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NSB causes a VSS stopping message and adds a file to System Volume Information every 5 minutes

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When I'm running NSB, every 5 minutes, I get a message "The VSS service is shutting down due to idle timeout " in the event viewer and a new file (40-300 Mb) is added  to the System Volume Information folder and the folder keeps increasing in size. If I turn off NSB, these do not happen. Why is this and how do I stop it without turning off NSB?

Using Windows 10

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Tom,

All Acronis backups use VSS by default (Microsoft Volume Shadow Service).  NSB, unfortunately looks for changes every 5 minutes so will activate VSS and then deactivate.  I don't use NSB personally- seems to complicated and too resource intensive and has the most user issues I've seen in all the forums , so I'm not the best one to respond, but can offer the following suggestion as a test/work-a-round if you need to continue to use NSB.

Try disabling VSS using one of the three methods (it works for other Acronis backup types, but not sure about NSB ones) - this will require Acronis to fall back on it's own proprietary snapapi backup method.  You can always enable again if it does prevent NSB from working...

https://forum.acronis.com/forum/116164#comment-346710

If that doesn't help the logging errors and/or prevents NSB from working, I might recommend ditching NSB and doing more frequent incremental backups (unless you need 5 minnute backups all day long) as a possible work-a-round that might still meet your backup needs.  FYI, NSB has other limitations such as no grooming - your disk will eventually fill up and then you'l have to start over at some point.  It's the only one that must recover from within the Acronis app (other backup types can simply double click a .tib file and open in File Explorer). NSB Backups get consolidated each day and then again each week so you'll only ever have a single backup point after each consolidation occurs (kind of defeating the purpose of having 5 minute backups each day when it comes time for recovery).  

For me, I find that using incrementals in Acronis and Windows backup protection (volume snapshots for changed files on the C:drive) does everythign that NSB is doing, but in a much more manageable and reliable way.  I see why NSB would be useful for some though, but these are just my thoughts/preferences. 

Thanks Bobbo, I'll look into those methods. It's good to know now where VSS comes into it, though why a new file is added every 5 minutes, even when there have been changes to the files monitored, is beyond me! I use it to back up work files and email, as my email programme sometimes throws a wobbly and I have to reinstall the folder containing the inbox.

Actually, I've just retired, so don't use these files so much, so may move to the incremental backup system. However, it's annoying that something I've paid for doesn't work better than this! And that Acronis don't seem to care

I hear you.  NSB has been problematic for many.  Acronis is working on making it more functional, but it should be a beta option and not an integrated one if it continues to be so buggy.  I've never actually tried NSB becuase of all the reported forum issues, but I also don't like that there is no automatic cleanup (other than the daily and weekly consolidation).  At some point, the disk will just fill it, which is pretty goofy.  

I'd much prefer to have an incrmeental or differnial backup that ran hourly or ever 2 hours, or just as often as needed that could have cleanup tasks enabled and is not going to bog the system down checking for thigns to backup every 5 minutes.  NSB sounds good on paper for those who need that kind of frequency, but seems like overkill in most real-world scenarios (for home users) and just hasn't proven to be stable enough yet (in my opinion - I'm sure it works fine for some, but all we see in the forums are those with issues an not those that are using is successfully).