Resolving Failed VSS Writer Issues
Look for messages in your Windows Event logs.
When VSS fails you will always get a corresponding message in your Windows event log.
- Right click on ‘My computer’
- Select ‘Manage’
- Expand the ‘Event Viewer’ node
- Look in the ‘Application’ message node for error messages relating to ‘VSS’, ‘Shadow Copy’ or ‘VolSnap’.
- If you find any messages then these with give you an ‘Event ID’ and sometimes a ‘Result Code’ or ‘hr’. These two pieces of information can generally pin point the cause of your VSS failure. Try Googling the Event ID(s) and Result Code(s) for more information if the steps below do not resolve the issue.
Make sure that the VSS service isn’t disabled
Changing the startup type of the VSS service and rebooting can often resolve issues.
- Right click on ‘My Computer’.
- Select ‘Manage’.
- Select the ‘Services’ tree node.
- Right click on ‘Volume Shadow Copy’
- Select Properties
- Change the startup type to ‘Automatic’
- Reboot
Re-register the VSS components
Sometimes re-registering VSS core components can fix errors. Copy the following commands to Notepad and save the file with a ‘.bat’ extension. Run the .bat file by opening a command prompt and entering the .bat file name.
cd /d %windir%\system32
net stop vss
net stop swprv
regsvr32 /s ole32.dll
regsvr32 /s oleaut32.dll
regsvr32 /s vss_ps.dll
vssvc /register
regsvr32 /s /i swprv.dll
regsvr32 /s /i eventcls.dll
regsvr32 /s es.dll
regsvr32 /s stdprov.dll
regsvr32 /s vssui.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml3.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml4.dll
vssvc /register
net start swprv
net start vss
This program will auto recreate the correct registry setting and re-register all VSS components. Please download one of the below programs to potentially fix VSS issues:
A list of VSS writer services to restart before requiring server reboot.
| VSS Writer | Service Name | Service Display Name |
| ADAM $instanceName Writer | ADAM_$instanceName | $instanceName |
| ASR Writer | VSS | Volume Shadow Copy |
| BITS Writer | BITS | Background Intelligent Transfer Service |
| Certificate Authority | CertSvc | Active Directory Certificate Services |
| COM+ REGDB Writer | VSS | Volume Shadow Copy |
| DFS Replication service writer | DFSR | DFS Replication |
| DHCP Jet Writer | DHCPServer | DHCP Server |
| FRS Writer | NtFrs | File Replication |
| FSRM writer | srmsvc | File Server Resource Manager |
| IIS Config Writer | AppHostSvc | Application Host Helper Service |
| IIS Metabase Writer | IISADMIN | IIS Admin Service |
| Microsoft Exchange Replica Writer | MSExchangeRepl | Microsoft Exchange Replication Service |
| Microsoft Exchange Writer | MSExchangeIS | Microsoft Exchange Information Store |
| Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer | vmms | Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management |
| MSMQ Writer (MSMQ) | MSMQ | Message Queuing |
| MSSearch Service Writer | WSearch | Windows Search |
| NPS VSS Writer | EventSystem | COM+ Event System |
| NTDS | NTDS | Active Directory Domain Services |
| OSearch VSS Writer | OSearch | Office SharePoint Server Search |
| OSearch14 VSS Writer | OSearch14 | SharePoint Server Search 14 |
| OSearch15 VSS Writer | OSearch15 | SharePoint Server Search 15 |
| Registry Writer | VSS | Volume Shadow Copy |
| Shadow Copy Optimization Writer | VSS | Volume Shadow Copy |
| SharePoint Services Writer | SPWriter | Windows SharePoint Services VSS Writer |
| SMS Writer | SMS_SITE_VSS_WRITER | SMS_SITE_VSS_WRITER |
| SPSearch VSS Writer | SPSearch | Windows SharePoint Services Search |
| SPSearch4 VSS Writer | SPSearch4 | SharePoint Foundation Search V4 |
| SqlServerWriter | SQLWriter | SQL Server VSS Writer |
| System Writer | CryptSvc | Cryptographic Services |
| TermServLicensing | TermServLicensing | Remote Desktop Licensing |
| WDS VSS Writer | WDSServer | Windows Deployment Services Server |
| WIDWriter | WIDWriter | Windows Internal Database VSS Writer |
| WINS Jet Writer | WINS | Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) |
| WMI Writer | Winmgmt | Windows Management Instrumentation |
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I spent days on this issue. Every time Veeam tried to back up this SQL server I got the following message.
Cannot add volume to the set of volumes that should be shadowed.
VSS error: VSS_E_UNEXPECTED_PROVIDER_ERROR. Code:0x8004230f
I showed a lot of messages in the SQL server event logs that said Class not registered for all my writers.
I tried the batch file method multiple times and it never worked.
I ran both of the executables you have on here and that fixed it.
Thanks for creating those.