Acronis True Image Wishlist

Except for the easy ability to create *.tib backups I'm relatively certain that all *.tib functionality has been restored. ATI 2021 has significantly reduced the differences in function of *.tib and *.tibx backups.

Peter Chalmers wrote:

A few wishlist items from me:

• Re-introduce the ability to set the backup filename format (with date/time, etc.). I still find that useful, and the manual script ‘hack’ is unsupported.
• A ‘Restart the full+incremental cycle on this job’ button (as requested elsewhere, I think.) 
• Also, a ‘pause all backup scheduling’ button - i.e. don’t start any new backup jobs until I un-pause (while I do this bit of maintenance, for example). As far as I can tell, at the moment I have to edit each backup job to set scheduling to ‘none’, then go and change them all back when I’m done. I imagine there’s something I could do with the scheduling process (?), but a supported control In the tool would be nice.

+1 to all of those.

Duplicate post.

1. Simultaneous operations. I back up my six drives by backing up 3 drives to one NAS and 3 to another, It's really painful that I can't have one operation to each NAS going simultaneously.
2. Let me turn off the non-backup functionality. I already have AV, I didn't ask for my backup software to try and do it, and I don't trust its anti-malware performance after ATI 2021 surprisingly started chewing through my system resources with new features I didn't expect nor want.

Jeremy, rather than posting in this wishlist about the unwanted new protection features in 2021, please submit Feedback direct to Acronis about that issue.  We need all users who are unhappy with these new features to make that known to Acronis via the Feedback tool and not just in these forums.

Steve Smith wrote:

Jeremy, rather than posting in this wishlist about the unwanted new protection features in 2021, please submit Feedback direct to Acronis about that issue.  We need all users who are unhappy with these new features to make that known to Acronis via the Feedback tool and not just in these forums.

Thanks Steve, I have already submitted similar feedback about the protection features through the product.

From an early portion of this thread Steve said

1. Provide more options for task naming using such as DATE, TIME etc that users currently can only achieve by manually editing the task Script .TIB.TIS files.  This ability should be provided within the ATI GUI instead of users editing XML files and risking corrupting them.

I agree 100% recently I went through computer hell trying to restore to a new SSD. My old SanDisk had errors that I could only detect with Hard Disk Sentinel. After I got a new SSD (almost a month) I first ran Hard Disk Sentinel test to ensure all was OK with the new SSD. A few corrections were made. I then installed the SSD in the laptop, booted with my Acronis Universal Rescue thumb drive. I was not able to see the shared backup drive in my desktop.

I copied some backup files to an external USB drive, attached it to the laptop. Still I could not see the files.

I created another Acronis Restore (WinPE), booted from it, still could not see the network share drive or the USB drive.

I created a third Acronis Restore (Linux). I could see the network drive but it failed when I tried to use one of the files. I tried the USB drive with the copied files, same error.

I copied more files to the USB drive, still I could not use the files.

I installed Windows on the new SSD, Installed ATI 2020, access the shared drive. Used one of the earlier FULL backups (this later created other issues) and restored. Now the laptop ran but it is much slower than it should be.

Had it not been for modifying the TIS file so I could insert the date I would have been super lost in the recovery. For me, it is critical to have the information in the FILENAME not buried somewhere in the darn file. 

Another request

Enhance the uninstall process so EVERYTHING related to the install has been removed. I've been running ATI on my desktop, built in the 2010 timeframe and found numerous leftovers from the various versions of ATI that had been installed on my desktop. The install and uninstall process should be smart enough to clean the system of all traces. A user should not be required to run a special clean application.

Another request

I'm sorry but I don't see the new TIBX file format as a benefit. Please continue to support the TIB format or fully explain why it is so much better. So far everything I've seen does not convenience me that the new format is worth all the grief it has put me through.

Another request

Improve the user-friendly aspects of the application. I suspect that a lot of users are not super technical and would greatly benefit from a more friendly application. Normally a person does not encounter the need to restore and when they do that is not the time to go through computer hell and a learning curve to get the restore working.

When restoring a TIBX using the live CDs, I would much rather get a list of the backup dates stored in the TIBX than having to click backwards through a calendar picker to find the most recent green dot.

Acronis True Image is a software product produced by Acronis that provides data protection for personal users including, backup, archive, access and recovery for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android operating systems. The backups are in a proprietary format which saves using a . tib filename format.

I only do Full Image backups of my PC and use the "Rescue Disk" to do so. I've disabled all TI start up processes (Scheduler, etc.). Also I only open the image file to restore a file or object but even that is very, very rare.  Hence, TI is truly my backup until I need something!

