TimeMachine fails after upgrade to 10.13

Question

Level 1

24 points

TimeMachine fails after upgrade to 10.13

Hello,

I installed High Siera on an MBA 6,2, and I haven't been able to perform a TimeMachine backup since then. It terminates at random without an error message.

It takes a long time to "prepare backup", then it calculates that 17,7 GB need to be backed up. The backup starts very slowly (updating KB by KB) and after 2-10 min when I look at my machine, the TimeMachine symbol indicates that no backup is taking place. The highest I've seen is 500 MB / 17,7 GB before the process terminates.

It this because my external drive is not an SSD?

Thanks in advance,

Bojidar

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), macOS High Sierra (10.13)

Posted on Sep 29, 2017 1:05 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

John Galt

Level 10

141,126 points

Oct 2, 2017 2:42 PM in response to bdimitrov

Extracting Time Machine log activity may or may not yield useful data, but if you are interested the instructions follow below.

To extract potentially relevant Time Machine activity from log consider using the following shell script:

clear; printf '\e[3J' && log show --predicate 'subsystem == "com.apple.TimeMachine"' --info --last 6h | grep -F 'eMac' | grep -Fv 'etat' | awk -F']' '{print substr($0,1,19), $NF}'

Copy (triple-click to select the entire line) and Paste that line in a Terminal window. The Terminal app is in your Mac's Utilities folder.

It extracts Time Machine activity logged during the previous 6 hours. To change that time period change that value. If Time Machine is running there is no need to interrupt TM to use it. Be advised that log is fairly resource-intensive, and if you are using a portable Mac it will consume a lot of battery power as it runs.

log will need a few moments to extract the Time Machine log data. Wait for it to finish. It is normal for its results to include various "errors" and "failures" and none of them are necessarily an indication of anything wrong.

Copy (Edit > Select All and then Copy) and Paste that Terminal window's contents in a reply to this Discussion. Please omit or obscure any information that you may consider personal.

For fundamental troubleshooting references please read If you can't back up or restore your Mac using Time Machine - Apple Support and Time Machine troubleshooting - Apple Support.

Reply

Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

141,126 points

Oct 8, 2017 7:27 AM in response to bdimitrov

This is moving closer to a need to contact Apple, which is going to require some patience on your part since their first tier support will have you do a number of menial tasks you already accomplished all over again. Be prepared to answer some equally menial questions. Eventually, a more knowledgeable specialist will ask you to collect Time Machine diagnostic information and send it to them, after which Apple will appear to do nothing for a long time. You will be given a case number, and don't be reluctant to contact them to follow up after a couple of weeks.

If you are motivated to to all that, start with Contact Support. Navigate to an option that leads to a phone call.

Before you do that, try the following two suggestions: boot macOS Recovery, and select Disk Utility. Use its First Aid feature to "repair" both the Mac's startup disk as well as its backup volume. That will take a while, possibly a few hours, especially for the Time Machine backup disk. Record any "errors" or "failures" it identifies, and then restart your Mac normally. Start a manual backup again and determine the outcome. Let me know how it goes. Apple Support will probably do that anyway, so you might as well do it now.

Next suggestion: Please determine if the same problems occur in "Safe Mode": Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support. A Mac is inconvenient to use in Safe Mode but Time Machine works the same way. Use it in Safe Mode long enough to determine if the failure also occurs, or not. After making that determination, reboot normally and repeat the test.

I agree with your theory regarding the failure but it's too early to draw any conclusions.

Reply

Answer 3

John Galt

Level 10

141,126 points

Sep 29, 2017 6:51 AM in response to bdimitrov

Please read If you can't back up or restore your Mac using Time Machine - Apple Support.

It this because my external drive is not an SSD?

That is not a requirement.

Reply

Answer 4

Oct 8, 2017 7:28 AM in response to bdimitrov

If its storing local backups, you can disable them. You can also re-enable.

But from your logs, it looks like its having issue with local, not your External USB.

To disable local snapshots in Time Machine and remove them from your internal storage:

Launch Terminal on your Mac laptop.
Enter the following command into Terminal.
sudo tmutil disablelocal
Press Enter.

