I have 3 backup drives and until I upgraded to Catalina Time Machine worked without difficulty. Now it sometimes has an error for one of the drives ... the error is "backup failed".
I have run Disk Utility and there were no errors. I even reformatted one drive and it still gets these errors.
Hello Patricia W,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities! I understand that you're experiencing an intermittent issue with a Time Machine backup of your Mac failing. Running Disk Utility and reformatting the drive were both great steps to help isolate potential causes. I'd like to have you take a look at the resource below, then follow any additional suggestions you have not yet tried next:
If you can't back up or restore your Mac using Time Machine - Apple Support
If the issue is occurring with one specific hard drive, I'd also suggest reaching out to the manufacturer.
Cheers!
Hi Patricia W,
Thanks for getting back to us. Since you started encountering the behavior after upgrading to macOS Catalina, you may want to consider reinstalling macOS next:
How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery - Apple Support
If you're still seeing the Time Machine backups failing intermittently after that, I'd like to have you reach out to Apple Support:
Apple - Support - Product Selection
Take care.
I had a problem with another app and they recommended reinstalling Catalina. I did that a couple of days ago and that problem was solved, and since then I haven't had a problem with Time Machine.
As far as I can tell I have followed all of the suggestions in the link. The problem with the suggestions is they assume the errors are occurring constantly, not intermittently. Time Machine worked without problem until I upgraded to Catalina.
The issue is occurring with all 3 drives that I use.
Hello Patricia W,
Glad to hear that Time Machine appears to be working as expected again! Thanks for letting us know and please reach out if you need help in the future.
Cheers.
Time Machine backups failing intermittently
