User profile for user: Rokslyd
Rokslyd Author
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time machine prepares backup and then restarts and doesnt backup then the next backup does the same thin

13" MacBook Pro, mid 2012 Time Machine prepares backup then restarts without finishing the backup and the next scheduled backup repeats the same thing. Should I erase the Raid 1 backup disk and start over? I have been using a Mercury Elite Raid 1 (OWC Enclosure with twin 2TB Seagate drives) for backups for several years with no problems but in April 2019 my MacBook started to restart every few hours and I discovered that turning off Time Machine automatic backups stopped the restarts but now I can't figure out what is causing the problem. Any ideas before I erase the drives? Thanks for any comments or suggestions. And hey I'm having fun trying to figure it out! The best way to learn is always first hand.

Rokslyd

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.14

Posted on Jul 11, 2019 12:53 PM

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User profile for user: John Galt
John Galt
User level: Level 10
155,810 points

Posted on Jul 11, 2019 2:10 PM

Erasing the drives might not be necessary. First, try removing that backup disk from Time Machine's Preferences (use its Add or Remove Backup Disks... selection that appears after the list of all your backup devices) and then add that same disk again (using the same selection).


That action forces Time Machine to exhaustively traverse the Time Machine backup as it determines what needs to be backed up, which takes a while to finish, after which it will perform a normal, incremental backup regardless of the "Backing up xxx of yyy" values. It does not affect any existing backups in any way.


If that doesn't fix it then pursue using Disk Utility's First Aid, but beware that disks in need of such repair will always fail again, eventually.


For general TM troubleshooting read Time Machine troubleshooting on Mac.

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User profile for user: John Galt
John Galt
User level: Level 10
155,810 points

Jul 11, 2019 2:10 PM in response to Rokslyd

Erasing the drives might not be necessary. First, try removing that backup disk from Time Machine's Preferences (use its Add or Remove Backup Disks... selection that appears after the list of all your backup devices) and then add that same disk again (using the same selection).


That action forces Time Machine to exhaustively traverse the Time Machine backup as it determines what needs to be backed up, which takes a while to finish, after which it will perform a normal, incremental backup regardless of the "Backing up xxx of yyy" values. It does not affect any existing backups in any way.


If that doesn't fix it then pursue using Disk Utility's First Aid, but beware that disks in need of such repair will always fail again, eventually.


For general TM troubleshooting read Time Machine troubleshooting on Mac.

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time machine prepares backup and then restarts and doesnt backup then the next backup does the same thin

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