BT Cloud Upgrade has affected PC Performance

[Davonian]

Like Sean's note further down it is good of you (BT) to eventually come back with a response. Its a shame you did not notify your customers of the issue when it arose!!  Why are the screen icons not working? Why does the system render my internet service useless? The system also impacts heavily on my PC performance and other programme are running slow? The interesting thing is when I uninstall the BT Cloud my PC performs perfectly. This not about doing small fixes.....a total rewrite is required by someone who knows what they are doing. From a loyal customer who has been with BT for many years you are testing my patience. Please get look at this as a matter of urgency!

[R_G]

I found the reason for this and it is because when the new "upgrade" is installed it moves from being a system wide program to a per user program. Following its installation, it then decides to download ALL the content you have in the cloud. Given you may have up to 1TB this will take a LONG time as on my system it will cause the disk (usually C:) that hold the users TMP and TEMP location to run at 100% utilisation. If this is an SSD that will also cause excessive wear on the SSD. it will take forever to do the download as its network utilisation is only 1 or 2Mbps 

I also found that it will continually sync and in fact I would 100% NOT guarantee that the data you had in the cloud is now on your PC NOR is the data on your devices in the cloud, I checked and the size of the folders in the cloud is nowhere near correct and the content is also missing.

Fortunately, I only had a small(ish) amount of data (48GB), so I blew the whole lot away and started again watching closely what went on. To get around the disk utilistaion issue I created a RamDisk for the user TMP and TEMP variables and then network utilistation went up to the max speed and the download completed eventually but the upload of new data is a unmitigated disaster.

For me its been over a week since all this was reported to BT and still no update.

Whatever you do don't rely at this moment in time on you data being backed up to the cload!

[pddco]

You’ll find that it doesn’t download the whole cloud. What it’s doing is downloading your mobile / tablet device files into the PCs ‘BT Cloud’ folder.

For some reason it’s been set to do this by default.

But you can stop it by going to Preferences (the cog) selecting the Sync option and deselect the ‘Enable BT Cloud sync’

Your PC’s files (that are selected under the ‘Backup’ option will still be backed up in the cloud. 

If you want to have a local copy of the backups from your other devices, such as tablets and mobile phones, then select the ‘Enable BT Cloud sync’ option. And then the ‘“Make only the following folders available...” option. You can then decide which devices files you want to have on your PC. Any changes you make to those files will be synchronised with the original device.

Does that help?

[R_G]

Yes, you are of course correct in your statements but that defeats the whole point of a cloud. 

It took some time to work out what was going on and by that time my SSD disk had been taking a battering that it really did not need. To swamp an SSD to 100% when writing takes some doing especially when this went on for many hours with me unaware that there was even an issue. When I did find out what was going on, on my desktop, I was appalled at the way this software had been written. 

There is 100% no need to download everything if you need to see if two files are equal and correct then just do an MD5 or SHA256 check on each then look at the dates and times and download/upload what is necessary.

Something else it did not do when downloading the files was to set the CORRECT date and time to match the date and time of the file's creation. Now all my folders have a date in December 2020. 

BT Cloud has still not managed to sync new files that have been created in the BT Cloud folder. 

This is just 100% rubbish programming and I am extremly disappointed that BT cannot do a better job at getting something like this correct. I should NOT have to work arounf software shortcomings like this. 

Just as a last comment on the way BT are doing things it's about time they learnt that having dates on file (BT Bills) in a sortable format (YYYYMMDD) makes for finding and mangaing files much easier.

So @pddco whilst I thank you for your comments what I want is software that works properly!

So come on BT when are we going to get an update that actually does what it says on the tin?

[pddco]

Not sure what you mean by “defeats the whole point of the cloud”.

Perhaps I’m mistaken. But I thought that the main purpose of the cloud was there to backup the files from my PC,  or if I’ve got a tablet or mobile, those as well.

So predominately the PC’s files are being uploaded to the cloud. And periodically the cloud checks for any changes and uploads those changes,  new files or whatever from the PC as needed. 

I’m confused as to why you’re saying that loads of stuff is being downloaded.

The only time that occurs is when you’ve wanted a copy of  your other device files through the BT cloud Sync folder.

If you only want one or two photos say from your device then just go to the cloud website, find the photos and download from there. 

[R_G]

@pddcoI think we have diverse ways of using the cloud storage yours are obviously different to mine.

The cloud is there to allow files to move between devices as well as being there as a backup for certain files. I back my phone up to the cloud but I dont want or need those files (4GB) on my phone. Right now, BT Cloud cannot get the files on my PC to the cloud and it did try to download some of them. It only managed 2GB worth and then is permanently synchronising with no up or download traffic.

