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syncback Free scheduled backups not running after windows 10 creators update.

SyncBackFree is the freeware version of SyncBack. It is *not* an evaluation version of SyncBackPro/SE.
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technohippy
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syncback Free scheduled backups not running after windows 10 creators update.

Post by technohippy »

Syncback Free scheduled backups not running after windows 10 creators update. Have checked permissions and Windows Task Scheduler. Still no scheduled backups running. Anyone have similar problem?
karma mechanic
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Re: syncback Free scheduled backups not running after windows 10 creators update.

Post by karma mechanic »

Yes, exactly the same for me.

I only discovered it because I saw your post. A quick check and Syncback Free was showing a last run date from before the Creators Update, and no 'next run' date at all. Unsettling because after a few years of use the automatic backups have been absolutely regular apart from the little glitch with Windows 10 - I suppose apart from a few cursory checks I'd taken it for granted...

A while back I had bypassed that Win10 logon with the automatic scheduling by setting up specific Scheduler entries in Windows.

That old entry is still there with status of 'running', the last run was 17/04 with code 0x41301 and no 'next run' set
Using Syncback itself to set it has added a new entry that appears to be working as required.

I have deleted the older entry.
garycase5220
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Re: syncback Free scheduled backups not running after windows 10 creators update.

Post by garycase5220 »

Having exactly the same problem.

I deleted the schedule; then re-created one ... but it does NOT work.

It THINKS it works ... i.e. SyncBack updates the "next run" time to the next day after the time passes, but the profile does NOT run.

It's a group profile if that matters (I'll test a single profile in a bit and see if that makes a difference).

Any ideas??
garycase5220
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Re: syncback Free scheduled backups not running after windows 10 creators update.

Post by garycase5220 »

As a follow-up to my previous post, I tried this with a standard (not group) profile, and that also does NOT work.

Works perfectly with pre-Creators version (tried it on another system); but does NOT run on build 1703 (Creators' update). It DOES apparently "think" it's working, as the "next run" time is updated to tomorrow -- but the profile does NOT run ... the "last run" time isn't updated 'nor is any data copied (I added a file so I could confirm that).

Anyone from 2BrigthtSparks reading this thread?? ... and if so is there a fix for this?
Swapna
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Re: syncback Free scheduled backups not running after windows 10 creators update.

Post by Swapna »

Hi,

Can you also check if there are any errors in the Modify > When > Edit Schedule settings page and 'Last Scheduled Run Error' column of SyncBackFree's main-interface after the scheduled time has been passed? In addition, open-up the Task Scheduler (from control panel) > go to SyncBackFree branch node > select the sub-branch with your ComputerName-UserAccount > check the History tab of the profile that failed to run (in the center pane). If History is disabled, you will need to enable it and reboot and check back (on the History tab of Task Scheduler) again once the scheduled time has passed to see the results.

Then submit a support ticket with your profile configuration (right click on the profile > Export Profile), and screen shots of 'Last Schedule Run Error' column, Task Scheduler History tab to [email protected] for further investigation.

Thank you.
garycase5220
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Re: syncback Free scheduled backups not running after windows 10 creators update.

Post by garycase5220 »

I may have resolved this. I downloaded the latest version (7.6.64) and updated from what I was running (7.6.18) and then deleted one of my scheduled profiles; re-created it to run in 5 minutes; and waited to see what happened ... it works fine !!

I have 3 other scheduled profiles that all run early in the morning -- I deleted every schedule, then re-created them all for their normal time (between 4:00 and 5:15 AM). Checked Task Scheduler and they all show properly now (they weren't there before when I looked) ... so I assume this is all going to work fine with this version. I'll know for sure tomorrow morning :)
cliffhanger
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Re: syncback Free scheduled backups not running after windows 10 creators update.

Post by cliffhanger »

Just to stick my nose in here and correct a mistaken assumption (that can cause a great deal of confusion)
garycase5220 wrote:It THINKS it works ... i.e. SyncBack updates the "next run" time to the next day after the time passes, but the profile does NOT run.
No - SyncBack does not update the Next Run value of a Schedule - the Windows Task Scheduler does (increment this value in the Task) based on the 'when' rules & settings stored in the Task. SyncBack only polls the WTS Task objects for the currently-stored Next Run value and displays it in the SB UI. It's perfectly possible for a broken Task (or broken Scheduler) to self-update this value but not actually call the application it's supposed to, and if SyncBack isn't called, it can't run your profile. But because the NextRun value displayed in SyncBack (having been polled from the Task next time you run SB, etc) has been incremented, it looks like SB was called when it wasn't, knew all this was going on, disobeyed the call to run the profile, and so on...


There does seem to be a lot of tinkering going on by MS (almost certainly 'undocumented') in respect of the WTS in every major Win10 update recently. Many of these seem to be dropping the ball in respect of proprietary (i.e non-MS) Task library locations and/or corrupting Tasks stored there, and/or changing the rules so current internal Task settings don't work properly in the revised Scheduler framework. Hence many of them seem curable by deleting and re-creating Schedules (i.e. where the process (API calls, etc) creates new Tasks, that haven't - yet - been broken, or are not now incompatible with their environment). AFAICS, there's no guarantee the next MS dropped-ball can be cured that way, though it probably won't hurt to try it.
garycase5220
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Re: syncback Free scheduled backups not running after windows 10 creators update.

Post by garycase5220 »

Regardless of the reason, the task wasn't running, but the "next run" time was properly updated.

