Time Machine issues since upgrading to Catalina

Now I can report I've identified the problem. My virus checker has been interfering with network traffic.

I successfully did a full backup in safe mode so that told me there was something happening in normal mode. Watched a update to that backup sloooow down and stall. I then disabled the virus checker and suddenly the update went as expected.

Check your virus checker (if you're using one) isn't blocking backups. Mine is ESET Cyber Security. I've turned off its checking network drives. As it was working before Catalina, some change in Catalina has affected it.

This is a follow-up to my previous post on the 11/27 concerning my problems with Catalina Time Machine vs. my network attached storage (NAS) unit.  Since my solution, and explanation, may be unique, I feel the need to share this with others. By the way, please feel free to correct me it this is already known and understood.  OM2

I had a procedure to setup Time Machine in Catalina that I thought solved a NAS connection problem.  Since my iMacs always "sleep", I was not aware this procedure had a fatal flaw.  Yesterday, I discovered that the network path created with this procedure failed to survive a re-boot of the iMac!  

So, (spoiler alert) let me share with you what was done to permanently resolve that issue.  It's so simple....I re-booted my router!  

Previously, the network path I tried to setup in Finder for the NAS would repeatedly fail to connect.  By that I mean the path would not establish a "connected as: (user name here)" result.  So as a work-around, the GO > Connect to Server app from Finder menu was used to complete a connection to the NAS that would show up on the Time Machine > Select Disk selection window.  It worked.  But it now appears my procedure actually prevented macOS from creating a permanent record of the path.

Since the path I was trying to create in Finder produced either a "connecting" or "connection failed" result, it now looks like macOS was actually waiting for an acknowledgement (ACK-like) response from the NAS.  A subsequent "connection failed" result simply meant that the wait had "timed-out".  

Since a network connection to the NAS's administrative dashboard could be made, network "HTML" communication was working.  But data communication hand-shaking and transfer don't use HTML.  After temporarily by-passing the network switches with no improvement (by surviving an iMac re-boot), the router was now the prime suspect.  Actually, this now made sense even before it's power was cycled (being sure to allow 15-20 seconds before re-applying power).  My experience with Linksys routers goes back about 25 or 30 years in both residential and professional environments.  They have always been easy to use and reliable.  But like most all other residential routers, something gets bunched-up from time to time and you need to perform a power-cycling re-boot.  In the past, this may have been (unintentionally) handled by the occasional commercial power-outage.  My router is now connected to a UPS so there's no telling how long since it's last re-boot!  I now have a come-up on my phone to remind me monthly.

To sum this up, a gremlin in the router caused the above described problem I experienced, not the NAS and certainly not macOS Catalina!  My network connections now survive a re-boot of the iMac and are stable.  Time Machine has even stopped the intermittent aborted backup attempts I have observed and documented in the last month.

The following steps highlight a Time Machine setup I can now complete successfully:

• Step 1. Power-cycle the router. 
• Step 2. Establish a completely configured path in Finder.  If your problem was the same as mine, you will note that each level in the path now has an "eject" icon.  
• Step 3. Use the Finder GO > Connector to Server app to associate the NAS drive device with the network path.  Here's where my WD myCloud EX4 now requires an IP address instead of it's UNC "wdmycloudex4" (a WD thing?).
• Step 4. Use the Time Machine > Select Disk window to find and assign the newly created drive device to Time Machine. 
• Step 5. Follow the remaining login security prompts to completion.  
• Step 6. And finally, test by re-starting your Mac.  It may take a few minutes after the system comes back up before the path and "backupbundle" appears (you may have to click each path level). 

I have screen-shots detailing a successful setup and hope to post them in the very near future, specially if anyone else is interested in seeing them. 

In the meantime, I hope the above provides another insight into why we can't connect to our NAS devices, regardless of macOS.

Best regards,

OM2

Please read If you can't back up or restore your Mac using Time Machine ...

lewisni wrote:

Since upgrading to Catalina, my time machine backups work following a reboot, but the following day after waking up computer fail with error:

The backup disk image “/Volumes/.timemachine/DiskStation._afpovertcp._t ...

That message implies you are using a "Synology DiskStation" and that it is using a third party imitation of Apple's proprietary (and deprecated) AFP, is that correct?

If you have any hope of making Time Machine work with a non-Apple NAS, you must absolutely, positively use SMB.

Types of disks you can use with Time Machine on Mac

Please advise why this is happening and what options other than rebooting there are to fix it.

