Time Machine will not work on MacBook

270 MB after 18 hours isn’t normal, even for the first backup. I’d check the connection before blaming the Mac or Time Machine.

Connect the SSD directly to the MacBook, without a hub or adapter if possible, and try a different cable or port. Also make sure the Mac is connected to power and doesn’t go to sleep during the backup.

Since the same thing happened with two drives, I’d run Disk Utility > View > Show All Devices > First Aid on the internal drive. Start with the volumes, then the APFS container, and finally the physical drive. Apple explains the order here:

Do you have any antivirus, cleanup, or drive-monitoring software installed? Those can interfere with Time Machine. Large Final Cut libraries can make the initial backup take longer, but they wouldn’t explain only 270 MB in 18 hours.

Hog3yB3ar wrote:

My Time Machine will not work. I've been trying for about 5 days... even bought a new SSD incase it was my old external HD but it only gets to 0.2% (270mb) copied after 18 hours and then I need to move my computer so I have to stop it. Then when I plug it in again, it says "found 1 change" and does nothing else. I've tried erasing the hard-drive, it's in APFS... I've tried a few different things people have recommended on YT but it's definitely an issue with Time Machine or the CPU... which is a 2017 15-inch Mac running on Ventura13.7.8 - I know this is getting old but it works fine... I use Final Cut Pro X a lot. I will upgrade soon but I need the Time Machine to work obviously...

Please download and run EtreCheck (the free version, don’t need the paid version here), and share the results to the clipboard. Then open a new reply here, and press the Additional Text button (the button that looks like a printed page), and paste and post the hardware and software configuration report here. From that, we can get a little more detail about what is installed and what is running here.

I wouldn’t erase or reset the Mac until you have a verified copy of anything you can’t replace.

OmniDiskSweeper is unlikely to matter if it hasn’t been running, but CleanMyMac still has active background components. I’d uninstall CleanMyMac using its own uninstall instructions, restart, free up some additional space, and then try Time Machine again with the SSD connected directly.

If the backup still won’t progress, copy your most important files to another drive before considering any reset.

Performance: System Load: 3.00 (1 min ago) 2.44 (5 min ago) 2.91 (15 min ago) Nominal I/O usage: 19.22 MB/s File system: 29.30 seconds Write speed: 691 MB/s Read speed: 2513 MB/s

You write speed is terribly low. Possible a symptom of a drive that is failing.

Security: Gatekeeper: App Store and identified developers System Integrity Protection: Enabled Antivirus software: Apple and CleanMyMac

Also, you should uninstall CleanMyMac completely from the computer. CMM is one app that consistently gets pegged as a troublemaker here in the Community when folks have problems with their Macs.

You can use Disk Utility booted in Recovery to perform a backup, if you have a spare, empty, can-be-erased external storage device of larger capacity than the capacity of your internal storage. Use Disk Utility to “restore” internal to external, being very careful selecting which is internal and which is external.

Restore a disk using Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

I wouldn’t immediately go for a replacement Mac here, given the install itself could be the issue.

If it’s not and wasn’t a centrally managed Mac, there’s some decidedly odd stuff installed here.

That’s an incomplete report (blurry scan?) posted at an unrequested website.

Please post the complete report using the Share button in EtreCheck, select Copy Report (follow the instructions), then tap the Additional Text function in a new reply here, and paste the report.

Follow up–

Mounted Volumes: [...] Used: 199.94 GB Shared values Size: 250.69 GB Free: 37.97 GB Available: 47.73 GB

I also see you have a 250 GB startup drive with only 37.97 GB Free space. This is critically low.

Ideally you want to keep ~50 GB free at all times to allow the OS to perform properly. That's tough to do with a small capacity startup drive.

Free space is different than Available space, btw, as it can be used immediately.

Is this Mac centrally managed, either now or previously? This given the profiles loaded here.

Unfortunately, add-on cleaners can introduce issues and corruptions, and unfortunately the path there usually means removing the cleaner per the app directions, and then a backup and restore.

