Active Protection
When I turn on Active Protection it slows down my computer. Everything is slow to load and videos are very choppy.
What could be causing this? Thanks.
I would like to add that I have just upgraded to ATI 2019 build 17750 on a Windows 10 Pro 64-bit v.1803 PC, previously running ATI 2016.
In Task Manager, the Active Protection service is showing 54% cpu and Acronis True Image 2019 is showing 27% cpu, the PC is idle.
I have yet to create a backup task on the PC and I have Active Protection turned off, so can anyone explain what is going on here? TIA.
… and I have just checked another PC that I have just upgraded to ATI 2019 and the cpu is maxed out and that PC is currently unusable.
Please see the previous post for this topic with the links to Acronis KB documents - ensure that you have turned AAP off as described and also that you have white-listed the Acronis key processes to your other security applications and done the same in AAP for those applications so that there is no competition for resources going on here.
See also:
KB 46430: Acronis Software: Making Acronis Products Compatible with Antivirus Software
Steve Smith wrote:Please see the previous post for this topic with the links to Acronis KB documents - ensure that you have turned AAP off as described and also that you have white-listed the Acronis key processes to your other security applications and done the same in AAP for those applications so that there is no competition for resources going on here...
Thank you for the response, but I can't find an explanation as to why this is occurring, when I have Active Protection turned off in the gui.
It clearly IS NOT turned off, therefore what is the point of the ON/OFF option?
What actual Acronis Processes and Services do you have active (related to AAP)?
Open the Windows Task Manager then select the Details tab.
Do you see 'anti_ransomware_service' shown as 'running'?
Select the Services tab.
Do you see 'AcronisActiveProtectionService' shown as 'running'?
You should try stopping the process and setting the service to start disabled via the Services.msc control panel plugin.
The offending processes were anti_ransomware_service.exe and TrueImageMonitor.exe.
However, after several reboots of the 3 PCs I have just installed ATI 2019 on, I now notice a different Active Protection tab gui.
I'm guessing that ATI 2019 has performed some sort of background update. As a result, cpu usage is now back to normal.
My assumption here is that the issue is with original AcronisTrueImage2019_full_17750.exe download installer, that has subsequently updated and so fixed the issue.
TrueImageMonitor has no involvement in AAP and is just used as documented in KB 61624: Acronis True Image 2019: Windows services and processes
I suspect that AAP was mainly scanning your active processes to determine if any were known as malware / ransomware type actors and the multiple reboots has allowed time for such activity to finish, though your setting AAP to be turned off should have been respected.
ATI 2019 #17750 is the current latest build version and may be the final one depending on if Acronis have any reason to issue a further build before releasing ATI 2020 for general use in the Autumn.
Steve, you are correct about the latest build version and there was no update, just the Active Protection tab gui looks different, depending on whether Active Protection is on or off.
What is bizarre though is that the system is stable and the anti_ransomware_service.exe and TrueImageMonitor.exe processes behave normally now, until I turn on my vpn.
As stated in the links from your earlier posts, I can disable the anti_ransomware_service.exe, but do you have any ideas what I can do about the TrueImageMonitor.exe cpu usage, which jumps from 0% to 25% as soon as I use my vpn? The only way I can revert the TrueImageMonitor.exe back to 0% is to close the vpn and reboot my PC, which is clearly not acceptable? TIA.
Please open a support case direct with Acronis for this issue when using a VPN as I do not recall seeing anyone else report any similar issues and given how Acronis has issues when proxy servers get involved, this may be a similar issue too?
I believe I have found the cause of the high cpu usage issue.
When I turn on my Windscribe VPN, on any of my 5 Windows 10 Pro 64--bit PCs running ATI 2019, anti_ransomware_service.exe, TrueImageMonitor.exe and mms_mini.exe can all exhibit high cpu usage. Restarting the affected PC without running my VPN, resolves the issue.
Here is a link to the Windscribe website that describes the issue:
Windscribe suggets that the Acronis software is not handling the TCP socket termination properly.
The core issue here looks to be as described on the Windscribe page you provided the link to:
In the latest version of the desktop application, we decided to add a background feature to close all TCP sockets when you connect to the VPN. A TCP socket is an active connection between your computer and whatever web-connected service you are interacting with. Keeping TCP sockets open can be an issue sometimes because after you connect to the VPN, the existing sockets are for your actual IP, not the VPN IP that you just started using and so you might have some issues using sites or services. That's why we decided to close these sockets upon connection to the VPN so that they can be properly reset to the VPN IP.
Windscribe is attempting to close Acronis connections and this will be challenged by AAP as a potential malware type action.
I would recommend reviewing KB 61624: Acronis True Image 2019: Windows services and processes - to determine whether you have open TCP connections for active / running Acronis services or processes, then look whether stopping such services then ending the processes would eliminate this processor 'race condition' when you start the VPN service?
In the end, you need to open a Support Case directly with Acronis to get a definitive answer about how ATI responds in a VPN environment.
Steve Smith wrote:In the end, you need to open a Support Case directly with Acronis to get a definitive answer about how ATI responds in a VPN environment.
Yes I have done. Just thought it would be useful to post the information for other VPN users as this behaviour (closing the TCP socket) seems fairly common with VPN providers.
The information is definitely of value and will be of interest to any other users with VPN options, so thank you again for sharing it. Please let us know the outcome of your support case too.
Seems like the same issue here.
I have started using NordVPN
Acronis Active Protection set to Inactive
Task Manager reads: Acronis Active protection usage 52%
with subtask Acronis True image 2019 25%
I'm not surprised that a program might not handle having a TCP socket unexpectedly closed out from under it. I would think that is a very rare occurrence except during system shutdown (when recovery of a connection isn't needed).
I just looked at ATI 2019 on one of my PCs and found 41 open sockets clearly associated with ATI. Most of them were opened by AAP and most, if not all, of the AAP sockets were for localhost connections. Hopefully a VPN would be smart enough to not break those connections and close the associated sockets ... but hoping doesn't buy you much.
It would probably be a good idea for someone with ATI 2020 and a (computer-based rather than router based) VPN to try to reproduce this problem and report it to Acronis. They will be more likely to address it on a supported product.
If your NordVPN does the same as described above for Windscribe, i.e. closes out all local TCP sockets when the VPN is launched, then that would raise red flags to most malware prevention applications, especially any like AAP that use checks on the local loopback (127.0.0.1) sockets.
Such behaviour would most probably be considered to be malicious and deemed to be trying to end the security application hence be defended by the closed sockets being reopened again.
The VPN should not be closing TCP sockets belonging to other applications without at least offering the user a choice to keep those sockets open.
It is 9 months since I opened a case with Acronis regarding this issue and there has been no resolution. The issue also occurs with ATI 2020 update 2 version 22510.
In today’s IT world, switching (quickly) between network connections is common practice. So, if the network is changed and/or IP addresses change, I believe software should be able and 'listen' to changes in the OS environment, Protocols, APIs etc. and adjust accordingly. It is not difficult to do.
On my several Windows 10 Pro 64-bit systems, the only software that has a problem with the change from an ISP network to a VPN network, is Acronis True Image 2019 (and 2020).