What would like to see is:

1. An option to only install the most basic configuration to just do an image backup (create Rescue Disk is just fine) and any other software to be able to open/view your image files.
2. At software installation allow the selection of:
   1. Basic "Lite" version
   2. Full Bloatware version

For the Wish List: Get rid of any anti-virus bloatware.  Acronis is fine as-is. I went back to 2020 because of that. The big problem is 2020 doesn't support booting from an iso and accessing M.2 Optanes. 2021 does but then I have to go and stop all the bloatware from running when installing it. Bitdefender gives you 15 copies for two years for $69 so why should I want Acronis Anti-anything for only 5 copies? If you are going to tout a competitive anti product, keep it separate - i.e. Acronis Ultimate with Anti-everything and keep the bare-metal backup stand-alone.  Also, add BTRFS and XFS to the file systems supported.  Fedora just went to BTRFS as default file system. Tired of installing Linux boxes with EXT4 so I can boot the iso and backup my Linux boxes without sector-by-sector and take advantage of the compression. Also, for the True Image, allow Linux desktops to be added as one of the 5 without having to go with the cyber version.  It's just a client desktop. Surely the Linux gurus can figure out to allow only desktop clients and not servers.

That's why I also got back to older versions of Acronis, for my nees even version 2014 is enough.

New version with all this unwanted functions slowed my laptop a lot, the laptop is not so light on resources (i7 with 16gb of ram and m.2 ssd).

That's why I'm using Acronis 2014 with other antivirus software. I don't feel them at all working in the background.

Functions that I need are just backup related. Backup of files and system somwhere local (file share or external drive) and option to restore them.
Don't need cloud and antivirus functions from Acronis.

Please just give an option to install selected Acronis components.
Till some time ago I always recomended Acronis to my family and friends as a very good sollution for backup.
Right now I'm recomending your rival firm as they have a very good, free software that is doing just the thing it should do, backup.

I will think hard when there will be time for extending my subscription of Acronis.
With every new version this software is getting worse, not better.

Are you thinking about adding Battle Royale mode to Acronis? All the game companys are doing that.
Maybe this will bring more customers :-)

fix duplicate post.

Piotr, please submit Feedback directly to Acronis (use the tool provided in the GUI Help section) and complain about the imposition of these new protection features plus ask for your vote to be added to the Acronis internal change request: TI-213392 Allow installation without Antimalware components

Anthony Cimorelli wrote:

For the Wish List: Get rid of any anti-virus bloatware.  Acronis is fine as-is. I went back to 2020 because of that. The big problem is 2020 doesn't support booting from an iso and accessing M.2 Optanes. 2021 does but then I have to go and stop all the bloatware from running when installing it. Bitdefender gives you 15 copies for two years for $69 so why should I want Acronis Anti-anything for only 5 copies? If you are going to tout a competitive anti product, keep it separate - i.e. Acronis Ultimate with Anti-everything and keep the bare-metal backup stand-alone.  Also, add BTRFS and XFS to the file systems supported.  Fedora just went to BTRFS as default file system. Tired of installing Linux boxes with EXT4 so I can boot the iso and backup my Linux boxes without sector-by-sector and take advantage of the compression. Also, for the True Image, allow Linux desktops to be added as one of the 5 without having to go with the cyber version.  It's just a client desktop. Surely the Linux gurus can figure out to allow only desktop clients and not servers.

Software makers generally have a problem.  If they release a complete, error free product, they essentially put themselves out of business as soon as everybody who wants it gets it.  Acronis is very near that point.  

But the new 2021 version does come with all those bloaty features disabled by default.  I have been wondering if they would slow down my computer less than the antivirus that I have, most of which's features I have also disabled because I only want antivirus.  Maybe I will give it a try in the Spring when it comes time to renew my antivirus software. 

1. The font and icons are too small. Why?! I can hardly see the text. The font is also grey, not black, which is even harder to read. One should be able to change the font size bigger.

2. The date is presented in the USA format. In Acronis today is 1/6/2021. Outside the USA this means 1. June 2021. Today is 6. January 2021 which is 6/1/2021 in Europe. This is very confusing!

Arko wrote:

1. .....

2. The date is presented in the USA format. In Acronis today is 1/6/2021. Outside the USA this means 1. June 2021. Today is 6. January 2021 which is 6/1/2021 in Europe. This is very confusing!

I have been "complaining" about this problem for years but it falls on death ears!

