Automatic Backup Delete Not Working

Chuck, this may be a case of not understanding how automatic cleanup actually works.

Automatic cleanup works with completed backup version chains where a version chain is only considered to be completed when a new version chain has been successfully started with a new full backup image being created.

A version chain comprises of a full backup image file plus all associated incremental or differential backup image files that share the same backup sequence number, i.e. the file name has the same _B1_ (or B2,3,... etc) number shown.

The age of a completed backup version chain only starts counting from the creation of the next version chain.

If you configure to "Store no more than 2 recent version chains" then you need sufficient free space for at least 3 x Full backup images to allow for the creation of the new next version chain full backup before automatic cleanup will delete the oldest version chain.

If you configure to "Delete version chains older than 3 days" and you are doing a full backup daily, then you need sufficient free space for at least 5 x Full backup images before the oldest backup chain is deleted.

Steve, Thank you for your response. 

I do have enough disc space for 3 backups.  What  I  can't seem to do is change  the setting in TIH.  I am using ONLY Full  Backups, no incrementals. 

Are you saying the this feature ONLY works when incremental backups are being used - it will NOT work with Full version backups?  Is that  what  I am understanding?

Again, at this point I am not even ABLE to SAVE any change to either values on that screen in TIH.   The default is Delete vesions older than 3 days and although it will let me change it, I can't SAVE it.  I can also change the  Store No More than 1 recent versions but can't SAVE the change.   I have attached  a pic.

Chuck, the comments apply to all types of backup - a version chain can have just a full backup image, as in your case with only doing full backups.

How are you trying to save the changes to the automatic cleanup settings?

The SAVE button on the panel shown in your screen shot is only to save a custom backup scheme as a user defined scheme.

To save your changes you need first to click on the OK button at the bottom right, then click on the Backup Now button or one of the Backup Later options that this can offer, i.e. backup in 1 hour, 2 hours, etc.  Until you do this the changes are not saved.

Thank you Steve.  I will follow that process now before I hit the hey.    Hopefully I wake up to find that the back up has been made and the changes saved.

Hello Steve. It did not work.  Last night I changed the BAckup Scheme to Store no more than 2 recent versions.  I hit OK, then Save, then Back up Now.  This morning the backup failed and the configuration is back to the default - Delete versions older than 3 days.

Any idea?

Chuck, sorry to hear that this hasn't worked for you.

I would suggest trying a Repair install of your ATIH 2015 software in case something has become corrupted or damaged in some way that is contributing to this problem.

To do a Repair install, first sign in to your Acronis account on the main Acronis.com webpage then download the last full installer for your product.  Run the installer as Administrator and you should be offered the option to either Repair or Uninstall - take the Repair option and let it do the business.  There should be no risk to any of your configured backup tasks in doing this repair as it is only checking / replacing the program files and registry entries etc.

Hi.  I just finally got back to this issue.  I have Repaired the installation and will see if it works tomorrow.  I will let  you know..  Thank you.

Hi! Is the security zone Acronis True Image 2015 protected from the encryptor virus ransomware (For example - WannaCry, Petya) ? The security zone is password protected and is on the second hard drive. Thank you.

Sergey, welcome to these User Forums.

Your question should really be asked by raising a New Topic as it is very different to this particular topic.

As far as I am aware, ASZ should offer some protection from encryptor virus ransomware but that really depends on how well engineered that ransomware is?  The ASZ is really only a FAT32 partition with a different partition type code and can be changed back to a standard FAT32 partition by any partition manager software, so could be changed by a virus that used such mechanisms.  Once the partition is exposed, then all bets are off, as even already encrypted files (by password) can be encrypted further by the virus!

See the Wikipedia entry: Acronis Secure Zone related to my comments above which show how this information is fully in the public domain, so available to anyone to read & use.

I can confirm that the automatic delete doesn't work until you (2017) :

1) change automatic backup options 

2) change backup schema say from incremental to save as a custom scheme - name it

3) then immediately do a backup 

It then works and is actually saved 

This is a very poor UI design

Also you ought to be able to also delete backup chains on demand from the gui

- not have to boot from rescue media as was suggested in an old post

Regards,

John S

John, welcome to these User Forums, and thank you for your sharing your experience in this area.

There should be no need to save your backup scheme as a custom scheme - it should be sufficient just to change the type of backup scheme to be Custom and then configure the automatic cleanup actions.

This has been reported a number of times to Acronis but has not been fixed as yet!

You can delete old backup chains via Windows Explorer but you must then do a Validation of the backup task that created those files in order to reconcile the file information held in the internal Acronis database.

I am happy to report (after almost 3 years) that this issue is resolved.  Steve Smith's response on 5/14/2017 resolved the issue.  I am embarrassed to say that I had not READ his comment correctly so I believed that I still had an issue.  I have been dealing with backups not being deleted since then.  

The  other day, in my frustration, I decided to once again look into this.  I re-read Steve's response and then tested it.  It worked as he stated.  My  oversight before was that I was NOT assuring that  there was enough Free space on the disk (5x)

Thanks Steve and others who have commented..  

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I have the same problem, except I'm deleting after 3 chains. At this moment, I have 4 complete chains and a partial that is the current backup. I have two backup schemes, one for C:/, and one for D:/ and both are acting the same. I have recently done a Repair Install, and that didn't solve the problem. I have 1.21 TB available on the disk. Let me know if I need to ask this in a new thread. Thanks.

Robert, this topic is 3 years old and was raised for ATI 2015, so please do open a new topic in the forum for the version of ATI that you are using and we will be happy to help you.

Thanks, Steve. I am using Acronis 2015. Does your answer still apply?

Robert, that's fine if you also have ATI 2015.  Please can you provide more details of exactly what your Backup Scheme and Automatic Cleanup settings are for your problem task(s), plus would be good to see a listing of the files already present for the task?

OK, Here they are. Thank you for your help.

Robert, with your scheme & cleanup settings then the oldest b21 chain should have been deleted when the _full_b24 chain was started successfully, then the b22 chain deleted when _full_b25 chain was created.

As you have 5 current chains showing, this suggests that perhaps the scheme settings have been changed at some point to cause the counts to be reset / restarted.

The options here are to either wait for the b25 chain to be completed and the new b26 chain to be started to see if the oldest b21, b22 & b23 chains are then removed (assuming this will all fit in the available free space on the backup drive), or else to manually remove the oldest b21 chain then run a validation for the C_Drive task to reconcile the information held in the Acronis Database for the deleted files.

FYI, Acronis have brought a 'Clean up versions' tool back into the main ATI GUI from 2019 onwards which makes this type of issue much simpler to resolve without having to use Explorer then do a validation.

Thanks, Steve. I'll wait it out and see what happens.

Well Steve, I waited for the next Full operation and Acronis still did not clear the old chains. I deleted them manually, as I am getting low on space. Am I correct in assuming that my only solution is to delete the present backup schemes and reenter them?

Robert, I understand your frustration. I am assuming you deleted the files using Explorer, in that case you may not need to do anything other than Validate the backup, and when error messages popup click on "ignore". This updates the internal data base so it aligns with the actual files.

Ian