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MichaelBl Author

Level 1

8 points

Time Machine won't use external drive

I have two external drives set up as backups for MacBook with Time Machine. TM stopped using one of them about a month ago even though it is still designated as a backup disk. Looking for suggestions.

MacBook

Posted on Oct 2, 2020 9:05 AM

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3 replies

Barney-15E

Level 10

116,620 points

Oct 2, 2020 1:53 PM in response to MichaelBl

Not really. Could be the drive.

Are they directly connected to the Mac? I doubt a hub would cause any issues.

I don't know why it would just stop backing up to it. It would make more sense if it kept failing the backups and starting over. That would tend to indicate a problem communicating with the drive.

Barney-15E

Level 10

116,620 points

Oct 2, 2020 9:18 AM in response to MichaelBl

I'd remove it from TM, erase it, check it with First Aid, then add it back to TM if all checks out.

MichaelBl Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 2, 2020 12:06 PM in response to Barney-15E

This worked. Any idea why this happens? It's happened before; erasing and starting over was the cure.

Time Machine won't use external drive