Summary of Features Removed in ATI2015
This seems to be a a common theme through most of the threads so far. So, I think it warrants a separate posting, perhaps as a sticky.
ATI2015 is a sharp departure from the prior full version of ATI. ATI2015 is very simplified version.
At least the following and possibly more features are removed from ati2015:
Acronis Extended Capacity Manager
Trim SSD
Backup file conversion from the .tib format to .vhd, and vice versa
Disk Editor
Boot Sequence Manager
File Shredder
Import and export of backup settings
Try&Decide
Mail backup
Mounting an image (But you can explore with File Explorer, which should
provide the same utility).
Manual backup file management (deletion of individual backups)
Manual Consolidation of incremental backups
Manual siting and naming of backups is more complicated
Display of Backup file details and options (schedule, backup size, and last update) at the main screen
The ability to sort backups by date
Polling of disks at startup so all backups can be found and added to database or listed for recovery.
(This would add backups made with BootCD or other versions of ATI).
If you have more than one machine, try updating only one for a while to see if the 2015 suits you. It is different than 2014.
If you buy and need a refund within 30 days of purchase:
This will lead you ultimately to this address with instructions and relevant url links:
https://kb.acronis.com/content/21242
Some other things I can't find:
View Log
Check for updates
Hello EdAdk,
Logs are available in system report or when you enable email notifications.
And "Automatically check for updates at startup" switcher can be found in Help - About Acronis True Image menu.
Scott, to mount an image you now need to right-click the image file that you want to mount in Windows Explorer, and then click Mount image.
Thank you.
Hi,
The Windows Context Integration is removed also.
The Backup Browser and to delete specific versions from it is also not available anymore
Thanks for posting that helpful list, Scott. I wish it had been there BEFORE I upgraded to 2015 b/c I never would have upgraded if I knew some of those reliable and helpful features were removed. Your list (and the helpful comments others added to it) will give other users a good idea of what to expect so they won't be as surprised as some of us were. Thanks.
I have a Western Digital 4TB HDD and I had to use the 'Acronis Extended Capacity Manager' to get the full capacity use of the HDD and now I find that it is no longer available in Acronis True Image 2015 for PC.
I understand that it was removed from from the latest 2015 version to "lighten the product and to make it more reliable" but I would like to know whether it will be put onto the Acronis website as a separate optional download so that I (or anyone else for that matter) can use it again if I get another HDD greater than 2TB or could you or anyone else recommend another program that can be used as a replacement for 'Acronis Extended Capacity Manager' that would do the same job?
I don't see an option to restore specific files or folders (as opposed to the entire image). Is it there or am I missing it?
Oops - my mistake. Okay, at least this feature is still there.
I just received an attractive ATI2015 upgrade offer from Acronis and before spending some money happily I came to this forum to learn about new/improved functionalities.
Now I read this thread. Excuse my stupid question:
What is the purpose of a new version with less functionalities?
No more "Try&Decide"? This is the key selling point why I am recommending ATI to my friends and colleagues. Trying to sell a ATI2015 with no Try&Decide apears to me like trying to sell a car with no reverse gear. Sorry, but I simply cannot buy this.
On Amazon Germany, my second read is a dominant 1-star-review...
Sorry again, but this looks like commercial suicide to me.
Is this just a temporary problem with the ATI2015 release version?
Or is this must-have-functionality gone forever?
I would strongly suggest you NOT do this “upgrade”. One point is the simplified interface. Touch screen support is not a good selling point, and the interface is not so easy to navigate. Two, you’ll get a pop up saying a new version is available. If you follow the link the upgrade is $49.95. If you go to the Acronis website for the upgrade it is $39.95.
I am too deeply vested in 2014 backups. The 2015 did not recognize half of my 2014 backups. 2014 however has no issues there. Mostly I agree with most negative comments. Fortunately I made an image of my laptop immediately before installing 2015, and was glad I did. With this kind of product too many remnants of the new program are left behind after doing an uninstall. Knowing I had a good image first I fiddled for hours with 2015, and restored my previous image.
