Big Sur, Big Problems with Time Capsule

With Sophos installed, it works when the connection is 'cabled' This could be a USB hard drive connected or if your computer is connected over ethernet. No issues. Issue comes when backing up wirelessly. So there are solutions if you want Sophos installed or as you say correctly, uninstall and it works as expected. pain in the *ss while we all wait for Sophos to get their **** together.

Ah - another point I forgot to address: I'm backing up over WiFi; I was able to back up to an external USB hard drive with Sophos installed - I experimented with that during my trouble-shooting; 'twas just the WiFi backing up that was a no-go. Once I got the five-file Sophos download installed, I set both computers to back up automatically - I didn't try to manually "back up now" - and then just left them alone to do their thing. They automatically backed up and all's been well since then. I'm convinced it was the two different (why, Sophos - why?) Sophos downloads that I'd stumbled across; one works - the other causes issues. Additionally, I'd slicked my Time Capsule when this problem first cropped up - and that didn't fix it. I also had a 2011 Mac Book Pro on the 'network' and it didn't have any issues backing up via WiFi before or after I upgraded the Airs to Big Sur. The Pro finally died (after years of faithful and zealous service) the week prior to me getting the Airs to finally back up over WiFi. I initially thought that the Airs + Time Capsule didn't like the Pro being involved in the mix. It was merely a data point that I had to explore in the process because of the timing of all of the issues. Had I not noticed the five file/three file Sophos differences, I would be been inclined to think the Pro being on the network caused the issue. But.....nope: I find the different Sophos downloads to be the culprit. For now.........

Below is what I found from Sophos Forum. (Refer to Second Bulletin in Mac Session)

https://support.home.sophos.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000129706-Known-issues-in-Sophos-Home-Premium

It's a known issue and fix will come on March 2021.

today (5 April) I have downloaded and done a fresh install of Sophos and it seems to be backing up. Don't know if they have fixed it (they said April 2021 for a fix) or if it's luck but so far, seems to be working.

probably after easter I think. Seems the problem still persist according to the current version from below.

https://support.home.sophos.com/hc/en-us/articles/360056605511-Mac-10-0-2a1-Feb-8th-2021

I will try the update from scratch instead of fresh install, let's see

I was getting the dreaded, "The backup disk image could not be created." - trying to back up to two Time Capsules. 2017 MBP running Big Sur. Was able to create a Time Machine backup using a brand new USB-C external drive. 2018 Mac Mini has no problems with the very same Time Capsules. I concluded the problem had to be with the MBP. Indeed.

Uninstalled SOPHOS HOME, and restarted the MBP. Time Machine backups to both Time Capsules now work.

Well we seem to be performing back ups over wifi, without the need to go into safe mode. One small observation is that when I open Time Machine it says the back up is on iCloud not the Capsule. Although the capacities given would relate to the Capsule. Hope everyone else is sorted too

Please post over in the support forum for Big Sur to learn from the experts why you would NOT want to install any AV software on your Mac. The link is just below:

macOS Big Sur

So is the solution to clear the time capsule and start again?

Thanks for that, is it possible to take the capsule off the network and connect it directly to the Mac as an external hard drive, like the early days of Backup?

Thank you for that

Snapshots are created on your Mac's hard drive......not the Time Capsule. You have run Disk Utility / First Aid on your Mac's hard drive, correct?

Thanks Bob - sorry to report still the same results and the same error message -

Sean

Understood - at least I have good backups of all of the data prior to the installation. If nothing else I can fall back and go from there.

Thanks for the help sir -

Sean

I think the technical term is it’s f€$ked. Exactly the same boat. Will have to wait and see if apple fix it. Works fine if you plug a hard disk direct to your machine. Just not over the network.