True Image 2014 does not wake machine from sleep to perform scheduled backups

I have just installed Acronis 2014 and without the tip from GroverH, to whom I am most grateful, I would never have got the/a Close-down feature working.....most irritating!

I am, therefore, interested in ensuring the wake-up feature works....I'll be trying this on Sunday.

Please can anyone respond to Cookies query?

Regards.....Noel

Strangely enough - last night both my scheduled backups DID run. (first night in 3)

The first one woke the computer at the proper time, 2:00am and did the backup.
The Second one was supposed to run at 4:00am however the email did not come out till 7:14am''

Now I never got a chance to check this all out this morning before I went to work, so I will have to check it tonight when I get home. The delay could be my own doing or the preceding backup may have ran long etc.. so once I have a look I will advise.

Thanks, Cookie. Besides the failure to close down, I have had other problems with the back up procedures.

The back up fails to "complete" and although, according to the log, the new back up has finished, the process freezes (for some hours) until I open the program, then it completes!

As well as setting the "wake up the sleeping computer"....which I hope you find works now, do you also set "prevent the computer from going to sleep?"

Regards....Noel

Very odd... I went home that day but was way too tired to shag around with the computer - left it sleeping...

The Next morning both backups did not perform until 7:17 am. I just went into these backups and checked - they are indeed set for 2:00am and 4:00am respectively. Why they both waited till 7:17am to run I have absolutely no idea.

[quote=Cookie

The Next morning both backups did not perform until 7:17 am. I just went into these backups and checked - they are indeed set for 2:00am and 4:00am respectively. Why they both waited till 7:17am to run I have absolutely no idea.

[/quote]

Ok - found out why they waited until 7:17 to run... the other day when I was testing the windows scheduler I had set up a simple task to wake the PC, and pop up a message... well the last time I tried it was at 7:14 am... and I forgot to delete the task afterward... so it was waking the machine at that time the last 2 days, NOT Acronis...

The Acronis schedule was set to run once the machine was woke up if the backup was missed...

So in reality the Acronis timer still does not work with regard to waking the PC.

ALSO... the backup are set to send me emails for the event status... and todays backups, which ran at 7:17 am due to the task outlined above... completed but the email was very delayed...

--- snippet from the email ----
6 Information 11/17/2013 7:18:59 AM Writing incremental version to file: Documents_inc_b1_s6_v1.tib
7 Information 11/17/2013 7:20:22 AM The following backups have been successfully created: "\\NAS-SERVER\backup\Desktop Image\Documents\Documents_inc_b1_s6_v1.tib"
8 Information 11/17/2013 10:48:23 AM Operation has succeeded.
--- End of the snippet etc ---

So it was the second scheduled backup... the first one Started at 7:16 and ended at 7:18 and this one started at 7:18 and wrote the backup file at 7:20 BUT never decided it was successful, nor send out the email, until 10:48.

Sorry but I got to say that the Acronis product seems pretty flaky and unreliable so far.

I use Win7 and because I was unable to get Acronis to close-down the computer after completing the back-up. I am now testing each setting by implementing them in turn.

This morning, Acronis automatically backed-up a single partition and closed down on completion! The solution was by adopting the suggestion kindly made by GroveH to use a shut-down command in the "post-command" Acronis setting. Works a treat!

In parallel I have installed Acronis in a friend's Vista computer and unlike Win7 the Acronis close-down setting works OK!

My next test, on Thursday, will involve three partitions hopefully starting when the computer is in "sleep" mode, I've not tried this yet.

I have slipped a bit in my testing, due to changing my schedule to ensure the weekly back-up of Win7 is carried out on a Thursday, in order to back-up any monthly updates from Microsoft, usually available on my connection first thing on the Thursday morning following the second Tuesday in the month.

I will let you know how I get on later in the week.

Regards.....Noel

Cookie, sorry if I'm a bit confused, are you saying that the Acronis "start from sleep mode" setting now works? Or are you are using a pre-command? If you are using a pre-command, please will you let me know what it is?