Fortunately I was able to get a refund with no problems through Clevebridge. I have been using the various releases for many years. It is a product I love to hate. It’s always been a little quirky, but I know about the quirks and can deal with them. I can find no reason to do this upgrade if you already have 2014. Also there is only chat support, no phone or email contact. I have used chat support before and it was someone reading from a script who was not knowledgeable about computers or their own product. Take a pass on this one.
please read these before purchasing!!! this is a downgrade not an upgrade!!!!!
Not sure why you cannot see it the option is available.
Given the list at the top of this thread.... Why would anyone actually choose to purchase Acronis True Image Home 2015. I know I did, but that's just because I'm a fanboy or rather I was a fanboy. Have been using Acronis since .... IDK version 6 or 7, long time anyway. Next time I'll wait and try before I decide.
I won't apply for a refund, I'll just consider that $30 bucks.... a valuable lesson, well learned.
Thanks, but no thanks Acronis True Image Home 2015.
Acronis no longer easy to use. I used this program in the past for many years as simple needs for easy image and restore backup. I have my directory tree organized to quickly back up every night with simple copy and paste to my external drive. I make an image backup weekly for emergencies and recovery worked well with simple copy from my copy and restore files. All was going well until last version and thought that version to windows 8.1 would solve problems. No luck and impossible to simply click on external drive to activate Acronis. I can't figure out how to restore a disk image simply. Instead of new features may be wise to do simple first then expand features. I do not need more features, but simple image and restore feature without jumping through hoops. Still can't figure it out. I think tinkering with more features destroyed a good program. Loved the past feature of picking a file or directory from image file. I can't simply do this now nor even find how to find external drive image. I feel that I wasted my money. I have Dell all in one with I5, windows 8.1 and Western Digital external drive. Anyone else frustrated as I am?
I wrote a comment and carry the link because it is pertinent.
One more item can be added to the list of removed features: Acronis Home Products Do Not Create Multi-Product Bootable Media.
And so the list gets longer...
Personally I'm moving over to EaseUS. I've been upgrading Acronis every year since True Image 9 - which was a very good version. However since Acronis 2010, it's gone down hill. Now Acronis 2014 build 6688 nags to upgrade to Acronis 2015 with it's system tray popup message about new updates. That was the last straw for me. Acronis being uninstalled.
Check out some reviews of other options available.
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/10-commercial-disk-imaging-software-feature…
having tried 2015 version
sorry dont like the layout and now its not that easy to use
2014 loads better will stick with 2014...
Yes, I agree with most of the previous comments! For some obscure reason, I got a Free upgrade to 2015, which immediately followed a free upgrade from 2013, to 2014!
I must admit, that I like 2014 - So far, it has worked without fault, except I cannot stop the reminders that I have a free upgrade to 2015!
Upgrade normally means better, and more.
You certainly don't get more, and I haven't found that it does anything better - Except, perhaps, it has a smaller footprint, on your computer!
It might been due to a problem with my computer, or on how I set 2014 up, but after upgrading to 2015, and after deciding that I didn't like it, I discovered a Catastrophe; namely:
When I tried to restore my operating system, using a 2014 boot-able media, it found the image to be corrupt! - I could not Restore!
However, if I carried out the restore, live, from within Windows (8.1), using 2015, the restore action functioned!
The CATASTROPHE - The restored operating system still had 2015 installed!
I'm not sure how this occurred, but looking at the image, of my operating system, on my external drive, I discovered that a differential backup had been created, by 2015!
I have never set 2014 to create differential backups of my operating system, but assume, that 2015 had picked this setting up for a plan, for backing up my personal files!
The consequence of this, appears to be that my 2014 backup of my operating system has been converted to 2015 format - This would appear to explain why my 2014 boot disk reported the image as being corrupt - Old versions of Aronis, are not forward compatible! Presumably, the differential backup installed 2015, on my backup!
The only way I found of recovering the situation, was to un-install 2015, and remove all evidence of this installation (entered regedit, and my operating system program files, and remove all folders, labelled Acronis) - Then Belt and Braces, run CCleaner -registry cleaner! After this I reinstalled 2014, and imported my backup settings (Import and export of backup settings) - Finally backing up my operating system, using my boot disc!
All I can say, is think twice, before you install this on your PC; and:
If you are going to take a chance, and try it out, disconnect your external drive, with your operating system on board!
