Getting a bit upset with lack of support

Ditto from me. I had been a long time Acronis user going back to the earliest versions. I had a recent near catastrophe by merely installing TI 2015 (upgrading from 2014 which I had upgraded from previous versions like a loyal user). Unfortunately I bought in May but did not install until the other day. To add insult to injury in addition to no support I also missed the free upgrade to 2016.

I may start considering an alternative backup solution given the cavalier level of customer support at Acronis.

I'm thinking the same thing. Lost my backup list through no fault of my own, yet I cannot contact the developer to get help to fix the issue!

I installed this last night to try it out

http://www.easeus.com/backup-software/personal.html

There's a FREE version, yes free. Their non-free one is half the cost of Acronis and has all the features, that I can see - AND your support isn't limited to 30 days. And my PC hasn't crashed.

Acronis, you need to up your game.

Hmm, looks like I may owe Acronis an apology

There seem to be many reported cases of Crucial MX100/200 drives hanging, whether or not acronis is installed. Mine is still doing it, it seems to be something triggered by the backup process (maybe a bug in win8.1+'s volume shadow copy?) or AHCI driver or something.

I am going to throw this POS crucial away and get a samsung.

I am now considering switching to either OAMEI or EaseUS for my backup needs. Support seems to be non-existent and we are being ignored. A simple message saying " we"re working on it' would be nice.

I have two major concerns about ATI 2015.

1. The requirement to have Universal Restore as an external piece of software. When I started a disc recovery from the main ATI2015 page it rebooted and launched universal restore. Why the need for extra software. Just allow for atI2015 to be burned to a CD/DVD. The software has an option to create a bootable disc, yet when burned, shows a non-bootable file structure. WTF????
Solution: Acronis provides a bootable ISO file to all its ATI customers. The links provided create a TRIAL version... unusable.

2. File restore is excruciatingly SLOW. I have a huge MP3 library whcih I recently lost via a partitioning error(my own fault) which contained over 90,000 MP3s, video files and such. I calculated that it took ATI2015 approx. 7 hours to backup. It's going to take over 7 DAYS to recover, using an external USB3 drive capable of 100MB/s. This is quite unsatisfactory. Further, all the files being recovered have what appears to be a random -xmxmxmx digits as a suffix. How insane is that? (Luckily I have a utility that can deal with this nonsense...)

If Acronis wants my future business, they will need to give me a FREE 2016 licence. I had much better success with ATI2013.

I have a Crucial SSD on my other laptop. Never had a problem with it.. Model # escapes me, though.. 240GB 2.5"

You guys have a good flame thread going here. And I even feel some of your pain. But, you can't really expect someone "anyone" to offer unlimited upgrades or support for something they are selling. We all draw the line somewhere. right. Its not their fault you bought the software and didn't install it for weeks or months. They are software developers. Of course they come out with new stuff. Then Microsoft in their infinite wisdom releases one OS after another so architecturally different forcing software vendors to try to keep up. Once again a line has to be drawn. This version supports this and previous, this version supports that and later. The other issue is this. Somehow XP lasted for 14+ years. This is what people remember... all my programs worked with XP for years. Then we got, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10.

XP was released in 2002. Vista didn't get release until 2007. 5 of those 14 years later. 7 was released 2.5 years after this. 8 was approx. 3 years later, 8.1 12 months later and now 10 roughly 14 months after that.

We all have our favorites. I know for sure none of us liked Vista, and we all cringed the first time we saw the Metro interface in windows 8. I'll probably die wishing Pontiac still made GTO's.

And crucial drives.... they are horrible (putting it lightly). Samsung and Corsair are safe bets.

Cheers

Unlimited? Never said that.
Standard practice in the IT industry is for support/maintenance to be a 1 year contract, not one month.
I installed it as soon as I bought it, and then a couple of months later found myself with a problem and no recourse. In South Africa we have a law called the consumer protection act that guarantees all customers at least 6 months of support. This policy of Acronis's is in contravention of that act but I really don't feel like getting into a jurisdiction dispute.

