BackupAssist Classic 12.0.7 + Desktop 15.0.3

BETA: Introducing Cloud Immutability
Beta Notice: This feature is currently in beta and is not recommended for use in production environments.
New UI Option – "Cloud Immutability":
A new option is available when creating NEW Cloud Backup jobs. Enabling Cloud Immutability allows for enhanced protection through immutable backups, with the ability to recover even from corrupted backup data.

Cloud Storage Configuration Requirement:
To use immutable backups, users must configure immutability settings—such as Object Lock or version-level immutability—on the destination bucket or container at the cloud provider during setup.

Updated Cloud Backup Format:>
Introduces a new backup format designed to support immutability.

Note: This format is not compatible with earlier versions of BackupAssist.

Supported Providers and Technologies:
Amazon S3 and S3-compatible services (e.g., Wasabi, Backblaze B2) using Object Lock in Compliance Mode
Microsoft Azure with version-level immutability and time-based retention policies
Fixes and Enhancements:
Backup, CryptoSafeGuard & Restore:
Fixed a regression affecting File Protection backups with network share selections and exclusions.
Resolved Test Restore issues for encrypted New System Protection backups to iSCSI.
Addressed issues caused by invalid characters (e.g., Unicode surrogate pairs) in file/directory names during backups and scanning.
Added a one-time backup option for File Protection to rebuild the Test Restore integrity database.
Improved error handling for encrypted New System Protection backups.
Fixed performance/memory issues in Cloud Backup with containers holding over 145 million chunks.
Fixed New System Protection Bare Metal backups failing when CD/DVD volumes were included.
Resolved low-level NTFS issue with multi-extent files containing invalid entries.
Enhanced VHDX creation for New System Protection backups.
Improved critical volume detection for Bare Metal backups on DFSR systems.
Fixed File Protection restore when a previously backed-up network path is removed from selections.
Addressed scanning issues caused by reparse points on network paths.
Fixed tape restore file display bug due to error handling.
Fixed some CSG scanning timeouts.
Added report warning for VSS errors when VSS timeout is set to under 10 minutes.
Exchange Granular Restore
Added support for Windows Server 2025.
New menu option: “Show system folders” displays all system folders across mailboxes.
Fixed crash during PST export when encountering corrupted PropertyBlobs – now skipped with a warning.
NAS and Network Enhancements
New troubleshooting UI option for NAS destinations to toggle permission changes during backup.
Installer & Service Updates
Fixed silent installation by removing unnecessary warning popups.
Added a warning to prevent "ghost" entries if BackupAssist is upgraded under a different user account.
Switched installer mode from "install for one user" to "install for all users".
Uninstall now correctly removes BackupAssistData folders created by CSG from user directories.
Resolved a rare BackupAssist Service crash during startup.
MBC & Service Improvements
Changed MBC terminology – "Site" is now labeled as "Group".
Fixed an issue where MBC deregistration failed for some customers.

Urgent maintenance release
Fix for unrecoverable files in File Archiving backups made using version 12.0.3.
Files <200MB in size cannot be recovered from backups > 4GB.
Files written in the first 4GB can be recovered.
Files larger than 200MB can be recovered.
Affects unencrypted and zip-encrypted backups.
Zip-to-Tape add-on backups are also affected.
The fixed release will rectify File Archiving backups made after the upgrade. Older backups cannot be fixed, so we highly recommend starting new backups as soon as possible after the upgrade.

Important backup fixes
Fixed faulty BA720 “missing writer” error being reported in some rare installations, since v12.
Note: If used, WID writer services should also be set to Automatic to avoid these issues.
Fixed BA5 errors occurring due to an InvalidOperationException.
For File Archiving to Tape, fixed issues in Zip64 content generation to avoid warnings shown in new versions of 7zip.
Fixed the monitoring and reporting of VSS component results for VSS writer backups, so that the statuses reporting match across the activity monitor and VSS Application Backup sections.
Updated the New Imaging encryption driver version to avoid unhandled and other exceptions during encrypted imaging backups.
Other backup fixes and improvements
New Imaging: Automatically fix the partition layout when required, in order to avoid issues during recovery.
File Protection: Fix BA4940 error when “Use full path” is disabled while using the Mirror scheme.
File Protection: Fix BA701 error occurring when an old backup should be removed/replaced, when diskspace runs out.
Lifeline Recovery
Fixed detection of some iSCSI devices, to enable recovery from those backups.
Improved reliability of driver installation when driver sources are large.
Improved reliability of installation for RAID drivers without a device description.
Allow installation of drivers that are not found (virtual or unidentified at the time).
Support installation of drivers that require a reboot after installation.
Test Restore, CryptoSafeGuard and Cyber Black Box
Avoid redundant warnings logged when testing some NAS backups.
Show a specific warning when attempting to test files when the “Quick Catalog” option is enabled for old imaging jobs.
Temporarily ignore failures for NTFS-encrypted files when testing Cloud Backups, as these are not currently backed up.
Improved the reliability of the CryptoSafeGuard Protector driver when Classic and ER are accidentally co-installed.
Other improvements
Fixed false-positive validation of incorrect URL / bucket combinations with BackBlaze / S3 destination.
Show the “Limit kept backups” option for old imaging jobs on Windows 11.
Fixed error “Object reference not set to an instance of an object” seen during some EGR recoveries from File Archiving backups, introduced in v12.
Fixed detection of Exchange Server 2019 for some scenarios.
General infrastructure
Update version of email sending library to fix handling of SSL/TLS in combination with external firewalls (and other fixes).
Improved handling of licensing issues that can cause disconnection from the Managed Backup Console in rare cases (MSP builds only).
The BackupAssist Service now uses the “Delayed Start” mode, in order to avoid race conditions on server (re)startup.
Improved diagnostics collection capability for support requests.

Implemented new retry mechanism in Cloud Backup, for files that would otherwise be skipped (sometimes causing the backup to abort).
Reminder: If the number of skipped files reaches 100, the backup will be aborted. This number can be adjusted in the advanced “Cloud options”.
Fixed minor monitor issues when skipped files occur in Cloud backups.
Fixed ejection issue when ejectable media (eg. rdx) are backed up to as a network share from another machine
Fixed rare regression in 12.0.1 causing unhandled exceptions for some users using File Protection (BA103) and others using Test Restore (BA110).
Fixed BA6125 “network error” for encrypted System Protection backups to local disk, by handling unexpected ERROR_RETRY error codes properly.

NEW Advanced System Protection
Encryption support across all destinations
Full control over backup history
Hyper-V host level backup.
Instant virtual boot into backups (for unencrypted backups).
Bare metal recovery to smaller disks
NEW Test Restore
Works across most backup engines
Runs as a scheduled task
Tests both backup accessibility and backup integrity testing
Simple to consume test results report
NEW MBC Integration
You can now use the MBC online portal to monitor backup results