Ian 

IanL-S wrote:

Arko wrote:

1. .....

2. The date is presented in the USA format. In Acronis today is 1/6/2021. Outside the USA this means 1. June 2021. Today is 6. January 2021 which is 6/1/2021 in Europe. This is very confusing!

I have been "complaining" about this problem for years but it falls on death ears!

Ian 

Where you see this issue? I see all dates (in the app.. and in the systray ap for example) in  UK/EU format.. i.e. for today - it shows 29/1/2021 

Ahh.. do you mean the forum?  

Cheers

Throwing my hat in the "Stop ruining good software with unwanted AV software" ring, I won't by "Microsoft Donuts" or "Starbucks OS" and I'm sure as hell going to be agitated if Microsoft starts making me eat a donut when I boot their OS. (Already reported through the Feedback tool)

It's unnecessary, it's unwanted, it's insane, please stop.

If you wish to compete with the Anti-Virus products then do so as a separate product at best the Acronis solution gets in the way of my existing solution and causes countless issues along with terrible performance degradation.

When ATI 2021 only seems to add Anti Virus features while making everything else unstable why would I upgrade any of my 21 licenses?

Raymond Chastain wrote:

Throwing my hat in the "Stop ruining good software with unwanted AV software" ring, I won't by "Microsoft Donuts" or "Starbucks OS" and I'm sure as hell going to be agitated if Microsoft starts making me eat a donut when I boot their OS. (Already reported through the Feedback tool)

It's unnecessary, it's unwanted, it's insane, please stop.

If you wish to compete with the Anti-Virus products then do so as a separate product at best the Acronis solution gets in the way of my existing solution and causes countless issues along with terrible performance degradation.

When ATI 2021 only seems to add Anti Virus features while making everything else unstable why would I upgrade any of my 21 licenses?

You will be glad to know that, if you haven't tried to use Acronis' antivirus, you don't have it.  It is not clogging up Acronis backup performance with other unnecessary functions.  I turned it on, and Acronis said it was downloading the antivirus part.  The download didn't actually start until a couple of days later, some hundreds of mb.  

The problem that software makers contend with is that, if they stop doing updates since the software is essentially finished, users will discard that software and go find one that is still getting updates.  The other problem is that updates keep old users, but to attract new users, you need new features.  Strange creatures we are.

That is where I was with my old antivirus.  It was getting clogged with a gazillion new features that I would never use, and performance really was taking a hit.  At one time, that antivirus was touted as simple and free, which is why I started using it. 

I thought, it actually might be that Acronis antivirus will not get clogged like my old one since it is already packaged with a very good, very complete backup system.  There is hope.  But I worry what they will feel compelled to add next.  Ok, as long as I need to download it separately to have it.

@Ekaterina

Triggering/Planing Backup at certain events: 

At the moment: Reboot & Shutdown

Wish: Choose: Reboot and or Shutdown.

For me this is a big deal. I do my Backup using this Method. When I shut off the PC in the evening I just leave it running and go to bed, knowing that it will shutdown once backups are finished.

Problem:

When I need to restart during the day, like a Windows Update oder some other issue, I have to wait until the entire backup is finished. 

Not sure if your devs can differentiate between shutdown and restart on windows side, but if yes, I would like to see this happen.

Kind regards

Michael 

Michael, there is a way (albeit a bit convoluted) to accomplish this. I just did some experimenting and it seems to work.

The method I used is as follows:

1) Catch the event that gets logged on a shutdown/restart. In the handler for that event, place a file that can indicate what occurred.

2) In a pre-command for the backup task, check the file. If the system restarted, error out of the pre-command so the backup will not run.

I created two batch files...

ShutdownRestartEvent.bat:
del C:\WeAreRestarting.txt
if "%1"=="restart" echo %1 > C:\WeAreRestarting.txt

ATIRestartTest.bat:
if EXIST "C:\WeAreRestarting.txt" exit /b 1
exit /b 0

Using the Windows Task Scheduler, create a task based on the event where Log = System, Source = User32 and Event ID = 1074. The action is to start a program, specifically
ShutdownRestartEvent  $(srData)

Be sure to set all the task options as would make sense. Once the event is created, you need to export it to an XML file. Open the XML file in an editor (notepad) and add the following XML in the <EventTrigger> section:
    <ValueQueries>
        <Value name="srData">Event/EventData/Data[@Name='param5']</Value>
    </ValueQueries>

This is what gets the "shutdown" or "restart" data from the event that can then be passed as a parameter to ShutdownRestartEvent.bat. You need to then delete the created task and then import it back from the XML.

