Not sure what happened but I can't make TM backups anymore to either my Time Capsule or my Synology NAS. I have already erased the Time Capsule and it's recognized, but once it starts preparing a backup I get an error message saying Time Machine can't make a copy either on Time Capsule or Synology ('Synology.local'). Is there some setting in my network I should be checking? Like in Little Snitch or so?
Thanks
MacBook
If you cannot stop part of an application in Activity Monitor, the application has not been completely uninstalled from your Mac. You should not see anything in Activity Monitor for Sophos, Clean My Mac, etc.
Disabling Sophos or Clean My Mac does not completely remove it from your Mac.
We have seen numerous posts on the forum about Sophos causing issues with Big Sur. I am not familiar with Clean My Mac.
If you cannot stop part of an application in Activity Monitor, the application has not been completely uninstalled from your Mac. You should not see anything in Activity Monitor for Sophos, Clean My Mac, etc.
Disabling Sophos or Clean My Mac does not completely remove it from your Mac.
We have seen numerous posts on the forum about Sophos causing issues with Big Sur. I am not familiar with Clean My Mac.
Do you have your Synology NAS configured to use AFP or SMB for Time Machine backups? The reason I ask is that the ".local" address would be associated with AFP.
For example, if your NAS is named "DS920" and the volume you configured for Time Machine is called "Data," then to access it via Finder, the command would be: smb://DS920/Data
On the other hand, if it is only configured for AFP, then that command would need to be changed to: afp://DS920.local/Data
From the error you are getting, I'm guessing that you have it configured for SMB, but Time Machine is using AFP to access it. Since macOS Sierra, Macs can support SMB v3, so be sure that it is enabled in DSM > Control Panel > File Services > SMB/AFP/NFS > SMB > Advanced Settings > Maximum SMB protocol: SMB3 & Minimum SMB Protocol: SMB2
Ref:
which both can't be stopped in Activity Monitor.
They have not been removed completely. Once they are removed, you can run Disk Utility / Repair Disk on the Mac's hard drive to repair any errors on the Mac's disk.
Hi Bob, thanks for the help.
I'm on the latest version 11.1 (Big Sur) and the message reads (translated from Dutch, which is my system language):
'Time Machine can't complete the backup copy on 'Synology.local'.
No disk image from from a backup image can be generated.
Something along those lines. And the same message appears when I choose my Time Capsule as the backup disk.
Big Sur has problems with most anti-virus applications and other utilities that claim or promise to "speed up", "optimize", "protect" etc. your Mac.
Do you have anything like these things installed on your Mac?
I just installed Sophos antivirus last week but the problem was happening before that. Are there any other apps I should be looking at (or processes) which I should quit to see which one is the culprit?
Please remove Sophos completely from the Mac as a test, then restart the Mac, restart the Time Capsule and/or the NAS and see if Time Machine can back up now.
You may see "Preparing" for a long time before the back up actually begins. Do not stop the backup, let it run until it completes or until you receive another error message.
Thanks.
I first diasbled CleanMyMac X Health Monitor also and deinstalled Sophos as well. I then saw it running for a long time, I was hopeful, and then unfortunately the same error. I tried the timecapsule now instead and same thing. I don't see any of the CleanmyMac or Sophos processes running apart from SophosCBR and com.sophos.endpoint.scanextension which both can't be stopped in Activity Monitor.
Any ideas?
Have you recently updated your macOS? I was having problems after upgrading from a 2014 iMac with Catalina to a 2017 one with Big Sur. You can't back up to a different macOS but you can migrate from one. Whatever the problem go into Airport Utility and click on the Time Capsule icon; it may ask for your password (i.e. your wifi password). You should now see the TC specs and click on edit, then on disks tab. There is an erase option. Erase won't affect your settings but will erase your backup/s. Try the least secure option first. If that still doesn't work try the next option. I'm a little hazy on this point as there's no available explanation that I can find but you can't use Disk utility because I quote "TC backup is in a different format (sparsebundle), which is used to make backups over LANs to reduce the total data to be moved. (Sparsebundles are lightly compressed to save that space.)"
Thanks to all the help everyone. I finally managed to get my Time Capsule back working and have made successful backup copies.
What I did: erased my TC completely (did not help). Then de-installed Sophos (no luck) and then finally deinstalled incl. all preferences from Cleanmymac. I think this program was the culprit. Haven't tried making a BU to the Synology TM but I guess that one will work too. Thanks again
What is the exact text of the error message that you are receiving?
What operating system is installed on your MacBook?
I did uninstall/remove it completely. But the problem was here before Sophos was even installed, so it's most likely something else.
FWIW, we find numerous posts here from folks asking for help in getting rid of any "cleaner" type apps ... including CleanMyMac. These apps tend to cause more issues then solve them.
I can't do time machine backups anymore on NAS or Time Capsule
