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There was a problem backing up your ShareGate user data

Updated

Symptoms

When launching ShareGate's migration tool, you get the following error:

There was a problem backing up your ShareGate user data

A manual backup is required to avoid losing your ShareGate user data on the next launch. Start your backup now, or send an error report to help us resolve the issue.

Error code

  • SG-002-492

Details

You get this error when ShareGate's migration tool fails to create a backup of its local app data if an issue occurs while updating it.

Because ShareGate Migrate's app data contains everything from your settings to your migration reports, it won't attempt to update it unless a backup is successfully created.

For example, if you run out of space on your drive, ShareGate's migration tool cannot create the backup file.

Solution

You have 3 options to return to ShareGate Migrate when you get this error.

Manually create a backup

When you follow these steps, ShareGate's migration tool will detect that a backup has been made and will finish updating when you restart it at the last step.

  1. Ensure ShareGate's migration tool is closed and inactive in the system tray.
  2. Open Windows Explorer.
  3. Go to C:\Users\youruser.name\AppData\Local\.
  4. Locate the Sharegate folder.
    • Note: AppData is a hidden folder, so you might have to reveal hidden folders in Windows Explorer to see it.
  5. Zip the Sharegate folder and name it ShareGate-Pre-X.X.X.X-Backup.zip (replace X.X.X.X with your current version number of ShareGate Migrate).
  6. Locate and delete the SharegateStartupErrors folder.
    • Ignore this step if the SharegateStartupErrors folder does not exist in your AppData\Local folder.
  7. Start ShareGate's migration tool.

Start with a fresh installation of ShareGate Migrate (you will lose all your settings and reports)

With these steps, ShareGate's migration tool will not detect its app data and will start as if you just installed it for the first time.

  1. Ensure ShareGate's migration tool is closed and inactive in the system tray.
  2. Open Windows Explorer.
  3. Go to C:\Users\youruser.name\AppData\Local\.
  4. Locate the Sharegate folder.
    Note: AppData is a hidden folder, so you might have to reveal hidden folders in Windows Explorer to see it.
  5. Rename the Sharegate folder to something like Sharegate_old to preserve your migration tool's local app data, or delete it.
  6. Start ShareGate's migration tool.

Go back to your previous version of ShareGate Migrate

If needed, you can follow the steps in this article to re-install the previous version of ShareGate Migrate.

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