time machine not working with big sur
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
I've been fighting with this for months, and finally found the cause (at least in my case): I'm running Sophos anti-virus, and this is a known incompatibility with their software and Big Sur which they have documented:
https://support.home.sophos.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051251412-Support-for-macOS-11-Big-Sur-
Here is the full description of the problem from their website:
"Time Machine backups to NETWORK locations (Time Capsule, NAS) are currently failing when Sophos Home is installed on Big Sur macOS 11 - Users will see a message reading "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup - The disk is already in use" This does NOT affect local backups, or backups to external devices/drives.
This issue is currently under investigation by our development team. As a workaround, run the backup in Safe mode or use an external device to backup to. We expect this issue to be resolved by March of 2021."
I got a different error message (several of them, in fact), but otherwise this matched my problem description. In order to solve this, I had to completely uninstall Sophos. Disabling it wasn't enough. Hopefully they get it worked out, but in the meantime, I'd rather have backups than anti-virus (I'll experiment with other AV solutions).
Hopefully this helps someone else!
That's what mine did. The initial backup worked but nothing after that. I finely found the reason the first one worked is I installed the new version of Sophos, as described in the other posts here, after the initial Big Sur backup. If I had not updated to the new version of Sophos, everything would have been fine. Even better if I had uninstalled the old version.
In my case it hasn’t to do with Sophos as I don’t use it. I played a bit with the Time Machine settings and for the moment it seems to work as supposed. I removed the Time Capsule from Time Machine and added it again. That caused kind of a network crash. My Time Capsule vanished from AirPort utility software and after some time it reappeared. Now my MacBook runs backups on Time Capsule. It behaves a bit strange. For example if the backup is 100MB it runs the first 40MBs in seconds, then it comes to a more or less standstill, it takes minutes to reach 41,2 MB and then all of a sudden it is completed. I really don’t understand what is going on but at least it works. Maybe someone else can give it a try removing and re-adding Time Capsule from Time Machine and give feedback if that helps?
Do you have any files on the TM boot drive in back-ups that are not on your boot drive and any drives your've backing up?
If not then erase the drive and start a new backup on it. I had the same problem with very long "preparing" so erased and started over from scratch. Haven't had a problem since.
How is the LaCie drive formatted?
I'm not surprised. There is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac. This user tip describes what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community
Permanently uninstall any of those types of apps according to the developer's instructions and never install again.
I now use MailBackupX that is very handy although it is not free but backups up all my mail automatically and is easy to use. It appears that mail with TM feature has been taken away probably for some technical reason since Catalina and Apple has no desire to bring it back.
Exactly the issue I found (the hard way) so has to disable Sophos for now
One possible issue you might check out. Big Sur has a plethora of ' enhanced' security issues- features. One must carefully check to see just what external disks/volumes it is allowed to connect to. Having spent a few hours in going from Catalina and external backup time machine disks to get Big sur time machine to accept and work, I eventully spent time going thru the security issues with hints and help from forums like this. Wish I could say go to xxxx in preferences and then to yyyy ,etc
but I did not document all the steps. So my comment is just a suggestion as to where to look. Some old macbook air ( I have one but did not attempt to upgrade to Catalina ) depending on date and may be able to give a few hints as to how to get to time machine- catalina- etc.
+1.
i just did a fresh one in HFS+ (thanks due to the person whose answer i'm making this reply to)
If you're using a rechargeable wireless keyboard plug it in with its charging cable and try booting into Safe Mode again. It'll act as a USB keyboard.
Hmmmm, I have Sophos AV as well. Will try removing and see how that goes 🤞
Just got off the phone with AppleCare support. They did a whole lot of diagnostics and will get back to me in a few days. If there's fix, I'll share it here for those of you who are also having trouble using Time Machine in Big Sur.
MyTM works except the list of backup drives is frozen, i.e., you can't scroll through the list. Hence, you can't see the progress of a backup that is more than 2 drives down the list. This problem is new with Big Sur.
TandemBunny wrote:
I can't even get into Safe Mode any longer. The instructions don't work. Not for Big Sewer.
The instructions are different for newer Macs. You need to read the links provided to you, or post a new Discussion. This one has become hopelessly derailed with "me too" posts describing at least six different Mac of varying descriptions including Time Machine configurations that will never work.
You will never resolve your problem by hijacking someone else's Discussion.
With Big Sur if you start with a clean drive no matter how it is formatted it will change to APFS when first being used. In your case not sure why it does not work. I use WD blue drives with my Imac and have no issues. Perhaps your MyBook drive is the issue for some unknown reason. I can only suggest getting another drive to try.
Time Machine not working with Big Sur
