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AutoBackupTool lets you back up any local folder to Google Drive with a single click. When you start a backup, the app compresses your folder, encrypts the result with your Fernet key, and streams the encrypted file to Drive — all without blocking the GUI. This page walks you through launching the app and completing your first backup.

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Launch the app

Open a terminal in the project directory and run: 
python backup_gui.py
The AutoBackupPro Cloud window opens with a folder picker, schedule selector, action buttons, a progress bar, and a live log window.

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Run a backup

1

Select a folder

Click Browse to open a folder picker dialog. Navigate to the folder you want to back up and confirm your selection. The path appears in the text field next to the button.
2

Choose a schedule

Pick a schedule option from the Backup Schedule panel. For a one-time backup, select Backup Once Now. For recurring backups, see Scheduling.
3

Start the backup

Click Start Backup. The progress bar advances to 50% while the folder is being compressed and encrypted, then jumps to 100% once the file has been uploaded to Google Drive.
4

Watch the log

The log window at the bottom of the app shows real-time status messages:
[INFO] Backup scheduler started.
[INFO] Running backup...
[INFO] Uploaded. Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/...
[INFO] Backup logged.

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What happens internally

When you start a backup, the following steps run in sequence inside a background thread:
  1. Compress — the folder is walked recursively and zipped in memory using zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED.
  2. Encrypt — the zip bytes are encrypted with Fernet using your ENCRYPTION_KEY from backup.env.
  3. Upload — the encrypted file is uploaded to Google Drive as backup_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.enc.
  4. Log — the filename, timestamp, and Drive link are appended to backup_log.json. See Backup log for details.
  5. Enforce the 5-backup limit — after the upload, AutoBackupTool checks how many files with backup_ in the title exist on Drive. If there are more than 5, the oldest (by creation date) is automatically deleted.
The backup runs in a background daemon thread so the GUI stays responsive throughout compression, encryption, and upload.

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Stop a running scheduler

Click Stop Backup at any time to clear all scheduled jobs and halt the scheduler thread. Internally this calls schedule.clear() and sets self.running = False. Note that clicking Stop Backup does not cancel an upload that is already in progress — it only prevents future scheduled runs from firing.
Use Run Backup Now to trigger an immediate backup without touching the scheduler. This is useful when you want a manual snapshot outside your normal schedule while keeping the recurring schedule active.

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