Time Machine Preferences Error

Question

Level 1

50 points

Time Machine Preferences Error

Could not load Time Machine preference pane.

I noticed (very belatedly) that Time Machine has not performed a backup since August 16. I wanted to open Time Machine Preferences in order to restart backups or find out what is wrong. I cannot get the Time Machine Preference Pane to load.

I have already:

Restarted the machine holding down the Shift key

Removed the external hard drive from Airport Extreme and connected it directly to the laptop to verify that it is working. Checked it with Disk Utility.

Renamed the external hard drive with a name I was sure that I would recognize.

Reconnected the external drive back to the Airport Extreme.

Computer is a mid 2009 MacBook Pro with El Capitan running.

An Ethernet cable runs from the Extreme to an Express very close to the laptop. Good signal strength.

Any ideas or cures?

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), Mid 2009

Posted on Sep 17, 2016 5:24 PM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

155,018 points

Sep 18, 2016 10:16 PM in response to Gil Woolley

First try the following simple step. Locate the file

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist

... and drag it to the Trash.

To navigate to that file copy the following line and paste it into the Finder's Go > Go to Folder... window.

/Library/Preferences/

Make it look like this

Click Go. In the Finder window that opens, locate the file com.apple.TimeMachine.plist and drag it to the Trash.

Log out and log in again. Determine if you can open the Time Machine preference pane.

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Answer 2

Gil Woolley Author

Level 1

50 points

Sep 18, 2016 10:24 PM in response to John Galt

Thank you very much for the help. In this case, I don't think that the .plist was the problem.

Here is what finally worked. I had to use Airport Utility to address the external hard drive connected to the Airport Extreme. Then, I had to go to the Disks preference and add a password for the disk. Then I returned to Time Machine Preferences and entered the new added password there. Immediately, Time Machine came alive and started backing up the laptop again. I believe that Time Machine Preferences were failing because there was no password assigned to the hard drive.

I'd hate to try to reproduce all the steps I went through today because many did not help but once I went to the Airport Extreme preferences via Airport Utility, then things fell into place very rapidly.

I'm climbing into an airplane tomorrow so I will set this aside without completely understanding what worked but I think that in broad strokes is what needed to be done.

Thanks again.

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Answer 3

John Galt

Level 10

155,018 points

Sep 19, 2016 8:21 AM in response to Gil Woolley

You're welcome. Glad you got it fixed.

A couple of things can cause the inability to load the TM preference pane; that's one of them. The other potential causes would have been inconvenient to fix.

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Answer 4

Gil Woolley Author

Level 1

50 points

Sep 19, 2016 9:27 AM in response to Gil Woolley

In retrospect Monday morning. Your answer did solve my problem of getting to the Time Machine Preferences. I had to mull that over in my mind last night.

But as soon as I got to the Time Machine Preferences, I encountered the second problem where the password I put in did not work and the error message from Apple did not point me to having to add a password to the Airport Extreme. Complicated and convoluted.

Thank you very much for the help.

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