I am unable to make a Time Machine backup on my MacBook Pro running macOS Sonoma

X8gv wrote:

I'm getting a message that Time Machine cannot back up an encrypted disk to an unencrypted disk. None of my personal files on either my MacBook Air or my external drive are encrypted. This only happened since upgrading to Sonoma.

What type of Mac do you have. Macs with T2 chips or Apple Silicon are always encrypted.

Jim,

Well my previous success has just been undone by Sonoma 14.1.1. I made the mistake of updating this morning and I am back with the TimeMachine backups failing. The previous fix of disabling the Adobe background synch doesn't appear to work either which is very annoying. In fact I turned off all the background activities and still have the issue.

Ideas welcome.

Mark.

Thanks a lot for keeping us up-to-date. The problems with Sync and TM backup were the reasons why I downgraded from Sonoma to Ventura and I will never upgrade to Sonoma again until these problems are actually taken seriously by Apple and solved. A Mac without a working TimeMachine backup? Never!

Yes. "Wait for iCloud to sync." Is not really an adequate solution. People should be able to back up their computers to a local hard-drive without requiring a high-speed internet connection.

iCloud Drive synchronization is often unreliable. It does not allow users to manually start or pause it. It disables numerous core functions until it is complete, during which time it cannot be cancelled. And it does not even give users key information about which files are awaiting upload or download.

I have now wasted several days blocked by this problem. And I'm thinking it's probably quicker just to erase my Mac entirely and switch to a third-party cloud service.

I honestly cannot believe this...

After Time Machine finally and miraculously started working more than two weeks after installing Sonoma, it just broke down again today after upgrading to 14.2...

This time it does not even complain about some unfinished Cloud sync, it just jumps from 'Preparing...' to 'Skipping...' without any hint what the problem might be.

rainer1957,

Totally agree with you. Every "UP grade" to a New OS gets worse for us users. And why do "they" put out a new OS, when they have to "update" it every month, for the next year?

We got a new mac in 2022, Monterey [last mac was High Sierra] had many of the same problems. The update to Ventura had even more problems, but the worst was with Time Machine, by not allowing me to even See my Documents, Photos, etc. no less drag them to my Documents. I've been saving on Time Machine since 2012, & never had this problelm with any earlier OS I've had!

I just wonder, who knows what's in the minds of those who create these OS's? Each seems to be less "user friendly."

Hi James,

I did what you suggested, looked at Allow in the Background & neither of those you state:

OSMessageTracer

and

UpdaterStartupUtility

are on mine! There are 3 I haven't a clue of what they are, but there's nodiscription, just that show as "item from unidentified developer" - so how do we fix this?

By the by, I don't have icloud Drive any more. I stopped using icloud as most of my photos & documents were deleted on it & on my computer. And that's why I want to go into Time Machine, to recapture some of them.

I’m having the same problem plus more. Backup Delayed. Trying everything from reinstalling Sonoma 14.3.1, downgrade and reinstalling. Spent hours on the phone with support and they didn’t give any answers. It was all working fine until I was asked to reinstall the OS, because of an issue with Music only playing a few seconds! The fix for that should have been simple. Check the speakers. It was trying to connect to AirPort Express! After that all the problems started. Couldn’t delete a new user folder! Can’t add credit cards. Won’t back on TimeMachine! Nightmare.

Hi, same problem here. Please report back!

Jim...

Can you post how to find those 2 files and what to do with them once you find them?

I have tried everything to get icloud drive to work again.

Thank you!!

Can you explain how to find those 2 files and what to do with them.... Thank you!!

I do not have those files but turned off EVERYTHING under Allow Background nd STILL can not get Time Machine to even start....

Any other ideas ANyone.. I am dying here!

I just was able to successfully backup my MacOS Sonoma data using Time Machine.

tried with a fresh HDD myself but to no avail. Time Machine still does not back up. In contact with Apple support now for a week and still no solution. This is so frustrating.

I encountered the same issue with Time Machine after upgrading to Sonoma several days ago. However, when I examine Time Machine backups for the same period, all the files seem to be there.