"USN change journal cannot be used"

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Jim Rockford
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2013 8:19 pm

"USN change journal cannot be used"

Post by Jim Rockford »

This is a recurring problem I have with FBackup that ultimately makes me lose faith in the integrity of mirror-type backups made by this program. Here is what happens far too regularly:

(1) I create a mirror-type backup that works just fine for a while, spanning dozens of backups.
(2) Then one day, for completely inexplicable reasons (to me at least), I'll notice that my backup finishes with an error warning. In looking at the log I'll see the messages

"USN change journal cannot be used on path "C:". Reason: The journal was deleted\reseted
USN change journal not supported for any of the backup sources"

(3) In the backup destination I'll notice that recent files backed up properly, which are still present in the source drive, have been DELETED. Typically, what seems to happen is that new files created in a source folder appear in the backup, but other files in the backup (still present on the source drive!) are gone.
(4) I am then forced to redo the entire backup from scratch, wasting a lot of time in the process.

WHY does FBackup actually delete files in the destination that are present in the source drive? It's crazy. What is the reason for this? Can somebody provide any explanation for this? Is there a way to avoid it? I've seen others report this problem before. A backup program that deletes files as I've described simply cannot be trusted. Before I give up on FBackup altogether I'll await an explanation and, hopefully, a solution.

Adrian (Softland)
Posts: 1953
Joined: Thu May 23, 2013 7:57 am

Re: "USN change journal cannot be used"

Post by Adrian (Softland) »

Hi,

Please open Backup Properties->Advanced page.
Uncheck the "Smart file scanning mode" option and press Save.
Run again the backup and let us know if you still have the problem.

Jim Rockford
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2013 8:19 pm

Re: "USN change journal cannot be used"

Post by Jim Rockford »

Thank you for that tip. I hadn't realized that the "smart scanning" option is what selects usage of the USN journal. I'd have to conclude that the associated history file somehow got corrupted, resulting in the deletion of files that shouldn't have been deleted. I will remove that selection. Unfortunately, as I mentioned this problem is intermittent. I won't know whether this fixes this problem until something like it happens again. But much thanks for the promising tip. The only other question I have at this point is: how is it that the USN journal history file would get corrupted? Some unholy Windows update? I'll note that a couple weeks ago - well before I experienced this problem with many successful backups in between - I did a Windows 10 update to version 1809. I rolled it back to 1803 because of some problems I had with video games, but I see that many users complained of their files being deleted after the 1809 update. It's conceivable that Windows OS updates are the source of this issue with the USN change journal.

Adrian (Softland)
Posts: 1953
Joined: Thu May 23, 2013 7:57 am

Re: "USN change journal cannot be used"

Post by Adrian (Softland) »

Hi,

I cannot confirm that the Windows update is the cause of the USN journal history corruption. There could be more factors involved, otherwise every user would report the same issue, which is not the case.

Jim Rockford
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2013 8:19 pm

Re: "USN change journal cannot be used"

Post by Jim Rockford »

That makes sense, although I will note that the 1809 Windows 10 update has been pulled from its initial release due to numerous problems. It may be that not very many FBackup users actually installed it. However, I have experienced this kind of problem before the 1809 update, but I never read the log closely enough to know whether the USN Journal issue was cited as it was for me recently. I have unclicked the smart scanning option. So far so good...

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