Entering Time Machine I see backups only back as far as 10/10/2019, 19:12. It won't allow a screenshot so I had to take a photo
TM Preferences shows
I Imagine that equates to 19:12
Terminal shows differently:
Unless I'm being particularly dense, TM can't see the backups that tmutil can see. So I am bewildered.
I'm not sure what data Catalina arrived, but I upgraded on pretty much that day
MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
Much work with my NAS vendor has led to cautious optimism. We checked many things. They have been told my by many users that there is a problem and are taking matters very seriously. It may have come down to setting the Bonjour area correctly. This is my NAS user interface. Your NAS will be different, but equivalent settings are likely to be present
These are my two key settings. The lower one was not ticked. Obviously I am using SMB.
Now it is ticked. A simple test showed that this is likely to solve the problem. I will let my standard NAS closedown and restart process happen overnight, and brief you here in the morning with success or failure. A brief test just now leaves me cautiously optimistic
If you test the following, you can see that the problem is definitely related to your NAS. I also have a NAS and the same problems.
So I tested with an external HD. I have made several small TM bakups by using the option and turning things off.
Result: various TM bakups on an external HD which are visible without problems with your TM and are mounted without problems.
I've talked to the Senior Mac guy twice. The engineers now have my diagnostic info and he's waiting for a reply. Due to my availability, he won't call back until Monday. I have an external HD and see if some of the options mentioned above work for me. Appreciate all the insights.
MikCas wrote:
If you test the following, you can see that the problem is definitely related to your NAS. I also have a NAS and the same problems.
So I tested with an external HD. I have made several small TM bakups by using the option and turning things off.
Result: various TM bakups on an external HD which are visible without problems with your TM and are mounted without problems.
This is where I am likely to hit a brick wall. I think I can say with 90% certainty that the problem is with the dialogue between TM and the NAS. Since it worked on Mojave with no issues it is the upgrade to Catalina that has rendered the problem that may have been silent before to be loud and visible.
This means either that Catalina is an imperfect implementation of the things TM sends to the NAS and receives from it, or the NAS is imperfect in interpreting that dialogue, or there is a mixture of both.
Knowing that answer I will receive (not our problem) I've posed the question to the NAS vendor's support. It tends to take 2-5 days for an answer
Yours is a good empirical test, and I tend to agree with you
MikCas wrote:
With all due respect. The senior Mac guy twice are often wrong.
They often wait for one of the users to come up with a solution and then come up with their own solution.
I have my doubts
Often a wise user has a better idea even than engineering. The answer may be because the problem is in the forefront of the user's mind, whereas it is simply one facet of the engineering role.
Working with my new friend 'my' senior mac guy I am making progress, though we have not spoken for a while because he has nothing new to tell me. I am feeding him information though, in the hope that I may be (or become) a wise enough user to help reach a conclusion
I understand your doubts. 👀 I have set mine aside.
I have proved to my satisfaction that TM works fine after I connect my MBP via finder to the NAS. My NAS goes to sleep overnight, so this issue happens after it re-awakens
I am judging this to be a problem now that rests on the shoulders of the NAS vendor, but created by Apple. I have had good replies form the NAS vendor, the most significant being :
"...please let me know how your next Time Machine event goes and we can investigate this further if required. This is unfortunately a common occurrence for us whenever Mac releases a new update, as they tend to change something each time."
Each NAS vendor will be affected differently, so each of us with the problem will need a different interim solution
Apple having discontinued Time Capsule, one would think that they had a better process to work with well publicised and carefully documented handshake dialogues that are standardised for NAS vendors, and perhaps they do.
Came from the other shorter thread on this. Been on with Apple at least half dozen times for various issues since Catalina including this TM issue.
Eventually got a clean install of Cat but all attempts to restore from TM backup or migrate data with migration assistant failed repeatedly.
Yesterday while on phone with Apple we renamed the backupbundle file to sparsebundle and instantly had access in Finder to all old TM backups from Mojave. I spent some time before work dragging files over, I am fairly sure I got them all but wanted to double check, but when I got home from work 8 hours later, TM backups had disappeared from finder again. I have not made an attempt to do a new TM backup from Catalina yet, and the file name has not changed, still iMac.sparsebundle.
I do not have any third party NAS stuff, using Apple Time Capsule.
Tried some of the above but Disk Utility does not show the Time Capsule external HD even though I have show all devices checked.
Hoping for some assistance.
Also in Finder prefs I have all things checked including Bonjour computers.
What a strange issue.
Hans Bakken
Just a quick addition-
When in Time machine, only "Today" is available, and the external Time Capsule icon is greyed out.
Also the dates of all backups are visible on the right side of the screen, but when I hover, the line with the date is red, and nothing happens when I click it.
So backups are there but just not able to be used.
I would need guidance, but in terminal you can use tmutil to see, manipulate and restore from backups. The .sparsebundle and .backupbundle thing is a red herring. Catalina will always change it to .backupbundle.
issue the command tmutil listbackups in Terminal. Assuming Disk Utility can see your backup (ignore finder) then you will see a list of all your backups.
man tmutil will tell you far more than you need to know about tmutil
What I think you can see when you mention "only todaY" is backups that are somehow stored on your machine. I may also be making a bad assumption own that.
