Backup/Protect skips files - How to confirm Backups

Hello Hennie Roets!

Is it really needed to backup onedrive when it's already in the cloud? Or are you trying to secure the backup of files not yet synced to cloud?

Also found this in the guide in 2.1.2 Cloud Deployment:

The OneDrive root folder is excluded from backup operations by default. If you select to back up specific OneDrive files and folders, they will be backed up. Files that are not available on the device will have invalid contents in the archive.

As for verifying backup contents, I don't think its something to worry about. You can take a look into the created archives if cataloging is enabled on the location. For an automated solution you can query the elasticsearch db directly, but it's more involved and I'm not sure it worth the hassle for this use case.

-- Peter

Hi Peter,

thanks for the reply. I suppose that is the question. How safe is OneDrive as a backup?

Does onedrive support historical backups? Can I restore a file from a month ago for example.

What about Ransomware. I suppose Ransomware wont have access to the backups of OneDrive, but then it still depends on how long and how many copies does onedrive keep.

All in all when I get a user that uses onedrive to sync their desktop and docs over multiple devices, I would still prefer to use Cyper Protect as a backup. Which is difficult at the moment.

Please remember we are not talking about Microsoft Business 365. Just a personal user.

Thanks for the help so far. Picking your brain ;o)

I found this windows doc about Restoring previous versions of files in onedrive. Apparently the last 25 version of each is kept. One drive also appears to have ransomware detection.

I just did a quick test of backing up the locally found one drive files. It works no problem if you make a file backup of the one drive folder (C:\Users\<username>\OneDrive on windows 10). Probably need to take into account how and when it's content changes to avoid backing up during a sync so you can avoid an inconsistent state.

You said that some files were not backed up. Did you make a disk or file backup? What type of files were missing? Where are the backups sent to?

If it's a personal user are we really talking about cyber protect 15? Or Cyber Protect Home Office? The latter is the more common for this use.

EDIT: Grammar

Hi Péter

this was a file backup for 3 different situations. Each time the onedrive folder was selected. But on checking backups afterword some random folder was just empty.

I then tried it on my PC. Same thing. A lot of folder and files backed up, but my main company folder HC, was empty. So no errors and no notification that it could not read a file. Or it could not backup all files.

I hear you about onedrive, yes it might be in the cloud, but there are many reasons and situations why you would want Arconis to backup the files instead of onedrive.

We are using Cyber Protect 15.

There were some agent updates, I will do another test.

And then the Ransomware protection of Microsoft is based on signature protection. Which means the data can be destroy before the protection picks it up. Lets be honest, Microsoft and detecting Viruses does not have a great track record. Lately much better though.

Some things I have treid with onedrive and Cyber Protect skipping files.

I have played around with security premistions on files and folders

I have exited the onedrive app that it can not sync.

Next I will try to disable the serve to figure out what is going on.

But lets hope with the latest updates it works. Im going to uninstall and re install.

Will keep you updated

Hello Hennie,

thank you for posting on Acronis forums!

If you use Acronis Agent for Microsoft 365 then all OneDrive user files and folders should be backed up: https://kb.acronis.com/content/62303

Good Morning from South Africa Maria,

thank you for the reply.

1. I am a reseller of Irontree in South Africa, the plugin is not under downloads. I have asked them why and are waiting for a reply.
2. I read that the plugin is only for Microsoft365 Business, is that correct?

Thank you for all the assistance.

Good day all,

some feedback.

The issue remains... If a client uses Microsoft OneDrive to sync or backup their Files, Cyber Protect will or can skip files and folder without any errors. This means there is no way to know that all data has been backed up.

I see this as a serious issue. Especially if the client does not use Microsoft 365 Business. Because the plugin only support Microsoft365 Business

I will test the issue again today. Seeing as the agent has been updated a few time. I will do a complete re install and apply a new plan, selecting the root OneDrive Folder.  Keep you updated.

Good Morning to all,

so same problem. Cyber Protect just skips random folder and files inside those folders. No confirmation of backup.

I think this should be stated to clients that Cyber Protect is not compatible with onedrive at all.

So basically I stopped using onedrive, i prefer to backup with Cyber Protect. But some kind of confirmation that: "What was selected, is confirmed part of the backup." is needed.

The only way to confirm that the backup works 100% at this moment is to restore all the data after backup, and compare file and folder count.

I really hope Arconis will look into this. A couple of suggestions from my side:

1. RedStor has a Size feature. So that you know how much data is selected for the backup. Helps a great deal when setting up a backup. When the backup is over limited, it is tedious to search why. Maybe a feature of the agent.....
2. An error log, if a file or folder could not be read.
3. Clearly state that only Microsoft 365 Business is supported with OneDrive, and only the PlugIn at extra cost. (I wonder how many clients has selected OneDrive on their PC's and the data is not available for restore)

Have a great one!!

Hello Hennie!

Thank you for providing additional details. have you already contacted Acronis Support Team on this issue?

Good Morning,

yes, last year actually through my Reseller Irontree. The answer we got was to use the 365 plugin. And nothing further, which I thought was really bad support.

Hello Hennie.

We recommend that you continue the investigation with the Acronis Support Team if the issue persists with Acronis Agent for Office 365