"Clean up versions" fails with "Some versions could not be deleted from this location:"
ATI 2020, latest home version. Been running incremental dailies on monthly fulls. Each full backup is around 2.7TB. Destination drive is now full, so daily backup started failing. Clicked on "clean up redundant backup versions" and left the default backups (all "Older" ones) checked. After clicking Delete and okaying the warning, it works for 10 seconds, the status bar moves a bit, and then fails with the unhelpful message, "Some versions could not be deleted from this location:" Nothing has been deleted at all, as is visible in Explorer. Trying again and checking any one of the older backup produces the same error and no deletion. Booted clean, scanned drive for errors, etc.
Hello and thanks for replying. There is only one backup task: daily incremental and monthly full. There were four tibx files, the last one truncated due to the space issue I assume. The drive is 10TB. It's creating tibx files, one new one every month. Yes, I tried deleting every possible option inside the "clean up" menu, from individual incremental updates to the monthly full versions. All produced the same failure and message.
All behavior was as expected until the drive became full and I followed the prompts to clean up older backup files. (I didn't set automatic deletion when I created the backup task because I wasn't sure how big the files would be on average.)
I was in the middle of trying manual deletion in Explorer and restarting the backup task, so I couldn't take screenshots. That was three days ago, and I've since started from scratch with automated deletion after two chains. Hoping that works.
Saludos, Mig
With ATI 2020 disk and partition backups you can only cleanup (remove old versions) using ATI itself. Using Explorer does not update the index and the backup task becomes corrupted. So, do not manually delete *.tibx files; it is still possible to delete *.tib files using Explorer but you need to exercise extreme caution when doings so.
You strategy of creating a new backup task is the way to go.
Ian
M Green wrote:There were four tibx files, the last one truncated due to the space issue I assume.
If that "truncated" file is 12KB long then it is not truncated due to any space limitations. It's a file of metadata that ATI leaves when the first backup file is cleaned up. That first file, whether in its original large form or in the 12KB form contains data describing the backup to ATI. Don't delete it. (Well, don't delete any of the files, but in particular, don't delete the metadata file.)
Same issue for me this morning, except I had successfully "cleaned up" once before. Now, second time it is required (backup drive full again) it didn't work. Like OP, I had been trying to see how big the backups are over time before settling into a routine for deletions/clean-ups, etc...
Thanks to using ReadLogFileNewGen.exe (MVP Log Viewer 2.10), I noticed TI_console log said:
"Cleanup wizard. Remove slices for task 'D5915B3E-26FA-495E-AE84-2DCC3CA9D224' failed with error:Error 0x40004: The disk is full."
It's too full to cleanup!
I moved other non-Acronis files off the drive and it cleaned up successfully. Apparently during the cleanup process it still needs to write to probably the small 12kb tibx.
Edit: I just noticed the Activity tab for the job said "The cleanup failed. There is not enough space on the destination drive to perform a backup. Try cleaning up Show details." This might also have led me to my solution. The message is incorrect, though, in that it says "to perform a backup." It should say "to perform a cleanup."
Hello Everyone,
we've reported the issue to the RnD (the internal ID for reference TI-184449 Cleanup of previous version chain fails when there are 0 bytes of free space left on External USB drive)
I too am having this same problem. This makes the 2020 product almost unusable. You say you cannot use Explorer to delete files, but then ATI cannot delete the files. All backups are stopped until this problem is fixed.
When is it going to be fixed???
Thanks,
Rick
Ekaterina wrote:Hello Everyone,
we've reported the issue to the RnD (the internal ID for reference TI-184449 Cleanup of previous version chain fails when there are 0 bytes of free space left on External USB drive)
I'm experiencing the same issue. I've attempted to "Try cleaning up redundant backup versions" to no avail and receive: "Some versions could not be deleted". The drive according to Explorer is still full with 2.3 MB free and now when attempting to clean up versions again in ATI and replicate the issue, the version that was previously selected to delete, is not presented/listed as an option (does not appear as a version to clean up) although it still appears in Explorer. The only version presented to delete is the most recent.
What is the recommended workaround until it can be formally addressed in ATI 2020?
This is just a guess on my part but you might try emptying the Recycle Bin folder on the drive that reports full if such a folder exists on that drive.
