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Failed to back up file or folder 'Documents'. It may be blocked by another application

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Hi all,

 

I have an issue with the "Files and Folders" back-up option in ATI 2021. When I select just the folder "Documents" and try to create a back-up Acronis is doing it perfectly (see just_documents_does_work.jpg). However when I select a subfolder of my "Documents" folder, Acronis suddenly can't perform the backup operation and gives me the "Failed to back up file or folder 'Documents'. It may be blocked by another application" error. (see error_message.jpg)

 

I kind of get the feeling Acronis itself is keeping my "Documents" folder hostage. After selecting 2 out of the 3 folders inside "Documents" (see inside_select_source_menu.jpg), the Acronis GUI part showing the "Source" of my backup tells me my source is "Documents, NameOfSubfolderTwo", instead of "NameOfSubfolderOne, NameOfSubfolderTwo". (see incorrect_source_listing.jpg)

 

Does anyone know how to solve this problem or how to properly troubleshoot this? I don't want to have to back up my entire Documents folder, when it's just 1 subsub folder that I need to back up.

 

Many thanks!!

 

I have had OneDrive for Business installed on my laptop with Files-On-Demand turned on. I read some topics saying OneDrive and Acronis do not work together well, so I removed OneDrive from my laptop. The problem still persists.

 

According to the MVPAssistant the logs say:

28/01/2021 05:51:35:138 pm +01:00 8732 I00000000: -----
28/01/2021 05:51:35:138 pm +01:00 8732 I00000000: ATI Demon started. Version: 25.6.1.35860.
28/01/2021 05:51:35:206 pm +01:00 8732 I00640000: Backup reserve copy attributes: format tib; need_reserve_backup_copy false;
28/01/2021 05:51:35:208 pm +01:00 8732 I00640002: Operation 2_ClientDev started manually.
28/01/2021 05:51:35:226 pm +01:00 8732 I00640000: Backup reserve copy attributes: format tib; need_reserve_backup_copy false;
28/01/2021 05:51:35:227 pm +01:00 8732 I013C0000: Operation: Backup
28/01/2021 05:51:35:227 pm +01:00 8732 I0064000B: Priority changed to Low.
28/01/2021 05:51:42:538 pm +01:00 8732 I000B03F0: Create Backup Archive
From:  C:\Users\myname\Documents\1_Personal\3_Office\

To file:  "3_Office_full_b1_s1_v1.tib"
Compression:  Normal
Exclude:  System files
28/01/2021 05:51:42:550 pm +01:00 8732 E00040019: Failed to back up file or folder 'Documents'. It may be blocked by another application.
Error occurred while backing up. (0x40019)
$module = "ti_demon_vs_35860"
`anonymous-namespace'::BackuperHelper::WriteNodeData:
c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\archive\backuper.cpp(788)
Failed to back up the file (folder). (0x40019)
Path = "\\?\C:\Users\myname\Documents",
Hints = 3),
$module = "ti_demon_vs_35860"
`anonymous-namespace'::EncryptedFileReader::ReadFrom:
c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\core\file\windows\winnt_backup.cpp(619)
Access to the file is denied. (0x40014)
function = "OpenEncryptedFileRawW",
path = "\\?\C:\Users\myname\Documents",
$module = "ti_demon_vs_35860"
`anonymous-namespace'::NTFSEncryptedFile::NTFSEncryptedFile:
c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\core\file\windows\winnt_backup.cpp(243)
The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process (0xFFF0)
code = 80070020),
$module = "ti_demon_vs_35860"
Common::Error::AddWindowsError:
c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\core\common\error.cpp(307): None

0 Users found this helpful

Tim, welcome to these public User Forums.

My first concern when looking at your images is the destination for your backup tasks which is going to the same drive as the source, i.e. to C:\users\....\backup.

I would strongly recommend using at least a different partition or an external USB drive instead to the same partition or drive!  The phrase 'eggs all in one basket' comes to mind with your current destination, as any disk failure would lose both all the source data and your backup files too!

You don't mention what antivirus is being used here but if you are using Windows Defender, then do you also have 'Controlled folder access' enabled, as this also protects these same folders by default.

Hi Steve,

Thank you very much for your response! Regarding the antivirus, I have Norton 360 turned on (both antivirus and firewall). Microsoft Defender Antivirus and Microsoft Firewall are both turned off according to Windows Security -> Virus & threat protection -> Security providers (under Manage providers).

