Reviewing a draft before you save it
The draft card's summary, JSON and dry run, the assumptions you can change, and the buttons that save, edit or discard it.
On this page
A draft is a proposal. Nothing is saved until you press a button that says so, and there are four ways to look at it first.
The draft card#
The card has three tabs:
- Summary: what, where, the schedule, retention, compression, encryption and verification, in the app's own words, such as Excludes: 2 presets + 3 rules.
- JSON: the job exactly as it will be saved, the same file Export job JSON… writes. Copy puts it on the clipboard.
- Dry run: what the agent found when it ran the draft against your drives without writing anything.
Under the tabs, a line sums up the dry run: Dry run OK · 2,943 files · 118 excluded · nothing was written, with See the dry run.
The dry run#
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Backed up, Excluded, Read, Written to H: | the files it would take, the files the filters leave out, their size, and an estimate of what lands on the destination |
| What gets backed up | each folder with its files and size |
| Left out — sample, with the rule | the first paths left out, each with the preset or rule that caught it |
| Biggest files kept | so a stray 40 GB disk image shows up now, not at 02:00 |
| Looked for 8 s and found 61,000 files, then stopped — a real run checks everything | a large selection is sampled for 8 seconds |
| n items could not be read | folders Windows would not let the agent open |
The assumptions#
Above the card, n things I had to assume lists every choice your prompt left open. Each has Change:
- Click Change.
- Pick another option, such as Incremental — only what changed since the last run or Keep the last 10 sets, or type what it should be.
- Click Apply. Genie redrafts, and that uses one prompt.
Review in full#
Review in full opens the draft as a page: What Genie understood, in one sentence such as Back up Documents to H:\Backups\Documents & Desktop · Daily 02:00 · keep 30 days, then the prompt (Show prompt), the assumptions, the dry run and the job. Back to the conversation returns.
The buttons#
| Where | Buttons |
|---|---|
| On the card | Review in full · Edit in wizard · Save job · Save and run now |
| On the Review in full page | Edit in wizard · Discard · Save job · Save and run now |
- Save job saves it; the job appears on the Jobs page and runs on its schedule.
- Save and run now saves it and starts the first run, without asking again what it will back up.
- Edit in wizard opens the five steps filled in from the draft, for anything Genie has no words for.
- Discard asks first, then clears the draft and the conversation; nothing is saved.
- The box under the conversation refines the draft in plain words. Each answer is a new draft, and the one before is marked Superseded by a later draft below.
For a change to an existing job, the buttons read Save changes to Photo library and Save changes and run now, on the card and on the Review in full page. The job keeps its runs and restore points.
A change to an existing job: What changes#
When you ask Genie to change a job you already have ("move Photo library to 22:00", "also skip ISO files"), the card lists What changes before you save: one line per setting, the job's value struck through and the new one after it, such as Schedule: Daily 02:00 → Daily 22:00. Everything not listed stays as it is: the job's filters, compression, verification and run conditions. The Review in full page shows the same list first.
- For a long list, such as the job's exclusions, the line shows only what is added (+) and what is taken out (−).
- This draft doesn't change anything in "Photo library". means the job already does what you asked. Nothing is saved, and the Save buttons stay off.
- "Photo library" has changed since Genie drafted this. means the job was edited after Genie drafted the change, for example in the wizard, or the conversation was opened again from Recents later. The list no longer holds and the Save buttons stay off. Ask Genie again and it drafts the change against the job as it is now.
Genie sees each job's settings for this, with your user folder written as {UserProfile}, never your Windows user name: What Genie sends and keeps.
An encrypted draft#
If the draft has encryption on, saving asks for the password: Genie never invents passwords. Choose one now. It is kept only on this PC and never sent anywhere. It is kept in the agent's sealed store, never in the job file. There is no way to recover a lost password.