Running a late 2009 iMac on the latest version of Sierra
My time machine backups have become erratic
They don't automatically backup but run perfectly if I initiate the process
This is a brand new problem
I have run disk utility for my external drive and it is fine
I have rebooted
They run on the hourly schedule for a while but then it stops
ANY help appreciated
Mark
iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12.1)
Yes, it works just like that so yesterday for a while I thought it was working but no.
Really annoying especially since I don't want to or have to restart my Mac all the time expect for some updates when it's needed.
So it seems we are going with manual updates (!) until this is solved...
2017-01-20 21:34:52 Starting manual backup
2017-01-20 21:34:59 Backing up to /dev/disk3s2: /Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/Backups.backupdb
2017-01-20 21:35:29 Failed to send message because the port couldn't be created.
2017-01-20 21:39:24 Will copy (1.33 GB) from Macintosh HD
2017-01-20 21:39:24 Will copy (13.4 GB) from Files Drive
2017-01-20 21:39:24 Found 2567 files (14.73 GB) needing backup
2017-01-20 21:39:24 19.55 GB required (including padding), 922.94 GB available
2017-01-20 21:45:35 Copied 2947 items (1.34 GB) from volume Macintosh HD. Linked 17669.
2017-01-20 21:56:21 Copied 130 items (13.4 GB) from volume Files Drive. Linked 160.
2017-01-20 21:56:23 Created new backup: 2017-01-20-215622
2017-01-20 21:56:24 Failed to send message because the port couldn't be created.
2017-01-20 21:56:29 Starting post-backup thinning
2017-01-20 21:58:21 Deleted /Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/Backups.backupdb/Mark's Mac/2016-12-21-020815 (743.4 MB)
2017-01-20 21:59:12 Deleted /Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/Backups.backupdb/Mark's Mac/2017-01-18-221932 (384.4 MB)
2017-01-20 21:59:38 Deleted /Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/Backups.backupdb/Mark's Mac/2017-01-18-185843 (155.6 MB)
2017-01-20 21:59:38 Post-backup thinning complete: 3 expired backups removed
2017-01-20 21:59:39 Failed to send message because the port couldn't be created.
2017-01-20 21:59:38 Backup completed successfully.
2017-01-21 01:08:52 Starting manual backup
2017-01-21 01:08:58 Backing up to /dev/disk3s2: /Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/Backups.backupdb
2017-01-21 01:09:47 Failed to send message because the port couldn't be created.
2017-01-21 01:11:55 Will copy (371.6 MB) from Macintosh HD
2017-01-21 01:11:55 Will copy (47 KB) from Files Drive
2017-01-21 01:11:55 Found 564 files (371.7 MB) needing backup
2017-01-21 01:11:55 2.3 GB required (including padding), 909.52 GB available
2017-01-21 01:19:46 Copied 902 items (372.3 MB) from volume Macintosh HD. Linked 10349.
2017-01-21 01:20:01 Copied 4 items (47 KB) from volume Files Drive. Linked 62.
2017-01-21 01:20:03 Created new backup: 2017-01-21-012002
2017-01-21 01:20:03 Failed to send message because the port couldn't be created.
2017-01-21 01:20:07 Starting post-backup thinning
2017-01-21 01:21:53 Deleted /Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/Backups.backupdb/Mark's Mac/2016-12-22-000253 (517.3 MB)
2017-01-21 01:21:53 Post-backup thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
2017-01-21 01:21:53 Failed to send message because the port couldn't be created.
2017-01-21 01:21:53 Backup completed successfully.
2017-01-21 06:48:26 Starting manual backup
2017-01-21 06:48:35 Backing up to /dev/disk3s2: /Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/Backups.backupdb
2017-01-21 06:48:48 Failed to send message because the port couldn't be created.
2017-01-21 06:49:59 Will copy (1.3 MB) from Files Drive
2017-01-21 06:50:02 Will copy (432 MB) from Macintosh HD
2017-01-21 06:50:03 Found 699 files (433.3 MB) needing backup
2017-01-21 06:50:03 2.37 GB required (including padding), 909.66 GB available
2017-01-21 06:50:07 Copied 71 items (1.3 MB) from volume Files Drive. Linked 208.
2017-01-21 06:54:22 Copied 928 items (432 MB) from volume Macintosh HD. Linked 7919.
2017-01-21 06:54:36 Created new backup: 2017-01-21-065436
2017-01-21 06:54:37 Failed to send message because the port couldn't be created.
2017-01-21 06:54:41 Starting post-backup thinning
2017-01-21 06:54:41 No post-backup thinning needed: no expired backups exist
2017-01-21 06:54:41 Backup completed successfully.
Marks-Mac:~ marksmac$
Marks-Mac:~ marksmac$
"Sierra's TM no longer runs on an strict hourly schedule. It runs when files have been changed and require backup."
Thanks for the above information, John. Very interesting, I´d been wondering about this! Thankfully my TM backups work flawlessly 🙂 !
Cheers, Ian.
My problem is similar - my Time Capsule is in the middle of 20 hrs of backing-up - but the icon on top isn't spinning anti-clockwise like it used to? I just upgraded from Lion 10.7.5 to Sierra 2 nights ago.
Ann
It haven't been spinning since a couple of OS X versions ago or something like that but it still shows the progress if you click the icon.
But getting back to the original problem with automatic backups: I've tried everything I can think off but it just won't back up automatically no matter what...
John
I spoke to apple and like you they recommended that I reinstall Sierra
I did that and once I got back to my desktop TM started to prepare a backup on its own
I am still in the preparing stage but I will report back once this ends and some additional time goes by
thank you again for ALL of your help
Thanks... I thought you tried that ten days ago (the "Apple Recommended" post).
The backupd process was running even when no backups were actually occurring? That's very odd. If that should ever occur again I'd like to see a screenshot of Activity Monitor, accompanied with a concurrent log extract.
John
I was trying to do anything but that - I come from Windows and I didnt want to reformat my hard drive
I had no idea MacOS made it so simple
But yes - that backupd was running
Let's see how the new install runs
Didn't have the time to reinstall macOS since usually it does nothing. Never had to reinstall OS X since Panther.
But macOS 10.12.3 update did fix the problem for me. TM is now running just like it should.
I still would wanna know what was the actual problem?
There are several macOS processes that affect automatic backups. While it may have been possible to identify which one was not working properly, and subsequently fix it, it is not possible to determine what caused that failure.
A number of factors can be involved. User-inflicted modifications are the most common, but other causes I have never encountered before certainly exist. I can run various scenarios on the Macs available to me in an effort to duplicate what may have occurred, but otherwise all I can do is speculate what happened with yours.
Reinstalling macOS amounts to foregoing additional time-consuming and potentially inconclusive diagnostic efforts. It's also a practical step given the inherent challenges of diagnosing someone else's Mac over this back-and-forth kind of communication.
If you weren't using your Mac during that ten hours, it's not likely TM had anything to back up.
thanks let me see if it backs up again on its own
how long should it take to start a backup?
I added two large excel spreadsheets to my documents folder about a half hour ago - still no backup action
thanks
Does that log excerpt show anything you did not expect?
But then they stopped running automaticall
time machine stopped working