Given there are apps here from 2009, I’d be headed for a backup, reset, and migration of files and documents and settings and not apps, anyway.

There's a lot of stuff on this 256 GB 16 GB Mac, too; it’s under-configured given the hardware and all that’s installed, and the I/O performance looks dicy, though that might be the cleaner. Cleaners that free up caches can be detrimental to system performance too, for instance.

"CleanMyMac" claims another victim.

Erase the Mac. Uninstall it if you wish first, but even when performed in strict accordance with its instructions, uninstalling such junk does not undo the damage it is capable of inflicting.

Erase the Mac.

Before you erase anything or replace the Mac, I’d copy the recent files you can’t replace to another drive and make sure those copies open normally. That doesn’t have to be a Time Machine backup.

I’d also check System Settings for Profiles or Device Management and see what organization is listed. The MDM profile may be related to Company Portal, but it’s worth identifying before making any major changes.

If you decide to erase the Mac later, you don’t necessarily have to restore the entire 35-day-old backup. You could set it up as new, reinstall the apps you still need from their original sources, and then copy your documents and Final Cut libraries back.

Hog3yB3ar wrote:

The problem with this plan is that I simply cannot backup my drive.

So to confirm, you have tried to use macOS Recovery create a backup using Disk Utility to an external storage device with a capacity larger than your internal storage, and this Disk Utility backup entirely unrelated to Time Machine, and entirely unrelated to the Time Machine storage?

Again, this backup made during Recovery using Disk Utility is unrelated to Time Machine, or to whatever else is happening with this install.

Hog3yB3ar wrote:

I cannot find a FMM uninstaller on my computer. All remnants of the program I have erased. Sounds like this might not be enough? I guess I could just copy the document/exta files I need to keep from recent use and then do a factory reset and install the latest back-up... but that would just re-install the FMM?!

Get the backup of your data first, using Disk Utility from macOS Recovery as previously described. This a “restore” from your internal storage to that external storage device.

• How to start up from macOS Recovery - Apple Support
• Restore a disk using Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support (Yes, Apple calls a full device copy here a “restore”.)

Then we can guide you with how to migrate the contents of the backup into your new environment — without restoring apps, and without performing a complete restore of the backup.

There are so many unknowns in the EtreCheck report that clear and unambiguous guidance is simply impossible to provide over this limited communications medium. However, the following facts are made known by the EtreCheck report. It clearly shows:

• That Mac is centrally managed by an entity that you have no knowledge of, nor have any ability to determine.
• That central management profile is nearly certain to have resulted in software being installed without your knowledge or consent, including but not limited to the aforementioned "cleaning" product, which in turn has likely caused irreparable alteration to User Accounts (yours, and possibly others, accounts that may be hidden and difficult to find),
• Such damaging alteration almost always requires erasing the affected Mac, and
• That MDM profile may preclude your ability to erase the Mac — depending on the particular configuration options made possible by the central management profile.

This is a bunch of really bad news. We can speculate how the "original sin" of that configuration profile came to be installed on that Mac, but speculation won't be productive anyway.

Erasing the Mac is the only option. Try it. Given the MDM profile, it may not be successful though. Back up everything you need, by whatever means possible. Drag files, folders, work products etc to an external storage device. Any Apple or non-Apple programs you may have installed will need to be obtained from their original sources and installed again.

Hog3yB3ar wrote:

How is it centrally managed?

It may have been signed up to the Dept of Education or IT support companies at times have remoted into it... what do you mean MDM profile?

That captures the essence of my concern: it may have been signed up to the Dept of Education, or "IT support companies" may have remoted into it...? If you do not know, given the nature of the difficulties you are encountering with it, then it can and should be assumed it is not under your sole control.

Unless you are 100% certain that Mac has always been yours, meaning you purchased it directly from Apple (which is the only way anyone should purchase a Mac) then there are too many unknowns, which is the reason for my recommendation to erase it completely... which might not be possible.