Support backup configuration

**Problem**
When working with api, the error messages could be more descriptive.

**Suggestion**
Improve error handling and add detailed error messages.

**Context**
This would help with debugging and maintenance.

No file, test, or entry point is named. Start by locating the API error-handling path and determining which backup-configuration failures need more detail; done means the relevant errors are descriptive and covered by tests.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.