No Cloud Backup for four days, and no response from Acronis Support.
I am running ATI-2020 on a Windows 7 (64) PC, doing both local backups to an external drive and cloud backups to the Acronis servers. I have successfully been using Acronis on this PC since ATI-2017.
I recently had a problem with local backups with ATI-2019 that would end with the error: "failed to read from sector". Here is what I've done so far:
1. I responded to a prompt to update my software to ATI-2020 and did so with the hopes that the upgrade would resolve the problem. It did not.
2. I opened a support case with Acronis and sent the system report and error screenshot as requested. Then, the cloud backups also began failing, but with no specific error reported.
3. A day later, the local backups began running without an error, but the cloud backups have consistently failed now for four days. There still is no error code or message reported.
4. I hadn't heard back from Acronis support for four days, so I send a followup message asking if this case was still being worked on, but have received no response yet. I also attempted to check the status of my support case by logging into my online Acronis account and selecting Profile, but there is no listing for Support Requests shown on the page.
So, with no cloud backups for four days, no response from Acronis Support four four days, and a Category 4 hurricane potentially heading my way, I am looking for a prompt solution to this problem. My questions:
A. Is it normal for Acronis Support to take several days to respond to support requests?
B. Why isn't my Support Request showing on my Profile page?
C. Is there a utility I can run that may reveal what is causing the cloud backups to fail?
D. Is there anything else I can to to try to fix the problem?
I'd sincerely appreciate any help. Thanks!
Regarding the local backup error "failed to read from sector" I had run chkdsk on both drives just to be sure, since Acronis may report drive numbers differently than Windows. Chkdsk /r found an error for one file in the Acronis program folder, but the local backups still failed after it fixed the file. A day later, the problem with local backups resolved for no apparent reason and it has been running fine since. I'm assuming that I must have done a reboot cycle that helped resolve the issue.
Just to be sure that the original problem (local backups, disk error) and the upgrade to 2020 did not create the cloud backup problem, I have just done a complete uninstall and reinstall of ATI-2020, then imported my settings and tried again. The local backup still runs fine, but the cloud backup still stops with the following reported in the MVP Log Viewer (same message as before the reinstall):
9/2/2019 6:44:04 PM: -----
9/2/2019 6:44:04 PM: ATI Demon started. Version: 24.3.1.20770.
9/2/2019 6:44:05 PM: Operation DELL to Cloud started by schedule.
9/2/2019 6:44:05 PM: Operation: Backup
9/2/2019 6:44:05 PM: Backup type: hybrid (disk level)
Start: 9/2/2019 6:44:04 PM
Stop: 9/2/2019 6:44:05 PM
Total Time: 00:00:01
The same message appears every five minutes, with just the time changed. I get the same message in my email notifications. I then get an email from Acronis saying the cloud backup failed, but when I go to the website to read the details, it simply says "Error". By the way, I ran the Acronis Cloud Check tool and it reported consistent connections. I also checked my firewall log and no Acronis components have been blocked. I'm now wondering if the problem is with the Acronis servers and nothing on my end.
Yes, Acronis Support responded to my initial request on August 29th and assigned a support case number. I haven't heard from them since.
PS. I just checked my profile again and found the support case under the account icon in the upper right corner of the screen. It shows the original request as of August 29th and the messages I have sent since.
Not sure that we can help a lot further here given the issue is now just with the cloud backup, especially if no information is being shown in the logs for these tasks.
Out of interest, have you checked the Log View: Regular version of the log for this issue? That can have more detailed internal messages than the Short view shows?
The regular log view does not show any more detail, just the same thing as I posted in my previous message.
The only other test I have run was the speedtest to the Acronis server. I got 116.5 Down/11.8 Up, consistent with the guaranteed 100 Down/10 Up from my ISP.
I also checked through the Windows Event Viewer and found no Acronis errors there.
MrVivona are you able to make a new "test" cloud backup to see if it also fails? This might identify if the backup script itself is where the problem is, or if it is more to do with the connection between the PC and the Cloud. You could make a smaller test with just a subset of some smaller folders/files so that it doesn't take too long to test with.
Thank you for your excellent suggestion! I didn't realize I could make a second Backup to Cloud job. You'd think that Acronis Support would have suggested that. I've been very busy today running their suggested tests and uploading the results and screenshots with no solution yet.
