User Unfriendly change: can't tell ATI to skip missing versions
If you manually delete earlier backup versions, then run an ATI Backup Job, it stops and asks you to give it the location of the versions you deleted -
which is not possible since you deleted them! Then, if you click on 'Cancel', IT SHUTS DOWN and gives the user no option to 'Skip' that version as it did in the past. (in the past you could tell ATI to disregard the missing backups and continue execution of the currrent Backup Job).
This is very user unfriendly because I've had problems getting ATI to auto-delete earlier backup chains that I no longer want. And if I manually delete them, then the entire Backup Job is useless because of the inability to tell ATI to SKIP those earlier chains I deleted -
at which point the only solution is to delete the entire Backup Job, leaving the backup images in place - then rebuild the Backup Job. This needs to be fixed; none of the other imaging solutions I have, make it so difficult to delete earlier backup chains: Macrium Reflect; AOMEI Backupper; EaseUS Todo Backup - those three are much friendlier to the user in allowing old backup chains to be deleted.
When you are forced to resort to rebuilding the Backup Job from the images on disk, you then have to redo all the Settings: the backup scheme; the scheduling; and any other customized settings such as how many incremental images for each chain; how many backup chains to keep on disk before deleting the old ones; when to warn the user when disk space is below a certain threshold, etc.
A lot of good features have been put into this new 2016 version but it does seem to me that it has become a bit complicated and user unfriendly when trying to customize the Settings - especially when trying to get ATI to DELETE old version chains that you no longer want, without rendering the entire Backup Job unusable, thus necessitating deletion and reconstruction of the Backup Job.
That is tedious and frustrating and tempts me to return to other imaging solutions if I cannot find a way to fix this. Thank you to anyone knowledgeable who reads this and can help. I otherwise like Acronis and have used it since the 2006 version: just want to find a way to fix this.
Thank you Steve! For some reason I missed your reply, even though I had checked the box to "Notify me when new comments are posted". I'll try that, the next time - when and if I experience this issue again. I'd like for ATI to maintain itself automatically - but it doesn't seem to always do that. I back up my Acer Notebook using a networked drive here at home, via a Wireless connection. But I also have ATI 2013 installed on the PC which hosts the drive [network share] to which I backup. And you're right, I do recall doing a 'verify' of the set of backup images on the host PC, and telling ATI 2013 to ignore any missing versions. I'll try to do that on this [Acer Notebook] source machine next time if I need to, in order to avoid having to rebuild the Settings from scratch.
Steve, is there any way to tell ATI to skip ALL of the missing versions, rather than having to "skip" them one by one? I do monthly full and daily incrementals, and I keep several months worth; but if I want to go back and clear out the incrementals from three months ago I have to tediously click my way through 30 missing versions.
Jerry, that is a 'fix' that the ATI software engineers need to do ASAP, in my opinion. No other imaging program that I know of, makes it so difficult to manually delete backup images that you no longer need nor want. What were they thinking? Uggh.. I'm glad to see others have noticed this glaring deficiency in ATI 2016, and I hope they get this fixed soon. Otherwise people are going to choose a competitor's product to do their backups. :(
Once again my 1TB backup disk is full with incremental backups of my 350GB system disk. Once again I search for what my options are in "help" since there's no intiutive access for backup deletion options in the 2016 ATI GUI. Once again I see I need to reboot my computer with the ATI recovery media (ugh!) or some hackish "work around" where I manually delete the files and let ATI struggle with the discovery. I'm going to do this one more time and then go look for a better backup solution. One that is more attuned to logical needs and desires of its users. And this is coming from me with 35 years of software development and support experience (please no snarky remarks). Yes, I should set the ATI backup retention settings for the amount of backup disk space I have available. But what if I get it wrong??? Reboot my computer with the recovery media from the software supplier??? Does anyone else find this answer ludicrous? Does anyone on the ATI development team find this potentially repusive to most/all ATI users? Twenty years ago, the standard solution to an MS op sys issue used to be "reboot", back in the Windows 95 days. Now people don't think of that any more (much?) with Windows 10 because MS has improved its software greatly. ATI ADDED this as a solution from ATI 2014 to ATI 2016??? This is considered an IMPROVEMENT by ATI?
And not having direct and obvious access to backup log information from the GUI after a backup issue occurs to totally rediculous and insulting.
Really sad.
no 'snarky' remarks from me, Jake. Kudos to you for all your years of experience in the industry. Your post is eloquent and descriptive of the problem - and you're right, it is astonishing the ATI developers would add so many features yet forget this most fundamental need: to make things simple and easy for the user to run and maintain his own chosen system of backups. I have licensed versions of Macrium Reflect, AOMEI Backupper, and EaseUS Todo Backup: and none of those three has this problem: you can manually delete old backup chains and these competing imaging programs will not balk at that. I first used the 2006 version of ATI and at the time, it was probably the best such product available on the market. Since then, ATI has become bloated and more confusing to use - yet it is still a good product if they will only recognize simple issues like this and fix them ASAP. I also agree with you with regard to having logs to look at: all previous versions of ATI had this feature; I wonder why they removed it in ATI 2016? Hopefully someone involved in ATI development reads these forum threads and will take the necessary steps to remedy these issues.
Randy,
I feel you as well. We sell other imaging products. Mainly for server backups (including Acronis). When I take my laptop on the road and don't have access to my backup device (14TB NAS), I get a popup asking to retry destination or ignore. You would think ignore would cancel the job but it doesn't. The popup box goes away for about a minute and then repeats the same message over and over and over. I've setup email notification for the job and receive the same verbage in the email. If a job doesn't start within a certain timeout, then the job should cancel or skip until the next scheduled backup. All other backup products work that way. Why not ATI? At the very least, you should be able to put your job on hold so you don't get nagged to death. I was out of town giving a presentation to a client and that nag screen just kept popping up. Very embarrasing. I've attached an email with the same verbage as well. If Acronis wants to compete with the "Big Boys", then they need to step-up their game and fix this issue. If anyone is interested in other products that work flawlessly, just PM me and I will provide you some alternatives.
BTW, attaching is a screenshot for error handling of the backup job
Hello Everyone,
Thank you for taking time to share your opinion with us. Please be sure, that all postings here are analyzed and documented as feature requests in our internal system. Decision on whether to implement a new feature or enhancement is made based on the scope of every request by our development team and product management. I've added your feedbacks too, so that my colleagues can have a clear picture of users needs. Besides, Acronis True Image 2016 contains special feature for sharing feedback.
I would also suggest taking a look at the following tool, developed by FtrPilot: https://forum.acronis.com/forum/115626
This tool allows to see the logfiles of ATI and it's very easy to use.
Thank you again for your input!