Time Machine not showing last backup time and date on macOS

Since you’re running macOS Sequoia 15.7.9 on a 13-inch MacBook Air and have already tried removing and re-adding the external backup drive and deleting the preference file, work through these steps in order.

The goal is to determine whether Time Machine is backing up successfully but failing to display its status, or whether backups themselves have stopped working.

Step 1: Check whether Time Machine is backing up

Connect your external drive and open Apple menu  >> System Settings >> General >> Time Machine.

Check the latest backup date and any error messages. Then select Back Up Now from the Time Machine menu and allow sufficient time for the backup to finish.

• Backup succeeds, but the date is missing: Likely a display or macOS interface issue.
• Backup fails or never finishes: Investigate the disk, connection, storage, and logs.

Apple's Time Machine guide explains how backup status should appear.

Step 2: Check the menu bar setting

Open System Settings >> Control Centre, find Time Machine, and ensure Show in Menu Bar is enabled. Toggle the setting if necessary, then check again.

If the icon is already visible and its menu opens normally, continue.

Step 3: Restart your Mac

Save your work and restart the Mac. Keep the external drive connected if safe to do so. After logging in, wait a few minutes and check Time Machine again.

Step 4: Check the latest backup using Terminal

Open Applications >> Utilities >> Terminal and run:

tmutil latestbackup

• A valid path appears: Time Machine can locate a backup.
• An error appears: Note its exact wording.

Then run: tmutil status

This shows current backup activity, if any. These commands are diagnostic and do not repair the issue.

Step 5: Check the external drive

Open Disk Utility >> View >> Show All Devices.

1. Confirm the external drive and backup volume appear normally.
2. Try connecting the drive directly to your Mac rather than through a USB hub.
3. Check available storage on the backup disk and internal drive.

If Disk Utility reports errors, consider running First Aid after protecting important data. Do not erase or reformat the backup disk, as this can destroy existing backups.

See Apple's Time Machine troubleshooting guide for more help.

Step 6: Check Time Machine logs

In Terminal, run: log show --last 1h --style compact --predicate 'subsystem == "com.apple.TimeMachine"'

Look for messages containing error, failed, denied, or backup. Save relevant lines and timestamps to help identify the cause.

Step 7: Investigate a macOS-specific issue

If backups succeed and Terminal returns a valid backup path, but the date remains missing:

1. Check System Settings >> General >> Software Update for available updates.
2. Try Safe Mode to check whether third-party software is interfering.

If the issue persists, contact Apple Support and provide your macOS version, Terminal results, and relevant logs.

Avoid deleting more system files, resetting your Mac, or erasing the backup disk without a clear diagnostic reason.

What information would help next?

Please check these three things:

• Does System Settings >> General >> Time Machine show the latest backup date?

• Does tmutil latestbackup return a path or an error?

• Does Back Up Now complete successfully?

These results will help distinguish a display problem from a backup failure and determine the next step.

Time Machine may not complete a backup owing to a corrupted or damaged drive, or simply there isn't enough space left on the drive after Time Machine has performed its scheduled cleanup deletions and the storage requirements of the new backup.

In the past, though rarely, I have encountered this failure to complete a backup when there was ample storage remaining on the drive. I then rebooted the Mac into Recovery (for the appropriate architecture) mode and ran Disk Utility First Aid from there on the Time Machine drive. You cannot do this in normal boot mode.

Unless it was an older rotational drive that simply died, the preceding paragraph has always resolved this type of backup issue for me. Contemporary Time Machine drives need to be formatted as single volume APFS. The drive backup structure is entirely different than pre-Catalina.

I never (read ever) attempt to tamper with Time Machine plists or the drives themselves. It never ends well…

Time Machine Won’t Finish Backing Up on macOS 15.7.9

I can understand why you’re frustrated. You’ve replaced your original 2 TB drive with a new 4 TB drive, erased and restarted the backup, deleted the Time Machine preferences file, and checked the disk with Disk Utility. Yet the backup still won’t finish, and macOS no longer shows when the last successful backup occurred.

The good news is that your Terminal output gives us some useful clues. I wouldn’t erase the new backup drive again just yet. Let’s first find out what’s preventing Time Machine from completing the backup.

1. Check whether the backup is making progress

Your tmutil latestbackup output shows that the last completed backup was on October 22, 2026.

Your tmutil status output shows that another backup is still running, but it’s only about 50.2% complete. It has processed approximately 22.8 GB out of a reported 883.8 GB, with an estimated 43 hours remaining.

That estimate may not be reliable if the backup is stuck on particular files.

Open Terminal and run: tmutil status

Note the Percent, bytes, and files values. Wait 10–15 minutes and run the command again.

2. Check the new drive

You've already used Disk Utility, so there's no need to repeat everything. I would check two specific things.

First, confirm the format. Open Disk Utility, select the backup volume, and check whether it's formatted as APFS or APFS Encrypted. These are the recommended formats for a new Time Machine disk on macOS Sequoia.

If it is already APFS, don't erase it again just to repeat the setup.

Second, run First Aid. In Disk Utility, choose View → Show All Devices. Run First Aid on the backup volume and, where appropriate, its parent container and physical disk.

First Aid can identify certain filesystem problems, although a clean result doesn't rule out a faulty cable, enclosure, or drive.

Your new drive has 3.22 TB available, so running out of space on the backup disk doesn't appear to be the problem. It's also worth checking that your Mac's internal drive has enough free space.

3. Consider whether something is interfering with the backup

If the logs don't reveal the cause, check whether any of the following might be involved:

• Third-party antivirus software scanning the backup disk.

• Cloud-sync applications, such as OneDrive or Dropbox, repeatedly updating large numbers of files.

• Large virtual-machine images, disk images, photo libraries, or databases that change frequently.

Don't exclude entire folders from Time Machine just yet. First, let's see whether there's evidence pointing to a particular file or application.

Apple's Time Machine troubleshooting guidance also covers unusually slow backups.

4. Why has the last-backup date disappeared?

The missing date may be related to the incomplete backups rather than a separate macOS display problem.

Your Mac can still locate the October 22 backup, so it hasn't lost all knowledge of the existing backup history. However, because the current backup isn't completing, I wouldn't assume the missing date is simply a menu-bar bug.

Once we get a successful backup, check whether the date returns. If it doesn't, we can investigate the menu-bar and System Settings displays separately.

Let's narrow this down

Rather than having you repeat steps you've already tried, I'd start with three questions:

1. What format is the new backup volume? APFS, APFS Encrypted, Mac OS Extended (Journaled), or something else?
2. How is the drive connected? Directly via USB-C, through a USB-C adapter, or another way?
3. What happens when you run tmutil status twice, 10–15 minutes apart? Do the byte and file counts increase, remain unchanged, or does the backup stop?

If you can also share any relevant errors from the log command, that would help considerably.

5. The current version as of Monday Oct 26 is now macOS Sequoia 15.8.2 It does have several Security Fixes but to no see mention of fixes for Time Machine

My main recommendation is to diagnose the stalled backup before erasing anything again. You've already done plenty of troubleshooting; the next step should give us new information rather than send you through the same cycle again.