I am attempting to make a local USB backup but repeatedly encounter the following error after the backup process begins:
“Error Creating Backup: An attempt was made to write to a file or directory which could not be modified due to the state of the underlying filesystem.”
My Homey Pro is running version 12.4.0 and I am using Microsoft Edge on Windows 11 to access the USB Backup Tool. I have tried to save the file to several directories with the same result.
Any suggestions?
You can try to start the tool as administrator, and or
Temporary disable firewall, and or
Replace the USB-C cable by a decent USB-C data cable
#cablegate
I’ve tried several high quality data transfer cables. No change.
It’s just odd… I have no issues whatsoever transferring files using any other software, with or without administrator rights.
OK. Is Windos allowed to read/write to the Homey filesystem? Didn’t you get some kind of warning after the driver was installed?
O wait, I’ve read about the driver not being certified or stuff. Maybe you’d specifically allow the USB driver to be used.
I’ll look into that some more. There was a warning when I installed the driver and I selected the option to"install anyway".
1 Like
The drives on my PC are formatted to use NTFS file system as are most newer Windows PCs. However, Homey local backup apparently doesn’t like that file system and won’t write to the drive. I was able to create a successful local backup by saving to a USB stick that was formatted with the exFAT file system.
Out of curiosity I formatted another USB stick with NTFS and the backup was created successfully on that. So, I have no idea why the backup works on USB sticks but not on my internal drives.
That’s odd, I’ve not yet read anything about NTFS internal storage not being writable for the backup file. Maybe mr. Geurt @Dijker can elaborate a bit here?
That’s what I used as a guide to create the backups. I’m still not sure why backup can be created to USB sticks, either exFAT or NTFS, but not internal drive.
Searching for exact that, it looks like an Chromium formulated Error.
So the Question is, What is the permission you have on the Windows system? Are you “Administrator” and/or is “User Account Control” enabled?
An While I can easily test downloading a File on a location I know I have no access although I have Admin permissions. I have UAC enabled an get an Error from the Browser.
the exFAT formated disk doesn’t have security permissions in Windows.
Probably on the NTFS formated Data Disk you have enough permissions. (Probably everyone: Full Control)
But it looks like the downloader hasn’t enough permission to create and change (Append) to the file on the locations you tried I guess.
But at this moment not going to test as I have not enough info in what case it fails exactly.
(also not knowing what other Security solutions are active at that station)
Let me know exactly what you need from me and I will do my best to explain what I have.
To start, I am Administrator and User Account Control is enabled. I do not get a UAC error. I do get the error that I stated in my original post. Windows Security is also enabled on the PC and all folders have Full Control access.
On a whim I decided to try creating a backup on an external USB stick formatted with exFAT. That worked. I also was able to create a backup on a USB stick formatted with NTFS. I just cant create a backup on my internal drive formatted with NTFS.
I also tried creating a backup on another, older PC. I received the same error message on that PC when I tried to create a backup on the internal NTFS drives, but was successful when creating a backup on a USB stick.
So, the same results on two PCs. I’m not sure that the issue stems from the file system, but any help would be appreciated.
- Does it make a difference when you use an other browser in the process from the first step on, like Edge?
I put my cards on Windos- or 3rd party over-enthusiast anti virus / malware / system protection tools for now;
-
I’d suggest to temporarily disable any antivirus or firewall software one by one, to see if it resolves the issue.
-
Do you use “one big” C:\ drive, or is the internal storage split into multiple partitions?
-
Where you you store the backup file, at C:\ drive, or at an other drive letter?
Another idea:
- What happens when you start Windos in safe mode?
Other possible stuff:
-
Filesystem State: The filesystem may be in a read-only state due to errors or corruption. You can check the filesystem status and repair it if necessary:
On Windows, you can use the chkdsk command. -
Disk Errors: Check for any hardware issues with the disk. You can use tools like SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) to check the health of the disk.
-
Logs and Error Messages: Check any logs or additional error messages that may provide more context about the issue. This can help identify the specific cause.
Thanks for your help. I’ll address each of your points by number below:
-
It makes no difference whether I use Edge or Chrome. If I use Firefox I get an error message that I must use Chrome or another Chromium based browser. All of this is the same on multiple PCs.
-
Disabling firewall and antivirus has no effect on the results.
-
I use C:\ for my OS and a separate D:\ drive for data. Both are 1 TB drives with plenty of free space. I am logged on as Administrator and have Full Control permissions assigned to all drives, folders, and files.
-
I have tried various folders on both D:\ and C:\ drives including the Downloads folder. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have successfully created a backup on a USB stick.
-
I have not tried using Windows in Safe Mode.
-
- and 8. I can’t imagine that multiple PCs have filesystem or disk drive corruption and errors, but out of curiosity I ran chkdsk and it did not reveal any issues.
As I mentioned earlier, the backup process begins and writes filenames to the designated folder if I use any internal drive on any of my three PCs. It just throws the error message regarding unable to “modify file or directory due to state of underlying filesystem…”
Two files are created in the designated folder when the backup fails:
- Homey Pro Backup 2025-03-20T20_58_43.781Z.homeyprobackup (0 KB)
- Homey Pro Backup 2025-03-20T20_58_43.781Z.homeyprobackup.crswap (156,694 KB)
Only one file is created when the backup is successful on the USB stick:
Homey Pro Backup 2025-03-20T20_17_55.317Z.homeyprobackup (853,508 KB)
Just a thought: it seems that the file names of the backup are long and the maximum folder + file length might be an element to consider.
Does it work if you create a back-up in a folder with a short name located directly in the root of your C or D drive?
Note that I am not using local backups myself, as such I don’t know the file structure of the local Homey backups 
.
That’s a good thought, but the length of the path/filename is well within the max of 256 characters. I did, however, try a much shorter filename saved to the root folder and it still gave me the same error message.
1 Like