In the backup task pre-command, call ATIRestartTest.bat. On a restart, C:\WeAreRestarting.txt will exist, on a shutdown it will not. So if it exists, the batch file returns error code 1 and the backup does not run. I found I needed to turn off error retries for the backup task as well.

Perhaps this can get you what you want. If you have any additional comments, please start a new thread so as not to further the conversation in this Wishlist thread.

I put a bat file on the desktop with this content:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TrueImageLauncher.exe" /script:3563859B-2EDD-40C8-9BCA-3DF53C5D8800
shutdown -s /t 00

I gave it a red Icon and called it "shutdown with backup". Still testing but seems to work. This is just a work arround and your solutions seems alot more crazy.

Remember users buying acronis want a All-in-One GUI solution and do not want to have to "catch any windows events" hacky-like stuff. Thanks for your effort though.

KR Michael

Good solution, Michael.

lets call it a work-arround, still a wish from me.

And I also support others here that the Anti-Malware stuff should be seperated.

I was glad I could disable it, but im not sure if that is possible in newer versions. And anyway you dont want the tool to have a deeper integration due to addiotional featues, that you dont need.

FTPS capability.

I would like to backup to a NAS on which I'd like to have only FTP enabled (with encryption of course). 

No SFTP. Why? Because consumer NAS enable SSH, and so SFTP, to administrator accounts only (at least Qnap does so).

So far backup on FTP (with encryption) has been proven to be a good way to protect against ransomware. And no I don't believe real time protection could work as reliably as versioned backups.

True image is already capable of connecting to plain FTP but that's not safe as the username and password are clearly readable to any ransomware sniffing the local network.

I really hope to see FTPS supported soon.

Hi,

after a whole year of evaluation I now can finally say goodby to Acronis (after many years). I found another solution that works without errors on my computers and on that of my customers. For sure no solution for everybody, but for me.

No more Bloatware, no tibx-Problems, no more extra-long Gui startup, better logfiles, native wlan on boot-stick/dvd, predictable backup and evaluation time...

Welcome Reflect goodby True Image

What solution did you go for?

for the price, I think acronis is okay...

Enchantech wrote:

I fully support ! 

Most (maybe all) of the questioners above are having functionality issues, which are very serious.

I don't have that, I have problems with the use of the app and the site.  But the number of questions / posts in this forum is shocking.

I am using Acronis True Image 2021.  When I open the app, after a log in, it brings me directly to a Products page.

It shows every produce I ever purchased. Of the seven there are two products that I use now, and five that I do not use now and never will.  I'm not planning to use Backup / Restore software I purchased in 2011, and it probably wouldn't work anyway.

Does anybody know how to get rid of this noise?  The option may exist, I find the app and site poorly designed and difficult to navigate.

Thanks

~w

William, I may be misunderstanding your comments above but I have never encountered the behaviour you are describing where using ATI 2021 causes my Acronis Account page listing my purchased products to be shown automatically after launching?

If you have a perpetual (Standard) license for ATI 2021 then you can activate the product using the serial number option without ever needing to sign in within the app.

If you have a subscription license, then you have to be signed in for the subscription to be activated.

I'd like Acronis True Image to be backup software.

I've been a recurring customer for more than decade, and each version installs more carp on my laptop. Now, it doesn't even pretend to be about backup anymore, it's some invasive "CyberProtection" that I neither trust nor desire.

More power to you for wanting more money, all good. But if you want to target all aspects of market, release a solid robust simple reliable trustworthy backup tool... Like you used to have 🤷‍♂️. I came here to buy a new version after getting a new laptop, and everything in your "Feature" list screams "No No No". I guess I'll download one of my old perpetual licenses and see if it works well enough, but that's money lost to you today 🤷‍♀️

Nikola Novak wrote:

I'd like Acronis True Image to be backup software.

I've been a recurring customer for more than decade, and each version installs more carp on my laptop. Now, it doesn't even pretend to be about backup anymore, it's some invasive "CyberProtection" that I neither trust nor desire.

 

More power to you for wanting more money, all good. But if you want to target all aspects of market, release a solid robust simple reliable trustworthy backup tool... Like you used to have 🤷‍♂️. I came here to buy a new version after getting a new laptop, and everything in your "Feature" list screams "No No No". I guess I'll download one of my old perpetual licenses and see if it works well enough, but that's money lost to you today 🤷‍♀️

 

 

I entirely agree with you. The bundling of Backup Software with Cyber Protection is an extremely bad decision of Acronis.  If they want to offer Cyber protecten then as a separate product.  I have enough excellent Cyber protection from establiched security companies without this bundle being forced on me.

