Crashes, corruption, no support!
This is a last-ditch attempt to get some support for this product.
The desktop tray monitor tool crashes on every boot. I have contacted support about this many times with no response other than an auto-respose. This happens across several different PCs.
The main product crashes if I click on Recover, on any backup. I have submitted crash reports daily for weeks, and also created support tickets every few days for weeks, with no response beyond the auto-response.
In the previous version I had two different backups - one for files, one for an image - being stored. I have discovered that both now seem to be written to the same .tib files, where this was previously not the case. If I validate either backup, it says that all is well, but if I try to restore from either backup, the UI crashes.
I have found in a log (pcs.0.log) a large number of lines saying e.g.
2023-02-02T12:09:24:769+00:00 17184 E00000000: ar#1473: failed to open the archive: corrupted page is found at 266240
2023-02-02T12:09:24:769+00:00 17184 E00000000: ar#1473: failed to open archive path="\\?\O:\Unity\Editor\Data\Documentation\html\en\uploads\Main\\SimplestPluginExample-4.0.zip" mode=readonly uuid=00000000000000000000000000000000, err=-5003 (Data is corrupted: CRC mismatch or internal data structures mismatch)
... despite the UI claiming that the backups are validating correctly.
I have removed and reinstalled the product which gained absolutely nothing except to lose my backup schedules. Since doing this, the PC in question now shows as permanently offline in the web dashboard.
I can see from the generated crash dumps exactly where the crashes are occurring but I have butted heads with the first-line support people in the past with these, and got a consistent "Crash dumps tell us nothing, we need screenshots". For the record, I am a developer and this is complete bull. A crash dump will give you the precise line of code that has caused the failure.
So, in summary:
- The tray monitor tool has 100% crash rate across multiple PCs.
- The UI silently merged two different backups during the upgrade from 2020 to 2021, seemingly causing corruption.
- The UI is reporting that this single backup is valid, despite the logs saying otherwise.
- The UI crashes if I try to recover from any backup, not just this one.
- A full reinstall has not fixed the problem.
- Dozens of separate contacts with "support" have gone unanswered except for auto-responses; these prove I am able to receive email, and I also check junkmail folders.
- I have been unable to find anywhere I can check the status of open tickets, to make sure they are not silently being closed.
- "Online chat" is a bot which does nothing more than suggest an FAQ entry to read.
I am not getting a warm, fuzzy feeling about the reliability of the product or the company.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the response. I can see the effort you're putting in here and it's appreciated, but I also find it very worrying that Acronis appears to be relying 100% on a tiny handful of dedicated private individuals to handle their support.
I can confirm that the two separate backups were and still are named differently in the UI, and these used to be the base for the output filenames. Both were sent to the same folder, which was fine as they previously had different names. However, the scheduler scripts now list the same prefix for both backups. This would seem to have happened during migration from ATI2020. There is also no option to rename the output files.
I have also confirmed that the backup filenames were previously unique by checking the ti_demon logs from "TrueImageHome", and are no longer unique from the ti_demon logs from "CyberProtectHomeOffice".
I am using Windows Defender for AV, not one of the overbearing "full security" suites which certainly can cause disruption. I would consider not falling foul of Microsoft's own, inbuilt AV to be a fairly basic requirement.
The UI crash when clicking Restore is happening inside ti_managers.dll, in a component call "TrueImage::Managers::operator==" which is comparing two different "Managers", whatever they are, for equality. My guess is that it is getting a null reference and simply not checking for this before running a compare.
This would be a good place to note that the steps in the "Rebuild Database" page are potentially dangerous in themselves:
Click on the Description column to sort the services list by service description alphabetically, from A to Z. Acronis services' description start with the letter "A".
But so do Apple's, Adobe's and several Microsoft services beginning with "Application", "ASP.NET", "Auto Time Zone Updater". I assume this should read '... start with the word "Acronis"'.