When I go to "clean up versions" I see only recent versions. I have other versions that are several months old. I know I should not delete them manually. I have cleanup set to store no more than one recent version. So how do I delete these old versions??? Should I switch to "delete versions chains older than ..."???
Didn't have this issue with older versions of ATI.
VERY FRUSTRATING!!!
Terry, the Clean up versions tool will only show the files belonging to the task where it has been selected from, not files from any other task.
Do your older files belong to another task shown in the ATI GUI, if so, launch the clean up tool from the drop-down menu for that task.
If the older files are not associated with any task shown in the GUI, then you can delete them manually without any issues other than needing to temporarily turn of Acronis Active Protection while doing the delete.
Thanks for the prompt response. I get it except how do I "temporarily turn off Acronis Active Protection"?
I see it within ATI. I'll try it. Thanks.
I'm having the same problem. I had been doing cleanups all year. Suddenly now, for the first time, it gives me this same error. I have not altered the backup task at all. It will not let me "cleanup" any of the backups. And it wont run the backup because there is not enough space. What's next?
Well, I figured it out. It's definitely a bug. I also know why I never saw the problem before. Apparently 2 MB of remaining free disk space is not enough space for the program to initiate it's cleanup operation. So instead of freeing up space to do it, it just fails. So, I had to go manually delete some "other" files large enough to free up enough space for Acronis to... um free up space? Do you see the irony here? The last incremental must have used up just the right amount of remaining space to leave the disk with nothing.
I dont know how much space it needs, but I know it's somewhere between 2 MB and 1 GB. Feel free to send tips to my venmo account. :-)
Michael, welcome to these public User Forums.
Please submit Feedback direct to Acronis about the 'Clean up versions' tool failing without giving any obvious indication that there is simply too little free space for it to work with!
Thanks for sharing your findings with the other users here!
Very interesting topic. Thanks for the help.
Updating to ATI 2021 appears to have resolved this issue. I was able to cleanup versions and perform a backup.
Tom, some good news ... but (unfortunately) a lot of unresolved issues with 2021.
Ian
Has this been addressed? Seems like a huge issue.
Bob, I have not seen any other reports of this issue over recent months since the last updates for this topic. The core issue here was simply too little free space available on the backup drive toi allow the clean up versions tool to work correctly, so an easy fix for users to check and resolve otherwise.
All,
I too have been having this problem, however I performed a fix/bandaid.
I discovered It's ideal to have at least 256MB of free space in order for the tool to run. I also after removing 256MB from my backup drive found I had to restart the ATI in order to get it to see the removal successfully as well as empty my recycle bin on Windows. I had chosen to do incremental sand with this comes a "FileHistory" folder. I was able to cut items out of here and paste them to my desktop temporarily to cleanup enough space to run the tool. Once my tool was able to run and cleanup the old version of images, I moved the data back to the "FileHistory" folder.
If you do not have a "FileHistory" folder that you can do this with, then do this.
1. Right click your task bar, go to "Task Manager"
2. Click on Services tab
3. Resort by Description
4. Right click every Acronis service and choose "STOP"
5. Now you should be able to manually delete one of the TIB/tibx files from your external drive.
6. Empty Recycling bin, if need be
6. Either now choose start on each service or reboot your computer
Disk cleanup tool in ATYI may not let you remove all previous versions at once, so start with a couple of the older ones and work your way up.
I think the developer should write protect a 256MB bit chunk in order to prevent this from happening in the future to users.
Hello,
I realize this is an older thread, but it's the top search result on the forum.
I'm a new TI 2021 user and the product happily filled up my external drive until there was 2MB left then stopped doing backups because of no space. Tried the clean up option through the program and it would flash an error then do nothing. Not helpful.
Downloaded the MVP log analyser and found that this bug STILL exists.
18/12/2020 10:02:19:350 AM -08:00 14648 E00000000: Cleanup wizard. Remove slices for task 'BAB00ACF-DAF1-4494-9B84-AAC58D0A71E7' failed with error:Error 0x40004: The disk is full.
18/12/2020 10:02:19:545 AM -08:00 21092 E00000000: Cleanup operation error: Error 0x40004: The disk is full.
18/12/2020 10:02:19:545 AM -08:00 21092 E00000000: Cleanup finished with errors for backup 'ROCKET42'(BAB00ACF-DAF1-4494-9B84-AAC58D0A71E7). Error: Error 0x40004: The disk is full.
