Carbonite Support > Message: "Failed to Restore X ...

Message: "Failed to Restore X Items Because Files’ Metadata Could Not Be Restored"

Summary:

Carbonite Safe Server Backup (CSSB) restore fails and the following error message appears:

Error: Failed to Restore X Items Because Files’ Metadata Could Not Be Restored

The X may be any number.

Carbonite Safe Server Backup Restore screen showing ''Failed to restore...'' message

This article applies to:

Carbonite Plans Products Platforms
Power and Ultimate plans (Not sure?) Carbonite Safe Server Backup (Not sure?) Windows

Cause:

Carbonite Safe Server Backup backs up and restores metadata for your files. However, sometimes the metadata cannot be restored and the error will display.

CSSB 6.5 and higher cannot restore Alternate Data Streams (ADS) files and folders backed up in CSSB 6.4 or lower. ADS is metadata typically used to warn Windows users before they open a file that may be a security concern.

You can confirm if an ADS is the culprit from the restore logs. Here is an example log snippet:

428:3944:2020-11-7T15:49:9:835Z::Failed to write metadata stream 4 of file \\?\E:\Restores\Windows File System\C\Users\Administrator\Docs\Firefox_Installer.exe
428:3944:2020-11-7T15:49:9:835Z::The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

"Failed to write metadata stream 4" indicates that an Alternate Data Stream could not be restored.

Carbonite Support is unaware of any program that requires its files to have a specific ADS to function, but it is possible that such a program exists. If you have a program that relies upon Alternate Data Streams for any reason, you must download and install CSSB 6.4 or lower to restore those files.

Solution:

This error is almost always harmless and can be ignored. CSSB would display a different error if any real files or folders had failed to restore.

Feedback