# Rclone remote as a \*source\* for backup? **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [December 1, 2023, 12:30am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/rclone-remote-as-a-source-for-backup/2471 "2023-12-01T00:30:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jwink3101](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b38774/32.png) [@Jwink3101](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/Jwink3101)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2023, 12:30am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/rclone-remote-as-a-source-for-backup/2471/1 "2023-12-01T00:30:44Z")
I searched and only found articles about backing up _to_ rclone, but can Kopia be used to backup an rclone remote? Presumably it would have to be done with an rclone mount but I can also imagine metadata can be messed up with that approach? Could it even be done with remotes that do not report reliable ModTimes? Any other tips in this regard? (If context helps, I like to back up my OneDrive and DropBox to B2 nightly using a VPS. I actually wrote my own backup tool, [dated file backup [dfb]](https://github.com/Jwink3101/dfb), which works well but is way less efficient). Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![machisuji](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/machisuji/32/847_2.png) [@machisuji](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/machisuji)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 9:49am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/rclone-remote-as-a-source-for-backup/2471/2 "2023-12-06T09:49:33Z")
I’ve been using kopia + rclone to backup an S3 bucket into another S3 bucket and it seems to work quite well. Have restored backups from this successfully too. I mount the source S3 bucket via rclone and then kopia snapshot that mounted folder. Tried this with with bucket sizes as little as 30gb and as much as 2TB and it seems to be working fine. But then S3 does report reliable mod times. Not sure how it is with onedrive or dropbox. ---
**Author:** ![J4im3x0](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/j4im3x0/32/928_2.png) [@J4im3x0](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/J4im3x0)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 6:15pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/rclone-remote-as-a-source-for-backup/2471/3 "2024-01-31T18:15:52Z")
And what about restoring times? I mean, uploading backups it´s quite fast, but when I try to restore one of them it´s a lot of time. ---
**Author:** ![kapitainsky](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/kapitainsky/32/535_2.png) [@kapitainsky](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/kapitainsky)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 6:46pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/rclone-remote-as-a-source-for-backup/2471/4 "2024-01-31T18:46:26Z")
rclone is experimental in kopia and from my experience is not really reliable and fast. Maybe one day kopia authors reach to rclone devs and create bespoken solution like restic does. Until then I would not recommend using it. ---
**Author:** ![Jwink3101](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b38774/32.png) [@Jwink3101](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/Jwink3101)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 7:06pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/rclone-remote-as-a-source-for-backup/2471/5 "2024-01-31T19:06:59Z")
My question was actually the other way around. Say I wanted to back up WebDAV or OneDrive remote to a local Kopia repository. Could I do that? ---
**Author:** ![kapitainsky](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/kapitainsky/32/535_2.png) [@kapitainsky](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/kapitainsky)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 7:09pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/rclone-remote-as-a-source-for-backup/2471/6 "2024-01-31T19:09:02Z")
my bad - to quick reply. mount is only solution I am aware of (rclone or whatever) ---
**Author:** ![Jwink3101](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b38774/32.png) [@Jwink3101](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/Jwink3101)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 7:42pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/rclone-remote-as-a-source-for-backup/2471/7 "2024-01-31T19:42:56Z")
Right. My question is how much should I expect that to work? What if I mount with S3, WebDAV, etc. but don’t want to use ModTime (with rclone and S3, I could use server-side ModTime but I mean more in general). If Kopia is tracking inodes, that would _really_ be a problem too ---
**Author:** ![kapitainsky](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/kapitainsky/32/535_2.png) [@kapitainsky](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/kapitainsky)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 7:57pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/rclone-remote-as-a-source-for-backup/2471/8 "2024-01-31T19:57:28Z")
I think the only way is to try:) or dive into source code