Anyway, as I said, it doesn't seem to be an Acronis problem but a Crucial problem. Acronis activates it because it seems to be related to high IO in the system, which is what a backup does.

Shadowsports,
I don't recall indicating anywhere about unlimited upgrades. However, not unlike Microsoft, I believe Acronis should offer a free (or at the minimum a very deep discount) on ATI2016. Notwithstanding the problems that I indicated, if you were reading the threads from last FEBRUARY, Acronis has confirmed that the bootable image that SOME of its customers were able to produce did not recognize external USB3 drives. I am understandably quite shocked that this issue has still not been resolved. I have 4 external USB3 and 3 external USB2 drives. The Windows 10 excuse does not wash with me. Fixing such a rudimentary issue should have been their top priority. A bug-fix patch or version could have been developed. Further, I am sure that the development community had received from Microsoft advance versions of Windows 10 which should have included developer API's. Big boats turn slowly.

I blame myself for ASSUMING that ATI2015 would work out of the box the same as my ATI2013. It(ATI2013) created a bootable disc on the first try. It worked flawlessly. I even recommended Acronis to my friends and family. (I'm their local geek!) It never occurred to me to test its ability to recover from a dead drive or migrating to a new one, as I was able to do this without issue using ATI2013! Again, I ASSUMED that the newer version would do everything the older version could but better. I was sadly disappointed. :( I am the one who now has to go back to family and friends and back-peddle red-faced about the issues that Acronis brought upon itself. I blame myself for not having tested the recovery feature within the support period. I promise to be more diligent in the future.

Why is it that Acronis' competition can get it right? Yet Acronis seems steeped in secrecy over offering any sort of support for its product? I sent them feedback/support ticket over 4 days ago and still haven't heard boo from them. Not even an acknowledgment that they received my info. IMHO, this is no way to treat one's customers.

So to reiterated the topic of this thread, I'm getting a bit upset at the lack of support. Here's why.

1. ATI2015 is broken. Judging by the number of topic threads, I'm not alone with this conclusion. ATI2013, and from what I read, ATI2014 were both stable releases(IMHO). Yet in ATI2015 USB3 support was either missed or removed. Was this a conscious decision? An oversight? We don't know. I don't care.

2. Maintaining software for two operating systems(Windows/Linux) to support one(Windows) seems a bit, how should I put it?, inefficient. Their developers should have focused more on producing one cohesive piece of software, rather than developing a Linux based recovery option. Just my opinion. Apparently Acronis did not take the good from previous versions and implemented them in ATI2015. This begs the question: was it rushed into production? And thereby QA failed somewhere along the way? What happened with the beta testers? Did they all miss these fatal flaws?

3. How many users have either the technical savvy or the inclination to build the 'Mustang'PE disc to solve that issue? Many, if not most, are regular joe's who just want their backup and recovery to be a smooth effort. Creating a recovery disc should be a simple, one step affair. (Competitors provide a bootable ISO!!) Yet the resultant disc from Acronis contains no boot files, and a directory of assorted files. .. Quite unusable. I wonder how many CD's have ended up in the trash because of this. How many man hours wasted?

To summarize, I feel let down by this software and by its developers. I cannot continue using it or recommend it to my friends, family and peers, unless Acronis gets its act together with a bug fix release SOON.

I would like to hear from users of ATI2016. (Public or private) Have these issues been resolved?

So our valid criticisms regarding virtually lack of ANY support is somehow now a flame thread?!?!? The problem that I encountered upon installing 2015 was not trivial and apparently not unique since I found a few other threads with similar issues. My experience with virtually all other utility-type software I have bought over the years was that there was some type of support, or at the very least some response to problems, in support forums like this and that they came from the software developers. An excellent case-in-point is the True Launch Bar utility by Tordex. On their support forum the developer regularly chimes in and provides solutions/feedbacks to problems that users might be having. Here at the Acronis forum there is not a peep from any of the developers as far as I can see. I even registered a complaint on the customer service site and not even any acknowledgement of my contact.

