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True Image 2020 -Backup option settings loss

Thread needs solution
Forum Member
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Things just keep getting better and better.

See Post #92 for details.  After mindwiping ATI2020, my first, and so far only, full/TIBX backup took 102 GB on my NAS.  There is 747 GB of free space on the dedicated NAS volume I use for Acronis.

When ATI2020 went to run a (scheduled/incremental) backup at 4 AM, it refused to run the backup because there wasn't enough available space on the target volume.

Legend
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Chuck, please can I request that you open a new topic for this particular problem so that we can help you away from this topic about the backup settings being lost.

Forum Member
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Comments: 26

I understand wanting to consider it a separate issue, but my 50-plus years of scar tissue tells me it is just another facet of the Acronis software undergoing a complete meltdown.  This never occurred until the issue addressed in this thread arose.  In software, there are very few coincidences.

Since my Acronis software is in the ditch and unusable (at least pending breaking down and doing the MMS hack), I won't open another thread until I see if the eventual solution of this issue fixes the space management issue.  I wouldn't be able to try any fix that Acronis might suggest anyway.  I also don't want to divert any of what little bandwidth Acronis support apparently has available.

Legend
Posts: 110
Comments: 29173

Chuck, the request for you to open a new topic for your issue with insufficient space on your target volume wasn't to avoid this issue, but rather to avoid side-tracking it while we try to help you.

If you prefer to wait then that is fine but I have no idea how long that may take for Acronis to resolve this for everyone?

Forum Member
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Comments: 26

Chris Smith (Post #100, 11/18) - It turns out I encountered the same problem as you did.  Even though the Backup Scheme is still pointed to the NAS, the 4 AM "incremental" backup put a 49 GB TIBX file in the root of my C: drive.  Like you, I just got a warning from Windows that my C: drive is almost out of space.  The Acronis message about not having enough space for a backup apparently also referenced the C: drive, even though it is supposed to be using and looking at the NAS.

As noted in my OP, I had manually done a (initial) full backup to the NAS at around 1:30 AM.  Not only was the scheduled 4 AM "incremental" backup put in the wrong location, a 49 GB "incremental" TIBX file makes no sense.  It seems likely that the ATI2020 software had become even more confused, and was trying to do another full backup but to the C: drive.

I am going to have to shut down ATI2020 until and unless there is a resolution of this issue.  Not only has the Acronis software become unusable, it has become dangerous to the systems it is supposed to be backing up.  (Chris - I know you figured out a workaround, but I don't trust that the wheels will stay on.)

Thank goodness for CrashPlan.

Forum Member
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Comments: 33

Chuck Davis, it's possible that the NAS redirection to C: root is creating a recursive backup situation where the TIBX file is growing exponentially because the TIBX file is backing up itself and growing to the point where you run out of disk space. I would delete that C: TIBX immediately. 

Can you try the remedy that seemed to reconnect the TIBX file that was on the NAS drive to the backup process and stopped the TIBX file from redirecting to the C: NAS drive.

I checked my 5th PC today that is on a completely different network and backing up to a totally different NAS. All of the Notification settings were completely gone as well for both the ATI Cloud and ATI NAS backups. The Cloud backup process seemed to have stopped the day after the W10 V1909 update happened and the notifications stopped. Curious to find out if others are seeing a similar situation. Four out of of five of the PC ATI Cloud backups seem to be in a "Queued" status. One is current backing up.

Just a side comment on CrashPlan. I had all of these PC's on CrashPlan but moved back to a ATI based backup for both Local and Cloud backups when I found out that CrashPlan altered my backup setting to exclude everything but user data files. They sent me no notice that they had done this. I want full image backups so when a system crashes or is "ransomwared" I can recover the entire PC(s) to their original state. CrashPlan's "unlimited" storage is pretty useless if it's limited to just user files only (and doesn't even include AppData files under the Users profile. Pretty pricey for just data files. While I'm paying for 3TB of cloud storage, Acronis turned out to be less expense and let's me backup all 5 PC's. The new TIBX format and dedup is extremely space efficient if you stick to incremental for 30 daily backups before starting a new Full.

