When troubleshooting VSS Writer errors, the following table can be used to identify the Service Display Name in services.msc.
Problem
Backup fails with one or more VSS Writer errors.
Solution
- Find each of the VSS writers in a Failed state by running the following command in a Command Prompt with administrator privileges:
vssadmin list writers
- Take note of all VSS Writers where the state is not Stable
- Find the VSS writer’s associated Service Display Name in the table below
- Restart the corresponding service in services.msc.
- To open the Services window, click the Windows start button, type “Run”, and hit enter.
- In the Run window, type services.msc and click OK.
- Scroll to the Service Display Name(s) that corresponds to the VSS writer error(s).
- Restart the service by right clicking on the service name and selecting Start.
- To confirm the action was successful and the VSS writer is returned to the Stable state with no errors, go back to the Command Prompt and rerun the ‘vssadmin list writers’ command.
List of VSS Writers and Service Names:
| 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 |
| WINS Jet Writer | WINS | Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) |
| WMI Writer | Winmgmt | Windows Management Instrumentation |
