Coming from Genie Backup Manager 9
What carries over from GBM 9 (nothing automatically), what to keep, and how to set up the same protection in a few minutes.
On this page
Genie Backup Manager AI is the successor to Genie Backup Manager 9, from the same company, Genie9. It is a new program with a new backup engine, so nothing moves over by itself. This page says exactly what that means, and how to get the same protection in a few minutes.
What does not carry over#
| From GBM 9 | In GBM AI |
|---|---|
Your backup jobs (.gbp job files) | do not import. Import job… reads GBM AI job files only |
| Your old backups | cannot be opened, listed or restored. Restore ▸ Open a backup folder… finds only GBM AI backups; on a GBM 9 folder it says No GBM AI backup sets in that folder. |
| Your GBM 9 licence key | does not activate GBM AI. It is a separate licence |
Keep GBM 9 for your old backups#
Your GBM 9 backups stay exactly where they are, and GBM 9 can still restore them. GBM AI never touches them.
- Keep GBM 9 installed for as long as you might need a file from an old backup. GBM AI installs into its own folder,
C:\Program Files\Genie9\GBM AI, with its own entry in Windows' list of apps, so both can be installed at once. - Give GBM AI its own destination folder, for example
H:\Backups, not a folder GBM 9 writes to. - Once GBM AI's first backups have run and verified, turn off GBM 9's schedules so the same files are not backed up twice. Uninstall GBM 9 only when you no longer need its old backups.
Set up the same protection#
Most people are done in ten minutes.
- Install GBM AI. See Installing Genie Backup Manager AI.
- Make a job for each GBM 9 job you relied on. The quickest ways: Start from a template on the wizard's first step (Documents & Desktop, Photos & videos, Developer, Whole profile, Music, Email), or describe it to Ask Genie: Back up my Documents and Desktop to H: every night, keep a month.
- Run each job once and read its report. Verify files after each run is on by default, so the report says how many files were checked.
- Try one restore, so you know where everything is before you need it.
See Your first backup and Your first backup with Ask Genie.
Where things are in GBM AI#
| What you set in GBM 9 | Where it is in GBM AI |
|---|---|
| a backup job | a job: what, where, how and when, in a five-step wizard |
| the files and folders to back up | the What step: Smart items, Browse this PC or Type a path |
| application data such as Outlook or browser settings | Smart items ▸ Apps & browsers: Outlook data, browser profiles and other apps found on this PC |
| where backups go | the Where step: a drive of this PC or a USB drive, a network share or NAS (Home and Pro), S3-compatible cloud (Pro) |
| full, incremental, differential or mirror | Backup type on the Settings step; differential and mirror need Home or Pro |
| compression and password protection | Compression, and Encrypt this job with AES-256 (Home and Pro) |
| how many old backups to keep | Retention: keep N sets, and on Home and Pro a new full after N runs and delete sets older than N days |
| files to leave out | Filters & exclusions on the What step, and Settings ▸ Exclusions for every job |
| when it runs | the Schedule step: six rhythms, and conditions such as skipping on battery |
GBM AI writes to drives, USB drives, network shares and S3-compatible cloud storage. It does not write to discs, FTP or SFTP.
What is new#
- Every backup you make is a restore point you can browse and restore from, and Find searches all of them at once from an index on this PC, even with the backup drive unplugged.
- A restore from a drive that is not plugged in can be set up now and starts by itself when you plug the drive in.
- Ask Genie drafts a job from a sentence and shows a dry run before anything is saved.
- The app speaks 18 languages and runs natively on ARM64 PCs.
What GBM AI does not do#
Free, Home and Pro back up files and folders. There is no system image, bare-metal recovery or recovery USB in these editions; those belong to the Server edition, sold through Genie9's sales team on genie9.com.
Licences#
GBM AI is bought once: Home $39 (3 PCs) or Pro $79 (5 PCs), each with a year of updates and support. Free covers one PC and two jobs, with no time limit. The default setup starts with a 15-day Pro trial, with no account and no card. See Editions compared.