That being said, it looks like Acronis 2020 has a huge issue with W10 v1909. Acronis Support needs to get on top of this. I've got all my PC's now backing up to the NAS and one PC backing up to ATI Cloud. Hopefully the others will move from "Queued" to actually backing up.

Beginner
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Chris Smith wrote:
 

That being said, it looks like Acronis 2020 has a huge issue with W10 v1909. Acronis Support needs to get on top of this. I've got all my PC's now backing up to the NAS and one PC backing up to ATI Cloud. Hopefully the others will move from "Queued" to actually backing up.

For me I do not believe 1909 is the issue, rather the trigger may be cumulative Windows 10 updates around the failure time. I have left the Win10 1909 comp with Acronis Managed Machine Service Mini still running, and so far (3 nights) the scheduled backup had not lost any settings.

Jon

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Thanks, Chris.

I definitely nuked the TIBX file on C:.  Interesting idea about recursion. 

I appreciate your suggestion about the workaround to stop backups from going to the C: drive, and the work that went into it, but I'm old/school.  My backups are my lifeline.  If the backup system doesn't work reliably and predictably as delivered and supported by the vendor then I'm not willing to risk trying a patch, hack or kluge.  Too much risk of the bandage falling off or the vendor changing the underlying system.

I'm also paranoid, which is why I was using two separate backup systems.  Acronis (local, image, NAS) and CrashPlan (data, cloud).  I haven't had any problem backing up AppData in CrashPlan.  I was planning to add Acronis cloud replication of the image before Acronis crashed and burned.

It appears that most users don't get any direct indication that Acronis has failed.  I only discovered it because I was keeping any eye on my backups following resolution of two other non-core issues.  There are probably tens of thousands of users with no idea that their backups are failing and that their Backup Scheme parameters have been wiped out with no way to recover them.  This should be interesting.

Legend
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The default exclusions for all backup tasks specify NOT to backup any .tib or .tibx files, so there should be no issue with such files in the root of C: being included unless the user has changed those exclusions.  This topic is about all such settings being defaulted to original values which would put back these default exclusions.

If users export their backup settings with the option provided at the bottom of the main ATI GUI Settings page then these can be imported back from the zip file that this creates, and will save lots of manual reconfiguration if the settings are lost again.

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Comments: 33

Steve, good point on the .tibx exclusion. Probably not recursive, but just a large single backup file that keeps growing on C: root.

Thanks for the tip on storing backup settings for the NAS backups. Is there a way to store setting for the ATI Cloud backups? Those setting got wiped out too. In fact, I just set them again on my primary PC and when I went back to check on them, all the setting were gone. The time for the backup I selected (1 AM) had also been changed to (4 AM). I had clicked on "Save as default" but the app does not do this either. Any changes made to Acronis Cloud cleanup are also not saved. 

Legend
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Chris, the cloud backup configuration should be included in the export zip file as far as I understand - the actual configuration XML files are all stored together in C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts so you could ensure that you have a copy of that folder to fall back on if needed.

Cloud online configuration (user account, password etc) is stored in C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\OnlineBackup but this does not include the specific task configuration options which are found in the Scripts folder .tib.tis (XML) files.

If your settings are disappearing after being changed, then stop & disable the MMMS service.

Beginner
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Comments: 21

The issue of ATI redirecting backups to the C: drive was one of the first indicators to me that something was going wrong and I subsequently found all my setting/options being wiped too.

When the backup was redirected to the C: drive it was as though ATI was starting a new chain and was doing an initial full backup.

All this started long before Win10 1909 came along so that is a red herring IMO.

Since stopping and disabling Acronis Managed Machine Service Mini all the weird behaviour has ceased for me and I am now just waiting to see what Acronis do to address this issue so that I can re-enable the service.

Beginner
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This would appear to be a definitive answer from Acronis - https://twitter.com/Acronis/status/1196749277466419205?s=20.

Hello Jon! Thank you for the heads up! There will be a update on Acronis servers to address the issue for all versions, not just the latest. Doing everything possible to resolve it quickly. Cannot give an ETA, as the work is still in progress.

