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nosnetrom Author

Level 1

22 points

Why is Time Machine getting stuck partway through backups?

I just upgraded to Sonoma 14.0 in the last couple days. Yesterday I started running a Time Machine backup that got to 64% complete, then was stuck for hours; I finally selected to skip the backup. I started another backup last night, now, about 14 hours later, it's stuck at 82% complete (7.00GB copied). What could be the problem? (FWIW, last night I reset backups to run daily instead of hourly.) Thanks in advance!

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.0

Posted on Sep 29, 2023 10:32 AM

Top-ranking reply

101_design

Level 1

15 points

Posted on Feb 28, 2024 4:12 PM

I was having the same problem. I tried disc first aid (no issues). I tried to reformat my external drive. I bought a new external drive. I tried different formatting types (APFS, APFS Case Sensitive, etc.) Nothing seemed to work. The backup would always stall midway through.

What fixed it for me is I went through different folders and started excluding them from Time Machine, until I finally excluded the Google Drive folder. After excluding the Google Drive folder the backup works fine. I'm not sure if it's Google Drive specific, or if it may be a problem with other syncing services that stream files as well. I have Dropbox and iCloud and both of those work fine with Time Machine backup, so I'm not sure.

So definitely try excluding any file syncing folders, especially the Google Drive folder, if you're having the same problem. It worked for me.

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19 replies

zgamer1

Level 1

8 points

Nov 12, 2023 6:16 PM in response to zgamer1

I just ended up reformatting my drive and now it’s faster than ever when backing up with Time Machine.

satcomer

Level 4

1,563 points

Nov 12, 2023 6:52 PM in response to nosnetrom

What are backing up to NAS, Das with traditional drives or ssd/NVAM DAS drive? The answer depends if the DAS to traditional drive or SSD?

ldipenti

Level 1

4 points

Jan 8, 2024 6:51 AM in response to zgamer1

Can you confirm if you formatted your computer drive or the backup drive for this to be fixed? I've already tried starting a new backup from scratch without luck. Thanks!

Jan 8, 2024 7:14 PM in response to nosnetrom

Is there any good if I formatted the external drive to APFS?

Why is Time Machine getting stuck partway through backups?