laurent22/joplin · error · Error

Error! Destination already exists

Error message

Error! Destination already exists

What it means

Thrown by `tarCreate` when the destination tar file (resolved from `options.cwd` + `options.file`) already exists, before packing begins. This prevents silently overwriting a previous backup. It is a pure precondition check on the resolved output path.

Source

Thrown at packages/app-mobile/utils/fs-driver/tarCreate.ts:26

const logger = Logger.create('fs-driver-rn');

export interface TarCreateOptions {
	cwd: string;
	file: string;
}

// TODO: Support glob patterns, which are currently supported by the
//       node fsDriver.

const tarCreate = async (options: TarCreateOptions, filePaths: string[]) => {
	// Choose a default cwd if not given
	const cwd = options.cwd ?? shim.fsDriver().getAppDirectoryPath();
	const file = resolve(cwd, options.file);

	const fsDriver = shim.fsDriver();
	if (await fsDriver.exists(file)) {
		throw new Error('Error! Destination already exists');
	}

	const pack = tarStreamPack();

	const errors: Error[] = [];
	pack.addListener('error', error => {
		logger.error(`Tar error: ${error}`);
		errors.push(error);
	});

	for (const path of filePaths) {
		const absPath = resolve(cwd, path);
		const stat = await fsDriver.stat(absPath);
		const sizeBytes: number = stat.size;

		const entry = pack.entry({ name: path, size: sizeBytes }, (error) => {
			if (error) {
				logger.error(`Tar error: ${error}`);

View on GitHub (pinned to 2654b33620)

Solutions

1. Delete or rename the existing destination before calling `tarCreate`.
2. Use a timestamped filename so each run produces a unique archive.
3. Pre-check: `if (await fsDriver.exists(file)) await fsDriver.remove(file);`.

Example fix

// before
await tarCreate({ cwd, file: 'backup.tar' }, filePaths);

// after
const file = resolve(cwd, 'backup.tar');
if (await shim.fsDriver().exists(file)) {
  await shim.fsDriver().remove(file);
}
await tarCreate({ cwd, file: 'backup.tar' }, filePaths);

const dest = resolve(options.cwd ?? shim.fsDriver().getAppDirectoryPath(), options.file);
if (await shim.fsDriver().exists(dest)) {
  await shim.fsDriver().remove(dest);
}
await tarCreate(options, filePaths);

null

try {
  await tarCreate(options, filePaths);
} catch (error) {
  if (/Destination already exists/i.test(error.message)) {
    await shim.fsDriver().remove(resolve(options.cwd ?? shim.fsDriver().getAppDirectoryPath(), options.file));
    return tarCreate(options, filePaths);
  }
  throw error;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `tarCreate(options, filePaths)` where `resolve(cwd, options.file)` resolves to an existing file. Typically when creating a backup with a fixed filename that already exists from a prior run.

Common situations: Repeated backup runs that reuse the same filename; manual copies left in the output directory; a previous run succeeded and the caller forgot to delete the old archive.

Related errors

• tarExtract: Source file does not exist
• Extracting ${outPath} would overwrite
• Unsupported file system entity type: ${header.type}
• No model found at path: ${JSON.stringify(modelFolderPath)}
• Model not found at path ${modelPath}

AI-assisted analysis of laurent22/joplin@2654b33620 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/dee094c458e7e897. Report an issue: GitHub.