Jon

 

Legend
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Jon, thanks for sharing the update / feedback from Acronis via Twitter.  I have also raised this with the Acronis Product Manager (Renata) via the MVP Private forums too.

Beginner
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Lost all confidence in Acronis True Image after this debacle. We had to watch this issue concerning to 84 machines. Our customers have no sympathy for using a software which works so unreliable. The workaround to fix the problem with deactivating the service MMS and logout the users within the software and delete all machines out of the dashboard and last but not least block all Acronis-connections within the firefall was very time-consuming. We made this free of charge for our customers, allthough we are not responsible for this bugs! "THANKS" Acronis!

Legend
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Thomas, as far as I understand, it should only have been necessary to stop & disable the MMMS service to stop this issue being repeated.  That is all that I have done for my own computers which were affected without touching the dashboard or firewall settings etc.

I would recommend submitting Feedback direct to Acronis as well as your update here.

See KB 57216: Acronis True Image: Send Feedback for help with the Feedback process.

Beginner
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I don't know what Acronis did on 22-23 Oct to cause this havoc, but having seen that it caused an issue why didn't they just pull the changes? Everyone seemed relatively happy prior to this event and there can't have been anything critical in the server release otherwise they would have made a song and dance about having made some significant changes.  Acronis seem hell bent on leaving the change in place until they can sort it, meantime their customers are suffering and more and more of them are awakening to the fact that there is an issue. 

Forum Member
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Comments: 26

Thomas - Am I correct that you had to touch all 84 computers to disable MMS and rebuild the Backup Scheme on each system?  (And if you didn't look for rogue Acronis files in C:\, you may need to go back.)  Then wipe all the old backups on the target and restart backups from scratch (losing all prior versioning).  As a self-employed consultant, I feel your pain.

Plus, with MMS disabled there are no notifications about the backups.

Paraphrasing you and Blofeld, this really is a certified Charlie Foxtrot.

RC1
Beginner
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Thomas wrote:

Lost all confidence in Acronis True Image after this debacle. We had to watch this issue concerning to 84 machines. Our customers have no sympathy for using a software which works so unreliable. The workaround to fix the problem with deactivating the service MMS and logout the users within the software and delete all machines out of the dashboard and last but not least block all Acronis-connections within the firefall was very time-consuming. We made this free of charge for our customers, allthough we are not responsible for this bugs! "THANKS" Acronis!

Further to my previous post (#95), I feel your pain Thomas!

Back in 2016/2017 I think it was I was also heavily involved (at no cost to my Acronis clients) in trying to resolve problems with the Acronis scheduler whereas it was randomly commencing scheduled backups at anytime it felt like it (most often not at the time set in the schedule for the backup) and this created huge problems for those clients which preferred for auto shutdown of computer following successful backup as when it was running at random times it would perform the backup (when it wasn't actually schduled) and then shut down the system often when they were still using it.

I don't quite have as many client systems to fix up after this latest momentous stuff up as what you do or did but I am in the process of having to explain to every client why their backups haven't been working and many are asking why should they continue to use Acronis software... maybe Acronis should be responsible for absorbing the time and expense to explain to them...

Majority of my clients have been asking if there is a more reliable alternative to Acronis software as they are all far from impressed (same boat as me unfortunately)...

I wonder how much time has been and will be consumed and how much revenue has been lost by people like yourself, myself and all the others having to perform the work to fix up this issue in order to restore backup functionality to where it was.

It is pretty hard to charge the customer for something that was not their fault as you have also stated in your post.

I have an income to make and a family to feed and don't appreciate spending time on and losing revenue on something that is not my doing...

Resellers like myself are the ones that usually cop the dissatisfaction (as per on this occasion) from the end users / customers and this is on top of the lost time and lost revenue, triple whammy!

So far I can also confirm that disabling the Acronis Managed Machine Service (MMS) has worked for all clients on various ATI versions from 2017 to 2019 as per the recommended fix.

Very disappointed with this whole situation, how is Acronis going to win back people's trust after this latest issue....?

