Does Apple have a solution as to why Catalina doesn't allow my external back-up to no longer function with Time Machine?
iMac Line (2012 and Later)
You're welcome.
Well first, open Finder > Preferences > General and make sure "External Disks" is checked. If you have any WD software installed uninstall it. Run Disk Utility > First Aid on the drive to check for errors. It is possible the drive may have failed.
First Aid found nothing and the Time Machine continued to not show up despite several manual shut downs and reboots. Upgraded my TechTools to the latest version because it wasn't completely compatible with Catalina. Ran TechTools and as a result the Time Machine backup mounted on to my desktop. Is backing up now without issues.
My guess is Catalina update is flawed somewhere and perhaps a clean install would be the way to go for anyone that wants to avoid this issue. Maybe.
You need to provide more details such as what external drive you have, how it's formatted, what happens when you try, etc.
Ok.
My Passport Ultra from Western Digital is the external HD
I do not recall how it was formatted.
Before Catalina the external HD showed up on the Mac's desktop and Time Machine ran scheduled back-ups. Before when I opened System Preferences for Time Machine if I needed to I could select the Time Machine Backup disk and remount if for some reason I needed to but now when I select the TM Bkup disk my option is to Remove Disk.
Thanks
External Disks was/is checked. No WD software installed. I remember the disk mounted when I connected it and I setup TM from there. Ironic HD would fail same day as Catalina update. I'll run First Aid and see what I get form that.
I appreciate your assistance.
Thanks.
Welcome.
It's not likely a Catalina issue. I have Catalina installed on 5 Macs and never had HD issues. None were clean installs.
Updated to Catalina and now my external backup doesn't mount.