Reading the post above this does little for me wanting to upgrade. This release smacks of the 2010 version debacle.
I will not upgrade until the customer base is listened too.
Acronis in particular Aliya Rakimgulova Vice President, Worldwide Support your catch cry "Customers come first" cannot come to fruition unless you actually listen.
As a long term Customer who has stuck with Acronis through thick and thin I am putting you on notice I don't think I can do this again.
I will definitely not be upgrading until I see some positive feedback, most likely scenario is that you have just lost a customer of 7 years.
To remove important Features is an nogo.
On the other side, is the product now cheaper>>>>>>NO !
I think i lokk for a better solution.
To remove important Features is an nogo.
Acronis isn't the first software company to remove features, Microsoft have done that as well as some Linux distributions. On the up side, hopefully a slimmed down TI will be more stable and become more reliable.
Of course it might be hoped that the marketing department may think of offering the removed features such as Sync and T&D as stand-a-lones.
T&D was never likely to work with W8 or 8.1 properly due to both UEFI requirements and changes Microsoft made to the booting operation.
If people recall Sync had problems in that it didn't work as a 'one way' operation which is what people have indicated they would have liked as an option, in the forums and beta testings, and for some others it caused Windows problems. Acronis have obviously decided the problems outweighed the advantages of just having an imaging program which again many people in the forums had bemoaned that TI had too many bells and whistles.
Personally I would have preferred to have mounting still available from within TI, but maybe not many people use that feature.
Colin, what strikes me however is the sheer number of features being stripped. Above that, one is not informed properly that these features were stripped. The new features are presented well, but one really has to dig deep to find out about stripped features. We could furthermore argue about what features have been stripped of course. Take FI Import and export of backup settings. I honestly do not think this feature uses many resources, nor that it makes TI unstable. But if you read Brian Taylor's post from yesterday, it did save his A**. In my case , it has saved me much time in several instances.
I do not know about Linux, but Microsoft has never stripped this many features (relatively spoken), apart from Windows 8. And we all know how that went.
Also, if features do not work properly on UEFI based machines, why should people who are still using MBR/BIOS based machines have to suffer from that?
Bottom line: while I appreciate the thought that removing features makes a program more stable, I do not feel that warranted stripping this many features. Moreover, the failure to properly inform users about all changes in the new version shows disrespect towards users IMHO. This disrespect is also expressed by continuously bothering TI 2014 users with upgrade notifications, even if they are switched off in TI. Another way this disrespect is shown is by not responding properly on all the concerns & complaints that have been expressed in this forum. I personally do not want to do business with such a company (anymore). If Acronis does not want to learn their lesson the "easy" way (just think about the time and effort forum contributors take to give their feedback!), I guess they have to learn it the hard way by losing customers, exactly as Microsoft did by not taking Windows 8 complaints seriously when it was still in beta.
My attitude is exactly the same. I bought 2015 and will keep it in hope someone at Acronis wakes up and fixes this horrible upgrade (I mean downgrade). In the meantime I'm considering going back to 2014. Next time I'll look before I leap.
downgraded with ATI 2015.
As a lot of other users I also fell into the trap and updated ATI2014 to ATI2015. The new 2015 product is stripped of about 50% functionality and is of course also more expensive.
This company didn't listen in 2010 which was a disaster and now they're doing it again.
I'm sorry but the answers of mr. B are false and wrong.
Since I have daily backups I will restore my laptops to the state before ATI2015, since this product is useless.
I would hope that there are instructions to uninstall 2015 and re-install 2014 somewhere on this site.
OH, BTW, I don't know where they get the idea that I just joined. I have been a user for several years. I know, it doesn't mean anything.
2015 is absolute rubbish compared with TI 2014. I have just used the excellent free uninstaller RevoUninstaller to remove the 2015 'upgrade'. After the TI uninstaller has finished, use the two stage Revo deep scan to select and delete all traces of 2015 version left-overs. You will find that 2014 has gone altogether (not rolled back to!). Log in to My Acronis Account and download and install fresh 2014!
I am appalled by what Acronis has done to its loyal customers of many years like myself. At least, Cleverbridge managed a refund confirmation within about an hour and the money repaid confirmed instantly by the ever faithful PayPal.