The so-called support here is pathetic compared with most other software I have purchased over the years. Ditto on the upgrade policy. I recently bought OnOne Perfect Photo. The practice that this company has when someone buys a product is to offer the next version AT NO COST if the version is coming out within a few months of the current version. Surely when I bought TI2015 in May it could have been disclosed that TI2016 was coming out imminently and would be a free upgrade. So not only do I feel screwed from that transaction but getting NO support is the icing on the cake.

Losing my backup list through no fault of my own didn't win Acronis any points with me. Thank goodness someone made a suggestion to delete the database, though it wasn't the end of the world. The fact that proceeding with an incremental backup plan after recovering my backup list where Acronis failed to find one of the backup files (it's right there Acronis, next to the others) really bothers me and continues to question my decision to purchase ATI 2015. I started (again) with a full backup.

I work for a software company with a pay-for support policy, but we allow anyone to email support and get a response back in a reasonable amount of time for free. You cannot leave your customers high and dry. Plus, I have only owned the product since May!

I have since searched other backup software's forums...they don't have near the amount of "failure" issues as Acronis seems to have.

I have put Aeomi on another PC and am looking at it.

shadowsports wrote:

But, you can't really expect someone "anyone" to offer unlimited upgrades or support for something they are selling.

You should expect issues that have existed since a product's release to be resolved in a timely manner.

A few examples of Acronis' lack of support...

Build 6055 was released on October 22, 2014. It introduced the issue with accessing backups stored on Seagate USB 3.0 external hard drives when using the default Linux based rescue media. The update that resolved this issue was released on July 20, 2015.

Using the 2015 WinPE rescue media to clone a disk always ends in a "Failed to Write to Disk error." I contacted support about this issue in April 2015 and was informed that it would be resolved in the 2016 version.

The issue with Bitlocker encrypted partitions always backing up sector by sector was identified in October 2014. The final build of 2015 has been released and this issue is unresolved, yet Acronis is using Bitlocker support as a selling point for 2016.

Full GPT and UEFI support was advertised in True Image 2013. True Image 2016 is out now and is still incapable of restoring the partitions of a GPT disk in the correct order to a new disk. The MSR partition is always placed first on a new disk. I contacted support with specific examples of how this occurs and the pains required to work around it. I was told that it was designed behavior and the development team has done all the work on this issue they are going to do. Every other disk imaging program I have tested gets this right every time.

Using the Universal Boot Rescue Media builder resulted in a trial version of True Image. This issue was also identified in October 2014 and was resolved in July 2015.

It only took 9 months for Acronis to resolve a few of the issues True Image 2015 had in its 11 month run as the current version. That's right True Image 2015 wasn't even out an entire year before True Image 2016 was released!!

Off Topic
Microsoft has released 6 versions of Windows since 2001.
Acronis has released 14 versions of True Image since 2002.

Joey,
My statement and your example are two different things.

All,
Acronis does offer free updates for the current version you own. The consumer versions of Acronis comes with 30 days of free installation support. This is typical for non-enterprise software that doesn't have a maintenance agreement. Microsoft doesn't offer unlimited support either and if you buy OEM windows this falls on the hardware vendor or all of us who build our own.

There is a big difference between support and development. While the two intermesh, support doesn't always get to dictate what will be fixed or included in the next release. Do I agree with this, not exactly. With more than 15 years on both sides, I have a clear understanding what drives each area. Joey you brought up some excellent points, and I'm not here to defend or take sides.

Providing feedback is more effective than "I'm tired of, "I should have got" and "me too" forum posts that unfortunately pretty much fall on the wrong ears. These are all valid concerns..... however, I'm still never going to own a crucial SSD (smile) I encourage all to leave feedback directly for Acronis here:

http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/feedback.html

I also am bitterly disappointed in the upgrade. to 2015.
Why does my backup start but never..l It is a bit stupid of Acronis to give 1 only month free support, when the first time you need it could be moths or even years later and you find your recovery does not work and you can't get any help from them. I tried a system recovery without success fortunately on as a dummy run on a spare drive and it went through the motions and produced and unbootable, So I am not relying on acronis to help me in future. I followed the rules but it did not work and as you can see from above the current backup won't stop so does not produce any result.
This product is not supposed to be for Gurus so why I am have so much trouble!?

