Endless "Checking Credentials" message after editing backup
Using ATI Home 2011, I click on Operations/Edit Backup settings for a listed backup job. I save the backup settings (whether or not I have made any changes). I then get a repeated message "checking credentials" and the only way to stop it is to delete ATIH in the task manager.
I already had to change the registry key to allow blank passwords, so backups at least work. But now I have this aggravating problem and I can't find any reference to it in the Knowledge Base or in the forums. I upgraded to 2011 about 35 days ago, but forgot that there was only a 30 day window for free tech support and wasn't able to try to sort it out until now.
Thank you.
David
I had the same problem. After updating to the latest build, the issue is resolved. However...... after making changes to an existing backup scheme and clicking "Save", the pop-up window "Checking credentials" appears for a VERY LONG time (probably about 2 minutes) until it finally disappears. I imagine most people will not want to wait that long and will cancel the job (and post an issue on this site). For what it's worth, I am running a 64 bit high performing machine with a lot of memory... so this issue is not hardware related.
Hope this helps.....
I am having the same problem. Checked build level is 6597.
Same problem... version 6597 Checking credentials pops up and closes many times before it finally stops. If it is doing something useful a more meaningful list box would be better. Now I think the program is in an endless loop!
Same issue with me but I have noticed that with each additional incremental backup the "Checking credentials" pops up more times.
Hello all,
Thank you very much for your messages.
We have not been able to reproduce this issue in our Testing lab, however, it is possible this problem has to do with the Acronis scheduler service which is responsible for backup tasks.
Please refer to this KB article and download build 461 for Acronis True Image Home 2011, this is a scheduler update. Please reboot your machine after installing it and kindly let me know if the issue re-occurs.
If you need additional help, please let me know.
Thank you.
I have performed the task requested but the message "checking credentials" still appears multiple times ... I counted 19 appearances of the same message caused by simply changing the email address used to send reports to in the scheduler. I have attached a screen shot of the message. I captured a system report but at 41 MB it exceeds the upload limit for attachments.
Perhaps the system is actually doing something useful but a scrolling log window saying what is going on would be helpful instead of the repetitive "checking credentials" that looks more like a program in a loop.
It could be just a matter of gui design which has been a major issue with this release. In the end the "checking credentials" loop stops and the update seems to work.
It's been going for about 5 minutes now... I hope it stops, the constant popping up is really annoying.
Edit: I'll post what version I'm using - when / if - it finishes, off to lunch for now hope it's done on the other side. To Acronis, if you cant reproduce this error, how about you get one of your developers to remote assist a users machine? I suggest you invest in a single licence of teamviewer.com, then you'll be able to remote assist with stupid issues such as this one.
Edit 2: Well it does stop eventually... running 6957
I have just updated from TIH 2010 to 2011 version 6597, and I have the same problem. Trying to edit or update backup task settings causes "Endless 'Checking Credentials'" popups as described above. Well, not "endless", it did finally stop. My image backup is a string of 57 incrementals, and it seems to take about two minutes to "Check Credentials" on each one, all told, 1 hr 50 minutes to complete.
Since there hasn't been a solution or workaround posted here, I am going to submit a support ticket. To answer some questions asked (as well as unasked) upstream:
- Running Windows 7 Pro, 3GB RAM, 4.2 WEI
- Backup location is an external USB hard drive
- build 461 of the scheduler was installed but did not fix or change the behavior
Greg,
I have seen the same behavior when there was a leftover task for a backup on a network share.
Download SchedMgr, zap all your tasks.
Check in the c:\programdata\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts that each script corresponds to a backup task you are tracking in the UI. To do this, right click on the script file, choose edit and read the xml to find the task name. Delete any orphan script file.
Launch Acronis and reschedule your task.
> I have seen the same behavior when there was a leftover task for a backup on a network share.
Shouldn't be an issue here since I don't back up to a net share. But I'll go thru the scripts, & reschedule the tasks, thanks for the clue.
In my case, it happened after I validated a backup created by another computer. I don't know if there is a link.
I downloaded schedmgr and did a "task zap" according to this page - http://kb.acronis.com/content/1859
I removed all scripts from c:\programdata\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts except my backup task.