Hope this helps.
Ray
To remove important Features is an nogo.Acronis isn't the first software company to remove features, Microsoft have done that as well as some Linux distributions. On the up side, hopefully a slimmed down TI will be more stable and become more reliable.
Of course it might be hoped that the marketing department may think of offering the removed features such as Sync and T&D as stand-a-lones.
T&D was never likely to work with W8 or 8.1 properly due to both UEFI requirements and changes Microsoft made to the booting operation.
If people recall Sync had problems in that it didn't work as a 'one way' operation which is what people have indicated they would have liked as an option, in the forums and beta testings, and for some others it caused Windows problems. Acronis have obviously decided the problems outweighed the advantages of just having an imaging program which again many people in the forums had bemoaned that TI had too many bells and whistles.
Personally I would have preferred to have mounting still available from within TI, but maybe not many people use that feature.
But not to the point of being castrated. It's the general consensus that 2015 is a disaster in the making with the removed features.
By the way, do the enterprise versions have the features that got removed from 2015?
If yes, thought so.
Mercenaries.
I would urge you to ask for the refund. As long as we don't put them out of business, we have to send them a message.
Just my opinion: 90% of these features were bloat. I'm glad that some people had a use for them, and I wouldn't begrudge the bloat so much if it didn't come at the expense of stability and functionality. Unfortunately, both seemed to come at the same time, and instead of making their backup core better it has actually gotten /worse/ since 2009. It is harder to work with, less reliable, more likely to hang, etc...
This is totally ABSURD. Either this is really a PRErelease or Acronis has flipped. I use Try and Decide all the time and it's elimination alone is a total deal breaker for me. Try and Decide is HARDLY bloatware! It just doesn't seem possible that a company that can write such advanced and useful software could be this stupid. I don't need their cloud and I'll be happy to stick with ATI2014 unless and until they come to their senses.
ATI 2015 is nothing but damage control - Acronis trying to salvage what little credibility it has left after the disaster that 2014 was by offering a free "upgrade" to those unfortunate enough to have purchased 2014.
I already sent my 2014 back and got my refund (thanks Amazon). ATI has been on a steady decline since 2011, 2014 was just plain dangerous. It failed miserably at every turn.
They needed to gut the product, they actually should have just pressed a bunch more 2011 discs and sold them, it was the last reliable product Acronis has put out.
And of course, the one "feature" most of us were hoping got the axe, is noticeably missing from the list of deletions - the infamous "Operations in Progress" BSOD that locks your machine up with no method of escape other than an OS-damaging cold shutdown. It must still be a "designed behavior" and be considered a "feature"...unbelievable...NO software should EVER totally lock your machine down with no user-accessible escape mechanism, regardless of the operation being performed.
Not a chance, Acronis... run, quickly, far away from this butchered version of something that was bad to start with...
IMHO, change is always the biggest issue. Microsoft knows about that very well. It's completely different with the layout. The list of removed functions, I won't miss them because I don't use them except Try&Decide but I haven't used that for 3 years because of GPT.
ATI 2015 hasn't been smooth sailing because of the rescue media builder, and I got round that by using the ATI 2014 rescue media builder. Now it's working, I will peruse and look through and see where the familiar functions and settings are. I'm must be one of the rare ones, I like change and we all have our opinions.
I've been using Acronis's partition drive image backups (and restore) for years and they've been reliable and saved my life numerous times. Clone Drive has always been a disappointment for me since it just flat out never worked. I make do with the stored drive images instead. Then I've taken up Try and Decide and find it to be a great piece of software allowing me to take chances and try things that I ordinarily wouldn't do, or would take so much time that they were not feasible. I don't use or need GPT on my main machine since I'm fine with a 256mb lightning fast SSD and a 1tb 2nd drive online and a 2tb USB drive just for archive all MBR drives. Unfortunately my wife's machine did come with Windows 8.1 and a GPT drive which Try and Decide won't support. But I guess I'll stick with periodic drive images and Try and Decide on my main machine for now until something better comes along. Or if there is something better out there I'd love to hear about it for either drive imaging, drive cloning or trying and deciding.
I abandoned Try&Decide because it's not worth keeping that over GPT. Instead I use my backups, and since the the restore operation only takes 3-5 minutes, I can live with that.