Are you on Win7?

Regards.....Noel

No prob..

No the Start from Sleep command is NOT working for Acronis. Acronis is actually set to start at 2:00am and 4:00am respectfully for my 2 backups.

The computer does not actually wake until the task I had setup in the windows scheduler runs at 7:14am.. at which time Acronis does start the backups because I have it set to do them upon boot if the backups were missed.

I deleted that windows scheduled task this morning, and I am sure now the backups wont run now until I manually turn on / wake the computer by hand.

I am using Windows 7 64Bit Professional

OK, thanks Cookie. I'm on Win7 Home, so I'm sure it'll fail on the "wake up sleeping computer" as you have found, so I won't proceed with any tests.

I have, therefore, created a task in Windows Task Scheduler to "load Acronis" five minutes before the scheduled back-up times set in Acronis.

In Acronis, I have unticked "wake up sleeping computer" and ticked "prevent computer from going to sleep." The latter in case there is a significant delay between multi-partition back ups.

I won't know the result of these measures until Thursday....I'm not messing with my schedule, as it was very carefully considered.

Would this plan help you? Or do you believe you've covered this by just the "wake up" task?

Regards.....Noel

Deleted duplication

You can also not use the embedded Acronis scheduler and use Windows task scheduler to schedule a task with a specific action. You will find out the parameters for the program and parameters requested by Windows task scheduler by creating a shortcut of your backup and looking at the properties of that shortcut.
The Windows task schedulel is reliable, and it is more flexible than the Acronis one, IMO.

Many thanks, Pat L. However, I don't quite understand your first sentence.

Do you mean you cannot use the two scheduling methods to initiate the same action?

Yes, I searched for the .exe file and checked I'd the right one from the Acronis short-cut Properties.

Regards.....Noel

MVP Pat L was indicating that you can use the Windows Scheduler instead of the Acronis scheduler--but not both at the same time otherwise you would have dual backups running once the first one got started.

The above is an example of having the program create a desktop shortcut.

Click on link 1 below and look at index items 3-A and 3-B for examples of how to use the Windows Scheduler in place of the Acronis scheduler.

----------------------------------
Edit:
Another quick alternative you might try without making any changes to TrueImage would be to just to have the Windows Scheduler start Notepad about 1 minutes before the Acronis schedled backup is supposed to start. That should probably be sufficient to wake the computer prior to Acronis.

Many thanks, GroverH. I'm sorry, I'm still not quite clear.

To wake the computer from "sleep" mode, I have set Windows Task Scheduler to open Acronis 5-mins before the first back-up task is scheduled to start in Acronis.

Is that OK? Or are you saying that a second Acronis will open and two scheduled back-ups will start to run? Hence to open, say, notepad instead.

Sorry to be a bit thick!"

Regards.....Noel

Noel... that is what he is saying... In my opinion, where Grover states "Click on link 1 below and look at index items 3-A and 3-B for examples of how to use the Windows Scheduler in place of the Acronis scheduler." - this is your much better option. It does takes a little time to set it up, especially if you got multiple backups to schedule... but as Pat L said above... "The Windows task scheduler is reliable, and it is more flexible than the Acronis one" and he is right it would seem. :)

BTW Grover - very nice write-up on the Win7 task scheduler to run Acronis - It should not be necessary but it obviously is :) - Thanks Much!

I do have a question regarding accounts. I used your example to "Run whether user is logged on or not" and I DID store the password to my account when I saved the task. I then went back into the Acronis backup scheme configuration, under the advanced section where the option to place your windows account info is and turned that option off.

I suppose you could do it either way but I think having windows creating the environment with the required account would be more reliable than having Acronis providing the credentials every time it's challenged to do so... would you say that's probably a fair thought?

Cookie,
Sure. Why not. I do, However, avoid all "after the creation" edits. I use only non-edited backup tasks.