Opened the GUI and rescheduled the task.
Then tried to edit the backup task - problem still occurs.
And I notice that a new "Backup Validation" script is created in c:\programdata\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts. But my external drive is showing no activity, so I don't think anything's actually being "validated."
Yes, the Backup validation script is created if you have scheduled a regular validation. It is scheduled by itself in Backup Options / Advanced / Validation. No issue there.
Are you including in your backup files that are on a share on another computer?
If not, there is still a chance there is a problem with your current script or backup chain.
What you could try now is the following:
- Copy (not move) all your backup files into another directory for safekeeping using Windows Explorer.
- Delete (not remove) your backup from the ATI interface (operations / delete backup)
- Create a test task (for example backup a small partition or a few files). Run the task, see it the problem remains. That will determine whether there is a problem with the installation.
- If the problem is gone, create a new task and start a new backup chain.
- If it remains, the only option I can think of is to uninstall using the cleanup utility (see stickies) and reinstall, do a test backup, etc.
NOTE: you mention you have a chain of 53 incrementals. This is too risky. If any of the 53 increments goes bad for any reason, all your backup is compromised. Try a scheme that creates a new full backup more often and decrease the number of incrementals between fulls as much as you feel comfortable based on your backup speed, backup storage requirements and how often the data change. Make sure you validate your backups regularly, from time to times from your recovery CD.
> Backup validation script is created if you have scheduled a regular validation.
But I have not done that, not intentionally, anyway. And the "regular validation" setting in the backup task is disabled.
> Are you including in your backup files that are on a share on another computer?
No. Just local partitions C: and D:.
I did this:
- Renamed "My Backups" on the external drive to "temp" and set the "hidden" attribute on the directory
- Uninstalled ATI 2011
- Ran the cleanup utility
- Reinstalled ATI 2011 and the scheduler 461 update
- Created a new file backup (about 5G)
- Edited the backup settings:
The "Checking Credentials" popup appeared for about 10 seconds.
- Exited the TIH GUI
- Removed the hidden attribute from "temp"
- Started TIH and browsed for the system backup (now in "temp")
- Recreated backup task settings (no problems there)
- Attempted to edit backup task settings and "endless Checking Credentials" occurs when "save" is clicked.
So, no joy. Based on comments above (and the fact that "Checking Credentials" popped up even for a brand-new task), I don't have much confidence that starting a new backup chain will get rid of the problem long term, and I don't really have the storage available to do that anyway.
I suppose I can always delete the task script XML file from c:\programdata\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts and recreate the backup task if I can't wait the 2hrs for the "save" to finish. Or revert to ATI 2010. Since I've pretty much shot the entire weekend messing with this, any further experiments will have to wait for a while.
Thanks to all for the suggestions.
Greg,
If I read your process correctly, you did not delete the backup. So there might have been some information about the backup that remained. Also, you recreated the backup from the Tib file, which has "reimported" everything back up.
In my case, the pop up disappeared when I deleted the scripts in the c:\programdata\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts folder (which is part of what the "delete" backup does). That took care of the problem on my computer.
Later I zapped the tasks in the schedule manager using schedmgr, because for some reason the faulty script reappeared.
Now everything is copacetic :-)
As long as you keep your backup, you can experiment with cleaning out the scripts, zapping the tasks (see schedmgr) and see if that helps.
> If I read your process correctly, you did not delete the backup.
Correct. It's almost 400GB and there was nowhere else to copy it to (not to mention it would have taken hours). So I did my best to "hide" it from ATI by setting the "hidden" file attribute on the parent folder. That seemed to be effective.
> So there might have been some information about the backup that remained.
Doubtful. I uninstalled TIH 2011 and for good measure, ran the cleanup utility. Afterwards, I found no trace of anything Acronis in the registry or application data areas on the disk. Then I reinstalled TIH 2011 and it didn't find the old TIB files (though it did find a few VM VHD's I had around).
> Also, you recreated the backup from the Tib file, which has "reimported" everything back up.
