Error messege: the selected task "{0}" no longer exists. to see the current task, click refresh

Anonymous
2009-07-07T16:17:02+00:00

When I go to start the task scheduler, I get this messege "the selected task "{0}" no longer exists. to see the current task, click refresh" So I go ahead and click refresh, and get the same error messege. How can I resolve this issue? Any help and all help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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Anonymous
2009-09-21T19:15:00+00:00

I spent a few minutes and tracked down the problem and a solution. The issue is a result of task files which exist in the Tasks folders which have no entry in (presumably) in the registry. Here's how I worked through the issue - will take some time, but it has cleared up the issue completely for me:

  1. Open Task Scheduler and click OK when prompted with the error. It may seem like you are receiving the same error over and over, but this is really due to the number of tasks which are broken. Make a note of the number of times you are prompted with the the selected task "{0}" error. This is the number of task files that are out of sync with the registry.
  2. Start with the first folder under Windows tasks (Task Scheduler(Local)\Task Scheduler Library\Microsoft\Windows) and select each folder in turn until you receive the the selected task "{0}" error. This folder contains files that are not in sync with the task scheduler.
  3. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the tasks file folder (%SystemFolder%\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows) and find the folder which corresponds to the folder in which you received the error.
  4. For some tasks you will be able to determine which files need to be deleted by comparing the list in the Task Scheduler with the list of files in Explorer. Some tasks will only have a single file in explorer, or, in one case I had 2 and the first was missing. Once Task Scheduler encounters this error it will no longer display tasks so it makes the job of getting the two in sync a little more difficult. Once you have determined which files exist in the File Folder but do not exist in the Task Scheduler folder, delete those files.
  5. IMPORTANT - Close and Re-open Task Scheduler. Once the error is encountered, Task Scheduler no longer displays the tasks so you need to close it and restart in order to continue your synchronization effort.
  6. Continue to select folders in Task Scheduler under Windows tasks until you encounter the error again and repeat the process of determining which file exists on the file system, but not in Task Scheduler.

I had 6 files that were out of sync with what was displayed in Task Scheduler. Once I deleted all of the offending files, Task Scheduler fired up without issue.

Good luck.

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Anonymous
2009-08-28T12:19:13+00:00

Hi,

I had the same issue and here is what I did to solve my problem and hope it helps someone else in the future.  If you disabled the Disk Defrag Schedule, then go back and enable it.  It solved my problem and i've reported this bug to the Windows 7 team.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-08-07T16:44:43+00:00

    PDrummond reply is right on the money and after trying everything else thats suggested his reply works and Open  C:\Windows\System32\Tasks and not nearly as bad to get done as i had feared. did not have any problems with the instructions and all went smoothly and restored task scheduler. good job thanks.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-07-28T23:04:39+00:00

    Spot on. However, my Disk Defrag was enabled. When I disabled it, problem solved. 

    Thank you.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-07-06T06:14:45+00:00

    Are you now running Windows 7?

    Prior to this incident was the system (willingly or unwillingly) upgraded to Windows 10 and then reverted back to Windows 7?  This is known to sometimes corrupt ALL the Scheduled Tasks and for that there is an easy solution (but what follows is not for that problem).

    If you just have one or some afflicted tasks you can fix them individually.

    On a clean install of Windows 7 SP1 there are 80 Scheduled Tasks.

    When you open Task Scheduler and if it complains about some tasks do you really think that simply deleting the afflicted task is a solution to the problem?  That would be like cutting off your hand if you have a hangnail and considering that a cure.

    On my OneDrive is a ZIP file with all the Windows 7 SP1 tasks:

    https://onedrive.live.com/?id=A8C24A4BD70DC25C%21107&cid=A8C24A4BD70DC25C

    If you have an afflicted Windows 7 task instead of deleting it and considering that a solution why don't you actually fix the task?

    For example if your Defrag task is afflicted, go ahead and delete it - then copy the defrag task from the ZIP onto your HDD in the same folder (replacing your missing or suspicious one), and from Task Scheduler choose to Import and import the file called ScheduledDefrag.

    Now instead of deleting the afflicted task you have fixed the afflicted task.

    Scheduled Tasks should not be getting corrupted for no reason so if you have one/some then something happened to corrupt the task and that would most likely be trying to fix things by poking around in the registry and deleting things that should not be deleted or poking around on the HDD and deleting files/folders that should not be.

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