Noel,
A 5 minuite start ahead too long. The computer could go back to sleep.
Change to no more than 2 minutes.
What program are you asking the Windows Scheduler to start?
Did it work?

Maybe you should check your sleep settings just be be sure the settings are longer than 2 minutes.

Many thanks GroverH.

I have set the Win task to wake the computer from sleep 3-mins before back-up starts. Win7 is set to move to sleep mode after the default 30-mins. Surely much less that 30-mins is impractical?

The Win task is set to open Notepad, as you suggested earlier.

My test of this procedure will be carried out on Thursday morning......I am not changing my planned back-up schedule for the testing. I will let you know the results.

Acronis TI 2014 is advertised as suitable for Win7 SP1. Can I assume that Acronis will be issuing a corrected version, or money back?

Regards.....Noel

GroverH wrote:

Cookie,
Sure. Why not. I do, However, avoid all "after the creation" edits. I use only non-edited backup tasks.

Yeah - this having to treat backup tasks with kid gloves is a wee bit of a sore spot for me with Acronis... the whole Idea of being able to tweak the tasks is cause they can end up being complicated and often you can miss things when setting them up etc... I like the Acronis Interface and capabilities but Damn it's buggy. I don't like Macrium Reflect Pro's interface and setup quite as much but only installed it last night so not had a lot of time to play with it yet... but I do got to say.. it's backup ran last night, without a hitch, right out of the gate so to speak. No tinkering or having to alter things etc... just worked.

Last night my 1st backup from Acronis (now scheduled via Windows 7 Task scheduler) ran flawlessly. The second one however did not. I was all ready to hop all over Acronis, assuming it was at fault... but I did check the Scheduler first... and it said, for the second task, "this operation requires an interactive window station." Hmmm.. ok checked the event log next and Bingo!! there it was.. my culprit.

This time it was my own fault.. "The process failed to handle ERROR_ELEVATION_REQUIRED" I went back to my second backup task and examined it again... I had neglected to check the Run with Highest Privileges checkbox. I did so and saved the task.

Myself, like probably a lot of people, have their user account set up as administrator (yeah yeah don't lecture me on how bad a practice that is) - which means you get the annoying UAC popup box asking you if its ok to do what it's going to do.... (User Account Control won't pop up the box on the native administrator account).. to stop the popup box... you need to select the Run with Highest Privileges checkbox.

Very interesting, Cookie. We all have slightly different methods.

I have switched off the annoying UAC!

Regards.....Noel

Noel.
Acronis 0ffers a refund only if requested in writing within 30 days of purchase.
Acronis will offer a fix for many issues. Whether this one, who knows. Not everyone or maybe not the majority (?) are affected by this specific issue. The cause can be varied and may relate to specific hardware or power settings.

Thank you GroverH.

I will know tomorrow, Thursday, if the wake-up from sleep-mode of the computer, the back-up of three partitions, the validation and the auto close-down of the computer is successful.

For your info, I have changed the "Action" in the Task Scheduler for the "Wake up sleeping computer" task, from opening Notepad to "Displaying a message," viz "Wake up sleeping computer." More relevant!

Regards.....Noel

Referring to earlier postings, I confirm that the back-up procedure scheduled for today was a complete success.

Working under Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium, TI 2014 cannot wake-up from the sleep mode and on completion it cannot switch off the power.

The work-arounds are by implementing GroverH's suggestions :-

The Wake-up task was activated 3-mins before the first back-up partition, using Win Task Scheduler with an Action "Display a message."

The shut down was activated as a post-command in the last partition being backed up. The necessary command is noted in GroverH's Guides.

Other obvious settings were made in TI 2014, viz in each partition, or whatever, being backed up :-

Untick "wake up sleeping computer, tick "Prevent computer from going to sleep."

Untick "Computer shutdown," insert task name in post-command.

I again thank GroverH for the invaluable help, Pat L for the wise advice and, of course, Cookie for starting it all off!