Beginner
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Steve Smith wrote:

Thomas, as far as I understand, it should only have been necessary to stop & disable the MMMS service to stop this issue being repeated.  That is all that I have done for my own computers which were affected without touching the dashboard or firewall settings etc.

I would recommend submitting Feedback direct to Acronis as well as your update here.

See KB 57216: Acronis True Image: Send Feedback for help with the Feedback process.

 Hi Steve,

tnx for your comment. The reason why i made firewall rules to stop any communication concerning Acronis is that i distrust Acronis after that bug. It is only an additional hedge to prevent possible further unknown issues. Because i am tired of to repair Backup-Tasks on many computers of my clients. And i am tired of that i have to justify my decision  working with Acronis to my customers. I work hard to make money and do not want to be the repairman of Acronis. I hope you understand my real anger and frustation.

Beginner
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Chuck Davis wrote:

Thomas - Am I correct that you had to touch all 84 computers to disable MMS and rebuild the Backup Scheme on each system?  (And if you didn't look for rogue Acronis files in C:\, you may need to go back.)  Then wipe all the old backups on the target and restart backups from scratch (losing all prior versioning).  As a self-employed consultant, I feel your pain.

Plus, with MMS disabled there are no notifications about the backups.

Paraphrasing you and Blofeld, this really is a certified Charlie Foxtrot.

 Hi Chuck,

that is correct. I had to repair the issue on 84 computers, partly by remote and partly on-site by my customers. My own machines (5 Windows-10-clients) were affected too. Only the server-machines - there is running Backup Management Server 12 and not ATI - were spared. If problems like these occur on my servers, jesus christ i will kick of Acronis from all my machines immediately - believe me.

Beginner
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Hi RC1,

tnx for your comment #119 and showing compassion for the problem. Concerning to your post #95 we are on the same side and have to pay for the issues Acronis made. Grrrr...

Forum Member
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Comments: 33

I've got a one-on-one support call with ATI this morning to address the issue of settings being wiped out, NAS backups being redirected to C:/ and backup processes for "Other" computers showing up in "This PC".

On another note, I just logged out of the local account console and logged back in. There was a new update available, Build 22510. The notes indicate that it fixes settings being reset to default. I'll post again if I see any progress to these issues being repaired.

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Hi Chris - Good luck with your call this morning.  Hopefully you will be talking with somebody at a higher level than a tech support drone.  If possible, it would be interesting to get a reading on whether Acronis has an understanding of how many users (and vendors) have been impacted and the work that will be required to clean up after their screw-up.  Those of us on this thread know about and understand the issues, but how will Acronis work with all the non-technical "civilian" users of their product that probably are not even aware that their settings have been wiped out and backups compromised.

Please ask if new new Build re-enables/re-starts MMS.

Legend
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Comments: 29173

Chuck, installing any new update / build of ATI re-enables all Acronis Services & set them back to their default settings.  Just checked on my laptop and MMMS which was disabled start, is now running again just by updating to build 22510.

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Update: Never got a call from the ATI support person that emailed me (Mohammade Saleha), for the scheduled time.  I've pinged him via email asking for another time/day to call (He gave me his available times as Today and tomorrow between 4:30AM EST and 2:00PM EST).

In the meantime, I confirmed that the ATI update does re-enable MMS. I let it run (MMS) on the machine I updated. Sure enough, settings wiped out again. I reentered the settings again, exited the app, restarted and setting are set back to some defaults. I've turned off MMS and updated my settings again. Exited the app, restarted and setting seem to be holding (for now). However, the update seems to have broken the notification mailer part of the app. When I try to send a test message, I get an Error 535 (Incorrect authentication data). I've reentered the data several times just to make sure I didn't fat-finger the info and it just doesn't work anymore. I've only entered this info dozen's of times over the last several days with the old version (21400) with successful test messages. AAAAAAARRRRGGG!!!!

Another thing I noticed, with both 21400 and 22500, the ATI console also shows backups from the other PC's under "This computer", rather than "Others". There are backup routines showing from the other PC's that no longer exist on the target PC's.

