Protect your files continuously, step by step
Turn on continuous protection in about five minutes: every change saved within minutes, any moment back from a timeline, a folder put back as it was, and a guard against ransomware.
On this page
A scheduled job backs up at set times. A continuous job is told by Windows what changed and saves just that, within minutes, all day. Every save is a point: your files as they were at that moment, which you can open, restore or put back. This guide sets one up and shows how to use it. It takes about five minutes.
Continuous protection is part of Pro and Server, their 15-day trials included.
Before you start#
- Pro or Server, or their trial. Account shows your edition.
- A place for the backups: a USB drive or a second drive, a network share, or an S3 bucket. A drive is saved every few minutes; a share or a bucket at most every 15 minutes.
- Files you keep open all day, like Outlook's mailbox, are saved while open only with service mode on. Without it they are saved when their program closes them. See Running backups with nobody signed in.
Step 1: Create the job, or open one#
- On Home, click New backup (or press Ctrl+N). The wizard opens.
- Fill in the first steps as for any job: the name, where the backups go, what to back up, and how. Your first backup walks through each one.
To make a job you already have continuous, open it from Jobs, click Edit, and go to its Schedule step.
A continuous job is always incremental: after the first full backup, each point holds only the files that changed. A mirror keeps one copy only, so the wizard asks for another type.
Step 2: Choose Continuously#
- On the When should it run? step, click Continuously.
- Save changes at most every: 5 minutes is the default. Choose 1 for the most points, or 15 or 30 for fewer.
- Files in use, like Outlook's mail, at most every: 30 minutes by default, and as soon as their program closes them.
- Keep versions for: how long old points are kept. They thin out as they age: every point of the last day, one an hour for a week, one a day for a month, then one a week.
- Leave Watch for ransomware ticked. Every save is checked before it is kept.
- On a laptop whose drive is often unplugged, tick Keep versions on this PC while the destination is away (up to 5 GB). The points go to the drive when it is back.
- Click Save and run now.
Step 3: Let the first backup finish#
The first save is a full backup of everything the job covers, so it takes as long as any first backup. You can go on working meanwhile. From then on each save holds only what changed, and takes seconds.
Step 4: See it working#
Open the job from Jobs. Its Health card says how it is doing:
- Protection: Protected, with Last saved Just now: everything up to then is in a point.
- Ransomware guard: Watching: every save is checked before it is kept.
The job's line on Home says the same. Saving changes means a point is being saved now; Waiting, with why, means it waits for something (the battery, its drive, an update). Activity groups the points by the hour, for example Saved changes 12 times: 48 files, 3.2 MB.
GBM AI does not tell you of every point. It tells you when protection stops, for example when its drive has been away for a day. Run now saves a point straight away.
Step 5: Go back to any moment#
- Click Restore in the left rail (or press Ctrl+R), then the continuous job.
- Click or drag on the timeline to the moment you want. It runs from the weeks on the left, through the days of the month, to the last 24 hours on the right, to the minute. As it was at 14:24 names the moment you picked.
- To get closer, zoom in with + and −, or hold Ctrl and turn the mouse wheel. ← and → step from one point to the next.
- Click Browse files as they were, tick the files or folders you want, choose where they go, and click Start restore.
Step 6: Put a folder back as it was#
When a whole folder went wrong (a program rewrote it, a sync tool emptied it, files were encrypted), put it back in one step:
- Browse to the folder at the moment you want.
- Click Put "Documents" back as it was at the bottom of the page (it names your folder).
- Read the dialog, then click Put back.
Every file comes back as it was at that moment, files deleted since included. Nothing is written over: a file that changed since is moved into a new folder beside this one first, Documents (moved aside ...). Files that did not change are left alone, so a large folder where little changed is back in seconds. Once you are sure, delete the moved aside folder yourself.
If files change like ransomware#
If many files change the way ransomware changes them (encrypted, renamed to a strange extension, a ransom note in each folder), the job stops saving, so nothing the attack wrote is saved. The last good backup is kept, and you are told at once: a card in the GBM AI window, a Windows notification, and an email and a webhook if you use them.
- If it was not you: disconnect the PC from the network and stop the program changing the files. Wait until the card says No changes for a few minutes, then click Put back Documents… on the card. The folder comes back as it was before the changes.
- If you made the changes (you encrypted or renamed a lot of files yourself): click It was me. The next point takes the changes as they are.
The ransomware guard explains what it looks for and every choice on the card.
One file's versions, from File Explorer#
Right-click any file or folder in File Explorer and choose GBM AI: Previous versions (on Windows 11, under Show more options). It lists every backed-up version of it, from every job, in every edition.
