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
I changed nothing, not one thing. Now, right now, Enter Time Machine can see all my backups
I have no idea. As before I'm posting to document for others and my excellent support agent
It is going to take us determination and patience to prove that this is a global issue. You have started on the same road I am on. We ought to achieve something!
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
My overnight test has succeeded. If you back up to a NAS this may solve your problem as well
It will do a LARGE backup. Whether it is incremental or full only the Time Machine deity knows. Mine did several large backups because Photos enjoyed itself processing the Photos library, too.
Sorry, my Thanks was meant to go to MikCas (this is my first posting in a "thread"), his tip actually solved my problem.
Thanx again.
Peter
Thanks for the recommendation. I appreciate it.
Add me to the list. Has there been any word from anyone at Apple about this problem?
I just discovered the problem 15 minutes ago, so of course obviously started looking on internet. Of course I will call Apple!! ;)
Today I am back to not being able to see 100% of my backups:
I have a weird clue, though. Five backups in there is one with no heading. Here it is nearer the front
It's as if there is a gap in the backups, a gap that isn't present. I can't land on the blank one. It comes between 10:55 and 13:04
So what does tmutil show?
To me it looks as if it is present, just invisible and timestamped 2019-10-15-121155
I called support early today and got a case #. The tech told me he saw "nothing on their end" about this issue and put me on hold to check other sources and came up with the same answer. He finally recommended a Catalina re-load and scheduled a call back from Apple in two hours to check results with the assurance that all we talked about was written in his notes. The re-load went smoothly but didn't correct the error and I never got a call back so called back myself later this afternoon.
The tech I talked to this time said "not much written down." (Grrr). He did find an internal Apple thread on this issue and bumped me up to "Senior Mac Support." This tech and I spent about 90 minutes going through numerous diagnostics, screen sharing, and finally uploaded two diagnostic files to Apple. He said Engineering normally takes 2-3 business days to respond. He hopes to call me back in 48 hours. If not then, this next Monday, and worst case we have a call scheduled for a week from Monday. I got an email from him with a direct phone number and his emphasis that I could email/call if there were problems.
As a data point, Time Machine works fine went retrieving files from the Finder menu. It's only Mail that's a problem. Also, the tech said that reverting to Mojave for email retrieval is a viable option based on my last Mojave backup.
Lastly, I've painfully learned to muzzle my genetic urge to upgrade immediately after new software is available. As I read the blogs with 20/20 hindsight from people much smarter than I, it's clear that many of them are in a "wait and see" mode.
The problem is not really there. Namely if you wait until all old baking cups are read in, you can scroll back in your TM.
It is also possible to access all TM backups of your "backup bundle" via Finder.
After you've called on the time machine, the "backup bundle" can be seen as a disk. This disk will be visible on your "Disk Utility". Now you can indicate with your mouse that you want to open this disk in Finder.
I did try waiting. I waited on this screen for over an hour
What it seems to show is that TM is erratic beyond belief right now. This is my oldest (today) TM Visible backup and is invisible. tmutil shows older backups
No news from Support today because they have no news to give me
You must perform the following steps:
1) open TM and go back one day;
2) Stop TM
3) Open disk utility
4) Now you see the sparse bundle disk;
5) now indicate with your mouse that you want to open this disk in Finder
6) Open the sparse bundle
7) Now you can see all data backups
8) now go to TM and now see all your backups in TM
MikCas wrote:
You must perform the following steps:
1) open TM and go back one day;
2) Stop TM
3) Open disk utility
4) Now you see the sparse bundle disk;
5) now indicate with your mouse that you want to open this disk in Finder
6) Open the sparse bundle
7) Now you can see all data backups
8) now go to TM and now see all your backups in TM
Thank you for those steps. I would expect those to work, too. They have not worked (inside TM using Enter Time Machine, though I can see the files in finder with ease), which is why I am deep inside Apple Support at the moment. It seems that some of us suffer from an issue that others of us do not have.
You have reminded me of a route that I had forgotten, and I am very grateful, as will others be who are following this thread. It beats using tmutil!
In Catalina, by the way, it renames the .sparsebundle file to .backupbundle and adds a folder Mapped if one views the file in finder with Show Package Contents when right clicking the .backupbundle file
Time Machine Backups are present but missing