For example, I removed the ATI cloud backup called "FIREWIRE" from the computer called FIREWIRE. I created a new backup on FIREWIRE called "FIREWIRE-Cloud". From my computer called TESLA, the backup "FIREWIRE" is still showing under "This computer" (where it shouldn't) and the new backup "FIREWIRE-Cloud" shows up under "Others" (where it should). If I click on any backup showing under "Others" and select "Reconfigure" at the bottom right, that backup gets moved under "This computer" and never moves back under "Others".

Anyone else seeing this additional odd behavior?

Legend
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Comments: 29173

Chris, I have just noticed that I will also need to now check all my backup tasks after updating my laptop to 22510 as just found that my differential task is now back to being incremental, has lost all email notification settings and schedule etc!!!

Trying to check my Cloud backup tasks just causes a hang for several minutes then gives an error as below:

An error occurred either during connection or on the server. Check your Internet connection, or try to sign out, restart the program and sign in again.

More information about this error and solutions may be available online in the Acronis Knowledge Base.
To access the online resource manually, enter the event code at: https://kb.acronis.com/errorcode/
Event code: 0x01900009+0x0004000D

So am not impressed myself either with this turn of events!

Regular Poster
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Comments: 83

Steve,

Disappointing news about the 22510 update.  I will definitely hold on installing that update.  I have disabled the MMMS service and created new backups for the ASUS and HP PCs.  I've performed two full backups for each PC, and everything looks good.  My only complaint is the log information that I receive in the email notifications.  There is almost nothing compared to ATI 2019.  Should I open a thread for the log issue or is it a known issue?

I have checked with two friends who use ATI.  One uses ATI 2020 and performs non-scheduled backups on three Windows 10 PCs, and the other friend uses ATI 2017 for an incremental backup of one Windows 10 PC.  Both have not noticed the problem.

 

Forum Member
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Comments: 26

When (if?) Acronis fixes these issues and has a stable product, could several folks with some spare (or virtual) PC's in their shop do some selective and bare metal restores to confirm that the backups are usable and trustworthy?  This was a lesson I learned the hard way around 25 years ago.

Seems like this might be especially important since it appears that Acronis has changed the architecture of their backup files.  There is now just a single .TIBX file.

Edit/Update/FYI - If, as part of recovering from this issue, you wipe/restart a Backup Scheme, ATI2020 will start using TIBX file(s) instead of TIB files.  If the old Backup Scheme is left in place, it will continue with the TIB files.

https://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/AcronisBackup_12.5/…

Be aware that there are some NAS configurations where a TIBX file will keep growing and can't be shrunk.

https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-cyber-backup-125/difference-bet…

Edit 2 - Lots of good links in Steve Smith's post below.  Thanks!  Folks still trying to salvage existing backups from the server-side damage where "Metadata" files appeared should look at KB63616.

 

Legend
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My only complaint is the log information that I receive in the email notifications.  There is almost nothing compared to ATI 2019.  Should I open a thread for the log issue or is it a known issue?

Gary, the logs have changed again with ATI 2020 with less information in the ti_demon logs - the more detailed information now being found in the backup_worker logs instead, though this log is not listed / offered by the MVP Log Viewer tool.

Seems like this might be especially important since it appears that Acronis has changed the architecture of their backup files.  There is now just a single .TIBX file.

Chuck, Acronis have changed the file format / architecture in ATI 2020 and there are a raft of KB documents on this subject.

See the following KB documents published by Acronis with regards to .tibx files.

KB 63518: Acronis True Image 2020: do not delete first tibx file

KB 63227: Acronis True Image: Do not delete .TIB or .TIBX files outside of Acronis True Image

KB 63498: Acronis True Image 2020: new tibx backup format FAQ

KB 63425: Acronis True Image 2020: Limitations of tibx backups

KB 63516: Acronis True Image 2020: Incremental backups do not create separate files when using new backup format

KB 63445: Acronis True Image 2020: how to view and manage backup versions in new backup format

KB 63444: Acronis True Image 2020: tibx backups in local destinations

KB 63613: Acronis True Image: local backups are not available for recovery if "metadata" file appears in the backup destination - if you see metadata file(s).

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The Problem with loosing the Settings is not resolved after updating to the new Version!

