Scheduler Service Stopped - Acronis True Image 2019
Since updating to TI 2019 this problem keeps cropping up. Following tech support instructions to uninstall and completely remove all vestiges of TI, then re-install from a provided link for the latest version seems to help for about a week, then I have the same problem again: scheduled backups fail to perform because the scheduler seemed to take it upon itself to stop.
1. Acronis Sheduler2 Service is set to Automatic startup in "Services", but now that I have gotten paranoid and check it frequently, I find it stopped.
2. There is no info in the Event Viewer that I can find that tells me why this service keeps stopping.
3. I find no setting in TI where I can get TI to post a message to "Notifications" / "Action Center" pane when the service either fails to start, or is stopped for some reason other than system shutdown / restart. (Wouldn't that at least be nice so I could manually fix the issue BEFORE losing a scheduled update to non-performance.)
4. Acronis seems to think this is a "stupid user" or individual system mis-configuration, but in seeing the number of instances of this issue with past versions of TI, I think there is some basic design flaw that causes this to happen in a limited number of machines with some very specific configurations.
The uninstall / reinstall dance gets old after a while as does frequently (like multiple times a power-on sesssion) to make sure the scheduler service is running. It would be a whole lot nicer if Acronis (apparently unable to determine what specific HW/SW config their software does not tolerate) would at least add a "Scheduler failed to start" or "Scheduler stopped" alert (with perhaps a "restart" option) to the "Notifications" / "Action Center" pane or notification email address.
QUESTIONS:
- Is there any log / setting in TI that I can set or in which I can find info about the stoppage event including what causes it?
- Has anyone found a way to prevent Acronis Scheduler from stopping?
- Does anyone know of a way to cause an alert to appear on the desktop when the Acronis Scheduler either stops, or fails to start at system start-up?
Actually, my issue is slightly different in that my Acronis Sheduler2 Service is also set to Automatic startup in "Services", but is always running - it just isn't working.
Moved to new topic.
Have you both tried setting the scheduler service to automatic, delayed? Something else in your system may be starting up with priority (AV perhaps) and could be requiring a little more time for the other background services which will timeout if not completed quickly enough. Switching to delayed,but automatic might help.
As for the schedule not running, what is the schedule and the backup destination? USB drives can go into power saving mode or your power settings could suspend USB port power based on your windows power settings. As a test, switch to performance power settings and see if it helps if you are backing up to an external USB.
It also never hurts to re-pick the source and destination in the backup script, just in case something changed under the hood, even if it appears to be exactly the same to you in the GUI. Windows creates a disk identifier that is used by Acronis. If the partitions changed (sometimes from major Windows 10 upgrades, adding or removing bitlocker, resizing, etc) the disk will no longer have the same information as when it was originally selected in Acronis and re-pick NG the source and or destination will set it correctly again.
I'd suggest grabbing the MVP log viewer linked below and see if anything else stands out such as an output of a disk not found or something like that.
was wrote:I have exactly the same problem (in W10 64-bit) since upgrading to TI2019. I have tried repairing the app, but no change. Looking at 46205: Acronis Software: Troubleshooting Scheduled Backup Issues, I see that schedules are stored in the registry:
'Service keeps the scheduled tasks in registry and executes them:
- Windows 32 bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Acronis\Scheduler
- Windows 64 bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Acronis\Scheduler'
On my machine, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Acronis\Scheduler' does not exist. Is that correct for 2019? I have used the Acronis Scheduler Manager and my two tasks are listed and will run from the command line. Any ideas?
You could try taskzap to remove them from the database. Then clone the backup tasks in the console, re-pick the source and destination in the new task and kick it off .Then delete the old backup task in the console and see how the new task behaves after that. I'd also name it slightly differently so there is no potential cross reference in the database from the old backup.
https://kb.acronis.com/content/1859
Did everything you suggested and one of them must have worked as scheduling is now back to normal. Many thanks for your help with this.
Glad to hear it WAS. Hopefully one of these will help the OP too.
Today is the day that a backup is scheduled. I just happened to catch, after power-up and logging into the desktop, a 3 sec alert "Acronis Scheduler Service has Stopped". (It was an Acronis alert panel, not a Windows panel, and did not persist in the notifications pane.) I started going through the Acronis logs with the installed MVP Log Viewer v2.10, and it has no events recorded since the last backup a week ago. So even though Acronis put out a short-lived alert about the inactive scheduler, it does NOT record same to an Acronis TI log file. Seems like a major omission.
Also, the scheduler seemed to have been running just fine on days when the backup is not scheduled, so now I am wondering if there is a bug where it only "kills" the scheduler when powering up on the day of the backup.
As for registry keys (I have Windows 10 64-bit since the beginning on this machine - never 32-bit Windows):
Windows 32 bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Acronis\Scheduler - When I try to examine it I get a permissions violation notice and denial of access. So I have no idea what its settings are. Yet I CAN right-click it to get to permissions panes (see below).
Windows 64 bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Acronis\Scheduler - This key does not exist, and this is after following tech support guidance for a complete removal and re-installation of TI 2019.
When I try to examine permissions for the 32-bit key, the Security pane shows absolutely no principals defined for permissions or owner (see attached).
Acronis TI 2019 appears to be a 32-bit program (hence installation into "Program Files (x86)/Acronis") but there appears to be a failure to properly install registry keys in the two places such programs need to install them (listed above and previously in this thread). So now, the question is, do I manually create the 64-bit key, and if so, how to I populate it and set its permissions properly so the scheduler does not keep failing to do its job?
