External drive backup scheduled twice daily, only runs once per day

Please download the MVP Log Viewer tool (link in my signature below) and use this to review the log file for your backup operation. This should provide more information on why your backup is not running at the twice daily scheduled second time.

Note: You may need to check both the default ti_demon logs for the backup task, and the Schedul2 logs for the Acronis scheduler process that should be launching the backup both times.

I checked the TI_demon logs for the external drive tasks and they only show the successful 8AM backups along with the successful cloud backup tasks. There are no entries for the times a scheduled backup doesn't run. I noticed that the 8AM external drive backup did not run this morning, so despite the backup task being scheduled to run twice per day, now it is not running at all.

I checked the Schedul2 logs and don't really understand the entries. There are entries during the day at times that do not correspond to any scheduled backups, and entries during the times that scheduled backups run, but no entries at times a scheduled backup does not run.

What can I check next?

Can you zip up some of the Schedul2 logs and upload them to this topic so I can take a look for you?

MrVivona, on the task's Schedule page, open up the Advanced Settings.

Is the option Wake up the sleeping/hibernating computer set? If not and the computer was sleeping, it won't run.

In looking at the Schedul2 logs, first try to determine the task number. You will see entries like "Trying task 1-6" and "Running task 1-6" where 1-6 may be the task number (in your case it will probably be different). Look at the time it last ran successfully to find the entries with your task number. See if there are any entries showing an error running the task.

On the task's Schedule page, Advanced Settings, the option to wake up the computer is checked. See attached screenshot for all settings on that page.

Some of the Schedul2 logs are also attached.

Thanks for the schedul2 log data.

The log data for yesterday 09/10/2019 shows task 1-2 was launched at 08:00 on schedule and took until 13:28 to complete.

Another task 1-7 is launched at 15:34 and finishes very quickly within the same minute.

The computer then looks to go to sleep at 16:10 and doesn't wake up again until 23:26 when task 1-7 is launched again and ends again at the same time.

The earlier log from 06/10 shows similar with the computer going to sleep at 16:15 until 21:12 (after running task 1-2 on schedule at 08:00).

You may need to check your power settings for wake timers?  Alternatively, ensure the computer is awake at around 7:55pm and see if the scheduled 8pm task is run correctly in that case?

I saw those tasks, but couldn't clearly identify which was which. Based on timing, Task 1-7 appears to be the cloud backup and 1-2 appears to be the local backup. There also was an earlier 1-4 task that corresponded with cloud backups. I have not found any tasks that correspond with the 8PM local backup task.

I'm wondering why the local backup screen shows the next backup as "Not scheduled", though. There seems to be a disconnect between the data shown on the backup settings screens and the scheduler. I don't want to change anything right now because it may prevent us from discovering the cause, but I will eventually try deleting the entire local backup and recreating it carefully without edits to see if there is a possible corruption within the existing backup script.

As to computer sleep, the PC is almost always in sleep mode at 8AM because I usually don't start working on it until about 10AM, but the 8AM backup had been working okay until today. The PC is often in sleep mode at 12AM and that backup runs okay, too. Regardless, for testing purposes I have now set the power settings to never put the PC to sleep to see if that makes a difference. I don't want to keep it that way, though. ATI should be able to wake it from sleep if everything was working properly.

That "Not scheduled" is peculiar, especially since the 8AM backup runs (and even wakes the sleeping computer).

Just for a test, maybe you should create a new backup task - maybe just backing up one file so it's quick - and schedule it to run at 8PM.  If that works, change it to a "twice a day" schedule and see if it still works.  There could be a bug in "twice a day" scheduling.

At 4:40PM, I set up a folder backup to run once a day at 5PM. It didn't show up on the main page as "Next backup" and it didn't run at 5PM. I then ran it manually and the "Next backup" message showed it as being scheduled. I then modified the backup to run at 5:25PM. The "Next backup" message updated accordingly and the backup ran at 5:25PM. I then added a second backup to the same task to run at 5:35PM. The "Next backup" message updated accordingly and the backup ran at 5:35PM and the Next backup message updated for the next day's 5:25PM. Simply put, once I ran the test backup manually, it began running as scheduled, including a twice daily scheme.

So, the next test was to run the original non-running local backup manually and see if it updates the Next backup message. It didn't. Now, what is different between the two? The original non-running local backup is a disk backup over 500GB and creates a .tibx file. The test backup is a folder-level backup and creates a .tib file. Perhaps this is a another type of the large full-disk .tibx backup problem that was "fixed" in the latest release?

I have created a new full disk local backup to see if the problem continues. Stay tuned...

Okay, I created a new local disk backup with the same parameters as the one that wouldn't run as scheduled. I started it manually at 7:33PM and it ran as expected. After it ran, it showed "Next backup today 8PM". I am now waiting to see if the 8PM backup will run and if the message will change to "Next backup 8AM".

**Edited to add that the 8PM backup ran and the "Next backup" message says 8AM. I will see if that happens.

The new local backup task I created continues to work as expected. For now, I'll consider the problem solved and will assume that there was some sort of corruption with the previous version of the backup task. If the problem arises again in the future, I be back...

Thank you to all for the ideas of things to try. This forum is always a great help!

Good to hear, hope all continues to behave as expected!

I created a test of this two days ago. The results are giving me a headache. I'll start another thread about this.

The problem with success is that it derails diagnosis, and there was a definite problem to be solved.

Patrick O'Keefe wrote:

The problem with success is that it derails diagnosis, and there was a definite problem to be solved.

I have to agree that by simply creating a new backup task and deleting the errant one, I may have prevented further diagnosis as to why the original backup task was not running as scheduled. With other important computer priorities, I needed my backups working as soon as possible. I didn't see others reporting the same issue, so I assumed this was a one-time problem, perhaps due to a system reboot at the wrong time, and I took the quickest approach to getting Acronis to work correctly. I don't know how much was left behind in logs and scripts, but would be willing to share them with anyone that wants to pursue this further.