Scheduled task does not launch. User interface says 'The Last Backup Has Failed'

Andrew, welcome to these user forums.

Please understand that all ATIH 2016 and 2017 users now get upto 2 years of free support (from date of purchase), so you are entitled to support for this problem if needed.

I would suggest initially trying the Acronis Scheduler Manager tool and use this to check what scheduled tasks are present in your system - use the get list command from the new Window that opens when you run schedmgr.exe as administrator - this will show a list of such tasks.  You can then use the task zap command if you want to clear out all scheduled tasks - there are other commands in the documentation for the tool - see link below in my signature.

If this doesn't resolve the issue, then I would recommend doing a clean install of the latest build 6581 for ATIH 2016 - this is recommended in particular if you have upgraded from previous versions of ATIH to get to the 2016 version.

To do a clean install, first uninstall ATIH using the Windows Control Panel, then download the Acronis Cleanup Tool (link below) and run this as administrator.  Restart to complete the cleanup action, then reinstall the application.

As an added thought...

Some users have needed to change the schedule service in computer management from "automatic" to "delayed automatic".  Windows gives 120 seconds to start all services that are set to "automatic" - that's 2 minutes total.  If services have not started in that time, they just don't start.  Some services cannot start due to dependencies on other services starting first so if those are delayed, it prevents them from starting.  By setting the Acronis Scheduler service to delayed automatic, you buy youself another 120 seconds and that should be more than enough time.

Also, in your backup task, under the schedule tab >>> advanced settings, change the "run at system startup delay to 2 minutes as well".  This waits a bit longer as well - so, it may not start immediately, but within about 6 minutes of the system starting up if the job was missed.

And, do you use Fastboot in Windows?  If so, does the backup job run after rebooting the machine (vice a shutdown)?  If so, then fastboot is an issue as Acronis 2016 and earlier were programmed to trigger missed backups when the system Starts again.  Fastboot is hibernation and does not trigger a start when you resume from hibernation, sleep or from a "shutdown".   I reboot does trigger this though as it forces a complete shutdown instead of hibernation.  This should be fixed in the most current version of 2016 though, but if you try the automatic delay and it's still not working, but does work after a reboot, then fastboot/fast start is the culprit.  If you have a decent SSD, you can turn off fastboot/faststart (I disable hibernation completely) and should have a negligible impact on startup times.  

Hi,

Thanks very much for your assistance. 

Syeed Waseem at Acronis management would beg to differ with you!!.  He said I need to purchase a PPI or pay to downgrade to the 2015 version!

I did download and run the scheduled task utility as you suggested.  It listed a fair number of tasks and I couldn't quite comprehend the differences.  I only have one task in my installation.

I thought it pertinent to do a clean install as you suggest.  I uninstalled and ran the cleanup tool.  The backup task seemed to be present after the install, but there were no options to edit the task.  So for the purposes of completion I have again deleted that task and created a new one.  The task hasn't run yet as the scheduled time has not been reached.  I thought afterwards I could schedule it sooner, but again there seems to be no option to edit the task, only to rename or delete it.

Some other thoughts:

1. Thanks for the suggestion to change startup to delayed on Acronis Scheduler service.  I don't think that would be necesary as the service is starting each time.  For reference my system is a Core i7 with 16gb RAM and an SSD, so should not encounter any performance issues for a few years :-)

2.  Thanks also for the suggestion to set a startup delay in the task.  I always set that to 15 minutes so I can get emails and things running before the backup kicks in.

3.  Before I removed the software to reinstall - I did reboot the computer and waited 20 mins.  The backup did not start, so I think this perhaps rules out a 'fast boot' issue.

I'll wait for the scheduled task time to have passed and see what happens.

Many thanks.

Andrew, on the support question, see KB document: 6031: List of Support Options for Acronis Products which states very clearly:

The tables below show available options for technical support:

Home & Home Office products

Initial response time to email is up to 72 hours. For immediate assistance use our chat service.

You only need PPI if you are asking for Phone support, live chat (via web browser) and email are free.

If you have done a clean install, then you will probably need to reconfigure your scheduled backup task as the cleanup tool should have removed all your task configuration data.  Try clicking on the Source & Destination panels for your task, then on the Options and check that these show the correct selections.

Hi,

Still the same problem.

I scheduled the task to run on Tuesday (which is the first time it would ever have run).
That went through fine.

