Timeshift restore left home-directory changes in place after a system snapshot rollback
0 reputation · 16 Nov 2021, 23:25 UTC
On Linux Mint (Timeshift, RSYNC mode), I need to decide how to configure snapshots so that a rollback after a failed update behaves predictably for both system files and personal data.
By default, Timeshift snapshots target the system and exclude users' home directories. That means a restore reverts system state but leaves newer files in /home untouched. Enabling home inclusion protects user data, but a rollback would then silently revert personal files to the snapshot point, which is easy to miss and hard to undo.
There is also a storage constraint: RSYNC snapshots need a Linux-formatted partition with enough free space, and snapshots stored on the same drive do not survive disk failure.
Given these trade-offs:
- Is excluding home directories the intended default precisely so rollbacks never destroy newer personal files?
- If home inclusion is enabled, is there any documented way to restore only the system portion without reverting
/home? - Does the answer differ between RSYNC and BTRFS modes on current Linux Mint releases?
