Time Machine Backup to MyCloud EX2 Ultra

Question

Level 1

10 points

Time Machine Backup to MyCloud EX2 Ultra

Sorry for the long question.

I have been backing up my 2020 13” MacBook Pro running MacOS 10.15.5 Catalina, using Time Machine to a WD MyCloud EX2 Ultra NAS. I point Time Machine toward the TimeMachineBackup on the device and the backups seem to work fine for awhile. (See attached picture Time Machine Pref 1). I have used the backups created to recover an accidentally deleted file without difficulty.

The backups randomly stop however. When this occurs Time Machine gets stuck at “Preparing Backup.” The Time Machine Preferences widow then changes to show a hard drive icon instead of the generic drive icon, although the name of the disk remains MyCloudEX2Ultra.local. More importantly, the available space listed under the disk name now shows the remaining space on my 2 TB internal hard drive rather than on the 4 TB NAS. (See attached picture Time Machine Pref 2)

If I stop the backup and redirect the Time Machine toward the MyCloud EX2 Ultra, the MyCloud now appears to be a mounted disk in the finder, (it normally appears like the other Locations, without the eject icon). If I try to eject it a pop-up widow appears saying that it is in use. (See attached picture Finder). Force eject does not work. If I then try to run another backup Time Machine gets stuck “Looking for Backup Disk.”

I can start the whole process over by restarting the MacBook, it backs up fine for a day or two and then the same thing occurs.

We backup my wife’s 2015 15” MacBook Pro, also running Catalina, to the same MyCloud EX2 Ultra, and exactly the same phenomenon occurs.

Thank you so much for your help.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jul 21, 2020 9:53 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

k2nu Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 24, 2020 2:29 PM in response to Nicholas_B2

Thanks so much Nicholas_B2,

My (admittedly very limited) understanding is that the MyCloud EX2 Ultra is connected using AFP rather than SMB. When I first connected the NAS to Time Machine (over ethernet), Time Machine did not prompt me to reformat the disk. The MyCloudEX2 Ultra is billed as working with Time Machine via AFP, and comes with a pre-assigned TimeMachineBackups share.

When the problem first developed I reset the MyCloud, re-formatted the disk, re-assigned Time Machine to the TimeMachineBackups share, and re-did the initial backup (I made another backup copy on a Thunderbolt connected drive first).

Worked fine for a few days (as I mentioned I was able to retrieve an accidentally deleted file) and then the same problem.

The very confusing thing to me is that when the backups fail, Time Machine Preferences suggests that it is attempting to backup to the internal hard drive, thus the switch to showing the available space on the internal drive rather than the NAS. The Time Machine gets stuck on "preparing backup" rather than "looking for backup disk." Seems like there is corruption of the pathway Time Machine takes to the backup disk.

Again, please excuse my limited knowledge, and thanks in advance for your help.

Reply

Answer 2

Jul 24, 2020 1:00 PM in response to k2nu

Hello k2nu,

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities. From your post, it appears there are issues with the network drive staying connected to the MacBook computers. We'll do what we can to help.

Depending on how the drive is connected to the network, it might be disconnecting when attempting to do Time Machine. First, make sure the drive is using SMB setup as mentioned here: Backup disks you can use with Time Machine

Try restarting or resetting the device if possible: How to Reset a My Cloud EX2 Ultra Device

Cheers.

Reply

Time Machine Backup to MyCloud EX2 Ultra

Similar questions