So I set the schedule back to the normal time of 10am on a Sunday.
The PC was booted before 9am and is completely awake as I have been using it.
Acronis Scheduler is running.
10am has come and gone - but no backup was started.
No files have been created in the logs folder.
Acronis UI simply says "The last backup has failed".

This has happenned on all PC's I have that run Acronis and ties in with the date that the new build was installed.

Is the next logical thing to try and go back to the prior build??  I think the download site does have that option on it.

Thanks for your help.
 

Might I ask, when you created this new backup task did you point it to the same location destination as the old task was? 

Did you use a new and unique name for the new task or did you use the same name as the previous task?

Where are your backup files stored, internal drive, external drive, if external is the external location an NAS?

You have 3 computers that exhibit this same behavior, do all of these computers use the same backup file location?

If yes to the above do all computers save to the same folder?

If yes to the above are the backup file names you use unique and different between each computer? 

Hi,

The backup task goes to a folder named E:\Backup\Current.  It's a standard internal SATA disk.  This is where the prior tasks would point also.

I can't be certain about the task name, but there's every chance it is indeed an identical name as the previous task.  However, task names are different on each computer, incorporating an approximation of the computer description. 

Here's where it gets awkward to explain.  I had an issue with previous version of Acronis that the helpdesk tried to help with but could not solve.  I save backups to 23gb sized chunks.  Whenever backups were made (including Single version), random files from the sequence were deleted and random ones created.  Support tried to tell me this was expected and normal, but when I did test restores, it failed as I feared it would.  So I created a script that ran before the backup that clears the folder E:\Acronis\Previous.  It then moves content of E:\Acronis\Current to E:\Acronis\Previous and backs up to E:\Acronis\Current.  This has worked well for years.  It still works, when the scheduler works!
The second issue I had which is the one Acronis themselves flatly refused to help with, is that my NAS cannot be used as a target as it fails with unknown username and password - even though the details entered are definitely correct.  This is what Acronis want the PPI fee to resolve.  So to combat that, I have a scheduled task in Windows that runs late Monday night that RoboCopy's E:\Acronis\Current to \\NAS1\Acronis\<Computer>\Current\.

Each computer is set up the same way, with destination folders / task names being unique in each case.

As you can see - I've had to apply a number of inventive workarounds to get the software to do what I require.  This scheduler issue is a new one in a growing list!

Any further suggestions gratefully received.

Andrew,

Each backup task needs to have a unique name and should be pointed to its own unique folder.  This applies to all 3 computers.  Saving many multiple tasks to the same folder from multiple machines is going to create issues like you are describing.

I would suggest removing (deleting) all current tasks from all machines.  Create a unique folder for each newly created backup on the destination disk and give each backup a unique name.  In short, start your backup plan over again and keep backups seperated and in a specified order.

Sorry - my last post was rather a long one, but to clarify:

Each task does have a unique name - for example "Andrews PC All Disks" and "Family PC All Disks"
Each task also saves to a different folder as each PC has it's own dedicated internal disk and on the NAS the destinations would be for example \\NAS1\Acronis\Andrew\Current and \\NAS1\Acronis\Family\Current

Hopefully this makes a little more sense.

Andrew, to help prevent any confusion with this problem, can you clarify exactly where you are using as the backup destination on each of your computers?  In a post above you stated: The backup task goes to a folder named E:\Backup\Current.  Then you are saying about backups being stored on your NAS device, but not sure if this is just being done via Robocopy or directly by the Acronis task?

Another question, you say that you are running a script that ran before the backup that clears the folder E:\Acronis\Previous.  It then moves content of E:\Acronis\Current to E:\Acronis\Previous and backs up to E:\Acronis\Current.   Are you doing a Validation of your backup task after doing the above actions?

Acronis stores backup history information in its database for all files created by your tasks, so if you are moving or deleting any of these files outside of using the Automatic Cleanup rules within the ATIH task configuration, then you are storing up problems in the database.

One other concern, when I advised early on about doing a clean install (post #1) you wrote about doing this in post #3 saying:  "I thought it pertinent to do a clean install as you suggest.  I uninstalled and ran the cleanup tool.  The backup task seemed to be present after the install, but there were no options to edit the task. " 

I should have picked up on this sooner, but if you had done a clean install, then none of your tasks should have been present as the folders holding these should have been wiped out by the cleanup tool?

