Time Machine not doing hourly backups on El Capitan

I just finished the 10.11.2 update (not beta - actual update). Low and behold my Time machine backups have resumed. So now my 5k iMac can do hourly TM backups WHILE the APC UBS cable IS attached. 🙂

I guess Apple heard our concerns and fixed the problem.

Thank you, Linc Davis. Your advice for those of us using a UPS with our Macs works great!

El Capitan has been beyond a nightmarish experience for me. I went through five clean installs before I learned what to do and what not to do without the need for another reinstallation of the OS, and all of this before I was confident I could overwrite my bootable back, and run Time Machine.

I am an above average computer user, but OS X 10.11.x is proof that Apple is no longer on the same road Jobs envisioned for Apple Computers, Inc., nor Apple, Inc. In fact, this is the first time I pulled out an external hard drive to use as a test disk, in order to determine if things were operable between the OS and third-party applications. Unfortunately, I did not begin this project until after the fifth clean installation of El Capitan. Simply put, I never needed to do such a thing in the past. But since I now was being used as a beta tester, it finally donned on me It might be better to use an external drive than the internal disk in my Mac.

Focusing on new features like translucency as one of the key points in their own conference points to the utter waste of time being spent behind closed doors at Apple nowadays. I think differently about Apple. And I think they are more concerned over what is 'pretty' than what is practically applicable. Maybe they should spend less time at karaoke lounges, and get back to ***** work!

Thus, the slew of issues posted by Mac users like us complaining about discrepancies in El Capitan, and helpful advice such as yours that offers a workable solution. Of course, this is nothing new at Apple. Each new major release of OS X faced its own issues, but not in the OS weakening Windows way like the poor excuse for a Mac OS El Capitan has proven of itself. I mean Apple lost software and hardware compatibility on this one, just like Winblows. Did not older releases of OS X include, not remove drivers for numerous peripherals like the UPS?

Now Apple has enlisted itself in Apphell.

Thank you, Linc Davis. Your advice for those of us using a UPS with our Macs works great!

Thank you, but I hope you're aware by now that the comment I made at the beginning of this discussion a couple of months ago is obsolete. The bug has been fixed in 10.11.2. All you have to do is update.

A clean install of 10.11.1 (and presumably 10.11.2 beta) - however- also avoids the problem.

SBeattle2, your posts are very helpful, but I think others have already pointed out this ^^^ is not true.

Unfortunately, I went through a series of clean installs of OS X 10.11.1, and after I got to the point of running Time Machine after the last clean install effort I encountered this issue. I do not know if the issue existed in the earlier clean installs because other problems caused me to start over with a new clean install on each of these efforts.

So, this problem surfaces even on a clean install of 10.11.1 on a 27" iMac (Late 2013). Please know the only peripheral device physically attached to my system during the clean installation of 10.11.1 was my USB disk hosting my bootable backup because I needed to boot in to a disk with an OS storing the 10.11.1 installer in order to install El Capitan.

Also, I can confirm the popup message that appears is a notification that the computer is running on battery power. But this message only appears when the UPS USB cable is attached on both ends. However, this message is not normal behavior. I never upgraded my Mac to Yosemite, so I cannot say anything about the message appearing under that release of OS X, but Mavericks never displayed this message, except for a once in a blue moon occasion when my UPS would beep as my system was booted during a restart.

Consequently, the workaround provided by Linc Davis worked for me. I read it before you starting posting to this thread. I followed his instructions to the letter by unplugging the USB cable from my UPS, but I left it plugged in to my Mac. I restarted the computer and the hourly backups work. But I tried to re-plugin the USB to my UPS and the hourly backups stopped working. So I unplugged the USB from my UPS and did not restart my Mac, and the hourly backups resumed without fail.

I am still in the process of allowing my Mac some time to see if all is well before I run another bootable backup, not Time Machine backup, before I am willing to update to 10.11.2, but I have strong reservations against doing so because of the slew of negative reviews on the Mac App Store.

This has been such a terrible experience for me. I might as well be on a PC running the Microsoft OS (pick a version).

Thank you, Linc Davis. I am aware of the update fixing the problem. Currently, I am in limbo. Please see my post just above for details.

Thank you for pointing out that the pop up did not occur on Mavericks. You were 100% correct - as I just booted up both Mavericks and Yosemite and there is no pop-up and no messages in the console relating to the UPS - so this is something that was in-fact introduced in El Captian. I was unsure initially as I had thought that I remembered seeing something pop up momentarily when connecting the UPS data cable in the past. I do think this is a bug and I am submitting a bug report for it.

