Request to increase size of disk backup set is being ignored

[DavidHertzberg]

haggis999,

These are simply a couple of WildA**edGuesses from a Retrospect Mac administrator:  First, the cumulative Retrospect Windows Release Notes say for version 15.5.0 (which is later than you're running, but it may only cost you US$75 to upgrade the Desktop Edition)

Quote

Cloud Backup: Fixed "error -1017, expired_auth_token: expired authorization token"

Second, look in the "Security Settings" section of this KB article, which was updated 15 May 2018 for Windows 10.

[Nigel Smith]

Have you got the new drive fitted yet?

If so (i.e. hardware fault is now out of the equation), I'm thinking you've hit an internal limit on catalog size/contents or member size.

How big is the "locked" catalog file (in Windows Explorer). In Retrospect's properties for that Backup Set, what's the "Used" space and file count?

Then copy that locked file of to your C drive, back to G, and "relink" it as you did before to unlock it. Check the above again -- what are the numbers this time?

If the unlocking trick works, try adding another member and continuing the backups. If everything continues working it was a "member size" limit (Ooo-errr!), probably from a weird coming together of RS, Windows 10, and Synology's volume presentation. If, however, the catalog "locks" again very quickly you may have hit a file-count limit -- you might be able to groom the old catalog and then carry on, but maybe it's time to start a new set.

Otherwise, it's log time! Towards the bottom of the page from David's link above you'll find instructions on how to access "Secret Preferences" and change the log levels. You can generate a lot of noise with these, so I'd start by leaving everything as is except for winding up "Backup Sets and Catalog Files" to the max. Try another backup and let us know what the Operations Log reports.

[haggis999]

20 hours ago, DavidHertzberg said:

haggis999,

These are simply a couple of WildA**edGuesses from a Retrospect Mac administrator:  First, the cumulative Retrospect Windows Release Notes say for version 15.5.0 (which is later than you're running, but it may only cost you US$75 to upgrade the Desktop Edition)

Second, look in the "Security Settings" section of this KB article, which was updated 15 May 2018 for Windows 10.

Hi David,
The last time I paid for an upgrade purely in the hope that it would fix a long-standing bug, it proved to be a waste of money. I'd be happy to pay for v15.5 if I felt more confident that it was going to fix my current problem, but a bug fix for cloud backup does not immediately appear relevant to my situation. That KB article is all about issues with troubleshooting email notifications and that's something that has never ever been a problem for me.

[haggis999]

7 hours ago, Nigel Smith said:

Have you got the new drive fitted yet?

If so (i.e. hardware fault is now out of the equation), I'm thinking you've hit an internal limit on catalog size/contents or member size.

How big is the "locked" catalog file (in Windows Explorer). In Retrospect's properties for that Backup Set, what's the "Used" space and file count?

Then copy that locked file of to your C drive, back to G, and "relink" it as you did before to unlock it. Check the above again -- what are the numbers this time?

If the unlocking trick works, try adding another member and continuing the backups. If everything continues working it was a "member size" limit (Ooo-errr!), probably from a weird coming together of RS, Windows 10, and Synology's volume presentation. If, however, the catalog "locks" again very quickly you may have hit a file-count limit -- you might be able to groom the old catalog and then carry on, but maybe it's time to start a new set.

Otherwise, it's log time! Towards the bottom of the page from David's link above you'll find instructions on how to access "Secret Preferences" and change the log levels. You can generate a lot of noise with these, so I'd start by leaving everything as is except for winding up "Backup Sets and Catalog Files" to the max. Try another backup and let us know what the Operations Log reports.

Yes, the new drive has been running for several days. The size of 'Backup Set NAS1.rbc' is 527,579 KB. The properties box for that backup set tells me that it is using 1,440.8 GB for 619,113 files. Copying the RBC file to my C drive and then copying it back again to my G drive made no difference to those properties. It also failed to fix the locked catalogue issue.

There was a grooming event shortly after this backup started working again a few days ago, which erased around 118 GB from the backup, so file count issues seem very unlikely.

I opened up the Secret Preferences and wound up the debug logging setting for Backup Sets and Catalog Files to 99. However, this setting was rejected and it was automatically set to 7 instead. I then attempted once again to run the backup job. It failed almost immediately, just like before. The only differences in the log file were the top 2 lines shown below.

