The BITS service failing to start, Server 2016 Standard

Question

Getting the following error when attempting to start the BITS service:

Event 16392, Bits-Client
The BITS service failed to start. Error 0x80070002.

and

Event 7024, Service Control Manager
The Background Intelligent Transfer Service service terminated with the following service-specific error:
The system cannot find the file specified.

Windows updates are not downloading as a result.

An archived post from 2010 traced this to a corrupt Registry entry, and included the correct keys, but the links are now dead and the post is 10 years old:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/e262f6c1-fec8-4e1b-8ae4-727858f2d1b3/bits-background-intelligent-transfer-service-wont-start?forum=winserverManagement&prof=required

We're running Windows Server 2016 Standard,

Thanks,
Chris

Answer 1

@cdmoore1972
Hi,
If you receive this error message, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BackupRestore\FilesNotToBackup
3. If the registry subkey exists, go to step 4. If the registry subkey does not exist, create the registry subkey. To do this, follow these steps:
   -1. Right-click Backup Restore, point to New, and then click Key.
   -2. Type FilesNotToBackup, and then press ENTER.
4. Quit Registry Editor.
5. Click Start, click Run, type services.msc, and then click OK.
6. Double-click Background Intelligent Transfer Service.
7. In the General tab, click Start.

Hope above information can help you.

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