Level 1

31 points

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

Time Machine keeps reporting “Waiting to Complete First Backup”, but keeps appearing to run hourly backups. There are a series of hourly backup folders with “.interrupted” extension on the external backup drive, and also an “.inprogress” folder, which does appear to contain a full backup.

This is on a brand new MacBook Pro 2021 I just got this week.

At first, when I moved the external USB connected Seagate backup drive from my old MacBook to my new one, and “inherited” the backup, everything was working fine.

Then after a while it started reporting that the oldest backup was always the same one from the night before.

I tried erasing the drive (including a double wipe), deleting the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist, rebooting and starting a fresh backup. Looked like it was running fine, first run took a few hours, but after appearing to finish in System Preferences it reports oldest backup is None and “Waiting to Complete First Backup” in the menu bar. But does keep running every hour, and in System Preferences there is a time for the Next backup which keeps advancing after each run.

I’m not sure, but the problem might have started after I did the software update to Monterey 12.0.1 from the factory installed 12.0.

Any suggestions to try much appreciated.

Posted on Oct 31, 2021 10:58 AM

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Kevin Strong Author

Level 1

31 points

Posted on Nov 2, 2021 2:26 PM

Managed to fix it myself. Elsewhere I found how to look at the Time Machine log file using the following in Terminal:

log show --style syslog --predicate 'senderImagePath contains[cd] "TimeMachine"' --info > tmlog.txt

Opened tmlog.txt and found the reason for the failure on the last line:

Backup failed (104: BACKUP_DELAYED_UNFINISHED_PROTECTED_FILES)

Looking further up, found several files with the following error:

"Failed to acquire device lock assertion for........Library/Containers/com.apple.findmy.FindMyWidgetPeople/Data/Library error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=22 "Invalid argument""

(all the errors were with com.apple.findmy.FindMyWidget**** files)

Booted into Recovery Mode and ran Disk Utility. Ran First Aid on the startup disk volumes, containers & disk per this:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210898

I didn't notice Disk Utility reporting it fixed any problems. But after rebooting, the next time Time Machine ran it finally completed the first backup!! And has been running smoothly since.

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47 replies

m1mini

Level 1

4 points

Jan 10, 2022 6:58 AM in response to Alex88Bryan88

It's been working fine with LuLu installed here after 12.1 was installed, so might want to reinstall that if you want to keep it and see.

Nov 8, 2021 3:55 AM in response to patrick.probst

No, I tried several First aids run in sequences on all layers as described above. Backup not finishing on USB nor on NAS shows same behaviour.

I have same BACKUP_DELAYED_UNFINISHED_PROTECTED_FILES error message.

Any other ideas?

@Apple: For me, not having a working backup is a serious problem, this has to be investigated and fixed immediately.

What I do not really like in that case is that I have to find a solution myself to keep working such an relevant feature.

If a mouse or something special does not work ok, but not the backup.

Nov 8, 2021 11:17 PM in response to frédéric259

frédéric259

How did you do that, that you only exluded the com.apple.findmy* files? I could not see them in the GUI of Timemachine exclusions. Consequently I had to exclude the whole "Containers" folder, what is stupid for full system recovery

Nov 9, 2021 12:20 AM in response to frédéric259

I attempted to backup both external and internal drive using the OS on my external SSD. Time machine didn't complete the backup. Backing up only the external drive is OK. I'll try to compare the files to try to understand what's going on.

Kevin Strong Author

Level 1

31 points

Nov 10, 2021 6:54 PM in response to dpugachev

They are all there in my Time Machine backups. I did notice that in Finder they are no longer displayed as "com.apple.findymy.FindMy*" folders but as "FindMy*" folders, though Get Info does show that the names are "com.apple.findymy.FindMy*". Since they are all specifically for the Find My app, I don't think they should have any impact on general system operation, but I assume they are needed for running Find My Mac.