Be advised that Synology NAS devices have never been reliable with Apple's Time Machine software for a variety of reasons. Research this site for hundreds if not thousands of similar reports that date back to Time Machine's first implementation in OS X 10.5 "Leopard". If you must use a non-Apple NAS for backups, and you need those backups to be reliable in the event you need to restore a Mac, then use something other than Time Machine.

I am not sure if it is related, but I actually managed to resolve my time machine backup problems and the connection problems for time capsule. In the Time capsule settings, the iPv6 connection sharing has to be disabled for internet (advanced options). FYI: I run my Time capsule in Bridge mode. And it does not matter whether any smb or afp file sharing is enabled on the computer or not. I do not know what changed in Catalina (or perhaps on my providers iPv6 protocol side, but it started after upgrading), but now remote backups over Wifi on time machine work again, and also the finder properly connecting to the time capsule drive. So it is not a firmware problem, as an Apple support person indicated for my old-time capsule, and I do not need to go back to Mojave. If this does not work for you, try an ethernet connection for your backups. That should work in any case.

Just wanted to let you and others know, as some other users seem to have the same problem after upgrading.

OK...All so this is what I had to do. Our entire house is backed up by the time machine and the fix was to erase the time machine and start from scratch. We were able to do this as all our computers were upto date. After we reformatted we backed up each computer 1 at a time...each approximately 14hours and everything seems to be working now. Not what I wanted to do but seemed to be the only alternative. Regardless, everything is working. I hope this helps. I've attached the apple url for how to erase the time machine.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202174

We all agree that the Time Machine app on MacOS is flawed. Here is a summary of my experience:

• Time Machine feature of ASUS router
  • Using ASUS firmware would eventually experience a failure from which MacOS app could not recover
  • Using Merlin firmware would eventually experience a failure from which MacOS app could not recover
• Raspberry Pi using Netatalk would eventually experience a failure from which MacOS app could not recover
• Resurrected AirPort Extreme experienced a failure but MacOS app recovered

Further observation:

• Using Finder on my MacBook, I was able to view the directory structure of the backup for every solution except AirPort Extreme which showed as a "Sparse Disk Image Bundle".

Conclusion:

When an Apple NAS is used as the endpoint the MacOS Time Machine app has a functioning error recovery process. When the NAS is non-Apple the only error recovery is to retry. The MacOS Time Machine app was only designed for an Apple to Apple NAS solution, nothing else, even if the NAS is using AFP.

Part of the marketing strategy for Apple is to talk about how secure their products are and how iCloud is used as a backup strategy well except for MacOS products. For MacOS we are expected to use Time Machine for backup either to an attached storage device or one connected to a networked Apple product, most of which are out of production. With the majority of MacOS products being portable, Apple's Time Machine solution is just not realistically practical. Apple needs to enhance Time Machine to use the most common, efficient, and secure network protocol to backup to a NAS whether that NAS be on a local network or using a VPN connection.

Use Apple freephone support number in your country. The senior techies will steer you though this, that's what they are there for. We pay a lot of money for Apple products, which gives them phenomenal profits so, they can afford to sort stuff out as, they cause a lot of the problems in the first place.

If you open finder is the external drive not shown under locations?

You could try wiping external drive and reformatting and starting from scratch. Of course that means until it backs up the first time you have no backup copy, unless you have a spare external drive, but this is what I have had to do quite a few times since Catalina came out. First back-up will take a while and I also carried out first aid on all computer drives in Safe mode in Disk Utility first. if you are going to delete and reformat external drive it is irrelevant to carry out First Aid on that drive beforehand.

I had the same issue after installing Catalina. The Time machine says XXX GB backed up, no progress bar and looks freeze.

After couple of hours watching the backup i saw, that numbers going to be changed slowly.

Last weekend I left my mac connected to the backup drive for 2+ days and it succeed to finish the backup. After that, time machine went back to normal.

Hope this helps a bit. In my case it was only matter of time to keep mac wired.

I am not sure if what I am going to say is relevant necessarily to yourself, but may be to others. I have found, since Catalina, that my TimeMachine back-ups on an external drive have become problematic. In the past I could remove the USB cable from my external drive to utilise the USB on my iMac for something else without un-mounting the external drive and then simply plug it in again and it would carry on from where it left off. I have done this many, many times over many years without problems.

Now after every upgrade to Catalina or, if I have unplug my iMac say, to move it as, have decorators in I have to go through this process:

Run first aid, sometimes on all disks registered within Disk Utility. Often the Disk Utility will not open and I then have to restart and sometimes Disk Utility will then open, sometimes not and keep repeating until it does. After running First Aid and finishing that I can get TimeMachine to function again. The timeMachine back-ups often just stop working for no known reason.

