Monterey Time Machine not working

The Solution is: Dont enable reduced Startup Security.

I did this only because the WD MyCloud Home required this. This Wd Software is programmed very bad.

After i switched to Full Startup Security TM Worked normal again!

Seems to work for some, not for others (not for me).

I have Monterey running TM flawlessly on an Intel iMac and it is failing every time on an M1Pro MBP14. Have erased the external drive repeatedly and tried different formats.

My machine as FileVault on; I want to use Encrypted and Case Sensitive APFS on the backup drive (5TB HDD). TM shouldn't be sensitive to any kind of formatting, correct? Is there a reason NOT to encrypt or use case-sensitive for the backup drive? (That would defeat the purpose of those settings.) (Failing = not showing backups; the disk storage indicates that they are there, just not displaying; the app TM either shows no change or is permanently trying to complete a backup.)

I did have success with a limited backup (exclusion of just a few files). It subsequently failed to repeat backup too.

I have spent hours with an Apple tech and we got nowhere so far.

I will eagerly wait a solution from this list if not from Apple in an upgrade that stabilizes their software.

I too spend countless hours trying to solve the problem.  Finally, here’s what works for me:

Firstly, I haven’t got FileVault on.

Secondly, I named my time machine disk “T5 TM” - you can name it anything you like.

In Disk Utilities, formatted by entire external drive to USB External Physical Disk GUID Partition Map. (My entire external drive is called “Samsung Portable SSD”

When complete, you should then see a container containing your actual drive.  Mine looks like:

Samsung Portable SSD

       Container disk6

                 T5 TM

Formatter the T5 TM drive to APFS - nothing else NOT ENCRYPTED.

In Time Machine Preferences, if you have used a disk with the same name before i.e. “T5 TM” and it is still showing in the list of time machine disks, remove it first.

Now add the APFS disk (T5 TM), tick the Encrypted box and fill in your password and reminder.

PLEASE NOTE:  I found that the first backup NEVER completed!  The solution was to boot up in Safe Mode, do the backup and then restart as normal.  In fact, I always backup in safe mode.  I hope Apple solves this in their next Monterey update.

Good luck!

I'm glad you got yours to work.

I've tried safe booting and running a TM backup. Didn't work.

I want FileVault on and need encryption on the external drive. So, very hard to compare apples (Apple?) and oranges (lemons?)

I have the same issue, both with 11.6.1 and then after updating to 12.0.1. However, I also could not get TM backup to USB SSD to finish in safe mode either. I get the same behavior - backup runs until the end and then faults with message that "Waiting to complete first backup". Checking in disk utility shows data on disk, but Finder does not show any filename on the disk.

Interesting tool. I'm not a techie so cannot diagnose the issues.

2021-11-24 09:18:35.667265-0800 .          .

Progress: 4% done, -, - MB/s, avg: 0.00 MB/s, - items/s, avg: 0.00 items/s

FSPhysicalSize:3% (CV:23.79 GB/708.4 GB (D: Zero KB),T:708.4 GB,D:Zero KB(-),LA:197 KB(0%))N

FSCompletedItems:5% (CV:59177/1174693 (D: 0),T:1174693,D:0(-),LA:13(0%))Y

TTCompletedEventPaths:- ()N

Copied: 1084 (l:38.2 MB p:41.4 MB) Propagated: 58151 (l:23.78 GB p:23.75 GB) Propagated (shallow): 5146 (l:Zero KB p:Zero KB)

Tracker: FlCp:74DrCp:914SmCp:58FlLn:38FlMvSk:2972DrMvSk:2174

Lookups: DrtLkpHt:15040,DrtLkpMss:120474,DrtLkpSkp:4965,Vld:23313,NVld:9637,LnAltChk:456,ClnAltChk:4,VSChk:23313,IntBckpHt:15040,IntBckpMss:8273,CcheUpdt:1686,NoVlmSts:8649

Comparisons: Mtch:73332,MdD:8175,XAttrNm:26 Operations: TrstLkp:43599,TrstLkpAftAtmpt4:3352,TrstLkpAftAtmpt5:921,DrNoCpy:3860,DrEmpty:3860

Backup Projected Stats: 1220194 items (p:732.4 GB)

Sized: l:20.1 GB p:14.11 GB c:45663, Outstanding:0/446, Finished Volumes:0

Current: Zero KB/(l:Zero KB,p:Zero KB) - /Volumes/Time Machine+/2021-11-24-091434.inprogress/Macintosh HD - Data/private/var/db/oah/279281325309952_279281325309952/7704f1e9114d8c582d9c1d51b7ec43c1900893f089c63904725d17fe0705aa3e

2021-11-24 09:23:29.343378-0800 Skipping scheduled Time Machine backup: Backup already running

2021-11-24 09:23:35.684528-0800 .••••      .