I've been unable to complete the "Rebuild the Database folder" step up to now because "Acronis Active Protection (TM) Service" refuses to stop even with the protection disabled, which does make a kind of sense. I will need to reboot into safe mode or just uninstall the entire protection module, which I'll try later on.
(edit) Can confirm that disabling the protection does not work, directly from the page you linked:
Note that when protection is deactivated, related Acronis processes and services will still be active, however they will use minimal resources. This is expected behavior.
In addition, after successfully renaming the "Database" folder to "Database.bak" and restarting, while the UI no longer crashes it also says "No data to recover", and there are no options for validation etc. In other words, it has no idea that the backup files exist so I suspect that it is not crashing because there is no data to work with rather than because the problem is solved.
While working through this I've been reminded of a separate problem. On an entirely different PC, a laptop, it occasionally decides to store the .tib files locally - on the source disk - instead of on the NAS. I have no idea what triggers this, it seems to be inconsistent. First guess would be that it's in the middle of a full backup when the laptop is put to sleep, and doesn't recover the operation correctly on wake.
Again, I've contacted support a few times about this and had nothing more than a generic auto-responder.
Both these machines are fairly standard, minimal Windows installs; no "security suites", no remote management software, no third-party AV or malware services.
Yet another problem which is still not fixed is the creation of the system report output (SystemReport.zip) directly under Program Files. Here's what I said in a mail to support in 2020:
I'm not going to create a full system report because the last time I did that it generated a 6Gb+ file in the program directory, a complete no-no, which I can't then delete because the program directory is under active protection, and changing active protection settings causes a BSOD. Please generate the system report in a valid user-accessible location such as %ProgramData% and not the program directory.
(Did have a link here but the forum rules prevent it! Search for "Microsoft Certification requirements for Windows Desktop Apps")
See section 10.1:
10.1 Your app must be installed in the Program Files folder by default
...
User data or app data must never be stored in this location because of the security permissions configured for this folder.
I see this is still happening. And, just for giggles, the forum editor allows hyperlinks but the forum rules block them...
Jim, thanks for your further information and confirmations.
When you say: 'the scheduler scripts now list the same prefix for both backups' - where are you looking here, is this looking at the XML .tib.tis script files in the Scripts folder (under Program Data)?
Next, you refer to looking at the ti_demon logs for CyberProtectHomeOffice - is this the version you are using now, and if so, have you testing making completely new backup tasks (rather than wanting to continue tasks that were created on an older version of True Image)?
I am also only using the default integrated Windows Defender security for my own systems!
The UI crash when clicking Restore is happening inside ti_managers.dll, in a component call "TrueImage::Managers::operator==" which is comparing two different "Managers", whatever they are, for equality. My guess is that it is getting a null reference and simply not checking for this before running a compare.
Again, if this is coming from ACPHO, then this needs to be escalated to Acronis senior support staff and I would suggest escalating this issue by sending an email to Arpita Ghosh who is the Acronis Product Manager for these home office products! (Arpita.Ghosh@acronis.com) quoting your support ticket / case number.
Your comment about rebuilding the database / identifying services beginning with 'A' is clarified in the subsequent step to 'Right-click each Acronis service and select Stop.' to differentiate other services from Apple, Adobe etc.
The inability to stop the Acronis protection services is caused by a hardening by Acronis to prevent such actions when the protection features are enabled but not handled for users in the KB document, i.e. by noting the requirement to start the PC in Safe Mode to achieve.
The no data to recover after renaming the database is expected because that information is stored in the database and thus needs to be repopulated, that in turn requires performing a validation for the backup tasks, but if your backup tasks are both using the same backup image files, this will not be helpful, thus new tasks should be created to make a clean start.
On an entirely different PC, a laptop, it occasionally decides to store the .tib files locally - on the source disk - instead of on the NAS. I have no idea what triggers this, it seems to be inconsistent. First guess would be that it's in the middle of a full backup when the laptop is put to sleep, and doesn't recover the operation correctly on wake.