I am tempted to recommend making a full clean start again (on one of your computers at least), ensuring that all traces of ATIH 2016 have been removed completely by running the Acronis Cleanup Tool as Administrator as per the KB document for the tool (link below in my signature).  This is important if you have had earlier versions of ATIH installed on this system that could have left 'remnants' behind.

I agree with Steve on this.  It is obvious that your use of the application thus far has proven to corrupt the database the application relies to perform properly.  Best to start anew!

Thanks for your continued input - I do appreciate the time you are taking.

Computer 1 saves it's backup to E:\Acronis\Current - a SATA drive physically located in that computer
The output files of the backup are copied the next day using RoboCopy to \\NAS1\Acronis\Andrew\current
The task is named "Andrews PC All Disks"

Computer 2 saves it's backup to E:\Acronis\Current - a SATA drive physically located in that computer and totally seperate to computer1
The output files of the backup are copied the next day using RoboCopy to \\NAS1\Acronis\Family\Current
The task is named "Family PC All Disks"

Computer 3 is a laptop and Acronis doesn't work well with it.  There is no option to install a second disk and I don't want to repartition at the moment (before you look horrified - the partition would be a holding ground for transfer to the NAS - I appreciate it's not a backup if its on the same physical disk :-)).  Acronis on the laptop will not output to the NAS directly as it says the password is wrong.  However, explorer can access the NAS, as can RoboCopy.  Acronis is installed but unusable.  Thats a different question I can ask at a later date.  For now I am using Veeam EndPoint which is free, and does output to the NAS first time, every time.

I always perform validation of the backup as part of the backup options.

Just to advise - The system works flawlessly if I start the program and launch the task manually.  All I really need is for the scheduler to work.  At the moment it works the first time, then never again.  The only error is in the program interface.  No logs are generated and no files in any of the destination folders are changed.  If the task were launching, but failing because of a misconfiguration, I'd see my script run.  My script creates a log file - so I can assure you the task does not launch :-)

Sorry - my description wasn't perfect on the reinstallation.  After the reinstall, the Acronis job list was indeed empty - but it does some kind of scan and repopulates the list.  At which time it finds a dozen virtual hard disks 'VHD files' that I then have to manually remove!
When TIB files are autodiscovered like this, the task is becomed non-editable as you probably appreciate.

I have done a number of reinstalls already.  I think my next move is an earlier build which I'll try at the weekend.  After all - the scheduler did work perfectly prior to the recent update.

Thanks for your continued suggestions.

For the NAS authentication issue on that one machien, you may need to clear the Acronis saved info from the registry, check out this KB article with screenshots:  https://kb.acronis.com/node/58004/

For the schedule issue - this is what normally gets people using 2016 - fastboot/fast start.  The trigger to run missed backup where the machine was asleep or off, is only triggered from a full startup.  Fastboot/fast start puts the machine into hibernation and when you "shutdown" with fastboot, the hibernation does not trigger Acronis to run the missed backup.  If you reboot the system, does the backup then run - that could be the key to verifying this.  I mentioned this above, but don't think you responded to trying it to see if that helps or not.

Also up above you state:  1. Thanks for the suggestion to change startup to delayed on Acronis Scheduler service.  I don't think that would be necesary as the service is starting each time.  For reference my system is a Core i7 with 16gb RAM and an SSD, so should not encounter any performance issues for a few years :-).  Let's rule it out - it's not necessarily the performance of the computer that could be the issue.  If there is a problem starting another major windows service, perhaps just long enough to make Acronis make it's window, chaning this for Acronis might help and won't impact anything else on the system. 

As another test, what happens if you manually change the schedule to 5 minutes from the present and then close out of Acronis.  Does it do anything while the computer is still awake with the scheduled test, or still nothing?  If it runs in this scenario, sleep/power settings might have something else to do with the issue. 

I have now proved that this issue is a bug that has been introduced in the latest build.

The prior build has backed up every day since I reverted to it and works as well as it used to beforehand.

Andrew, if you are certain that this is a bug, then have you raised a Support Case for this issue?  Please consider doing so if not as Acronis Support will be in a better situation to try to resolve this bug with your input than without it.

I'd agree with Steve to open a support case.  

