How can I see what files are being backed up?

Curlietop, what type of backup is involved here?  Some screen shots of your settings for the backup task can help, plus information on how your backup files are named?

Download the MVP Log Viewer tool (from the Community Tools link in my signature) and use this to check the logs for your recent backup tasks to check that there are no errors being reported.

I find myself resorting to a forum for advice I should not need, for the first time in my life.  In short Acronis 2016 is the most user unfriendly software I have ever met with. I bought a  license for three computers in 2016.

For various reasons I have only just installed Acronis 2016 on my Win7 machine. Installed and running without any problems. I quickly set it to work backing up my C drive only. Other software synchronises and backs up my big D drive (all my precious images) to three independent hard drives superbly. Been using that for months without any problems.

Set up two schedules using Acronis to back up the C drive on two separate hard drives as a test. The relatively small C drive saves fast. Seems ideal.

BUT nowhere can I see a list of my scheduled backups, to view or perhaps edit. This seems really weird to me. I can see the backups on the hard drives and remember what I have scheduled so I can check later to see if both schedules are delivering.

As it stands, unless Acronis can point to an obvious link or option I have missed to enable me to view and if needed amend my schedules, the software is useless to me. I will be asking for a refund and license cancellation.

Goucho, welcome to these User Forums.

Just to get something out of the way immediately:  You wrote: "I bought a  license for three computers in 2016."  and " have only just installed Acronis 2016 on my Win7 machine." then "I will be asking for a refund and license cancellation."

Good luck with asking for a refund for a product bought in 2016 - Acronis have a 30-day refund policy where this can happen with no questions asked, but beyond that, you need to show a very real reason why they should do this for you.

Depending on how you have configured your backup tasks, then you can see the Schedule information in one of two ways:

At the top of the main panel shown above it shows Last backup and Next backup information for a scheduled task.

To see the details of what you have scheduled, click on the Options button then look at the Schedule page information.

Thank you for taking the trouble to respond. My reference to a refund should not be taken literally. The money involved is neither here nor there to me. Time is the issue.

As a test I scheduled two backups for this evening (so I mistakenly believed). Each doing the same job of backing up the C drive on different external hard drives, scheduled one hour apart. Checking my drives confirmed that the incremental backup had taken place on the second scheduled backup but not the first. Ergo, you can only schedule one back up; news to me.

I am already aware of the backup-reserve-copy option and will enable that on the morrow when I make a decision on the way forward. Fortunately, the backups I am restricting Acronis to will not be resource-hungry (C drive only) so I can live with the limitations. The C drive of course more critical although it saves fast as I said.

My D drive is big and that is backed up and files all synchronised simultaneously, as work proceeds on 3 external drives. The contents divided into 14 ‘senior’ folders and each is processed as work is carried out on their contents. The latter an awesome system.

You may delete my account now thank you. To register for the forum I had to use an email address different to my Acronis account email address.

Goucho, you can have multiple different scheduled tasks - the only limitation is that only one scheduled task can run at a time, so if a second scheduled task is started it will be put in a 'queued' status until the currently active task has completed.

Only one of the Forum moderators can delete user accounts - MVP's are users the same as yourself.

The MVP Log Viewer tool can be downloaded from the Community Tools link in my signature in order to review the logs associated with your backup tasks. 

I am not ignoring you. I will explore that further and respond in due course. Busy couple of days.

For now I have implemented a protocol (for want of a better word) that involves the co-operation of my other software referred to which synchronises data backups.

My personal choice is to fully maintain 4 unique backups on independent external devices as well as the D drive foundation copy. I have known perfectly good drives pass away peacefully in the night.

I'll be back thank you.

Acronis’ prime directive is to create viable recovery software for computers (etc) including boot disks. Anyone who has heard of Acronis’ long-standing reputation will not be in any doubt whatsoever it does that job very well. Which is why I bought it.

I scheduled Acronis to back up my 77GB C drive last night, at a time when the PC is invariably idle but on standby for use later. First to hard drive I (24 minutes), including a reserve copy to another hard drive J. Both copies arrived on schedule and in my opinion fast as I have said before. I back-up ran first followed by J (queued for obvious necessary reasons). Both reduced to approximately 30GB. No problems there: I have since selected optimal upload as the PC is otherwise idle during that time. I have also selected automatic validating.

The incremental option chosen with the initial full version repeated after every 6 incremental versions. I have also implemented the old-version clean-up for housekeeping reasons. My schedule chosen is weekly though I have been able to highlight Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the software so I assume incremental back-up will be repeated on those days ? I will watch and see.

NB: I also tried uploading to my router-connected drive but that was too slow. Due to limitations in my set-up rather than Acronis obviously.

No problem so far.

It seems unfortunate to me that I can only select a single reserve copy. I would like Acronis to generate a further 2 copies automatically, within that initial set up.

That said I have since tried the A+ button which seemed to deliver a new option to create a new backup of the C drive elsewhere, perhaps using the default schedule if set or a new schedule. That too may allow a reserve.

One problem certainly seems to be nomenclature and the generally poor choice of language used, perhaps in an effort to keep screen tips short, where they exist. For anyone who has evolved with Acronis over the years that may not be a problem but it is far from user-friendly for new people. Personally I think it is time to go back-to-basics for Acronis. Not on their technology but on presentation.

One screen-tip I clicked suggested hitting the ‘reconfigure’ button which did not actually exist on the page. However I stumbled on that button much later when on another page.

I already have my Acronis boot disk safely stored and will move on to saving a complete system image (clone) before moving on to explore further. I will allow my currently schedule to continue on I and J drives in the interim.

I can set up a schedule using my other software for now to copy those files automatically to other drives after a one hour delay.

I’ll check back again in due course.