All the articles say don't delete a tibx file through IE or you could break the chain. Drive is full with 7 tibx files and nothing else (none of the files mentioned in earlier post) so there is no way to make space.
Seems like a HUGE issue to still be affecting users almost a year after being reported, and in an updated version no less.
Chat with support wasn't very helpful as they repeatedly told me that clean up required free space on the drive to run.
Will deleting one of the tibx files render the rest of them useless for restores?
Thanks
Shawn
Deleting any of the *.tibx will damage the backup. No recovery possible.
The only solution, which probably is not available to most users, is to mover the backup (from within ATI) to a larger drive, do the cleanup then move it back.
I have this issue too.
This thread seems to indicate that updating to 2021 will fix the issue but I'm wondering if there will be an update to the 2020 version. Guess I'll try manually deleting some data off the drive, freeing up space so that I can delete some data off the drive.
Thank you!
John, the issue here with the Clean up versions tool is caused by too little free space on the backup storage drive and is still present in the latest build version of ATI 2021 as far as I understand.
The Clean up versions tool looks to need around 250MB of free space in order to operate correctly!
Steve Smith wrote:John, the issue here with the Clean up versions tool is caused by too little free space on the backup storage drive and is still present in the latest build version of ATI 2021 as far as I understand.
The Clean up versions tool looks to need around 250MB of free space in order to operate correctly!
Thank you Steve.
I moved some files off the back up drive and tried again.
14 versions were successfully deleted, 2.1 TB was freed up.
I was surprised by how long it took to delete the backups. Why does it take so long?
Also, will the 2020 version get an update to save some scratch space to allow the backup deletions when the drive fills?
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
John, there are not likely to be any updates to ATI 2020 as this went out of support back in September (30 days after the public release of ATI 2021)! Any fix is likely to be included in a new update for ATI 2021 unless it takes the developers so long that it pushes back to the next new version next year!!! Unfortunately most focus at Acronis looks to be on pushing users into their Cyber Protection features with ATI 2021 rather than fixing the core features for Backup etc.
Please submit Feedback directly to Acronis using the tool in the GUI and let them know how you feel about these bugs in established code! One of their developers could fix this in a matter of minutes if they wanted to do so, even if the fix was to pop-up a message telling the users that there is insufficient free space to allow the tool to work!
In the interim, you could always use the Notification option for your backup tasks to stop new backups being stored if there is going to be less than 1GB of free space on the destination drive. See the top of the Notifications page of task Options.
John Talstad wrote:I have this issue too.
This thread seems to indicate that updating to 2021 will fix the issue but I'm wondering if there will be an update to the 2020 version. Guess I'll try manually deleting some data off the drive, freeing up space so that I can delete some data off the drive.
Thank you!
Hi John,
sorry to know you've encountered this issue! According to my colleagues from the RnD, in the current implementation nothing could be removed from an archive if there's no disk space left, because deletion requires archive to be updated with new metainfo. We've discussed the possibility of alerting a user when backup destination is running low on disk space and maybe stop backup a little bit earlier before running out of space.
Ekaterina wrote:John Talstad wrote:I have this issue too.
This thread seems to indicate that updating to 2021 will fix the issue but I'm wondering if there will be an update to the 2020 version. Guess I'll try manually deleting some data off the drive, freeing up space so that I can delete some data off the drive.
Thank you!
Hi John,
sorry to know you've encountered this issue! According to my colleagues from the RnD, in the current implementation nothing could be removed from an archive if there's no disk space left, because deletion requires archive to be updated with new metainfo. We've discussed the possibility of alerting a user when backup destination is running low on disk space and maybe stop backup a little bit earlier before running out of space.
Ekaterina,
I too am experiencing this issue and it is frustrating to say the least. I have already had to downgrade from 2021 to 2020 due to the major issues that i experienced with 2021. Today I went to clean old versions up quickly between meetings and ended up fiddling with it for over 30 minutes trying to figure out what was wrong.
My recommendations:
- Stop backups earlier to give adequate space for Acronis to delete the old versions. You could also have Acronis place a dummy file in the backup folder that gets deleted and recreated when the delete old versions tool is run.