In any event, updating to the latest version of SyncBack AND deleted all the scheduled tasks and recreating them resolved this. They're all working perfectly now -- everything ran as scheduled the last two days except for one task I didn't delete/recreate (to see if the new version alone resolved the problem) ... which didn't run the first night, but after I then deleted/recreated it all was fine last night.

So I'm probably fine at least until the next major Windows 10 update :D
Paul van Breda
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Re: syncback Free scheduled backups not running after windows 10 creators update.

Post by Paul van Breda »

Additional bug: no automatic error notification in browser anymore.!!! (Since Windows makers update 1703)

Hi there to everyone,

Had the same problem after last MS Win makers update. Scheduled tasks did not run anymore. Solved this myself by deleting the schedules and remaking them again. So my schedules run automatically again.

However, I used to get an error message in my default browser (Chrome) when a task dit not succeed (e.g. because Outlook.pst was open). And that still does not happen anymore when task runs automatically. I now have to check my tasks results manually every time in the SBF overview screen, if they have succeeded.
If I run a task manually it does indeed show errors in Chrome, but if it's run by the scheduler it does not show in my browser. Not very handy.

Please anyone who can help? Although I suspect a bug in Windows or SBF icw the Win Task Scheduler. If I open the windows task scheduler I do not see the SBF tasks anymore. But they do definitely run! I have checked.

I use Windows 10 vs 1703 and latest version of SBF.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Kind regards,
Paul
cliffhanger
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Re: syncback Free scheduled backups not running after windows 10 creators update.

Post by cliffhanger »

I'd guess this is because now your 1703-version of the Windows Task Scheduler is more (most) likely running SB >> the profile/s in session-0, which has no desktop (no user interaction permitted), so opening a log in a new instance of your browser 'displayed' in session-0 would be invisible. Nor can you easily close such browser instance/s (assuming you even realize such instance/s are open...) without using Task Manager, or by rebooting.

Another recent thread also refers, including the fact that the Help has mentioned it for some time now. The underlying reason is the same, it just seems the likelihood of the Scheduler deciding to run SB In session-0 is apparently increasing...
Paul van Breda
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Re: syncback Free scheduled backups not running after windows 10 creators update.

Post by Paul van Breda »

Thanks Cliffhanger,

Much appreciated.
That could be the case. Under Vista did it not work either. Pitty it does not work in W10 anylonger either. It was very useful.

I have now found and made an Email notifiction instead now. But I will only see that after Outlook is already open, not very handy. Do you know a better solution or workaround?

Furthermore I notice that the last executed profile statuses (date & result) are not automatically updated when I open SBF. It only updates if you open the specific profile. Have noticed that before on other Windows versions, but last year that worked perfectly under W10. Not anymore. Can you explain that too? Can I solve that?

Kind regards,
Paul
cliffhanger
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Re: syncback Free scheduled backups not running after windows 10 creators update.

Post by cliffhanger »

When you say "you open SBF", do you mean you have a running instance of SBF in your system tray that you simply 'pop' back into visibility? If so, you may need to force a Refresh (press F5 or use the Refresh command on the Profiles menu) to get that foreground instance of SB that likely did not run the profiles in question (and if they were run on a Schedule, it didn't - the Scheduler used one or more extra instances of SB to run them, then closed those extra instances) to read the status of those recently-run profiles from their INI files

OTOH, if you do open a copy of SBF 'from scratch' (a copy was not running when PC went to sleep), or your copy starts with Windows (and you do actually boot the PC each morning) then it should have scanned the INI files already. But do note that if you double-click a shortcut to SBF to start it, and SBF happens to be running already (but it is minimized to tray, and your system tray is maybe hiding SB's tray icon), invoking the shortcut won't open a new instance, it will simply make the running instance visible (but it may need a Refresh to catch up on the latest state of the profiles)
Paul van Breda
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Re: syncback Free scheduled backups not running after windows 10 creators update.

Post by Paul van Breda »

Dear Clifhanger or anyone else,

Thanks for your above reply. This helps, although your English is very comlicated for me as Dutchman.

Ik solved most of the little problems, however I still miss the error report in my browser from SBF when a scheduled task results in an error because the .pst file had already been opened and locked before SFB could run its missed task of the night at first boot of the day.

Is there any solotion on restoring that error signal in my browser. Ik understand the new version of Win10 runs it hidden like you told me earlier, but I really miss that feature.

All help is very welcome.

Kind regards,
Paul van Breda
cliffhanger
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Re: syncback Free scheduled backups not running after windows 10 creators update.

Post by cliffhanger »

You could try the trick mentioned here (ignore topic title / scroll to end) whereby you pre-create a text file called Profile Error (for example) on your Desktop using a batch-file in Programs-Before section of the profile, and then run another batch-file in Programs-Before > After to delete it again if the result of the profile was a Success (there is a setting in >After to only run the specified command (batch-file) if profile succeeded). You could even go one step further and configure the second batch file to create a text file called Profile Success instead (after deleting the text file called Profile Error)

You would still need to open the log manually if an error was signalled, but at least you would know whether or not you need to or not.
cliffhanger
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Re: syncback Free scheduled backups not running after windows 10 creators update.

Post by cliffhanger »

PS - the setting alluded to in Programs-Before > After is actually "Run the program even if the profile fails" (the converse of how I described it in previous post) so you would simply need to make sure you do not check this option, so if there is a profile error, the 2nd/After batch file is not executed, and the pre-created Profile Error file is neither deleted nor replaced.
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