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
    2017-04-04T13:26:49+00:00

    Hello,

    I had this issue on a Windows Server 2008 R2.

    In order to solve this, I made this steps, based on the experience of other users from this forum.

    You may have one or more system tasks with errors, so probably this should take some time to solve it.

    You must take note of every task with error and delete from the folder and registry, then you must import this task from another computer working fine. Otherwise you will have problems in the future, because some of this tasks are important to the system.

    1. Please execute this tasks (thanks to BrendonGyde for sharing)

    Create a folder in this directory c:\temp

    open command prompt with admin rights

    Run

    schtasks.exe > c:\temp\tasks.txt

    1. Check the file c:\temp\tasks.txt for any task with N/A in the "Status". They are causing the error.
    2. Execute the steps from kirkaholic post:

    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, and Delete those files.

    You should only delete the files related to the specific tasks failed.

    1. Delete the task with errors also from Registry, as stated by Apachegila

    Look for the tasks in the following registry Key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tasks

    Navigate in the list of keys (they are shown as GUID, like "{D36B8D04-3EF4-4037-9811-9B264AEE7375}". You should search each one, looking at the "Path" Value, so you can identify the correct Name of the task, for instance "\Microsoft\Windows\Server Manager\ServerManager".

    Export this Key (just for safety) and then delete the key. Using this example, I delete the key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tasks{63EE8552-A444-4BA2-8E1E-C8350D6D412A}"

    1. One you finish this job, you will not get any more error opening Task Scheduler, however, you must now reconstruct all the tasks you deleted.

    Open a Computer with same Operating System as the one you are working on, in my case I used another Windows Server 2008 R2 computer.

    For each task you deleted, you should open Task Scheduler and look for the task, and Export it to a XML File.

    Once done, you mus copy the XML Files to the computer with the original issue, and you must Import the XML File of each task.

    Using the example before, I went to Task Scheduler, opened Task Scheduler Library->Microsoft->Windows->Server Manager. and then clic on "Import Task..." and opened the XML File.

    If you do all this steps, you have repaired the tasks with problems and Task Scheduler itself.

    Best regards, and thank to all people giving keys to solve this problem.

    Javier Martínez

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-10-05T17:21:48+00:00

    step 3 file location given is in error.  should be %SystemFolder%\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows

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  3. 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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