OctoPrint Backup rendered octopi unbootable

I wanted to create a backup of my OctoPrint configuration. Unfortunately, I forgot to uncheck the option to exclude all my uploaded files. Therefore, the system must have run out of disk space, and backup failed with input/output error. Subsequently, I was unable to ssh into the system: error kex_exchange_identification: read: Connection reset. I am guessing because the system is out of free space. Then I tried to reboot using the UI. This did not work, no response from pressing the reboot button. Then I tried to reboot by power cycling, but my octopi is now refusing to boot up, probably because it is out of disk space.

I do not have a Linux system to mount the SD card to try to delete the failed backup.

What did you already try to solve it?

See above

Have you tried running in safe mode?

Unable to boot octopi

Did running in safe mode solve the problem?

see above

Systeminfo Bundle

You can download this in OctoPrint's System Information dialog ... no bundle, no support!)

Unable to boot - can't check

Additional information about your setup

OctoPrint version, OctoPi version, printer, firmware, browser, operating system, ... as much data as possible

unable to boot - can't find this information

Conclusion: wanted to backup my system configuration, so I could upgrade OctoPrint / octopi with a new image and a Python version that's not end-of-life. OctoPrint's backup feature ended up filling all available free space, rendering octopi unbootable.

Advice? I had really hoped I could backup my system before an upgrade so I would not have to restore all plugins and configuration from scratch.

It appears the (micro)SD card went bad as well. The Raspberry Imager refuses to write a new image to the card ("error writing to storage card"). However, the imager writes with no errors to a different 32GB SD card.

Advice:

  1. never run Backup and include all uploaded files unless you know for sure there is room. A completely full octopi might lose the ability to be connected to via SSH, and might become unbootable.
  2. run backups before your SD card goes bad.
  3. use high quality SD cards.

I have the printer up and running again, now without the Python end-of-life warning.

Case closed.