Time Machine keeps ejecting the external drive I'm trying to back up

Question

Time Machine keeps ejecting the external drive I'm trying to back up

I have Sonoma 14.0 and when I try to run time machine, it keeps ejecting the drive I'm backing up. I had been using TM on this drive for many years with no problems. Same external hard drive I was copying and same external hard drive for the TM backup. I thought maybe it was due to the drive I was copying getting close to max capacity. I tried deleting the orignal back up and reformatting the drive and starting from scratch. I also cleaned up a lot form the orignal disk and have about 300G of room so it can't be because I'm too full.

WHen I don't try to do time machine back up the disk does not eject on it's own and is very stable.

The disk I'm trying to back up that keeps ejecting does not need to be repaired. It seems completely related to time machine. I've tried everything. Very frustrated.

Also, it seems to muck up my laptop as well making things run slow once it it starts causing the disk to eject. I have to reboot to get things to work cleanly again.

Posted on Dec 10, 2023 10:48 AM

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Answer 1

MrHoffman

Level 10

157,357 points

Dec 10, 2023 12:55 PM in response to rachaelfromca

How gnarly is your entire USB configuration? Complex USB configurations can be unstable.
Hubs or docks involved? Those add complexity, and unpowered hubs can exceed available bus power in aggregate.
Is the HDD bus-powered, or is it externally powered? The firmer can be unstable, as HDDs suck power.
Does the issue arise with a different HDD? Bad HDD, maybe.
Does the problem arise with a different USB cable? Bad cable, maybe.
Does the problem arise under heavy I/O load? HDDs can react differently when warmed up.
Does DriveDx or similar report any issues or errors? Old HDDs can and do eventually degrade and fail.
Does using a different USB host port change things? Some USB ports can be flaky at best.

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Answer 2

leroydouglas

Level 10

204,856 points

Dec 10, 2023 12:43 PM in response to rachaelfromca

rachaelfromca wrote:

I have Sonoma 14.0 and when I try to run time machine, it keeps ejecting the drive I'm backing up. I had been using TM owith no problems. Same external hard drive I was copying and same external hard drive for the TM backup. I thought maybe it was due to the drive I was copying getting close to max capacity. I tried deleting the orignal back up and reformatting the drive and starting from scratch. I also cleaned up a lot form the orignal disk and have about 300G of room so it can't be because I'm too full.

WHen I don't try to do time machine back up the disk does not eject on it's own and is very stable.

The disk I'm trying to back up that keeps ejecting does not need to be repaired. It seems completely related to time machine. I've tried everything. Very frustrated.

Also, it seems to muck up my laptop as well making things run slow once it it starts causing the disk to eject. I have to reboot to get things to work cleanly again.

Unless you have another drive to compare— and come to the same conclusion: "It seems completely related to time machine"...

I might suspect "this drive for many years" is working in a state of failure— the resolve would be replace the drive.

you can review—

Trouble Shooting Time Machine

Time Machine troubleshooting on Mac - Apple Support

Call Customer Support (800) MY–APPLE (800–692–7753)

or on line https://getsupport.apple.com/

Outside the USA—Contact Apple for support and service by phone

See a list of Apple phone numbers around the world.

Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support

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Answer 3

MrHoffman

Level 10

157,357 points

Dec 10, 2023 2:13 PM in response to rachaelfromca

USB-C HDDs can probably pull enough bus power, if the Mac has it available.

With USB-A, that can be dicy at best. Lots of folks are still using USB-A HDDs.

DriveDx: https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx

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Answer 4

MrHoffman

Level 10

157,357 points

Dec 10, 2023 2:54 PM in response to rachaelfromca

HDDs can incrementally increase power usage, cooling can get plugged and warmer, cables can wear and fail, HDDs can wear and fail, and TM puts a not-inconsequential load on an HDD, and the Mac itself can have a problem when it heats up. This could be TM, or the HDD, or the Mac, or it could be the bus configuration.

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Answer 5

Dec 10, 2023 1:47 PM in response to leroydouglas

The drive has no issues when I'm not running time machine. I use it for facebook and it is stable until I try time machine. I can do straight copies from the source drive to the one I tried to use as a time machine back up without issues. I have another drive that was having similar problems but was able to keep restarting and eventually got a back up but it was only about 1/3rd full while this one is 90+ % full. I tried to keep restarting and it seemed to do more but it caused everything else on my mac to become very unstable I was constantly having to reboot to get time machine unstuck. Ie, Time machine would say it was copying but was stuck at zero bytes transfered. One time when I tried to restart it didn't pick up from where it was at but started fresh. So, I've spent days trying to get a complete back up and still it doesn't work. I'm now using Intego Back Up and it seems to work. So, again, not the drive.

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Answer 6

Dec 10, 2023 1:53 PM in response to MrHoffman

I tried all different USB ports on my laptop and different cables and nothing made a difference. I just have the USB C cable from the drive to the laptop. No adapters. I have the laptop fully powered and tried 2 different power cables. The drives don't have separate power they are both Seagate 5TB drives. I don't see any errors. I have tried repairing the drives (both of them) and don't see any issues or they do repair.

I have tried without anything else running and still see the issue. I have looked at the power settings for what the drive needs vs what is available and that is adequate.

I had this same issue with a different pair of drives but had a much smaller size I was backing up so was able to keep restarting and it eventually made a copy. This backup is about 90% full (was more but I removed stuff in case that was the problem) and it ejects so frequently I can not get it to complete. It sometimes drags down my laptop so I have to reboot. TM sometimes gets in a bad state so I have to reboot.

I don't know what DriveDx is.

Thanks!

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Answer 7

Dec 10, 2023 2:18 PM in response to MrHoffman

Why would that suddenly matter when I have been using this fine for a long time. It only seems to have started happening recently and may be related to a software update or ??? I don't have problems using this drive when I'm not doing a back up with Time machine. I can do a direct copy and not have problems. But I want the capabilities of time machine to get changes only on subsequent updates. I'm trying Intego back up now and it looks like it's working fine.

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Time Machine keeps ejecting the external drive I'm trying to back up

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