Acronis Active Protection: Frequently Asked Questions

Meeting Acronis Active Protection

Q: What is Acronis Active Protection?

A: Acronis Active Protection is an anti-ransomware technology developed by Acronis to bring peace of mind to its users, in addition to its world's leading backup, data protection and disaster recovery technologies.

Q: What is ransomware?

A: It is a malicious software that encrypts data, effectively stealing it from you, and requires you paying a ransom for deciphering and returning you access to it. See our video demonstration how it looks like and how you can protect yourself from it:

To learn more about ransomware in the contemporary world, watch the recordings of our live presentations of Acronis True Image New Generation (Premium Subscription only) on Jan 18th, 2017, when Acronis Active Protection was first unveiled to the world, and Acronis Backup 12.5, on May 31st, 2017, when it was first brought to Acronis products for businesses.

Videos feature insights from a former FBI operative and cyber security expert Eric O'Neill and blockchain expert Alex Tapscott.

Q: Do I need Acronis Active Protection if I already have specialized anti-virus, anti-malware, firewall and other security software?

A: Definitively Yes:

Acronis Active Protection does not need to wait for virus signatures updates to be able to detect the new and unknown ransomware programs. You gain protection from zero-day attacks.
A dedicated module of Acronis Active Protection takes care of your backups specifically, keeping them safe from unwanted deletion or alteration by malicious software.
After the attack is blocked, all the encrypted files are automatically restored. Automatic data recovery is possible thanks to Acronis' unique on-the-fly backup and recovery technology. The majority of other security software only stop the attack, without automatically recovering the ciphered data.

Q: Does Acronis Active Protection conflict with other security programs that I have installed?

A: You can have a third-party security product running in parallel with Acronis Active Protection. They do not conflict with each other for resources and do not create an extra overhead on the system.

Installing and enabling Acronis Active Protection

Q: What versions of Acronis True Image and Acronis Backup include Acronis Active Protection?

A:The following software versions have Active Protection component:

Acronis True Image New Generation (Premium Subscription only), Windows version (released Jan 17')

Acronis Backup 12.5 (May 17')

Acronis True Image 2018 - all editions (Aug 17')

Acronis True Image 2019 - all editions (Aug 18')

Acronis True Image 2020 - all editions (Aug 19')

Q: What operating systems are supported by Acronis Active Protection?

A: Active Protection in Acronis True Image: Windows 7 and newer, Mac OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite and newer.

Active Protection in Acronis Backup software: PCs with Windows 7 and newer are supported. Servers running Microsoft Server 2008 R2 and newer are supported.

Q: How to enable Acronis Active Protection?

A: Owners of Acronis True Image 2017 New Generation edition(available as a Premium subscription only) and 2018 (all editions) and later versions already enjoy the world’s leading anti-ransomware protection.

Users of older versions of Acronis True Image: upgrade to the latest version at https://www.acronis.com/personal/upgrade-backup/

Users of Acronis Backup 12.5: select the machine(s) in the “Devices” view of the management console and select “Active Protection”, review Active Protection plan options and click Apply.

Scope of operation

Q: What data storage devices are covered by Acronis Active Protection?

A: Files on internal and external disks are protected, including HDD, SSD, hybrid disks, RAID, external USB disks, USB pendrives, RDX drives (starting with Update 2) and other locally-attached storage devices. Acronis True Image 2019 and 2020 can also protect network shares and NAS devices.

Q: Does Acronis Active Protection protect computer's MBR, boot sectors and hidden partitions?

A: MBR is protected. Boot sectors and hidden partitions protection is planned for the future.

Q: Does Acronis Active Protection guard my files in remote locations?

A: Data in Acronis Cloud is protected by blocking injections into our processes that communicate with Acronis Cloud. All other kinds of Clouds are not covered by Acronis Active Protection. Protection of files stored in shared folders and NAS has been implemented in Acronis True Image 2019 and later versions.

Troubleshooting

Q: How to tell if Acronis Active Protection is up and running?

A: Acronis True Image users: open "Active Protection" tab to see the status and operation overview.

Acronis Backup users: select the machine under Devices section, click on "Active Protection" - the button "Revoke" should be available, indicating that Active Protection plan is currently enabled.

Q: I'm constantly getting messages "Acronis Active Protection is inactive", "Service is unavailable" or "Connecting to service" - what should I do?

A: Follow troubleshooting instructions at https://kb.acronis.com/content/60174

Q: Toggle switch under Active Protection tab automatically switches into the "off" position when I try to turn it on. How do I enable Active Protection?

A: If you use Acronis True Image 2018 - see https://kb.acronis.com/content/60469. If you are using Acronis Backup or a later version of Acronis True Image - contact Acronis Support for assistance.

Q: Acronis Active Protection blocks a legitimate application (also known as 'false positive' reaction). How to whitelist the application?

A: Acronis True Image users: follow the steps from https://kb.acronis.com/content/60193#whitelist

Acronis Backup users: select the machine under Devices section, click on "Active Protection", click the Edit button, click Trusted Processes and type the application's executable file name. If there are several, put one per line.

Q: Pop-up notification "MBR was protected" is shown. What should I do?

A: If you know and trust the application mentioned in the notification message, add it to the Trusted Processes list.

Acronis True Image users: follow the steps from https://kb.acronis.com/content/60193#whitelist

Q: I am prevented from manually renaming, moving or deleting .TIB and .TIBX files in Windows File Explorer. How to temporarily enable operations with backup files?

A: Making changes to backup files in Windows File Explorer is not recommended, because the corresponding backup application is not getting notified about that and records about these .TIB and .TIBX become invalid. We recommend using the corresponding user interface options in Acronis software to rename, move and delete backup files. If that is not possible for any reason, disable the self-defense part of Acronis Active Protection to allow modifications of .TIB and .TIBX files outside of Acronis application:

Acronis True Image users: click "Allow for one hour" in the block notification window.

Acronis Backup users: select the machine under Devices section, click on "Active Protection", click the Edit button, unmark "Self-protection" checkbox and click "Save changes". Enable the self-protection option back after you are done making changes to the backup files.

Q: Computer freezes or reboots unexpectedly if Acronis Active Protection is enabled. What should I do?

Follow instructions from https://kb.acronis.com/content/60173 to report us the issue. As a temporary workaround, turn off or remove Acronis Active Protection from startup - see below.

Q: How to turn off Acronis Active Protection?

A: Acronis True Image users: see https://kb.acronis.com/content/60190

Acronis Backup users: select the machine under Devices section, click on "Active Protection" and click the button "Revoke".

Q: How to disable Acronis Active Protection components from loading with Windows completely?

A: If turning off Acronis Active Protection was not enough, follow instructions at https://kb.acronis.com/content/60222 to disable Acronis Active Protection components from starting up with Windows automatically.

Q: Where can I find more details on Acronis Active Protection?

Refer to our website page and the user guides of the corresponding products:

Acronis True Image 2020 - Windows version:

https://www.acronis.com/support/documentation/ATI2020/#37848.html

https://www.acronis.com/support/documentation/ATI2020/#38019.html

Acronis True Image 2020 - Mac version:

https://www.acronis.com/support/documentation/ATIMAC2020/index.html#39917.html

https://www.acronis.com/support/documentation/ATI2020/#38019.html

Acronis True Image 2019 - Windows version:

https://www.acronis.com/support/documentation/ATI2019/#37848.html

https://www.acronis.com/support/documentation/ATI2019/#38019.html

Acronis True Image 2019 - Mac version: