Your first backup with Ask Genie
Describe what you want protected in a sentence. Genie drafts the job and a dry run shows what it would do; you decide.
On this page
If you would rather say what you want than click through five steps, Ask Genie is the other way to make a job. You describe it, Genie drafts a job, and a dry run shows what that job would do without writing anything. Then you save it, change it or throw it away.
Before you start#
- A sign-in. Genie runs on Genie9's servers, so Ask Genie needs your email and a six-digit code. Nothing else in the app needs an account.
- An internet connection.
- Prompts left this month. Free has 10, Home 40, Pro 100; a trial has its edition's allowance. The chip at the top of the page shows what is left, for example 37 of 100 prompts left.
Step 1: Sign in#
- Click Ask Genie in the rail.
- The page says Sign in to ask Genie. Type your Email and click Send code.
- Type the six-digit code from the email and click Sign in. Or click the button in the email on this PC: it opens GBM AI and signs you in.
See Signing in, and what it is for.
Step 2: Describe the backup#
Type it the way you would say it to a person. The more of these four things you include, the less Genie has to guess:
| Say | For example |
|---|---|
| What | my photos and videos, D:\Users\Alex\Projects, everything I'd hate to lose |
| Where | the external drive, the NAS, H: |
| When | every night at 2, every Sunday, every 4 hours |
| How long to keep | a month, 6 months, the last 10 |
For example: Back up my photos and videos to the NAS every Sunday night, keep 6 months. Then click Ask.
Nothing is sent until you click Ask (later, Send). What goes with your prompt, and what never does, is listed in What is sent to Genie, and what never is.
Note
Plugging in a drive cannot start a backup. If you ask for one "when I plug it in", Genie picks the closest rhythm it has and says so.
For a USB drive, a daily time works better; see Plugging in a drive does not start a backup.
Step 3: Read the draft#
Genie answers with a card, Draft job: and the job's name. It has three tabs:
| Tab | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Summary | what, where, schedule, retention, compression, encryption and verify, in the app's words |
| JSON | the job exactly as it would be saved |
| Dry run | what the job would back up, folder by folder, the biggest files kept, and a sample of what the filters left out |
The line under it sums up the dry run: Dry run OK · 2,943 files · 118 excluded · nothing was written.
Above the card, n things I had to assume lists every choice your sentence did not make, such as the backup type or retention. To change one:
- Click Change beside it.
- Pick another option, or type what it should be.
- Click Apply. Genie redrafts the job.
To change anything else, type it in the box under the draft: use the NAS instead, also include D:\Users\Alex\Design. Each Apply and each message you send uses one prompt.
Step 4: Save it#
The buttons under the draft:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Review in full | opens the draft as a page, with what Genie understood, the prompt, the assumptions and the dry run; Discard is there |
| Edit in wizard | opens the five wizard steps filled in from the draft, for fine control |
| Save job | saves it; it runs on its schedule |
| Save and run now | saves it and starts the first run |
If the draft has encryption on, GBM AI asks you for the password when you save. Genie never invents one. The password is kept on this PC in the background agent's sealed store, never in the job file, and never sent anywhere. There is no way to recover a lost password.
What Genie cannot do#
The side panel says so under Genie can't: delete backups, change your password, or run anything without your approval. Restores are always confirmed by you. A job Genie made is an ordinary job: it runs, and you can edit it, without Genie.