Backed up files showing zero bytes

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Level 1

92 points

Backed up files showing zero bytes

I was looking for some old files on myexternal drives and found that many files, which had definitely been backed up successfully with Time Machine and/or directly, are now showing zero bytes! Other files were OK. This was the case on all of the old drives, and also for some more recent time machine backups. This even happened on the current disk I use for Time Machine, though the most recent backups were fine.

The hard drives, of which there are 5, are Seagate, Transcend, and LaCie, so it can't be the drives themselves that are the problem. I hadn't accessed the backups for a long time, but I had previously accessed these files.

Is it likely that the files are still in there but that there is some problem with the directory or something? What to do? Some are essential files that I now have no copies of. How can I recover them?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.3

Posted on May 18, 2022 8:52 PM

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Answer 1

leroydouglas

Level 10

202,590 points

May 18, 2022 9:06 PM in response to teri555

teri555 wrote:

I was looking for some old files on myexternal drives and found that many files, which had definitely been backed up successfully with Time Machine and/or directly, are now showing zero bytes! Other files were OK. This was the case on all of the old drives, and also for some more recent time machine backups. This even happened on the current disk I use for Time Machine, though the most recent backups were fine.

The hard drives, of which there are 5, are Seagate, Transcend, and LaCie, so it can't be the drives themselves that are the problem. I hadn't accessed the backups for a long time, but I had previously accessed these files.

Is it likely that the files are still in there but that there is some problem with the directory or something? What to do? Some are essential files that I now have no copies of. How can I recover them?

Sounds more like data corruption...

with your multiple backups I might cull that drive out of the mix and replace it.

You can try DiskUtility>First Aid

How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility

How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility - Apple Support

3-2-1 Backup Strategy: three copies of your data, two different methods, and one offsite.

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