Cannot un-pause Search Service Application

Hello all,

We have a SP2013 farm that is having some issues with backup (i.e. Backup-SPFarm).  The log had the following error:

Fatal Error: Object Search Service Application failed in event OnBackup.  For more information, see the spbackup.log or sprestore.log file located in the backup directory.
          InvalidOperationException: Failed to set request to pause search application

In trying to get it running, the error has changed slightly:

FatalError: Object Search Service Application failed in event OnPrepareBackup. For more information, see the spbackup.log or sprestore.log file located in the backup directory.
	InvalidOperationException: State 'Backup' can't be set due to current application state 'Backup'.

I have searched and found numerous posts about how to reset/rebuild the Search Index, many of which have you manually delete files from a couple different locations.  However, my problem seems to be hinged on the fact that I cannot un-pause the Search Service Application.

$ssa = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication “Search Service Application”
$ssa.resume()

This command returns false.

$ssa = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication “Search Service Application”
$ssa.ForceResume($ssa.IsPaused())

This also returns false.

The Microsoft Docs page about managing a paused Search Service (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/SharePoint/search/manage-a-paused-search-service-application) indicates:

($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x80) -ne 0
True

($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x100) -ne 0
True

Which, according to the MS page, means that Index is being deleted and the service is paused by an administrator.  I am relatively certain that I was the one who paused it, and the "index being deleted" status has been that way for hours (probably 6 at this point).

Going to the Search Service Application administration page, the status show "Paused for: External Request, Index Reset", which is consistent with the above PowerShell results.  But I am unable to get it to un-pause, no matter what I do.

Some posts say that if you can't un-pause it, to run the reset anyhow:

$ssa = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication
$ssa.Reset($true,$true)

This just simply hangs.  I have let it go for multiple hours without it ever finishing.  It is a fairly small index with ~35,000 items (if I recall correctly); smaller than another farm we have (with 53,000 items) which only take 5-10 minutes to reset the index (with equally powered VMs in both farms).

I have rebooted, stopped and restarted the Search Host & Timer services, followed instructions from numerous posts where files are manually deleted, but nothing has worked so far.  I'm not sure how to proceed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Eric