Yep. If there's something about the backup set (which was mostly created with ATI 2010) that's causing indigestion, the solution would have to be to start a new backup set. For a variety of reasons I'm very reluctant to do that, despite the good point you made regarding the fragility of a long incremental string a few posts back, mostly because I wouldn't have enough space to preserve more than a few weeks of backups. The current backup set goes back 8 months. Another solution of course is a bigger backup disk.
> As long as you keep your backup, you can experiment with cleaning out the scripts, zapping the tasks (see schedmgr) and see if that helps.
Tried that; didn't help.
Same thing happening here using version 6597. Endless "checking credentials" message. Sysinternals' Process Monitor shows ATIH reading extensively from the files to be backed-up and then even more extensively from all .tib files of my incremental backups. This happens every time I change any settings in the backup options. I already zapped all scheduled backups with SchedMgr and deleted all orphan scripts in c:\programdata\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts. This is very annoying.
Honestly. I can't believe how buggy this software is. This thing is just the latest in a series of weird buggy behaviours. Acronis, you should freeze all software development and just focus on getting your numerous bugs fixed. Come on!
Gustavo,
You are right. I have been reinstalling Acronis, I zapped my tasks several times, and then suddenly, upon editing the backup setup, I have the "checking credentials" for a backup that is on a local disk.
Since I avoid editing my backup settings as much as I can, I cannot reproduce the issue all the time. I have the impression that it doesn't happen if you unfold your network in the destination choice before closing your backup windows with a save. Not quite sure about this.
I am having exactly the same issues with 2011 and windows 7. I have read all the posts and just wonder whether my best solution would be to uninstall the software and re-load it?
Linda
As part of my troubleshooting (see my posts above) I had reinstalled the SW but that didn't help. Also I have since updated to the latest build 6696 but that didn't help either. I currently have a support ticket open and if they ever fix or resolve this, I will leave a note here.
I think I will uninstall 2011 and go back to 2010 (where I didn't seem to have a problem) otherwise I will have to find alternative back up software.
Let's hope they get this fixed quickly.
Linda,
My experience is the following: I avoid the "checking credentials" if I click on the destination (as if I wanted to change the destination folder), choose browse (that will open a new window) and unfold the network browser in the left panel. Then I cancel my way out of this.
Linda,
My experience is the following: I avoid the "checking credentials" if I click on the destination (as if I wanted to change the destination folder), choose browse (that will open a new window) and unfold the network browser in the left panel. Then I cancel my way out of this.
Linda,
My experience is the following: I avoid the "checking credentials" if I click on the destination (as if I wanted to change the destination folder), choose browse (that will open a new window) and unfold the network browser in the left panel. Then I cancel my way out of this.
Pat L,
That worked for me! I'll forward that to the support tech handling my ticket.
I have to ask, though - how the HECK did you discover that workaround??
I wonder if some particular network configuration is causing this problem. For what it's worth, I have three directories published as network shares. There are usually no other PCs on my network, so I have no other shares mounted. Typically, the only active network devices besides my PC are my router and a TiVo.
Having looked at my PC's (all five of them) again this morning I realised that the problem only happens on the Windows 7 machines and not on XP. If I delete all schedules on the windows 7 and create new ones it seems to work okay. I won't know for sure until everything runs overnight but fingers crossed.
Thanks for all the posts :O)
Linda
Linda,
It is likely the problem will reappear if the network map changes (computers and/or shares, and/or devices come on line and go away).
I think the problem is related only to Windows 7, and possibly the x64 version, and lies in Acronis's handling of drive credentials.
For those with the problem, if you click to More Features - File Backup - and navigate through to where you store your backups you will see a pale note immediately above the .tib file listing saying specify credentials for this location. Clicking the note you have the opportunity to enter your credentials to connect to the destination after which Acronis tests the credentials. Unfortunately they never test correctly and you can get no further.
So the guess is that for some reason Acronis gets itself into a position with Windows 7 where it does not accept already established credentials and then tries to compare self generated garbage with the genuine credentials and of course fails. In this way it can never connect with the destination although it doggedly tries to.
It does eventually connect. If you have one or two backups it will check credentials a few times and stop. I use daily backups and whenever I make a change it takes hours for the credentials to finally stop but they do stop eventually.