The problem described above can be caused by having the Acronis Managed Machine Service Mini background service enabled and being signed in to your Acronis account on the Acronis Account page of the application. The issue here is that the Acronis Dashboard servers (which the MMSM service communicates with) has been known to reset task settings to Acronis default values causing backups to be stored on the local drive instead of a NAS and turning off automatic cleanup etc. That issue should be resolved after hundreds of complaints from users for when it last happened (for the second time).
Yet another problem which is still not fixed is the creation of the system report output (SystemReport.zip) directly under Program Files.
Use the MVP Assistant tool where there is an option under Acronis Utilities on the Acronis Configuration panel to create the system report and choose the location where it will be stored.
And, just for giggles, the forum editor allows hyperlinks but the forum rules block them...
Unfortunately that is more a matter of moderation for users with low numbers of posts / comments and is intended to try to prevent unwanted spam posts from unsavoury users / bots etc which have plagued the forums in the pasts with URL's directed to sites for porn, gambling, malware etc.
Thanks for the response.
is this looking at the XML .tib.tis script files in the Scripts folder (under Program Data)?
Yes.
you refer to looking at the ti_demon logs for CyberProtectHomeOffice - is this the version you are using now, and if so, have you testing making completely new backup tasks
Yes, that is the version I'm on. I have not tried just recreating the tasks yet. I assume this would work around the problem, but would not actually fix the root cause and prevent it from happening to others.
Thanks for the mail link, I promise I will be polite and to the point. Yes, this is directly from the crash dump generated, so I have a full stack trace and 100% ability to reproduce. I have also, as I said, completely failed in the past to convince first-line that crash dumps might be useful, they were only interested in screenshots.
quoting your support ticket / case number.
I have received none at all. When filing a ticket from the online dashboard, logged in, the only response is a generic webpage with "We will review your issue and get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you for contacting Acronis!" and no other specific information at all. I have checked that the email address is correctly set - it was the same one used to purchase the licenses - and I do correctly receive generic emails in response to submitting a crash report. There is also no page that I've been able to find, listing my support tickets.
The no data to recover after renaming the database is expected because that information is stored in the database and thus needs to be repopulated, that in turn requires performing a validation for the backup tasks,
The problem was that there was no option to validate either. The options were to rename, delete or open location (I think - I've replaced the original database now - point is that validate wasn't one of them).
Use the MVP Assistant tool where there is an option under Acronis Utilities on the Acronis Configuration panel to create the system report and choose the location where it will be stored.
Good to know for the future, thank you.
For the other issues it does sound as though they are known but unresolved.
Just a thought here... in my email settings (Account/Profile/Email settings), it's set to "Don't send me any messages". The other three checkboxes are for junkmail, which I don't want. Is it possible that disallowing the junkmail options is also blocking support responses from the dashboard?
Jim, when you create a support ticket you should always get an email from Acronis first level support with a subject line similar to the one below (from one of my own cases last year).
[05640892] Acronis certification server is not available to allow sign in to account [ ref:_00D30Zcb._5001T1l6rON:ref ]
The initial number within the opening square brackets are the case number, 05640892 in my example, followed by the issue description I gave when it was submitted, then finally the internal reference used by Acronis themselves for the case.
The message settings within the app are not relevant for support cases.
If you sign in to your Acronis Account webpage at https://account.acronis.com/auth/login then click on your account icon (person) in the top right corner it will reveal the following options:
Click on the Support requests option and any support cases associated with your account will be shown along with status and the links to open those cases to see any exchanges etc.
Okay, thank you, that explains that one at least. For others' reference, my mistake had been to look for support details on the account menu in the online dashboard, the page that opens if you click on "Account" in the desktop UI, and not on the account menu in the online account, which has a prominent "Support" option in the left-hand panel.