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First Incremental Backup File after Full Backup is merged into previous Full Backup File

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The last Full Backup File was created November 22nd.


After the next Backup (this time it should be a Differential Backup File) on November 29th it seems as ATI has merged the Differential File into the last Full Backup File (the creation Date of file “ULI-PC-1-0017.tibx has changed to November 29th) and the file Size has changed from 519.498.552 to 541.246.108:

The creation Date of this file is November 22nd and the last changes have been made November 29th:

 

These are my Backup-Settings:

Is this a bug in ATI2021 Build 34340?

 

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Not sure if this is a bug introduced in ATI 2021 build 34340 or whether Acronis have changed the goal-posts again with how Differential backups work?

I have just setup a test on my own system making a Differential backup of a disk partition then adding a new 1.5GB file to it and repeating the backup.

The Activity page says that a Differential backup was created but using Open Location now only shows a single .tibx file, suggesting that Differentials are now changed to using the same method as for Incrementals and combining differential slices into a single .tibx file, making these files indestinguishable from incremental files!

Further research:

ATI 2021 User Guide states:

Backup schemes

Backing up in the TIBX format supports all backup schemes. As opposed to the TIB format, which saves every backup version as a separate file, the TIBX format saves full and differential backup versions as separate files, while incremental backup versions are automatically merged into their base backups (full or differential).

KB 63498: Acronis True Image 2020-2021: new tibx backup format FAQ confirms:

Q: My backup scheme includes incremental backups. However, no new files are created in backup location after backup runs - is that expected behavior?
A: One of the main changes in this new backup format is that the .tibx format saves full and differential backup versions as separate files, while incremental backup versions are automatically merged into their base full backups. See Incremental backups do not create separate files when using new backup format for more information

Q: Do differentials and incrementals create multiple files or one?
A: Unlike backups in .tib format, adjacent incrementals in .tibx are always merged in the same .tibx file together with the preceding differential or full backup. Differentials are never merged with each other or with full backups.

The above has either been changed to now merge differential files or build #34340 has introduced a new bug / code behaviour that causes differentials now to be merged into the initial full backup file for the version chain!

Please report this to Acronis by opening a Support ticket!

Support Case submitted by myself awaiting case number!

Support case 04691528 now open with Raj from Acronis support with usual scripted response!

Tested this issue again on a separate VMware system to demonstrate it is easily reproduceable and requested that Acronis support do the same, i.e. create a new Disk backup using differential backup scheme and simply run this twice!  A single differential .tibx file is created merging the new differential slice into the one file as is done for incremental backups!

Screen images & an Acronis System Report zip file uploaded to the Acronis FTP server allocated for this support case.

A further update on this issue with differential backup behaviour!

The merging of the differential slice with the first .tibx full backup file looks to only happen on the first differential slice!

When a second and subsequent differential slices are created, these revert back to the expected behaviour of creating separate .tibx files using -0001, -0002 etc!

Further screen images and new system report zip file uploaded to the Acronis FTP server for my support case 04691528.

An update from Acronis received today for my support case regarding this issue:

Hello Stephen, 

Thank you for your email. My name is Supreeth a Supervisor with Acronis Customer Central 

This is an update regarding case 04691528 where you had reported issues with Differential backup behaviour changed by ATI 2021

Upon your concern, we had reported the issue to the next level for further investigation, got an update that it is an known issue with the current version .

We also notified this to our Development team and they are working on a fix for the issue. Since we do not have a specific ETA about the release of a solution, I would suggest that we close this case for now.

However, please be assured that we would not consider the issue as ‘Resolved’.

The issue would be fixed in future builds of the product and hence I kindly request you to use the in-product notification option.

Please make sure “Automatically check for updates at startup” option is selected under settings tab which notifies you when a new build is released.

Thank you for your co-operation. We appreciate your patience.

My response to Supreeth is as below:

Hello Supreeth,

I have a further question and request with regards to this 'known issue' for differential backups not creating a differential separate file on first run.

Why is this not listed in the release notes for the latest #35860 build that was only released yesterday given it is a known issue?  The English release notes simply list:

Known issues and limitations of this version

  • TI-172086 In the "Version chain" backup scheme, a differential backup is created instead of a full one on the second backup launch.
  • TI-173652 No error message is shown for the recovery of a USB drive backup from Acronis Cloud if the USB drive is disconnected in the process.
  • TI-196935 Cannot quarantine a downloaded malware file with the error "Failed to add to quarantine."
  • TI-204749 Backup validation fails for a full backup if some previous backups from the chain were deleted via Windows Explorer.
  • TI-206001 Cannot quarantine files found during a full antivirus scan on a mapped network drive.

Directly related to the above question, my request is that this and any other 'known issues' are declared to save everyone from wasting lots of time reporting the same things that Acronis development already know about!  This would start to inspire more confidence in ATI 2021 if a more open / honest approach was shown by Acronis, and if some reasonable indication was also given as to when any remedies might be provided, i.e. when a fix is planned to be delivered either in a new build release, or else if will be included in the next major version such as ATI 2022??

I personally would be 'happier' with agreeing to close this support ticket with such assurances being given by Acronis publicly.

Regards, Steve Smith.