Can't open backups stored on Synology NAS
I have been using various Acronis products for years to back up to a Synology NAS. Last year, I added a second Synology NAS so I could have more storage, and I created new backup tasks to store them on this second NAS. This has all been working great until recently.
I'm not sure what happened, but one of my backup tasks changed its destination about a week ago from the new NAS to the old NAS. I think it may have been when I tried to open a backup with a similar name from the old NAS, but I'm really not sure. In any event, Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office won't let me change the destination back to the new NAS, because it keeps trying to find the backup information on the old NAS, which of course is not where the backups are.
So instead I am trying to create a new backup task by doing an "Add existing backup" on the most recent backup on the new NAS. But when I try to do that, I get an error message saying that the file is "locked or corrupt". I tried opening up the .tibx file on Windows, but it shows the contents as empty, even though the file is clearly not empty (it is not 0 bytes).
As it happens, I have successfully opened existing backups on the old NAS before, but this is the first time I've tried to open one from the new NAS. So I'm wondering if there's something about the new NAS that is making my backup files unreadable (which, if true, is lucky I found out before I had to restore a backup!!!). I don't have encryption turned on in the NAS, so I'm really not sure what might be causing this.
So here I am asking for help. Does anybody have any thoughts on what might be going on and how to solve it?
Thanks!


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As it happens, I have discovered even more problems. It turns out that the backups with the "mysterious destination change" are not the only ones that I cannot successfully do an "Add existing backup" on. Most -but not quite all - of my backups from four different computers (plus backups of the NAS itself to USB drives) for the past 13 months or so that is on the new Synology (even those that still have working tasks) gives me the same error when I try to "Add existing backup", and shows an empty window when I try to open them in Windows File Explorer. SOME of my recent backups, plus I think all of my olders ones (using .tib files instead of .tibx) seem to be okay.
Additionally, because I am now nervous that I can't actually access many of my past backups, I am trying to restore a snapshot of a backup that is supposedly currently working just fine. I am trying to restore the files to a separate folder that I plan to ZIP up, just to make sure I have at least one good snapshot I can access. But when I try to do that, I get an error message "Recovery has completed with errors" with zero additional information, and only a small number of the files get restored.
One of the reasons we store chains of backups is that we don't know when we might realize we need something we deleted, right? So deleting everything and starting over from scratch is not that appealing a solution, especially when I apparently can't access any of my backups anyway. So what happens if I start over from scratch and everything appears to be working (as it has for the past year or so), and then when I actually need to restore some files I discover that I can't (which is the position I find myself in now)?
This all ASIDE from Acronis deciding to change which NAS it considered to be my destination (even though the two NASes have different names).
So for now I have unscheduled ALL of my Acronis backup tasks, and I'm trying to solve the problem of actually being able to retore anything from any of them.
At this point I am almost resigned to the idea that my last year's worth of backups are useless because I either can't open them or can open them but not restore from them. I would love to get a solution so I can at least save some snapshots from these backups. But either way I have completely lost faith in Acronis and plan to switch products after 10 years. For the first 9 years Acronis worked wonderfully. But it now appears to be completely broken and takes days to get a response from support or to get a post to appear on this forum? What happened?
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When you are trying to 'Add existing backup' do you already have a task of the same name in the list of backups on the computer you are using? If you do, then this action will either fail or will cause further issues, especially if the backup came from a different computer but has the same name.
The move by Acronis from using .tib to .tibx files (for Disks & Partitions backups only) came with ATI 2020 and continues will all subsequent versions including ACPHO. While there were some issues on first introduction, most have been resolved in later versions such as 2021 & ACPHO and my own personal experience has shown .tibx files to be reliable for both backup & recovery (providing the rules for these files are followed!!!).
The key rule for .tibx files is to never touch them outside of using the options provided within the Acronis application and especially to never delete any 12kb .tibx files that get added in the storage folder as this contains essential metadata, plus never rename these files or try to separate individual .tibx files from a group created by your backup task.
See the following KB documents published by Acronis with regards to .tibx files.
KB 63518: Acronis True Image 2020: do not delete first tibx file
KB 63227: Acronis True Image: Do not delete .TIB or .TIBX files outside of Acronis True Image
KB 63498: Acronis True Image 2020-2021: new tibx backup format FAQ
KB 63425: Acronis True Image: Limitations of tibx backups
KB 63445: Acronis True Image 2020: how to view and manage backup versions in new backup format
KB 63444: Acronis True Image 2020 and 2021: tibx backups in local destinations
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No, I am not trying to add existing backups with names that match existing tasks on the same machine.
It looks like my old .tib files all work fine, and I still have a license to ATI 2019, from before they started the subscription model. So I should be fine with those if I ever need them. It appears my problems are primarily with the .tibx files, starting when I switched to ATI 2020 and then Cyber Protect Home Office. I would just hang onto the .tibx files and try again someday if I ever discovered I needed them, but since CPHO is subscription only, presumably I won't even have a way to TRY to open them if I let my subscription expire. I guess you have had a very different experience from me if you have found the .tibx files to be reliable. As I've said before, I've always been completely happy with my Acronis experience until now. At this point, I will try a bit more, but it seems like all of my .tibx backups have been a total waste of time. Thank goodness I didn't have any data disasters before I discovered what was going on. I will try a bit more so I can see if I can salvage any of the backups in case I need them for the future. Otherwise, I'll consider the recent backups to be a total loss. Unless something dramatic happens to change my mind (which would include actually getting some useful email replies to the tickets I've submitted this week) I'm going to cut my losses and start using Synology's products for my backups.
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Based on the "rules" you list, I suspect some of my problems are from me moving some of my backups from one NAS to another. But I didn't try to create new tasks from the old backups...I was just saving them and starting afresh. And if simply moving an entire directory of .tibx files to a different location makes it impossible to restore anything from those files, then that's just a brain-dead design and reinforces my impulse to leave Acronis behind.
It also would not explain ALL my experience, because some of the backups I can't restore from have never been moved, renamed, or anything. And it certainly doesn't explain why Acronis thought it could move the destination of one of my tasks from the new NAS back to the old NAS. Again, that must have been caused by something I did, I guess, but I didn't do anything unusual, so that's yet another brain-dead design issue.
Notably, the rules also wouldn't explain why the error messages I'm getting are so completely uninformative.
Thank you for the information and for trying to help, though.
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Randolph Jones wrote:Based on the "rules" you list, I suspect some of my problems are from me moving some of my backups from one NAS to another. But I didn't try to create new tasks from the old backups...I was just saving them and starting afresh. And if simply moving an entire directory of .tibx files to a different location makes it impossible to restore anything from those files, then that's just a brain-dead design and reinforces my impulse to leave Acronis behind.
It also would not explain ALL my experience, because some of the backups I can't restore from have never been moved, renamed, or anything. And it certainly doesn't explain why Acronis thought it could move the destination of one of my tasks from the new NAS back to the old NAS. Again, that must have been caused by something I did, I guess, but I didn't do anything unusual, so that's yet another brain-dead design issue.
Notably, the rules also wouldn't explain why the error messages I'm getting are so completely uninformative.
Thank you for the information and for trying to help, though.
Hello Randolph.
Thank you for your recent comment regarding your experience with Acronis. I have shared your comment with our respective team for further review and analysis. We appreciate your feedback and we apologize for any inconvenience that you have experienced.
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