Time Machine not working after Monterey update

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Level 1

8 points

Time Machine not working after Monterey update

After updating to Monterey OS I repeatedly get this (not very helpful) error trying to backup with Time Machine

My iMac looks like this

And I am trying to backup ~400 Gig from an internal 1T SSD to a 3T Western Digital that has been working for several years with Time Machine.

The external 3T Western Digital info looks like this

So far I have deleted the InProgress file, and repeated that after each iteration of additional changes below:

cold restart of iMac;

Eject then unplug WD external 3T USB cable, reboot iMac, reconnect external drive;

Deleted a directory I had on the backup WD external 3T used for other purposes and redid all of the above.

I get "preparing for backup" for ~10 sec; then "cleaning up"; then Err message always the same.

Any ideas ?

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Feb 19, 2022 10:58 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

DRLUV Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 21, 2022 10:40 AM in response to steve626

Thanks to all for help with this. I found a solution, the hard way, and thought I would share with you.

To be complete, I use AVAST software and had turned it off, based on prior entries in this forum, as a first step in this process.

I also had in the beginning checked System Preferences>Users and Groups>Login Items and confirmed no "startup" programs I might have been unaware of - i.e. confirmed there were none.

On your advise:

I ran Disk Utility - First Aid with no reported problems, and accessed files on the backup drive in Time Machine, so I felt there was no problem with the drive. So I saved the last backup to my smaller external drive, erased and reformatted the 3T drive in APFS, case sensitive ==> no change in behavior.

deleted the InProgress file

cold restart of iMac;

Eject then unplug WD external 3T USB cable, reboot iMac, reconnect external drive

Tried again ==> no change

Somewhat out of frustration I went back into Disk Utility - First Aid thinking to check the newly reformatted external again and noticed a drive "WD Disk Utility" in the side bar. Its not there in Finder. I thought I had deleted this years ago when Western Digital and later companies stopped supporting the software. I ejected / unmounted it in the Disk Utility view, and Time Machine is working perfectly now.

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Answer 2

lllaass

Level 10

210,513 points

Feb 19, 2022 12:15 PM in response to DRLUV

Although Monterey is supposed be be able to continue using an existing ™ disk that was formatted in HFS+, manu users here have had problems like yours. Only solutions was to either erase the entire disk and start a new backup (Monterey will format is APFS, case sensitive automatically), or save the old/existing ™ backup drive and get another drive and format that for ™ use.

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Answer 3

steve626

Level 6

13,881 points

Feb 19, 2022 12:51 PM in response to DRLUV

DRLUV wrote:

Deleted a directory I had on the backup WD external 3T used for other purposes and redid all of the above.

Unfortunately, while previous versions of the MacOS may have tolerated this use of the backup volume for other miscellaneous storage, the Monterey version of Time Machine is different and utilizes the drive space differently. Apple recommends using the drive (or at least the volume) only for Time Machine and nothing else. People report trouble sometimes when they have other files/folders present and back up under Monterey.

Can you connect the drive, enter Time Machine and restore files or folders? If so, you may want to save it as an archive as suggested by lllaass and start a new Time Machine backup under APFS on a new drive. Even if you can't restore with the Time Machine interface, if you can see and copy the backed up files using the Finder, you could still keep it as an archive. Otherwise (also as suggested by lllaass) you can erase and reformat it under APFS and start using it for new Time Machine backups. I prefer keeping it as an archive, it is best to have multiple/additional backups when possible.

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Answer 4

tbirdvet

Level 6

17,108 points

Feb 19, 2022 12:33 PM in response to lllaass

+1

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Time Machine not working after Monterey update

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