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My Time Machine has stopped backing up.

My Time Machine has stopped backing up because "An error occurred while starting the backup. Anti-virus software may be preventing Time Machine from writing to the backup." My back up disk is no longer on my desktop and nothing is listed in Disk Utility. I have NetBarrier software that I just updated. What is the problem??



[Re-Titled by Moderator]


MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.3

Posted on Apr 16, 2022 12:43 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 16, 2022 3:58 PM

First, there is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac.  This user tip describes what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community.  


There are no known viruses, i.e. self propagating, for Macs.  There are, however, adware and malware which require the user to install although unwittingly most of the time thru sneaky links, etc.   


Anti Virus developers try to group all types as viruses into their ad campaigns of fear.  They do a poor job of the detecting and isolating the adware and malware.  Since there are no viruses these apps use up a lot of system resources searching for what is non-existent and adversely affect system and app performance.


There is one app, Malwarebytes, which was developed by a long time contributor to these forums and a highly respected member of the computer security community, that is desshoigned solely to seek out adware and known malware and remove it.  The free version is more than adequate for most users.  


I suggest you do what leroy recommended and remove NetBarrier according to the developer's instructions.


6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 16, 2022 3:58 PM in response to soundslike

First, there is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac.  This user tip describes what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community.  


There are no known viruses, i.e. self propagating, for Macs.  There are, however, adware and malware which require the user to install although unwittingly most of the time thru sneaky links, etc.   


Anti Virus developers try to group all types as viruses into their ad campaigns of fear.  They do a poor job of the detecting and isolating the adware and malware.  Since there are no viruses these apps use up a lot of system resources searching for what is non-existent and adversely affect system and app performance.


There is one app, Malwarebytes, which was developed by a long time contributor to these forums and a highly respected member of the computer security community, that is desshoigned solely to seek out adware and known malware and remove it.  The free version is more than adequate for most users.  


I suggest you do what leroy recommended and remove NetBarrier according to the developer's instructions.


Apr 16, 2022 1:56 PM in response to soundslike

soundslike wrote:

My Time Machine has stopped backing up because "An error occurred while starting the backup. Anti-virus software may be preventing Time Machine from writing to the backup." My back up disk is no longer on my desktop and nothing is listed in Disk Utility. I have NetBarrier software that I just updated. What is the problem??


?


Try disabling your third party AV and test.



Third party AntiVirus is not recommended— it typically does nothing but add issues to the macOS and competes directly with Apples own built in security:


macOS - Security - Apple https://www.apple.com/macos/security/


Apple Platform Security - Apple https://support.apple.com/guide/security/welcome/web

more—https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1902/en_US/apple-platform-security-guide.pdf




Effective defenses against malware and other threats… - Apple Community

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-8841


Apr 16, 2022 11:44 PM in response to Old Toad

I have removed Net Barrier and all the other apps in the Intego bundle, as well as MacCleanse. My external drive which has worked well for the Time Machine no longer appears on the desktop. Has it been corrupted somehow through this process? It is a 5T easy store hard drive from WD and I would hate to lose it. Any hope of being able to use it again?





Apr 17, 2022 12:11 AM in response to claus237

Tried to run First Aid on the easy store drive. Got this response:

Running First Aid on “easystore” (disk5s2)


Checking file system and repairing if necessary and if possible.

Volume is already unmounted.

Performing fsck_apfs -y -x /dev/rdisk5s2

Checking the container superblock.

Checking the checkpoint with transaction ID 117769.

Checking the space manager.

Checking the space manager free queue trees.

Checking the object map.

Checking volume /dev/rdisk5s2.

Checking the APFS volume superblock.

The volume easystore was formatted by diskmanagementd (1677.141.2) and last modified by apfs_kext (1933.80.3).

Checking the object map.

error: (oid 0x585e69) om: btn: invalid o_subtype (0xf, expected 0xb)

error: (oid 0x585e69) om: btn: found a bit flip in the header

error: btn: oid (5791337), xid (0), type (0x40000003), subtype (0xb), flags (0x2) level (0)

error: btn: invalid btn_flags (0x2), given btn_btree.bt_fixed.bt_key_size (16) and btn_btree.bt_fixed.bt_val_size (16)

Object map is invalid.

The volume /dev/rdisk5s2 was found to be corrupt and cannot be repaired.

Verifying allocated space.

The volume /dev/rdisk5s2 could not be verified completely.

File system check exit code is 8.

Restoring the original state found as unmounted.

File system verify or repair failed. : (-69845)


Operation failed…


Do I need to erase the hard drive (and lose all my previous backups) to use this drive again? Will that work?


Apr 17, 2022 3:12 AM in response to soundslike

Yes I would TRY erasing and then use it for ™ backup. However there MAY be problem with the disk. I would try reusing the WD disk but also get another disk and backup to that disk too just in case.

When you have one ™ disk and connect another disk and select the second disk ™ will ask you if you want to use the new disk all the time or use both disks. If you select both disks ™ will alternate which disk ™ uses.

My Time Machine has stopped backing up.

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