My time machine failed to do back up last week, after a week of struggle, it's seem like the computer reconize the external hard drive again but when I do the back up, it's still showing the last back up is two months ago, why?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.14
You do not delete backup files, TimeMachine does not react well to Finder. I mean completely erase the drive in Disk Utilities which will destroy the data. That's why I advocated two backups: one to erase and re-establish as a TimeMachine drive; one to maintain what backups you do have. If you have only one backup, you now see the down side of that decision, no real backup when you may need it most.
Here's the point, by your own admission, backing up is not working. What do you have to lose? Old out-of-date data? It's your choice, but yes erasure destroys data. Depending on your drive, the erase and re-establish TM could take let's say and hour. How likely is it your Mac will have a fatal error that deletes all you internal drive's data in that hour? Not likely at all if the machine has been operating normally. But that's your choice, I'm just stating options.
As a hedge against disaster, maybe copy off your most critical files and fondest memories to iCloud or some smaller external drive you know to be good. Just something to at least partially protect yourself.
All this may be the fault of a malfunctioning OS. That can usually be fixed by reinstallation. Again, working backups, protect you in that event too.
You need to assess your situation and make your best decision. And as is the usual case, some other user here may have a whole different take. Let's hope they chime in with their thoughts.
You do not delete backup files, TimeMachine does not react well to Finder. I mean completely erase the drive in Disk Utilities which will destroy the data. That's why I advocated two backups: one to erase and re-establish as a TimeMachine drive; one to maintain what backups you do have. If you have only one backup, you now see the down side of that decision, no real backup when you may need it most.
Here's the point, by your own admission, backing up is not working. What do you have to lose? Old out-of-date data? It's your choice, but yes erasure destroys data. Depending on your drive, the erase and re-establish TM could take let's say and hour. How likely is it your Mac will have a fatal error that deletes all you internal drive's data in that hour? Not likely at all if the machine has been operating normally. But that's your choice, I'm just stating options.
As a hedge against disaster, maybe copy off your most critical files and fondest memories to iCloud or some smaller external drive you know to be good. Just something to at least partially protect yourself.
All this may be the fault of a malfunctioning OS. That can usually be fixed by reinstallation. Again, working backups, protect you in that event too.
You need to assess your situation and make your best decision. And as is the usual case, some other user here may have a whole different take. Let's hope they chime in with their thoughts.
It's running right now. Well, running when you took the screen shot.
If it were me, and of course it's not, I'd setup a second drive as a TM and select "Use Both" when asked what to do. I'd then immediately force that new TM to run by right clicking it and selecting "Backup ..... Now" and see if it completes.
If it does, I'd them erase the old TM and start from scratch with it.
If you only want a single TM drive, deselect one.
If nothing helps, my next move would be to reinstall the OS from the Recovery Panel. It's about a 40 minute job; there are times I just cut to the chase and nuc the system. Reinstallation from the Recovery Panel will not disturb your apps, settings or data.
Others may have different solution suggestions and they are certainly worth considering.
It's has a folder call 2021_12_15_133407.inProgress, but there is no solid folder with date. So I think the back up is not running properly. And I have two hard drive for my Time Machine, both encounter the same problem. Should I delete the '2021_12_15_133407.inProgress" and check if it's work or not?
No, TM does not play nicely with Finder.
I have no problem erasing a TM drive because I maintain historical data in several other ways. My TMs are all simply the latest snapshot in time that mirrors my system.
Problems with TM drives are, in my experience, best handle with a clean start: erase and format and reset the drives as TMs. Of course that assumes the drives are still physically good. If they are failing, unlikely two would fail simultaneously, then you need news drives. That's a determination only you can make. I suspect they are not both failing.
I have two time machine hard drive, in the past few days, both failed to update to the latest backup, today, one of the old drive work, and the new drive remains unchanged...so I might re-formate the new drive and do the upload again. Many thanks for your advise.
This is what I see from my Hard drive, seem like the back up is not completed:
It could be an error in reporting. Have you entered TimeMachine to check actual file date added or modified?
Date added will tell the tale if TM is working after 9/6/21.
Does it means I have delete all the back up file from the Time Machine and restore the drive again? That means I will have no back up copy, will it be safe to do it?
My Time Machine failed to do back up