So, based on your suggestion, I set up a small Backup to Cloud job and it ran just fine! I even tried a restore of a file from that job and it ran fine. So, what does this indicate? Is the backup script for my original Full Backup To Cloud job corrupted? If I create a new one with exactly the same name and parameters, will it require uploading my entire 600GB to the cloud again, or will it connect to the existing database?
By the way, I checked the MVP Log Viewer file and see that there are a lot more logs to view. I had been just looking at the first one, TI_Demon. I don't quite understand what all the other choices are and what clues may be there.
I will update Acronis Support on the results of my small Cloud backup test. However, I welcome your continued comments.
My guess is the script is corrupt. You won't be able to make the exact same one again using the same name, while you still have an active script already using that name. And, it won't merge automatically if you make a second backup - they will remain separate and need to have unique names (although they can be similar if you just append something like -2 or -B to the end).
Before doing that though, check your backup script in C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts. You'll have to open the various.tib.tis files in notepad and look for the one that corresponds with your cloud backup name in the script.
Then check to see if all of the passwords are still there. I had this happen to me long ago, where one of the passwords just disappeared from a script and could see there was no entry there anymore. What I did at the time was:
1) backup the .tib.tis file (make a copy of it and save it on your desktop or something - just in case).
2) create a new temporary backup, making sure to use the exact same password for the cloud encryption that you used in the original one.
3) open the new backup script .tib.tis in the programdata folder and copy the encrypted password from it and paste it into the original cloud backup script. There are 3 password locations - make sure they are all there in the original script and the new test script. Even though they are encrypted in the scripts, if they are exactly the same, the encrypted version of the script should look the same in both of them too!
Stop/pause the new backup (you just wanted it for the password to copy) Then try to run the original backup again.
I made a test backup as requested, with the same encryption key. I compared the two scripts and the passwords are the same in both scripts in all compared places.
The only things I noticed in the scripts that were different (there may have been other differences) was that the new script had references to tibx that were not in the old script. Also, the old script listed snapshot_mode as vss whereas the new script specified vss_without_writers. I am assuming that those differences have to do with the fact that the old script was created in ATI-2019 whereas the new script was created in ATI-2020.
Yeah, that’s my understanding too. I’m not really sure why the original stopped working then. The .tibx change is supposed to improve stability and hopefully this won’t happen again!
Hopefully, you also have a similar local backup too? A local backup is much faster to create and recover from and Cloud can be your secondary/offsite just in case.
Yes, I have a local backup that is running fine. Both the local and cloud backups are full system backups.
I may have discovered a possible cause of the problem. As I mentioned above, when I ran chkdsk, it found and replaced bad clusters in a file in one of the Acronis program folders. But, because the file was reported in the truncated DOS format, I could not easily determine exactly which file was affected. I had taken a screenshot of the chkdsk command report and looked at it again today and traced the fixed file to one in the TrueImageHome\OnlineBackup\<user> folder named "metadata_file_DELL to Cloud"
So.... if the "metadata_file_DELL to Cloud" file had bad clusters and was fixed by chkdsk, could it be corrupted and causing my cloud backup failures? What would happen if I either deleted or renamed that file. Would ATIH recreate it and possibly fix my cloud backup problem?
I would definitely try deleting/renaming the OnlineBackup folder (or the user sub-folder) to see if that will fix the problem here - this has needed to be done for other users when there have been credentials issues etc. The folder will be recreated when you next run the application / backup.
See KB 61927: Acronis True Image: troubleshooting issues with backup to Acronis Cloud which has the following steps:
If rebooting didn't help, refresh the cache used for backup to Cloud:
- Click on your email address under Account tab and click Sign out
- Close Acronis True Image window
- Rename the cache folder from OnlineBackup to OnlineBackup.bak:
Windows: C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\OnlineBackup
Mac: /Library/Application Support/Acronis/TrueImageHome/OnlineBackup- Reboot the computer
- Launch Acronis True Image
- Open Account tab
- Click Sign in
- Sign into Acronis account again
- Click Backup now button to run the backup. See if it now succeeds
I couldn't delete the OnlineBackup folder due to restricted access, even with administrator privileges, so I went ahead and did a full uninstall, ran the Acronis Cleanup Tool, and checked for the registry entries noted in the related KB article. I then reinstalled ATI-2020, loaded the saved backup schemes, and tested. It did not fix the problem.
