How to initiate the "clean up" process (NOT SOLVED, can't remove "tag")
So, I had a backup setup on my old PC, moved to the new PC and the reconfigure did not work out. So basically, the backup has the old PC's drive E and new PC's drive D backed up now, although the folder structure is the same.
Anyway, I want to get rid of the old PC's files, but I can't delete them manually. So, I set the "clean up" rules to 1 month (move is now more than 1 month ago), but nothing happened. So, I clicked manually back up again, but nothing happened.
Is there a way to manually initiate the "clean up" routine? Because I want to get it done with, so I can set back the rules to keep stuff for 6 months.
PS: The deletion / clean-up seem to be really lacking or am I missing something?
thank you!
But I only can select: "Delete...", "Open Location", "Search Files".
If I click delete, it asks me if I want to delete everything.
I looked at my other backup, this one has "cleanup versions...".
The difference between the two backups is, that one is a hard drive and the other is a folder. Only the latter has "cleanup versions..." available.
Jimmy, the recommended method of deleting unwanted backup images is to use the Clean up versions tool which was introduced with ATI 2019 and later versions.
KB 61844: Acronis True Image 2019, 2020 and 2021: How to delete old backups
The caveat with this tool is that you must have the backup listed in the main Acronis GUI so if you have backups from another PC which are not listed, then you would need to add these back in using the option to 'Add existing backup' which is hidden under a caret 'v' to the right of the normal + Add backup option.
If you are attempting to use Automatic cleanup then look at the following explanation.
Automatic cleanup
There can be lots of confusion around the topic of automatic cleanup which can be better understood if some basic concepts are known!
First: automatic cleanup only works on complete(d) versions / version chains. Do not expect individual elements of version chains to be cleaned up, such as incremental or differential files!
Second: automatic cleanup only runs after a new Full backup for the next version / version chain has been created successfully. This means that there must be sufficient free space available on the storage drive / location to hold a new Full backup image file!
Third: counting of days does not start until after a new Full backup file has been created when using the option to ‘Delete versions / version chains older than X days.’ It does not start for the active backup version / version chain before that point!
Fourth: the simplest & easiest automatic cleanup option to use & understand is to ‘Store no more than X recent versions / version chains.’ The criteria here means that if you set X = 2, then when the X+1 (3rd) version / version chain is created successfully with a new Full backup file, then the oldest version / version chain will be deleted by automatic cleanup.
Example:
Incremental backup task, using Full plus 5 Incremental backups before next new Full backup.
Task scheduled to run daily with automatic cleanup set to ‘Store no more than 2 version chains.’
Day 1 – Full backup created.
Days 2 – 6 Incremental backups created.
Day 7 – Next new Full backup created.
Days 8 – 12 Incremental backups created.
Day 13 – Next new Full backup created. Automatic cleanup deletes files created on days 1 – 6.
If the same task used ‘Delete version chains older than 7 days’, then those 7 days wouldn’t start counting until day 7 for the first set of files (version chain 1) and not until day 13 for the second set etc. So automatic cleanup wouldn’t delete the oldest chain until day 14 in the above example.
Steve Smith wrote:KB 61844: Acronis True Image 2019, 2020 and 2021: How to delete old backups
The caveat with this tool is that you must have the backup listed in the main Acronis GUI so if you have backups from another PC which are not listed, then you would need to add these back in using the option to 'Add existing backup' which is hidden under a caret 'v' to the right of the normal + Add backup option.
Thank you!
The issue is, it seems I added the new backup to the old backup...
At least online, I have a drive D (old) and E (new) in there and everything I tried so far can't get rid of it.
But there is no "clean up versions" selectable...
The automatic cleanup does not seem to work as well, at least I tried to reduce it to several days etc.
Jimmy, if the core issue here is the need to delete .tib / .tibx image files to make space on your storage drives, then you have a couple of options open to you in addition to those already mentioned previously.
1: you can turn off Acronis Active Protection from the Protection page of the Acronis GUI which would then let you delete unwanted image files without putting up a fight!
2: you could connect your storage drive to another computer which doesn't have Acronis installed on it and delete files in that way.
For either of the above, you should perform a Validation for the backup task that created those deleted files if it still exists as Acronis holds information about all files for tasks in its internal database.
Note: TIBX files are also linked by metadata and should not normally be deleted outside of the tools provided by Acronis, especially if you have a backup task that created those files still in the GUI.
thank you!
How can I see .tib / .tibx image files?
If I select the Backup "Primary Backup" via the webinterface, there are both drives D and E, I can select both of them, yet, they allow only "download" not "delete" or anything else. The backup takes up 4 TB, both D & E do about 2 TB. I can only get rid of all, which means I would have NO backup at all or none of the two and hope that at one point one gets "cleaned up", but I kinda suspect that won't happen, since either I am an idiot or someone really built this thing in the most unintuitive way possible.
1: you can turn off Acronis Active Protection from the Protection page of the Acronis GUI which would then let you delete unwanted image files without putting up a fight!
I tried this, in web gui where I could select D & E, it was still not possible do delete anything and when I select "open location" in the Acronis GUI it opens the web gui...
The only time I can select individual folders and files is in the "recovery" section.
Note: TIBX files are also linked by metadata and should not normally be deleted outside of the tools provided by Acronis, especially if you have a backup task that created those files still in the GUI.
yeah, I suspect how this thing is built that everything goes down the drain if I do this.
How can I see .tib / .tibx image files?
If I select the Backup "Primary Backup" via the webinterface, there are both drives D and E, I can select both of them, yet, they allow only "download" not "delete" or anything else. The backup takes up 4 TB, both D & E do about 2 TB.
Jimmy, where exactly are your image files? From your comment above it sounds like you are dealing with backups to the Acronis Cloud server whereas my previous advice was for backups held on local storage locations, i.e. external or network drives.
I can only get rid of all, which means I would have NO backup at all or none of the two and hope that at one point one gets "cleaned up", but I kinda suspect that won't happen, since either I am an idiot or someone really built this thing in the most unintuitive way possible.
If you don't already have any local backups then I would strongly recommend creating some and not relying only on backups to the Cloud. Recovery from the Cloud is the slowest option as compared to recovering from local or network locations and recommended best practise suggests having a 3-2-1 approach, i.e. at least 3 different backups, to at least 2 different storage locations, with 1 held offline / off-site in case of physical damage from fire, flood, theft etc.
Once you have a set of successful local backups, then I would suggest looking again at the options for cleaning up those held in the Cloud, and consider making a clean start if needed with the safety net of having your local backup protection.
thanks, yeah, I use cyber protect home office for cloud backup only.
Yeah, I probably will have to go that way.