Display automatic backup reminders
It would be good to remind the user to make backups,
- after they've first stored valuable data in their Persistent Storage,
- regularly after a time interval since their last backup was made,
- (optional) auto-start
tails-installer --backup
when a backup Tails USB stick is inserted.
This was proposed in our backup blueprint:
As the bare minimum for S1, I need a backup that is:
Fresh. If backups are tedious and slow to make and update, people will only update them infrequently and won't have fresh backups when they need it. We should make it as easy as possible to update backups.
Deja Dup is interesting in this regard: as a user, I am notified to update my backups regularly and backups start automatically and in the background as soon as I plug my backup device.
If #20044 (closed) is closed we have a way to launch Tails Cloner to create a fresh backup in one click.
Valuable data may be (confirm):
- Persistent Folder
- Electrum Bitcoin Wallet
- GnuPG
- Dotfiles
- Any custom Persistent Storage feature.
The others seem like replaceable data and not worth annoying users to back up but I could be wrong.
A regular interval that makes sense for updating backup Tails made with Tails Cloner might be quarterly to biannually. Beyond 6 months it's likely their backup Tails USB stick may already have bit rot. I think it's useful to introduce randomness in the interval to make users travel less predictable if they store a backup Tails offsite.
If we get a cloud backup system later, weekly would make more sense there since it's less laborious.
As for auto-starting, today there is no way to tell if the currently unlocked Persistent Storage corresponds to a backup Tails inserted. This requires storing a file outside of the TailsData partition to check. Instead, tails-installer --backup
could launch if a device with a TailsData partition is inserted when the Persistent Storage is unlocked.