Déjà Dup is as simple a backup tool as you’ll find on Linux

If you're not backing up your most important data, you're inviting trouble into your life. 

We've all been there — those moments when something goes awry with a computer and you have to sweat through the process of hoping you can get that machine running long enough to copy those crucial files and folders to an external drive, and salvage them before something goes catastrophically wrong. Or maybe you accidentally deleted a folder and have already emptied your trash? 

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Whatever the future holds, it's time you start depending on a solid backup strategy — or that you at least start using a backup tool to keep your most important files safe from disaster.

Déjà Dup is a play on déjà vu and serves as the official backup tool for the GNOME desktop. The tool is also provided with a number of other Linux desktops (such as Budgie). Déjà Dup is so easy to use, anyone can set up a backup.

Let me show you just how easy it is.

How to create your first Déjà Dup backup

What you'll need: The only things you'll need for this are a running instance of Linux. If Déjà Dup isn't preinstalled on your desktop, you'll most likely find it available to install from your app store. 

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You'll also need either an external drive attached to your computer to house the backups or have your computer connected to your cloud service of choice. For this, Déjà Dup supports Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. 

That's it. Now, let's get to the backup.

At this point, the backup will begin and complete. Once it finishes, you can then enable the backup to happen automatically. The one caveat is that you cannot determine the frequency of the backup. 

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By default, Déjà Dup backs up every three days. You can, should you need, run a manual backup at any time by opening Déjà Dup and clicking Back Up Now. The backup you've configured will run and you're good to go.

And that's how easy it is to back up your folders on the Linux desktop. It doesn't get much easier than this.