Is there a good alternative to True Image???

 

 

TO ACRONIS:

The bundling of Backup Software with Cyber Protection is an extremely bad decision of Acronis.  If you want to offer Cyber protection then as a separate product.  I have enough excellent Cyber protection from established security companies without this bundle being forced on me.

Not a good decision at all and very few of us seem to like this either.!

About that software bundling.  It seems that acronis thinks that the backup feature is complete.  No more significant updates to that.  To cease updating means that before long, users will decide the product will not be kept up to date, and start looking around for something new.  Never mind that the new thing might very well be inferior.  Many users do not consider the "if it ain't broke" rule.  So, at that point, a software provider has three options

1) add new bloating features

2) release periodic new versions with no real new content

3) stop new releases

It is easy enough to not turn virus protection on.  My beef with competing anti-virus products is that they tend to hog too much cpu time.  I thought that perhaps the acronis version would avoid that, but I find the price prohibitive.  No deal.  The advantage for acronis of anti-virus is that it solves the obsolescence problem.  Anti-virus updates seem to flow continually.

Hi Willard,

I once was trying to get to my TrueImage backup product and mistakenly clicked on a product called Backup (brilliant naming, I thought) which signed me up for a trial business product that I didn't want. From then on, I also had to go through the annoying "choose a product" page to get to TrueImage.

The way that Tech Support finally got me out of it was to have me create a different login email and switched all my real subscriptions to that account. That worked, but I'm sad to say that that's all I've got.

Dave

 

 

Willard Preston wrote:

Most (maybe all) of the questioners above are having functionality issues, which are very serious.

I don't have that, I have problems with the use of the app and the site.  But the number of questions / posts in this forum is shocking.

I am using Acronis True Image 2021.  When I open the app, after a log in, it brings me directly to a Products page.

It shows every produce I ever purchased. Of the seven there are two products that I use now, and five that I do not use now and never will.  I'm not planning to use Backup / Restore software I purchased in 2011, and it probably wouldn't work anyway.

Does anybody know how to get rid of this noise?  The option may exist, I find the app and site poorly designed and difficult to navigate.

Thanks

~w

Acronis bundling True Image with "Cyber Security" is the worse decision Acronis has made.

No one is happy with this ..just about all of us have Cyber protection already so we a forced to buy SW we do not need just to be able to get True Image's latest updates and go get support. A large scale pain in the posterior.

Bad Acronis Very Bad!  You need to rethink this and take a damn good look at the person(s) who decided this.

I have to explicitly "trust" xcopy.exe after each boot because Acronis Active Protection keeps blocking it after each reboot.  Very annoying.

What's more, when I view "manage permissions" the list of "Monitored processes" has a non-standard windows control with truncated text in the Process column.  There is no tooltip that shows the full path and no resizable columns to view the full text - so I can't even determine the location of the monitors process.  See screenshot...

Poor UI development here.

Chris, the core issue here is that xcopy is using rundll32.exe which if permanently whitelisted opens a very big exposure to anything else that runs using it!  That includes any malware etc.

From a UI perspective, this is Acronis 'learning' as they go when introducing these new security features, which in turn means that there will be no 'fix' for such issues in any now unsupported versions of True Image. 

Acronis are working on a complete overall of their application code from the base up that they are looking to deliver sometime in 2022 (probably Q3) for ACPHO - which will be available as subscription only with the continued primary focus being on Cyber Protection.

Bonjour tous,

D'abord, bravo pour le travail que vous faites et grand merci pour vos réponses qui permettent tant de miracle.

Personnellement, j'utilise Acronis True Image et Acronis DiskDirector depuis bien longtemps.
DiskDirector, régulièrement, par contre, True Image, à part le fait que je crée les sauvegardes, je le connais peu, un peu mieux maintenant, puisque pour la 1ere fois, j'ai dù l'utiliser et que grace à lui, j'ai tout retrouvé (et Grace à Steve Smith).

Partant de cette utilisation, je souscris à :

Steve Smith wrote:

5. Provide more options for task naming using such as DATE, TIME etc that users currently can only achieve by manually editing the task Script .TIB.TIS files.  This ability should be provided within the ATI GUI instead of users editing XML files and risking corrupting them.

et

IanL-S wrote:

Steve Smith wrote:

…...  Ideally, it should also capture Activity history too.

+ 1