Sign out of Windows and back in. This is almost always the answer.

The installer creates a LeoCore Operators local group and adds you to it, but Windows records group membership in your logon token when you sign in and never refreshes it. Your current session simply cannot see the new group yet. Rebooting works too; locking and unlocking does not.

If you want it working this second, right-click the console and choose Run as administrator. From version 4.4.1 the message tells you which of these applies rather than guessing.

The installer is not code-signed yet, so Windows cannot show a publisher name. It is a real limitation and we are not going to pretend otherwise — a code-signing certificate is on the list.

Verify what you downloaded instead: every release publishes a SHA-256 on the changelog, and each download has a .sha256 file beside it. Run Get-FileHash .\LeoCoreBackup-…-setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256 and compare. That is a stronger check than a publisher name, because it verifies the actual bytes.

On SmartScreen, choose More info → Run anyway.

No. The installer and the portable ZIP bundle the .NET 8 runtime, which matters on a locked-down database host where you would rather not add anything.

The compact ZIP is the exception — it is 17 MB instead of 78 MB because it expects the .NET 8 Desktop Runtime to already be present. Use it for scripted deployment where you control the base image.

No, on Server and Datacenter. Backups run in the LeoCoreAgent Windows service, which starts with the machine and runs whether anyone is signed in or not. The console is only a window onto it; closing it stops nothing.

LeoCore notices the missed slot when the service next starts and catches up, rather than silently skipping to the following day. You can see exactly which runs are planned in the schedule dialog before you save it.

Microsoft SQL Server (2012 and later, every edition including Express), Azure SQL, Amazon RDS, MySQL and MariaDB, PostgreSQL, and Firebird 2.5, 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0.

All of them are included in every paid edition. There is no per-engine surcharge.

Windows 10 version 1607 or later, Windows 11, and Windows Server 2012 R2 through 2025 — including Server Core, which has no desktop at all. On Server Core, install the service alone and manage it from a console on another machine.

64-bit only. Windows Server 2012 R2 is supported by the .NET 8 runtime only under Extended Security Updates.

Not today. LeoCore backs up databases through each engine's own backup mechanism, which is what makes the results consistent and restorable. Copying a live database file is not the same thing and generally produces an image that will not restore.

If file backup matters to you, tell us — it is on the list and demand decides the order.

Because a Firebird server genuinely cannot tell you what databases exist. A Firebird database is a file, and the server only knows about one once something connects to it. Every other engine can be asked; Firebird cannot.

So you add each one by path (C:\Data\ACME.FDB) or by an alias from databases.conf. On the server itself there is a file picker.

No locking. Each engine's own online backup is used, so the database stays fully available for reads and writes throughout.

There is disk and CPU cost, which is why backups are usually scheduled off-peak. The compression profile (Fast / Balanced / Max) is the main lever if CPU is tight.

Yes, by default — AES-256 (WinZip AE-2, so 7-Zip can also open them). Encryption happens on your machine before anything is uploaded, so the destination only ever holds ciphertext.

Export the archive password and store it somewhere else. Encrypted archives cannot be restored without it, and if the only copy lives on the machine you are backing up, one fire costs you both.

If the machine is still running and you have lost the sheet, leocore-rescue password prints it. It works only on the machine that made the backups — the password is protected with the Windows DPAPI machine key and salted with the computer's name, which is exactly what makes a stolen copy of the configuration useless anywhere else. The other edge of that is real: nobody, including us, can recover it from any other computer.

They keep working, and we have gone further than saying so.

Every archive is a standard Zip64 file with AES-256 encryption, holding the dump exactly as your database engine produced it — a .bak, a .sql, a .dump, a .fbk. 7-Zip opens one on any machine, and the engine's own tools restore what is inside. There is no proprietary format to be stranded by.

What normally dies with the server is not the data but the knowledge: which archive, in what order, with which password. So every backup writes a recovery kit beside your archives — a self-contained page naming each database, the files in its chain, the order they go back in, the SHA-256 of each, and the restore commands for that engine. And LeoCore Rescue is one free executable that opens them with no install, no service and no .NET runtime. You can have LeoCore put a copy of it in your own storage, so the whole recovery needs no internet and nothing from us. Get Rescue →

Restore is also never gated by a licence — in every edition, for any archive, for ever.

Yes, with Datacenter, and without anything hosted. Each machine writes a small status document beside its archives — run outcomes, exposure, measured recovery time, next scheduled run, drill coverage. A Datacenter console pointed at the same storage reads them all and shows the estate under The estate in the sidebar.

Every edition publishes its status, not just Datacenter. That is deliberate: one Datacenter licence anywhere on that storage shows you the whole estate immediately, including the machines running Solo and Server. You do not have to upgrade eleven servers to find out whether the twelfth was worth it.

