Disk/Image Backup with Exclusions of folders not working
So the question becomes, based on existing circumstances,
would you rather I not respond and not provide guides or illustrations,
or should I continue to offer my suggestions for workarounds?
No. I'm sure that you are a huge help to folks struggling to make this stuff work. And I would imagine that a fair amount of help that people need does not actually involve working around flaws in the software. So there is a lot of opportunity to do good.
I think it boils down to making the best of the situation. Acronis is some of the best backup software out there. Which makes the flaws in it even more frustrating. But nothing is perfect. And helping like you are doing is much better than whining like I am doing. :)
I don't consider your posting as whining. You have a legimate right to expect the exclusions to work. I wish I had a solution for you. Just keep contacting Acronis about the need for fixes.
GroverH: my little jab was just a "sigh". All I ever wanted was a somewhat idiot proof way not to have to reinstall Windows again once I got through the original ordeal. I do concede that over the years Acronis has managed to spare me this indignity even if the process has not always been idiot proof...
Your faithful assistance in this forum is noticed even by a newcomer like me. Thank you!
I don't know if encryption is a factor. Have you used it in the past with successful results?
I must admit that I didn't use encryption until I reset everything February 22nd.
Also suggest you change your backup scheme to similar to the link below except you the number of inc's to be kept or the number of chains (store x number ...) can be changed to fit your storage needs.
The reason I am suggesting a change from your current is that 1 full plus the rest inc's is open ended and you will need to perform manual deletion later if you were to continue.
I would have preferred to create my task that way (as it was before this whole problem started), but I wanted to take out of the loop the auto-consolidation step as the faulty process causing exclusions failure. So I'll report back later with another new task, without encryption, without auto-consolidation.
JP
A quick "me too", though my situation may be slightly different.
I run Windows 8.1 and Acronis TrueImage 2014 build 6673.
I am using encryption for the backup and backing up two drives, C: and D:., which are encrypted using Bitlocker. I have excluded one directory on D:.
The exclusion stopped working after I installed Windows 8.1 Update 1, the version leaked by Microsoft on March 6th.
The exclusion started working after I restored my system volume to a state before I had installed Update 1.
This might be correlation, not causation. We'll know more on April 8th. If a bunch of people suddenly see the issue, then Update 1 is likely the culprit. Or I should say "a culprit", since there appear to be a number of different configurations that show the same symptom.
Again, a no go for my full backup. No encryption, no auto-consolidation and no archive-splitting (I was setting it at 25GB).
- I deleted all my backups images to start fresh
- I deleted the schedule and the task completely
- I created a new one, tedious operation since I always have to input that darn email settings and exclusions
- I launched the full backup manually
I am thinking to go back to an older version.
Thorsten: I hope that this Windows 8.1 Update 1 thing generate the problem for everybody. That way maybe Acronis is going to start looking after the problem, having a clear path on how to reproduce the faulty behaviour.
JP
Thoresten,
You need to be aware of these KB articles about Bitlocker which as best I know are still applicable to the 2013 and 2014 versions.
1734: Compatibility of Acronis Backup Software with Windows BitLocker
1649: Compatibility of Acronis Backup Software with Encryption Software
We seem to be having the same problem. We have only just bought TI 2014 Family Pack last week and we did a full system back-up on our Win 8.1 Pro PC today and tried to exclude certain folders but they backed up with all their contents. We used the browse button to add the folders and the backup was a one-off full backup with no schedule.
I've left a support request in my account area as I believe I'm right in thinking we have a month of free support. I've informed Acronis that others are having similar issues and asked them if they are investigating the problem. I hope they come back to us soon.
All,
In reading through this thread I cannot help but think the problem here is with Windows 8.1 security permissions. Win 8.1 may be overriding the exclude from backup files/folders because user or application does not, in Windows eyes anyway, have the proper permissions. If I am right wouldn't that still mean a bug exists in TI? I would say it would be more of an oversight in programming for Win 8.1 installations than a bug.
Hopefully Annie will hear back on this and possibly solve the mystery.
I concur that it seems to be affecting Windows 8.1. I have just performed a similar backup on my Windows 7 Pro PC and the excluded folders were indeed excluded.
