Missed backup causes (AhsayOBM and AhsayACB)

Issue

There are lots of reasons why scheduled backups might be missed. You will probably be warned first that a backup has missed it schedule via email and the portal will confirm this with a white bar in the timeline.

bar

Common reasons why a backup misses its schedule

  1. Whenever our backup software is installed, the in-built ‘system’ account is used and sometimes this doesn’t have enough permissions to access your data when the backup runs.

When the backup runs as scheduled, it uses the permissions of the Windows scheduler service rather than the logged-in user. This is why manual backups often work, but scheduled backups don’t.

If the Windows user account used by the scheduler service is deleted or its password changes, this will also result in the scheduled backup failing.

  1. The time zone on your device is incorrect for your region.

  2. The Windows scheduler service has stopped or can’t be started. Both services are shown below.

Desktop
Check the Windows service Desktop Services is running. If it is running, restart it to refresh the settings.

Server
Check the Windows service Server Services is running. If it is running, restart it to refresh the settings.

If there are any issues with the service account, the cause will be shown after you restart the service.


Causes broken down between OS’

Desktops and laptops
The main causes for missed backups are the power saving mode shutting down the PC during a backup schedule, an account password has been changed on the Windows scheduler service, or the Windows scheduler service has been shut down.

Hard and obvious errors such as someone removing the backup software.

Servers
The Windows scheduler service has been shut down or won’t start.


Fixes

Windows scheduler service on all Windows devices

Click on the Windows Start button in the bottom left of the screen and click on run. Type in
services.msc and this will open the Windows services control.
You can also navigate through the start button menus to get there if you prefer.

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Desktop
Check the Windows service Desktop Services is running. If it is running, restart it to refresh the settings.

Server
Check the Windows service Server Services is running. If it is running, restart it to refresh the settings.

If there are any issues with the service account, the cause will be shown after you restart the service.

Device is not turned on

Mobile staff travelling and working in different time zones will need to have multiple backup schedules set if the system admin wants to force a backup and not rely on users remembering to do so.

There are a few ways to overcome this.

Create a backup schedule to run every 4 hours.

Enable Continuous Backup. We recommend the device has plenty of resources and ideally an SSD. Slower and older devices will see some performance issues when using Continuous Backup.

It is also possible to force a backup reminder during logoff.

Debug

It is quite easy to check why a backup is being missed or is being prevented from running by a hard error.

Log locations
The default installation paths are:
Server: c:\users\username\ .obm
Desktop: c:\users\username\ .acb

Schedule doesn’t run
The reason will be shown in c:\users\username\ .obm\log\Scheduler\debug.log (the previous 9 days of logs are also shown in here)

Backup has a hard error
The reason will be shown in c:\users\username\ .obm\log\backup-job-id\Backup

If you can’t resolve the issue, send us the entire .acb or .obm folder so we can check further.

Tags
ahsayobm, ahsayacb, scheduler