BoxCryptor conflicts with Windows 7's Volume Shadow Copy service (VSS)

Jpsy

Boxcryptor Classic, 1.6.403.96
on Windows 7 64

After many hours spent on searching the culprit for my problems with Windows 7's VSS service (Volume Shadow Copy), I finally identified it as being Boxcryptor Classic. I could verify on two completely different Win 7 64 machines that - as long as Boxcryptor is active and has mounted an encrypted volume from DropBox - the following VSS commands fail:
C:\>vssadmin list shadows
C:\>vssadmin list shadowstorage
You can find the results of these commands below (taken from a German Win 7 system).
As soon as I deactivate Boxcryptor, the service responds normally again.
As said, this same behavior can be witnessed on multiple machines that are otherwise quite different.
The net result of VSS failing is that several backup solutions that rely on VSS will not work or will throw series of errors in system application log. Affected machines may become extremely laggy during backup processes.
All this is intensely reported on the web for TrueCrypt, but so far I did not find any reports for Boxcryptor.

So, here are my questions:
- Can you reproduce the problem? (Just try the above commands when a Boxcryptor drive is mounted.)
- Do you have a solution or any plans to solve the problem in the near future?
- Does Boxcryptor 2.0 solve the problem? (If so, is there a way to switch my license without paying the enormous recurring fee of the 2.0 version? Quite frankly: they are too high for the scope of the product!)

Thanks for your help.
Regards,
Jörg Wagner.

---

C:\Windows\system32>vssadmin list shadows
vssadmin 1.1 - Verwaltungsbefehlszeilenprogramm des Volumeschattenkopie-Dienstes

Inhalte der Schattenkopiesatzkennung: {f604eca4-bdc2-4676-a349-ab0cb9b335b2}
1 Schattenkopie(n) war(en) enthalten bei der Erstellungszeit: 29.01.2014 06:1
6:59
Fehler: Beim Schattenkopieanbieter ist während der Verarbeitung des
angegebenen Befehls ein unerwarteter Fehler aufgetreten.

C:\Windows\system32>vssadmin list shadowstorage
vssadmin 1.1 - Verwaltungsbefehlszeilenprogramm des Volumeschattenkopie-Dienstes

Fehler: Beim Schattenkopieanbieter ist während der Verarbeitung des
angegebenen Befehls ein unerwarteter Fehler aufgetreten.

xformer

It's the same with V2. As long as Boxcryptor is not running, everything is fine. As soon, as it is started VSS fails.

xformer

Also, there are lots of the following error messages in the Windows Application Log:

Protokollname: Application
Quelle: VSS
Datum: 23.02.2014 20:49:49
Ereignis-ID: 12293
Aufgabenkategorie:Keine
Ebene: Fehler
Schlüsselwörter:Klassisch
Benutzer: Nicht zutreffend
Computer: MeinRechner
Beschreibung:
Volumeschattenkopie-Dienstfehler: Beim Aufrufen einer Routine auf einem
Volumeschattenkopieanbieter "{b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}" ist ein
Fehler aufgetreten. Routinedetails
IVssSnapshotProvider::QueryVolumesSupportedForSnapshots(ProviderId,-1,...)
[hr = 0x8000ffff, Schwerwiegender Fehler].

Vorgang:
Von diesem Anbieter unterstützte Volumes abfragen

Kontext:
Anbieter-ID: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}
Snapshotkontext: -1
Ereignis-XML:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="VSS" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">12293</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2014-02-23T19:49:49.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>36556</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>MeinRechner</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>{b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}</Data>

<Data>IVssSnapshotProvider::QueryVolumesSupportedForSnapshots(ProviderId,-1,
...)</Data>
<Data>0x8000ffff, Schwerwiegender Fehler
</Data>
<Data>

Vorgang:
Von diesem Anbieter unterstützte Volumes abfragen

Kontext:
Anbieter-ID: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}
Snapshotkontext: -1</Data>

"Anbieter-ID" "b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5" is the Microsoft
Volume Shadow Copy provider service "swprv".

s9k1OToMS

Possible bread crumbs ...

Can confirm that, with Boxcryptor launched, the 'vssadmin list shadows' and 'vssadmin list shadowstorage' commands fail on my Win 7 x64 Ultimate machine exactly as Jpsy describes. I am currently at Boxcryptor v2.0.415.357. Note that the Windows Application Log errors only appeared for the instances where I manually queried the two commands from an Admin Command Prompt.

However, I can also confirm that, with my Boxcryptor / OneDrive store open, Macrium Reflect jobs run successfully to completion. VSS is central to Reflect's operation. Currently at Reflect v5.2.6474.

Regards, s9k1OToMS

Robert

Hello,

I can confirm that VSS does not work under Windows 7 when the Boxcryptor drive is mounted and we are investigating this issue. It does not seem to occur under Windows 8.

Best regards,
Robert

Jpsy

Hi Robert,

any news on this issue?

Regards, Jörg.

Robert

Hi Jörg,

Sorry, I don't have any news on this one. It's on our list but with a low priority given that it's a pretty specific use case which only affects a (very) small subset of our users. (I'd love to give it a higher priority but we don't have the necessary resources at the moment.)

Best regards,
Robert

Jpsy

Hi Robert,
what exactly is special about this use case? Using BoxCryptor to mount encrypted files as a drive is the standard usage of your solution. Using some backup software is a standard too.
And the problem is in no way limited to backup software. There is a vast collection of other software that will regularly poll the OS for available drives and - in the process - will trigger this error and the resulting system hangs for seconds to minutes.
I am quite sure that a large number of your customers is affected by extensive lags on their machines and has no idea that these are caused by BoxCryptor. The fact that you obviously do not receive a lot of feedback on this problem is simply due to the fact that hardly anybody gets to the bottom of this and recognizes that it is caused by your software.
Do you think that some more public attention would increase your priority on this? After all BoxCryptor is not free software but comes with a considerable price tag. And as you can read above, BoxCryptor v2 with its even higher monthly fee is affected in the same way as the classic version.

xformer

Now it is august and Boxcryptor still crashes VSS. I really can not understand why it is "low priority" to no longer disrupt a vitally important OS service? As Jpsy said, the reason you do not get more reports on this is that most people are not tech-savvy enough to analyze the problems and see that it is Boxcryptor which makes their OS and applications malfunction.

While Boxcryptor is surely very useful I will now look for alternative solutions from people who care about not causing OS service troubles.

Robert

Hello together,

Together with our supplier for the virtual file system driver, we've now been able to identify the reason for this problem and also found a solution for it. The fix will be included in the upcoming 2.1 version of Boxcryptor for Windows. (Sorry, but I don't have an ETA for it.)

Best regards,
Robert

Robert

Hello,

We have released version 2.2 of Boxcryptor for Windows with the updated version of the virtual file system driver which fixes this problem. You can download it here:

https://www.boxcryptor.com/l/download-windows

Best regards,
Robert