I'll let you know if/when I hear from Acronis. I don't think they're all that quick. I left a message last week about something else and they didn't reply so, 4 days later, I went onto their Chat and sorted it out. However, I don't think a quick Chat is going to sort this particular problem out but I will try if they don't respond in a day or two.
It affects also Windows 7 Ultimate x86, not just Windows 8 or 8.1.
@Grover I am aware of how Bitlocker and Acronis interact. That's not the problem here. In fact, I just wrote a blog post on restoring a Bitlocker system volume with Acronis: http://yorickdowne.wordpress.com/2014/03/22/restoring-a-bitlocker-syste… . That restore is how I "rolled back" Update 1.
@JP Spot on. This issue is not unique to Windows 8.1. Acronis can function just fine in Windows 8.1, as well, which it is doing for me right now. Whether Update 1 will increase the incidence of this issue we will know when it's released in a little over two weeks.
I have the same issue. My platform is Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit. I have the strong impression that the problem appears since the upgrade to 8.1 because I had no issue in the past. I hope that Acronis would come with a fix.
This issue or similar has been reported by some users of Win 7 but as Annie reports worked on a Win 7 Pro system in that instance. Win 8.1 seems to be the prominent player in this however. The security permissions of Windows, networks, firewalls, and anti virus apps are increasing with each new release/update. In order to solve these types of problems it is necessary to replicate the problem. Users backup data in a myriad of ways using internal disks, external disks, network shares, removable devices, etc.. These factors and others make replication a not so easy task. It would be my guess that there is one common denominator amongst the users experiencing this problem, so far that has not come to light. All in good time I suppose.
I know you're trying to help. But properly designed software doesn't BREAK when you do something that is clearly in the scope of what it allows you to do. This idea that you have to do things a certain way and hold your mouth just right or else the software won't work correctly is ludicrous.
Grover isn't defending the software. He's simply recommending what works best based on his experience. We agree that some fixes would be useful. In the meantime we do our best to assist fellow users who may benefit from our greater knowledge of ATI. Grover, the other MVPs and I are not Acronis employees; we are users who volunteer our time.
I know you're trying to help. But properly designed software doesn't BREAK when you do something that is clearly in the scope of what it allows you to do. This idea that you have to do things a certain way and hold your mouth just right or else the software won't work correctly is ludicrous.
Grover isn't defending the software. He's simply recommending what works best based on his experience. We agree that some fixes would be useful. In the meantime we do our best to assist fellow users who may benefit from our greater knowledge of ATI. Grover, the other MVPs and I are not Acronis employees; we are users who volunteer our time.
Can I just say thanks to the MVPs who are doing a difficult job in the face of apparent apathy from Acronis/
This problem seems to have been introduced with the latest release. I had several years of use of earlier builds without these problems.
The suggested practices for workaround seem to work in my case. One just has to be careful and precise. Once the problem is apparent the only way I've found to clear the problem is to uninstall and reinstall the product. Most likely this is because the registry sections get wiped and reset to clean values.
On reinstallation I've found that I can set any parameters I like in the backup job, such as encryption, compression and exclusion lists. These all have to be done before the backup job is actually run. Editing the parameters after this point will generally bring the problem back requiring another uninstall.
For me this became quite serious in that it could suddenly add an extra 1.7 TB to a backup that was already 700 GB.
Please don't complain at the advice from this forum unless it actually comes from an Acronis representative. What we have here are people attempting to rationalise a workaround for for others for software from a company that is apparently unresponsive to these issues.
If the advice was coming from Acronis representatives I would agree with your comments about the software (or at least this release). I know nothing about the internal structure of Acronis, but after 30 years of working in software this has all the hallmarks of someone deciding that the QA team were an expensive resource that didn't do anything and got rid of most of them. And is now finding out what they actually did.
Just to say that I have been in touch with Acronis about this issue but they wanted to take remote control of my husband's PC and I wasn't keen to give this kind of access to a stranger so I have sent them some screenshots instead. However, I don't hold out much hope of getting to the bottom of this.
