Fixing VSS Writers issue while taking Server backup in Windows

Troubleshooting VSS writers Issue-

In the Command Prompt  type:  "vssadmin list writers"  and hit enter, If see any report in Failed or Error state, try restarting their corresponding service

For example in the below screenshot  ASR Writer is in “Waiting for  Completion” state, due to which back ups normally fail.

To resolve the above issue, we should restart the “Volume Shadow Copy” service in services.msc logging in to the corresponding server, which is shown in the below screenshot.

After restarting this service, thee state becomes stable as shown below.

 

Below are the common VSS writers and their respective corresponding service – Restart these corresponding  services from “services.msc”

VSS Writer	Service Name	Service Display Name
ASR Writer	VSS	Volume Shadow Copy
BITS Writer	BITS	Background Intelligent Transfer Service
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 Writer	MSExchangeIS	Microsoft Exchange Information Store
Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer	vmms	Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management
NTDS	NTDS	Active Directory Domain Services
OSearch VSS Writer	OSearch	Office SharePoint Server Search
OSearch14 VSS Writer	OSearch14	SharePoint Server Search 14
Registry Writer	VSS	Volume Shadow Copy
Shadow Copy Optimization Writer	VSS	Volume Shadow Copy
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
WMI Writer	Winmgmt	Windows Management Instrumentation

After restarting the corresponding service, again type "vssadmin list writers"  in the command prompt and hit enter,now “stable” and “no error” message is displayed beside the corresponding writer as shown in the below screenshot and thus the issue gets resolved.