True Image 2020 -Backup option settings loss

Morne, you need to stop & set the Acronis Managed Machine Mini service to Disabled startup to prevent your backup configuration from being reset continually.

FYI. I just got off a chat with customer support. He said they are aware of the problem, and that this is a high priority, but there is no ETA on a fix. For whatever that's worth! I will get notified when it is resolved.

This is getting extremely frustrating. I have not been able to complete a backup for days now. For some crazy reason my manual backup from today failed because it's ignoring my backup destination (NAS) and tried to create the backup on my C: drive! Checking the settings, it's still set to the NAS as a destination, what in the heck is going on??

So this is the reason why my settings got reset. Banged my head to wall for nothing then.

This really needs to gets fixed and fast - I mean it's been already a month since this started to happen.
Have they even posted any kind of notification on their website because I couldn't find anything?
We as the paying customers should have received some kind of warning that this can mess up our backups. I'm not sure if I can trust ATI anymore for taking my backups...

Eric, reselect the NAS destination for your task which should sort that particular side issue (or it did for me).

The last two ATI 2020 updates have caused my backup schemes to change of their own accord from Differential to Incremental and to cease email notifications, causing me much work to reset my backups and restore my chosen settings.

Martesen, make sure that you export your backup settings to a zip file to save you having to manually reconfigure all your tasks if this happens again by importing those settings back again (after stopping & disabling the Acronis MMMS service).

Any ETA to get this fixed???

None advised as yet!

This not only needs to be fixed, but a proper statement and explanation on exactly what happened and specific steps made to make sure this shit never happens again needs to be published by Acronis! This software is supposed to save systems not to destroy them! 

Mohamed Eltantawi wrote:

This not only needs to be fixed, but a proper statement and explanation on exactly what happened and specific steps made to make sure this shit never happens again needs to be published by Acronis! This software is supposed to save systems not to destroy them! 

I am unaware of Acronis publicly acknowledging this issue even exists so the chance of them publicly making a statement that it is fixed is unlikely.  I agree that this software is supposed to be a reliable safety net against other software/hardware issues and for it not to work reliably is appalling.  I, for one, am looking for an alternative! 

Currently they seem more involved in selling this stuff to unsuspecting Black Friday purchasers than fixing it for their current ones!

Steve Smith wrote:

Morne, you need to stop & set the Acronis Managed Machine Mini service to Disabled startup to prevent your backup configuration from being reset continually.

Thank You, Sir, it solves my problem since last month.

I notice it only happen on backup entire PC plan.

Support reply to me :

Yes, our developers are aware of the issue, and they are working on the fix; however, currently, we do not have any ETA about the fix version to be released.

Blofeld wrote:

Mohamed Eltantawi wrote:

This not only needs to be fixed, but a proper statement and explanation on exactly what happened and specific steps made to make sure this shit never happens again needs to be published by Acronis! This software is supposed to save systems not to destroy them! 

I am unaware of Acronis publicly acknowledging this issue even exists so the chance of them publicly making a statement that it is fixed is unlikely.  I agree that this software is supposed to be a reliable safety net against other software/hardware issues and for it not to work reliably is appalling.  I, for one, am looking for an alternative! 

Currently they seem more involved in selling this stuff to unsuspecting Black Friday purchasers than fixing it for their current ones!

See https://twitter.com/Acronis/status/1196749277466419205?s=20. I wish Acronis would post a statement in this topic, something I suggested they do.

Jon

ps. It looks like the dashboard version has been updated. The build is now 12668 (was 12647) and other versions have changed as well. Steve, can you confirm this is the fix? Anyone care to try?😟

Jon Beets wrote:

Blofeld wrote:

Mohamed Eltantawi wrote:

This not only needs to be fixed, but a proper statement and explanation on exactly what happened and specific steps made to make sure this shit never happens again needs to be published by Acronis! This software is supposed to save systems not to destroy them! 

I am unaware of Acronis publicly acknowledging this issue even exists so the chance of them publicly making a statement that it is fixed is unlikely.  I agree that this software is supposed to be a reliable safety net against other software/hardware issues and for it not to work reliably is appalling.  I, for one, am looking for an alternative! 