Legend
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Uwe Dembski wrote:

The Problem with loosing the Settings is not resolved after updating to the new Version!

Correct!  It is not resolved by this update because the core issue is not on individual computers running ATI (2017 thru 2020) but is on the Acronis Dashboard servers which need to be updated to stop resetting the settings for backups known to the Dashboard!

All my backup tasks were reset yesterday after upgrading to 22510.

Note to self: Put laptop in Flight Mode next time! Then stop / disable the MMMS service before allowing the laptop to go online again!

Beginner
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Steve Smith wrote:
Uwe Dembski wrote:

The Problem with loosing the Settings is not resolved after updating to the new Version!

Correct!  It is not resolved by this update because the core issue is not on individual computers running ATI (2017 thru 2020) but is on the Acronis Dashboard servers which need to be updated to stop resetting the settings for backups known to the Dashboard!

All my backup tasks were reset yesterday after upgrading to 22510.

Note to self: Put laptop in Flight Mode next time! Then stop / disable the MMMS service before allowing the laptop to go online again!

Attachment Size
521346-176732.txt 411 bytes
Beginner
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I'm experiencing the same issues with backup scheme settings being reset to incremental, automatic clean-up off etc. I'm using TI 2020 Build 22510. I've submitted a feedback report referencing this thread and the bug ID (TI-180184).

I've yet to try the work-around suggested but am away to deal with that now.

Beginner
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Comments: 6

William Brown wrote:

I'm experiencing the same issues with backup scheme settings being reset to incremental, automatic clean-up off etc. I'm using TI 2020 Build 22510. I've submitted a feedback report referencing this thread and the bug ID (TI-180184).

I've yet to try the work-around suggested but am away to deal with that now.

I've exactly the same problem as described by William. I've disabled service MMS-Mini and that cured the problem. 

Beginner
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Comments: 6

FranDries wrote:
William Brown wrote:

I'm experiencing the same issues with backup scheme settings being reset to incremental, automatic clean-up off etc. I'm using TI 2020 Build 22510. I've submitted a feedback report referencing this thread and the bug ID (TI-180184).

I've yet to try the work-around suggested but am away to deal with that now.

I've exactly the same problem as described by William. I've disabled service MMS-Mini and that cured the problem.

I can confirm the MMS-Mini disablement workaround works for me too. Now just a wait for Acronis to fix the sort of bug that should not have found its way into a general release!

Forum Member
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Comments: 15

Ok guys, after what happened today I will most likely stop using TI completely. My cloud backup just got wiped from the server.

This is what happened in chronological order:

1. Updated TI 2020 to build 22510

2. Checked cloud backup settings, noticed that cleanup settings got reset to some strange values (store no more than 1 recent backup versions)

3. I usually use the default cleanup settings. To restore these settings, I pressed the button "Initial settings". By doing this, it went back to 20 recent backup versions + delete older than 6 months).

4. Run the backup. Noticed that it starts uploading large amount of data, although nothing changed in the folders which are included in the backup task.

5. Checked Acronis cloud storage via browser. The whole backup got wiped and started from scratch. It was 21GB before, now it's 80MB.

I went again to settings in order to look for anything that could explain this behavior. Then I found, that the data center setting of the backup task is now set to "France" instead of "Germany". Usually it's not possible to change this (greyed out) after the backup was created for the first time.

I checked the settings of other cloud backup tasks: IF YOU PRESS "INITIAL SETTINGS", THE DATA CENTER LOCATION GET'S CHANGED although the setting is still greyed out and it should not be possible to do this at all! When you then run the backup task afterwards, this obviously leads to the backup being deleted within seconds and started from scratch.

Wtf...

Forum Member
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Comments: 26

Thomas (Post #115) - If you haven't already flushed Acronis down the crapper, do you have a sacrificial machine to see what happens with MMS running but blocked from the Internet in the firewall?  Will the system still upgrade to the current version?

If this test is successful, could you please post your firewall rule(s)?

This might help us to keep our systems updated without going through the gyrations of disconnecting from the Internet at the right moment to go back in and shut down MMS again.  It would also give each site a single on/off switch instead of (in your case) having to go back and lay hands on 84 systems again.