I wanted to mention that when I did my clean installs of 10.11.1 - I also did an SMC reset after the clean install on each Mac. Some people have posted here that even on the 10.11.2 update - an SMC reset was required to get the backups to run automatically.

We should all be happy that Apple acknowledged the backup problem and corrected it in a timely manner.

~Scott

Thank you, SBeetie2.

I put a note in my things to do to remind me to reset the SMC after I update to 10.11.2.

Hi All! :-)

Same situation for me: Mac Mini 2 months old, OS 10.11.1, APC Back-UPS CS 350.

Noticed that automated time machine backups weren't happening, although a manual backup had no problem.

Went around the block a bit before I came across the reference to using a UPS in this forum. :-)

Confirmed then that a restart with the UPS data cable NOT PLUGGED in let time machine do it's business.

Rather than having to remember on each reboot to remove the UPS data cable I have applied the 'defaults write' workaround that you suggest SBeattie2 and so far so good! many thanks!

Ricky.

Ricky - this issue is resolved by updating to 10.11.2 (with a subsequent SMC reset suggested). Is there a specific reason that you have not updated to 10.11.2? Also - be sure to remove the plist "fix" before updating to 10.11.2.

~Scott

I did actually submit a bug report on December 17th for the pop-up appearing when the UPS is connected. I have not received a response from Apple yet. I was not expecting to hear much due to it being Christmas week.

~Scott

I have now updated the OS to 10.11.2 (setting the 'defaults write' workaround back to what it was) ... and all is well. TimeMachine now working as expected.

The OS update also fixed another issue I was having, so all happy here. :-)

Many thanks SBeattie2 for your great info!

Ricky.

Glad to hear that backups are working correctly. One of the other issues that was fixed in 10.11.2 was also UPS-related - where if somebody was running a Mac desktop with a UPS attached - and they decided to enable (or disable) File Vault - the encryption/decryption would end up being permanently "paused" - because the Mac was behaving as if it were running on battery - and encrypt/decrypt will automatically pause while on battery. The only workaround for this issues was to remove the UPS Data cable. Most people probably were not aware of this particular issue - unless after upgrading to - or clean installing El Captian - they decided to enable or disable File Vault. This particular issue did not impact my MacBook pro - and I may go back to a partially encrypted external bootable clone (on 10.11.1) to validate. For me a clean install of 10.11.1 fixed the backup issue - but it did not fix the File Vault issue.

~Scott

After updating to OS X 10.11.2, I am pleased to report Time Machine is not only backing up according to the expected hourly schedule, but it is only backing up the small changes made each hour. Whereas, in the past, Time Machine would backup a ton of more content, and every month or two the data on the disk in my Time Capsule would reach full capacity, causing Time Machine to delete most of the backups. And this happened with just about the same amount of data I am working with at this present time, give or take 20GB or so.

Yes, SMC was reset just after I experienced a hang on my initial manual restart of the OS. So Apple did not get that part right.

Nonetheless, kudos to Apple for not only fixing this hourly backups issue, but for recoding Time Machine so it no longer eats away at the backup disks. And with the way it's going now I could not see the full capacity of the disk in my Time Capsule reached for years to come. Woohooo!

Thanks, Apple! 😀

One last thing. The message that appears each time we (on desktop Macs) restart our Macs, reading something about operating on UPS battery, still appears. So something in the OS X coding still thinks the desktop Macs are running on UPS battery when they are not. This message appears just as the machines are showing the login screen, or, I assume, just showing the desktop, if one chooses not to set a user account password.

I don't know if you saw my previous post - but I created a bug report about two weeks ago for the UPS running on battery message that appears for a fraction of a second when the UPS data cable is connected to the Mac while the Mac is up and running. I have not received any response from Apple as of yet regarding the bug - and I doubt I will hear anything unless they need more information.

Quick question: I only see the UPS running on battery popup momentarily - while plugging in the UPS Data cable. I don't see it at any other time. Are you saying that you see this popup at login time while the UPS data cable is already connected? If so - how long does it stay visible?

Glad your backups are working as expected.

~Scott

Yes, I did read it, SBeattie2.

The intention of my comment was more of a 'me too' statement, than anything else.

Thanks!