I've never owned a Time Capsule, but isn't it just a cleverly branded NAS that we were intended to buy until Apple withdrew it from sale?
What I believe this mess is caused by is imperfect dialogue between the Mac and the Backup Drive. I don't think it occurs with a plugged in external disk, just one elsewhere in the network. I think this may be the place to aim your support agent
Thanks Lurk and all above for your suggestions.
All of a sudden now the sparsebundle and TM backups are now visible in Disk Util.
Backups were transiently able to be seen in TM but when I closed TM and opened again, they were inaccessible again!
In Disk Util, I am able to right click the TM backup > show in finder and get to the files!
I did not do anything except plug CAT6A cable from iMac to LAN port on Time Capsule.
Although I have had the cable plugged in most of the time for the last 10 days while I was desperately trying to get any OS reinstalled after failed Catalina upgrade.
So it's not just a matter of cable vs wireless NAS communication.
Clearly the issue is not resolved, I will NOT be surprised when I get home from work if sparsebundle and TM backups have again disappeared from Disk Util, which is currently the ONLY way I can see them.
In answer to the Time Capsule, yes it is Apple branded combination NAS and wireless router. I have had them since 2009 with no issues, but as you know they were no longer manufactured after spring 2018 so eventually I will have to get something else.
After painstakingly confirming that I have all the my desired old data dragged to my new clean Catalina install I will likely try a new TM backup, any thoughts?
Not sure if it will do incremental backup or a new full backup in this case, anyone tried this?
Hans Bakken
Data point: I have this problem using an external drive (G-Technology) that is not hooked up to the network.
I'm gladdened to hear others are having some success. Unready to take on this more sophisticated solutions until I'm completely out of other options.
For your information:
I backup to my NAS.
So part of my NAS is seen as TM. I have tested several of your problems on my iMac, but these are not visible to me.
It works like this for me: If I open Finder and then click on Time Machine, only the last backup will be visible first.
But if I wait quietly "- / + 3 minute", then all old backups become visible and I can access them normally.
After further investigation I am behind why this happens.
Namely macOS Catalina creates 2 APFS volume. 1 for the operating system and 1 for the Data. macOS-Catalina make sure that the last TM backup can be immediately and very quickly restored in one way or another. If you restart your iMac and hold down CMD + R and you try to restore the last backup you will see 2 options. 1 restore the last backup immediately or restore a backup via your TM. I tested this on my 2nd iMac with the result that if I box for option 1 (restore the last backup immediately) my system will be restored within 2 minutes.
Then I also tested option 2. Clearly more than 30 minutes had to wait in this situation.
So I believe that your Time Machine first shows you this 1st option and only a little later when it has read the data from your NAS, then the other backups that are on your NAS.
MikCas wrote:
For your information:
I backup to my NAS.
So part of my NAS is seen as TM. I have tested several of your problems on my iMac, but these are not visible to me.
It works like this for me: If I open Finder and then click on Time Machine, only the last backup will be visible first.
But if I wait quietly "- / + 3 minute", then all old backups become visible and I can access them normally.
After further investigation I am behind why this happens.
Namely macOS Catalina creates 2 APFS volume. 1 for the operating system and 1 for the Data. macOS-Catalina make sure that the last TM backup can be immediately and very quickly restored in one way or another. If you restart your iMac and hold down CMD + R and you try to restore the last backup you will see 2 options. 1 restore the last backup immediately or restore a backup via your TM. I tested this on my 2nd iMac with the result that if I box for option 1 (restore the last backup immediately) my system will be restored within 2 minutes.
Then I also tested option 2. Clearly more than 30 minutes had to wait in this situation.
So I believe that your Time Machine first shows you this 1st option and only a little later when it has read the data from your NAS, then the other backups that are on your NAS.
I agree. It seems that Catalina has extended Local Snapshots as a much stronger concept, which is great.
My main issue has been happening when the second phase does not happen (reading from the disk) when my NAS fails to connect 'properly'.
I got my weekly call from Apple last Friday. The engineers told him they're aware of the problem and "investigating" which I'm told is AppleSpeak for a solution will be coming out in the form of an update, a Knowledge-based topic, or both and he'll contact me when that's out. I don't have an immediate need to find a lost email nor do I have the skills to perform some of the gyrations others have done so for right now I've elected to wait it out. But I'd encourage others to identify this problem to Apple. As someone previously posted, there's strength in numbers.
I had the same issue and I solved the same way.
My sparsebundle is on an external drive and I erased the TM backup from my time capsule. After Catalina created its own new backup, everything works fine.
ApteryxMAC wrote:
I had the same issue and I solved the same way.
My sparsebundle is on an external drive and I erased the TM backup from my time capsule. After Catalina created its own new backup, everything works fine.
That is not a solution. That is the creation of a new backup. You have chosen to lose you old backups.
The problem only exists when the Mac cannot see the external drive. The entire issue is in connecting the external drive (of whatever out) reliably
Time Machine Backups are present but missing
