Time Machine "Waiting to Compete First Backup" but looked like it did create the backup in ".inprogress" folder, and is running hourly and creating ".interrupted" folders

Thanks Alex8Bryan88. The solution was to delete the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist file, in the Macintosh HD /Libary/Preferences file. I did not bother deleting any LuLu file, as noted by m1mini. Thanks to both of you.

My backup drive now shows a folder 2022-01-12-170810, which has the full backup in it. There is no backups.backupdb folder on the drive like in older versions of TimeMachine. Most importantly, TimeMachine shows that a backup was completed, a folder on the backup drive is viewable in Finder with the date and time of the backup, that folder contains the backup, and one can use terminal to confirm the existence of the files. All is well. Thanks!

I had some chats and a call with Apple support today about this concern, because I need backups. I did several things qithout any success. They advised me to use the safe mode and doing a backup there.

That fixed the problem for me and the backup went through in safe mode. It took time, but time machine ran through.

After a regular reboot my time machine is running again like before. And the 104 error message (above) went away. Up to now I do not have any idea why this works, but some magic must be these days;-)

Safe mode:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

I ran into the same problem. First Aid did not help, but what definitely worked was excluding the Containers folder from backup. After doing that it backed up just fine, so it's something funky about the "FindMyWidget" for whatever reason.

So yes, after disabling backup of the Containers folder, backups worked perfectly. I tried adding it back in after I got a successful backup and it goes back to silently failing. So something is wonky with those files but not sure what.

Also, it does not seem to be affected by having FindMy on or off. It was failing either way.

Hi

Just an update from my side and to confirm most of your ideas.

I reported the fact to Apple support and did several test runs and was transfered to their senior support dept. During the test runs I did a lot of of stuff discussed here in this thread and provided Apple also with logfiles excerpts. The senior was open to and wanted to fix that thing;-)

Result: The only thing that helps currently was the exclusion of the FindMy folders in time machine. Since it works now, Apple left this and that said it is a workaround until a potential fix arises in a future update. Have a nice backup;-)

The 12.1 update fixed this issue for me.

I excluded all com.apple.findmy.FindMyWidget**** files/containers from my time machine settings. Then started a new backup which finished successfully. Will try what you suggest concerning the widget later on this day.

Thanks.

Here is an update on my situation (in case someone is interested): after excluding the "com.apple.findmy.FindMyWidget*" directories from Time Machine, the first backup completed successfully. However, after removing the exclusions, these directories were not added to the subsequent backups (which were also successful). I wonder if they are included in the backups for others who were able to finish the first backup by booting into safe mode, or if anyone has ever tried a full system recovery from such a backup... also, I'm not sure if the absence of those directories would have any impact on the system operation (perhaps they will be re-created automatically?)

It worked for me as well, with 12.01, after starting in Recovery Mode and running the Disk Utility / First Aid from there. It hadn't worked running the Disk Utility from normal mode. This was with a GDrive mobile USB-C.

Thank you -- booting in safe mode and doing the first backup there fixed it for me too, the disk repair suggestion did not do the trick.

Updating to 12.1 fixed this for me, if it's still broken for you I suggest looking up apple feedback assistant and using that to file a bug report with apple.

I have the same problem. AppleCare has been working on it for two weeks.

I finally googled with the TM error message, and after going through numerous sites and threads I found this one.

I excluded Containers (I had to change the permission of other users so TM could load the directories into Preferences).

The backup ran in Safe mode. I rebooted into normal mode and did another backup. That worked. Let's hope it works until Apple fixes the problem. THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!

Okay, I have tried all the workarounds in this thread (like the hard drive first aid in recovery mode and backing up in safe mode) with no success. I have a M1 Max 14 inch MacBook Pro. Each backup takes >8 hours and results in a backup that is not visible in a finder window, but that exists when one uses a terminal window and searches through the /Volumes. Disk space is used (in my case about 1.1 Tb per backup). No backup is officially listed as completed in Time Machine, which is "Waiting to complete the first backup". In the /Volumes folder, the backups are typical listed as *.interrupted or *.incomplete folders. It looks like one could restore files (via terminal) from this folder that is invisible to finder. It seems silly to start deleting files or moving containers to make a back program work (apparently only temporarily at best). Apple support will hopefully have a fix soon. Until then, I recommend moving to other backup software. I'm using SuperDuper to clone my drive, but if others have suggestions, I am open to them.

I used the command

sudo tmutil addexclusion -p ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.findmy.FindMyWidget*

to exclude all failing files. It works for me.

I tried the "Disk Utility" fix and it didn't work for me.

I think I fixed my problem : i copied the com.apple.findmy* files to another drive, to have a backup of them before deleting them.

I rebooted, removed all User/Library/Containers exclusion from Time Machine and the full internal disk backup completed successfully.