Can Disk Utility safely examine or repair a Time Machine volume in macOS 10.14.6

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Can Disk Utility safely examine or repair a Time Machine volume in macOS 10.14.6

My Time machine backups don't always get created hourly. Some of this is to be expected from a portable Mac, but it's happening from my iMac (2017 running macOS 10.14.6.

I started Disk Utility, which didn't issue any warnings about examining a Time Machine backup volume, but it's been examining the 3 TB drive now for about 2 hours (currently "checking catalog hierarchy." I know that Time Machine backups contain a huge number of pointers between files, so I'm not overly concerned, but I don't really know if Disk Utility is up to that task.

Thanks so much.

iMac 21.5" 4K, macOS 10.14

Posted on Nov 17, 2019 1:25 PM

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Answer 1

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John Galt

Level 10

155,414 points

Nov 17, 2019 6:16 PM in response to JimRobertson

Yes. Expect it to take a long time. Two hours is nothing.

Time Machine was relegated to a low priority task in Sierra, due at least in part to its creation of Local Snapshots on all Macs—not just portables any more. Also, TM may no longer adhere to a strict hourly schedule. If you were so inclined you could inspect its log to determine the reason it's not backing up exactly once every hour, but I wouldn't be concerned. If TM can't back up it will let you know. For the time being, let Disk Utility finish.

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Answer 2

JimRobertson Author

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Nov 17, 2019 8:09 PM in response to John Galt

Thanks so much

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Can Disk Utility safely examine or repair a Time Machine volume in macOS 10.14.6

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