This application provides a simple way to back up your Translation Memories and Termbases on a regular basis to help you ensure that you always have a backup available to you in the event of these precious resources getting corrupted.  The application is a plugin which allows you to set up as many backup tasks as you like and run them on demand, or as scheduled backups using the Windows Task Scheduler.  It's important to note that this is no substitute for you getting into the routine of regularly exporting to a simple text based format so even if you don't notice that your resources have corrupted you won't have to rely on the backup which could contain the corrupt resource:

• SDLTM Export to TMX once a week is a good idea (best carried out through the TM View in Studio)
• SDLTB export to MultiTerm XDT and XML (easiest way to do this is with the Glossary Converter and a drag and drop)

Where can I find the TM Back up plugin?

Once installed from the SDL AppStore the plugin can be found in the Add-Ins menu of the Translation Memories View, Projects View and Welcome View.  It looks something like this:

Using the plugin

When you click the icon for TM Backup in the Add-Ins ribbon for the first time you'll be presented with this screen:

1. File : select the available options/tasks using a File -> menu command
2. Create new task : use this to create your backup task
3. Run manual tasks : this button allows you to manually run a backup whenever you choose if you didn't create them using a scheduled backup
4. Run disabled tasks : if you have disabled any of the tasks in the Windows Task Scheduler you can either enable them in the Task Scheduler or click this handy button to do them all at once
5. Refresh view : this button refreshes the screen.  If you deleted any tasks in the Windows Scheduler while the app is open then refreshing the screen allows the changes to be seen
6. Open Windows Task Scheduler : this is a quick link to open your Windows Task Scheduler if you wish to edit, disable or delete the scheduled tasks you have created
7. Help : clicking on here takes you to this wiki page so we can easily enhance the help with your feedback to make it easier to understand

Steps to create a backup task

Create a new task

Click on File and select the option to Create new backup: or just use the icon as shown:

Backup details

You're going to complete the details in the next screen so they will appear something like this:

You can see from this that there are 6 fields to complete which are described below.  The task in the image above would appear like this in the TM Backup list:

The image above shows three tasks that have been created:

1. a backup task that runs every 7-days automatically
2. a backup task that runs every 24-hrs automatically
3. a backup task that runs whenever it is manually triggerred

And in your Windows Task Scheduler like this where the Task name is prefixed with TMBackupTask so they are easy to find (note that the windows task scheduler can sometimes take a little while to start depending on how often you use it):

Backup name

This is mandatory, and it can't be edited afterwards.  It's used to identify the name in Studio and it's appended to TMBackupTask in the windows task scheduler.  So if you don't like the name you used then delete the task and recreate it

Backup from

Select the folder used to store your resources.  You can't select specific files, only the folder containing the files.

Backup to

This should be the folder you wish to backup to.  The folder you are backing up from will be recreated in this location.

Description

This is just a description of your backup task to help you remember why you did it.  It is only saved in the Trados Studio interface and will be seen when opening up the tasks individually by double clicking them.

What to backup

The tool can back up anything you like based on the extension you use, or it can back up everything inside the selected folder by not adding an action at all:

If you want to create an action to backup a specific type of file then the action name and the type of file fields are free text, so you can type whatever you like in there.  The Pattern however must follow the rules in brackets which are a period followed by the file extension.  So for translation memory files you would write this:

.sdltm

For termbase files this:

.sdltb

Click Add after entering each action and then Ok to save the entry.

When to backup

There are two options for scheduling:

So you can set a scheduled time by selecting Every or you can choose the run the backups manually whenever you use the manual tasks option:

If you want to schedule an automatic backup then use the Every option and set the time in hours or minutes as you see fit.  Here the task is scheduled to run every 7 days on a Monday at 6pm:

Other features

There are two other icons in the toolbar that are worth knowing about:

• Run disabled tasks
• Refresh View

Run disabled tasks

It is possible to disable tasks in the Windows Task Scheduler.  If you have done this for any reason then you can use this feature to enable them again without having to start launch the windows task scheduler. 

It's also a useful feature because you can see which tasks have been disabled in the Studio view:

Refresh view

This feature allows you to refresh the view and see any changes that you may have made through the windows task scheduler and avoid having to restart the application:

Open Windows Task Scheduler

The windows task scheduler can be launched through windows, but as this may be a feature many users are not aware of we have added an icon to the toolbar to launch the scheduler directly from Trados Studio:

Recommendations

The most important thing is that you do backup your resources.  Translation Memories and Termbases in Studio/MultiTerm are fairly robust but like any file on a computer they can still become corrupt under some circumstances - for example sharing file-based resources simultaneously, security software interfering with read/write operations, use of external drives that lose connection etc.  So to ensure you are able to sleep peacefully the recommendation would be this:

• set up regular backups of your resources, at least once a week.  Anything between you can probably recover from your active projects.
• export your backups to a flat file format like TMX on a regular basis
• check your Translation Memories once a month with an integrity check using TM Repair from the SDL AppStore

TellMe

SDLTMBackup Studio 2019 version contains the TellMe feature which allows you to search quickly for the plugin available actions: navigate to store from where the SDLTMBackup can be downloaded, navigate to Wiki page, navigate to SDL Community forum.

You can easily use TellMe feature in Studio by typing SDLTMBackup word in the search box, and all available results will be displayed (see below print screen):

Logging

The application logs information about the flow which is usefull to idenitfy issues that might occur. The SDLTMBackupLogs.txt file can be found at the following location: C:\Users\{userName}\AppData\Roaming\SDL Community\SDLTMBackup\SdlFreshstartLogs.txt. The file can be attached to the email / Sdl Community forum topic when a problem regarding the application is raised.

The application logs information about the flow which is usefull to idenitfy issues that might occur. The SdlFreshstartLogs.txt file can be found at the following location: C:\Users\{userName}\AppData\Roaming\SDL Community\SDLTMBackup\SDLTMBackupLogs.txt. The file can be attached to the email / Sdl Community forum topic when a problem regarding the application is raised.