Time Machine causes MacBook to freeze

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Level 1

8 points

Time Machine causes MacBook to freeze

Hi everyone, I hope someone can help me as I am at my wits end with Time Machine.

I have been using Time Machine for years without any problems until my usual backup disk died and couldn’t be resurrected. I had another reputable USB drive nearby so I did all the right things to set it up for Time Machine but after several days of attempting to backup Time Machine failed. It got to around 200gb out of around 350gb so very frustrating.

I am currently trying to back up to a Time Capsule (2Tb) (connected via Thunderbolt-Ethernet) which is also failing. I have reformatted and erased everything from the Time Capsule (several times), deleted the .timeMachine.pst file, reset SMC and the other one NVRAM (or something like that). I have removed my virus scanner, installed and scanned for malware (none there). I do have a 256Gb SD card installed but have tried both excluding it from backup and including it (same result).

I would like to upgrade the operating system but step 1 is always to backup first!

Please help

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Mar 23, 2021 1:29 AM

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Answer 1

Mobius420 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 23, 2021 8:20 PM in response to Amanda239_91

Thanks for your reply Amanda239_91, from the items listed in the link you sent I can confirm the following:

I'm using a backup disk that's supported by TM. It's an Apple Time Capsule;
I have directly connected the Time Capsule to my MacBook via Thunderbolt-Ethernet;
I haven't used the repair utility but did a long erase to prepare it for use;
This is the first backup so it's not complete. However verify does work on the partial backup;
Firmware is unto date;
Yes I have erased the backup file many time and restarted the process.

Unfortunately there are no error messages. My MacBook just freezes. Sometimes the screen goes black, other times is filled with white-noise.

Let night I had a moment and thought I'd exclude just about everything and backup in small chunks. To my relief this is currently working. I have been able to complete a backup of the contents of my SD drive (~70Gb) and have moved to my first folder on my SSD drive (~30Gb). All good so far but I am concerned that one fail will render the backup file unusable and I'll be forced to start looking for solutions again. BTW I have a fan keeping my MacBook cool as it has been getting very hot.

My goal is goal is to put the Time Capsule back on the network and use it as intended.

Thanks for looking into this for me.

Cheers

David

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Answer 2

Mar 23, 2021 7:41 PM in response to Mobius420

Hi Mobius420,

We understand you're running into problems backing up your Mac using Time Machine, and we'll do all we can to help. To clarify, were you following the steps from the article below? If so, what is the exact error message you see when the backup fails?

If you can't back up or restore your Mac using Time Machine

Please let us know a few more details, and we'll keep working on it.

Have a great day.

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Time Machine causes MacBook to freeze

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