TimeMachine Backups failing with Monterey 12.4

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Level 1

9 points

TimeMachine Backups failing with Monterey 12.4

I upgraded to Monterey 12.3 in May and ever since, TimeMachine does not complete a backup, furthermore I cannot see any backups further back then 24 hours. And it continues to tell me that my last full-backup was the last one done before the MacOS upgrade.

This is extremely frustrating as it was working perfectly up until the MacOS upgrade.

When I watch the backup, it finds the NAS that is the destination drive, begins to prepare the backup and reaches about 12-15% way through each time, and then suddenly stops. No error message, no nothing.

Any ideas how to solve this?

I am backing up a 2021 Macbook Air to a Synology NAS DS218j

I've upgraded to MacOS 12.4 since then, but still the same problem persists.

Nothing changed with the NAS before this issue arose, the NAS is only half full (2TB of 4TB capacity).

I am a home-users with minimal data usage, so it's not like it's running out of space or anything.

Please help?

Thanks,

David

MacBook Air 11″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Aug 3, 2022 8:28 AM

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Answer 1

Baba_Ganoush Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 6, 2022 3:24 PM in response to John Galt

I've just discovered that the file it fails the backup on is the following: System/Library/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_SFRSoftwareUpdate/e90cd549c06d8dd2acc373db901e892f6f78ed24.asset/AssetData/boot/Firmware/all_flash/sep-firmware.j375d.RELEASE.im4p

I'm guessing maybe this is something to do with the iphone backup?

Is it a file I can delete? or will that destroy my iPhone backup?

Thanks.

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Answer 2

Baba_Ganoush Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 7, 2022 11:33 AM in response to John Galt

Thanks I'll try that. I removed that file above, and now it fails on the following file: “/System/Library/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_GeoPolygonDataAssets/com_apple_MobileAsset_GeoPolygonDataAssets.xml” could not be backed up.

Both are in the AssetsV2 folder - is that a folder I can just delete? I have a suspicion it might be the source of all my woes...

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Answer 3

John Galt

Level 10

146,396 points

Aug 6, 2022 6:16 PM in response to Baba_Ganoush

That file is not an iPhone backup, but if you determined it was causing Time Machine to fail you can exclude it in an effort to isolate the cause: If Time Machine on your Mac doesn’t back up certain files - Apple Support.

iPhone backups happen to be stored at ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

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Answer 4

John Galt

Level 10

146,396 points

Aug 7, 2022 12:47 PM in response to Baba_Ganoush

I am not suggesting to remove anything. Instead, exclude that entire folder from being backed up.

To do that, add that entire folder to the list of excluded items. It's the converse of what that Apple Support document says. These are the applicable instructions: Exclude files from a Time Machine backup on Mac - Apple Support. Drag the /System/Library/ folder to that list.

See if that results in a complete backup.

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