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Scheduled backup does not work any more (again)

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I had the strong impression, that the problem reported in https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2016-forum/scheduled… was solved, but unfortunately it wasn't.

(I was on vacation since then therefore I post the following only now)

My scenario is that I have two daily scheduled tasks - one for drive C and one for my data. Both with a target in a second drive in my PC, with different directories under main directory "backup". Options are set both to incremental backups.

1) Scheduled backup of drive C: works as expected, a log file is created in the logs directory. I could follow its execution while ATI was open (started earlier)

2) Scheduled backup of data, with ATI open here as well: the "Next backup" indicator shows the time of the next scheduled execution. At the scheduled point in time the following is displayed almost immediately: the "Next backup" indicator changes to the next day, and the icon between source and target in the GUI shows an "X", and after a click it displays "Letztes Backup ist fehlgeschlagen" (last backup failed). Within the logs directory nothing has changed, so no indication of a failed job. However, starting the backup manually, its execution is performed and logged as expected.

So all the efforts from my earlier post (removal and new installation of ATI, creation of a new job for my data backup) have completely failed.

I experience this problem only on one PC, on another machine with the same setup everything is running fine.

 

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Torsten, sorry to hear that this problem has returned again.  It is difficult to say why this problem is happening without access to more information?

If you can try to create a System Report zip file from this computer, this would capture all the log information and may give us a chance to investigate the issue.  The zip file would need to be of 2MB max size or less to be attached via the fourm option, but if larger perhaps you could share a link to a cloud share via Dropbox, OneDrive or other cloud service?

Meanwhile I believe that I have found the cause of the problem. After I reposted my problem here I have still further researched for the potential cause and found this thread (on ATI 2017): https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2017-forum/backup-wont-start-folder-may-be-blocked-another-app

The conclusion there on a somehow similar problem was that it was caused by OneDrive.

I use OneDrive only very seldom so I checked the situation on my machine. I have got a OneDrive folder which is included in the backup of my data, but then I detected that I was not logged in my OneDrive account.

After having logged in I tried the scheduled backup again – and guess what – now it got executed!

I will have a final check tomorrow morning, for when the next backup is scheduled, and will report here on the result.

Torsten, the key issue with OneDrive folders is if you have the OneDrive 'Files on Demand' feature enabled where the actual files are stored in the OneDrive Cloud and this leaves just a marker behind but which ATI has problems dealing with.  If Files on Demand is disabled, all files should be downloaded / kept locally and the backup should be fine to go.

I can confirm my above observation, so now scheduled backups for my data are executed properly again. As an additional discovery I found that the task which starts OneDrive was disabled for whatever reasons.

Thank you Steve for the additional in-sight on OneDrive. However, I wonder that ATI 2016

  • did not log the reason for the failed scheduled backup (at least not in the logs directory), but simply stopped within seconds
  • on the other side could handle this “OneDrive situation” without any problems during a manually started backup

I would like to suggest that the developers have a closer look here and provide a fix, at least for the recent version(s) of ATI.

Torsten, I can only suggest that you use the Feedback tool to pass on comments about how ATI 2016 handles OneDrive backups differently between scheduled / manually launched tasks.

The developers are actively looking to resolve this issue with ATI 2018 / 2019 versions but are still having problems handling the 'reparse points' that OneDrive creates for 'Files on Demand' as far as I understand. 

KB 61425: Acronis True Image 2018: OneDrive folders are excluded by default - was produced to inform 2018 users but the latest Beta 2 build for 2019 has re-enabled OneDrive backups where Files on Demand is not being used.