I have been using Norton Online Backup for three computers (2 Vista, 1 Mac OS) for about two years with few problems.
Since 11/6, however, I have been unable to backup the Windows Vista computers. I continually get the following errors:
A2028
A2203
A2222
A2230
W32
These errors occur when the backups launch automatically or when I kick the process off manually. I have rebooted multiple times without any improvement.
Since both computers started acting odd at exactly the same time, and since my Mac has no trouble backing up, I suspect that this is related to an automatically installed Windows Vista patch, or a change on the Norton site.
I am spending way to much time troubleshooting this issue and I'm frustrated enough that I am about 24-48 hours away from going to a online backup competitor.
Having similar issues. NOBU worked fine for the first couple of days after I purchased a subscription, successfully backing up two laptops (both running Windows 7) in two different locations. I am in Okinawa, while my wife is in Illinois. For the last several days, however, neither computer is being backed up. Multiple error messages are reflected in the activity logs (attached).
This product is advertised as a "fire and forget," user-friendly, and seemless back-up solution. Unfortunately, I am not very impressed at this point. It would be helpful if there were a resource available that provided DETAILED error code explanations coupled with workable SOLUTIONS to address and correct the associated error(s). I found a page or two with "common" error codes, but it lacked sufficient detail and certainly didn't provide any useful solutions.
Thanks, in advance, for any assistance someone might be able to to provide.
There recently was an issue with a back-end system that may have been erroneously causing these errors to surface. A couple of them by themselves is probable but five at once is highly unusual. Are the errors still surfacing as of now?
The 2028 error means there is a duplicate job such as a prior backup or restore. In order for a new request to be started any prior ones need to either finish or get cancelled server side.
2222 is a service timeout error. Basically a process related to online backup timed out unexpectedly.
2203 and 2230 are both data integrity error messages. If they persist the account would likely need to be checked out by engineering.
W32 is a Windows error and indicates a sharing violation. In other words a file the backup uses was in use when it tried to write to it.
Scrolling through the "Programs and Features" control panel, I see that an update to Norton Online Backup was automatically downloaded and installed on November 4. Suspiciously, that is right before I began to have problems.
I turned Norton Online Backup off last week, and I have begun using Carbonite because I could not get a resolution from Norton. I have two more months on my Norton Online Backup subscription, so I will try again tonight, and let you know if the issue is fixed.
Normally software updates and odd problems surfacing shortly after can go hand in hand. In this particular case the agent update didn't have a hand in the issue this time. Please let me know how it goes after your next backup.
Thank you for the reply. I contacted technical support and after speaking with them for a couple of hours without resolution, my issue was elevated to Tier III. I was told that I would be contacted by phone, however I was never contacted. that being said, whatever issue that might have caused these repeated failureson the back-end system appears to have been resolved.
My laptop has successfully been backed up every day for the last six days without a single error [that's the sound of me knocking wood]. My wife's laptop still struggled, but was successfully backed up yesterday for the first time since these issues surfaced. We'll see if her luck lasts as well.
It does appear the the backups are working again; however, I have signed up for an online competitor because I was unable to get any timely help from Norton.
It appears that Norton was well aware of a problem with the online backup tool during the first week of November; however, Norton choose to stay silent rather than let everyone know. If the support team had simply put a message on the online backup welcome screen, I would not have wasted many, many hours trying to debug every aspect of my two PCs, broadband connection., and Norton products.
Unlike an online backup, those are hours that I cannot recover.
Although I agree about notification when there are issues such as this there are some cases where the full scope of an issue is not known. It was only once the issue was nearly corrected was it determined it was wider spread than initially thought. The focus at the time was to get the issue fixed immediately. Going forward though I'll pass along the feedback about notifications if any other issues arise.
The web log wraps the error codes, from the locally installed agent, into friendly error messages. It comes down to trying to keep it easy to understand for the masses. This is also why the locally installed client has its own log which is buried in a system folder. One of the files you can look for is onlinebackup.log. Note however if you go rooting around in the folder where it resides you can cause problems if you remove files. It's why that folder is marked as a system folder. Improving upon the error messaging is one of the items on the list but I don't know when that will happen.
An error message that is just a bunch of alphanumeric characters is NOT a "friendly error message". Rather than building a list of programming improvements a few years too late, such user friendly messages should have been in the original design of NOBU.
it;s interesting that in one of your responses to this thread, you provided more detailed explanations for the error codes. If you know about it, why wasn't it part of the table NOBU uses to issue error messages? That's Software Development 101.
I don't have any further answers to your questions beyond what has already been provided. Since I'm not development all I can do is pass along feedback which has already been done. Whether or not that feedback is used or not is a different matter. You're welcome to write up your comments and product suggestions, send them to me via private mail and I'll forward them up. Beyond that furthering this discussion is not a benefit or help to anyone which is the main purpose of these forums.
