Time Machine - Copy stage failed with error:11

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Level 1

29 points

Time Machine - Copy stage failed with error:11

Hi, I'm getting slightly desperate as I cannot figure out how to get Time Machine working again. After years of backing up, suddenly on Januar 1st this year, I get an error that Time Machine cannot complete the backup. Checking the log, I get the following error for a handful of files:

2019-01-12 15:01:39.457219+0100 0x7294d Error 0x0 1468 0 backupd: (TimeMachine) [com.apple.TimeMachine:TMLogError] Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.SnapshotVolumeFSEventStoreUUID' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"

2019-01-12 15:01:39.457303+0100 0x7294d Error 0x0 1468 0 backupd: (TimeMachine) [com.apple.TimeMachine:TMLogError] Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.SnapshotVolumeLastFSEventID' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"

2019-01-12 15:01:39.457353+0100 0x7294d Error 0x0 1468 0 backupd: (TimeMachine) [com.apple.TimeMachine:TMLogError] Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.SnapshotVolumeUUID' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"

2019-01-12 15:01:39.459701+0100 0x7294d Error 0x0 1468 0 backupd: (TimeMachine) [com.apple.TimeMachine:TMLogError] Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.PreviousSnapshotVolumeUUID' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"

2019-01-12 15:01:39.459764+0100 0x7294d Error 0x0 1468 0 backupd: (TimeMachine) [com.apple.TimeMachine:TMLogError] Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.PreviousSnapshotVolumeName' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"

2019-01-12 15:01:39.459793+0100 0x7294d Error 0x0 1468 0 backupd: (TimeMachine) [com.apple.TimeMachine:TMLogError] Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.VolumeBytesUsed' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"

2019-01-12 15:01:39.459818+0100 0x7294d Error 0x0 1468 0 backupd: (TimeMachine) [com.apple.TimeMachine:TMLogError] Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.VolumeIsCaseSensitive' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"

2019-01-12 15:01:39.459844+0100 0x7294d Error 0x0 1468 0 backupd: (TimeMachine) [com.apple.TimeMachine:TMLogError] Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.fstypename' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"

2019-01-12 15:01:39.459869+0100 0x7294d Error 0x0 1468 0 backupd: (TimeMachine) [com.apple.TimeMachine:TMLogError] Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.VolumeIsEncrypted' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"

2019-01-12 15:01:41.504863+0100 0x7294d Error 0x0 1468 0 backupd: (TimeMachine) [com.apple.TimeMachine:TMLogError] Failed to write unlock record UUIDs as extended attribute for disk '/', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"

2019-01-12 15:03:14.206248+0100 0x72b2a Error 0x0 1468 0 backupd: (TimeMachine) [com.apple.TimeMachine:TMLogError] Error: (-48) SrcErr:NO Copying /Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/Fan Andersen Home iMac/2019-01-12-150141/Macintosh HD/Users/famandersen/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Dusty Springfield/A Girl Called Dusty to /Volumes/WD iMac Home TM/Backups.backupdb/Fan Andersen Home iMac/2019-01-12-150142.inProgress/092DFBDF-8EF3-4FFB-90CF-62D23699DF3E/Macintosh HD/Users/famandersen/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Dusty Springfield

2019-01-12 15:03:14.206277+0100 0x72b2a Error 0x0 1468 0 backupd: (TimeMachine) [com.apple.TimeMachine:TMLogError] Stopping backup.

As shown, these are music files in the iTunes library, and when I check these files, there were some strange issues with them. Clicking "Show in Finder" in iTunes would sometimes show an empty folder for the album in question, don't know how that happened.

What I have tried so far:

After a while, I restored the whole folder for poor Dusty Springfield from Time Machine, and there don't seem to be any more problems with the files now.
I have also run disk repair from Disk Utility
Tried excluding first the album folder, later the whole Dusty Springfield folder from the backup, but still with the same error.
On some other recommendation, I also tried turning off spotlight and running the backup process, but with the same error
And I tried a new disk to backup to.

Any ideas what could be the issue and how to solve it?

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Jan 12, 2019 9:24 AM

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Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

157,896 points

Jan 13, 2019 9:43 AM in response to BJ4Rock

Ok, a few things stand out from the log you provided:

The partition/share name of your WD external drive - I see in the log that you have named it: WD iMac Home TM. From experience, I've found that network devices should use "simple" names that only use 16-or less alphanumeric characters, without spaces or special characters. For example, I would suggest that you consider renaming your WD drive to: WDiMacHomeTM
Computer Name - Is it "Fan Anderson Home iMac?" If so, the same rules would apply.
TM Local Snapshots - It may be possible that the TM Snapshots on your Mac are corrupted or locked. I suggest that you delete them. Ref: How to delete Time Machine snapshots on your Mac - Macworld

If you're willing to give these above a try, then please do so, and then, try another TM backup to this drive.

A few additional questions not based on the log:

What is the external WD drive formatted as: HFS+ or APFS?
Are the TM backups encrypted?
Is the WD drive encrypted?
Are you running the TM backups from a user account that has administrator privileges or a standard user account?
Spotlight should not be disabled as TM uses this service for the backups ... Is it?

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Answer 2

Tesserax

Level 10

157,896 points

Jan 14, 2019 8:37 AM in response to BJ4Rock

Did you have an opportunity to delete the local snapshots? If so, and you're still having the issue, it may have to due to encryption. At this point, the only thing I can suggest is to decrypt your WD drive and disable encryption for the TM backup to see if this helps. Good luck!

