All backups changed from full only (two), and full with differential (three), to differential (full, then five differentials)

Dave,

This has been an Acronis issue - see forum topic: True Image 2020 -Backup option settings loss

I can only recommend that you and any other affected users contact Arpita Ghosh who is the new Acronis Product Manager for these home products! (Arpita.Ghosh@acronis.com).

Thanks again Steve. I appreciate the time, and work you put in on this forum, and have done for years.

Is Arpita just gathering data on occurrences, or is he working towards fixing the problem for which there might eventually be a patch?

Thanks,
Dave

Dave, hopefully the original issue behind this issue is now fixed (again!) - my pointer to Arpita is so that she is made aware of the ongoing impact on long term Acronis users to ensure that this issue stays fixed and doesn't come back again in the future to bite more of us!

Steve,

In which version has it been fixed? I'll send her an email with attachments.

Thanks,
Dave

Steve,

I opened the new settings backup archive. It contained several cfg files. When I opened them in notepad I saw what appeared to be an xml frame for the settings listing only the individual settings names, but not what the settings were.

I could find no mention of the individual backups, such as Quicken, nor how they were configured to run, i.e. differential, or full.

Is that information stored elsewhere, or is notepad unable to display it?

Thanks,
Dave

In which version has it been fixed? I'll send her an email with attachments.

Dave, this was never an issue that would be fixed by a new build version of Acronis - it originates from the Acronis online dashboard servers and that is where the fix is applied.  The actual fix to correct backup task schedule and other settings has to be done by the user based on their own knowledge of how their tasks are configured!

The settings are all handled via the normal Acronis GUI for each task - you should not be touching any of the underlying script .tib.tis (XML format) files as they are too easy to corrupt!

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the response.

However, it seems that again the response isn't quite on the mark. If I may... What does my version of Acronis have to do with online servers? Everything happens locally, so I don't know what you're referring to as to where the problem originates being with an online dashboard.

I believe by "actual fix" you mean restoring the backup routines to their original configuration. That's not fixing anything, let alone the bug that corrupts the backups routines. So yes, I, the user, restored the backup routines to their previous configuration. I did so manually.

As to your warning, I never mentioned that I was "touching" any script, .tib. .tis files. I wrote specifically that I opened the settings.zip archive, and examined a couple of the files that were in it, all .cfg file types. This is a backup of the settings, but as I mentioned, it appears to be an XML type layout that mentions settings, such as encryption, validation, etc., but does not show what the relative setting for that part of each backup routine is.

Thanks again for your time.

Dave

Dave, the root issue behind this settings loss / change / revert to default values is an action that is triggered by Acronis from their online dashboard servers, an action that should never have been possible in the first place! 

The dashboard is primarily intended to be an information source about backup status but can also allow users to manually trigger a backup remotely.  Neither of these operations should ever change the backup task configuration settings and there are no options the user can use to do so remotely - hence the root issue is with what Acronis have been able to do via these servers that should not have happened!

On your PC, one of the background Acronis services is the Managed Machine Service Mini service which communicates with the online dashboard servers.  This is the vehicle that is providing the access from the dashboard to your PC to perform the changes!  All of this is described in detail in forum topic: True Image 2020 -Backup option settings loss

My mistake reference the XML files from the settings export zip file, but even so, those files are too easy to corrupt if altered outside of using the GUI, so should be left alone.

The only active workaround to prevent this issue happening again is to set the MMSM service to Manual via the Windows services.msc control panel.  Once the settings have been changed, only the user knows what they should have been to correct them.

Thanks Steve,

I love your commitment to Acronis users.

I take it from your explanation that the source is the online dashboard, and that the dashboard can cause this problem even if it is never used, or even accessed by the user. When you say "should never have been possible in the first place!" I want to vote that for understatement of the year. :-)

There are so many reasons why that should not be possible, that it sounds like the premise to a science fiction movie; and one that stretches the imagination at that. Did Acronis invest any money, or time into determining what a user could look for as a fingerprint for the dashboard as the cause? Even something in the firewall logs showing access from an Acronis server IP, which would have to happen if the change came from outside my network.

I concur about the XML files. Perhaps I wasn't clear that I was looking at the backup of those settings files to see listed in them somewhere, for example, the word full for the backup type for quicken, or my Samsung SSD. It has to store that information somewhere. The logical place would be a setting file, but no luck. It's not an issue at this point.

Thanks for the info on the service. I will turn it off.

Thanks,
Dave

I meant to type disable it.