Acronis ATI 2018 contantly touch usb port causing issue with Adafruit CircuitPython folder
When an Adafruit microcontroller is attached to an open USB port on a Windows 10 pc, a drive and folder "CIRCUITPY" appears in Windows 10. Programming in the microcontroller causes Python programs residing in this folder to be restarted whenever the port is touched. Its been established that if Acronis 2018 is installed, it constantly touches this port, even when Sync, Active Protection, Backup Scheduling and backup are not active, this causes the Python programs to constantly restart. Uninstalling Acronis 2018 resolves the problem.
Is it possible to disable this constant USB port touching by Acronis?
Do later versions of Acronis provide solutions to this problem?


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Yes, the problem occurs when Active protection is disabled, even when no backups are scheduled. The usb drive is constantly being touched about once every 5 seconds.
Ive been working with Adafruit Customer Support and they have shared tickets from a number of customers experiencing the same issue.
Id appreciate any suggestions to stop Acronis from this behavior.
Thanks, John
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John, I have no experience with the Adafruit USB device you are seeing this issue with and cannot think of any valid reasons why Acronis should be 'polling' that device unless it is thinking that it could be a new disk drive or storage device being connected to the system??
Acronis is known to scan new drives for any .tib / .tibx backup image files but I didn't think that it did that continuously as you describe. My own experience has been it does the scan when ATI is installed or updated by a new build.
See KB 60522: Acronis True Image 2018: Windows services and processes - which lists out the main components being used.
You can set most of the background Windows services to either Manual or Disabled for the start up setting. You leave the Acronis Scheduler2 service to run else no backups can be created.
Test with the majority of services stopped to see if this still shows any activity with the USB device and if still happening, try killing the Acronis processes via Windows Task Manager one by one.
Do you know if this behaviour is limited only to Acronis or is it common to any other backup applications such as Macrium Reflect?
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Hi Steve, thanks so much for your comments and suggestions.
I will definitely try your diagnostic approach of removing windows services - that's very helpful information. I suspect it may be associated with Acronis seeking out target usb backup drives - but cant confirm that.
To answer your question, no I have not tried any other backup applications.
This is a real problem that is affecting many people so I will continue to chase it and report back to you.
John
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Hi Steve, I tested each service and process identified in KB 60522. I discovered that when I STOPPED:
Acronis Managed Machine Service - Mini | mms_mini.exe - | Communicates with Online Dashboard |
The problem disappears and when I restart it it returns. According to your previous note it sounds like I can permanently disable that process and still have scheduled backups execute . Can you confirm that? Do you know what it does and what the implications are for disabling it?
Thanks, John
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John, you should be able to safely set the Acronis Managed Machine Service Mini service to either Manual or Disabled start with no problems. I have the same service stopped on most of my systems as do not want or use the Acronis Dashboard service or controls. It has had negative impacts for lots of users previously when the Acronis servers decided to trigger a reset to default settings for user backup tasks which took Acronis some time to acknowledge and fix!!
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Steve, this is great news. Based on last night's test and your own experience with the disabled service I'm considering this problem has been solved!
I disabled the "Acronis Managed Machine Service Mini" service yesterday, and my overnight backup ran on schedule and provided me the ususal notification.
With this service disabled, the Adafruit CircuitPython devices I have (Macropad and Metro Express 4) operated correctly without having to disable their autoload feature. This feature allows 'drag and drop" execution of CircuitPython code on Adafruit's line of CircuitPython microcontroller hardware.
With the service disabled, the Acronis Online Dashboard is not available, but the install Acronis application continues to operate correctly..
In my case the Online Dashboard was rarely used and is not a critical feature of Acronis.
Steve, thanks so much for helping me solve this issue.
John
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John and Steve,
I hit exactly that problem with Acronis 2018 using the Adafruit Metro M7 with Mu and CircuitPython. The Adafruit forums were very helpful in quickly vectoring me to this Acronis thread. Great catch gentlemen! Now can you tell me if this is still a problem with later Acronis releases ?
Best Regards Paul O'Brien
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Same problem in 2023 Acronis Cyber Protected Home Office.
Fixed it by going to
Services | Acronis Managed Machine Service Mini | stop it, and disable it from Startup Type
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Art L wrote:Same problem in 2023 Acronis Cyber Protected Home Office.
Fixed it by going to
Services | Acronis Managed Machine Service Mini | stop it, and disable it from Startup Type
Hello!
Thanks for sharing what helped you to workaround the issue!
Feel free to participate anytime.
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