0 bytes .tgz file is saved ?

A couple of suggestions:

1) First, when you click "Test" do you see a list of files to be backed up like this:

Array
(
[0] => .\sites\default\files\backup_migrate\.htaccess
[1] => .\sites\default\files\backup_migrate\manual\test.txt
[2] => .\sites\default\files\backup_migrate\manual\xxxxx_drupal6_xxxxx-2008-11-15T17-05-01.sql.gz
[3] => .\sites\default\files\backup_migrate\scheduled\test.txt
[4] => .\sites\default\files\images\temp\Drupal_Content_Management.pdf
[5] => .\sites\default\files\images\temp\stockxpertcom_id2565441_size0.jpg
[6] => .\sites\default\files\images\temp\stockxpertcom_id2565441_size0_0.jpg
)

If you do not see a list of files then the "Directories to back up" parameter is not properly specified. You might need to play around with this - it doesn't need a / at the start, eg sites/mysite/files

2) The temporary backup files is written to the module directory, {basepath}/sites/all/modules/backup_files/backup.tgz. YOu need to make sure that this is writable.

I hope this helps.

Steve

What I said in 2) above is incorrect (sorry) - the backup file is saved in the Drupal temporary files location. But, if you have not specifically set this, Drupal uses the operating system default value (/etc/temp or c:\windows\temp or something like that). The backup_files module does not handle this situation very well and the resulting file may not be accessible to the web server and can not be downloaded by the user.

I think the trick is to set the temp files location using admin/settings/file_system and setting the temporary directory to be somewhere which is readable by the web server - eg {basepath}/sites/{sitename}/file/temp - and making sure the directory exists before you run the backup_files.

(Note, if the backup file is located in the same directory as the one being backed up it should not create a problem - the software is programmed to avoid backing up the file it is writing to!)

Steve

I had the same problem and for me it was as easy as creating a tmp directory in the drupal root and then making it 775.

Well, nothing mentioned above has worked for me, installed on D6.

When I click "Test Settings" I do not see a list of files to be backed up in the Array ().

I also get message: Does not exist: sites/default/files

When I click "Backup", I do get a compressed file to download, but it is empty.

Any other solutions?

I also get message: Does not exist: sites/default/files

This suggests that the directory you are asking to be backed up does not exist.

Using admin/settings/file_system:
- specify (or accept the default values) for the sys files directory and the temp directory
- make sure that they both exist and are accessible to the web server (for example in windows hosting the temp directory will be C:\temp which is not accessible)

Then make sure that the correct directory is specified in backup_files

This issue can occur with 6.x-1.1 as well as the 6.x-6.x-dev version specified.

This is very strange. As far as I can see, Drupal comes with a default path for a Temporary directory, which is /tmp. So I can't understand why the archived Drupal installation file doesn't simply include an empty /tmp directory in its root... seems obvious, but it's not there

Perhaps tmp is only created when you switch to private file system... ?

Anyway, maybe this issue should be in the readme for Backup Files... that you might need to create a tmp folder in your drupal root directory.

Unlike #6, in my case 755 permission on /tmp is enough

+ By the way, at the moment, this fix creates a file /tmp/backup.tgz which is publicly readable, which is probably a security problem. In fact definitely a security problem if you're using Backup and Migrate, and you then use Backup Files to backup (for example) your entire /sites directory, because that contains Backup and Migrate's copies of your database...

++ edit: the answer to the security issue is to create this .htaccess file in the tmp directory

order allow,deny
deny from all

This seems to work, I hope it doesn't break anything else...