- Veeam Support Knowledge Base
- Unable to exclude files from snapshot: Shadow Copy Optimization Writer timed out
Unable to exclude files from snapshot: Shadow Copy Optimization Writer timed out
| KB ID: | 2073 |
| Product: | Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows | 2.0 | 2.1 | 2.2 | 3.0.2 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 6.1 | 6.2 | 6.3 | 6.3.1 | 6.3.2 | 6.3.3 | 13 | 13.1 |
| Published: | 2015-11-20 |
| Last Modified: | 2023-10-10 |
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Challenge
A Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows backup job configured to operate in file-level backup mode with an entire volume selected and individual folders excluded, may fail with the error shown below.
Unable to exclude files from snapshot: Shadow Copy Optimization Writer timed out.
Cause
The issue is caused by a timeout of the MS Copy Optimization Writer due to a large number of excluded files. In such cases, the Application Event Log on the affected machine may contain entries similar to the one below:
Source: VSS Event ID: 8220 Level: Information Operation: OnPostSnapshot event PostSnapshot Event Context: Execution Context: Shadow Copy Optimization Writer Writer Name: Shadow Copy Optimization Writer
Solution
To workaround this VSS issue, two possible approaches are suggested:
- Option 1: Reduce the number of excluded folders until the warning no longer appears.
- Option 2: Instead of selecting an entire volume within file-level backup and excluding folders, select only the individual folders that need to be backed up.
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