Roger, I suggest you take a look at AX64 Time Machine. It is an imaging program with which you can move back and forth quickly between images, faster than TI, because only changed sectors are restored and not an entire image, as would be the case with restoring a regular TI image. Another advantage is that Try & Decide reroutes hard disk activities to a separate section, which can sometimes lead to errors and also slows down the system. Because AX64 Time Machine only uses images, this is not the case with that program. I love the program and find it safer and faster than Try & Decide. BTW: I am not affiliated with AX64, I am just an ordinary user.
Not possible anymore to create a shortcut to a job (verified today by Acronis support)! This function is necessary to start a job from an external program.
It's not nice to sell an upgrade without new or better functions. But to sell an upgrade with less and reduced funktions is really bold...
Not possible anymore to create a shortcut to a job (verified today by Acronis support)! This function is necessary to start a job from an external program.
It's not nice to sell an upgrade without new or better functions. But to sell an upgrade with less and reduced funktions is really bold...
Sorry to say that I have become disillusioned with 2015!
I rather like the look of the User Interface, and I was pleased that Acronis had got rid of some of the facilities, which I never used - Presumably this should reduce the foot print and usage on my PC resources!
However, I have found the operation pathetic!
The sliders, on the page you are trying to select what to back up (your personal folders) are impossible to use, with my Wacom pen - They jump all over the place; extremely difficult to navigate around your drives, and folders!
With more than one backup shown in the display window, I have frequently observed that nothing happens, when you select one of your images, and you try to edit the settings - it just goes to sleep!
During periods of operation (backing up), I found that I could not access my task bar (Windows 8.1), which precluded me doing other activities
The last straw was when repeatedly, I discovered that Photoshop CS 6, my photo editing suite, locked up, repeatedly, when I tried to save an image! The lock up was permanent (Even after a restart) - The only solution was to uninstall, and re-install Photoshop! (Same problem with 2014)
In summary! Looks nice, theoretical less demanding on your PC, but design is illogical and functionally abysmal.
Cannot be recommended!
Roger, I suggest you take a look at AX64 Time Machine. It is an imaging program with which you can move back and forth quickly between images, faster than TI, because only changed sectors are restored and not an entire image, as would be the case with restoring a regular TI image. Another advantage is that Try & Decide reroutes hard disk activities to a separate section, which can sometimes lead to errors and also slows down the system. Because AX64 Time Machine only uses images, this is not the case with that program. I love the program and find it safer and faster than Try & Decide. BTW: I am not affiliated with AX64, I am just an ordinary user.
This looks promising. I'll be checking it out shortly for sure, let you know! Thanks!
Ax64 doesn't have encryption which for me is a must have. If you do not need that, it is a very nice program.
I think Acronis should add features back to 2015 (SP1) but can let users install feautres optional (default is deselect all) is good.
OH, BTW, I don't know where they get the idea that I just joined. I have been a user for several years. I know, it doesn't mean anything.
At least my Membership is showing as nearly 5 years, but I don't have any "old" forum posts - which seems wrong to me
ATI 2015 seems to be a downgrade release. Il think it must not be installed and i am to uninstall it : many features have disappeared.
What about this?
delete
Hi,
Sorry but i don't unsderstand german. Can you tell me in English or french? Thanks
Andrw23a
With this upgrade do they give you $49.99 to try it out ?
Seriously......This is like going from Windows 8 to Windows 3.1
Pim, I installed and tried Time Machine. As a drive image program it seems quite good. I haven't used all the features yet but it's well laid out and it may be something to switch over to since it's not a one or the other decision. But I can't see how it would be a substitute for Try and Decide. With try and decide it's a single click to invoke takes like 15 seconds. If what I try is a disaster it's merely a quick reboot like a minute or 2, not an image restore which takes a LOT longer. And I have to say Try and Decide has been trouble free at least for me and I use it daily.
Thought AX64 (Time machine ) only restores to your previous setpoint.
I used Rollback Rx for year... which is awesome... but it wont work for me since I have 24 Gb of memory... they are still looking into the problem for that.
but that takes seconds to backup and Restore..
Looks very interesting. I'll check it out immediately. Thanks!