Ubuntu – How will Deja-Dup operates when backing up to an external USB drive

Deja-Dup uses duplicity, which stores backups as a set of encrypted archive files. There exists no simple method to access the files in the backup than restore via duplicity or Deja-Dup

It's very easy to do this, don't worry.

1. Navigate to the folder where your backups are
2. CTRL + A To select all files
3. DELETE To delete all files

A couple of observations about the files in the backup folder, in case you don't want to delete all backups:

All files can be identified as part of a full or incremental backup. Look for 'duplicity-full...' or 'duplicity-inc...' at the beginning of the file names, where the arrows are pointing in the image above.

All files can be identified by creation date in the filename, like the highlight at top left. The format is YYYY/MM/DD.

Most files in the backup directory will be simple archive files, like in the top row of the screenshot. Highlighted in the middle and bottom rows are the other two files created per backup, 'signatures' and 'manifest'. For each backup you will have many files like in the top row, and one each like in the middle and bottom row.

To delete a specific backup identify all files by date in the filename. When working in a directory deleting things, make sure you have at least one more copy elsewhere, in case you delete the wrong thing by accident.