I agree that Acronis support sucks. If you miss their 30 day window after purchase you are SOOL. Here is the most galling thing. After the 30 days are up the only free "support" option is to hope that you can find a solution in the forum or KB. No Live Chat, Phone Calls or even Email! If you want Acronis TS you have to pay upfront $20 for a one time PPI. This is even before the problem has been diagnosed. So it is automatically assumed that the user is at fault.

Shame on you Acronis.

I am tired of getting the loop-around-the-loop from Acronis. My True Image 2015 Build 6613 stopped doing backups for me (it may have been my fault though). I wanted to do backups whenever I wanted, not when Acronis wanted. No matter what I did it reverted to daily or weekly backups even though I checked "do not schedule". Finally, it would "backup" all day and when I checked it, nothing was actually backed up. I decided to Uninstall and Re-Install. Bad idea. Re-installing worked fine until I was asked to enter my Product Key, which I did. Then it asked for my upgrade product key. I wasn't doing an upgrade, so there I am. No Acronis for me. I certainly don't plan to buy an upgrade from therm. Support is slim, costly or non-existent, take your pick.

Not to hijack this thread, and I am certainly no fan-boy of 2015 ... but Acronis WILL provide free support for a recovery operation indefinitely. If you have a viable backup of your system stored somewhere, Acronis will see to it that you successfully recover with it.
This is not the same thing as standard product support though, it only applies to disaster recovery. I have been using Acronis since 2010, and have installed every version since (except 2016) on dozens of client's systems (XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 but not 10 yet).
In all of the forum chatter that has exploded since the mess that is 2015, I have yet to see anyone offer another product that has the same functionality as Acronis. I have seen numerous posts about people installing a trial of some other offering and "they will post back with an update on how it went" ... but never a follow up to say "Follow me everyone, I found a better backup solution"
Maybe those posts do exist and Acronis deletes them before I see them ...

In case anyone cares about my opinion, I have always felt that the company that builds an operating system should be responsible for providing a backup solution for it. Historically, Microsoft SUCKS at that while Apple's Time Machine is simple but effective. However, Apple will only support TM if you are using all Apple hardware ... it's not like Microsoft has that luxury.

My current plan is to run my computers with Windows 7 straight through until 2020. Screw Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 ... let the chips fall where they may and I will sort through the rubble when support for 7 officially ends (anyone want to bet that happens long after 2020?)
I am recommending to my clients that purchase new systems to pay the premium for Windows 7, at least until 10 has been through the paces and stops breaking things.

I don't see this thread as a flame war, but if there is a better backup solution than Acronis out there, I haven't heard of it. Just my experience ...

Geroge W,
If you had 2015 working once for you, you can can get it working again. All you need is your serial numbers for 2015 and the serial number for whatever prior version you used as the upgrade to 2015. I assume that you registerd your purchases each install so your serial numbers should be available within your personal Acronis account. Refer to my signature link 9 (picture 6 inside that link) for more help with the serials.

If you don't want to upgrade to 2016, no purchase is necessary to get 2015 going again.

AS A PRELIMINARY MATTER, Acronis refunded my purchase.

I cannot get the product, Acronis Nonstop backup, to work.  I purchases 2015, it did not work but it was past the 30 days before I relialized it was not working.  I spent endless hours working on the fix with no luck.  I finally purchased 2016 to see if it would work.  New purchase, new install.  Seemed like it was going to work and then the Nonsop backup stopped working.  I spent hours and hours on the phone with support with no solution.  They finally gave up and sent me some complicated instructions to try and figure it out myself.  By the time I tried and failed and attempted to call back my 30 day free support was up.  No working product, no support options.  No way to get it fixed.  I will never purchase this product again.  If the company does not provide support to fix it or refund my money for at least 2016 I will spend an equivilant amount of time that I spent attempting to fix it, telling others on rating websites, and forums to never use this software.

