Volume Backup Sorter

Volume Backup Sorter is a cross-platform desktop application for safe, transparent, and reproducible backups. It is designed to copy and organize large volumes of files without duplicates while keeping full user control.

The focus of this project is correctness, safety, and clarity. Nothing is deleted silently, nothing is hidden, and every action can be previewed before execution.

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About

This tool started as a personal solution for backing up disks, phones, SD cards, and NAS volumes without trusting opaque “one-click” backup software.

Volume Backup Sorter uses cryptographic hashing, a persistent file index, and configurable rules to ensure that files are copied exactly once and placed into predictable folder structures.

It is intended for power users who want to understand what happens to their data.

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Features

• Drag & drop files and folders
• SHA256-based duplicate detection
• Persistent SQLite index for fast re-runs
• Rule-based file sorting (extensions, regex, size)
• Backup modes:
  • Archive (append-only, default)
  • Mirror (optional scoped deletion)
• Safe preview (dry-run) with file count and byte size
• Resume-safe backups
• Profiles for different backup scenarios
• Multi-language UI (English, German, more planned)
• Cross-platform: Linux, macOS, Windows

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Requirements (from source)

• Python 3.10 or newer
• PyQt6

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Running from source

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

pip install -U pip
pip install -e .

python -m volume_backup_sorter

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Building standalone executables

Standalone binaries are built using PyInstaller. Each platform must be built on its own operating system.

Build artifacts (dist/, build/) are intentionally not committed to the repository. Linux (GUI)

# onefile
pyinstaller \
  --onefile \
  --windowed \
  --name volume-backup-sorter \
  --collect-all PyQt6 \
  volume_backup_sorter/__main__.py

# optimised (recommended)
pyinstaller --clean volume-backup-sorter-linux.spec

Result:

dist/volume-backup-sorter/volume-backup-sorter

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macOS (not ready)

# onefile
pyinstaller \
  --onefile \
  --windowed \
  --name volume-backup-sorter \
  --collect-all PyQt6 \
  volume_backup_sorter/__main__.py

# optimised (testing in progress)
pyinstaller --clean volume-backup-sorter-macos.spec

First run (Gatekeeper) (in case of quarantine):

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine dist/volume-backup-sorter

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Windows (not ready)

#onefile
pyinstaller `
  --onefile `
  --noconsole `
  --name volume-backup-sorter `
  --collect-all PyQt6 `
  volume_backup_sorter\__main__.py

# optimised (testing in progress) (turn upx on in the volume-backup-sorter-windows.spec file)
pyinstaller --clean volume-backup-sorter-windows.spec

Result:

dist\volume-backup-sorter\volume-backup-sorter.exe

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Project structure

volume_backup_sorter/
├── app.py
├── cli.py
├── config_store.py
├── fsops.py
├── hashing.py
├── i18n.py
├── index_db.py
├── loggers.py
├── models.py
├── paths.py
├── planner.py
├── worker.py
└── ui/
    ├── main_window.py
    ├── preview_dialog.py
    ├── rule_editor.py
    ├── settings_dialog.py
    └── widgets.py

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Publishing

GitHub repository contains source code only

GitHub Releases: planned

PyPI package: planned

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

You are free to use, modify, and distribute this software. There is no warranty; use it at your own risk.

See the LICENSE file for the full license text.

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