
Have enclosed the shot of disc utility as you can see it has done a backup of Time machine, but you know in the other picture i sent you the .moneydancearchive used to show up on that page, l had to click on it to turn it blue and hey presto it worked, but now the other two files i backed up show greyed out but it doesn’t seem to show on your picture. You mentioned the length of the file name, the first one l did was Copperfields.moneydancearchive but every time l add the latest back up it adds a group of numbers and a dash then repeats it every time. l have tried deleting most of the numbers, which l have had to do in the past but still doesn’t work, best of luck,
Dave
9 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on Nov 29, 2020 @ 07:34 PM
- Sorry to keep asking but did you try the file copies I suggested?
- I can’t see your folder structures from your pictures?
- are you trying to save to the same folders as time machine? This is bad practice and not recommended. Perhaps causing permission problems?
- what happens if you call the file x.moneydancearchive ? Do you get the same error, pls send new screenshot of the error after using x.moneydancearchive.
(A fellow user)
10 Posted by David Allen on Nov 29, 2020 @ 08:02 PM
Hi Stuart,
have tried x.moneydancearchive and get the same results would you suggest that l partition the back up drive?
you can see the greyed out backups of other files as you suggested when l click the save button l get the error message,
Cheers Dave
11 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on Nov 29, 2020 @ 08:10 PM
I’ll have a think. I wonder if MD doesn’t like the apostrophe in the name? Probably I’ll reply tomorrow unless someone else helps you sooner. How do you feel about running a moneybot python script?
12 Posted by David Allen on Nov 29, 2020 @ 08:14 PM
Hi Stuart l thought it was a full stop. Excuse my ignorance what is a moneybag python Script, perhaps hear from you tomorrow, thanks again for all you are trying to do for me,
Cheers Dave
13 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on Nov 29, 2020 @ 08:29 PM
Well, guess what... I get the same issue trying to export a backup to a TimeMachine volume.. I'll play with this tomorrow. See screenshot
In Moneydance, menu, window> show moneybot console. It allows you to run scripts (mini programs) that interact with Moneydance....
14 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on Nov 29, 2020 @ 09:11 PM
OK, so it is a permissions problem. As I said, it's not a great idea to stick things in the Time Machine Volume/partition. I have reproduced your issue! By default, the permissions to the TM Volume and the top level folder is READONLY. Only system and Wheel have rights. DO NOT TOUCH OR PUT ANYTHING IN Backups.backupdb directory!. IF YOU CREATE a new folder at the top level called anything (perhaps moneydance) then the system will ask you to allow access and it will give you rights to this folder. You can then backup to this folder. If you do this make sure it's at the top level so you see both Backups.backupdb and moneydance together at the top level. HOWEVER; it would be better for you to shrink the time machine backup partition in Disk Utility and to create a new partition in the free space for your moneydance backups. You will have full permissions to this folder. The shrink may take 30 mins on an external disk (I just did it on mine).. Good luck!!!!!
15 Posted by David Allen on Dec 01, 2020 @ 10:07 PM
Hi Stuart,
Many thanks. l think we have lift off, l partitioned the disc as you advised and it all seems to be working fine,
well done and much appreciated,
Cheers Dave
16 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on Dec 01, 2020 @ 10:11 PM
Melissa closed this discussion on Dec 16, 2020 @ 08:04 PM.