Fairly easy to use backup software that ticks most boxes, but don't rely on this as your only backup
May 10, 2021

Fairly easy to use backup software that ticks most boxes, but don't rely on this as your only backup

Shion Song | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Acronis True Image

Acronis True Image (ATI) provides locally-stored daily backups of client projects, drafts and assets. Since our files are fairly large, its delta backup feature saves a lot of time by backing up only parts that have changed. These backups also make it possible to test certain configurations and then revert them afterwards. ATI is also used to store clean ready-to-go images of common applications and software configurations which can be easily restored if a system becomes corrupted or degrades significantly in performance.
  • Delta backup makes backups super fast of larger files that do not change in its entirety (e.g. VM images, large PSD files)
  • Easy to use (set it and forget it)
  • Rescue media makes it easy to restore backups to different hardware and migrate to other work stations
  • Lots of backup options on the Windows version of ATI
  • Like many other backup software, its reliance on volume shadow service (VSS) can be troublesome to troubleshoot. Errors around VSS tend to be cryptic and could be caused by completely unrelated issues (Acronis VSS doctor can only help so much)
  • Mac version of ATI has many issues and occasionally fails to restore an image because of the split system and data volumes in macOS Catalina and later
  • Updater in Mac version of ATI causes constant kernel_task activity (20%+) randomly until internet connection is cut off or the updater file is made non executable
  • Error messages in ATI are often too generic and not helpful
  • ATI will also randomly delete all the previous backups except the recent one even though ample disk space is available on the destination disk. As mentioned previously, the mac version will sometimes fail to restore on Catalina (10.15) and later.
  • Fast scheduled backups
  • Easy to use, (usually) easy to restore
  • Delta backup (backing up only the parts of a large file that has been changed)
  • Able to quickly deploy and test new configurations since restores are generally fast with ATI
  • Saves lots of time by not having to re-configure the basic set of apps when restoring a clean image to a system
CrashPlan no longer provides software for local backups so I have migrated away from them. They still remain a viable alternative if cloud backups are important. Unfortunately, cloud solutions in ATI are fairly limited in offerings. ATI also has a slightly easier learning curve than some of the other alternatives. For backing up Macs, I highly recommend considering other solutions due to the high number of issues in the software. Forum support is almost non existent and dedicated support lines were unable to fix the underlying issues and has archived my case.

Do you think Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office's feature set?

Yes

Did Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office live up to sales and marketing promises?

No

Did implementation of Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office again?

No

ATI provides a robust set of features in the Windows version and is great for both home and business use. It is easy to setup different backups of different folders and run them all on a schedule. However, some knowledge of backup schemes will be helpful as it provides many different types (incremental, differential, etc), but it does not provide any recommendations on which method is ideal for which use case scenarios. The Mac version is significantly lacking in features and by default does not appear to exclude certain cache folders so without excluding them manually, you may find your backup volume filling up faster than usual. On Windows, the commonly used folders are excluded by default but may still require fine tuning depending on the applications being used. (e.g. Adobe's massive media cache folder will indeed get backed up)

Acronis True Image Support

Acronis Support via the forums is almost non existent and takes up to a month for a response that is often not helpful. Dedicated support is better but still takes at least one week for replies (and sometimes non existent). When they do get in touch, they seem to try their best to provide context and enclose instructions on how to collect logs, etc.
ProsCons
Support cares about my success
Slow Resolution
Poor followup
Not kept informed
Escalation required
Difficult to get immediate help
Need to explain problems multiple times
Slow Initial Response
Premium support is not offered.
Yes - The case was archived due to their team being unable to solve it. They did offer an alternate solution however (but still doesn't solve the primary issue and requires a undocumented/unsupported workaround).
After nearly two months of going back and forth, they did come up with an alternate solution and while not perfect/seamless and "hack-ish" that could potentially stop working, it does get the job done for the time being.

Acronis True Image Reliability

The Windows version is generally reliable and only ran into one issue thus far. Restores are easy and there are many features. On MacOS, it's a completely different story. There is significant resource leakage related to the updater app that can bog down part of a CPU core continuously until it is disabled. The mobile backup feature also needs to be disabled via UNIX command line or CPU usage will go up when a mobile device on the same network like an iPad or iPhone's screen is turned on.
Backups run fast and no significant performance issues other than the ones discussed previously.