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Answer 3

BJ4Rock Author

Level 1

29 points

Jan 14, 2019 12:41 PM in response to BJ4Rock

OK, I tried excluding all Dusty and Police related from the backup and finally, the backup succeeded! Really happy about this, I can live with having some music folders excluded, but I might also try to pinpoint exactly which files are causing the problems and investigating them more.

In any case, deleting the local snapshots seemed to be the way forward so thanks a lot Tesserax!

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Answer 4

BJ4Rock Author

Level 1

29 points

Jan 12, 2019 11:31 PM in response to Tesserax

Hi, Tesserax, first of all, thanks for taking the time to help!

To your questions:

Yes, I have been using a WD 3 TB HDD (although in desperation, I yesterday even dug out my old, decommissioned TC, erased the drive and tried backing up to that, but with the same outcome)
Yes, this is a Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015 iMac, running Mojave (10.14.2 (18C54))
Yes, the errors are always linked to the Dusty Springfield music files

I ran the command, and right off the bat, it starts out with lots of errors that don't seem too promising. It then failed, as usual. With the 5,000 character limit for these posts, I'll post the log in the next post now.

Is it possible to read from this what's going on?

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Answer 5

BJ4Rock Author

Level 1

29 points

Jan 12, 2019 11:32 PM in response to BJ4Rock

Filtering the log data using "subsystem == "com.apple.TimeMachine""

Timestamp Thread Type Activity PID TTL

2019-01-13 08:25:30.260734+0100 0xdb0b Info 0x10421 960 0 backupd: (TimeMachine) [com.apple.TimeMachine:TMLogInfo] Starting manual backup

2019-01-13 08:25:30.262583+0100 0xdb0b Info 0x10421 960 0 backupd: (TimeMachine) [com.apple.TimeMachine:TMLogInfo] Failed to find matching sparsebundle in directory '/Volumes/WD iMac Home TM', directory contents: (

".disk_label",

".disk_label_2x",

".fseventsd",

".Spotlight-V100",

".VolumeIcon.icns",

"Backups.backupdb",

"tmbootpicker.efi"

)

2019-01-13 08:25:30.266323+0100 0xdb0b Info 0x10421 960 0 backupd: (TimeMachine) [com.apple.TimeMachine:TMLogInfo] Backing up to /dev/disk7: /Volumes/WD iMac Home TM/Backups.backupdb

2019-01-13 08:25:37.245247+0100 0xdb0b Error 0x10421 960 0 backupd: (TimeMachine) [com.apple.TimeMachine:TMLogError] Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.SnapshotVolumeFSEventStoreUUID' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"

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Answer 6

BJ4Rock Author

Level 1

29 points

Jan 14, 2019 6:29 AM in response to Tesserax

Hi, thanks for further advice! So, I have now renamed the drive and computer to avoid spaces and deleted TM Snapshots (there were some indeed) and retried to back up. Sadly, the outcome was the same, see attached log, but this time it seemed to stop after just one Dusty Springfield error.

For the other questions:

The drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Yes, they are encrypted
Yes
It is an admin account
I temporarily tried disabling Spotlight, per some advice, but it is reenabled now

This is hard to figure out!

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Answer 7

BJ4Rock Author

Level 1

29 points

Jan 14, 2019 10:07 AM in response to Tesserax

Ah, sorry, I made a mistake, I didn't complete the delete local snapshot with the date command. I now deleted the one dates January 1st (which was the date of the last successful backup). After trying again to run the backup, it failed, but now with the error message related to a different (music) file (this time, Police the culprit). I am now in the process of deleting all local snapshots, hope this makes a difference!

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Answer 8

BJ4Rock Author

Level 1

29 points

Jan 12, 2019 11:33 PM in response to BJ4Rock

Log

OK, newbie, realized I could add a file, attached!

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Answer 9

BJ4Rock Author

Level 1

29 points

Jan 14, 2019 6:30 AM in response to BJ4Rock

Log

Log file

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Answer 10

Tesserax

Level 10

157,896 points

Jan 12, 2019 10:36 AM in response to BJ4Rock

A few questions, if you don't mind:

It appears that you are using Time Machine (TM) to backup to an external HDD or SSD, and not to a Time Capsule (TC) ... correct?
You are backing up an iMac that is a 2012 or later model, running macOS Mojave ... correct?
The TM backups always fail to back up these particular files ... correct?

Regardless, I would like for you to try the following to record the backup process to see where it is failing:

Run the Terminal app.
Enter the following at the command prompt:
- sudo log stream --predicate 'subsystem=="com.apple.TimeMachine"' --info <return>
Review the results. Good results would end with "Backup completed successfully." Anything else would indicate errors.
Exit Terminal by entering the following at the command prompt: exit <return>

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Answer 11

BJ4Rock Author

Level 1

29 points

Jan 14, 2019 10:11 AM in response to BJ4Rock

Still error, but from the logging I see that despite having deleted the local snapshots, there is still an error message related to the local snapshot from January 1st:

2019-01-14 19:09:05.013134+0100 0x7c533 Error 0x8b0d8 2342 0 backupd: (TimeMachine) [com.apple.TimeMachine:TMLogError] Failed to mount reference snapshot: com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-01-01-122030 source: Macintosh HD

As I mentioned, this is the date of the last successful backup, so it seems there is some issue with this.

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Answer 12

Tesserax

Level 10

157,896 points

Jan 14, 2019 8:31 PM in response to BJ4Rock

You’re very welcome! I’m glad you got it worked out.

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Time Machine - Copy stage failed with error:11

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