I have to say that Acronis TI 2014 is proving to be very inconsistent so far. I have several issues with the program including:
- Not excluding folders.
- Interpreting some ordinary data folders as system folders.
- Losing all my saved schemes.
- Having strange messages during verification where I have to click 'Retry'.
- Having to delete my log because it got its knickers in a twist.
I used version 11 on XP for years without issue - this is such a pity.
Annie,
I suspect that the only way to see if your problem can be solved is by letting Acronis access the PC, othwerwise it is a bit like ringing the garage up and say the car keeps swerving to one side, but not letting them look at and sending them a picture of the paintwork instead,
Are you aware that you can make up a temporary user that will allow Acronis access for one session and then delete it after they have finished? Of course they do have access to what is on your PC during this period, but if you are able to be at the PC while they are ferreting around you can see where they are going and what they are doing and kick them out if for someo reason they appeared to be doing something strange.
In troubleshooting a slightly different issue I was having on my Windows 7 Pro machine (http://forum.acronis.com/forum/56363), I might have stumbled across a solution.
It seems that I had to right-click the folder(s) in Windows Explorer > Properties > Customize tab. From here I had to set something in the 'Optimize this folder for' drop-down box, even though it was already showing something. You may want to place a tick in the 'Also apply this template to all subfolders' box.
If you have the same issue and your choice is already selected, then choose another option and then go back to your initial choice so that you can click the 'Apply' button.
I think it's possible this issue may have arisen because my husband recently moved all his data from his Windows 7 Home machine to his Windows 8.1 Pro machine. Others might not be seeing the problem if their folders/files were created on the machine in use.
We may need to test this further but I'd be interested in any feedback from others who've got the same issue.
It looks in my case as if running a consolidation causes the problem to surface. This may well be what initially happened after the upgrade to the latest build and it's taken me this long to correlate it.
The first backup after consolidation pulls in all the files that are on the exclude list.
Since I have to run consolidation at some point, generally once a month, it now becomes a meaningless operation whilst this bug is present. With this bug, the only viable way to consolidate is to uninstall ATI, reinstall it and run a fresh initial backup ... GAH.
I've been running True Image for four years and up to now been happy with it. I'm now at the point where I'm seriously considering dumping it and moving on.
My suggestion is to stop using any form of consolidation. use the Automatic Cleanup as part of your backup scheme.
Depending upon the type of backup you want to use, here are examples of all 3 using the automatic cleanup.
You can set the number according to your space limitations and the program will retain your selected number of chains.
GH11. Create Custom Full Backup Scheme.Keep 4 versions (chains).
GH12. Create Custom Incremental Backup Scheme. 6 Inc, Keep 4 chains.
GH13. Create Custom Differential Backup Scheme. 2 Diff, Keep 2 chains.
Just to add that the solution I posted above seems to only be a temporary fix. The problem seems to be cropping up at random. We don't use consolidation, just clean up.
I can give more details after multiple tests on my PC with Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bits. I am using the latest build 6673 of Acronis True Image.
It appears the following:
- File & folder exclusions work when it concerns the primary disk (C:), a SSD
- File & folder exclusions do not work when it concerns the secondary disk (D:), a HDD
This problem persists after multiple uninstall and reinstall, even after using Revo Uninstaller or Acronis Cleanup tool.
Most probably, ATI 2014 works fine for users with one disk. The bug appears as soon as we want to perform folder exclusion on a secondary hard disk.
Can anybody else confirm the same issue?
I got a refund of Acronis so can't perform any further testing. However, on my husband's Win 8.1 Pro 64 bit PC, he only has 1 hard drive and the problem was present on his machine.
---
Acronis True Image 2014 build 6673
Windows pro V8.1 32 bit eng
MBR SSD drive c:
Full backup of drive c:
I have exclusions for these and yet they appear in the .tib file - and in another Windows Pro 8.1 32 bit eng they do not appear.
c:\hiberfil.sys
c:\pagefile.sys
c:\swapfile.sys
c:\$recycle.bin\
The really worrying thing is that my .tib filesize is just 6GB
and the total file size on drive c: is 30 GB, and 26 GB without the exclusions above.