Currently they seem more involved in selling this stuff to unsuspecting Black Friday purchasers than fixing it for their current ones!

See https://twitter.com/Acronis/status/1196749277466419205?s=20. I wish Acronis would post a statement in this topic, something I suggested they do.

Jon

ps. It looks like the dashboard version has been updated. The build is now 12668 (was 12647) and other versions have changed as well. Steve, can you confirm this is the fix? Anyone care to try?😟

It probably needs someone with a more complex setup than mine to confirm but I had the problem of settings for 'Backup Method', 'Automatic Cleanup' and 'Schedule' being wiped out in ATI 2020 Build 22510 on Windows 10 Home 64 v1909. 

The last two night's (25/11 and 26/11) backups have NOT reset the settings. This job was re-created on the 25/11. I have not changed any system settings and the MMS service is running, so it does seem these issues (at least in my limited scenario, i.e. full scheduled backup to external USB disk using newly created backup job) have been fixed.

Not sure if it's all part of the same issue, another one, or by design, but one tibx file is created per night as I would expect and they are roughly the same size, but if the tibx files are opened in Windows Explorer the backups for each night appear in all of them. I expected one file per backup - have I missed something?

DrMopp,

The tibx format creates a single file container in which subsequent incremental files are written.  Given your description I trust your backup scheme is that of incremental.  So the behavior you see when viewing a tibx file in Explorer containing all files of the backup chain is expected.

See the link below for details:

Backup schemes

I keep getting push notifications to upgrade to ATI 2020. Seriously??? NO WAY!

Peter, this issue affects users across ATI 2017 thru' 2020 - the fix, when it comes, will be for the Acronis dashboard cloud servers.

Hi Steve.

Yes I know, but that is not my point.

Enchantech,

No that's the point, each nights backup is a FULL backup, not incremental, and the activity log shows 'Method: Full' which is why I don't understand the results I am seeing. Previously the settings were set to FULL but were being reset to Incremental, now although the settings are not being changed, it looks as though incremental backups are being run in any case.

Steve,

You say the fix 'when it comes'.  Why would my 'settings reset' issue have suddenly gone away if no fix has been applied? 

The last two updates have caused my backup schemes to change of their own accord from Differential to Incremental and to cease email notifications, causing me much work to reset my backups and restore my chosen settings.

I don't use MMS (I don't think - I don't really know what that is!) nor are my backups made to 'the cloud' - I have ATI 2020 on two Win 10 PCs. One desktop has two drives backed up to a NAS and the other saves to its own external SSD. Both have been affected in the same way.

A conversation with an Acronis Customer Support person reveals that this is 'a known issue' - I was advised that: "our development team is working on this". A Support Case has been opened.

EDIT: - Ooops - apologies. I posted a couple of days ago but couldn't see my comment when i returned to this topic. The 'Preview' hadn't worked so I assumed my attempt to post had failed and I did it again but it seems I wasn't looking at the latest page on the topic - doh! So my words above are somewhat out of sequence. Apologies particularly to Steve Smith who actually replied direct to my post!

Martesen wrote:

I don't use MMS (I don't think - I don't really know what that is!) nor are my backups made to 'the cloud' - I have ATI 2020 on two Win 10 PCs. One desktop has two drives backed up to a NAS and the other saves to its own external SSD. Both have been affected in the same way.

You may not use the Acronis Managed Machine Service Mini (MMS) but unless you have taken steps to stop and disable it, it will be running on your clients.  From time to time it communicates back to the Acronis servers and this is when the settings/options get reset.

If you are suffering the resetting of your settings then taking action to stop/disable MMS should 'fix' it

Peter Wilkinson wrote:

I keep getting push notifications to upgrade to ATI 2020. Seriously??? NO WAY!

Peter, go to the Settings page in ATI. Is "Automatically check for updates at startup" checked? If so, uncheck it. 

