“Other” PC backup routines showing up under “This computer”
I mentioned this issue in another thread (“True Image 2020 -Backup option settings loss”), but I thought posting a new thread would be more appropriate. I have 4 PC’s on one local network and another on a separate network, but all on the same Acronis “account”. The Acronis console, for each PC, lists backup routines under “This computer” which should be just the routines for that specific machine, and should show the backup routines for the other computers on the account under “Others”. However, I have backup routines that should be under “Others” showing under “This computer”. This creates a problem because if a backup routine for the computer that is incorrectly showing under “This computer” is currently running, the backups for that local computer go into “queued” state and will not start until the remote computer finished its backup routine. If I delete a Cloud backup routine for a remote PC it indeed deletes the entire backup file set on the cloud for that remote computer. For a local NAS backup, I can delete the routine but keep the data files. I did discover that one of the ways the remote compute backup routine can get pulled under “This computer” is to select the backup routine under “Others” and then select “Reconfigure” at the bottom right of the console screen. If I make any changes to that remote backup and save the settings, the backup gets pulled under “This computer”. While this seems like a great feature to allow me to remotely modify backup settings (particularly for a PC that is on a different LAN at a remote location), once the backup routine is pulled under the “This computer” list, it impede’s the ability of those local backups from running on their appointed schedules, if the remote backup is running. I’ve attached an image of the console from one of my PC’s, TESLA. There are 4 other PC’s on my account, FERMI, BUGATTI, FIREWIRE, and HAROLD. The TESLA console shows 2 routines that should be under “This computer” and another that should not be there (FERMI-Cloud). There are 2 backup routines that I expect to see under “Others” (HAROLD and FIREWIRE-Cloud). There is one backup routine that should not be there (TESLA [Acronis Cloud]) and I don’t even know what it is (“Open Location” is greyed out) as it is an old routine that I deleted from the local machine. That same file folder looking backup routine is also showing up under “Others” on the FERMI console. 1) Is there a way to force the Acronis console to “reset” and list all of the backup routines on a user account so that they are listed in the correct area of the console? 2) Has anyone else seen similar behavior? I will also note that I’ve disabled the Acronis Manage Machine Service Mini (MMSM) earlier this week that I’m sure has something to do with how the local console gets update with remote computer backup routines. For example, the console only shows Acronis Cloud backup routines for the remote computers, but not any of the NAS backups for the remote machines. However, this problem started a while back before MMSM was disabled and the remote backups that are being reported under “Others” are new backup routines I created after disabling MMSM. It does seem that this started happening around the end of October.
Chris,
I have had the issue you describe. I have found that when you upgrade/install the application all other PC's should be offline to avoid the issue. I believe this behavior to be a result of the application scanning for existing backup when upgraded or installed and then making an assumption where those backups belong.
If only one machine and the backup destination device for that machine are online during upgrade/install the results are much cleaner but still might need some manual cleanup.
I think I had clicked on "Reconfigure" from one of the other machines. I believe that's when the script showed up under "This computer" (for a computer the script did not belong to). After that, the script ended up showing on the other 3 computers on the account in addition to the original computer that the script was created on and the 2nd computer that I clicked "Reconfigure" from. The settings of the script on each machine were such that each computer was firing off an update for that target computer. The script seemed to contain all the information the Acronis Cloud server needed to access that Cloud TIBX file set, along with the encryption password for the file set needed to initiate a backup session for the target computer. My guess is that this is not the purpose of "Reconfigure". As I mentioned this all happened around the timing of the Backup sessions settings loss issue.
I was able to figure out how to remove those rogue Cloud backup scripts showing up under This computer. I simply went to the Scripts folder on each affected computer, opened each script under I found one with the info for the foreign computer, and then deleted the script (after first turning off Active Protection). It hasn't re-occured since.
On a related note, I was reading the article https://kb.acronis.com/content/60915 on repairing program settings. It seems pretty clear from this that all backup tasks for all systems are copied and stored on the Acronis Cloud whether NAS or Cloud backup tasks. That might explain how the Acronis backup settings kept getting reset, due to some new software Acronis loaded on their servers related to this process downloading a modified script, replacing the good script on the local machine?
Chris,
In the Account screen of the GUI you will find the Dashboard. The Dashboard can be used to run tasks on other machines that are online and share a common account. So If you have a 5 license product with 5 PC's activated and all 5 are online when you upgrade/install then the backups on all 5 will be available and subject to pickup of the application scan for available backups.
What needs to be implemented is a filter that prevents backups originated on other client PC's from being added to the available backup tasks list on client PC'.
This is a problem I suspect of introducing features of the Enterprise/Business software into the Consumer True Image application. A trade off if you will from my perspective. You see, in the business product the application is installed on a single computer, in most cases a server, and all other computers are then clients of that single computer which controls all backup plans/tasks. In the case of True Image there is no central management computer thus all computers under the same license can control all ohers. Fine in theory but in practice has some bad behaviors.
If Acronis were to move to a Web based interface for multiple PC licenses where management would be held on a single server this issue would be entirely eliminated. Something those of us with multiple computers may want to add to the Wish List for the product :)
Just as a side note, all of my computers on the Online Dashboard report in as "OFFLINE", which I'm pretty sure is because the MMS service is disabled on each one of those systems. Still waiting to hear when Acronis product development has fixed the server-side issues so that I can turn MMS back on.However, I sure don't want to be the first one to try it 😉
Chris;
If you solved this permanently, please reply.
I have same issue. I bought a new Dell and rather than set Win10 up from scratch, I cloned a drive from a similar machine in use, and placed it in the new Dell, and renamed the machine and updated the software certs. [so if acronis uses mac address, machine name, or windows key for identity, I should be good]
When I started Acronis TIH 2018 from the new machine and logged in, I saw the cloud and local backups from the machine I cloned under "this computer". that was unexpected.
Deleting the local backup script is easy - the options in the ATIH GUI allow you to remove the script and save the local backup data. I tried deleting the cloud script, but it instead deleted the online data as well and the script on the other computer.
Outside the GUI, I found the scripts in: \programdata\acronis\trueimagehome\scripts, but reading these, they seem to be for the local backups.
In another area, \ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\OnlineBackup\[user], I found the certs and xml, but nothing that looks like a script.
I don't see anything in the registry
I tried a reinstall of ATIH, and used the "cleaner" program they offer. But it looks like it doesn't clean well enough, there is some residual data apparently, and the problem persists. Or, ATIH uses some other way besides name/MAC to uniquely ID a client.
If I don't solve this soon, I'll do a clean Win10 install on the new computer and manually re-load all my other applications, which I was trying to avoid. However, that may save me more time in the end if I can't get this one program to work correctly - Acronis.
So, if you solved this permanently, can you give the directory of the cloud scripts, and how you determined they were for which machine?
Solved.
Cloned client must have SID changed on the new machine. I also changed MS license and machine name. Run CMD, then whoami /user to verify SID.
However, SID change introduces issues with some windiws features: search, credentisls