NortonLifelock version 22.20.5.39 on Windows 10 Home, 64 bit.
Norton backup fails because there is no room on my external HDD used for backup. Current (Default) backup set has 24,108 files taking up 194.6GB. HOWEVER, the N360_BACKUP folder shows 308,820 files taking up 1.81TB using the Windows File Explorer. Norton "support" is either unwilling or unable to explain this.
I need to reduce the N360_BACKUP folder so that I can run backups. Norton "support" response is to delete the old backup set and begin a new one. Seems that;t kind of missing the point of backup software.
The first link is from back in 2015, and we have since changed our backup solution. BUT that being said I have asked my engineering team to take a look. I don't believe it should be the case to create a full backup set each time, it should only be the changes just as it does for cloud backup. They should be using the same algorithm and solution.
If you reinstall the product it may be that it orphans the old local backup set, but I have to confirm that.
This is the first incident that I am aware of being reported. I am not certain if it has to do with the change of product with an updated install from comcast to the updated version.
Are there files in your backup you are concerned you don't current have on your system? In other words are you trying to potentially preserve you original backup sets?
I only have the one (default) backup set. I recently upgraded from Comcast Norton360 to NortonLifeLock, but I haven't seen anything indicating there are multiple sets. Since the space used is almost 10 times the size of the backup set, I assume there is some old//bad data there, but i don't know how to find it so I can delete it.
@irishking, do you have multiple backup sets or have uninstalled and reinstalled Norton and then did another backup? As others on this thread have said, Norton does not remove files if you remove them from your system. You have to explicitly remove the files.
I'm surprised that this question continues to languish, that no one else seems to have this problem, and that no one from Norton has stepped in to contribute to the issue and solution. Is Norton support really so bad that they can't even weigh in, much less address the problem?
It is possible that the backup function is designed to keep those files in place in case you ever want to restore to some old copy.
This is because Norton has no way of knowing if a file was deliberately deleted or deleted by accident or by some mechanical fault that destroyed the file.
I found my own N360_Backup folder on my C: drive and it had several files from a while ago stored there.
I began to use cloud backup a few months ago and have now deleted those files on my C: drive since they are way out of date and I would never want to return to them. It is possible that the backup function is designed to keep those files in place in case you ever want to restore to some old copy.
It seems that when using the external HDD you are creating a new file every time you run the backup.
After time you have the build up to 1.81 TB from each file consuming 194.6GB. I would conclude that the backup program by Norton does not delete any existing file before it runs. I would have assumed like you that old backups were deleted automatically. I assume then that you have to delete them manually which does sound rather unsatisfactorily to me.
Maybe others will tell us whether this also applies to the Cloud Storage Backup. Sorry I cannot be of much help but I do sympathize with your problem.