This Cloud Backup problem has gone on for a week now with no solution from Acronis. I am wanting up upgrade my PC to Windows 10 and need good backups in case something goes wrong. So, I deleted all backups and am recreating them from the ground up. Hopefully, that will rule any corrupted files, etc. both locally and with the Cloud server. We'll see.
MrVivona,
" I recently had a problem with local backups with ATI-2019 that would end with the error: "failed to read from sector". "
This means that you disk is developing bad sectors. If you want ATI to ignore bad sectors go to:
Backup -> Options -> Advanced -> Error handling -> Check Ignore bad sectors
But do so at your own risk! I recently had an old HD that ATI 2019 reported bad sectors on and aborted the backup. I ran chkdk /r and it fixed them. I ran SeaTools and the long generic test passed so I ran the backup. A few days later ATI 2019 reported bad sectors and aborted the backup so I repeated the whole process. I ran SeaTools and the long generic test failed so chkdsk did not do its magic this time. Note that the HD was not a Seagate, but I like SeaTools.
Bottom line was that the disk was starting to fail and getting worse so I replaced the old HD with a new SSD. I got my money's worth out of it though...
MrVivona schrieb:
Anschließend habe ich ATI-2020 neu installiert, die gespeicherten Sicherungsschemata geladen und getestet. Das Problem wurde nicht behoben.
Auffällig ist, dass der ATI-Support seit Tagen nicht mehr reagiert und somit keine Hilfe zu erwarten ist.
Ist es moeglich fuer dich auf die stabile 2019 zu wechseln?
I accidentally clicked on the "You can stop receiving emails when someone replies to this post" link. How do I undo this?
Logitech21 wrote:MrVivona schrieb:Anschließend habe ich ATI-2020 neu installiert, die gespeicherten Sicherungsschemata geladen und getestet. Das Problem wurde nicht behoben.
Auffällig ist, dass der ATI-Support seit Tagen nicht mehr reagiert und somit keine Hilfe zu erwarten ist.
Ist es moeglich fuer dich auf die stabile 2019 zu wechseln?
That was my solution after I could not activate 2020 repeatedly. For me at least, I am staying with 2019 until 2020 is more stable.
Steve schrieb:Logitech21 schrieb:MrVivona schrieb:Anschließend habe ich ATI-2020 neu installiert, die gespeicherten Sicherungsschemata geladen und getestet. Das Problem wurde nicht behoben.
Das war meine Lösung, nachdem ich 2020 nicht mehrmals aktivieren konnte.
Hast Du diese Anleitung schon gesehen https://kb.acronis.com/ati2019/moveactivation
Steve wrote:I accidentally clicked on the "You can stop receiving emails when someone replies to this post" link. How do I undo this?
6. Lassen Sie sich benachrichtigen https://forum.acronis.com/forum/forum-administration/not-sure-where-start-read-these-simple-guidelines
Logitech21 wrote:Steve wrote:I accidentally clicked on the "You can stop receiving emails when someone replies to this post" link. How do I undo this?
6. Lassen Sie sich benachrichtigen https://forum.acronis.com/forum/forum-administration/not-sure-where-start-read-these-simple-guidelines
My personal account is set up properly to receive new comments. I think that I just blocked this thread, but the fact that your post reached me suggests that it is no longer blocked.
How about another post from you just as a test?
Steve schrieb:Logitech21 schrieb:Steve schrieb:Ich habe versehentlich auf den Link "Sie können den Empfang von E-Mails beenden, wenn jemand auf diesen Beitrag antwortet" geklickt. Wie mache ich das rückgängig?
6. Lassen Sie sich eventuell https://forum.acronis.com/forum/forum-administration/not-sure-where-start-read-these-simple-guidelines
Wie wäre es mit einem anderen Beitrag von dir nur als Test?
Okay, Antwort als Test für Dich
Logitech21 wrote:Steve schrieb:Logitech21 schrieb:Steve schrieb:Ich habe versehentlich auf den Link "Sie können den Empfang von E-Mails beenden, wenn jemand auf diesen Beitrag antwortet" geklickt. Wie mache ich das rückgängig?
