Summary

This is a release candidate. Please report if you use it even if there are no new problems.

This version is set to be released with Debian 13 (Trixie) this early summer and will remain available for the long lifetime of that Debian version.
EncFS, used for encrypted profiles, has been marked as deprecated and is schedule for removal in 2026. The Smart & Auto remove GUI has been reorganized and renamed into "Remove & Retention", with improvements to the user manual section. Its behavior remains unchange. An offset minute can now be configured for hourly schedule options. Some config file fields have been moved to a newly introduced state file. License and copyright information is now provided in machine-readable SPDX format, following the REUSE standard.

Contributors

This version received extensive support from contributors (in alphabetical order):

• @bremnere
• David Gibbs @fallingrock
• graysky @graysky2
• Samuel More @mooresamuel
• Iván Rodríguez @ivanrdgz03
• Peter Sevens @sevens
• David Wales @daviewales
• Dylan Wilson @dylan-wilson-usq
• Also not to be forgotten are the many people who supported the project by testing it, providing feedback, reporting issues, and analyzing problems.

Known major issues open

• qt_probing.py may hang with high CPU usage when running Back In Time as root via cron (#1592)
• File permissions handling and therefore possible non-differential backups (#988 & #994)

Changelog

• Changed: More clear and intense warning about EncFS deprecation and removal (#1904)
• Changed: Updated desktop entry files
• Changed: Move several values from config file into new introduce state file ($XDG_STATE_HOME/backintime.json)
• Changed: Completed license information to conform the REUSE.software and SPDX standards.
• Breaking Change: Auto-remove rules "Free inodes" and "Free space" disabled by default (#1976)
• Fix!: Smart-remove rule "Keep one snapshots per week or the last week" use calendar weeks
• Fix: The width of the fourth column in files view is now saved
• Fix: Snapshot compare copy symlink as symlink (#1902) (Peter Sevens @sevens)
• Fix: Crash when comparing a snapshot with a symlink pointing to a nonexistent target (Peter Sevens @sevens)
• Fix: Crash (KeyError) opening language setup dialog with unknown locale/language
• Feature: Open user manual (local if available otherwise online) via Help menu
• Feature: Toolbar context menu to display the buttons in different combinations with icons and text (#1105, #2002) (Samuel Moore @s4moore)
• Feature: Add offset minutes to hourly schedules (David Gibbs @fallingrock)
• Doc: Remove & Retention (formally known as Auto-/Smart-Remove) with improved GUI and user manual section (#2000)