Progress: 50% done, 0.1515%/s, 1.62 MB/s, avg: 1.62 MB/s, 261.86 items/s, avg: 261.86 items/s

FSPhysicalSize:46% (CV:326.6 GB/704.59 GB (D: Zero KB),T:704.59 GB,D:Zero KB(-),LA:74 KB(0%))Y

FSCompletedItems:53% (CV:602251/1137670 (D: 0),T:1137670,D:0(-),LA:5(0%))Y

TTCompletedEventPaths:- ()N

Copied: 10089 (l:501.9 MB p:528.5 MB) Propagated: 594178 (l:328.88 GB p:326.08 GB) Propagated (shallow): 74703 (l:Zero KB p:Zero KB)

Tracker: FlCp:1176DrCp:6836SmCp:2016FlLn:61FlMvSk:66875DrMvSk:7828

Lookups: DrtLkpHt:69537,DrtLkpMss:6762,Vld:71597,NVld:2139,LnAltChk:300,VSChk:71597,IntBckpHt:69537,IntBckpMss:2060,CcheUpdt:7,NoVlmSts:11852

Comparisons: Mtch:82576,MdD:1067 Operations: TrstLkp:70662,TrstLkpAftAtmpt5:5926,DrNoCpy:5654,DrEmpty:5654

Backup Projected Stats: 1220194 items (p:732.4 GB)

Sized: l:23.8 GB p:17.92 GB c:82686, Outstanding:0/521, Finished Volumes:0

Current: Zero KB/(l:487 KB,p:487 KB) - /Volumes/Time Machine+/2021-11-24-091434.inprogress/Macintosh HD - Data/Users/jiporter/Box Sync/JP-PDFs/Classics/Philosophy/Cynics/Texts/Crates of Thebes-DL-Eng.pdf

2021-11-24 09:25:58.243789-0800 Finished copying from volume "Macintosh HD - Data"

      20469 Total Items Added (l: 1.77 GB p: 1.26 GB)

      106120 Total Items Propagated (shallow) (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB)

    1205875 Total Items Propagated (recursive) (l: 690.52 GB p: 687.47 GB)

    1226344 Total Items in Backup (l: 692.29 GB p: 688.73 GB)

        7529 Files Copied (l: 1.76 GB p: 1.25 GB)

      10458 Directories Copied (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB)

        2421 Symlinks Copied (l: 59 KB p: Zero KB)

          61 Files Linked (l: 10.5 MB p: 10.6 MB)

      96598 Files Move Skipped (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 96598 items propagated (l: 57.4 GB p: 57.24 GB)

        9522 Directories Move Skipped (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 1003157 items propagated (l: 633.12 GB p: 630.23 GB)

2021-11-24 09:25:59.670521-0800 Unmounted '/Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/JIP MBP 14/2021-11-24-091433/Macintosh HD - Data'

2021-11-24 09:25:59.696745-0800 Unmounted local snapshot: com.apple.TimeMachine.2021-11-24-091433.local at path: /Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/JIP MBP 14/2021-11-24-091433/Macintosh HD - Data source: Macintosh HD - Data

2021-11-24 09:25:59.821010-0800 Backup failed (104: BACKUP_DELAYED_UNFINISHED_PROTECTED_FILES)

2021-11-24 09:53:59.455590-0800 Starting automatic backup

2021-11-24 09:54:01.029729-0800 Backing up 1 volumes to Time Machine+ (/dev/disk5s4,16): /Volumes/Time Machine+

You write: "The reason your back failed was "2021-11-24 09:25:59.821010-0800 Backup failed (104: BACKUP_DELAYED_UNFINISHED_PROTECTED_FILES)"

That is not a reason why the backup failed; it is a notification of a failure. I see nothing in the logs that points a finger to the file you mentioned or any other file

I can say for certain that the reason my backups failed was not because of the directory you mentioned in an earlier post. I read it and tried excluding that. TM failed. I then excluded the entire Containers folder that contains it. Backup failed again.

Apple needs to provide a solution that has affected so many of its users, users who are not IT experts and who randomly and desperately seek out solutions that they assume work but without actually knowing why they do in some cases but do not work across the board. The problem is that a lot of misinformation or faulty diagnoses get propagated across this and other sites.

I tried safe booting and got the same failed outcomes. I tried removing encryption on the HDD and that failed too. I spent hours with two Apple diagnosticians, sent in logs, and was told there is a bug in the OS and they are hoping to redress it in a future update to Monterey.

I'm done experimenting. CarbonCopyCloner, in the meantime, is giving me workable backups, thank goodness.