I have exactly the same issue. A seemingly endless loop of Checking Credentials. It occurs after making any change to the Backup Options (I was trying to change the cleanup options). I've noticed that it does eventually stop after maybe 20 'cycles'. It is possible to stop the program by clicking the Close Window button on the Home window. If you get the timing right (in the moment the box disappears before re-appearing) this works and the changes made are preserved. If you cancel from Task Manager the changes are lost.
I have the Home 2011 Version, Update 1, Build 6696 - the Version Checker tells me I have the latest version installed. I have Windows 7 32 bit. I only do a local backup, although my PC is on a home network. Why don't I just use the Windows 7 Backup? A question I'm starting to ask myself.
From reading this trail, Acronis seem to be in denial on this issue and personally my patience and product loyalty is fading fast.
Clive, you can avoid this flashing by doing this:
- option A: when you open the backup settings window (operations > edit backup settings), unfold the network in the left navigation panel, before saving
OR
- option B: when you modify the destination of the backup, unfold the network in the left navigation panel, before saving
This somehow refreshes the network locations for ATI and avoids the flashing of credentials.
Upgraded to Acronis True Image 2011 over the weekend and I'm running into the same issue on my Windows 7 SP1 x64 systerm. As I'm in the free support window I've opened a ticket and referenced this forum thread as backing documentation.
Hello all,
Thank you for your patience and I apologize for the inconvenience.
We were able to reproduce this issue in our Testing lab and I will keep you posted about it.
Please let me know if you have additional questions.
Thank you.
Same issue here. Look forward to a solution.
Any word yet on when a solution will be available?
I just downloaded the latest TIH 2011 version and hit the same problem.
Hello all,
Thank you for your patience and your feedback.
According to our Development team this issue will be resolved in Update 2.
I have no information when we are going to release it but you can always subscribe to our newsletter.
Please let me know if you need additional help.
Thank you.
Well, if this was fixed in TIH 2011, it's regressed in 2012.
I just upgraded to 2012 (build 6154), and this problem appears.
I get the endless "Checking Credentials" after editing the backup options.
Is there a fix?
Thank you.
It's happening to me, too. Just upgraded to TIH 2012 yesterday, and I can't get past the "Checking Credentials" notice!
Waiting in line for a fix, too.
@oksofar, Steven Denenberg,
I take it this is occuring on tasks that have been brought across from a previous version. Does it occur if you make a new task?
Do you login to your Windows desktop or have Windows setup to auto login?
How many Acronis users are there on your systems? It could be that somehow the upgrade has caused another Acronis User to be installed and the task is expecting to find the old one with the old credential information.
It would also be worth checking Windows Credential manager, delete the entries, and re-enter the credentials in the task.
It appears this feature has been carried over to 2013 also. Whenever I edit a setting, the 'checking credentials' spinner runs forever (almost). It took about 15 minutes to go away. This is on a clean install on 2013 on Windows 8 Pro.
Ron,
Have you tried deleting your credentials in Windows Credential Manager, and possibly remaking your tasks?
Using ATI Home 2011, I click on Operations/Edit Backup settings for a listed backup job. I save the backup settings (whether or not I have made any changes). I then get a repeated message "checking credentials" and the only way to stop it is to delete ATIH in the task manager.
I already had to change the registry key to allow blank passwords, so backups at least work. But now I have this aggravating problem and I can't find any reference to it in the Knowledge Base or in the forums. I upgraded to 2011 about 35 days ago, but forgot that there was only a 30 day window for free tech support and wasn't able to try to sort it out until now.
Thank you.
David
This issue came up originally way back in Dec 2010 with ATIH 2011 - now it is February 2013. I have exactly the same issue with ATIH 2013 under W7 pro. In 2011 I believe, an ATI Rep (Anton) came up with the statement that they have reproduced the issue and that a solution is available. Obviously, this is a misleading statement, as the issue is still remaining and HAS NOT BEEN RESOLVED. I have been a user of every release of ATI and I feel it is time to move on. I have the latest version and when I edit, I get the Credentials problem. My question is - if the issue had been resolved, why has it been carried over from ATI 2011 to 2012 and 2013?
I agree. I upgraded to ATIH 2013 when I installed a brand new Windows 8 Pro system and continue to have the same issue....