Green Spinning Circle Icon on the SQL Backup GUI

When a SQL Backup Server Instance has too much activity history it can cause issues with loading and showing the history on the SQL Backup GUI. This can showcase itself as the Server Instance having a green spinning circle icon that always loads.

There are a few things that could help to resolve this issue. The three things to try in order would be:

1. First, clear the Activity Cache or *.dat files as follows:

• Close the GUI connections
• Navigate to this directory on the machine where the SQL backup GUI is installed: C:\Users<username>\AppData\Local\Red gate\SQL Backup\ServerData
• In this folder you will find one or more .dat files, for example 1.dat, 31.dat, localDataCache.dat
• Delete all the *.dat files in the ServerData folder
• Now re-open the GUI. The *.dat files deleted in the previous step will be recreated. This may take a while the files are rebuilt. Are you now able to view the Activity History?

2. If that doesn't help:

• Stop the SQL Backup Agent service 
• Go to C:\ProgramData\Red Gate\SQL Backup\Data\<INSTANCE NAME> 
• Rename the data.db to OLD_data.db 
• Restart the service SQL Backup Agent service 
• and this will repopulate the backup history locally

3. If neither works, you can try removing the servers from inside SQL Backup (this won't uninstall anything) then re-import them, but in the add new server drop down under 'amount of history to import' select none. This should result in the databases being fully responsive. (However, after doing this last one there will be no history displayed until more backup jobs run.)

To tackle the root cause, you need to reduce the amount out history stored in the MSDB table in SQL Server. You can read more about how to do so here.

To prevent this issue from re-occurring, it's possible to have the SQL Backup Pro graphical user interface (GUI) delete the backup and restore history from the msdb database and SQL Server Compact database for each SQL Server (Tools > Server Options > File Management) on a set schedule. For more information, see File management options.