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Time machine preferences shows disk unavailable but still backs up, just missing 2 months of backups

I'm running Monterrey 12.2.1 on an M1 MacBook Air and using a 4th Gen Time Capsule with a newer HDD.

Time Machine runs fine with no errors but only shows yesterday and today's backups when I enter to view backups and not the last two months. All backups from first backup in 8/2020 through Dec 22 2021 are displayed and accessible. The TM settings screen shows Last Backup as Dec 22 with a red i icon, which says the disk is unavailable. However, entering the time machine shows yesterday and today's backups along with everything up to Dec 22, Airport Utility shows the disk is available, and my windows PC backs up to it with no issues, so the Time Capsule is clearly working fine.


How do I resolve this issue?



Posted on Mar 1, 2022 8:52 AM

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Posted on Mar 2, 2022 1:52 AM

If you have warranty on the computer ring apple support to find out.

Unfortunately Apple give the same useless list for all OS in trying to troubleshoot the problem.


If Time Machine on your Mac can’t find your backup disk - Apple Support


The one thing I would think worth a try there is to rediscover the backup disk. So the last item. Don't worry about the password.. but the network URL to the disk does get lost. Especially if the TC is not your main router.

  • If you back up to a Time Capsule or other network disk that has a password, the password may have changed. Log into your Mac as an administrator, open Time Machine preferences, reselect the backup disk, then enter the new password.


I do think it is very possible Time Machine backups are actually working fine and it is a problem with Time Machine displaying the results. So if and the above makes no difference then Archive the disk is still the best way to get a reliable copy of the current backup.. then delete the current backup only and start afresh.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 2, 2022 1:52 AM in response to howard238

If you have warranty on the computer ring apple support to find out.

Unfortunately Apple give the same useless list for all OS in trying to troubleshoot the problem.


If Time Machine on your Mac can’t find your backup disk - Apple Support


The one thing I would think worth a try there is to rediscover the backup disk. So the last item. Don't worry about the password.. but the network URL to the disk does get lost. Especially if the TC is not your main router.

  • If you back up to a Time Capsule or other network disk that has a password, the password may have changed. Log into your Mac as an administrator, open Time Machine preferences, reselect the backup disk, then enter the new password.


I do think it is very possible Time Machine backups are actually working fine and it is a problem with Time Machine displaying the results. So if and the above makes no difference then Archive the disk is still the best way to get a reliable copy of the current backup.. then delete the current backup only and start afresh.

Mar 6, 2022 12:10 PM in response to howard238

Last (I hope) update on this issue. The new backup is operating correctly. The first backup was completed on 3/3 and is correctly reflected both by looking at TM preferences and Entering TM. Daily backups for 3/3-4 and multiple backups for 3/5-6 are visible and accessible.


While no answer to the question of the growing backup gap between 8/8/20 to 12/22/21 and the current "today and yesterday" was ever determined, creating a new backup resolved the problem. As I mentioned earlier, I will delete the old backup sparsebundle after confirming there is nothing I need from the prior two years, of which I'm very confident since my wife never deletes anything from her Mac so probably has everything on her machine that's on the backup. 😉


Deleting and creating a new backup seems to be the only resolution when TM appears to get "lost". That is also what I had to do in Aug 2020 when I had issues with Disk Not Found errors and/or only the most recent backups being available intermittently. That backup ran fine until this issue started. We'll see whether I get another 2.5 years out of this one.


Thanks to all who contributed suggestions on this thread!


Regards,


Howard

Mar 1, 2022 2:34 PM in response to howard238

If you check the Monterey OS area for issues with Time Machine .. just do a search.. there are many many issues.


So you can either wait for a fix.. Maybe OS 13 unless Apple skips directly to 14.

Or delete the current backup, erase the TC disk if you have not done that since you started using Monterey.. and start over with new backup. If you wish to save the existing backup just use Archive function on disk tab in Airport Utility.


My recommendation is to either use a local disk plugged directly into the Mac.

OR

Download and try out Carbon Copy Cloner or similar. You can run it for a month free.. I use it for normal backup since Time Machine became too unreliable to trust. I have no links to company and pay for a license.

Mar 1, 2022 5:40 PM in response to LaPastenague

Thanks for the prompt response! None of the TM issues in the Monterey discussions I could find seemed relevant - please forward a link if you have seen one you believe fits.


Since I use the Time Capsule for multiple machines, my preference would be to not reformat the disk. I could delete the Mac backup and create a new one, but once again, this should not be necessary since both the Mac and PC are accessing the disk and backups are running successfully, but Time Machine is simply not recognizing the additional backups. I don't know how I can see two days of backups at the same time that it claims the disk is unavailable.


I'm currently running Disk Utility's First Aid to see if there are any issues that could be contributing to this issue and will post the results.

Mar 1, 2022 5:47 PM in response to howard238

Hold down the option key on your Mac while you click on the Time Machine "clock" icon at the top of the Mac's screen.

