Troubleshooting blocked access to backed up items with GDPR Guard

Last published : Apr 02, 2026
If you have problems with blocking access to backed up items with GDPR Guard, review the following points.
  • If the import command is successful but the restore and search view continue to display and restore the blocked items, check the following:
    • Check if the full path of any blocked item entry in the CSV file that was specified during import contains a comma (,). If the file name or any of the folders in the path contain a comma, the entry is not imported properly. For example: E:\Folder,Delimited\file.txt and E:\F1\ab,a.txt are unsupported entries for blocked items.
    • Some entries may get blocked if the full path of a blocked item's entry contains a wildcard within a folder that is also applicable to the items of that folder and its subfolders. For example: E:\F1\a*.txt blocks all text files starting with letter 'a' inside the E:\F1 folder and inside the E:\F1\F2 folder. To ensure that the item within a subfolder is not blocked, you must add each entry separately and not use wildcards in this scenario.
    • If the same server is added in Backup Exec using multiple names, such as by the NetBIOS name, FQDN, or IP address, the items are blocked only for the server name that is specified in the blocked item entry in the CSV. To resolve this issue, add the blocked item entries via each of the server names separately in the input CSV for the import operation.
  • If some blocked items are skipped during the import operation with the reason displayed as invalid item path, check the following:
    • The full path for the skipped item does not start with the volume or share name and starts with server name. For example: E:\folder1\a.txt and TestShare\F1\b.txt are acceptable entries in the full path.
    • Only the file name in the item path contains '' related wildcards. If the folder path contains the wildcard, the entry is skipped. For example: G:\Test2\\\CatTrans.xsl and G:\\*\results.txt are invalid entries.
  • If Import operations terminate with the following error: "An error occurred while processing a blocked item. The internal list of blocked items does not exist".
Check whether the input CSV file path is correct and does not point to an invalid drive or network location.
  • If the export operation terminates with the following error: "An error occurred while opening the internal list of blocked items".
Ensure that the specified output folder path is valid and does not point to an invalid drive or network location..
  • If some of the blocked items are displayed in the restore or search view that may be due to the following reasons:
    • An import operation is running for the CSV file containing some blocked items of the same resource.
    • The integrity check failed for the internal list of blocked items for that resource or some problem occurred while reading from the internal list of blocked files for the restore or search view.
If you run the restore job, the restore job log displays the exact reason of the failure in reading from the internal list of blocked files.
  • If a soft or hard link path is specified in the CSV, only the link is blocked. To block the folder that the link is pointing to, specify the actual path of the folder in the CSV.
  • If you want to remove a blocked file entry from an already imported CSV file, do the following in the order listed:
    • Run the export command.
    • Remove the entry from the generated CSV.
    • Delete the internal file containing the list of blocked items for the resource whose entry is removed. Remove the internal file from te following location: "data\BLFileInfo" folder under the Backup Exec installation directory.
    • Run the import command again with the ResetifCorrupted parameter.
Import-BEItemsToBlock - RESETifCorrupted - CsvFilePath <CVS file path> - ColumnNameForServerName <Name of 1st column> - ColumnNameForBlockedItemPath <Name of 2nd column>
  • If the restore and search view does not display results for a long time it can be because a large number of blocked items are added for that resource. In such a scenario, restore job can still be run at the folder or volume level to view the items that are restored and viewed.
  • If a standalone media server that has blocked items needs to be converted into an MBES server, perform the following steps in the order listed:
    • Export the blocked items file.
    • Delete the bin files from the Data\BLFileInfo folder under the Backup Exec installation folder.
    • Convert the standalone server to an MBES server.
    • Import the blocked items on CAS using the exported file that you created.
See About GDPR Guard.
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