DrMopp wrote:

Enchantech,

No that's the point, each nights backup is a FULL backup, not incremental, and the activity log shows 'Method: Full' which is why I don't understand the results I am seeing. Previously the settings were set to FULL but were being reset to Incremental, now although the settings are not being changed, it looks as though incremental backups are being run in any case,

Have a look at the Activity tab for the backup task in question,  does the Method showing for your backups indicate Full or Incremental or both?

If you settings are not changing anymore than all you should see are full versions given your reply.

I updated to build 22510 yesterday before i shut down the computer. Today my settings were wiped once again and reverted back from Full backup to Incremental.

It´s annoying that a application that should protect my data have the ability to mess up everything.

BrunoC wrote:

Peter Wilkinson wrote:

I keep getting push notifications to upgrade to ATI 2020. Seriously??? NO WAY!

Peter, go to the Settings page in ATI. Is "Automatically check for updates at startup" checked? If so, uncheck it. 

 

Yes I unchecked it weeks ago, 

Roger A wrote:

I updated to build 22510 yesterday before i shut down the computer. Today my settings were wiped once again and reverted back from Full backup to Incremental.

The update to build 22510 (or any new build or version) will re-enable the MMS service. I don't know how quickly MMS will wipe out your settings once the service has started. I suspect you do not have much time to stop the service again.

I have just received an email from Acronis Support in response to my having 'raised a ticket' with my problem. Relevant extract reads:-

"We had reported the issue to the team concerned and I am glad to inform you that the fix is deployed and the issue is now resolved. Kindly follow the below steps and let us know the results:

If you already have the latest version of Acronis True Image 2020 (Build: 22510) please select the backup settings as per your requirement and let me know the outcome."

The other 'steps' were simply to update to Build 22510, which I had already done. The alteration of my backup settings always seemed to occur as a consequence of installing an update. Once I reset my settings after this, all seems to be well (so far!)

The Acronis email said no more about the issue - no explanation - just the implication that Build 22510 has fixed it. I note from posts above however that this may not be true for everyone.

Thanks too to Blofeld - so long as my scheme is working I shan't dabble any further - I've already wasted too much time and energy on it. If however, it falls over again, without any update being installed, I shall certainly look at the MMS thing.

I have re-enabled MMMS on a couple of different computers and double-checked my task settings before and after doing a restart of Windows and so far all remains unchanged but will leave it a few more days before I do this for my main laptop.

I would have preferred to see an official statement put out by Acronis in these forums or in this topic to confirm that the fix has been fully deployed to all their servers rather than leaving users to guess whether this is true or not?

Enchantech wrote:

DrMopp wrote:

Enchantech,

No that's the point, each nights backup is a FULL backup, not incremental, and the activity log shows 'Method: Full' which is why I don't understand the results I am seeing. Previously the settings were set to FULL but were being reset to Incremental, now although the settings are not being changed, it looks as though incremental backups are being run in any case,

Have a look at the Activity tab for the backup task in question,  does the Method showing for your backups indicate Full or Incremental or both?

If you settings are not changing anymore than all you should see are full versions given your reply.

Yes, I did say, the activity tab shows the method used as 'FULL', which makes the backup results all the more strange.(ie. each .tibx file containing every day's backups). This issue may appear off-topic as the thread is about the settings loss/overwrite, which seems to be fixed, I only mentioned it here in case it's related, either to the original problem or the fix.

FWIW my ATI2019 installation has been backing-up perfectly to local backup drives (one Daily backup and one Weekly backup), and the only thing that has changed about my settings is that I originally set-up email notices using the "Change email notification settings" selection in ATI's Settings area, which took me to my online account, and these STOPPING WORKING as of the 14th of November. The emails just stopped, and even now as I look at my Online Dashboard under my account profile, there are valid email addys in there but no notices are arriving.

Only yesterday did I find and realize that there is also a Notifications tab in Disk backup options for each backup. I set these up for each backup and the Daily reported today just as it should. So I am back to getting the Notifications I want & need.

Something is hosed about the Online Dashboard but since I do not use Acronis Cloud for backups, and my local backup settings appear fine, I am not experiencing any problems.

