NyxBackup

Troubleshooting

The app says the service is not running

The background service does the actual backups; the app is a front end for it.

  • Windows - the service is Nyx Backup Service (NyxBackupSvc). Reopen the app; if it still cannot connect, restart the service from Services, or reboot.
  • macOS / Linux - the service runs under launchd / systemd and starts at login or boot. Relaunch the app; if it persists, restart the machine.

Test connection fails

  • Double-check the bucket or container name, region or endpoint URL, and the access key and secret. A key scoped to a different bucket will fail here.
  • For SFTP, confirm the host, port, username, and that the private key or password is correct and the remote path exists.
  • Confirm the account has permission to list and write objects, not just read.
  • If it reports the bucket does not exist, let Nyx Backup create it, or create it in your provider’s console and test again.
  • On Backblaze B2, if it says the application key can only reach a different bucket, the key is restricted to one bucket and the set is pointed at another. Either point the set at the bucket the message names, or use a key for the bucket you wanted. A restricted key cannot create buckets, so Nyx Backup does not offer to create one in this case - make it in the B2 console first.

Windows: backups are slow or Defender is busy

Real-time antivirus scanning every file Nyx Backup reads slows backups down. The app can check whether the recommended Windows Defender exclusions are in place - see the status in Settings - and guide you through adding them. This is safe: the exclusion only stops Defender from re-scanning files Nyx Backup is already reading for backup.

Windows: another antivirus is installed (McAfee, Norton, and others)

Nyx Backup can only add exclusions to Windows Defender. Defender is the one with a documented interface for it. Every other product - McAfee, Norton, Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Avast, AVG, ESET, Trend Micro - keeps exclusions inside its own settings, and no outside program is allowed to add them. That is deliberate on their part, and a good thing: silently adding yourself to an antivirus exclusion list is what malware does.

So if you run one of those, add the exclusions yourself, once. Exclude these five programs, in whichever antivirus you use, under whatever it calls “exclusions”, “excluded processes”, or “trusted applications”:

C:\Program Files\Nyx Backup\nyx_bkp_service.exe
C:\Program Files\Nyx Backup\nyx_bkp_gui.exe
C:\Program Files\Nyx Backup\nyx_bkp_cli.exe
C:\Program Files\Nyx Backup\nyx_bkp_tui.exe
C:\Program Files\Nyx Backup\nyx_bkp_toast.exe

This is common on new laptops: many ship with a preinstalled antivirus trial that is still running months later.

To see what is actually active on your machine, run this in PowerShell:

Get-CimInstance -Namespace root/SecurityCenter2 -ClassName AntiVirusProduct |
  Select-Object displayName

A product can be listed here after it has been removed, so check it is really running before blaming it - if it has no running process, it is a leftover registration and not your problem.

Windows: the app takes 10-20 seconds to open

The window itself appears as soon as the app has drawn its first frame, so a long wait with nothing on screen means the delay is before Nyx Backup has started running. The usual causes, in order:

  1. A third-party antivirus scanning the program on every launch - see the section above. This is the most common cause by far.
  2. A signature check that cannot reach the internet. Windows verifies the application’s signature at launch, and on a machine behind a restrictive proxy, or with no connection, that check waits for a timeout before giving up. If other signed applications are also slow to start, this is why.
  3. First launch after starting the computer, when the Microsoft WebView2 runtime the interface uses has to be loaded from disk. If the second launch is quick, this was it and there is nothing to fix.

If instead the window opens promptly but stays empty for several seconds, that is a different thing: the app is waiting for the background service. See “The app says the service is not running” above.

macOS: some files are skipped

macOS protects certain folders behind Full Disk Access. If backups miss files under protected locations, grant Nyx Backup Full Disk Access in System Settings > Privacy and Security. The app shows whether access is granted.

Backups feel too aggressive (or too slow)

At normal priority - the default - a backup already stays out of your way on Windows. Its file-reading and hashing runs below the priority of whatever you are doing, and the service checks every ten seconds how busy the rest of the machine is: while you are working it eases off further, and when you stop it takes the speed back. You should not have to change anything.

If you want it gentler still, background priority stays at the lower setting permanently and also caps how much processor time the backup may use. It is noticeably slower - on a set of many small files it can be several times slower - so reach for it only if a backup is genuinely getting in your way. High priority does the opposite and tells the backup not to yield at all, which suits a machine nobody is sitting at.

Performance tuning (chunk sizes, workers, compression) is automatic by default

  • leave it there unless you have a measured reason to change it.

Where the logs are

If you need to dig in or send details to support, the logs are here:

  • Windows - C:\ProgramData\NyxBackup\logs\
  • macOS - /var/log/nyxbackup/ (service) and ~/Library/Logs/NyxBackup/
  • Linux - /var/log/nyxbackup/ (service) and ~/.local/share/nyxbackup/logs/

Still stuck

Search these docs, ask the in-app assistant, or email support@nyxbackup.com. A clear description of what you did, what you expected, and the exact message you saw gets you the fastest answer.