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Time Machine is unable to complete the backup of my MacBook Pro (macOS Catalina)

After completing a backup on May 17, Time Machine was no longer able to complete a new backup.

At the end of the backup attempt I always get the phrase "error while copying the file".

However, it is not indicated which files give the copy problems.


MacBook Pro 16", macOS 10.15

Posted on May 24, 2020 12:39 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 24, 2020 5:11 AM

Fixed: I've checked in the Time Machine log file which file was blocking the backup and I deleted it.


You can see the Time Machine log file from the Terminal.app.  Copy and paste:

printf '\e[3J' && log show --predicate 'subsystem == "com.apple.TimeMachine"' --info --last 6h | grep -F 'eMac' | grep -Fv 'etat' | awk -F']' '{print substr($0,1,19), $NF}' 

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 24, 2020 5:11 AM in response to pinozak

Fixed: I've checked in the Time Machine log file which file was blocking the backup and I deleted it.


You can see the Time Machine log file from the Terminal.app.  Copy and paste:

printf '\e[3J' && log show --predicate 'subsystem == "com.apple.TimeMachine"' --info --last 6h | grep -F 'eMac' | grep -Fv 'etat' | awk -F']' '{print substr($0,1,19), $NF}' 

Time Machine is unable to complete the backup of my MacBook Pro (macOS Catalina)

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