Regards.....Noel

PS I guess the next thing is a test Recovery! Not yet though. However, I guess I'll be back! .....N

Glad it's working for you - on a side note - do up the recovery CD or USB stick and have it ready etc.. then reboot using that - and do a test recovery of some files. Acronis will let you recover to an alternate drive or directory so the test is painless.

Gosh, that was quick!

Many thanks Cookie. You make the Recovery test sound relatively painless!

Most grateful.

Regards.....Noel

Yes, restoring single files or a test copy is much easier than a full restore. This is one link as an example.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/46511

Plus you can also refer to link 3 below and item 5 inside that link.

The Untick "wake up sleeping computer, was not necessary above and fortunately not needed.
The display a message was a much better option than leaving Notepad open.
There were several options possible such as running a meaningless bat file etc and yours worked very well.

Many thanks, GroverH, your Guides are perfectly splendid.

Regards.....Noel

A very belated follow-on to earlier exchanges.

I find that under Win7, TI2014 can open from the sleeping mode. Tick both "Wake up from sleeping...." and "Stay awake....." Frankly I don't understand why these are options. I would have thought they'd be built in the s/w.

Closing down has to be managed by the Win Task Scheduler. Acronis Support say few users require this feature.....I'm very surprised!

Regards.....Noel

You wrote:
"Closing down has to be managed by the Win Task Scheduler."
I am interpreting that 2014 creates wakes and creeates backup.

Just curious, Have you tried this method to have 2014 shutdown the computer after the backup is completed?
This is using the TI post command to run a shutdown batch file.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/38609

Many thanks GroverH.

Sorry, I reported incorrectly in my last message. I confirm that I use your Post-command "Timed-shutdown" proposal.

A superb idea, gratefully received, goodness knows why this isn't built into TI2014!

I also think "Wake up from sleeping....." and "Stay awake....." should be built-in and cease to be options. I understand from Acronis Support, the idea has been passed to the developers.

Regards.....Noel

Hello Grover, you have done an amazing job of providing very valuable information and how-to directions. That is the reason for this reply!
I'm now using TI2015 on a new Dell Laptop running W7 Home Premium (with all current updates), and I cannot get it to run scheduled tasks when they are supposed to run. As you know well, this has been an ongoing saga with various Acronis versions. I found this thread, read all the entries and decided to switch scheduling chores to Windows instead of Acronis as you have advised.

I have used W7 scheduling to wake my desktop shortly before the Acronis TI2013 scheduled backup times and that has worked fine, but not on the laptop with TI2015. I have changed the power plan to make the setting exactly like my desktop. Now I'd like to use W7 scheduling exclusively instead of Acronis scheduling but I'm stuck right out of the box. I cannot find the 'Create a shortcut' function in TI2015. Has it been eliminated, or is it hidden somewhere? Since it is a key step in the instructions I'm hoping you can provide the directions to get me past this step.

Thanks in advance for your help.

The 2015 version does not offer a shortcut creator but you can make your own desktop shortcut.

The shortcut can be created via (Windows 64)

1. Go to your scripts folder found

C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts\

2. Locate the backup task script ID (your number will differ)

4BBD414B-0121-41B7-9135-1CDA5F4EAF2F.tib.tis

3. Use Notepad and Create your shortcut as below except use your script number. This is the info which is placed inside the Windows scheduler. Note quotation mark placement. One space after " before /. One continuous line. You can copy/paste into clipboard for editing.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TrueImageLauncher.exe" /script:4BBD414B-0121-41B7-9135-1CDA5F4EAF2F

=================
You will have to use date/time of script to ascertain correct ID, or use Notepad to open the script and look at the task description for identification.

Backup may run without TI being opened and it may run without your knowing it.
Inspect your storage folder to confirm existence or non-existence of expected backup.

What I did was to create a desktop shortcut with the id and then run that shortcut as a test to make sure the correct backup would run before putting the command inside the scheduler.