I've had the "same" problem. On November 20th I setup a new 10Tb external hard drive as my Time Machine drive. I left the older Time Machine drive attached. I also excluded all of my external HDD from Time Machine backups. Monterey was released on November 25. Since then Time Machine produces a message that it can't backup a specific file. I reinstalled Monterey and nothing changed. With Senior Tech Support we found the file(s) in the hidden Library. The offending file changed, but was always related to a browser (Safari, Firefox, Chrome). I uninstalled Chrome and quit all browsers and it made no difference. We deleted the offending file and the problem continued. I am getting a successful backup - probably only one a day - when Time Machine is backing up, the "last backup" is not from 11/20, but a more recent date. I haven't made many changes to the system parts that are currently being backed up. So I suspect that the error is with one of the scheduled backups: local snapshots, hourly backups, daily backups, weekly backups. Since it happens with files from the 3 browsers in the hidden Library, has nothing to do with the browser being open/in use, has nothing to do with the external disk, after 4 days of 6 hours a day working on this problem and a background of 5 decades consulting and managing IT departments (CIO at an international bank and brokerage firm on Wall St.) I have a bit of an understanding about PCs (my first was the first IBM twin floppy PC with DOS) and extensive problem solving experience (I won't mention the post graduate degrees) this is a hidden conflict with the new macOS. Finding it is not going to be easy, But, once it is found I believe fixing it won't be difficult. Hopefully I've provided enough detailed information to the Sr. Tech/Engineering support person I've been working with.

We also copied logs, reports and screen shots. I agree there is a bug in the new macOS. The engineers have enough information and enough occupancies of the problem to address this issue as a priority. Has anyone reinstalled Big Sur or another prior macOS?

I have a 2015 (intel) iMac running Monterey and TM backups have continuously worked on that machine without disruption. I haven't tried a new set of backups though.

On my 2021 M1 computer they have never completed (officially; they do take up space on the external HDD; they do not show up as backups though). Both machines are almost identical in the storage, apps, etc.

I have a related question. I noticed that after running unsuccessful TM backups repeatedly, my purgeable space has grown to 400 GB and my available space on my internal disk has shrunk by that amount. I believe this is due to TM snapshots and hidden backups. Is this normal behavior? Or is my internal drive gorging itself on TM data that it cannot place on my external HDD? (Possibly a clue to the problem or just a symptom of it?)

I don't need to worry about running out of space yet, but I could if this continues this way.

As I mentioned before the auto scheduled Time Machine backups were stopping with a message that a particular file could not be backed up. Each time the file listed was a hidden file and related to a browser. Today the same thing happened, except the file reference was a Siri file in another hidden folder.

I tried that - boot into Safe Mode - and Time Machine Backup continued having the same problem. It gets to this file: Hidden: Option+Go (Finder) Library -

Macintosh HD/Users/yourusername/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/5m1wd3yi.default-1574911010263.  

I changed that folder to: “* 5m1wd3yi.default-1574911010263”.  I left the Firefox folder renamed, by the way it is empty. Time Machine Backup complete without a error, ONCE!

The produced the same error on this folder:

Time Machine Backup on the next scheduled backup, the second backup of the day, it did the same thing with this folder:

“/Users/yourusername/Library/Containers/com.apple.siri.media-indexer/Data/genrenamesdataTable.tdb” could not be backed up.

and Time Machine Backup stopped! I'm reluctant to change anything about this folder/file because it's probably being used by Siri.

I checked the info on that file and got this:

Size: 4.3 Mb on disk

Created: April 27, 2017 at 10:41 AM

Modified: December 3, 2021 at 10:33 PM

Sharing & Permissions:

yourusername – Read & Write

Staff – Read only

Everyone – Read only

Interestingly Time Machine says: 

Oldest backup: November 20, 2021 (probably when I switched Time Machine external HDD.

Latest backup: November 25, 2021 (even though the prior backup TODAY, acted like it completed successfully.

Next backup: Today, 6:27 PM.

This is not accurate, because the "Latest backup ..." should be listed as this afternoon (12/4/21). I also checked the permissions on this file and found no issues:

I'm scheduled to talk with a senior tech/engineer again Monday or Tuesday. He has spoken with the macOS engineers about this problem, I'm interested in what they say. My suspicion is that clearly Time Machine Backup has a problem backing up "hidden" files and folders. But, I think it's not all of the scheduled backups - Snapshot, Hourly, Daily, Weekly. It's interesting that Time Machine Backup objects to different files, I can't identify a similarity between the files/folders causing the problem.

Not true. Prior to Monterey, I was backing up a 2021 iMac (M1chip) & a 2019 MBP16 (Intel) to the same Time Machine volume. The only things that the 2 computers have in common are SDD hard drives & Monterey 12.0.1. The iMac is still backing up correctly. The MBP16 is not. It seems odd that people reporting here are getting such mixed results with M1 vs. Intel. I have tried most of the remedies suggest here, short of reformatting the volume, to no avail. I hope Apple addresses this problem soon.