Regarding your comment on my backup destination, you have a sharp eye! Rest assured, I do not intend to save my backup on the same drive, I merely used this folder for demonstration purposes. My actual intent is to leverage OneDrive for Business to store my backups in the cloud. Using Cryptomator I create a virtual drive on which I want to save my backups. This will in turn encrypt them and make the files unreadable even for Microsoft.

In case you were wondering why I am not considering using the Acronis Cloud for this goal, I sometimes work with personal or business confidential files and Microsoft ensures that my data is saved on servers inside the EU. Furthermore it's often easier to explain that I entrust my data to cloud services by Microsoft as it is a name many people trust.

I have not experimented yet with the encrypted backup function for Acronis. That might make the whole Cryptomator step redundant, however I do see the zero-knowledge open-source aspect of Cryptomator as a clear benefit.

Sorry for going off topic by the way, my main issue is still that I can only backup my entire Documents folder and not just select certain folders within

Tim, thanks for the further information.

ATI does not support OneDrive when Files on Demand is used because this uses reparse points as markers for files stored in the cloud.

The first suggestion remains to test your backup to an external backup drive before attempting any other redirection of backup data.  Do you still see the same error when doing this?

If you do see errors, then the logs are the next step for trying to understand what is causing these.

There is a new MVP Assistant log viewer tool that has now been made available by Acronis via the Community Tools page.. 

If you have Disks & Partitions backups created on ATI 2020 or later using .tibx files, then look in the Backup Worker logs.

If you have Files & Folders backups using .tib files (or Disk backup using same) then look in the Demon logs.

Other logs are shown by the MVP Assistant under the 'Active Logs' heading of the Log Viewer page of the Assistant.

The log files should be zipped to preserve their original file names if sharing in the forums and would need to be less than 3MB in size, otherwise you would need to share the zip file via a Cloud share service such as OneDrive, Dropbox etc.

Tim,

I think the issue you have here is that your selected folders for backup are in fact junction points to where the actual (real) data you desire to be backed up is located.  In this case the application will give the error you posted which contains the Error Code (0x40019).  The Documents folder you have selected as Source is not the real location of where the data is located.  Instead, Documents is akin to the old Windows Libraries where shortcuts to data could be created.

To backup folders from Documents or Downloads you need to point Source to C:\Users\username\Documents\Subfolder

Thanks for the additional suggestions,

I have tried both you suggestions, sadly enough the problem still persists. See the images provided in this post. The "D:\" drive is an external USB drive (error_when_saving_to_usb.jpg) and I have specifically set the path you my files in Source to "C:\Users\myname\Documents\Subfolders" (source_is_full_path_to_files.jpg).

The MVP viewer gives the log listed below. Is this the information that you were looking for, Steve?

It would appear some other program is preventing Acronis from accessing the subfolders of my Documents folder. The only program I can think of currently that is accessing that folder is Acronis itself. Could it be that Acronis is preventing itself from making the backup? If it is, then this sounds like a bug worth reporting. If not does anyone have a suggestion on how to figure out which program/application is blocking my Acronis backup?

 

Log file:
---------------------
 

01/02/2021 11:55:31:150 am +01:00 20656 I00000000: -----
01/02/2021 11:55:31:150 am +01:00 20656 I00000000: ATI Demon started. Version: 25.6.1.35860.
01/02/2021 11:55:31:214 am +01:00 20656 I00640000: Backup reserve copy attributes: format tib; need_reserve_backup_copy false;
01/02/2021 11:55:31:215 am +01:00 20656 I00640002: Operation Test Backup started by schedule.
01/02/2021 11:55:31:232 am +01:00 20656 I00640000: Backup reserve copy attributes: format tib; need_reserve_backup_copy false;
01/02/2021 11:55:31:233 am +01:00 20656 I013C0000: Operation: Backup
01/02/2021 11:55:31:234 am +01:00 20656 I0064000B: Priority changed to Low.
01/02/2021 11:55:39:105 am +01:00 20656 I000B03F0: Create Backup Archive
From:  C:\Users\<myname>\Documents\2_Prive\
C:\Users\<myname>\Documents\My Data Sources\