(It might also point Acronis to the simple expediency of shutting down their servers until they figure out what is happening.)

 

Forum Hero
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Chuck Davis,

Below is a rundown on how to block inbound traffic from specific IP Addresses in Windows Firewall:

1. Open Windows Firewall from the Control Panel;

2. Select Advanced Settings;

On windows 10 just search for Windows Firewall in the search bar and choose Windows Firewall with Advanced Settings

3. Select Inbound Rules from the left panel. Select New Rule from the right side (Action window);

4. Select Custom (Custom rule) and click Next;

5. All Programs should be selected and click Next;

6. Click next on the Protocols and Ports page (leave as it is);

7. In the scope page enter the IP (i.e. 192.168.1.1 but not www) address of the site you want to block in the "Which remote IP addresses does this rule apply to?" section;

8. Select Block the connection on the Action page, click Next;

9. Leave all boxes checked on Profile page if you don't ever want to see the website on any network connection, modify if you want to allow on a Domain, Public or Private Network;

10. Enter a name for the new rule you created and click Finish;

11. Select Outbound Rules from the left panel and repeat ALL steps precisely from above

 

See the link below to determine the IP Addresses for your particular Datacenter:

Acroins Cloud Access ports and hostnames

Forum Member
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Comments: 26

Thanks.  I'm using an ASUS router and Norton for my firewalls.

I looked at the "....ports and hostnames" article and ran the Connection Verification Tool (with MMS disabled).  There's a whole passel of IP's and ports in use.

In the article it is stated that " Ports 5905, 7770-7800 are used for agent communication with Management server (backup plans creation and applying, status reports, activity logging, etc.).

If those ports were blocked (on the ASUS router), would it have the same effect as disabling MMS (on each PC)?  If so, that would be a much more practical approach.

Update:

I found this KB article:  https://kb.acronis.com/brandmauer / 1711: Firewall settings for Acronis products.

It states:

Acronis True Image uses the following ports:

  • TCP ports 443 and 80
  • TCP ports 44445 and 55556 for login, activation and access to Acronis cloud
  • TCP ports 58085 and 58081 for local mobile backup
  • TCP and UDP ports 20 and 21 for backup to FTP

 

I'm thinking that ports 44445 and 55556 might the point of attack for ATI.

Forum Hero
Posts: 59
Comments: 9378

I think if you block ports you will end up breaking other functionality of the app such as backup/recovery of network attached storage.

If you have a subscription service version and communication cannot be made with the cloud server to verify your account via certificate the application will not start because it will think that the application is not registered.

So the only way I would think blocking anything would work is by specific IP Address of the Dashboard which I have no idea is. 

If you can dive deep into to Norton you might be able to find it and block it there but I cannot tell you how.  I would suspect that you would only want to block inbound traffic from that specific server as well.

Beginner
Posts: 2
Comments: 9

Disabling MMS has solved my "setting reset" issue. However, what is the downside of doing so? I do not use cloud backup. Thanks.

Forum Star
Posts: 170
Comments: 1211

Chuck Davis wrote:

I found this KB article:  https://kb.acronis.com/brandmauer / 1711: Firewall settings for Acronis products.

It states:

Acronis True Image uses the following ports:

  • TCP ports 443 and 80
  • TCP ports 44445 and 55556 for login, activation and access to Acronis cloud
  • TCP ports 58085 and 58081 for local mobile backup
  • TCP and UDP ports 20 and 21 for backup to FTP

 

I'm thinking that ports 44445 and 55556 might the point of attack for ATI.

Acronis does not go into much detail on the use  of those ports.  (Does it have an HTTP server that opens ports 80 and 443?) .  Since MMS is not mentioned, and if that list of posts is complete, then MMS uses the same ports as some other feature.   You may be right about  44445 and 55556, but as Enchantech said, you will break other functions by blocking those ports.  (For instance, you would not be able to activate a new version of ATI on that computer.)

And I'm not sure I would completely trust that list, anyway.  The mention of UDP ports 20 and 21 is either incorrect or represents a very non-standard FTP.  Standard FTP is a TCP protocol.