I *AM* a little worried about whether to upgrade to 2020--maybe I will take advantage of the Black Friday deal today and just not install until dust settles on it!?

I have the same issue since upgrading to 2020 2 weeks ago. Customer support told me this is a known issue. Very disappointed. I would have not upgraded if I know.

Steve Salem wrote:

I have the same issue since upgrading to 2020 2 weeks ago. Customer support told me this is a known issue. Very disappointed. I would have not upgraded if I know.

If I understand this problem, it is (was?) a problem with the server used by MMS processing, not a bug in ATI 2020.  Your upgrading to ATI 2020 had nothing to do with your loosing your backup options.  The same thing has happened to users on ATI 2019 and earlier.

Let us hope that Acronis has now truly fixed the problem.

Patrick is correct.  This problem affected many version of ATI not just 2020.

I ginned up a new machine several days ago, and was willing to risk subjecting it to Acronis' tender mercies.

So far the wheels have stayed on, and the configuration settings haven't been wiped out.

But.......I am configured in the dashboard to get notifications (error/warning/success) from the Acronis servers, and so far nothing has come through.

What has been the experience of other folk?

I believe the dashboard update to 12668 and other Cyber Cloud component version changes have fixed the problem. I have re-enabled MMS on my Win10 1903 comp, and so far all is well.

Curiously the Win10 1909 comp never had an issue, even with MMS running.

Jon

There is a separate issue at work here with cloud based notifications not working - I haven't had any for the past month or more too.  Fortunately the Notifications from the ATI backup tasks are working now that the settings no longer get wiped out!  That problem affected all recent builds of Windows 10 for me, both 1909, 1903 and 1809 etc but the core issue was coming from the cloud dashboard servers, not the OS or ATI app.

So far so good. I have turned the MMS service back on on both my machines and for the last two nights the backups' have run successfully. In task email notifications are working properly and the task settings are remaining as set. As Steve mentioned the cloud notifications are not working and in my case have always been intermittent.

Repeating a request from way back in this thread, could somebody with a spare (or virtual) PC please test bare metal and selective restores?

In addition to the debacle with the central servers, Acronis has changed the structure of the backup files, so I think a little creative paranoia might be in order.

Thanks!

Has (or will) Acronis Support announced the issue is resolved and all cloud servers updated with the fixes needed? They don't seem stellar at announcing that issues exist and what users should do in the short term to avoid getting hit with a problem, other than user forums. An official announcement would give me a little more confidence to turn MMSM back on and finish upgrading the other systems I support to release 2. Are the Forums the official release channel for Acronis Support?

Holly sh.t! What a mess!

I finally found this thread about this very bad behaviour from Acronis.

Last year I have installed "Acronis True Image 2019" for more then a dozen of new customers with several recurring scheduled backup jobs on multiple machines.

ALL OF THIS JOBS REVERTED TO DEFAULT!

Actually, I'm still working on this disaster to adjust all the jobs for all my customers. I have to change the settings from "incremental" back to "full" Backup. I have to enter all the mail settings. 

How can it be that a company like Acronis change settings for customers without any confirmation or information?

Where can I send my invoice for all my expenses caused by this absolutely ridicilous change? I am so upset and will not encourage any new customer to use such a product until Acronis explain in detail what happend and how they prevent this in the future.

This issue does look to be fixed and I have turned MMMS back on for all my computers without seeing any further settings being reset.  There has not been any announcement to this effect by Acronis which is a shame given the high impact that this issue on their servers has had!

WHERE IS THE OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM ACRONIS??? It is such an evidence of incapacity...

@Peter Codar: Yes it is a mess and costs me lots valuable time and nerves too because the issue related to 84 Computers of my customers and i am very angry.

I hope, the issue is really fixed but i expect to get an announcement from Acronis. Acronis must be able to admit their mistake and should NOT bury its head in the sand!

Ekaterina, sorry but there may be issues fixed in build 22510 but it did not fix the MMMS server issue for certain as upgrading to 22510 wiped out all my own backup task settings as it did for others too.

