Lacerte Automatic Backup Control Requested

[blitzlee]

Lacerte has started backing up the 2021 and 2022 data files for the individual and partnership data.  It looks like this backs up every workday. The 2021 back up is creating a 5.8GB zip file on our server per backup which will be approximately 30GB per week.  Since we back up our server nightly it is continually increasing the size of our backup and will eventually exceed the size of our back up tape.

Is there an option that can be added to the program so users doing their own backup can can elect out of this automatic backup?

Can an option be added to this automatic backup to direct the the location of the backup to a specific location?  For example it is now backing up to our server but could it be directed to a local computer hard drive.

It seem irresponsible to implement an automatic back creating large files without informing users of the software change much less not providing some level of control of the backups.

[George4Tacks]

Lacerte does not create zip files. Some other program is doing this backup. 

[blitzlee]

George your response is not useful and dismissive of the issue.  Lacerte is definitely making these backups and not some other program.  You may want to discuss this with your team.

Multiple users are finding finding these backups on their systems.  I contacted Lacerte support and was informed that Lacerte is making these back ups.  Another user contacted Lacerte support regarding this matter and posted their conversation on the LUTG

"So, I didn’t get a response from the email I sent so I went ahead and called support. I spoke with a helpful person, Angela, who, did tell me that she too hadn’t been told of this change. She had to put me on hold and go do research to find out what changed. Lacerte apparently swapped to a new database structure in 2021. They implemented this automatic backup routine inside the IDATA and PDATA folders because CLPACK apparently could not repair the databases on those two platforms and these backups are the solution."

My original question has not been answered:

Can an option be added to this automatic backup to direct the the location of the backup to a specific location? For example it is now backing up to our server but could it be directed to a local computer hard drive.

[George4Tacks]

I was not dismissive, I was not informed. I am my team = a user just like you.

If you have a question, this is not the area to post it. If you want Lacerte to change or modify the program, this is where you can post it. I will give this a vote, which will inch it up the food change to possibly be implemented sometime in the distant future. 

This is me butting out right now. 

[blitzlee]

Thank you for taking another look and moving this up the ladder.

[bob4]

Blitz, same issue here.  Couldn't figure out why we were consuming so much drive space on backup targets.  Traced the issue to the auto-created zip files on our server.  Interestingly, it was all happening behind the scene, i.e., Windows had no record of the routine being kicked-off.  I could see the time stamp on the file creation, so I even watched the server apps run at the designated time.  Nothing!

And we wondered why Lacerte was coming to a screeching halt every day while trying to use the software.

Maybe we could at least be given control over when the routine runs... 

[justhelpingout]

This issue has bugged my client for awhile, we even added space to our server because of it. So thank you for confirming it as I was blaming users the files were associated with 😞 Did we get a fix?

[Steffan]

+1 from me. We're having this same issue. I'm going to exclude those two folders from our nightly backup to avoid this ballooning backup size... No settings at all to control this behavior.

Stranger still, it doesn't seem to run on any set schedule... 8:15 AM, 3:30 PM, etc. Anyone know what is running this backup, a random workstation in the office? Does the backup happen when new updates are downloaded or installed or something?

[IntuitGabi]

Thanks for the idea to elect out of this automatic backup. We are changing the status to "Open for voting" since it is no longer considered "New".

Continue to vote and comment on enhancements by going to the Idea Exchange Home page and select "Status": Open for voting, "Sort by": Most Popular. >> Lacerte Idea Exchange

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[justhelpingout]

One of the main issues is that most people impacted by this dont know it is happening!