Yes, I'm also getting the "Acronis Scheduler Service has Stopped" alert after start up from time to time. And I echo your comments about the registry entries. I thought I had solved the problem, but if I don't catch and deal with the alert, the scheduled backups fail that day. There is clearly a problem with TI2019.
Using W10 Pro 64-bit
WMC, WAs,
I wouldn't day this is not a clear issue with ATI or Win10, but something occurring on your systems that is causing this behavior to trigger. Many users, like me, are not having this issue or behavior. But since it is happening on at least a handful of systems, finding out what the issue is would be pertinent so that Acronis can try to pinpoint the cause of the behavior in these cases.
Best we can do is try to capture the event or message, generate a system report and submit to Acronis with a technical support case.
I'll check my reg keys for comparison when I'm back at a computer.
That is the problem - capturing the triggering event.
- There is no event listed in any of the Windows Event Viewer logs (Application, Security, System....).
- There is no event listed in any of the MVP Log Viewer logs. In fact, the ONLY thing I see in them are entries related to backups that run, or one that failed because the external drive it was targeting as destination was not powered up, or if I do a manual file recovery.
- The tool mentioned in https://kb.acronis.com/content/1859 does not work. Attempting to run the schedmgr "Set logflags support" command on the day when the sheduler stops leads to a reported RPC error, but the RPC services are running and appear normal. On a day when the Acronis scheduler service does run automatically as set, the command appears to work. But there is no way I am aware of to "reproduce the issue" since what I know now is only that it seems to happen at power-up on the days a backup is scheduled, and I can't run the schedule manager tool before the issue happens (i.e. shortly after log-in).
What I need is a tool that begins monitoring the scheduler from the time it is set to "automatic"-ly start that will capture its exact time of, and reason for, stopping. Schedmgr and logs that MVP Log Viewer generate don't seem to be it.
https://forum.acronis.com/comment/quote/492675Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:
WMC, WAs,
I wouldn't day this is not a clear issue with ATI or Win10, but something occurring on your systems that is causing this behavior to trigger. Many users, like me, are not having this issue or behavior. But since it is happening on at least a handful of systems, finding out what the issue is would be pertinent so that Acronis can try to pinpoint the cause of the behavior in these cases.
Best we can do is try to capture the event or message, generate a system report and submit to Acronis with a technical support case.
I'll check my reg keys for comparison when I'm back at a computer.
wmc, the best way to try to progress this issue is to open a support ticket with Acronis who can then advise on what debug options might be available for tracking the Scheduler Service activities, including start-up etc.
KB 58243: Acronis True Image: Collecting Debug Logs - shows some of the options that are available for other ATI components, but doesn't include the Scheduler service itself.
KB 46205: Acronis Software: Troubleshooting Scheduled Backup Issues - may be of interest and should apply to ATI 2019 even though this is not listed in the 'Applies to:' heading.
Try grabbing sysinternals process monitor too. It has a great logging feature and report for all related services and files. Just can grow very large very fast, but an awesome sleuthing tool.
wmc wrote:Today is the day that a backup is scheduled. I just happened to catch, after power-up and logging into the desktop, a 3 sec alert "Acronis Scheduler Service has Stopped". (It was an Acronis alert panel, not a Windows panel, and did not persist in the notifications pane.) I started going through the Acronis logs with the installed MVP Log Viewer v2.10, and it has no events recorded since the last backup a week ago. So even though Acronis put out a short-lived alert about the inactive scheduler, it does NOT record same to an Acronis TI log file. Seems like a major omission.
Also, the scheduler seemed to have been running just fine on days when the backup is not scheduled, so now I am wondering if there is a bug where it only "kills" the scheduler when powering up on the day of the backup.
As for registry keys (I have Windows 10 64-bit since the beginning on this machine - never 32-bit Windows):
Windows 32 bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Acronis\Scheduler - When I try to examine it I get a permissions violation notice and denial of access. So I have no idea what its settings are. Yet I CAN right-click it to get to permissions panes (see below).
Windows 64 bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Acronis\Scheduler - This key does not exist, and this is after following tech support guidance for a complete removal and re-installation of TI 2019.
When I try to examine permissions for the 32-bit key, the Security pane shows absolutely no principals defined for permissions or owner (see attached).
Acronis TI 2019 appears to be a 32-bit program (hence installation into "Program Files (x86)/Acronis") but there appears to be a failure to properly install registry keys in the two places such programs need to install them (listed above and previously in this thread). So now, the question is, do I manually create the 64-bit key, and if so, how to I populate it and set its permissions properly so the scheduler does not keep failing to do its job?
WMC,
My registry setup is exactly the same as yours.
Windows 32 bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Acronis\Scheduler - When I try to examine it I get a permissions violation notice and denial of access. So I have no idea what its settings are. Yet I CAN right-click it to get to permissions panes (see below).
- Same exactly for me. Ssee my note below about taking ownership of the file if you want to try modifying the access permissions.
Windows 64 bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Acronis\Scheduler - This key does not exist, and this is after following tech support guidance for a complete removal and re-installation of TI 2019.
- Same exactly for me. Doesn't exist on my system either - seems the technician is using an older version or has bad information).
I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but might not hurt either, especially if it's not working correctly anyway, but you could take ownership of the key (give ownership to administrators). Once you've taken ownership you would most likely need to then give "administrators" and "system" full access.
It's not uncommon for services to be "locked down" like this so that malicious software can't just take ownership of a service and elevate them to run arbitrary code as a running service.