Ekaterina wrote:

Hello Everyone,

the issue has been fixed in the released Update 2 build  22510. Please update to the latest build.

I do not think it was a mistake of the local software of ATI 2020, much more of the dashboard-cloud-servers. Because there ist no update for ATI 2019/2018 and the issue does look to be fixed in this regard also.

Conclusion:

Please give us a truthful and honest statement, that the issue is fixed regarding all versions of ATI!

Checking with the RnD team, will update this thread once we have the statement

After this debacle with lost configs on 84 machines several times (customers of us and own computers) and the  insufficient information policy of Acronis we made a decision: After many years using Acronis-Software we will abolish all Acronis Software from our computers (Servers as well) in the company. Step by step we will do this as well with our customers. We decided to use Macrium Reflect.

Good bye.

History is replete with examples of disastrous PR or great PR in the face of a major product issue. I hope that Acronis will be able to step forward with a positive response, even though it is late in the game. Yes, the product seems fixed yet there may be countless users out there who do not watch the backup activity on a regular basis and may still be unaware that their backup tasks are no longer working as they were set up to do. That, in combination with the issues related to the new .tibx format, means that being silent on the issue is not a good response.

I have to agree with Thomas. The silence from Acronis through an official support mechanism is absolutely deafening. A forum like this, for a product issue this universal, across a broad spectrum of their customers, is not how support information of this magnitude should be communicated. For @Ekaterina to suggest that Build 22510 fixed the issue when even novices figured out that 22510 had nothing to do with the problem, just reinforces how truly bad Acronis' support channel is. 

I worked on a customers systems today that was totally unaware of the problems. Sure enough, they had the same issues we have seen on multiple customers systems since October:

- Backup tasks, both NAS and Cloud, had been written to computers scripts directory that did not belong there. Those scripts were remotely executing backups on other computers that they were not authorized to do.

- Backup script settings had been reset to some random defaults for all computers

- NAS backups had been redirected to backup on the very C:/ root of the drive being backed up

I've been in customer facing roles for 35 years (and most of those for a major corporation). Releasing a bad software update that effects your customers is disaster for everyone. I can deal with that short-term as long as my vendor tells me what's going on and engages me in what I need to do to mitigate the issue while they fix it.

What I can not accept is a corporation being absolutely silent on a issue of significant magnitude and not even giving the poor forum moderator as much information as "novice" users have on the issue at hand.

I too am looking at alternatives after 15 years of using Acronis. I can deal with product issues. I can't deal with horrible support.

Basically, I am in the same camp as you guys, having worked in IT since my IBM days in 1976 and still freelancing today ... as can be seen from my statement in Acronis True Image Wishlist just a few hours ago ...

BUT, let's be realistic guys, a publicly listed company, such as Acronis, will NEVER publicly admit any wrong doing. Because any legal department worth its salt will tell all its employees that such behaviour will set themselves up for compensation litigation - plain and simple ...

Publicly listing known issues, status, short-term recommendations and expected resolution is standard support practice for any quality software company. It doesn't need to come with mea culpas, apologies, or offers of compensation, just the facts as they stand so users can take appropriate actions. 

Microsoft is hardly the poster child for great support and they've got GREAT lawyers. However, they publicly list the issues with known releases just as I'm asking for here. See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-information/status-windows-10-1903 as example. How simple this would be to implement. My issue is keeping their customers in the dark with what the issues are so that we have to guess, "is the bug still there?", "does 22510 fix it?", "is it a cloud server issue?", "does turning off MMSm temporarily correct it?". Acronis support posting the facts as they stand, like Microsoft does, is all I'm asking for. Acronis R&D and support should consider it an insult that Microsoft support is better than theirs. Ouch.

That being said, I made repairs to my customers backup scripts including doing a fresh install on a new PC to 22510. I left the other systems on the first 2020 build. MMSm was running on all the PC's (which is what caused the 3 issues listed above in my prior post. There was no further replication of the issues we've all experienced, so I feeling better that MMSm and the cloud servers it talks to has been fixed.