Using MVP Log Viewer with TI 2021
Steve,
That is strange but I have had them for years. Weird though that the last two nights it has written only one for each backup and not two like it had been doing for a very long time for each of the two backups
I wrote a script that will run on Sat. morning in Task Scheduler and it will delete all those older than 7 days so that will keep it clean.
Jim
Jim, how are these .opt files named on your PC?
I see as shown in the image below with very little change happening!
Steve,
Attached is an image of my database folder. This shows it after testing my script this morning and deleting older than 7 days. I have had four written each day until the last two days when only two were written each day. I do two different backups each night - one for my data drive and one for my system drive. Normally it writes two for each backup - one for the backup and one for the reserve backup. With two backups each with a reserve copy that amounts to four a day. It now appears in the last two days that two are written for the data backup and none for the system backup - strange.
If you are backing up each day then you should be showing more than you do. That is a puzzle. I haven't changed a thing in the options for either backup. I installed the latest update on 3/11 so the change didn't come from it as the 11th, 12th, and 13th backups all had four .opt files. The options for both backup are exactly the same except the system is set to shutdown when finished, but it has always been that way. Not sure why all of a sudden it is not writing .opt logs for the system backup but it doesn't matter whether I let it shut down automatically or not. I will watch it and see what happens.
BTW, for running the MVP Assistant, I found that setting the Protection Service to manual instead of disabled works better. It was starting sometimes without starting TIH as well as starting when I opened TIH. Now, only the later happens. It is still unchecked in System Configuration.
With those changes I made the MVP Assistant runs perfectly. I see what I want and it deletes what I want except for the six open logs I see each time and that I expect.
Jim
Jim, the image looks very similar to my own I posted previously, and these .opt files are holding a copy of the script .tib.tis settings for the tasks on your machine.
The key reason why yours keep being recreated is most probably because you are regularly deleting these files! I would recommend leaving them alone as I do and they should remain as they are unless you add any further new tasks. I personally never touch the files in the Database folder unless needing to force a rebuild of the database, in which case I blow away the whole folder and let it be recreated afresh.
I have never used the reserve copy option for any of my backups as this will always be another full backup. My preference is to have further tasks for the same source data but which write the backup files to different locations, where these can also use incremental schemes.
In terms of the logs, I have tended to just cull these to retain the most recent 30 days of logs and only do that when I get round to looking at it occasionally. The logs for me are not a big deal compared to the size of the unwanted Cyber Protection database etc!
Steve,
For a long time I never deleted those files and they would still keep accumulating and until I figured out how to access and delete them with the steps mentioned previously of disabling active protection I could not delete them even when I wanted to. Before I installed 2021 I must have had a several hundred of them from 2019. By disabling active protection I can now delete them so I just started doing that.
The active protection is not just for malware, etc, but it also protects all of the Acronis files.
Jim
Steve,
Just a curious question you might be able to answer. Considering the huge amount of space ATI takes up in the ProgramData folder, I was wondering if the folder C:\ProgramData\Acronis\NGMP\ave\db\1\Plugins is even needed since I am not nor will I be using their Protection Service. The full Acronis folder in ProgramData is about 603MB and that Plugins directory alone is 445MB of that total. It looks like of the 945 files in the folder that most of them appear to be spyware and malware definitions and it is using almost 1/2 GB. Do I even need this folder?
Just thinking I could save some space.
Thanks!
Jim
Jim, the C:\ProgramData\Acronis\NGMP\ave\db\1\Plugins and other related folders are all populated regardless of using the new Cyber Protection features or not and is a shared concern for any users who do not want these features!
The problem with deleting them is that Acronis will just download another copy and is continually checking for updates even with all protection turned off!!
I have an open Support case 04838315 where I have complained about all the continuous levels of background activity by both Active and Cyber Protection applications, including scanning Windows system files and checking for protection updates despite having Protection supposedly 'turned off permanently' in the GUI Protection settings!
I would encourage you and other users to submit cases for the same concerns if possible, or else to Submit Feedback about this! Off for these settings really has to mean OFF, not just relegated to running in the background regardless!
Steve,
Thank you! I will do as you suggest. It is sad that the best backup software out there and with the most reasonable price has decided to try to add features that most people don't even want and is not what Acronis has built their reputation on. Trying to include antivirus, etc software into a backup program is just plain ridiculous.
I have used SpyHunter5 for years and their entire folder in Program Files is only 172 MB and they update the definitions every day. As I stated earlier they pickup things that nobody else does and that includes bad cookies, etc in Google Chrome, Edge and others. I have had many things slip thru any other software I have had except SpyHunter5. It will even question some new installations and give me the opportunity to keep or discard them.
With all this going on with Acronis, it kind of scares me with the amount of snooping it does and what the alternative motives may be for these Russian engineers. Sorry, but it is just suspicious to me. Their product has saved my you know what many times and I don't want to trash it, but they need to clean it up and get back to doing only what they are really good at - backup and restore.