It's well broken and that's it!

Just to update it now will not even start:

Application: BT Cloud.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.ArgumentNullException
at System.Linq.Enumerable.ToList[[System.__Canon, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]](System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1<System.__Canon>)
at Sncr.Cloud.Abstractions.SecureDomains.FromJson(System.String)
at Sncr.Cloud.Utils.KeyPinningValidator.FromCache(Sncr.Cloud.Abstractions.ICertificateHashBuilder)
at Sncr.Cloud.Model.Workflow.States.Application.AppInitializationState+<Execute>d__6.MoveNext()
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(System.Threading.Tasks.Task)
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(System.Threading.Tasks.Task)
at Sncr.Cloud.Model.Workflow.Abstract.StateManagerAbstract`3+<Execute>d__10[[Sncr.Cloud.Abstractions.States.AppStates, Sncr.Cloud.Abstractions, Version=20.6.1.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null],[Sncr.Cloud.Abstractions.States.AppTriggers, Sncr.Cloud.Abstractions, Version=20.6.1.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null],[System.__Canon, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]].MoveNext()
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(System.Threading.Tasks.Task)
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(System.Threading.Tasks.Task)
at Sncr.Cloud.Model.Workflow.Managers.AppStateManager+<Execute>d__2.MoveNext()

Exception Info: System.AggregateException
at System.Threading.Tasks.TaskExceptionHolder.Finalize()

Faulting application name: BT Cloud.exe, version: 20.6.1.0, time stamp: 0x5ef09a9a
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.19041.662, time stamp: 0xe6477cce
Exception code: 0xe0434352
Fault offset: 0x0012a892
Faulting process ID: 0x2dc8
Faulting application start time: 0x01d6d6eaeb4f0826
Faulting application path: C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\BTCloud\app-20.6.1\BT Cloud.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll
Report ID: b79967f5-0f02-4557-bb28-61b5e2149d77
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

[ummsalam]

My problems with the 20.6.1 upgrade are as follows and any help would be appreciated:

Every time my Windows 10 desktop is powered up BT Cloud 20.6.1 gives a message saying it is upgrading my BT Cloud software  then it tries to reinstall.  It then is listed in the 'hidden icons' box as a small white cloud.  Clicking on this cloud gives information of syncing - most often a message says it is fully synced, and the small white cloud has a black tick in it. 

However open Windows Task manager and the small white cloud with tick is listed  as a background process that is using between 50 & 70% of the CPU and nearly 1GB of memory, 0% disk, 0% Network & 0% GPU.  This usage is continuous all the time the PC is on until I close it down at night.

I have an SSD which is not large enough to accommodate the whole of the BT Cloud data and so I installed the original BT Cloud software and data files on a 1TB hard drive.  This worked reasonably well for several years until 20.6.1 and it is only this new release that is causing issues.

Clearly something is very wrong so three questions:

1. Can I do anything to solve this (I've tried pausing syncing in the app and this has no effect)?

2. Does anyone have this or a similar issue?

3. Has BT addressed this or similar problems being experienced by users of this new variant of BT Cloud?

Thank you

Mike

[GeoffSmith]

---

@ummsalamwrote:

1. Can I do anything to solve this (I've tried pausing syncing in the app and this has no effect)?

As a temporary measure, at least until the next release :

a) Once any Backup and Syncing has finished (not easy to tell), click on the three vertical dots at top right of the "recently updated" window and select "Exit BT Cloud".

When you need BT Cloud running again you should have a shortcut on the Desktop to start it.

If there is no shortcut, look in the Start Menu under "BT", or in 

C:\Users\<name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\BT

where there should be a shortcut which you can copy to the Desktop .

b) Optional :

Click on the gear wheel at top right of the "recently updated" window to open the Preferences window.

When the spinning wheel stops turning click on Settings and untick "Launch on start-up", and then Save, of course.

Start it when you need to, as above.

[ummsalam]

Thanks Geoff

That's certainly a workaround that puts a temporary stop to the ludicrous 60-70% of CPU and significant memory capacity being monopolised by the BT Cloud app. 

The update will launch itself as ever every time PC is powered up but then it's just a case of waiting until any syncing is completed before turning it off using your instructions and enjoying the normal speed of the processor.

Just hope the powers that be are taking note and will issue a release as easy to use and reliable as that pre 20.6.1.

Your advice is really appreciated.

All the best

Mike

[easmm04]

@R_G Did you ever resolve this issue as I have exactly the same problems with the same error messages in the Event Viewer with BT Cloud not even starting now?