- Update the error message to be more meaningful
I really wish Acronis would get back to the basics and focus on the fundamentals of being a great backup program without all of the unneeded fancy features. If I cant backup my nodes then it doesnt matter if I have backup antivirus running. I truly want you (Acronis) to succeed but have been terribly disheartened with all of the issues I have experienced with your program.
My solution to this error was as follows...
Manually delete the last backup (version 7 if you have ATI configured to backup daily) of the version train you are trying to get ATI to delete. Do this via Windows Explorer.
Empty the Windows recycle bin
Re-run 'Clean-up versions...' from within the ATI interface
After taking the above steps, ATI successfully removed the remaining 6 versions of the backup 'chain' removing them from both Windows Explorer and the ATI interface.
I continue to have the same problem that is the subject of the 32 posts in this thread that have been posted since the first one was posted on 1-25-20, which is approximately 20 months ago. It began for me approximately one month ago after Acronis True Image 2020 specified that "There is not enough space on the destination drive to perform a backup. Try cleaning up [highlighted to provide a link to its clean up tool] redundant backup versions. Check for solution [also highlighted to provide a link to a purported solution]."
Hitting "clean up" to use its clean up tool led to an opportunity to delete older backup versions. However, when that tool was used, it specified that "Some versions could not be deleted from this location" and none of the older versions I had attempted to delete by checking the box next to them were deleted. The same ones stayed right where they were before I hit "Delete". Thereafter the identical message quoted above would appear every time I used that clean up tool as directed and then attempted to perform a backup. In summary, to perform a backup I apparently have continued to need more space, but the method to be used to obtain that space by deleting older versions simply does not work.
Hitting "solution" only led to an ad to "Buy" either an "Advance" or a "Premium" subscription for Acronis True Image 2021 that respectively cost $89.99 and $124.99 for just one computer. Significantly nothing appeared after hitting "solution" that indicated what that solution might be or even whether buying one of those subscriptions was in fact some kind of a solution to the problem described by the above quoted message. Thus that "Check for solution" appeared at best to be the equivalent of ransomware. Because the method specified to obtain more space so a back up could be performed did not work, a backup could be performed if and only if money was paid without any indication, let alone some kind of a guarantee, that it was a "solution'" that would solve the problem described the same message that offered that monetary solution.
Indeed it appears from the posts in this thread that it is not a "solution". Moreover, if indeed buying a subscription for Acronis True Image 2021 was in fact the "solution" or at least a "solution", then it would been identified as such somewhere in that ad, in the website of Acronis, or in the posts in this thread of Ekaternia, the Forum Moderator, Steve Smith, a Legend, IanL-S and Patrick O'Keefe, Forum Stars, and Enchantech, a Forum Hero. One post, the 8-22-20 post of Tim Hagen, a Beginner, did state that "Updating to ATI 2021 appears to have resolved this issue. I was able to cleanup versions and perform a backup." However, no one else agreed with that post, including in the 14 posts that were submitted after 8-22-2020.
Instead the consensus appears to be that one could pay a fee for Acronis True Image 2020, but it will not perform any back up because there is not enough space and more space cannot be obtained by using its clean up tool to delete older versions because enough space does exist for the clean up to delete any older versions. What a Catch 22!
Is there any known and authoritative fix for this problem. Does any reason exist to believe that buying a subscription for Acronis True Image 2021 will in fact fix this problem? If it is the solution, why has it not been disclosed.
Wayne, welcome to these public User Forums.
If the Clean up versions tool is failing due to lack of free space on the backup storage drive then the only solution is to free up some space, which has to be done via Explorer.
Typically freeing around 250MB of space on the drive will solve the issue. If this can be achieved by moving some data to another drive temporarily, then this will avoid issues with deleting Acronis backup files manually, as the moved files can be put back later.
Buying an upgrade to ATI or a subscription etc is not a solution to this issue at this time! There has been no mention of the Clean up tool program being updated to handle this lack of free space in any recent new builds for ATI 2021 and no new builds for earlier versions of ATI that include this tool.
Note: Acronis Active Protection needs to be turned off temporarily in order to move or delete backup files.
