I have the version from Comcast, 20.2.0.19. I have set up a backup and it runs manally with no problem. However I set it to run in AUTO mode and it never runs. I also tried to set weekly, clicked on everyday at 11:00am, and it also never runs. However I can click on run manually and it is perfect.
The backup location is a shared folder on a server on my local network; I do not want to backup online to any service.
Can you help.
Hi wlopatin,
Glad you found your way to the N 360 board to ask your question - hopefully you'll get the help I could not give you on the Comcast board because I do not use the backup. Good Luck
I repeat the backup runs when I click on run manually but it does not run in the background or on schedue.
I hope someone can give me some clue on what the problem is.
Thanks.
Hi wlopatin.
It may just be that you are expecting things to happen too quickly .....
How long have you left the backup to do its own thing under Auto and the timed version? I have found that it can take days or weeks as it waits for a suitable quiet moment. It might also help if you could tell us what your setting are under "Settings" "Administrative Settings" - Automatic Resume Delay From Sleep... - Automatic Tasks Delay and - Idle Time Out, which can all be found near the bottom of the list. See image
I cannot seem to add a screen cap like you did but the setting on mine are essentially the same as your picture. If you tell me how, I will post a screen cap.
No need to post an image wlopatin if what you see more or less agrees with what I have posted. I would be surprised if they were the same as I think I have modified mine and the key thing is that I have brought the "Idle Time Out" down to 5 minutes. This means that Norton only has to wait for 5 minutes after it last detected use of the machine to start processes like Automatic backup. If it is set to longer then there is a chance that it will fall foul of your sleep policies which may put the device to sleep before Norton has finished the backup.
Personally I run two backup sets and have at least one set to manual, then I do not need to worry too much about when the auto backup runs as I just tell it to run if I think it needs to.
If you are happy with your "Idle Time Out" and the period before your device starts to shut down then why not leave the backup and see how long it takes to kick in. It should do it within a week and normally the changes to your files and the risk of a general failure within that week are probably not high...
Let us know what you decide to do and how you get on.
Good luck.
Thanks again for staying with this problem.
I take it the fact that this is the comcast version has no bearing on the running of backup...
I tried the following:
at 10:00am this morning, I changed the backup schedule from auto to weekly, set the day to today, and the time to 11:00am. Then I rebooted, logged back in, and then left the house for 3 hours. When I checked at 1:30pm, I see that the backup did not run and the log still says the last time backup ran was 3 days ago when I ran it manually.
Does this information help?
Hello again wlopatin.
I can see why this performance or lack of it can be puzzling and frustrating but it does not surprise me.
May I suggest again that you set the backup either to auto or to some time in the not too distant future and just leave it......
Then see when it does back up.
Might be duller than watching paint dry but you may find that on balance the delay is not serious. On the other hand you may find that it is. If so you will have some interesting fact to present to Norton.
Good luck.
As the next experiment, I reset the manual time setting to 3:00pm and this time changed the setting to uncheck the run in background setting. Then again I left the computer alone for several hours. When I checked later, I see from the log that the backup did run at 4:45pm! I don't know why that delay was so long when I wasn't using the computer and I had it set to run in foreground.
I made one more change, I clicked to set the backup to run everyday, in the foreground.
I'll report back tomorrow.
I reset the backup to run in foreground at 6:00pm everyday, again not when the computer is idle. I wanted to see what would happen if I were using the computer at that time. But we had some friends over so I forgot to check. I looked at the log later and saw that the backup did run but at 6:45pm.
So it seems to be working on this schedule, but 45min late and not if it is set to run when the computer is idle. So now I wonder if there is some problem that this version thinks the computer is in use when I am not using it. The screen blanks out so that at least knows the computer is idle.
I want to see if it runs tomorrow at 6:00 or 6:45pm so I'll leave these setting and report back.
How much data did it back up last time, how large is the total backup on disk and how large does N360 think it should be (check through the Preview option)?
The total backup set is about 45GB, when it ran last night, according to the Norton Task list, it started at 6:45 and ran for 15 seconds. That makes sense to be because there should have been only a few spreadsheets that I have been working on. I know those new files were backed up because the windows explorer icon changed from the blue arrow to the green one. I don't know why it started at 6:45 when I set it to start at 6:00 but that is not a big problem as long as I can get to run withou my intervention.
I'll report back later if it ran again at 6:00.
As I noted above, I set the backup to run, not in auto mode, but weekly, setting every day at 6:00pm and unchecked the run at idle. Then at about 5:00pm, we left the house. When we returned a little after 9:00pm, I looked at the computer. As soon as I moved the mouse, the screen light up and the backup ran then. The log in the Norton Task List, says the backup ran at 9:12pm and took 27 seconds.
So will reset the run at idle and check again tonight.
I wish someone who really understands how this is supposed to work would explain it. It seems like I am doing just trial-and-error to discover how to make it work the way I want. For me, I would like it to run at idle, at least once a day.
By the way, if you are following my other post about the full scan not runnning, that still has not run in over 2 1/2 months so I suspect something similar is going on with the background schedule not working at it should.
Hi wlopatin.
From what I have seen and from what you are describing N360 is aiming to run the backup when you say but at the appointed time I expect your computer had gone to sleep. I don't think that even when set to run at a set time N360 is designed to wake a sleeping computer. Therefore it ran as soon as the computer was awoken - by you. This may not be what you want but it does seem to fit.
I agree that is what it seems but:
it was NOT set to run at idle and I have the computer never sleep, only the monitor shuts off. So at the appointed time last night, the computer was idle but not sleeping.
For today's experiment, I did set the run at idle to see what difference it makes.
Well it did NOT run this evening. I guess if I set the run at idle and the computer is actually idle, it does not run. I unchecked the run at idle and will check again tomorrow.
Also for the full scan, that did not run either so I am changing that also to uncheck the run at idle and set the day to run at tomorrow.
Stay tuned...
Good luck with your experiments. I will be away for a few days so if you need any help it will have to be others.
All the best.
Well this is weird.
Since I unchecked the run at idle, the backup did run, almost on schedule. I found that is the computer is actually idle when it is supposed to start, it doesn't. It waits until I touch the mouse or keyboard, then the screen lights up and the backup starts. I know when the computer is idle, the monitor shuts off but I have no other settings set to sleep or hibernate. This behavior seems wrong to me but at least it is a setting that I can live with and get the backups running.
BTW, the full scan also ran since I unchecked the run at idle for that setting also.
I wonder if there are any real Norton experts who can exlain this behavior. But I hope this information helps others.
I will mark this solved for now.
Thanks everyone for suggestions.