Is it backing up all my files? The compression just seems too high.
I used True Image 11 (yes.. 11 not 2011) for many years and was very happy with it but very recently I 'upgraded' to 2014. (BTW, I'm using Windows XP.)
Many things in TI 2014 didn't (and still don't) work on my computer.
One of the problems was excluding folders. I wanted to exclude any and all folders named 'NoBackup'.
I tried many things but they didn't work.
Finally there was one and ONLY one (count 'em... one) thing that finally worked to exclude folders based on its name!
Finally, using the '?' wildcard, I said to exclude 'NoBacku?' and it worked! It excluded all my directories named 'NoBackup'.
Fortunately, I didn't have any folders with names like NoBackuX or NoBackuz or anything like that so there weren't any unwanted exclusions.
I don't like that solution, but it works so I use it...
Anybody has the same problem with folder exclusions with the newer ATI 2015 version ?
I'm not bying an upgrade until that problem is fixed. I'm using Windows Backup for now.
JP,
Which build of 2015 are you using?
Are these system folders or user folders?
Are they all folders or folders below the level of the root folder?
Hi,
I have same problem with exclusions on ATI 2014 and now on 2015 (PC, build 6525) too.
Just one difference - exclusions on ATI 2014 usually worked 1-3 weeks (from new backup task setup), but on ATI 2015 not even once.
I suprised that there is still not solution of this problem from Acronis. :-((
Or, is there a chance to resolve it?
JB
So, it appears this thread has still not been resolved. I am having this same problem (still) with the latest build of 2014 (6688) on Windows 7 Home. My situation show that the exclusions do not work at all. I have both the folder excluded (with the trailing backslash) and the file type of the files in the folder (*.tib). I am trying to store the backups from an old computer on my new computer and they do not need to be backed up. Much to my surprise, my most recent incremental backup is 330GB!
Is there a working solution to this problem, or is looking for a different software suite the way to go?
Ric
> Is there a working solution to this problem, or is looking for a different software suite the way to go?
Unfortunately, no one of Acronis is interested to solve it :-(
That's why I've did a survey for other backup software. No one is perfect but for me will be fine O&O DiskImage.
There is good overview of backup softs:
http://disk-imaging-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
br, JB
Colin B,
Sorry for my very, very late reply, I just saw your concerned post !
When I used to make backups with Acronis, I was using ATI TIB 2014 build 6673 on Windows 7 x86.
Now, I've reluctantly gave up, and ended up into having different partitions for my TV recordings. Since I've reinstalled everything from the ground up, I'm now with Windows 7 x64. I was relying on Windows Backup, but it's unable to do adequate incrementals backups.
This post comes 4 years later. I, too, have had the same problem with exclusion folders, using ATI 2014 on Win10.
If anyone is still watching this thread, I'd be curious to know if this problem was definitively fixed in a later version.
I'm not noticing issues with Windows 10 1809 and ATI 2019.
It's really hard to expect 2014 software to fully operate with an OS that came out after it and continues to get major revision updates every 6 months. Almost every major Windows 10 release requires an updated version to accommodate the Microsoft under-the-hood changes with permission and security protocol changes.
I'd recommend taking a full disk backup (for a recovery point to return to if need be), uninstall 2014 and run the cleanup tool, reboot and install the Trial of 2019 to take it for a spin. If you're not happy or interested after the 30 day trial, then restore your backup and continue on with 2014.
Also, Acronis has a 30 day money back guarantee on purchases. So, if you buy 2019 to unlock all features, and end up not liking it, then you can request a refund. I personally have been liking 2019 quite a bit with the stability - it still has bugs that come up from time to time, but updates have been pretty responsive (at least quarterly). The biggest issue moving from 2014 to 2019 is the UI design change. Some people have a hard time with it, but it's grown on me and the ability to build WinPE/WinRE rescue media with driver support has been really nice.
Thanks Bobbo_3C0X1. Your comments are helpful.
Thanks Peter. Best of luck to you whatever you decide.
I tried the trial version of 2019 and decided to buy it. It fixes the folder exclusion problem and I find the UI to be much better than 2014. I'm also trying the trial version of Cloud backup, but it's not practical with my 10 Mbps upload speed (over 3 days to backup 275 GB)
Glad to hear those issues are resolved!
