A place to discuss Backup software and online services
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I'm still trying to find a set-and-forget online backup service. I tried Carbonite first but found it very difficult to figure out what was being backed up since they had so many silent exclusions at the time (certain sizes, certain filetypes, etc.). Mozy was great until they got bought by Carbonite and I faced the same problems I had originally. I thought IDrive was the solution, but I keep getting ominous messages that I have no files to backup. That is, my scheduled, full backups sometimes work and sometimes don't:
[Version: 6.7.1.45 Release Date: 05/22/2019]
[Scheduled Backup]
[Scheduled Time: 6/29/2019 8:48:00 PM]
[Username: alan@deleted]
[Start Time: 6/29/2019 8:48:21 PM]
[Throttle Value: 100]
[Backupset Name]
[Default BackupSet_Family]
[Backup content]
[C:\Users\Family\Desktop\]
[C:\Users\Family\Music\]
[C:\Users\Family\Pictures\]
[C:\Users\Family\Videos\]
[C:\Users\Family\Documents\]
[Backupset Name]
[Default BackupSet_Family]
[Failed to continue the Backup operation. Reason: There are no files to backup]
[Throttle Value: 100]
I have been round and round with IDrive support on this and they have no solution. Perhaps it's a cosmetic problem but it's unnerving and calls into question the reliability of the software as a whole.
Anyone have a suggestion for an online backup service that really works? I don't mind paying. But I want it to be reliable. This one is telling me that it's not reliable, and I trust it when it says that it's broken.
This is on a fresh install of Windows 10 Pro.
-- Alan
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Yes, and that was my first thought too, but I get messages (which I couldn't find to cut and paste above) that I have 0 files in my filesystem and 0 files in my IDrive account. Also, because I have the continuous backup, I expect logs of the scheduled backups to not show anything, and typically that's what they do, that is, they show 0 files that needed backup. It's just 10-50 % of the time it complains that my filesystem is empty, both on my local machine and on the IDrive servers.
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Do you have multiple user accounts on your Windows machine?
There is a check box in the IDrive settings "allow IDrive only for current profile", maybe it doesn't have permissions to backup your profile "Family" while its authenticated as another user.
I would suggest this box should not be checked if you want IDrive to backup other profiles (I've never needed to experiment with it myself).
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Another thought; within the IDrive client software, under "Scheduler", there is a link to "view and manage all scheduled jobs"
How many jobs are listed in there?
I once had a problem where I had to create a new profile on a computer due to corruption, and the original job remained and caused problems similar to what you have described.
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Only the admin account (which we almost never use). I thought it might be some conflict with Windows Defender too but I've not really found any evidence for that. My Windows setup is very vanilla. I can't understand why I would be having this problem and no one else is. Is it unusual to use continuous backup with scheduled backups? I could turn one or the other off I suppose. I'm also using the account to backup several phones and a remote Windows PC. I wonder if that is a factor here.
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I'll check the number of scheduled jobs when I get home tonight...
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I use continuous backup and Windows Defender, albeit on Windows 7, and I haven't had problems as bad as this.
Occasionally I get a message like:
Something has gone wrong with your last backup from the computer "****". For further investigation, we request you to log in to your desktop application and send the error report using "Send Error Report" feature.
but it'll usually be ok next backup, so I ignore it.
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I checked and there is just one scheduled job.
Maybe, given your experience (occasional errors which resolve themselves), this is the best I can do. It still gives me a queasy feeling though. With the importance of backup in general, it baffles me that there aren't universal robust solutions.
Last edited by AlanM (2019-07-09 18:32:59)
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Actually I did! We're old friends unfortunately. There's nothing there at all. Lots of messages, but nothing from around the failure times, and nothing particularly worrisome. Mostly some Infos.
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I'm not sure what else to suggest.
If you go into the Restore tab on the IDrive client, do you see the latest versions of your files?
Is it picking up changed and new files? If Continuous Data Protection is switched on, it should back up files as soon as they're modified or created (or you can choose to delay it).
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Yes, every time I've checked the server for files it seems to have the latest stuff, pushed over by the continuous backup I think. IDrive has just responded again to my ticket and asked for an error log. I'll let you know if they come up with anything. Thanks for the ideas.
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I'm posting an update just in case this helps someone else. I just noticed in the release notes for the latest Windows 10 update that it "Addresses a rare issue that causes Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) to temporarily prevent other processes from accessing files." Perhaps that's a factor here. IDrive support asked for an error log then asked that I contact them interactively. Haven't gotten around to that yet. It hasn't failed for a week or two now.
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For the following IDrive backup error log:
"Could not be completed. Reason: There are no files to backup"
I do not have anything selected for backup and only use IDrive sync feature on this particular Windows workstation.
My workaround to prevent this error from reappearing was to create a single text file (eg, c:\scripts\DummyFileToPreventNothingToBackupNotifications.txt) to be backed up on this workstation and include it in the backup set.
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