Time machine on Ventura no longer works with a network drive

I have been trying to sort out why Time Machine has suddenly stop automatically backing up to our Time Capsule. After talking with multiple Mac technical support staff (I'm currently once again on the phone with one), I still have no resolution.


After no luck getting it to work with my Time Capsule, I thought it might have something to do with either the disk beginning to fail or incompatibility with the firmware and Ventura. I created a network drive with my LinkSys MR9000 and a Western Digital 4TB SSD. No problem getting the network drive to work. No problem in getting time machine to connect to the network drive. Time machine started to create the sparse bundle. It never completed. Now its saying the sparse is busy? Busy doing what?


This is exactly the same problem I was having with my Time Capsule. We have two Macs that have the same problem with trying to get Time Machine on ventura working with a network drive. I haven't tried it with the drive connected directly to my Mac. Is there a developer in Apple that is motivated enough to solve this problem.


BTW: I have a Masters in Computer Engineering. I written OS code. There is something in Ventura that has broken Time Machine backing up to a local network attached drive.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 13.5

Posted on Sep 10, 2023 8:14 AM

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6 replies

Sep 10, 2023 7:14 PM in response to roguedad

Time Machine is not supported on that setup. I suppose if you can make your router pretend it is a NAS that supports the Time Machine over SMB specification, it might work. I can’t remember which version of Samba supports that spec, but if it runs Samba and it supports SMB3, it should support the spec. Backup disks you can use with Time Machine - Apple Support


I’ve been running several Time Machine drives from a Mac Mini (Intel and now M1). Only problem I have ever had was when they broke SMB in Ventura.


I imagine the Time Capsule is starting to fail is it uses AFP and it seems support for that may be getting flakey.

Sep 11, 2023 7:27 AM in response to Barney-15E

I had a long call with Apple support.


One, they say they still "officially" support Time Capsule configurations. The person made a statement that Time Capsule can only be doing one backup at a time. Shows how poor Apple support is. I had been using a Time Capsule for years for backing up two Macs. Never had to consider making sure only one was doing a backup. These kind of statements from Apple Support really irk me.


I hadn't thought about that Time Capsule runs AFP. I had built a Linux TimeCapsule server with RAID 5 over 10 years ago using the open source AFP implementation. Wonder if it would still work today?


I have gotten the Linksys external drive configuration to work. Have to mount it on my MAC using Go Connect to Server. Once mounted, Time Machine allows me to select it as a disk. The configuration seems to have no issues working with my M1 based MAC running Ventura. It never finished the first backup on my Intel Mac running Ventura. Is there anything in the M1 silicon that supports networking at the hardware level?


I now have the first backup on my Intel MAC.


Apple support says they don't officially support Time Machine over SMB to a linksys external drive. That seems counter to this article (Types of disks you can use with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support). This statement so indicative of the arrogance of Apple and the dysfunction of who the company is today. At one point the Apple support guy made the statement "Why should Apple test that configuration? It should be up to the devices that want to work with Apple products?" This statement from the most valuable company in the world by Market Cap that has more cash in the bank than many countries. They no longer really care about making sure users can easily backup their MACs on a network drive. Linksys is not their product.


What's ridiculous about this statement is that Apple has to test with Linksys for Wifi compatibility with every MAC. It would be ridiculous for them to say they don't officially support Linksys as a Wifi access point. They only official support the Time Capsule as a Wifi access point. It would be trivial for them to test the external drive configuration with Linksys and ideally work with Linksys to make sure it works.


One issue with Linksys is that they don't support the current Apple default AFPS disk format. Why has Apple not worked with Linksys to enable that. Linksys does support the discontinued Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format file system.


Its time for all users to call out Apple for their arrogance today especially on features like Time Machine. Time Machine was one of the reasons why using Mac products in the past was so easy compared to Microsoft. Now Apple (at least from an Apple support perspective) seems to not care.


Sep 11, 2023 2:14 PM in response to roguedad

I didn’t mean your time capsule was not supported, I meant your router with an external hard drive is not supported as they told you. They do support a Nas as long as it supports the time machine over SMB specification if you can make your router with an external hard drive appear to be a Nas that supports the time machine over SMB specification, it should work.

I would not expect Apple to test any third-party devices whatsoever. That is the manufacturer’s problem. The way to become a company with billions in cash is to not waste that cash doing silly stuff like testing other people’s hardware.

Sep 13, 2023 3:59 PM in response to Barney-15E

I'm a bit confused by your response. As I stated in my response, Apple says they support SMB (Types of disks you can use with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support)


What is apparently is that our M1 mac works with SMB no problem. My Intel mac (2019) will backup the first time. It then fails with the following error in settings:


The backup disk image “Anton’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” is already in use.

Check that the image is not in use by another computer. If the image is not in use and the error persists, try rebooting the server.


Its not in use. For some reason my Intel mac can use the SMB drive (or the time capsule I had) to backup in the way it did in the past. Our M1 mac seems to have no problem.


Sep 13, 2023 5:34 PM in response to roguedad

roguedad wrote:

I'm a bit confused by your response. As I stated in my response, Apple says they support SMB (Types of disks you can use with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support)

I didn't say they don't support SMB. I said that Ventura may not have robust support for AFP which is what Time Capsule uses.

Time Machine over SMB does not mean "connect to the Time Machine drive via SMB." It means the SMB protocol used on the server must support the "Time Machine over SMB specification" created by Apple to ensure the backups complete without error.

It then fails with the following error in settings:

The backup disk image “Anton’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” is already in use.
Check that the image is not in use by another computer. If the image is not in use and the error persists, try rebooting the server.

That's what happens when there is no error checking done during the backup because the server doesn't support the "Time Machine over SMB" specification.


Oct 31, 2023 11:23 AM in response to roguedad

I agree with you I have been continue paying "Apple Care" thought if I have trouble with the computer I can get help....so many times, they had no ideal what they were talking about, making things worse, just like a doctor do not know how to help a patient, just tell them pop some pain killer that will work. Wonder the quality of "Apple Care" now a day. And Apple is responsible to tell their customers, not just new feature but most important things...what had been working now it's been changed to how to work or what had moved to where....took me a long long time trying to find (You can not believe how much times I spent on it) "System Preference" finally realized, It's NO LONGER there....why Apple is not telling us....we all connected to Apple, just send all mac user a PDF what happen to what as simple as that. why not do that ???

Time machine on Ventura no longer works with a network drive

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