Does Mojave REINSTALL fix Time Machine (and other) issues?

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Level 1

40 points

Does Mojave REINSTALL fix Time Machine (and other) issues?

I updated Mojave to 14.4 and by coincidence (and not related) I had a strain of the Geneio Virus. Malwarebytes helped me get rid of it. Before the virus was identified, Apple phone consultants had me digging deep into my files and zipping and deleting all sorts of files because they were unaware that there was a virus. I had contacted them because my browsers had been hijacked by Safe Finder adware.

Now, Time Machine says it's backing up (or in progress) but it doesn't back up. Since March 31, when I got the virus, there was 1 "real" backup on April 8th. When I tell it to "backup now," immediately it shows that it did. There's no whirring etc. When I return to it later the backup is not there anymore. The WD backup hard drive is fine, I believe. All this happened when I started removing files deep in the bowels of the computer.

Some of what I have done:

I deleted the .inprogress file in the library and restarted my computer
I restarted my computer in Safe Mode several times
I Reset PRAM
I used disk utility to repair the drives
I Removed Time Machine & started the computer without it. Then plugged in the Time Machine. I was asked if I wanted to use that for a backup. I said yes.
I ejected Time Machine, turned off the computer, unplugged each, waited several minutes. plugged just Time Machine into computer and turned it on.
I replaced one of the Time Machine library files with one from Time Machine from before the sale started - after I did that it at least showed momentarily that it had backed up -- although I don't believe it really did!

I can get into Time Machine just fine. It just won't back up -- Also, my Google Backup & sync NEVER stops since all this began. Thanks...

iMac 21.5", macOS 10.14

Posted on Apr 15, 2019 5:57 AM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

155,702 points

Apr 16, 2019 12:33 PM in response to rswc90

It is not possible to determine whether the Time Machine backup drive or the iMac's internal storage is preventing progress. If you decide it's not worthwhile to wait any longer, then erase the iMac's startup drive and reinstall macOS. Once it finishes installing macOS it will present you with two options:

you can choose to migrate the Time Machine's backed up User Account(s), or
set up the Mac as if it were brand new.

Those options lead to your next actions. Migrating the User Account as in the first option might stall again, and in that case the Time Machine backup you chose is probably not usable. You could choose a different one and try again, or abandon that approach and manually migrate selected information later. This is going to be the more time-consuming option.

If you are able to use the Mac after option #2 notwithstanding the fact it won't contain your previous User Account information, its startup drive is probably OK. Again, you can choose to use Migration Assistant, or just restore selected items from Time Machine. This is less time-consuming, but it will require some trial and error on your part.

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Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

155,702 points

Apr 15, 2019 9:30 AM in response to rswc90

Apple phone consultants had me digging deep into my files and zipping and deleting all sorts of files ..

That just sounds suspicious to me. Why would they have you "zip" files? Apple would be very familiar with "Genieo" and its variants and how to get rid of them. Compressing files would be unrelated to that concern.

Unless you began here: Contact Support then I recommend you contact Apple again—using that link. Reference the case number they provided, describe the subsequent problems, and ask what to do. If they have no case number, then you did not contact Apple and additional actions will be necessary.

Eradicating "Geneio" and its variants is simple and should have had no effect on Time Machine or its operation.

To answer your initial question though, reinstalling macOS is nondestructive. It may or may not fix anything but it won't make things worse.

Also, my Google Backup & sync NEVER stops since all this began.

Contact Google for support for that particular problem: Contact a third-party vendor - Apple Support

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Answer 3

rswc90 Author

Level 1

40 points

Apr 15, 2019 7:52 PM in response to John Galt

Thank you, John Galt. Over the past years you have been a wonderful help to me.

Apple support was the one giving me all of the above named recommendations and guidance. I spent today on the phone with them as well and they had me wipe my machine clean with command R reboot and then restore everything from a back up. Now the back up is stuck writing to the presumed wiped clean machine. It started out saying I had 8 hrs to restore. Not it says more than 40 hours!!!

As for Google, we have shared four emails back-and-forth and they keep giving me directions for a PC rather than a Mac despite that my description starts out with “I am working on a desktop Mac with Mojave installed.” So I think mercury must be in retrograde and the stars are not aligned for help with my computer right now!

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Answer 4

John Galt

Level 10

155,702 points

Apr 16, 2019 8:31 AM in response to rswc90

Thanks. Their advice just strikes me as odd, given the problem that needed to be addressed.

Don't pay too much attention to the "time remaining" estimate. It can be wildly inaccurate. Of course that also means the 40 hours remaining might turn into 60 or more. Best to let it either finish, or give it long enough to decide it will never finish. It's also a good idea to have more than just one TM backup drive, just in case corruption is causing the restoration to take so long. I'm watching one estimate go from 16 hours to over 20 right now. It might be on the way out.

Thank you for your kind comments.

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Answer 5

rswc90 Author

Level 1

40 points

Apr 16, 2019 8:37 AM in response to rswc90

So this morning was still stuck on 275.4 GB. I stopped it. tried to delete it and eventually rebooted and deleted it. Started again with Command-R and picked a different date to restore. Still got stuck around the 273 GB for a couple of hours. So I repeated the process and this time after deleting it, installed Mojave only. Then I am now trying to restore my user data, applications and other files.

In hindsight I should have simply chosen my user data alone rather than the apps etc. It's been "Preparing to transfer data" for about 1.5 hours now. The TimeMachine is flashing - but who knows if it's really working. There was a lot of data (1.5 T) on the old computer - So I am just sitting here waiting... ;-)

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Does Mojave REINSTALL fix Time Machine (and other) issues?

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