This all means that I have to spend a lot of time getting TimeMachine to function on my iMac, and to check that it is doing regular updates every hour. I have never, ever had this problem until Catalina and I go back to Snow Leopard and every new OS as it has been released since then in my apple use history.

I have reported this to Apple via the Apple Feedback, however, it is really poor engineering that is causing the problems so, if everyone reports it via the feedback site that may get a result.

I also have to re-install the relevant software for my Epson printer after each upgrade as the printer works. but the scanner does not recognise a device.

Non of these things happened before Catalina.

Ring Apple support freephone number in whatever country you are in. Senior techies will steer you through.

Ever since I upgraded to Catalina i have not been able to use my Apple Time Machine. This is very frustrating since it's an apple product and I'm using apple machines. My computer connects to the time machine and stats it's looking for backup, the says preparing backup and then I get the following error.

The backup disk image “/Volumes/.timemachine/XXXX's AirPort Time Capsule._afpovertcp._tcp.local./0FC04105-0B94-4D2A-9BBF-B4E10A14D65C/Data/iMac-10DDB1B2FF81 (2).backupbundle” could not be accessed (error 45).

Not only is my time machine hard/software up to date, but I have never had an issue with time machine until Catalina. I hope apple responds and corrects. I've waited through 2 catalina updates and to date no fix for backing up my mac to time capsule. very disappointing!!!

I am experiencing a version of this behavior myself with a WD My Cloud EX4 in RAID 5. Like some others here, everything worked well through 3 years worth of macOS upgrades. That is until Catalina.

So far, I've had to delete the old sparsebundle and perform a destructive factory default on my drive unit. But, after 6 hours of total re-build, I can now actually setup a connection to the drive and Time Machine share ("connected as: admin"), set permissions and encryption. I've now got drive "eject" icons all along the drive path in Finder and all the other bells, lights and whistles. Drive appears in Time Machine setup, is assigned and a back-up successfully completed (to the new "backupbundle") every hour, all day long.

That is until a verification re-boot and "presto-chango", everything in Finder has now disconnected. It appears once the path is re-established in Finder, reliable Time Machine backups resume successfully. So maybe this is a Finder vs. target device connection issue, and not Time Machine.

Until a fix shows-up, my work-around for now is the fact I never power-down or re-boot my iMac.

Anyway, I don't think it's me but it ain't gonna hurt my feelings to find out otherwise!

Best regards,

OM2

OM2,

My symptoms were the result of a FUBAR on my Raspberry Pi 4 (RPi) NAS solution. The installation instructions I had for the NAS created directory in the system rather than the hard drive. What I posted was the result of running out of system memory. I reconfigured RPi and now Time Machine is using hard drive on the NAS.

However, on the NAS hard drive volume labeled TimeMachine I have a directory labeled BackUp. Everything on the NAS points to the BackUp directory to be used. On MaciOS, upon logging into the NAS, decided to just use root directory of TimeMachine hard drive. The BackUp directory is unused. Oh well, at least the solution now works.

I have an old Mac Mini (2012) as a Time Machine and File Server with external USB HDD's in a Docking Station. Now I cannot anymore use this server as a time Machine Server since the Upgrade to Catalina 10.15.2.

It never worked with SMB, but always with AFP. Since 10.15.2 AFP is not workin anymore. And that is the Problem, because in earlier Mac OS versions SMB for Time Machine never worked, only AFP. And now not even AFP is working in 10.15.2.

SMB works as file share system only, but not for the Mac Mini Time Machine Server.

What I did:

• Setup Mac Mini Server from Scratch (NOT BACKUP)
• Recovered a Macbook Pro and another Mac Mini as a Client from a Backup

Always the Same Error message:

• Somehow a Network User Password Issue with SMB
• However. I can use the File Share in SMB with the same user credentials
• And now if I map the File Share by AFP, there is no content anymore and the Time Machine on the client does not recognize the mapped AFP drive

The Result => No way. The Mac Mini Time Machine Server is not working as before.

Have no idea what doing now. An other option could be, move the Mac Mini Server to the trash and buy a reliable network device:

• NAS like QNAP/Synology
• Setup a HP NUC with FreeNAS/OpenNAS

And after an upgrade of the Mac Mini Server to a new Mac OS version, it was always the same story. there was always a network service which didn't worked properly anymore after a Mac OS upgrade.

Sorry. But Mac OS is not a reliable Network Service OS. And that is disappointing. Because Network Service are important.

Other Issue with with Macbooks in a WLAN: There is always the case I need to disable and enable the WLAN to get access to the internet. In all Mac OS Versions since Mountain Lion.