I'm not sure it's a bug, my 2017 backups have been chugging along since day 1 - it could be a unique issue on your system the wayt it's configured, or more likely leftovers from 2015 via the "upgrade" to 2017.  2015 was not the most stable for me... when I moved to 2016, I did a complete uninstall with the clean tools and started fresh with 2016.  I then upgraded from 2016 to 2017 and so far, no issues that I've experienced.  However, we all have unique hardware, OS configurtions and our own different applications so there are a lot of variables from one computer to the next.  When software is misbehaving or not working as I know it should, my first line of trouble shooting is to remove it and try to re-install again (a lot of times you can try a repair install too, but nothing beats a fresh start).  Is there a bug - perhaps, could it be an upgrade gone wrong - possibly (when you went back to 2015 it was either a fresh install or you had a backup you reverted too), could it be something else - sure.  I don't know if you've proved there's a bug in 2017, only that when you intalled it (as an upgrade), something didn't work quite right. 

Hi,

Thanks for all your continued input.  I have this evening created a support request.  Not sure what will come of it, but will post back the result.

I appreciate what's being said, but just to clarify:
I don't have Acronis 2017 - I have 2016.
The problem with scheduler started on both computers when I upgraded to build 6581.
When I downgraded it wasn't to 2015 - it was to 2016 build 6571.
I don't think there should be any leftovers as I did a complete uninstall and used the cleanup tool as directed.
People I recommend Acronis to are running 2015 with the same NAS model I have, without issue.  ATI 2016 will not save to my NAS and it was bought at the same time from the same supplier.

I agree, every computer is unique.  Even those built from identical units using an identical disk image can show issues on 1 and not others.  I just can't put my finger on what I'm doing differently.  The two PC's running Acronis are very different, yet exhibit the same scheduler issue.

I'll post back a summary of what support suggests.

Thanks.

Did you try clearing the saved NAS credentials in the registry noted in the KB article provided above?  For the NAS authentication issue on that one machine, you may need to clear the Acronis saved info from the registry, close out Acronis and then go back into Acronis and supply the login informationagain after that.  Check out this KB article with screenshots:  https://kb.acronis.com/node/58004/

If the credentials have changed, or were fat-fingered, etc, that is the only way to force Acronis to prompt for credentials again in version 2016 6571 and earlier.  There is a newer version of 6581 which I believe helped fix that issue so that you don't have to use the registry, although modifying that registry setting is not particularly difficult or risky if it does need to be done.  You mentioned you are using 6571 so 6581 may fix things on its own.

---------------------------

Also, not sure if this applies to you or not, but there are Windows limiations of accessing remote shares on the same device.  

https://www.technipages.com/fix-multiple-connections-to-a-server-or-shared-resource-by-the-same-user-error

You can only have one remote session at a time, from the same Windows logon session, to the same remote share.  Basically, if you use the same remote logon and password for all shares on your remote device, you won't see any problems.  But, if you want to try and connect to the same NAS device under the same Windows logon, but using NAS account A for NAS share A and NAS accounbt B for NAS share B, then it doesn't work, due to Windows limitations.  

This could also occur if you use other products that have a different logon to your NAS where SHARE A has one account for Acronis and and SHARE 2 has another account for your other product or mapped drive.  

This can even get you if you have one share that is being accessed openly (public share) first and then try to connect to another share on the same remote device with an authenticated account (two simultaneious connections using different accounts/authentication).  This is more noticeable when doing it all form Windows as you would see a message 

"Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user, using more than one user name are not allowed. Disconnect all previous connections to the server or shared resource and try again." 

but this message is not presented in Acronis if you attempt to create a second, different connection (different username/password than one that is already bein used to connect to another share or create a mapped drive on the same NAS).

Thanks for the additional information.

I will try the NAS backup again.  It was deleted when I previously ran the cleanup tool, so I had to start from scratch.  It will run tomorrow as there is too much data for it to copy successfully this evening.

I was aware of the restriction in Windows of only connecting with a single username and password to each device.  It does makes things interesting sometimes but I have got used to working with it that way.  I have a Seagate Central NAS but it is beyond basic.  I think the time to upgrade to something with more capacity and more features is looming.  Being able to browse multiple private folders (or adjust permissions to do so) is a simple requirement the Seagate just can't cope with.