If you involve a bat file, you will need to use Notepad in Administrator mode for its creation and saving.

My apologies if I'm being redundant, but my eyes are a blur from reading through this thread.

Anyway, running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, I've created a very simple task in the Windows Task Scheduler in order to awaken a sleeping PC to run Acronis backups.

I set the trigger for one minute before the Acronis scheduled backup. Multiple triggers can be used for multiple backups. The action is to Start a Program... "wscript /b", which basically does nothing. A condition is to wake the computer.

This has worked very well for me.

-Bruno

Thanks very much Grover, I'll give your solution a go.
Much obliged....

Bruno, thanks for your response, but you may be missing the underlying point. Acronis scheduling has issues and has had them for several versions. Not everyone has exactly the same one, but issues nevertheless. Like others, I have used the process you described (since TI2013) and it has either not worked, or it has not worked consistently on different machines. The process still relies on Acronis Scheduling Laptops seem to be a particular challenge for some reason. TI2015 is no different in its scheduling shortcomings than its predecessors. There comes a time when banging your head against the same wall gets old. The Windows Task Scheduler is a far better and more reliable method to schedule Acronis backups.

AZMoosie,
If you are having trouble getting the Windows Scheduler to awaken the computer, two places to look

1. Make sure the "full persmissions" box is checked in the windows scheduler task.
2. If a batch or command file is in use, be sure to open Notepad as "Run as Administrator" and use this mode to save the bat or cmd file.

No worries, the Task Scheduler works fine, thanks Grover.

My scheduler problem is just a little different than what I’m reading here.
I, ATI 2014, I scheduled an incremental backup to run every day at 6:55am, start a new Full backup after 6 incrementals and keep 3 backup sets. Wake sleeping machine is turned on. I hibernate every night around 11:50pm
My machine wakes up every morning at 6:55am and runs the backup perfectly. Except, usually, on the 7th day, when it is going to do a new full backup, it does not wake up. This has been a problem through several ATI versions.
To remedy this, I have a W7 task to run “DoNothing.bat” at 7:05am.
DoNothing.bat is a bat file with one line only “Rem” (a remark). At 7:05am, it runs, exits and Acronis starts the backup that was supposed to have run 10 minutes earlier.
If Acronis wakes the machine, the backup works fine and if it does not wake the machine, DoNothing wakes it and then Acronis backup runs 10 minutes later than originally planned.
When I look at the backup files, I can see that the create time is 6:55 or 6:56 every day. EXCEPT when it’s not! On those days that it’s not 6:55 or 6:56, it IS 7:05 or 7:06am, meaning that my W7 scheduled task ran first and ATI ran “at wakeup”.
Obviously, “DoNothing.bat” runs 7 days a week, need it or not, but since it does nothing, it’s ok.
WHY this is necessary is a real curiosity for me. While I have it under control, it should not be necessary, and if I could just understand what is making it happen, I’d feel so much better.

You have me curious as well.
What and where is the storage disk located. Is the storage disk internal or usb connect or network, etc?
Is the schedule set to daily, or is it set to weekly with daily settings?
What all is set in the schedule/advance settings?
Does review of the log file give any indication?
Does the Task Total Backups (see link GH57 upper left) shown in the task main menu match the number of tib stored in the storage folder?

GH57. Assorted task features.

The backup is to a second internal hard drive (it's a desktop PC) which is just for backups. It's a 1 TB SATA II drive.
The schedule is for Daily at 6:55am (picture attached)
Advanced setting (pic attached) are to wake machine to run backup and run missed backup at startup (5 min delay).

Task Total Backups is correctly reporting 22 backups.

I see 2 log files from yesterday (when the PC woke up by Windows task scheduler - My DoNothing.bat file)
Nothing interesting to me. They're small...I attached them.

Thanks for looking.

I am assuming that the "do nothing" bat file is ran via the Windows Scheduler and not the TrueImage post/pre post commands??

The error message in the log files may be involved.