To file:  "Test Backup_full_b1_s1_v1.tib"
Compression:  Normal
Exclude:  System files
01/02/2021 11:55:39:135 am +01:00 20656 E00040019: Failed to back up file or folder 'Documents'. It may be blocked by another application.
Error occurred while backing up. (0x40019)
$module = "ti_demon_vs_35860"
`anonymous-namespace'::BackuperHelper::WriteNodeData:
c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\archive\backuper.cpp(788)
Failed to back up the file (folder). (0x40019)
Path = "\\?\C:\Users\<myname>\Documents",
Hints = 3),
$module = "ti_demon_vs_35860"
`anonymous-namespace'::EncryptedFileReader::ReadFrom:
c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\core\file\windows\winnt_backup.cpp(619)
Access to the file is denied. (0x40014)
function = "OpenEncryptedFileRawW",
path = "\\?\C:\Users\<myname>\Documents",
$module = "ti_demon_vs_35860"
`anonymous-namespace'::NTFSEncryptedFile::NTFSEncryptedFile:
c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\core\file\windows\winnt_backup.cpp(243)
The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process (0xFFF0)
code = 80070020),
$module = "ti_demon_vs_35860"
Common::Error::AddWindowsError:
c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\core\common\error.cpp(307): None
01/02/2021 11:56:30:310 am +01:00 20656 E00040019: Error 0x40019: Error occurred while backing up.
| trace level: error
| line: 0xce542e14da203c26
| file: c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\archive\backuper.cpp:1031
| function: Archive::BackupOperation::Execute
| line: 0xce542e14da203c26, c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\archive\backuper.cpp:1031, Archive::BackupOperation::Execute
| $module: ti_demon_vs_35860
|
| error 0x40003
| line: 0xce542e14da203bdc
| file: c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\archive\backuper.cpp:957
| function: Archive::BackupOperation::ProcessItems
| line: 0xce542e14da203bdc, c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\archive\backuper.cpp:957, Archive::BackupOperation::ProcessItems
| $module: ti_demon_vs_35860
|
| error 0x40003
| line: 0xce542e14da2039e1
| file: c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\archive\backuper.cpp:450
| function: `anonymous-namespace'::BackuperHelper::ProcessTraverser
| line: 0xce542e14da2039e1, c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\archive\backuper.cpp:450, `anonymous-namespace'::BackuperHelper::ProcessTraverser
| Path: C:/Users/<myname>/Documents
| $module: ti_demon_vs_35860
|
| error 0x40003
| line: 0xce542e14da203a57
| file: c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\archive\backuper.cpp:568
| function: `anonymous-namespace'::BackuperHelper::ProcessItem
| line: 0xce542e14da203a57, c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\archive\backuper.cpp:568, `anonymous-namespace'::BackuperHelper::ProcessItem
| Path: C:/Users/<myname>/Documents
| $module: ti_demon_vs_35860
|
| error 0x40019: Error occurred while backing up.
| line: 0xce542e14da203b33
| file: c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\archive\backuper.cpp:788
| function: `anonymous-namespace'::BackuperHelper::WriteNodeData
| line: 0xce542e14da203b33, c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\archive\backuper.cpp:788, `anonymous-namespace'::BackuperHelper::WriteNodeData
| $module: ti_demon_vs_35860
|
| error 0x40019
| line: 0xa8a1022bd18ae1ed
| file: c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\core\file\windows\winnt_backup.cpp:619
| function: `anonymous-namespace'::EncryptedFileReader::ReadFrom
| line: 0xa8a1022bd18ae1ed, c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\core\file\windows\winnt_backup.cpp:619, `anonymous-namespace'::EncryptedFileReader::ReadFrom
| Path: \\?\C:\Users\<myname>\Documents
| Hints: 0x3
| $module: ti_demon_vs_35860
|
| error 0x40014: Access to the file is denied.
| line: 0xa8a1022bd18ae075
| file: c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\core\file\windows\winnt_backup.cpp:243
| function: `anonymous-namespace'::NTFSEncryptedFile::NTFSEncryptedFile
| line: 0xa8a1022bd18ae075, c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\core\file\windows\winnt_backup.cpp:243, `anonymous-namespace'::NTFSEncryptedFile::NTFSEncryptedFile
| function: OpenEncryptedFileRawW
| path: \\?\C:\Users\<myname>\Documents
| $module: ti_demon_vs_35860
|
| error 0xfff0: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process
| line: 0xbd28fdbd64edb8f1
| file: c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\core\common\error.cpp:307
| function: Common::Error::AddWindowsError
| line: 0xbd28fdbd64edb8f1, c:\jenkins_agent\workspace\ati-main-win\1173\core\common\error.cpp:307, Common::Error::AddWindowsError
| code: 0x80070020
| $module: ti_demon_vs_35860
01/02/2021 11:56:31:526 am +01:00 20656 E013C0005: Error 0x13c0005: Operation has completed with errors

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Tim, the log data & images are throwing up more questions than answers for me!