    ArcPro::DbExportToXML: no volRef returned for 1-Backup Set X
    ArcPro::DbExportToXML: no volRef returned for 1-Dell 7500 Backup Y

+    Normal backup using MyDocsBackupToNAS at 09/07/2019 22:30
        Can't add to Backup Set Backup Set NAS1, the Catalog File is locked    09/07/2019 22:30:16: Execution incomplete

 

[DavidHertzberg]

3 hours ago, haggis999 said:

Hi David,
The last time I paid for an upgrade purely in the hope that it would fix a long-standing bug, it proved to be a waste of money. I'd be happy to pay for v15.5 if I felt more confident that it was going to fix my current problem, but a bug fix for cloud backup does not immediately appear relevant to my situation. That KB article is all about issues with troubleshooting email notifications and that's something that has never ever been a problem for me.

You can get a free 45-day trial of Retrospect Windows 16.1.2.102 here.  If you talk to Sales at (888) 376-1078 or (925) 476-1030, they can probably check with Tech Support to see if that release fixes your problem—and if so tell you how much it will cost you to permanently upgrade.  If it does, you can presumably find some disk drive on which to install it.

[Nigel Smith]

ObDisclaimer -- I know little more about Windows than what Mr Google tells me.

With that out of the way...

It would be worth checking if any process has that catalog file open (which would make it read-only to RS, hence the "locked" error). Click "Search Windows" in the Taskbar, type in "resmon", then hit <Return> to launch Resource Monitor. In the "Associated Handles" section type ".rbc" in the search box and hit <Return>. Mouse over each path in the "Handle Name" column and see if any refer to your catalog file. (When I do this I get two lines back, one for "explorer.exe" referring to a registry key, the other for "Retrospect.exe" pointing to the currently running backup's catalog).

You could try increasing the other logging settings (yes, "7" is the max) -- I have *no* idea what you'd be looking for but, if it was me, I'd create a new set, flush the log, do a manual backup of a single folder to that set, save that log and flush, then do a manual backup of that same folder to the borked set, save that log, then compare the two logs to see what was different.

If nothing shows there then I'd be thinking along the lines of:

1. David's suggestion of trying the trial version of v16 and seeing if that solved it
2. Restore previous version of catalog then repairing it to bring it up to date
3. Retiring the old set (keep it in case you need to restore from it at some time) and starting a new one
4. If desperate to keep a single running set, archiving the old catalog (just in case...) and starting a "new" set by recataloging your current backup data

[haggis999]

Retrospect has a mind of its own. I have changed nothing since yesterday's 'Catalog File is locked' error, but today's backup worked just fine.

[Lennart_T]

6 hours ago, haggis999 said:

Retrospect has a mind of its own. 

Not necessarily. It is just the last link in a long chain of things that can go wrong. See it as the messenger, if you wish.

Too bad the catalog file isn't a simple text file. That way you could have opened it in Notepad (for instance) and see if you could make changes and save. 

By the way, do you have more than one version of Retrospect installed? Both could be running and one could be locking the catalog file from the other. 

Maybe you have anti-virus software installed that interferes with Retrospect.

[Nigel Smith]

What Lennart said...

Plus, if you are running Windows with concurrent users, you can get similar symptoms with only one copy of RS installed.

Next time it happens -- and I'm sure it will -- try the "resmon" thing above and see if that points to the culprit.

[haggis999]

On 7/11/2019 at 5:30 AM, Lennart_T said:

Not necessarily. It is just the last link in a long chain of things that can go wrong. See it as the messenger, if you wish.

Too bad the catalog file isn't a simple text file. That way you could have opened it in Notepad (for instance) and see if you could make changes and save. 

By the way, do you have more than one version of Retrospect installed? Both could be running and one could be locking the catalog file from the other. 

Maybe you have anti-virus software installed that interferes with Retrospect.

Apologies for the long delay in updating this thread. Among other things, I have been very busy supervising a house extension.

I must confess that I never noticed Lennart's reference above to antivirus software, but about two weeks later I found a suggestion in some other forum that made me suspect that Microsoft Windows Defender (which now seems to be called Windows Security) might be the cause of my problems. Within its Ransomware Protection settings there is an option called 'Controlled folder access'. I turned off that option on 29 July and my daily Retrospect backups have been running fine ever since!

One strange byproduct of using the 'Controlled folder access' option is that I found my attempts to save a modified Word or Access file under a new name was rejected on the grounds that the file did not exist. Of course the file didn't exist. That error message made no sense at all. I can only assume that Microsoft introduced a bug into into its security software via a recent update.