Roger that.  Happy to try an help if you do run into network connectivity issues again after (if) you switch back.  Even 2017 v5554 introduced a new bug (after fixing this one) that made connecting to a NAS in Acronis more troublesome. They released patch 5555 for now, but it only seems to be for 2017 5554 and is scheduled to be included in the next update (whenever that will be). 

Well - I made a tiny amount of progress - but now I am at my wits end.  I just want this software gone and replaced with something reliable.

Acronis did respond and said they had stopped developing the 2016 version and offerred a free trial of 2017.  I have installed that but waited for the weekend so I had chance to try it out.

1.  2017 keeps creating folders where backups removed from the application interface used to be.  For example E:\Test01 E:\ScdTest02 etc.  They are empty folders and come back whenever the application is opened.

2.  I found the issue with the NAS was not so much the authentication - but that I foolishly had a pre-task script file located on the NAS.  I googled error "1" and also what happens when tasks are run in a service account and came to this conclusion myself.  Had a similar problem at work with other software so slapped my ow wrists for not considering it as the cause earlier.  Seems to work now.

3.  The NAS task ran on the first attempt and seemingly created the backup successfully.  However, it then sent an email saying it had failed, but giving no reason.  The interface says "The last backup failed as the pre-task failed to execute (error 1)".  So I am thinking the task succeeded (it created the correct amount of data and took the right amount of time including verification) but did not send a 'success' email.  Email must be configured as the 'Failed' ones are sent.

4.  Acronis then fired off 4 emails at 20 min intervals saying the script couldn't run.  At that stage I gave up for the day.  It takes 7 hours to backup all my data from a blank start (I use lots of virtual machines).

5.  This morning at 8:45 when NO task was scheduled, the NAS backup task started.  It wasn't due until 2pm.  When the pre-task script ran it moved 12 of the 29 slices (BD-23gb size) and for some as yet unknown reason, the rest of the slices were deleted.  This suggests the task was not allowed enough time to complete - and Acronis cleared the target folder before it started.  Thats interesting as not clearing the folder was one of the bugs I was hoping they would fix.  However, it HAS to wait for the script to finish! (yes - that checkbox is checked).

6.  Another bit of good news - the 9am backup to internal disk is queued, suggesting the scheduler may actually be working again for that task.

I really don't know what to do now.  I'll feed back to Acronis but I have completely lost faith in this softwares ability.  I have spent countless hours uninstalling, reinstalling, deleting and recreating tasks, testing different builds...  It shouldn't be this difficult!!

Thanks for all your help.

Andrew, from your comprehensive update above and the different issues you have listed, I would recommend making a clean start with both the ATIH 2017 application (assuming that you intend to continue with this beyond the 30 day trial period), and with your backup tasks.

The problem with empty folders being created is caused by problems in the Acronis database, which in turn is caused by manually deleting old backup files outside of using the automatic cleanup rules for your tasks.  When you manually delete files this leaves information about those files in the database, hence Acronis recreates the folders where those files are expected to be found!

Your other problem with Pre/Post Command scripts leading to errors in your backup task suggests that you have changed some aspect of the task that is calling the script, or not updated the script etc.

Doing a full uninstall of the software, then using the Acronis Cleanup Tool (link below), restarting then reinstalling either your licensed ATIH 2016 or the trial 2017 software, would cleanup all the database issues, plus then creating your backup tasks anew without any extra scripts would show that the standard product will work as expected.

I think I have run out of patience with this.  Almost an entire Sunday wasted and no progress made.

So I did a clean install of Acronis 2017 on all the computers.  Created brand new tasks.  The first time the scheduled time came, the tasks on all three ran and the NAS tasks also ran.  No issue at all.

So I rescheduled them to launch again this evening.  On one PC the dreaded "The last backup has failed".  On the second PC the start time passed and nothing happened.

I'll feed back to Acronis but I have totally lost faith in this product.  Which is a shame prior to the 2016 version I had complete and total faith in it's reliability as nothing had ever gone wrong.

I won't have any time to look at this again until 4th Feb.

Thanks again for your help in trying to solve it.

The modification of a backup task such as adjusting the start time has in past versions not always produced the desired result and ended in a failure in some cases.  So conventional wisdom has been not to modify a task once created but to instead create a new task to include the desired changes and then stop using the orignal task.

2017 handled changes in tasks much better than previous versions but in your case this seems not to be the case.  Not sure if this is because you are using 2016 or not.  I would suggest that you create a new task exactly as you want it and delete the orignal task.