Time Machine backs up and then stops; also reformatting my disk without permission

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Level 1

8 points

Time Machine backs up and then stops; also reformatting my disk without permission

I'm on a MacBook Pro M1 2020, running Sonoma 14.2.1. I'm trying to use Time Machine to back up to an external drive that I've used previously. I formatted my external drive to be MacOS Journaled, as I have some older files and older computers that I sometimes use as well. Everything will back up fine; then I will be told it can't back up because there's not enough space, even when there is plenty of space (and shouldn't it just be writing over older backups anyway)? In addition, my drive is now formatted as APFS (case-sensitive), which I specifically did not want. I restarted with my external plugged in and now it appears to be backing up, but again, not in the format I wanted. What is going on and how do I stop it?

MacBook Pro (M1, 2020)

Posted on Apr 27, 2024 6:45 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 27, 2024 9:07 PM in response to sassypants2

In addition, my drive is now formatted as APFS (case-sensitive), which I specifically did not want

Sonoma will automatically format the drive in APFS (case-sensitive).....even if you have previously manually formatted the drive in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). That's just the way it is. You won't be able to change this.

What is the total capacity of the drive? How much space is being taken up by Time Machine backups? How much space is being taken up by other data?

Time Machine does not behave well when the drive is close to capacity.

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,914 points

Apr 27, 2024 9:25 PM in response to sassypants2

Which drive did it say didn’t have enough space? If the drive you are backing up is too full, it cannot make a backup.

If you want to store additional files on the drive, add an APFS Volume. You may have to erase it APFS, add a volume, then set it up for Time Machine on one of the volumes.

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