If there is nothing you can delete from the drive (because it all important), my solution has been to copy the entire backup chain to another drive (in my case a 4TB USB drive). I would recommend against using the Acronis Move function as it changes the date stamp on the files - the process seems to be one of copying then deleting. I first remove the backup task from ATI, then copy the files with my preferred file manager (TerraCopy), once it is finished, I add the backup task into ATI and once this is done, I then do the cleanup. (I then manually run backup - not sure if this is needed.) I then remove the task once again, and compare the files in the original location to those in the new location; I then do a Synchronisation using Directory Opus. This will delete *.tibx files that have been delete by the cleanup process, and update the most recent *.tibx file.
It is rather messy but it works - my NAS only had 4 x 4TB drives and it is repeatedly running out of space.
Ian
I thank both Steve Smith and IanL-S for their most recent posts. They are the most authoritative and definitive posts in this thread. However, they require me to ask some further questions.
1. How risky is it for a novice like myself to attempt to use either solution?
For example, I would have to first research what "Explorer' is, then research how to use Explorer to move 250MB of some kind of data to another drive temporarily, and thereafter research how the "moved files can be put back later" before I could even start to use Steve's solution. I similarly would have to research what is too "important" to remove from a drive before I could even start to use Ian's solution.
Aren't both solutions too "messy" and risky for a novice like myself to use especially if I will still continue to run out space even if I am successful in using one of those solutions?
2. Is buying an Acronis True Image 2021 subscription more than a temporary solution?
Before I read both posts, I bought and downloaded Acronis True Image 2021. It did not allow me to complete a back up at first. However, its clean up tool did allow me to delete one of the older versions that I could not delete with the clean up tool in Acronis True Image 202O. (All of the same older versions were still listed.) That apparently created enough space, and after that I was able to complete a back up.
I have not yet done anything to schedule future back ups. When it will run out of space and its clean up tool will no longer delete older versions is currently unknown. I believe that my Acronis True Image 202O did complete back ups for more than a year without any problem.
However, if nothing pertinent was changed in Acronis True Image 2021, then it seems likely that the reason that explains why I could use its clean up tool to delete an older version and then complete a back up will remain unknown, and a reason to believe that the problem has been permanently eliminated by buying an Acronis True Image 2021 subscription apparently does not exist.
Perhaps such reasons could be ascertained by learning (a) what caused my problem with Acronis True Image 2020 to arise when it did, (b) why it did not arise relatively soon after it had completed its first backups, and (c) why everyone who used Acronis True Image 2020 did not sooner or later have that same problem and cause a well publicized outrage to linger and to be found by using Google.
I find it superbly disappointing that such a fundamental issue still has not been resolved. Why does the tool fill disk to the brim if it needs space to operate after that? The issue has been reported for at least 18 months and still no fix.
Overall the disk space handling seems to be one of the weak points of this tool. There is no way to get it to automatically remove old snapshots when disk becomes full and then this.
Since I bought and installed Acronis True Image 2021, my problem appears to have been fixed. For how long I cannot tell. The person Acronis provided to help set it up stated it would fix the problem despite what has been stated in this thread. Hard to tell who will prove to be the most accurate.
It was very hard to find to find useful information about this problem. That is unexplainable.
I agree with previous posters --- supremely disappointing to come here seeking a solution only to find out it has been ongoing for almost 2 years with no fix??
I'm using ATI 2021 and have been unable to perform a backup for the last month (!!). I've been able to successfully clean up old files before, but this is a manual task. Now the cleanup fails and there is an error message flashed to the screen so quickly I can't read it.
I'm not technical enough to follow solutions discussed here. How can I fix this apart from reformatting my backup drive, which is a 2 TB USB drive? I hate to delete all of that because my laptop just updated to Windows 11, and I would hope I don't have to take the blind leap of deleting all of my previous backups.
John, if you budget will run to it, the quick solution is to buy a new USB HDD. This will allow you to keep the old backups. Not satisfactory that users are forced to go to such extremes.
Then reconfigure the existing backup task so that they are no longer scheduled. Attach the new USB HDD, make sure it has a different drive letter assigned to avoid potential confusion. Next recreate the new backup tasks that will backup to the new USB HDD. Include cleanup rules that minimize the possibility of this happening again.
Ian
Just check on Amazon (USA) and they have 5TB Seagate and WD USB drives for prices starting at about US$120. Smaller drives are (of course) cheaper.