Nov 11, 2021 8:47 AM in response to Kevin Strong

OK, now it's broken again... today's incremental backup did not finish, and the log contains the same errors:

2021-11-11 08:36:47 Failed to acquire device lock assertion for /Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/Dmitry’s MacBook Pro/2021-11-11-081040/Macintosh HD - Data/Users/dima/Library/Containers/com.apple.findmy.FindMyWidgetIntentsItems/Data/Library error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=22 "Invalid argument"

2021-11-11 08:36:47 Failed to acquire device lock assertion for /Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/Dmitry’s MacBook Pro/2021-11-11-081040/Macintosh HD - Data/Users/dima/Library/Containers/com.apple.findmy.FindMyWidgetIntentsItems/Data/Documents error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=22 "Invalid argument"

2021-11-11 08:36:47 Failed to acquire device lock assertion for /Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/Dmitry’s MacBook Pro/2021-11-11-081040/Macintosh HD - Data/Users/dima/Library/Containers/com.apple.findmy.FindMyWidgetIntentsItems/Data/tmp error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=22 "Invalid argument"

2021-11-11 08:36:52 Skipping further sizing for finished volume CBE706D6-8277-436A-B095-D361CED744E6

2021-11-11 08:36:52 Finished copying from volume "Macintosh HD - Data"

2021-11-11 08:36:53 Saved back-up-later cache (Protected:3) at /Volumes/Backup/2021-11-11-081042.inprogress/.reservations.plist

2021-11-11 08:36:53 Records for BULRecordType

2021-11-11 08:36:53 Failed postflight for destination <APFSDestination /Volumes/Backup>

2021-11-11 08:36:53 Unmounted '/Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/Dmitry’s MacBook Pro/2021-11-11-081040/Macintosh HD - Data'

2021-11-11 08:36:53 Unmounted local snapshot: com.apple.TimeMachine.2021-11-11-081040.local at path: /Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/Dmitry’s MacBook Pro/2021-11-11-081040/Macintosh HD - Data source: Macintosh HD - Data

2021-11-11 08:36:54 Unmounted '/Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/Dmitry’s MacBook Pro/2021-11-10-152101/Macintosh HD - Data'

2021-11-11 08:36:54 Unmounted local snapshot: com.apple.TimeMachine.2021-11-10-152101.local at path: /Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/Dmitry’s MacBook Pro/2021-11-10-152101/Macintosh HD - Data source: Macintosh HD - Data

2021-11-11 08:36:54 Backup failed (104: BACKUP_DELAYED_UNFINISHED_PROTECTED_FILES)

m1mini

Level 1

4 points

Nov 12, 2021 12:46 PM in response to dpugachev

The problem also came back for me after fixing it by doing one backup in safe mode, and then another 1-2 in normal mode completed the same day, but the next day backups failed again for the same reason.

Jan 22, 2022 1:42 PM in response to Kevin Strong

So how is it the most powerful computer company in the world can't even get their own Disc Backup system to work? This is not a minor screw up in an arcane operation. Perpetually disappointed in Apple's QA.

Has anyone tried using a 3rd party disc backup instead to see if it circumvents Apple's bugs?

zytng

Level 1

19 points

Nov 3, 2021 5:35 PM in response to Kevin Strong

I had exactly the same issue, and this solved my problem. Thank you!

Nov 8, 2021 12:35 AM in response to patrick.probst

Same here with mac mini m1 macos 12.0.1.

Nov 8, 2021 12:36 AM in response to Kevin Strong

Will try the exact sequence.

Nov 8, 2021 8:47 PM in response to olliebolle

Same problem here. Running first aids didn't help either. Anyone ?

Nov 8, 2021 11:06 PM in response to frédéric259

By the way, this guy has the same problem :

https://www.macuser.de/threads/m1-mac-mac-os-12-0-1-timemachine-geht-nicht-mehr-findmywidget.889729/

@Apple : would be great to have support.

Nov 9, 2021 3:58 PM in response to olliebolle

awesome @olliebolle... worked for me as well!

Paploo

Level 1

4 points

Nov 6, 2021 12:57 PM in response to Kevin Strong

I had exactly the same problem on my Apple Silicon 16" MBP, which was updated from factory macOS 12.0.0 to macOS 12.0.1.

I was able to resolve the issue the same way as the OP, by running First Aid in Recovery Mode: No problems were found but the time machine backup magically worked the next time.

Looks like there might be a fairly reproducible bug here.

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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