No User Interaction Prompts
This has been an ongoing issue with TrueImage 2013 since time of purchase/installation, but I have simply ignored it and restarted failed backups.
Essentially, I never receive any user interaction prompts. A scheduled backup will run, get hung up on something it requires interaction for, eventually time out, and fail.
However, silent mode is disabled. That is, for any given scheduled backup, investigating Disk Backup Options > Advanced > Error Handling, the check box next to "Do not show messages and dialogs while processing (silent mode)" is unchecked.
Yet when I review the logs for a failed backup, I see clearly where it thinks it is prompting for user interaction. For instance (from a backup currently waiting to time out on my computer as I write this):
"The disk is full.
You must free additional disk space to continue. You can either empty the Recycle Bin or delete old data files.
To specify another location, click Browse.:
Retry// Cancel//"
That's in the log. The backup task hasn't failed yet. It's still waiting to time out. However, no such message is visible anywhere on my system, and thus there is no way to respond to it. Please advise.
One place to start is the systray. Start TrueImage. Rigtt click on extreme lower right corner of screen and click the "Customize notification icons."
Find the Acronis listings and make sure the notification is for both icon and notification.
Another option is to stop using the task which created the full disk message, and set up a new task with a different backup scheme which will automatically delete the oldest chains rather than let the backups just accumulate.
Depending upon whether you are using full only, or full with inc, or full with diff, one of the below should suffice.
GH11. Create Custom Full Backup Scheme.Keep 4 versions (chains). The 4 is user choice.
GH12. Create Custom Incremental Backup Scheme. 6 Inc, Keep 4 chains. The 6-4 is user choice.
GH13. Create Custom Differential Backup Scheme. 2 Diff, Keep 2 chains. The 2-2 is user choice.
Okay, just double checked notification icons. It was already set to "Show icon and notifications". So that wasn't the problem. Indeed, the icon for the currently stalled backup--a computer monitor with an animated blue arrow moving left to right, is plainly visible. However, there's no notification that the task is waiting for user action. For that, I must select "Status", and then read the log details of the currently stalled backup.
That said, I wouldn't think that would be where such notifications would appear. TrueImage is waiting for a user interaction. It is expecting either a "Retry" or "Cancel" button to be pressed before timeout. This would suggest that a dialog should be appearing, so that such buttons can be presented. A pop-up balloon in the system tray wouldn't serve that purpose.
As for the disk full message, that's neither here nor there. I already have the backup task set to delete old versions of backups. Unfortunately, TrueImage only performs this operation *AFTER* completing a backup. This is fine if there are few changes to disk between backups, but if I make major changes to the disk between backups, TrueImage will often run out of space on a new backup before it gets far enough to delete a prior backup. This on a destination disk that is already three times the size of the source disk.
Essentially, the folks at Acronis seem not to have heard of real-time garbage collection, instead leaving GC cleanup as an afterthought. Poor design, but survivable.
However, the problem of no user notification dialog appearing is not specific to disk full errors. The same issue occurs if I've neglected to connect the external storage media for the backup before a scheduled backup starts. Again, the log will report that the backup started, it will indicate that it was awaiting user interaction. It will timeout, and indicate that the backup failed. All without any dialog ever being presented in Windows to allow user interaction to actually occur.
So, our having confirmed that the system tray icon and notifications are and were configured as expected, the problem remains that no user interaction dialogs are ever presented, despite "Silent Mode" being disabled. The log for the failed backups show an attempt at user interaction, but at no time is a dialog actually presented to the user.
I concur 1000%.
The notification should be front and center and very visible, and
there should be a user option where the user could choose and set the scheme to delete the old backups either before or after the replacement has been created-- with deletion based on user setting.
On point a): I just now discovered that if I close the True Image program window, then go to the system tray icon and select cancel, several things happen:
i) The TrueImage window reopens;
ii) The dialog prompting for user interaction finally is presented;
iii) On then selecting "Retry", the backup resumes apace -- despite this whole chain of events occurring only after selecting *cancel* for the current backup process.
Wholly counter-intuitive and non-sensical. I shouldn't have to *cancel* a backup process that is waiting for user interaction in order for the user interaction dialog to be presented to me in order for the backup process to resume. Ugh.
On point b): A garbage collection before or after toggle wouldn't make much of a difference, insofar as it still leaves the question of GC for the period between backup operations. Instead, if, for instance, the backup is set to keep 300 gb free on the drive, then as soon as it drops below 300 gb, at any point during the backup process, GC of previous backups should be initiated.
If, in the above scenario, I start a backup with 310 gb free, it shouldn't wait until it has gobbled up 310 gb to complain it is out of space. Rather, as soon as the first 10 gb of the new backup file have been written, GC should be kicked off. An option to clear old backups "before" starting a new backup wouldn't address this issue, since before starting the backup we haven't reached the threshold. The threshold is reached in media res, and that is when GC should occur.
But anyway, still no answer as to why user interactions don't actually appear when a scheduled backup is running. I now have a way to get them to appear (by telling the tray notification to cancel the backup operation, which then causes the user interaction dialog to be presented) but this is an ass-backwards workaround.
Just for kicks, try starting TI with administratior rights.
Right click on the menu link and choose the "run as administator".
I suggest this test and I have a similar proglem with screen capture at times. Some program will not allow the capture and if I start the capture program as "run as administrator", the prompt will shows up on the main screen every time.