Schedule conditions: battery, wake, quiet hours and full-screen apps
The conditions under a job's schedule, their defaults, and the order the agent checks them in when a run is due.
On this page
A rhythm says when a run is due. The Conditions under it say when a due run should wait, and how gently it runs. Each job has its own; Settings ▸ Schedule & power sets the values new jobs start with.
The conditions#
| Condition | New jobs | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Skip if the computer is on battery | on | A due run waits while a laptop runs on battery and starts when it is plugged in, within the catch-up window below. |
| Wake the computer to run | on | Wakes a sleeping PC a minute before the run. Needs wake timers allowed in Windows. Greyed out with (Task Scheduler unavailable on this PC) when Windows' Task Scheduler does not answer. |
| Run a missed backup as soon as possible, but not more than n hours late | on, 12 hours | A run that could not start on time starts as soon as it can, up to n hours late (1 to 72). Off, a run may start at most 10 minutes late. |
| Slow down while I'm in a full-screen app | on | While a game, a video or a presentation fills the screen, the run works at 30 % of its pace. The run log says when it slowed down and when it picked up again. |
| Don't start between hh:mm and hh:mm | off | Quiet hours. No scheduled run starts inside them; a run already going carries on. A run due inside them starts when they end, if that is within the catch-up window. |
A backup you start yourself does not wait for battery power or the end of quiet hours. The full-screen slow-down applies to every run of the job, scheduled or not.
For waking the PC and keeping it awake, see Keeping the PC awake for a backup. For what "missed" means, see Missed runs.
What the agent checks when a run is due#
Every 30 seconds the agent looks at each job whose run is due, and asks, in this order:
- Are scheduled backups paused? Then the run waits for the pause to end. See Pausing scheduled backups.
- Is the run later than the catch-up window? Then it is missed, and the job waits for its next scheduled time.
- Is the PC on battery, with the battery condition on? Then the run waits.
- Is it quiet hours? Then the run waits.
- Is the backup drive connected? For a local or USB destination, a run whose drive is missing waits and starts the moment the drive is back, under any letter.
- Otherwise the run starts. If another backup is running, it queues and starts when that one finishes.
A run that waits is checked again on the next pass, until it starts or falls outside the catch-up window.
Warned before the run#
On the Where step, Warn me if the drive isn't connected 10 minutes before a run is on for local and USB destinations. Ten minutes before a scheduled run, the agent checks the drive. If it is missing you get a Windows notification in time to plug it in, even with the GBM AI window closed.
While the run is going#
GBM AI keeps Windows from putting the PC to sleep on its own until the backup ends. You can still put it to sleep yourself.