Time machine backup not running

I just checked my Time Machine. It hasn't missed an hourly backup since I unplugged the APC UPS/USB cable yesterday; however, the scheduled time of the backups have slipped from the initial hour:34 minutes to the current hour:48 minutes. But, again, Time Machine is at least making approximate hourly backups.

No backup on the Cyberpower test. I plugged a Cyberpower UPS into my Mac Pro and Time Machine skipped the scheduled backup. So back to no UPS USB connected for now.

-Kevin

So bizarre on my Macbook. I redid everything today to test (started a new TM backup) and this time I set the Battery settings to 2 hours for computer sleep and 1 hour for display sleep. Magically today TM backups are running as scheduled, unlike yesterday where they weren't until I switched them to NEVER.

I'm wondering if on my Macbook I just need to change the prefs to have the energy settings rewritten or not.

So now maybe it does have to do specifically with a UPS connected via a USB.

-Kevin

I backup to an external 4T HD with MacPro and to a 2T Time Capsule on my laptop. I found myself loading OS X 10.11.1 with fingers crossed that the update would fix TM. Surprised that I had to reestablish my credentials again but it didn't resolve TM. I followed Linc Davis' recommendations posted on 10-19-15 " Time Machine fails to backup to external drive" which didn't work either. This condition with TM will stop me from updating my laptop until it is fixed. Problem for me is I have already updated my iphone and iPad to iOS9 and now some of my notes and contacts won't update. Do you think this is Apple's way of pushing us closer to the Cloud Drive? Just asking.😕

MacPro (Early 2009), 2.66GHz, 1T SSD (really improves performance)

Give this a try. If you read the previous couple pages of this post, you will see we discovered a temp fix. That is if you have a UPS pugged into your Mac Pro. Unplug the UPS, restart and let it go for a few hours and see if it is running Time Machine backups on schedule.

I would also suggest to others who may be having this issue would be to reset the SMC, followed by a PRAM reset. I had done all of this a couple of days prior to my "discovery" of my APC UPS fix. My Mac has been backing up normally since I performed this fix, even when waking from sleep! I also took the time to put in a call to the people at Apple informing them of what I had done to make Time Machine work for me again. I hope this helps!

I am grateful for the workaround to get the automatic hourly Time Machine backups restored but do remain concerned at the hopefully temporary loss of the means to have my Mac Pro shut down in an orderly fashion by a UPS should a power outage occur. Hopefully, Apple will soon tweak El Capitan to permit the correct functioning of Time Machine with a UPS connected via USB. While digging around a competing UPS's website (CyberPower), I found directions on how they recommended the configuration of the OS X UPS manager:

OS X Configuration

Directions to configure the OS X UPS manager in the Energy Saver control panel.

1. With the computer and the UPS off, connect the USB cable that was included with the unit to an available USB port on the computer.
2. Turn the UPS on and start the computer.
3. Once the computer has started, open system preferences.
4. In system preferences click on Energy Saver.
5. Choose Settings for UPS and adjust the runtime settings to your preference.

When I disconnected my APC's UPS/USB cable and immediately restarted my Mac Pro, I did not follow the aforementioned instruction sequence to the letter. I don't know if these instructions are specific to CyberPower APC's but I wonder if it's worth a shot to perform them in the order described to see if it would allow Time Machine to function normally while being connected to a UPS via USB?

Gerald and everyone else who has been following this. For some strange reason, yesterday at 3:55pm I felt like plugging my APC UPS back in via USB port on the Mac Pro for +__+_+__& giggles. I then restarted the machine, ran a manual backup and by God, have been getting hourly backups since then!! I have no clue as to why its working now, but if it fails again I will surely let you know.

Well, I have tried all the sequential do-dah previously mentioned and on my iMac running 10.11.1 (and 10.11.0 before it) my TM backup only works on its hourly schedule if my APC UPS is not plugged in with the USB cable supplied. TM also only runs properly after a re-start if the iMac and the UPS have been connected. TM works perfectly if stated manually in all scenarios so, in other words, it seems to be the USB connection to a UPS that somehow screws with scheduled TM backups. Of the two, I'd rather have backups than graceful shutdown in the event of not being at my computer when there's a power outage (rare).

I'll try it tomorrow at 3.55pm to see if it's the timing that makes the difference 😉

I think I jumped the gun when I said a couple hours ago that for some strange reason it is working in this comment I posted: "Gerald and everyone else who has been following this. For some strange reason, yesterday at 3:55pm I felt like plugging my APC UPS back in via USB port on the Mac Pro for +__+_+__& giggles. I then restarted the machine, ran a manual backup and by God, have been getting hourly backups since then!! I have no clue as to why its working now, but if it fails again I will surely let you know."

Well now it has failed again after I did a restart. Now I think and am testing another scenario. Unplugging and plugging back in the UPS, and then doing a manual backup. Now I am going to wait awhile and see if Time Machine starts doing scheduled backups. Sorry people, I am just trying to find a final solution as I don't want to leave my UPS unplugged either. I will let you know my results.

Well thats a no go on the plugging / unplugging of the APC UPS. Have to keep the APC UPS unplugged at all times in order for Time Machine to work. Dang it!! Well if anyone finds a solution, please post and thank you for your patience.

If you really need to have the UPS plugged in, you can always schedule TM via cron or launchd. See the last posts here: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/210832/why-doesnt-time-machine-do-sched uled-backups-after-my-yosemite-el-capitan-up

I haven't tried this so YMMV.

-Kevin

So I finally got a chance to sit down and try unplugging the USB to my own APC UPS (wow, thats a lot of acronyms) and sure enough, backups are now happening hourly.

netnothing -> I will add info to my own closed bug report as well, though like you I'm not sure if they follow up on closed reports. Thats an interesting link you posted, and I may go that route at some point, though it's a bit more than I'd like to do.

Same for me. Cyberpower with Mac mini 2012.

Thanks to you and all the forum for hints, very helpful.

We hope to have news from Apple about this issue. It is important that the mac is connected with the USB cable for proper operation of the UPS.

I'll add a "me too" for this problem. Machine in question is a late-2012 MacMini attached to a CyberPower 825AVR UPS. Since upgrading to 10.11 (and then 10.11.1) Time Machine has been broken, only running via manual launch and when the machine is initially turned on. Following the procedures described here (disconnecting from the UPS) did not resolve the problem. Disabling Spotlight completely did not resolve the problem.

To throw another wrench in, since upgrading to 10.11.1, I've had the same problem with GoogleDrive- it won't load at startup, but will then launch manually; but randomly just "goes away".

I'm seriously considering backing out to Mavericks- it was slower, but the apps actually worked! I never paid attention to the console logs until recently, but the sheer volume of errors El Capitan is throwing is rather worrisome.