B & R version 10 upgrade issue Failed to open the metadata directory

Hi Colleagues
I recently upgraded my Server copy of B & R 10 to version/build 10.0.13762. To my horror every backup task failed to work giving the error 'Failed to open the metadata directory' - this is very serious and quite ridiculous....

OK tried searching/google acronis forums but couldnt find anyone who'd had the same issue, so help needed:
so far tried changing the credentials to no effect
looked at the Acronis Managed Machine service to see if it was a 'local logon' but is some Acronis 'user' changed it to domain admin but to no effect

Typical log looks like this:

Error

Failed to run the backup plan.

Details
Code: 589,936(0x90070)
LineInfo: 0xD6E6B1A4069CA4CF;

Module: C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\mms.exe
Message: Failed to run the task: error occurred while trying to run the task.

Code: 593,150(0x90CFE)
LineInfo: 0x9E5D09F7DA87D0C;

Message: Logging on with the specified credentials is impossible, probably because the account does not exist or the password is invalid.

Suggestions please?