I'm stuck with 10Mbps upload from Comcast too, but rarely see above 4.5 in reality. It took me nearly 3 weeks of 24/7 upload to get 600GB into the cloud.
I appreciate the offsite backup and redundancy, but it's my 4th line if defense and hope to never gave to restore it all back when my other local options can be done in a couple if hours. But if a fire wipes out my other internal backup, my USB backup and my NAS backup, at least I still have the cloud to fall back too. Definitely not my first choice, based purely off of speed.
I have the same concern about fire, etc., so I use other clouds for important files which are relatively quick and easy to backup or sync (photos, music, application data files). You got me thinking that I should keep an Acronis USB backup at our getaway cabin.
Couldn't hurt! The price of a 4-8Tb external drive is really cheap these days. Could keep one at home and one off-site and rotate them out on visits to update the content. If the data is important enough, not a bad idea. I know I'm a dead man if I ever lost the family photos 😥
Well, my cloud backup with 2019 finally completed (321 GB, 3.5 active hrs). Unfortunately, it includes excluded folders. I hope this problem doesn't re-occur with my local backup, as others have posted.
Although the folders are listed that were on the excluded, is there actually content from them I. It? The folders may be listed, but empty.
Yes, the excluded folders' content are there. I just downloaded a file from an excluded folder from a different PC than the one that produced the backup.
Peter, was the Cloud backup created after installing ATI 2019 or from an earlier version of ATI? That may make a difference here.
Or was the exclusion created later than the first backup? If so, I don't believe the cleanup would remove them until at least the max number of backups was reached... But am wondering if it would clean them up at all if there had not been any changes to those folders.
The cloud backup was created after installing ATI 2019. Here's a test I tried today:
1. Deleted the (only) cloud backup
2. Created a new cloud backup with an Exclusions list created as follows:
a. click the + button
b. click the ellipsis button (...)
c. BROWSE to a folder to exclude in the 'C:' drive, and select it (e.g. C:\Do_Not_Backup\). Note the mixed case!
d. repeat steps a-c for each folder to exclude
3. Click 'Back up now'.
Although I didn't wait for the backup to finish, it was clear that the exclusion list WAS being honored because the status message at the bottom indicated a backup size of 34GB, and a time estimate of 6 hours, which seemed reasonable for this 'test' exclusion list.
I then deleted the (only) cloud backup and created a new cloud backup as above but changed step 2:
2. Created a new cloud backup with an Exclusions list created as follows:
a. click the + button
b. TYPE a folder name to exclude in the text box (e.g 'c:\do_not_backup\') Note the lowercase!
c. repeat steps a-b for each folder to exclude
Although I didn't wait for the backup to finish, it was clear that the exclusion list was NOT being honored because the status message at the bottom indicated a backup size of 300 GB and a time estimate of several days.
Summary:
Using the 'browse' feature (ellipsis button) to the excluded folders worked. It displayed case-sensitve pathnames.
Manually entering folder pathnames did not work. It displayed pathnames with the same case as I typed in manually.
During the test of exclusions folders that I reported in my previous post, I accidentally deleted my local ATI backup configuration. How can I restore just the ATI backup configuration files from my USB drive, but not the rest of the backup?
Peter, I don't think you can. In 2019, you can export/import settings though... if you previously exported, you could import them now and that would bring back your "default" settings.
I only know of being able to fully add a backup by using the "add existing backup" and navigate to the most current .tib file. Once added, rename it (it seems to rename as the .tib file name) and then check the settings and re-pick the source and destination again.
Grovers status = Inactive 1. Grover's New Revised Guides 4. 2014 Cleanup 2015 Cleanup 5. Attachments/How 7. TI 2015 FAQ.
2. Create BKU Tasks > 2011_2012_2013 2A. Using 2014 6. Help 2016 2015 2014 2013 8. Stop Scan for Backups 8A. ATIH Video's
3. Create new disks-Guides. 9. Register/Downloads 10. Mustang's New Guides 11. Les Seiler's Backup Video