There is no service to enrol with, no account and no agent reporting anywhere: it reads files your own machines wrote to storage you already own, which is why it works over a plain file share for a shop with no cloud at all. The documents contain no credentials, no data and no log text, and no database names unless you switch them on.

It needs storage LeoCore can list — a local folder, a network share, FTP, S3 or compatible, or Azure Blob. The personal cloud drives cannot be enumerated, and the console says so by name rather than showing you an empty estate.

No. Backups go straight from your machine to the destinations you configure. We operate no storage and never see a byte of your data.

Two things do reach us, both optional and neither containing database content: the update check (which sends nothing identifying — no licence key, no machine id) and run-report emails, if you use our relay rather than your own SMTP server.

In an encrypted store under %ProgramData%\LeoCore, protected with the Windows DPAPI machine key. They are never written to the configuration database in plain text and never sent anywhere.

From version 4.4.3 every password field in the console has a reveal toggle, so you can confirm what you typed before saving it.

It can, if you set it up for that. Turn on immutability on a destination that supports it — S3 Object Lock or Azure immutable blobs. An immutable copy cannot be deleted or altered before its retention expires, including by someone holding your own credentials.

Without that, a backup is only as safe as the credentials that can reach it. A local folder on the same machine offers no protection at all.

No. Nothing listens on the network. The console talks to the service over a named pipe restricted to the LeoCore Operators group. Outbound HTTPS on 443 is all that is needed, and only for the destinations you choose.

Write to admin@seksolution.com from the address you paid with and we will send it the same day. Check spam first — it arrives from seksolution.com.

The post-checkout page also shows your key: confirm the billing email you used and it is revealed there.

One machine running the backup service. Neither paid edition limits how many databases you back up on that machine — a licence is per server, not per database. Datacenter licences come in 1, 3, 10 and site-wide sizes; the site licence covers up to 25 machines in one organisation.

The databases you back up to — destinations — are not seats. Neither is a machine you only restore onto.

Activate it on the new machine. If every seat is already in use, ask us to release the old one and we will clear it immediately — no charge, no argument. Replacing hardware is normal.

Keep the purchase email: the key is what proves the licence is yours.

Yes. The console shows a request code; paste it into the offline activation page from any machine that is online, then paste the response back. The resulting token is verified on the server with a public key compiled into the application, so the machine never needs to reach us again.

Your backups keep running and your archives stay restorable. Nothing is held hostage.

What lapses is entitlement to new versions. A perpetual licence keeps working on the version it covers, indefinitely.

Yes — the Solo edition, which is what you get before entering a key. One database, one destination, no time limit and no card required. The same download becomes the paid edition when you enter a licence.

Turn on restore drills. On a schedule you choose, LeoCore restores the newest backup into a scratch database, runs a validation query, records the result and throws the scratch copy away.

This is the single most valuable feature in the product and it is off by default, because it needs somewhere to restore to. A backup nobody has ever restored is a hypothesis.

Yes, where the engine and your schedule support it. With transaction-log backups running, Point-in-time recovery lets you pick any instant the chain covers. LeoCore works out which full, differential and log backups to replay — and warns you before you start if a link is missing.

No. Rules are applied to whole restorable chains, not to individual files. A differential is useless without its full and a log chain is useless with a gap, so a rule that would strand a backup keeps the parent instead.

From 4.4.2, Settings → Updates → Check for updates now downloads and installs the new version for you. Windows asks for approval when the installer starts. Your jobs, schedules, credentials and history are never touched — they live in %ProgramData%\LeoCore, separate from the program files an update replaces.

Every download is rejected unless its SHA-256 matches the signed release description, and a failed update rolls back rather than leaving a half-replaced install.

Click the run in Recent runs to see its full log — each step is recorded with the actual error from the engine, not a generic message. Log files are in %ProgramData%\LeoCore\Logs.

If the message is not clear enough to act on, send it to support@seksolution.com. An unclear error is a bug in our reporting and we would like to fix it.

Yes. Settings → Email takes SMTP details, and your server then replaces our relay entirely for every job — you also choose the From address. Turn it off and reports go back through our hosted relay, which needs no configuration and no port 25 on a database host.

Souq E Kamil Trading and Solutions WLL, a registered company in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Payments are processed by Paddle as merchant of record, which is why your statement shows PADDLE.NET* SOUQEKAMIL and why VAT is handled correctly for your country.

Yes — 14 days, no questions. Write to admin@seksolution.com. Full terms are on the refunds page.

Yes, and without a card. The free Solo edition is the same download and has no time limit — one database and one destination. It is enough to prove the product does what you need on your own data before any money changes hands.

Yes, for site licences and multi-seat orders. Write to admin@seksolution.com with your company details and we will invoice you and issue the licence on payment.

Email support at support@seksolution.com, answered within one business day, included with every paid licence and with the free edition. There is no separate support contract to buy.