Timeshift
System restore for Linux: scheduled snapshots you can roll back to after an update goes wrong.
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About Timeshift
Timeshift takes snapshots of the system files on a Linux machine, either with rsync and hard links on any filesystem or with native BTRFS snapshots where the layout allows it. Snapshots run on a schedule with hourly, daily, weekly and monthly levels, and old ones are pruned automatically.
It is aimed at the operating system, not your documents: the default exclude filters leave home directories out, and the project is explicit that it is not a replacement for a file backup tool. Restoring works from a running system or from a live USB when the machine will not boot.
Strengths
- Rolls a broken update back without reinstalling
- Works on any filesystem with rsync, or natively on BTRFS
- Scheduled snapshot levels with automatic pruning
- Restores from a live USB when the system will not boot
Limitations
- Backs up system files, not your documents, by default
- Linux only
- BTRFS mode needs an Ubuntu-style subvolume layout to work
Details
- Pricing
- FreeFree and open source under the GPL 2.0 or later. Maintained by the Linux Mint team.
- License
- GPL-2.0-or-later
- Developer
- Timeshift
- Platforms
- Linux
- How it runs
- Downloadable app
- Account
- Not required
- Works offline
- Yes
- Best suited for
- Undoing a Linux update or a bad configuration change in minutes
- Categories
- Backup tools
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Selected from the TechWalrus downloads catalog (Backup); facts checked against the developer's own pages, 2 sources on file.
Alternatives to Timeshift
Compare allSoftware that can replace Timeshift for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
Back In Time
Graphical front-end for incremental rsync backups on Linux.
Back In Time is also Linux-only and uses rsync with hard links, but adds a graphical front end with restores through a file manager and no BTRFS snapshot mode.
rsnapshot
Filesystem snapshot backups using rsync and hard links.
rsnapshot keeps rsync and hard-link snapshots as browsable directories and runs on macOS as well as Linux, but it is command-line driven and has no encryption or compression.
Rescuezilla
A bootable disk imaging and cloning tool that is Clonezilla with a graphical interface people can actually use.
Rescuezilla images the whole drive from a bootable USB stick with a point-and-click interface, so a restore brings back everything, but it cannot run scheduled snapshots from the desktop.
Clonezilla
A bootable disk cloner that images a whole drive or partition, including systems it cannot understand.
Clonezilla takes full drive images from a boot environment using text menus, with no scheduled or background operation and no single-file restore, unlike Timeshift's automatic snapshot levels.
Redo Rescue
Create and restore disk images from a bootable rescue environment.
Redo Rescue creates and restores disk images from a bootable rescue environment, which can recover a machine that no longer boots, but it needs bootable media and separate image storage.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.
restic
A single-executable backup program that makes encrypted, deduplicated snapshots and can send them almost anywhere.
BorgBackup
A deduplicating archiver for Linux, macOS and BSD that makes daily backups cost almost nothing beyond the day’s changes.
Kopia
An encrypted snapshot backup tool with both a command line and a proper desktop app, pointed at whatever storage you choose.
Déjà Dup
GNOME's backup app: pick folders and a destination, and it handles encryption, scheduling and versions for you.
Pika Backup
A GNOME front end for BorgBackup: plug in a USB drive, pick folders, and it handles the rest.
SystemRescue
A bootable Linux toolkit for repairing a broken machine: partitioning, filesystem repair, data recovery and network tools on one USB stick.
