Time machine backup not running

You did restart after uplugging the USB cable correct? That is usually required to have it work.

-Kevin

Yes.

Shut system down, disconnected UPS from the USB on the computer, then restarted the machine. Made no difference. Then I started fiddling about a bit and clicked the box next to Enable Power Nap: While sleeping, your Mac can back up using Time Machine and periodically check for new email, calendar, and other iCloud updates.

Since doing so, backups have gone off correctly, and continue to work since rebooting with the UPS connected. Google Drive still fails to launch at startup (actually, it tries to launch, then fails) but after a manual startup it doesn't seem to be crashing.

There are still far too many errors being generated in the logs for my taste.

I too have Power Nap enabled but backups do not take place if the USB cable is plugged in. My UPS is an APC though. Perhaps that could be a contributing factor. However, I no longer have the APC PowerChute software installed. That was wiped out when I did a clean install of El Capitan and, when I tried to download a new and or updated copy of the app, discovered a Mac version was no longer available. Be it a bug or a combination of things, Time Machine just isn't working as its expected to. I am confident Apple will get it all sorted out and, hopefully, sooner rather than later.

FWIW... I've submitted a new ticket at bugreport.apple.com detailing the UPS w/ USB connection issue. I'm sure it'll be closed as they must have had previous reports of the issue, but the more the merrier I guess...

I don't have Power Nap as my machine is a desktop, furthermore my computer is (and has been) set to never sleep. My UPS is also an APC and I have never had the PowerChute software installed as Apple introduced UPS support adequate for my needs several OS X revisions ago. Disconnecting the USB cable to my UPS has definitely caused Time Machine to start performing hourly backups again in my case though.

timmy lawson -> I also have filed a new bug report for the same reasons you state, primarily hoping to keep the issue on Apples radar.

As my original post mentioned, my computer is a MacMini. Power Nap appeared with 10.11.x on the Power tab (not the UPS tab). It's the 4th check box. I've never installed the CyberPower software either. My UPS is old enough that they had software, but the CyberPower website now recommends using Apple's built in software.

Time Machine seems to be working again. In the end, I did the following to get things working.

1- disconnected the UPS and rebooted in recovery mode (no change)

2- ran disk first aid on my time machine drive (found some problems, fixed them, but didn't fix the problem)

3- basically disable spotlight- move all drives to exclude, uncheck all of the search fields. (Time Machine didn't auto start)

3- clicked "enable power nap" in the Energy Saving control panel. (Time Machine started working)

4- reconnected UPS to USB. (Time Machine still working)

5- rebooted. Time Machine continued working and Google Drive started working.

6- shutdown for the night, the started again today, both Time Machine and Google Drive working.

Mini (Late 2009) that crashed earlier (21st and posted 1022TH1807) that crash fixed TIme Machine backups had crashed again (Safari prime suspect) 1025SU after backup at 1625. This crash broke the self-repair done last time and TM stopped. No change from 10.11, on Energy Saver panel, or from iTunes running constantly. Crash giveth and crash taketh away. After unplugging UPS, in console log are suddenly lots of entries like:

10/27/15 3:40:04.862 AM com.apple.preference.energysaver.remoteservice[6025]: _SC_CFBundleCopyNonLocalizedString: failed to create data properties from resource (error=-10)

ending with

10/27/15 3:34:05.728 AM com.apple.preference.energysaver.remoteservice[6025]: open() failed: Too many open files

Then

10/27/15 3:33:03.542 AM com.apple.backupd[6055]: Attempting to soft mount network destination URL: afp://dmhfew@Drobo_5N_Alpha.local/Black_Hole

10/27/15 3:33:29.406 AM com.apple.backupd[6055]: Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Black_Hole using URL: afp://XXXXXX@Drobo_5N_Alpha.local/Black_Hole

10/27/15 3:33:47.258 AM com.apple.backupd[6055]: Disk image /Volumes/Black_Hole/Monolith.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups

But no backup that was scheduled for 0312. No entries for backupd after missing 0412 and refreshing console. Perhaps my early model doesn’t get “Power Nap” under 10.11 and had to reset Sys Pref Energy Saver to Computer/Display Sleep - Never. With UPS USB unplugged, will try restart.

Ruprick the Monkey Boy wrote:

I'm going to continue monitoring throughout the day and probably reboot at some point.

I have yet to reboot, but my iMac has been performing local backups on the hourly schedule since last week with no apparent issues. I even turned back on my scheduled sleep/wake schedule so the iMac is off overnight and on in the morning when I come to my desk and it still appears to be executing on schedule.

I have not done a full reboot since reconnecting the APC but otherwise all is good.

My penultimate step in testing will be to reboot, and if the backups continue I'll then re-connect the network time machine drive and monitor the timing.

I have the same problem too since the update to El Capitan 10.11. I can Backup manually but the scheduled backups do not kick in! Had been working fine but stopped a few days ago.

Running 10.11 on new iMac with Time Machine doings its backups to an external 4Tb disk that is connected via USB.

Ruprick, what type of USB HD are you using for your TM backups in lieu of the network drive?

Did you do a Restart after removing the UPS cable? I did and TM has been backing up every hour for over 9 hours now without problems. Verified with Console app.

MacPro (early 2009) backing up to an external 4T HD.

According to MacRumors.com, Apple seeded the first beta of 10.11.2 at 1:20 PDT. The brief story included this statement: "According to Apple's release notes, focus areas for the beta include Graphics, Mail, Wi-Fi, Calendar, USB, Notes, Photos, and Spotlight." I'm hopeful USB being mentioned as a focus area is a good sign.

I also have a problem with automatic scheduling of Time Capsule backups not working but I have recently noticed a difference between my two iMacs. One is running OSX 10.11.1 (recently upgraded) and for historical reasons it has always backed up to a Time Capsule that is connected to the same wireless network.

My "newer" iMac does it's Time Capsule backups to a 4Tb external WD disk that is connected to the computer via a USB connection. This mac runs 10.11 and used to backup correctly but now it doesn't it.

So, is there a problem with backing up to a disk that is connected via USB or is there something else not working correctly? I'm tempted to try backing up the newer iMac to the same Time Capsule on the wireless network to see if that works. Even if this works I'm at a loss to understand why backups to the USB connected disk just "stopped working".

I backup my iMac using TM to a Time Capsule via ethernet and it doesn't work if my APC UPS is connected with the supplied cable.

I have been wresting with a version of this issue for several weeks, specifically that the first automatic TM backup occurred as expected after I either started up my iMac or woke it from sleep, but when it was awake for more than an hour after that backup no more automatic backups occurred.

What seems to have fixed this issue for me was to add my startup disk (the one usually named "Macintosh HD") to System Preferences > Spotlight's Privacy tab, wait for a while, & then remove it. That forces the Spotlight index to be rebuilt. This took about two hours on my system, so if you try this give it plenty of time to complete.

I am not certain this was all there was to the fix. Prior to doing that, I had reinstalled 10.11.1 & after that, restarted into Recovery mode (with the command + R key at startup) & from there run Disk Utility's "First Aid" on my startup disk. Because of that, I don't know if either or both of those things were part of the fix, but I do know that neither of them fixed it & that only after the Spotlight index rebuild did auto-backups start working again.

I have not restarted my iMac since the rebuild, so it is possible the fix will not be permanent but I would like to know if this fix works for anybody else, even temporarily.

EDIT: I forgot that I also have an APC brand UPS for my iMac, & that I have removed its USB cable. I'm going to give it one more day to make sure auto-backups keep happening & then plug that cable back in & see if that has any effect.