Get rid of this bloatware and bring back the Outlook email backup they discarded several years ago. I miss that! I back up the profiles manually, but their old backup was easy and accurate and I could keep as far back as I wanted. They told me they discarded it because nobody was using onboard email any longer and that everyone was going to web email. NOT ME! I know of too many people who have had their web email hacked and their address books stolen. Sure, my email accounts are web accessible, but there are no addresses on the web email and the mail is downloaded by Outlook every 15 minutes so nothing is on there to steal.
You are correct that "permanently off" should be just that!
Jim
Steve,
If you or anyone reading these posts want to gain 1/2 GB from the Acronis folders, I found it is safe to empty the NGMP folder. I had the laptop on this morning that also has ATI 2021 and noticed that that folder on it was empty and ATI has been running fine for some time without the items in that folder and the service disabled. I am not sure how that folder was empty, but it was. The only thing I can think of is when I uninstalled ATI on that machine and then reinstalled it, I had not run a cleanup and I am guessing that the off setting for the cyber service I had was picked up and it didn't install those files. ???
So, I did the same on this desktop and had no adverse affects from doing it. ATI is running fine on this machine without all of that data. My c:\ProgramData\Acronis folder is now about 80 MB and not the huge 603 MB it was. I got rid of over 975 files.
I do have the app set to check for updates each time it is opened, but none have appeared to replace those files. Now, when there is a version update for 2021, I would almost bet they will re-appear, but I can delete them again if they do show up. I have opened and closed ATI a few times today to test it, and nothing has shown up.
If your not going to use it, why leave them there taking up that much space? With all of this bloatware, Acronis is way out of line with the amount of space required for it - ridiculous! It is not the multitude of logs they have taking space, but rather this stuff most people don't want.
Jim
I just noticed that this thread has 564 views which tells me that a lot of folks are having this issue with running Bruno’s MVP Assistant, or running the MVP Log Viewer or also turning off Active Protection and Cyber Protection. I thought it would be helpful if I itemized what to do until Acronis decides (if or when) they will let us install ATI with the option to install Active Protection and/or Cyber Protection.
If you are only using MVP Log viewer then the only step needed is to turn off the Scheduler2 Service, run the log viewer, and then turn the service back on. If you want to get rid of Active Protection and Cyber Protection or you want to be able to fully use Bruno’s MVP Assistant, then follow these steps.
1. In the Acronis UI turn of all protection. It really isn’t turned off yet even though it says it is!
2. Go to Windows System Configuration and under Services uncheck both services and save.
3. Open Services and change both services to “Manual”. They will still show as “Running” until you complete these steps as you cannot turn them off in services. This will be permanent for the Cyber Protection and you will not have to change that service again, only the Active Protection.
4. Reboot your computer and you should now be able to run the MVP Assistant, delete files in the Acronis directories, etc. Now if you don’t want Cyber Protection, you can delete all of the data (definition) files that Cyber Protection uses in C:\Program\Data\Acronis\NGMP. Delete all of the files in this directory – they consume almost 1/2 GB and are almost 400 files. You can now also delete all of the old .opt files you might want to get rid of in C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Database. Turning off Active Protection also turns off the protection for the Acronis files so you can manage them. Let MVP Log Viewer or MVP Assistant get rid of the logs as you need.
5. Now look at both in services and they should not be running and should show as “Manual”. It will stay this way until you run ATI at which time Acronis automatically starts the Active Protection Service (as per their design) and resets it to “Automatic”.
6. VERY IMPORTANT! After opening ATI, go to services and you will see Active Protection (not Cyber Protection) has now changed to “Running” and “Automatic” (see step 5). Change it to “Manual” and run your backup(s). Unless you do this each time you start ATI and your computer shuts down or you do not reboot after the backup, the service will stay at “Running” and “Automatic”. If you do this step, when you boot (cold or warm) the next time the service will not be running and will show as “Manual” until you start ATI once again.
After this long thread, I hope this simplifies what I have done to make this work without having to go back and read thru the entire thread. It is ridiculous that we have to resort to these tactics to turn off bloatware that a lot of us do not want. I have joined in the tickets to change this.
Jim
I just noticed that this thread has 564 views which tells me that a lot of folks are having this issue with running Bruno’s MVP Assistant, or running the MVP Log Viewer or also turning off Active Protection and Cyber Protection.
Jim, the count of views are just that and not a valid indication of users having any issues.
Both log viewer tools have been invaluable since Acronis took the decision to remove the integrated Logs tool from the main ATI GUI, which is yet more evidence of their lack of thought about users!
I suspect that the majority of users never touch any of the internal logs created by Acronis and have no idea of the size these can grow to, not including the added bloat from the new protection features. Unfortunately this seems to be common practise with most software vendors - disk drives are cheap, don't bother to optimise anything and add bloat!!
Steve,
FYI My deleting the files in the folder c:\ProgramData\Acronis\NGMP did work and the ATI update I installed a couple of days ago did add back some subfolders and files in that folder but it did not install that multitude of definition files. It added about 60MB but that is a far cry from the 1/2 gig that folder once had. So, you can delete them and they will not reappear as long as you have Cyber Protection turned off in Windows System Configuration.
This worked on both of the two computers I have ATI 2021 installed on.
Jim