Is it me? Differential instructions ignored

Ian, welcome to these user forums.

I have not seen this particular problem reported in these forums, though I have not tried to search back over previous years given the number of hits I would get trying to describe the issue.

My personal recommendation at this stage would be to try doing a new clean install of the product to eliminate any possibility that the problem is caused by some corruption in the program installation or data files.

To perform a clean install, do the following steps:

1. Uninstall the current application normally using the Control Panel.
2. Download and run the Acronis Cleanup Tool (run as administrator) - link below in my signature.
3. Restart the computer to complete the cleanup actions.
4. Download and install the latest version installer for ATIH 2015 from your Acronis account.
5. Create a new backup task with your required configuration settings.

Note: Download a copy of the Log File Viewer app from the link below in my signature as this can be used to verify that the new backup task is doing as you have configured it to do. 

Every time you go into the backup and make a change, the version chain count gets reset.  It sounds like in your course to locate the issue, you're making changes with the script before the cleanup can occur and resetting the diff chain to 0 without realizing it.

So, without changing anything else at this point.  Manually run the backup 6 times (5 + the next full) in succession for your test and see if it kicks off a full after that. 

Thanks for your suggestion, Bobbo. I may not have understood your logic. If we have reached number 26 without a "full" backup, does that suggest that the version chain count has not reset? I have not been trying to make changes for long periods throughout this series, and certainly more than 5 backups will have run without my interruption.

An uninstallation and a reinstallation appears to have solved the problem.

Thank you, Steve. I'll give what you suggest a try.

I have uninstalled, reinstalled and am back to the same point I was where I reported the perceived problem.

Allow me to expand on my observations: looking at the File Backup options. Opening the Backup Scheme tab, in the drop down menu top left, there are various backups starting with "Single version scheme", then "Version chain scheme", "Incremental scheme", "Differential scheme", and "Custom scheme". After that there are various custom schemes I have made and named and saved after starting with the Differential scheme. Now this might be a false assumption, but if I were to click on one of those schemes I have created and saved, I would expect all the details of the scheme to feature below, particularly when I have ticked the "save as default" box.

So, on the principle of starting from scratch, I have now selected "Differential scheme", with automatic cleanup turned on, Create a full version every 5 differential versions; store no more than 3 recent version chains, and ticking the save as default box. I have made no attempt to give it my own name, clicked save bottom right and save again on the green button bottom right on the next screen.

Before clicking "backup now" I have clicked on "edit settings", then "options" and remarkably, I see everything as I set it with the scheme described as "custom scheme" and a "save as" button. I have saved this as "Diff 5 versions 3 max version chains". This is actually what I have done previously, so I am still wary of whether the problem has been solved, but let's give it a go!

Just checked and this latest custom scheme is the only one in my list which, when clicked, changes any of the settings, so the reinsatll seems to have done the trick, thanks.

Ian, hopefully the clean install will have resolved the issue for you.

What I have done when testing this type of issue previously is to setup a very simple task to backup a very small folder and schedule it to run every hour so that I can confirm that the backup scheme is working correctly.

I have confess that I have not bothered to use the option to save various backup schemes under my own names, it has been just as easy to setup new backups when needed.  Where I have used the option to 'save as default' is for the email notification configuration, plus the error handling options on the Advanced tab.

I too have had the problem of custom backup schemes not saving with a new name properly. This feature has never worked for me. The name is saved, but the settings revert to the default when you open the edit window. I have to create a new custom scheme with the settings I want for my different backups and not save them as default or to a new name. In my experience this is the only way to preserve the settings.

-Danny