6. Lassen Sie sich eventuell https://forum.acronis.com/forum/forum-administration/not-sure-where-start-read-these-simple-guidelines
Wie wäre es mit einem anderen Beitrag von dir nur als Test?
Okay, Antwort als Test für Dich
Vielen Dank!
Logitech21 wrote:Auffällig ist, dass der ATI-Support seit Tagen nicht mehr reagiert und somit keine Hilfe zu erwarten ist.Ist es moeglich fuer dich auf die stabile 2019 zu wechseln?
Translated using Google:
It is striking that the ATI support has not responded for days and therefore no help is expected.
Is it possible for you to switch to the stable 2019?
I did finally hear from Acronis after I deleted all backups and started new ones. I told them I would continue the new backups and report the results back to them. They'll hold my support case open until then.
Now that I have a .tibx file for the local backup, I don't know if I can switch back to ATI-2019 without having to recreate that backup.
Now that I have a .tibx file for the local backup, I don't know if I can switch back to ATI-2019 without having to recreate that backup.
ATI 2019 cannot read .tibx files, so you would need to recreate the backup task / run the backup if you revert back to that version.
Disregard
MrVivona if you do have any existing .tibx backups from 2020 and plan to revert to 2019, make sure you have working 2020 rescue media (just in case). The rescue media in 2020 should still allow you to access data in the 2020 backup and/or recover from it if need be.
Steve wrote:Bottom line was that the disk was starting to fail and getting worse so I replaced the old HD with a new SSD. I got my money's worth out of it though...
Actually, I was depending on having a good backup before I upgraded my Windows 7 PC to Windows 10. Then the Acronis problem started.
I was going to do an update over the current Windows 7, but now I plan to do a clean install on a new hard drive, replacing the C: drive that had the bad sectors. I'll move the current C drive to a secondary position. I'll install that new drive as the C drive and do a clean Windows 10 install, install my drivers and software and test. If I have issues, I can always boot from the Windows 7 drive, if needed. Having the old Windows 7 drive installed as a secondary drive will give me access to documents and settings to copy over. The Acronis backup was insurance against losing the old drive prematurely. Once I have a stable Windows 10 machine, I'll remove the Windows 7 drive, bad sectors and all, and throw it away. I then have to do new local and cloud backups to include the new C drive.
MrVivona wrote:Steve wrote:Bottom line was that the disk was starting to fail and getting worse so I replaced the old HD with a new SSD. I got my money's worth out of it though...
Actually, I was depending on having a good backup before I upgraded my Windows 7 PC to Windows 10. Then the Acronis problem started.
I was going to do an update over the current Windows 7, but now I plan to do a clean install on a new hard drive, replacing the C: drive that had the bad sectors. I'll move the current C drive to a secondary position. I'll install that new drive as the C drive and do a clean Windows 10 install, install my drivers and software and test. If I have issues, I can always boot from the Windows 7 drive, if needed. Having the old Windows 7 drive installed as a secondary drive will give me access to documents and settings to copy over. The Acronis backup was insurance against losing the old drive prematurely. Once I have a stable Windows 10 machine, I'll remove the Windows 7 drive, bad sectors and all, and throw it away. I then have to do new local and cloud backups to include the new C drive.
That is the same as I ended up on doing, but with Windows 10 to Windows 10. Clean installs are more painful, but having a fresh install of everything is nice once all of the extra work is done. Just curious, now when I mount the old drive by way of a SATA to USB cord, I get an access/permissions problem and I cannot see the contents of the drive, which I have never had before when doing the same with a SATA to USB cord. Fortunately, I was able to get my documents off of an earlier Acronis backup and nothing was lost.
Any comments on the access/permissions problem?
Steve, you may need to take ownership of the root of the drive (under the newly installed OS). Give administrators (or at least your main account) ownership. Then be sure to replicate the permissions to it too. That should give you full access to everything on the drive from the new OS. This is actually a fairly common occurrence when connecting drives from one machine to another. For me, I usually, also give "everyone" full access to the root of external drives so that it "should" allow the data to be accessible on any computer you plug it into down the road.
https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/take-ownership-folder-windows-10-using-file-explorer
I have had this occur to me and simply clicking through the message takes care of the problem. May not work in all cases but has for me numerous times.