As we know, backup is very critical. In many environments, database backups are taken by third-party tools like Avamar, Evault, Netapp, and ComVault. In such cases, many times backup fails due to SQL Server VSS Writer error. You will see errors like Timed Out or Non-retryable error.

To troubleshoot the issue, you can follow below given steps.

1. To check the ‘Writer status’ you need start the Command Prompt with “Run as Administrator” and execute below command.

VSSadmin List writers

2. You will see number of Writers with their status.

3. Check the status of “SqlServerWriter“. If it shows “Failed“, go to the services. Restart the service “SQL Server VSS Writer”.

4. After that restart the service “Volume Shadow Copy” and then check “SqlServerWriter” status again.

If you are still observing the error, then you need to reinstall the SQL Server Writer. To do that please follow below steps.

1. Go to “Program and Features” and uninstall “Microsoft VSS Writer for SQL Server”.

2. Go to your SQL Server Setup and install SQL Writer using “SqlWriter.msi” file.

3. Now check the Writer state again and you should be capable of seeing it as “Stable”.

Please refer below Microsoft article for further details.

Backup issue because of SQL Server VSS writer

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