Enchantech wrote:

I think if you block ports you will end up breaking other functionality of the app such as backup/recovery of network attached storage.

Actually, that probably would not be a problem.  I think ATI uses the Windows SMB function to access a NAS device (by SMB, of course).  The connection would be via the SMB ports 139 and/or 445 and would be opened by Windows rather than ATI (I think)..

 

Forum Member
Posts: 1
Comments: 26

Oh well.  Thanks to everybody who tried to help.  I was hoping to find a way to disable MMS functionality at the LAN-WAN interface instead of having to disable (and re-disable after each update) MMS on each client.

Beginner
Posts: 3
Comments: 21

So, I have a desktop with no flight safe mode.  I downloaded the standalone update for ATI 2020 Build 22510 aka update 2, disabled my network card, ran the update exe, stopped the offending Acronis Managed Machine Service Mini and then re-enabled the network card and started the upgraded application.

All settings and options are still intact and hopefully I will be OK until Acronis pull their finger out and fix the dashboard server.

Legend
Posts: 110
Comments: 29173

Chuck Davis wrote:

Oh well.  Thanks to everybody who tried to help.  I was hoping to find a way to disable MMS functionality at the LAN-WAN interface instead of having to disable (and re-disable after each update) MMS on each client.

Chuck, if you are able to use Powershell, then the following script can test for and disable MMS for you and could be used in the Windows Task Scheduler.

# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Use Action:
# c:\windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -file pathto\StopMMMS.ps1
# to use in Windows Task Scheduler.
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
$s1 = "mmsminisrv"
$sStart = (get-service $s1).StartType
$sStatus = (get-service $s1).Status
if ($sStart -like 'Automatic') {
    Set-Service $s1 -StartupType Disabled
    Write-Host "Service $s1 changed from Automatic Start to Disabled."
    sleep 5
} Else {Write-Host "Service $s1 was already set as Start Type $sStart"}
if ($sStatus -eq 'Running') {
    stop-service $s1 -Force
    Write-Host "Service $s1 was stopped from running."
} Else {Write-Host "Service $s1 was already in $sStatus status."}
Beginner
Posts: 4
Comments: 11

I came here looking for a solution to the exact same problem with settings being reset. I can reproduce the problem on demand.

I have two backups configured, one is a "disk and partition", one is "file and folder". I have a saved backup scheme.

Open one of the backups, it doesn't matter which. Call it A. Click Options, then Backup Scheme tab. Confirm everything is correct. Click on other backup, call it B. Options, Backup Scheme, confirm everything is correct. So far so good.

Click backup A and change the time of the daily backup. Click OK. Now repeat at least once: 1) click backup B, Go to Backup Scheme. Looks OK, no changes. 2) Click backup A, go to Backup Scheme. Backup scheme has reset!

Note that you many need to click back and forth between the backups, checking the backup Scheme tab, more than once to see the reset happen. Usually once or twice, sometimes 3-4 times. It's very strange that it doesn't happen every single time. Sometimes I notice the daily backup time gets reset too, but usually not.

Forum Member
Posts: 1
Comments: 26

Thanks, Steve.  Scheduler can't run any more frequently than every 5 minutes, however.  I think that there is too much risk of running an update and MMS firing off and clobbering my settings before it can be shut down again.

Blofeld's approach is a definite anal trauma, but bulletproof.  I'm OK with just 2 PC's, but I feel sorry for somebody like Thomas with dozens of at-risk systems.

Have you been able to get any information from your product manager contact @ Acronis?

 

Legend
Posts: 110
Comments: 29173

Have you been able to get any information from your product manager contact @ Acronis?

Chuck, my last contact was just before the weekend when the update was that the fixes have been done but needed to be installed to all the different data centres, after which Acronis will put out an official statement to let users know!

Beginner
Posts: 0
Comments: 1

Hi all

I am having similar issues. I have a few ATI 2019 AND 2020 computers. All of them have been custom setup with making full backups and sending emails also with validating after creation. Once you save the profile the profile runs fine. But as soon as you close and reopen ATI again all settings are reverted back to incremental and not to validate also no emails.

Thanks