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Categories CrashPlan for Enterprise CrashPlan for Small Business Announcements
Release notes Terms and conditions
 1. Documentation
 2. CrashPlan for Small Business
 3. Troubleshooting


UNABLE TO BACK UP FILES ON WINDOWS DEVICES (SMALL BUSINESS)

Updated 1 month ago



OVERVIEW

When the CrashPlan app is unable to back up a file, the History window displays
the message "unable to back up n files." This most commonly occurs when the
CrashPlan app is trying to back up a file that is open, encrypted, or lacking
proper permissions. This article addresses how to identify which files are not
backing up and how to resolve the issue.


AFFECTS

The CrashPlan app on Windows


DIAGNOSE

When the CrashPlan app is unable to back up a file, the History window displays
the message "Unable to backup n files" (where n is the number of files the
CrashPlan app is unable to back up).




IDENTIFY PROBLEM FILES

Follow these steps to identify the specific files that are not backing up:

 1. Open a file browser and paste the following location into the address bar:
    * Installed for everyone: C:\ProgramData\CrashPlan\log
    * Installed per user: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\<Local or
      Roaming>\CrashPlan\log
 2. Open the backup_files.log.0 file in a text editor.
    Most problem files can be found towards the end of the log file.
 3. A file failing to back up is noted with a "W" at the start of the line:
    
    CopyW 01/06/13 12:00PM 42  - C:\Users\John\Blackberry\Backup\BlackBerry Tour 9630-1.ipd
    
    A file backing up successfully is noted with an "I" at the start of the
    line:
    
    CopyI 01/06/13 12:00PM 42 50cd0afdb853e65f1f47c31407ce9a4a 0 C:\Users\Jill\Documents\Outlook Files\outlook.pst (200483653) [1,0,200483653,0,0,0,0]
    


SOLUTIONS

Once you've identified the problem files, review the information below to
determine if the files fit into one of these categories. Additional
troubleshooting information is provided for each category.

May be unable to back up
 * System files
 * Application files
 * Open files and databases

Unable to back up
 * Files with insufficient permissions
 * Encrypted files run in a user space
 * OneDrive smart files
 * VSS Snapshots


SYSTEM FILES

The CrashPlan app is designed to back up user files (documents, photos, etc.).
It is not designed to back up your operating system or applications. For
additional information, see our guide about choosing what to back up.


APPLICATION FILES

By default, the CrashPlan app backs up your user folder, which contains
the AppData folder for your computer. Certain files inside AppData can fail to
back up with the CrashPlan app because they:

 * Are open and locked by the application that created them.
 * Were not created with the correct permissions for the CrashPlan app to back
   them up.

If the files that are failing to back up are located in the AppData folder,
review our guidelines for backing up the AppData folder.


OPEN FILES AND DATABASES

While the CrashPlan app backs up open files by default, it does not have
application-specific "hooks" to back up files that are always being written
to (SQL databases, virtual machines, Act! databases, Outlook PST files, Exchange
databases). To back up these files:

 1. Close the identified files and the applications using those files.
 2. Open the CrashPlan app.
 3. Select Run backup now to retry backing up the file.

 BACKING UP OPEN FILES AND DATABASES

To increase the likelihood that the CrashPlan app can consistently back up and
recover large open files (Exchange, Outlook, SQL databases, etc.), use
application-specific tools to dump/export a snapshot of the internal state to a
file. See Back up open files and databases using CrashPlan for Small
Business for additional details.


SYSTEM PERMISSIONS

In the default Windows installation (installing the CrashPlan app for everyone
on the device), the CrashPlan app relies on the system user's read/write
permissions to access your files. However, there are some files or folders the
system user may not have permission to access. If you need to back up these
files or folders, follow our tutorial to add the system user to the permissions
list.


WINDOWS ENCRYPTING FILE SYSTEM

You can tell whether or not a file is encrypted with EFS by the green label in a
file browser.



In order to back up files encrypted with EFS, you must install the CrashPlan app
per user. Alternatively, you can remove file encryption using the steps below:

 1. Right-click the encrypted file.
 2. Select Properties.
 3. From the General tab, select Advanced.
 4. Deselect the option to Encrypt contents to secure data.


ONEDRIVE (FORMERLY SKYDRIVE)

In Windows 8.1, Microsoft introduced smart files to conserve local hard drive
space. If you include your OneDrive folder in your backup selection, you may
need to make your files available offline before they can be backed up.


VSS SNAPSHOTS

When the CrashPlan app tries to access open files, the Windows Volume Shadow
Service (VSS) pauses the application writing to the file and creates a snapshot
of it. Sometimes these snapshots don’t get deleted after use. Since VSS limits
the permissions on those snapshots, the CrashPlan app can't back them up.
See Understand and troubleshoot backing up open files with Windows VSS
(CrashPlan for Small Business) for additional details.

Here is an example VSS snapshot:

Copy"\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy12"


To clear VSS snapshots out of your system, do the following:

 1. Go to the Windows Start menu
 2. Search for cmd
 3. Right-click on cmd.exe and select Run as Administrator
 4. In the command prompt, enter this command:
    vssadmin delete shadows /all
 5. Press Enter

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Unable to back up files on Windows devices (Small Business)
 * Unable to back up files on Windows devices (Small Business)
 * Overview
 * Affects
 * Diagnose
 * Identify problem files
 * Solutions
 * System files
 * Application files
 * Open files and databases
 * Backing up open files and databases
 * System permissions
 * Windows Encrypting File System
 * OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive)
 * VSS snapshots


ARTICLES IN THIS SECTION

 * Add a cloud destination (Small Business)
 * Adjust app settings for memory usage with large backups (Small Business)
 * Assign your computer a new ID (Small Business)
 * Can't find files after replacing a device using (Small Business)
 * Cannot connect to background service (Small Business)
 * Cannot connect to destination (Small Business)
 * Cannot open app due to uncaught exception error (Small Business)
 * Check the status of your backup (Small Business)
 * Clear the app cache (Small Business)
 * Combine email reports (Small Business)

See more
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