Discovered the same problem. I am using an external hard drive. I went to "Backups" -> Down Arrow -> Delete Back-up Drive Completely. Following that, I just added the same (now empty) drive as the back-up drive again and performed a back-up. It seems to have worked, but this may be too simple a solution or others would have mentioned it!
Is there a problem still with un-copied metadata?
Joel, welcome to these public User Forums.
If you have deleted your backup task using the Delete option and elected to delete everything associated with that task, i.e. task configuration and files created, then the metadata is also deleted.
After the deletion and re-backing up, I ran the "Validate" and it said everything was OK. Is that useful at all?
If not, how do I just "start over" after having wiped the drive of prior Acronis back-up files, as if I was starting with a new drive? Is that possible?
Thanks!
Joel, if validation found no issues, then your backup task should be good to continue. The alternative if starting over is simply to create a new backup task using a unique task name, i.e. one that has never been used previously on this PC.
wayne rudell wrote:Since I bought and installed Acronis True Image 2021, my problem appears to have been fixed. For how long I cannot tell. The person Acronis provided to help set it up stated it would fix the problem despite what has been stated in this thread. Hard to tell who will prove to be the most accurate.
It was very hard to find to find useful information about this problem. That is unexplainable.
I am using ATI2021 and this problem is not resolved. It filled up my backup drive and fails when I try to delete the last or any back up in the chain from within ATI. This is a very serious bug that has not been addressed by Acronis and is quite disappointing, negating the software as a reliable solution to system backups.
Sir Robin wrote:Same issue for me this morning, except I had successfully "cleaned up" once before. Now, second time it is required (backup drive full again) it didn't work. Like OP, I had been trying to see how big the backups are over time before settling into a routine for deletions/clean-ups, etc...
Thanks to using ReadLogFileNewGen.exe (MVP Log Viewer 2.10), I noticed TI_console log said:
"Cleanup wizard. Remove slices for task 'D5915B3E-26FA-495E-AE84-2DCC3CA9D224' failed with error:Error 0x40004: The disk is full."
It's too full to cleanup!
I moved other non-Acronis files off the drive and it cleaned up successfully. Apparently during the cleanup process it still needs to write to probably the small 12kb tibx.
Edit: I just noticed the Activity tab for the job said "The cleanup failed. There is not enough space on the destination drive to perform a backup. Try cleaning up Show details." This might also have led me to my solution. The message is incorrect, though, in that it says "to perform a backup." It should say "to perform a cleanup."
Not only has Acronis not fixed this bug, it has not even changed the error message! Clearly no effort or caring from Acronis. Shame!
This issue persists. How can I cleanup that last backup that filled my backup disk to overflow and now won't let Acronis clean it up? ATI2021 full 5 TB external usb drive. The drive only has Acronis backups, not other files so no files extraneous files to delete to free up space. This renders backups and ATI useless. Anybody have a real solution other then find another backup software?
CalRog, sorry but just telling us that your backup drive is full is not sufficient information to help you here!
There is a known issue with the Acronis 'Clean up versions' tool whereby it cannot work if there is no free space on the drive where it needs to operate. If you can move any files to give around 200 - 500 MB of free space, then the tool can work, which would then allow the moved files to be moved back again.
In terms of automatic cleanup, then that is another area where these problems can arise because of how it is implemented to never delete any older files before creating a successful new full backup first. This means that setting the correct cleanup values is very important.
Michael Teplinsky wrote:Well, I figured it out. It's definitely a bug. I also know why I never saw the problem before. Apparently 2 MB of remaining free disk space is not enough space for the program to initiate it's cleanup operation. So instead of freeing up space to do it, it just fails. So, I had to go manually delete some "other" files large enough to free up enough space for Acronis to... um free up space? Do you see the irony here? The last incremental must have used up just the right amount of remaining space to leave the disk with nothing.
I dont know how much space it needs, but I know it's somewhere between 2 MB and 1 GB. Feel free to send tips to my venmo account. :-)
Thank you. I was having the same problem.
I also have been fighting this for a long time.
I have discovered the problem is with active protection for us.
Open up acronics true image 2020
open active protection tab on the left ... turn off active protection
then clean up the older versions.
Note: In my case if you turn it back on it will not automatically remove older versions.
Dear Carole Bealer,
Thank you for sharing your experience!