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How to customize email notifications

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Dec 23, 2019


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Backup4all Professional edition has the email notification feature, which allows you to send emails after each action (backup/test/cleanup) executed on a backup job.
The email can be sent no matter the action results or selectively, when the performed action finishes with success, warnings or errors.
You can also select a custom email template for each action type and status. A text file example template for each action type can be found in the Backup4all installation folder: SuccessFullMail.txt, WarningFullMail.txt etc.
Since version 5 of Backup4all you can also send HTML notification emails. Those can be also customized using the variables bellow and also using different tags and css classes.
If you want to create a customized email to be sent (on success/warning/error), the email template will have to include special tags that Backup4all will recognize and replace according to the description (note that the format of the tag must be <#tag_name>):
  • <#BACKUP_NAME> - will insert the name of the executed backup job
  • <#GROUP_NAME> - will insert the name of the backup tag
  • <#SOURCES> - will insert the sources of the executed backup
  • <#DEST_DRIVE> - will insert the destination drive letter
  • <#DEST_DRIVE_TYPE> - will insert the destination drive type
  • <#DEST_FOLDER> - will insert the name of the destination folder
  • <#DEST_CATALOG_FILE> - will insert the name of the catalog file created
  • <#BACKUP_TYPE> - will insert the backup type that was performed
  • <#SCHED_NEXT_EXECUTION> - will insert the next scheduled execution
  • <#SCHED_NEXT_TAG_EXECUTION> - will insert the next scheduled tag execution
  • <#BACKUP_START_TIME> - will insert the start time of the backup executed
  • <#BACKUP_END_TIME> - will insert the end time of the backup executed
  • <#TEST_START_TIME> - will insert the start time of test
  • <#TEST_END_TIME> - will insert end time of test
  • <#LAST_BACKUP_SIZE_COMPR> - will insert the resulted size of the last backup
  • <#TOTAL_BACKUP_SIZE> - will insert the total backup size
  • <#REMAINING_DISC_SPACE> - will insert the remaining space on the destination drive
  • <#NBR_FILES_ADDED> - will insert the number of files added to the backup
  • <#SIZE_FILE_ADDED> - will insert the size of the added files
  • <#NBR_FILE_WARNINGS> - will insert the number of warnings
  • <#NBR_ERRORS> - will insert the number of errors
  • <#LAST_LOG_NAME> - will insert the name of the last log file
  • <#EXCLUDED_SOURCES> - will insert the list of sources excluded
  • <#TESTED_VERSIONS> - will insert the list of tested backup numbers
  • <#TEST_SUMMARY> - will insert the detailed list of test backup numbers
  • <#REMOVED_VERSIONS> - will insert the list of backups removed after cleanup
  • <#CLEANUP_SUMMARY> - will insert the detailed list of backup numbers removed
  • <#CLEANUP_START_TIME> - will insert the start time of cleanup
  • <#CLEANUP_END_TIME> - will insert the end time of cleanup
  • <#PROCESSED_SIZE> - will insert the total size of the files removed
In the custom email you can use the Backup4all specific variables and the Windows environmental variables. Here is a list of the environment variables:
Variable Windows Vista/Windows 7/8/8.1/10
%ALLUSERSPROFILE% and %PROGRAMDATA% C:\ProgramData
%APPDATA% C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming
%COMPUTERNAME% {computername}
%COMMONPROGRAMFILES% C:\Program Files\Common Files
%COMMONPROGRAMFILES(x86)% C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
%COMSPEC% C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
%HOMEDRIVE% C:
%HOMEPATH% \Users\{username}
%LOCALAPPDATA% C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local
%LOGONSERVER% \\{domainlogonserver}
%PATH% C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;{plus program paths}
%PATHEXT% .com;.exe;.bat;.cmd;.vbs;.vbe;.js;.jse;.wsf;.wsh;.msc
%PROGRAMDATA% %SystemDrive%\ProgramData
%PROGRAMFILES% %SystemDrive%\Program Files
%PROGRAMFILES(X86)% %SystemDrive%\Program Files (x86) (only in 64-bit version)
%PROMPT% Code for current command prompt format. Code is usually $P$G
%PSModulePath% %SystemRoot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\
%PUBLIC% %SystemDrive%\Users\Public
{Drive}:\$Recycle.Bin C:\$Recycle.Bin
%SystemDrive% C:
%SystemRoot% %SystemDrive%\Windows
%TEMP% and %TMP% %SystemDrive%\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Temp
%USERDOMAIN% {userdomain}
%USERNAME% {username}
%USERPROFILE% %SystemDrive%\Users\{username}
%WINDIR% %SystemDrive%\Windows
Variable Windows Vista/Windows XP
%ALLUSERSPROFILE% and %PROGRAMDATA% C:\Documents and Settings\All Users
%APPDATA% C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data
%COMPUTERNAME% {computername}
%COMMONPROGRAMFILES% C:\Program Files\Common Files
%COMMONPROGRAMFILES(x86)% C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
%COMSPEC% C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
%HOMEDRIVE% C:
%HOMEPATH% \Documents and Settings\{username}
%LOGONSERVER% \\{domainlogonserver}
%PATH% C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;{plus program paths}
%PATHEXT% .COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.WSF;.WSH
%PROGRAMFILES% %SystemDrive%\Program Files
%PROGRAMFILES(X86)% %SystemDrive%\Program Files (x86) (only in 64-bit version)
%PROMPT% Code for current command prompt format. Code is usually $P$G
{Drive}:\$Recycle.Bin C:\Recycle.Bin
%SystemDrive% C:
%SystemRoot% The Windows directory, usually C:\Windows, formerly C:\WINNT
%TEMP% and %TMP% %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\{username}\Local Settings\Temp
%USERDOMAIN% {userdomain}
%USERNAME% {username}
%USERPROFILE% %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\{username}
%WINDIR% %SystemDrive%\Windows
If no email template is selected, the default one is used.

Backup4all 4.x - 8.x