Select Verify Backups and run the diagnostic process

The process might take anywhere from 10-60 minutes or more depending on how much data is stored in the backup

Let things run until they complete, or until you see an error message

If an error message appears, post back with the exact text of the message


You can watch the progress of the verification check by clicking on the Time Machine "clock" icon and then clicking on Open Time Machine Preferences



Mar 1, 2022 8:51 PM in response to howard238

Disk Utility First Aid found no problems, no change in the disk availability icon in TM preferences, but backups still ran successfully. Then ran disk verify per Bob's suggestion above, and there is no longer the red i icon in TM preferences and backups still run successfully, so I'll see whether I get more than the yesterday and today backups over the next few days.


Thanks @Bob Timmons for the Disk Verify suggestion!

Mar 1, 2022 9:12 PM in response to howard238

In my experience, Disk Utility will never find problems on a Time Capsule, even though they might exist. The reason......Disk Utility is designed to check internal hard drives on your Mac or drives that are connected directly to your Mac via USB or Thunderbolt. You could call this a "local" drive.


The Time Capsule is a "network" drive that is either your network router, or it is connected to your network router. That's not the same as a USB drive connected directly to your Mac.


Disk Utility cannot check the Time Capsule hard drive. If it could, you would see "Data"......the default name of the Time Capsule drive.......appear in Disk Utility. You won't see "Data" using Disk Utility.

Mar 2, 2022 6:42 AM in response to Bob Timmons

Bob -


Interesting info on Disk Utility.


The info displayed on the DU home screen includes both the full 1.9TB Apple Disk Image Media and the Used/Free disk image volume subfolder for the Mac Time Machine Backups underneath the full media, in addition to the Apple SSD and Mac HD images. You would think that if the TC was not supported in DU it wouldn't appear, or report that it ran successfully.


DU claims to have run successfully and has what appears to be a complete and correct set of info on the drive, but I do see that while the Apple SSD Media has the Container disk 3 subfolder that includes the red Data bar on its display, the Macintosh HD subfolder just displays the blue used storage bar, which is what I see on the TM. Is this your reference to not seeing "data" on DU?


Running disk verify as you suggested has eliminated the red i icon in TM Preferences (Thanks!), and entering TM shows 9 successful backups yesterday and 11 today, but the next most recent backup image before yesterday and the Latest Backup date in TM preferences still shows 12/22. I'll check again tomorrow to see if I see three days instead of just two, but the Latest Backup date in TM preferences is not encouraging.


If the backups continue to run successfully but I can only see the current and previous days, I still may need to archive the current backup and create a new one, but if you have any other suggestions on how I can retain my current backup and get everything working properly, I would certainly appreciate it.


Thanks and regards,


Howard

Mar 2, 2022 6:39 AM in response to LaPastenague

LaPastenague -


Thanks for the additional suggestions! The Mac is of course out of warranty, so Apple Support isn't an option. Clearly the disk is not lost since backups are always successful and after running disk verify per Bob's suggestion, the red i icon is no longer an issue in TM Preferences, the disk doesn't need to be rediscovered.


As I said in my response to Bob, barring any additional suggestions that work, if i continue to only be able to access my 2021 and earlier backups and the current and previous day, I will likely need to archive this backup and create a new one.


Regards,


Howard


Mar 2, 2022 10:39 AM in response to howard238

You would think that if the TC was not supported in DU it wouldn't appear, or report that it ran successfully.


Disk Utility can display the special sparsebundle image file on the Time Capsule disk, but it cannot display or check the actual Time Capsule hard drive.......named "Data" by default. Even if you have changed the name of the Time Capsule hard drive, it will not be displayed in Disk Utility. So, in the event of a possible physical problem with the hard drive on the Time Capsule, Disk Utility will be of no help.


Running disk verify as you suggested has eliminated the red i icon in TM Preferences (Thanks!), and entering TM shows 9 successful backups yesterday and 11 today, but the next most recent backup image before yesterday and the Latest Backup date in TM preferences still shows 12/22.


Are you saying that there are two or more sparsebundle images for the Mac on the Time Capsule? If that is the case, then Time Machine started all over again with a new backup. To possibly see the "old" backups using Time Machine, try the following:


Hold down the option key on your Mac while you click on the Time Machine "clock" icon at the top of the screen

Select Browse Other Backup Disks to see if the old backups might be there.


Finally, not sure if you were aware of the additional challenges in Time Machine with Mac's running Big Sur or Monterey. If you are using one of these operating systems, your Mac's hard drive was changed to use a new format called APFS. But, the Time Capsule hard drive can only be formatted in HFS+.


So, Time Machine tries to back up APFS formatted data to the APFS sparsebundle image file on the Time Capsule, whose hard drive can only be formatted in HFS+. Gosh, I wonder what could go wrong with this extra complexity.


