The seven schedule rhythms
Every 15 or 30 minutes, every few hours, daily, weekly, monthly, at sign-in or once: exactly when each fires, and how to check the next five runs before you save.
On this page
Step 5 of the wizard, When should it run?, decides when a job runs by itself. The background agent keeps the schedule, so the GBM AI window can be closed.
Three modes#
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Manual only | The job runs only when you start it: Run on Home or the Jobs page, Back up now in the notification-area icon, Ctrl+K, or a desktop shortcut. |
| Simple | One rhythm, from the seven below. Every edition; Every few minutes needs Home or above. |
| Advanced | Two rhythms in one job: one for full backups, one for incremental or differential runs. Home, Pro and Server. See Advanced schedules. |
The seven rhythms#
Six are in every edition. Every few minutes is part of Home, Pro and Server; on Free it is greyed out.
| Rhythm | You set | When it runs |
|---|---|---|
| Every few minutes | 15 or 30 minutes | On the quarter or half hours of the clock: every 15 minutes runs at :00, :15, :30 and :45. Only while the PC is on. |
| Every few hours | 1 to 23 hours | On the clock hours counted from midnight. Every 4 hours runs at 00:00, 04:00, 08:00, 12:00, 16:00 and 20:00. |
| Daily at | a time | Every day at that time. |
| Weekly on | the days, a time | On each day you pick, at that time. |
| Monthly on day | day 1 to 28, or last day, a time | Once a month on that day. |
| When I sign in to Windows | a delay, 0 to 120 minutes (5 by default) | Each time you sign in to Windows, that many minutes after the sign-in. |
| Once, on | a date and a time | One run at that moment. After that the job runs only when you start it. |
Three details to know:
- Every few minutes keeps a job close to up to date all day. Each run takes only what changed, so a Full job cannot run every few minutes; in an Advanced schedule it is the incremental rhythm, beside full backups at night. It never wakes the PC: Wake the computer to run is greyed out for it, and in an Advanced schedule only the full backups wake the PC. A slot that passes while the PC is off or asleep is not reported as missed; the next one runs. When the same thing goes wrong run after run, the alert comes once an hour, not every 15 minutes, and Home shows the job as needing attention after two hours without a completed run.
- Every few hours starts again at midnight each day. Every 5 hours runs at 00:00, 05:00, 10:00, 15:00 and 20:00, then at 00:00 again, four hours later.
- When I sign in to Windows runs at each sign-in: after a restart, after a shut-down and power-on (Fast Startup included), and after you sign out and back in. Waking the PC from sleep, or unlocking it, is not a sign-in and does not run it. With service mode on, it follows the sign-ins of the Windows account that turned service mode on.
Next runs#
Under the conditions, Next runs lists the next five times the schedule will run. The agent works them out with the same rule it uses to run the job.
No scheduled runs. appears for When I sign in to Windows, which has no clock time. It also appears when a field is missing, such as a weekly rhythm with no day picked. With Manual only the step says Runs only when you press Run instead.
Where you see the schedule later#
- The Jobs page shows it in a few words: Every 15 min, Daily 02:00, Every 4 h, Mon, Wed, Fri at 18:00, At sign-in, Once.
- Home's Next run is the soonest run across all your jobs.
- A job's Schedule tab lists its next five runs and its conditions, with Run now and Run as full.
Choosing a rhythm#
- Work you cannot afford to lose an hour of (a ledger, a thesis, a shared folder on a server): Every few minutes, 15, in an Advanced schedule with a full on Sunday.
- Documents you edit all day: Every few hours, say 4, or Daily at a time the PC is usually on.
- Photos, added now and then: Weekly on Sunday.
- A laptop that is off or asleep at night: Daily at a time it is usually on, such as 13:00, with Run a missed backup as soon as possible on. When I sign in to Windows suits it less, because waking from sleep is not a sign-in.
- An archive copy: Monthly on day 1.
- A USB drive you plug in now and then: Daily at a time it is usually plugged in. See Plugging in a drive does not start a backup.
Note
A scheduled run needs the PC to be on, or asleep with Wake the computer to run on. Unless service mode is on, you also need to be signed in to Windows.
What happens otherwise is in Missed runs. The conditions under the rhythm (battery, wake, catch-up, full-screen apps, quiet hours) are in Schedule conditions.