To manage the source and destination backup directories, click Manage Directories. From here, click Select Source and Select Destination.

This will open a directory navigation dialog. From here, browse through your system or network directories and select your paths.

Once a source and a destination directory has been selected, click Add. All active directories will be listed below.

To remove a directory, select the paths and click Remove.

You may select exceptions from your source directory. These exceptions will not be backed up. Select the paths and click Manage Exceptions. This will open the Exceptions dialog.

From here, you may select folders or individual files to be ignored. To remove an exception, select the path and click Remove.

There are three ways to initialize a backup.

1. Click Backup Now to manually perform all tasks.

2. Right-click a task from the list and click Backup to perform a manual backup of only a single task.

3. Use the Schedule Manager to automatically perform scheduled backups.

To abort a backup in progress, click Abort. All backup tasks will be cancelled after the actively copying file has finished copying.

To manage scheduled backup intervals, click Manage Schedule. This will open the Schedule Manager.

From here, you can choose to Enable or Disable scheduled backups.

You may choose between an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly frequency, as well as the time of day the backup executes, and the day of week for weekly backups.

To manage settings, click Manage Settings. This will open the Settings Manager.

From here, you may choose what happens when Local Backup Utility finds that a file already exists in the backup directory, but a more recently updated file exists in the source directory. You may choose to overwrite the file with the updated file, or rename the old file before backing up the updated file.

You may also choose what happens when a file/folder exists in the backup directory, but no longer exists in the source directory. You may choose to remove the file/folder from the backup directory, or rename the file/folder.

Note that Local Backup Utility does not modify or remove files from the source directories. All changes are made in the backup directories.

You may choose whether Local Backup Utility starts on Windows startup.
You may choose whether Local Backup Utility starts in the system tray.

Exiting Local Backup Utility normally will minimise the application to the system tray. To fully close, click File from the menu, then click Exit.

You may also exit the application by right-clicking the icon in the system tray, and clicking Exit Local Backup Utility.

Local Backup Utility is a one-instance program. Attempting to start the application while already running will maximise the running application.

When a task is complete, the message will be displayed in the history datalist. The number of files found in the source directory, the number of files copied, and the number of files/folders removed or renamed from the backup directory will be displayed. This message will also be added to the log.

To view the log in your default text editor, click Log. The name and location of any files/folders updated, removed or renamed will be saved to the log, along with any warnings. The log is saved to your Documents directory.

Warnings are added when Local Backup Utility is unable to access or copy to/from a directory. This may be due to a lack of permissions, or the directory no longer existing. These can be viewed by clicking Warnings.

Messages in the history datalist can be cleared by clicking View from the menu, then clicking Clear History

You may choose between the default theme or a dark theme by clicking View from the menu, then clicking Default Mode or Dark Mode.

Local Backup Utility may periodically be updated with features and bug fixes. Automatic updates are not available at this time. You may view your version by clicking About from the menu, then clicking Local Backup Utility. You may check if an updated version is available by clicking About from the menu, then clicking Check for Update.

To update Local Backup Utility, first exit the application. Download the new version, then overwrite the old version with the new version. All settings will be kept.