Try running the scheduler process in this link.

https://kb.acronis.com/content/1859

Display all the tasks and see if the task below is listed as being there.
If yes, then delete the single task matching this number and advise.

76D59B21-3BB8-49BD-A04A-B47B4C21ECBE

message="No such script '76D59B21-3BB8-49BD-A04A-B47B4C21ECBE'."

===================
download scheduler
Run schedmgr.exe
do the process under MANAGE SCHEDULED TASKS
GET LIST

To delete a single task:

task [task number]

task delete

Regarding "DoNothing.bat" yes, it runs from the Windows scheduler
I did as you recommended and YES, 76D59B21-3BB8-49BD-A04A-B47B4C21ECBE was in the report.
I deleted that task and now I guess I have to wait and see what happens.

Just as an aside, after deleting the task I re-ran the report a few times and that task was still in the report. It only disappeared after starting and immediately exiting ATI. However, Get List showed it was gone even though it was still being included in the report.

Anyway, it's gone now and we'll see how the week goes.
I WILL surely get back to you next week with results and I thank you very much for your attention.

Was this problem task ever edited and changed from its original.

Assuming that the text of the "do noting' bat file includes a closure command so the file opens and closes automatically and requres no manual closing,
you could also put this in to the real task file in the command/pre/post as a pre command and see if that makes any better results.

I don't think this backup was ever edited.

DoNothing.bat contains "rem"
That's it. If I click it, it opens a dos box and closes immediately.

If I put "DoNohting.bat" in the real task as a pre/command, ooh, ooh, ooh, maybe I see what you want to try.
Should I wait a week before I do that? Is it possible that the task I just deleted will fix the problem?

David

BTW, prior to installing ATI 2014 I was using ATI 2009 along with Chain2Gen.
At that time, Full backups occurred on Monday mornings with 6 incrementals during the week. The failure to wake up would occur on Saturday as well. Now, with ATI 2014, I'm not using Chain2Gen and the full backup generally occurs on Saturdays, the same day that the PC fails to wake up. The common denominator appears to be "Saturday".

Go ahead and wait a week or whenever you wish to try. Most often, no answer to an anomoly such as this is ever discovered and the best chance of success is just to start over with complete new task of the same settings pointing to a new storage folder.

Is validation of each backup part of your task settings?

For kicks, you might review all the settings in your Control Panel/Power settings and see if you find anything unusual.. What type power settings are you using such as Normal or balanced, or for Performance.

Are you using an power settings from the BIOS? It would seem that your Saturday morning configurations are different than other days.
How many other active tasks do you have.

If your target was a network, I would beleve the issue to be sleeping on the part of the network but as you target is internal, that should not be an issue here.

As you look at your scripts folder, how many do you have listed? How does the number match up to your tasks. Usually, if validation is involved, there are 2 scripts per "in use" tasks.

If you do decide to start over with a new task, I think I would restart the recent scheduler.ext and zap all tasks via that method.

Today, "Saturday", and the next full backup in the cycle.
Again, the machine failed to be woken up by Acronis at 6:55am, instead waiting until 7:05am when the "DoNothing.bat" file was launched by the Windows Scheduler.

Then Acronis ran the backup.

This was after running schedmgr.exe and zapping all tasks and re-scheduling my backups.

So, this will remain one of life's less important mysteries that will remain, for now, unsolved. If I have a revelation I will post back here. If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears.

Thanks,
David

David,

Have you considered the possibility that your prior use of Chain2Gen might be the source of your problem even though you no longer use the script? From your comments above it appears that when you were using that script you had the same problem as you do now with TI2014.

I am not sure if it will help you at all but I am going to attach a link to the Forum post where the Chain2Gen script began life. It is a very long post but the postings therein do go to great detail on using the script. After a brief read on my part I believe it possible that your original setup of that script was such to create this behavior and that it still persists. Hope this will somehow be of help to you.

https://forum.acronis.com/forum/5940