Windows Server 2022 — Windows Server Backup fails because VSS writer is in failed state — Fix & Prevention

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents

1. Symptom & Impact
2. Environment & Reproduction
3. Root Cause Analysis
4. Quick Triage
5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
6. Solution — Primary Fix
7. Solution — Alternative Approaches
8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
9. Rollback Plan
10. Prevention & Hardening
11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

Scheduled backups fail, reducing restore confidence and increasing RPO risk.

Environment & Reproduction

Windows Server 2022 build 20348 with Windows Server Backup and application-aware snapshots.

vssadmin list writers
wbadmin get status
Get-WinEvent -LogName Application -MaxEvents 80 | Where-Object Message -match 'VSS|Backup'

Root Cause Analysis

One or more VSS writers are stuck in retryable/non-retryable failure due to service dependency issues.

Quick Triage

Identify failed writers and dependent services.

vssadmin list writers
Get-Service VSS,swprv,COMSysApp | Select Name,Status

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Correlate writer failure IDs with application logs.

Get-WinEvent -LogName 'Microsoft-Windows-Backup' -MaxEvents 100
Get-WinEvent -LogName Application -MaxEvents 120 | Where-Object Id -in 8193,12289

Solution — Primary Fix

Restart affected writer services and rerun snapshot.

Restart-Service VSS
Restart-Service swprv
net stop CryptSvc && net start CryptSvc
wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:E: -include:C: -quiet

Solution — Alternative Approaches

Re-register VSS components if failures persist.

cd /d %windir%system32
for %i in (ole32.dll oleaut32.dll vss_ps.dll) do regsvr32 /s %i
vssvc /register

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

All required writers report Stable and backup job completes.

vssadmin list writers
wbadmin get versions

Rollback Plan

If service restart impacts apps, revert to previous maintenance snapshot and retry off-peak.

wbadmin get versions
wbadmin start recovery -version:

Prevention & Hardening

Run periodic VSS writer checks and pre-backup health scripts.

vssadmin list writers > C:Tempvss-writers.txt
Get-ScheduledTask -TaskName '*Backup*'

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Related to low shadow storage and long-running SQL/Exchange writer operations.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for Windows Server 2022.

View all Windows Server 2022 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

Microsoft Learn VSS troubleshooting and Windows Server Backup operations.