Veritas lists backup as "failed"

I've never been able to figure this one out myself.  It seems for certain files it will consider the backup job as failed.  Other files it says job completed with exemptions.  If I see a job that has failed, I usually go into the job log and find out what is failing the job.  I go into the job setup and deselect these files manually.  That way the backup job will not attempt to backup these files again which should allow the job to complete just fine.

Is it something that keeps popping up over and over again?

Yes   It tends to be users archive.pst file which is in their documents. Sometimes it may be an open file. I can't figure out at what point it considers a job failed and a job "completed with exceptions". I am hopig someone has a way of tweaking this

Yup. I have seen this before.  I work in a law office where some of the employees are working in the middle of the night.  As it takes 3 hours for the backup job to run, these files are being changed by users while the backup is in process.  If you have selected error checking, the backup is compared to the current disk and any differences are noted.  If there are discrepencies between the backup and the original disk, you get the "failed" backup message.  

This "failed job" message is misleading because the backup is complete except for what is typically just a handfull of files.  Look at the properties for the backup job and uncheck the error checking option.  This should clear the error.  

Addendum to the above:  Unchecking the error checking option does not clear the error but it silences the "failed job"  report in the Veritas backup Exec job log.  I think Veritas could have used better language to explain that some files were changed during the execution of the backup job.  ggordon777