I woner whether qanyone fro Acronis reads these comments. You would never know.

After complaining in this post last August I never heard back from Acronis. Lack of support and being forced to upgrade after such a short amount of time didn't sit well with me. I switched over to EaseUS and never looked back. Acronis was a mistake and waste of money...too bad as I really enjoyed the features and interface..

Hello all,

I'm very sorry to know that you are not satisfied with our support policy. Let me provide you with more information about it: 
First of all we offer perpetual recovery support, since that's the core of our business. 
For other issues with each license of Acronis True Image (n, n-1 versions) we give free chat/email technical support within 30 days after the purchase. 
After the standard support program expires you can purchase an Acronis Pay Per Incident Support license to contact support via phone/chat/email with technical issue. 
If the issue is on the side of the product we will refund the cost of the support fee. 

More about your support options you can read here 
http://dl.acronis.com/u/pdf/Customer_Handbook_Consumer_US.pdf

Thank you,

ml wrote:

After complaining in this post last August I never heard back from Acronis. Lack of support and being forced to upgrade after such a short amount of time didn't sit well with me. I switched over to EaseUS and never looked back. Acronis was a mistake and waste of money...too bad as I really enjoyed the features and interface..

Similar sentiment here, especially after the previous experience with installing Acronis 2015 and panicking when I was not able to start Windows.  I have done backups a number of times since without problems but have passed up the opportunity to upgrade to 2016.  This is partly since I do not feel that Acronis values me as a loyal long term customer and also my original post and question was never really acknowledged.

Doug

Given the difficulty I've encountered in recoverying/restoring data and the lack of access to useful support it would appear to me that the positive reviews I checked out before buy were probably fake reviews paid for by the Acronis marketing department. 

The isnstructions in the "help" document says something like "Go to the left column and pick Backup and then Recovery"  Of course that gets you no place as "Revovery" is not an option.  Or "Go to the Backup(or maybe it was Recovery) Console.  You guessed it.  There is no such Console.

I really wanted Acronis to work but apparently Acronis only cares about selling the software and doesn't really care about the customer experience.

I don't expect life time support, especially from small fly by nitght companies, but is it really appropriate for Acronis to provide such limited support for such complicated and non-intuitive software.  I don't doubt that it works once you get passed their unhelpful instructions.  In the meantime I remain disappointed in myself for allowing Acronis to suck me into what I can, at present, only conclude is a well organized con.

Jay, first, welcome to these user forums - we are all user volunteers here and do not work for Acronis, but do try to help each other when needed.

Next, if you have ATIH 2016 and have a Recovery problem you need help with, then please post in the Acronis True Image 2016 Forum with details of what your problem is etc and we will try to help.

See also article: 18623: How to get Technical Support: Tips, Tricks and Useful Information which states:

5.    Recovery issue
- Related to recovery issues with the full version of the product
- Free of charge
- 24x7
- Not limited (Assistance with the recovery issue can be requested any time, even if you’re out of 30 days free support and don’t have PPI)
- Provided with e-mail and chat
Response time:
-  3 business days via e-mail
 - immediate via chat

If you have created an Acronis user account and have registered your Acronis serial number to the same, then I would recommend using the Chat support method to get immediate support for a recovery problem.

Jay, thanks for your PM - unfortunately that does not allow me to attached screen shots.

See below for the panel for getting Support and using the Chat Now feature.

The steps are as follows:

From any of the Forum pages, look to the top right corner and click on Support - this will take you to http://www.acronis.com/support/

Next, select the type of issue you want help with.  I have selected Technical issues/Question in the screen shot.

Next, select the type of product you are using.  I have selected that I am using the Full product which required me to login with my Acronis Account credentials (user email and password).

Next, select the actual product you are using, I selected Acronis True Image 2016

Finally, below those selection boxes, you will see a range of support options.  Click on the second from left for CHAT NOW and you should be chatting online with a member of the Acronis Customer Central team very soon afterwards.