Kopia: Backups on Your Terms

A folder called "backup-final-really-final" is reassuring right up to the moment you need yesterday's version of a file. Kopia takes a more useful approach: snapshots of selected files and folders, with rules for what to keep and when to back it up. The part I like is that you choose the storage rather than adopt another company's idea of where your documents belong.

Snapshots, not a clone of your computer

Kopia is free backup software with a graphical app and a command-line interface for Windows, macOS and Linux. A snapshot records a point in time for the folders you select. It is not a whole-machine disk image, so do not confuse it with a bare-metal recovery plan.

After the first snapshot, Kopia uploads content that is not already in the repository. Compression and deduplication help reduce storage use; moved or renamed files do not necessarily need another full copy of the same content. That is a practical advantage when your photo collection has migrated through three computers and several folders named "sort later".

You bring the storage

A repository can live on a local disk, network storage or supported remote services. The project lists S3-compatible storage, Azure Blob, Backblaze B2, Google Cloud Storage, SFTP and WebDAV among the options. You provision the destination and pay any provider charges yourself. The free application does not come with a free cloud bucket hiding behind the download button.

Policies control snapshot schedules, retention, compression and exclusions. Set a snapshot frequency if you want automatic runs; the guide says leaving it unset means you need to trigger snapshots yourself. And the machine still needs to be running and able to reach its destination. Scheduling is useful, not supernatural.

The password is part of the backup

Kopia encrypts repositories with a password you choose. The official guide is blunt: if you forget that password, there is no way to restore the backed-up files. Store it safely, separately from the machine you might be trying to recover. Encryption is not much comfort if the only copy of its key vanished with the laptop.

Before trusting a new setup, restore a small test folder to a different location and open the restored files. Then check that the schedule runs and retention matches what you intended. A list of successful jobs is encouraging; a file you can actually recover is better evidence.

A good fit for deliberate backups

I would point Kopia toward someone who wants encrypted file backups, a choice of storage and enough control to understand the setup. It asks more of you than a managed backup subscription: choosing storage, keeping credentials, reviewing policies and testing restores are your jobs. That trade can be worthwhile, but it should be a trade you mean to make.

See our Kopia fiche for downloads and the current version. This is a documentation-based discovery, not a hands-on restore test.

Cover: a real KopiaUI snapshot screen posted by GitHub user adowair in the official repository discussion. It shows historical version 0.10.3, not the current 0.23.1 interface. Sources: getting-started guide, features, 0.23.1 release and repository.