# Backup Issue (GPG Error)

**URL:** <https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/backup-issue-gpg-error/12981>\
**Category:** Help with Setup/Upgrade\
**Created:** [June 23, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/backup-issue-gpg-error/12981 "2025-06-23T16:18:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![arachnotaurus](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/user_avatar/discourse.mailinabox.email/arachnotaurus/32/2828_2.png) [@arachnotaurus](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/arachnotaurus)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/backup-issue-gpg-error/12981/1 "2025-06-23T16:18:37Z")

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Backups on a fresh MIAB install are failing with the following error:

> GPGError: GPG Failed, see log below:  
> ===== Begin GnuPG log =====  
> gpg: Note: ‘–force-mdc’ is not considered an option  
> gpg: Note: ‘–symmetric’ is not considered an option  
> gpg: WARNING: no command supplied. Trying to guess what you mean …  
> usage: gpg [options] [filename]  
> ===== End GnuPG log =====
> 
> Traceback (most recent call last):  
> File “/root/mailinabox/management/backup.py”, line 655, in   
> perform\_backup(full\_backup)  
> File “/root/mailinabox/management/backup.py”, line 322, in perform\_backup  
> shell(‘check\_call’, [  
> File “/root/mailinabox/management/utils.py”, line 127, in shell  
> ret = getattr(subprocess, method)(cmd\_args, \*\*kwargs)  
> File “/usr/lib/python3.10/subprocess.py”, line 369, in check\_call  
> raise CalledProcessError(retcode, cmd)  
> subprocess.CalledProcessError: Command ‘[’/usr/bin/duplicity’, ‘full’, ‘–verbosity’, ‘warning’, ‘–no-print-statistics’, ‘–archive-dir’, ‘/home/user-data/backup/cache’, ‘–exclude’, ‘/home/user-data/backup’, ‘–exclude’, ‘/home/user-data/owncloud-backup’, ‘–volsize’, ‘250’, ‘–gpg-options’, “‘–cipher-algo=AES256’”, ‘–allow-source-mismatch’, ‘/home/user-data’, ‘file:///home/user-data/backup/encrypted’]’ returned non-zero exit status 31.  
> root@box:~# nano mailinabox/management/backup.py

Anyone know how I can resolve this?

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**Author:** ![KiekerJan](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/user_avatar/discourse.mailinabox.email/kiekerjan/32/2339_2.png) [@KiekerJan](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/KiekerJan)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 7:06pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/backup-issue-gpg-error/12981/2 "2025-06-23T19:06:15Z")

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[There are currently issues with duplicity](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/something-is-wrong-with-the-backup/12959/16), the tool that is used to perform the backup. However, it might be something else. What version of Mail-in-a-Box are you running? And what version of duplicity is installed? (`duplicity --version`). Also, are you running on Amd64 or ARM?

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**Author:** ![bobaxx](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/7ab992/32.png) [@bobaxx](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/bobaxx)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 6:10am UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/backup-issue-gpg-error/12981/3 "2025-06-24T06:10:44Z")

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Hi,

same error there, after removed it and then installed snap version of duplicity --cliassic (due to the current issue [Something is wrong with the backup: - #16 by dfowlkes](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/something-is-wrong-with-the-backup/12959/16))

the snap version is 3.0.5.

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**Author:** ![dfowlkes](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e0b2c6/32.png) [@dfowlkes](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/dfowlkes)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 9:11am UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/backup-issue-gpg-error/12981/4 "2025-06-24T09:11:53Z")

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Sorry to hear you are having the same error. I have install the snap version of duplicity --classic on two AWS Ubuntu servers, the duplicity version is also 3.0.5. Both are now doing backups on schedule correctly via rsync to a third remote server.

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**Author:** ![JerryLerman](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/5e9695/32.png) [@JerryLerman](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/JerryLerman)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 1:20pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/backup-issue-gpg-error/12981/5 "2025-06-27T13:20:14Z")

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Me too, I’m having backup issues since the last MIAB upgrade:

Traceback (most recent call last):  
File “/usr/bin/duplicity”, line 5, in   
from duplicity. **main** import dup\_run  
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘duplicity. **main** ’  
Something is wrong with the backup:

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**Author:** ![terrytokyo](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@terrytokyo](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/terrytokyo)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 8:21pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/backup-issue-gpg-error/12981/6 "2025-06-27T20:21:11Z")

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It appears Duplicity 3.0.5.1 is released and it works

do:

sudo apt-mark unhold duplicity  
sudo apt update  
sudo apt upgrade  
sudo apt-mark hold duplicity

results in…  
Get:1 [Index of /duplicity-team/duplicity-release-git/ubuntu](https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/duplicity-team/duplicity-release-git/ubuntu) jammy/main amd64 duplicity amd64 3.0.5.1-ppa202506251611~ubuntu22.04.1 [404 kB]  
Fetched 404 kB in 3s (150 kB/s)  
(Reading database … 145817 files and directories currently installed.)  
Preparing to unpack …/duplicity\_3.0.5.1-ppa202506251611~ubuntu22.04.1\_amd64.deb …  
Unpacking duplicity (3.0.5.1-ppa202506251611~ubuntu22.04.1) over (3.0.4-ppa202502081832~ubuntu22.04.1) …  
Setting up duplicity (3.0.5.1-ppa202506251611~ubuntu22.04.1) …

I have run backups and they work fine now, however I will be putting a hold on future updates however as this is second time in 1 year backups have broken

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**Author:** ![system](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/uploads/default/original/2X/4/4d0933d13c456b7e57f296aa6cc344525b6f0c70.png) [@system](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 8:22pm UTC](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/backup-issue-gpg-error/12981/7 "2025-07-04T20:22:08Z")

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