Backup NAS disk - Full Disk Access warnings

[AlexB]

Using Retrospect 17.5.2 on Catalina, Full Disk Access is set up for RetrospectEngine and RetrospectInstantScan. I don't get warnings about Full Disk Access for the internal disk or an external drive. However, when the script runs for a Synology NAS disk that is mounted, I get the error:

Retrospect has detected it is not listed under "Full Disk Access" on the backup source system 
    and cannot access all user data to create a complete backup. Please follow our step-by-step guide: 
    https://www.retrospect.com/kb/macos_full_disk_accessss

I am mounting with SMB, with Retrospect doing the mounting (I created a separate user on the Synology for retrospect with access to the share it needs to mount).

The backup appears to be working. So the only issue here is the error so I have to check each time to see if it was just that error or a real error.

Any idea how to work around this? 

FWIW, I don't have AFP enabled on the Synology, so both the backup and any users are using SMB to connect.

Thanks,
Alex

[Nigel Smith]

Check by using the RS Console to "browse" the mounted volume. If you can, and given that your backups are working, you can consider it a spurious alert message.

(Full Disk Access -- SystemPolicyAllFiles -- includes SystemPolicyRemovableVolumes so Engine and Instant should be OK.)

My favourite quote about FDA/F&F is "Currently, this system is so complex that it appears unpredictable." I guess that extends to application's error messages, too 😉 

[MikeHutch]

Alex, did you make sure that the RetrospectEngine and RetrospectInstantScan items in the Full Disk Access pane (Sys Prefs: Security & Privacy > Full Access) are actually ticked?

This is important, as you, the user have to manually authorise those programs to start using full access. If unticked, it's just a provisional level of access.

Assuming this has now been done, any further errors should go away.

[roobieroo]

I have the same issue even with those items checked to allow full disk access. Most of the data on the Synology backs up just fine. It seems to be only Applications/installers on the NAS that generate this error message or if a user copied items to the NAS that would normally require full disk access such as their Library folder. It's helpful to have commonly used installers on the NAS so people don't have to search for and download them but it's also a pain since it generates tons of error messages in the log during every backup. If you find a solution to this I'd love to know what you did. 

[DavidHertzberg]

(Disclaimer: Anything I may say about the intentions of Retrospect "Inc." in this or any other post is merely the result of "reading the tea leaves", the "tea leaves" being documentation and public announcements supplemented by an occasional morsel from Retrospect Sales.  I have never been paid a cent by Retrospect "Inc." or its predecessors, and I pay for my upgrades. Any judgements expressed are—obviously—mine alone. The same is true of Retrospect's history, especially with references to here.)

roobieroo,

If another administrator doesn't immediately come up with an answer, I strongly suggest you file a Support Case for a feature—here's how to do that. 

The first paragraph below the quote in this April 2021 post in another thread suggests following that up with an e-mail to Werner Walter, Retrospect "Inc"'s Director of Sales Worldwide, describing your problem and giving him the Support Case number.  The last paragraph in that same post explains the reasoning behind my e-mail suggestion.  The first sentence in that paragraph says that, because StorCentric's previous products—before they bought Retrospect Inc.—have been NASes including Drobo, StorCentric has required "Retrospect developers—with help from other StorCentric developers—to produce a version of the 'backup server' program that runs on a beefed-up Drobo [NAS] device (and probably on other Linux-based NASes)."  The latest I hear is that that "backup server" version may miss the Retrospect 18.0 release, which is expected by the end of June 2021.  However IMHO StorCentric top management won't be pleased to hear that the "backup server" for Retrospect Mac 16 (unless you've recently upgraded to Retrospect Mac 17—whose cumulative Release Notes list fixes for bugs #8597 and #8600 that possibly might fix your problem) doesn't back up "Applications/installers on the NAS that generate this error message or if a user copied items to the NAS that would normally require full disk access such as their Library folder."  Politics.😎