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Truecrypt and VeraCrypt and Acronis True Image - device locking by Acronis services

Thread needs solution

Just in case anyone else has been struggling with this problem I thought I would post this issue here. It also struck me that Acronis might be able to suggest a possible solution for those of us who are frustrated by this rather specific problem.

To maintain security of devices that are frequently out of my home I tend to encrypt devices - originally with Truecrypt and now VeraCrypt. I usually encrypt entire partitions of portable hard drives and USB devices and mount them with VeraCrypt to drive letters on the host operating system. This worked well with previous versions of True Image.

Since upgrading to 2016, on attempting to mount an encrypted partition the software reports that mounting is impossible because the partition is already in use, even though Windows 10 has not even mounted the drive.

Working through all the running services it turns out that the partition on the USB drive (and other encrypted devices) is being locked by the service 'Acronis Managed Machine Service Mini'. Disabling the service allowed VeraCrypt to mount the encrypted partition.

I have not tried to research the functionality of the service but it appears that it locks partitions even if they are not mounted or contain recognizable filing systems (as is the case of a VeraCrypt encrypted partition). Disabling the service allows them to be mounted exclusively by VeraCrypt and so this is a clunky but workable solution for mounting these.

I suspect that this is because True Image needs to be able to manage its own hidden partition and so in some way enumerates partitions on devices as they are attached to the system - of course there may be other reasons for this behaviour too.

What would be very useful (and this is probably more generally applicable) is if the Acronis processes relinquished the locks on devices when they were no longer needed.

Has anyone else experienced this problem and are there any more permanent solutions? Can I disable the Acronis Managed Machine Service Mini service completely and if so, what functionality will I lose?

Regards,

Geoff.

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I was about to do the same as I have clients info I need to reencrypt with VeraCrypt as TrueCrypt is now retired and forked to VeraCrypt.  There's sparse information from Acronis KB articles and I am not a fan of Bitlocker. Are you also running a regular backup regimen and if so are your VeraCrypt files/folders also backing up aside from the 'Acronis Managed Machine Service Mini' issue?

Hello,

I see the same Problem. I switched to Veracrypt with True Image 215 and there was no Problem. Updating to Ttrueimage 2016 showed the Problem, so it ist diectly related to the changes from 2015 to 2016 in the Service. I hoped to get a Solution via Hotline  but no chance. I'm not shure they even understood the problem. But it is a lot more crazy. If you start Procesmon from sysinternals to create an error log, the error vanishes.

Roundabout every 30th try I can mount the volume withaout any problem direktly.

If I start procmon on Veracrypt, only every 20th try doesn't work, every other mount works directly. An the Logfile shows no error.

If you disable or stop the AMMSM it works, I can't say wich functions don't work anymore but everytime you start TrueImage or get an update the service will be started again.

 

Regards

  Peter

Aconis Managed Machine Service Mini is the communication tool for the Family Dahboard feature.  Disabling the service will effect the dashboard.  I would think the dashboard would cease to function.  If you do not use the dashboard you can probably get by with disabling the service.  The link below lists all TI 2016 processes and services:

https://kb.acronis.com/content/56697

This issue may be related to user permisions.  If you are using other than the admin account used to install 2016 I would suggest switching to the admin account and see if that might make a difference.

Hi,

just for everybody as information.  I had another Problem with TrueImage regarding Universal restore. To solve this problem I got the Information to reinstall the Program. I didn't wanted it, but I deinstalled the Media Addon and the universal Restore Package. Afterwards I reinstalled both. what can I say, both Problems were solved. Universal Restores works and even Veracrypt seems to work now.

So try it Geoff, maybe it will work for you too.

 

Regards Peter