01/02/2021 11:55:39:135 am Failed to back up file or folder 'Documents'. It may be blocked by another application.
Error occurred while backing up. (0x40019)
Failed to back up the file (folder). (0x40019)
Path = "\\?\C:\Users\<myname>\Documents",

`anonymous-namespace'::EncryptedFileReader::ReadFrom:
Access to the file is denied. (0x40014)
function = "OpenEncryptedFileRawW",
path = "\\?\C:\Users\<myname>\Documents",

`anonymous-namespace'::NTFSEncryptedFile::NTFSEncryptedFile:

The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process (0xFFF0)
code = 80070020),

The above references to EncryptedFile is something I don't recall seeing in other logs.

Your second image also implies that some of the files included in the backup source are related to an SQL server, which is known to cause issues if that SQL server is active!

I would suggest setting up a new backup task using some simple subfolders of your documents but containing only plain text files, to see if this will run successfully?

Hi Steve,

Might the EncryptedFile have anything to do with EFS? I have that enabled for my Documents folder and everything in it.

Turning on "In backups, store encrypted file sin a decrypted state" removes the initial error message of "Failed to back up file or folder 'Documents'. It may be blocked by another application", however a new issue arises as all my files are 0 kb upon recovery through the Acronis interface. So this is not a valid workaround for me (or anyone).

I have done three more experiments and it would appear that Acronis cannot handle a "subfolder-selection" of an EFS encrypted folder:

  1. Backing up my entire (EFS encrypted) Documents folder works and the files are recoverable.
  2. Moving EFS encrypted files outside of my Documents folder to a new folder ("C:/Users/<myname>/NewTestFolder") works as well and is recoverable. Note that this folder contains both encryped and unencrypted files and that new files added to this folder are automatically unencrypted
  3. Enabling EFS file encryption on the entire NewTestFolder via "apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files" and re-running the backup task of experiment 2 gives the "Failed to back up file or folder 'NewTestFolder'. It may be blocked by another application" again.

(Note that the only difference between 2) and 3) is the EFS encryption on the entire folder and its subcontent instead of single files in the folder)

I would consider this to be a serious bug as the ability of Acronis to handle EFS was one of the main reasons for me to choose Acronis. I can imagine that this applies to a lot of (feelance/ small) business owners as well.

Tim, I have never used or needed to use EFS so have no direct experience to draw upon.

I can only recommend that you report this to Acronis by opening a Support Case so that they can investigate.  There were issues reported for ATI 2018 and EFS which were meant to be fixed in ATI 2019.

Steve, many thanks for all your help.

I will submit the report to Acronis. Hope they can do something about this, it's out of our hands now

Tim, just to confirm that I can recreate this issue when trying to backup a sub-folder of an EFS protected folder on one of my Windows 10 Pro test VMware virtual systems, and see the same errors.

If I backup at the parent folder level, then all is looking fine without the errors!

One work-around that looks to work for me is if I open at the parent folder level but deselect all sub-folders except for the ones I want to include!

So in images:

This selection fails with the errors you are seeing:

This selection works without any errors but includes the same sub-folders!

Hi Steve,

That is correct. I have tested your "only de-selecting is allowed" workaround and it seems to work for me as well. I have also tested it for subsub-folders and multiple EFS parent folders. The backup succeeds in both cases.

However, I have found 1 draw-back to this method. As you are deselecting certain folders, as opposed to specifically selecting folders, a new folder added to the parent folder will be included in the backup. So in your example, if you were to create the folder "C:\Users\smiths\Documents\MyNewFolder", this folder will be automatically included in the backup.

I noticed the Acronis GUI hinting to your solution as well, as the folders under "Source" with the deselecting approach are in fact the names of the parent folders. However if you are specifically selecting, the GUI shows you the specifically selected folders:

Deselecting only:

image 273

Specifically selecting:

image 275

Tim, I suspect that this is something that only Acronis can give a definitive answer about and that it may also be related to the way that EFS works when being accessed in the way that ATI uses for folders below the parent level.