Personally, Time Machine backing up to a Time Capsule has not been all that reliable for me since Big Sur was introduced. I keep a Time Capsule around to help answer questions on this support forum, but I do not trust it as my primary backup plan.








Mar 2, 2022 12:19 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Bob -


Thanks again for your prompt response and insights! See my responses inline below preceded by h>>.


Regards,


Howard


You would think that if the TC was not supported in DU it wouldn't appear, or report that it ran successfully.


Disk Utility can display the special sparsebundle image file on the Time Capsule disk, but it cannot display or check the actual Time Capsule hard drive.......named "Data" by default. Even if you have changed the name of the Time Capsule hard drive, it will not be displayed in Disk Utility. So, in the event of a possible physical problem with the hard drive on the Time Capsule, Disk Utility will be of no help.

h>> Makes sense, though the DU UI could be more explicit about its capabilities. There doesn't seem to be any physical defect on the drive, since backups from both the MacBook and my PC work fine.


Running disk verify as you suggested has eliminated the red i icon in TM Preferences (Thanks!), and entering TM shows 9 successful backups yesterday and 11 today, but the next most recent backup image before yesterday and the Latest Backup date in TM preferences still shows 12/22.


Are you saying that there are two or more sparsebundle images for the Mac on the Time Capsule? If that is the case, then Time Machine started all over again with a new backup. To possibly see the "old" backups using Time Machine, try the following:


Hold down the option key on your Mac while you click on the Time Machine "clock" icon at the top of the screen

Select Browse Other Backup Disks to see if the old backups might be there.

h>> Only one sparsebundle and one Windows backup are on the TimeCapsule. TM is accessing the single sparsebundle, as indicated by TM preferences having the correct oldest backup date of 8/8/20 and free space, and my being able to access all of those backups, as well as the backups from the "rolling" today and yesterday. The only anomaly is the continually increasing gap of missing backups from 12/22/21 to "the day before yesterday".


Finally, not sure if you were aware of the additional challenges in Time Machine with Mac's running Big Sur or Monterey. If you are using one of these operating systems, your Mac's hard drive was changed to use a new format called APFS. But, the Time Capsule hard drive can only be formatted in HFS+.


So, Time Machine tries to back up APFS formatted data to the APFS sparsebundle image file on the Time Capsule, whose hard drive can only be formatted in HFS+. Gosh, I wonder what could go wrong with this extra complexity.

h>> Never a dull moment with "improved" file formats and software versions! ;-) We replaced our 2013 x86 MBP with this M1 Mac Air in Nov 2020, which I believe included Big Sur, and if it didn't I would have updated it as soon as it was stable. TC has been working fine for both the old and new Macs and the PC as I updated the OSs over the years, and worked for both read and writing backups through 12/22/21. It's just this growing gap in accessing backups over two days old since 12/22 that has been puzzling me.


Personally, Time Machine backing up to a Time Capsule has not been all that reliable for me since Big Sur was introduced. I keep a Time Capsule around to help answer questions on this support forum, but I do not trust it as my primary backup plan.


h>> While I'm sure I will need to replace it eventually, the TC has actually been pretty reliable for me. I did replace the disk a few years ago, but other than that it's actually been pretty good. I have it connected via Gbe to my router with the TC wifi disabled, so using it only as a network drive. TC is our local backup, but we also back up all our devices to the cloud.

Mar 2, 2022 12:48 PM in response to howard238

Sorry, I can't explain the 2 months of missing backups, since I have not seen this specific type of error. In most cases similar to yours, users report that they can only "see" backups going back a few weeks and months, but cannot "see" older backups that are still taking up space on the Time Capsule.


The usual explanation for this is that Time Machine started all over again with a new backup and the user can only "see" the most recent backup. By using the "Browse Other Backup Disks" option in Time Machine, users can usually "see" the older backup file that way.


In other words, there are 2 sparsebundle files of backups, and the user cannot use Time Machine to "see" the older backups unless he/she uses the "Browse" option.

Mar 2, 2022 12:59 PM in response to Bob Timmons

My problems always tend to be more interesting than the typical problems users have since I can manage most issues on my own... ;-)


If the issue isn't resolved this week, I'll have the TM start over with a new backup and retain the old one for a month or so to ensure I don't need anything on it which is unlikely. The Macbook is my wife's and she rarely deletes anything, so she probably still has everything on it that's on the two year old TC backup.


Thanks again for all of your insights!


Regards,


Howard

Mar 3, 2022 3:26 PM in response to howard238

A quick update.


Once again, there was no change in the Last Update date in TM preferences with the existing backup, and I could only access the backups for yesterday and today followed by the 8/2020-12/2021 backups. I moved the existing sparsebundle to a new directory and am currently creating a new backup. Assuming that this new backup runs successfully over the next week and I have the ability to access data for all dates, I will delete the old sparsebundle and consider this closed.

Time machine preferences shows disk unavailable but still backs up, just missing 2 months of backups

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