This will remove those local snapshots from your internal storage. You can then re-enable the feature, which I highly recommend.

Open Terminal on your Mac laptop.
Enter the following command into Terminal:
sudo tmutil enablelocal
Press Enter.

Time Machine will start over, saving local snapshots to your Mac laptop's internal storage.

Reply

Answer 5

bdimitrov Author

Level 1

24 points

Oct 2, 2017 2:32 PM in response to John Galt

Hi John and thanks for your reply.

I looked at the article you suggested, and I don't think that any of the suggestions apply to my case: my drive is attached via USB directly to my MBA, and I've been using this drive for a long time on that same machine without any issues.

One suggestion from the article was to perform "verify backups". Interestingly, when I press option/alt and click on the TimeMachine menu, the menu item "Verify Backups" is grey/inactive.

The problem remains BTW. I've now made at least a dozen new attempts, and the backup failed each time. The furthest I got was 5.25 GB from 17 GB, but this backup too "ended silently" without completion.

Reply

Answer 6

bdimitrov Author

Level 1

24 points

Oct 2, 2017 3:21 PM in response to John Galt

Hi John, here is the result of your command:

2017-10-02 23:16:25 Starting manual backup

2017-10-02 23:16:26 Backing up to /dev/disk4: /Volumes/ABCDEFG/Backups.backupdb

2017-10-02 23:16:33 Failed to write unlock record UUIDs as extended attribute for disk '/', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"

2017-10-02 23:16:34 Created Time Machine local snapshot with name 'com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-10-02-231633' on disk '/'

2017-10-02 23:16:34 Declared stable snapshot: com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-10-02-231633

2017-10-02 23:16:34 Mounted stable snapshot: com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-10-02-231633 at path: /Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/MyAir/2017-10-02 -231633/MyHardDisk source: MyHardDisk

2017-10-02 23:16:35 Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: MyHardDisk

2017-10-02 23:16:39 Deep event scan at path:/Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/MyAir/2017- 10-02-231633/MyHardDisk reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|

2017-10-02 23:16:39 Reading cached event database from: /Volumes/ABCDEFG/Backups.backupdb/MyAir/2017-10-02-231634.inProgress/BC970C63-8 3B9-4CB7-8777-68CC1BA245D8/.EB254A24-39B3-37D2-91A8-15EC2ADD3982.eventdb

2017-10-02 23:16:39 Using cached disk scan

2017-10-02 23:16:40 Saved event cache at /Volumes/ABCDEFG/Backups.backupdb/MyAir/2017-10-02-231634.inProgress/54BCE31E-E 635-4835-BE15-71E4E8008722/.EB254A24-39B3-37D2-91A8-15EC2ADD3982.eventdb

2017-10-02 23:16:40 Not using file event preflight for /

2017-10-02 23:17:51 Failed to unmount disk mounted at '/Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/MyAir/2017-10-0 2-231633/MyHardDisk', error: {

Target = "file: Target = "file:///Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/MyAir/20 17-10-02-231633/MyHardDisk/";

2017-10-02 23:29:12 Will copy (16.11 GB) from MyHardDisk

2017-10-02 23:29:13 Found 432333 files (16.11 GB) needing backup

2017-10-02 23:29:15 24.51 GB required (including padding), 749.13 GB available

2017-10-03 00:03:53 Not starting scheduled Time Machine backup: Automatic backups disabled

2017-10-03 00:03:57 Starting age based thinning of Time Machine local snapshots on disk '/'

2017-10-03 00:03:58 Starting space based thinning of Time Machine local snapshots on disk '/' - current free space: 14.68 GB (14,678,228,992 bytes), target free space: 26.84 GB (26,843,545,600 bytes), initial free space: 14.68 GB (14,678,228,992 bytes), urgency: 2

2017-10-03 00:03:59 Received unmount notification of stable snapshot

2017-10-03 00:03:59 Error: (-43) SrcErr:YES Copying /Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/MyAir/2017-10-02 -231633/MyHardDisk/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MMCS.framework to (null)

2017-10-03 00:03:59 Snapshot sizing took longer than 4.00 seconds - timing out!

2017-10-03 00:03:59 Copied 117045 items (2.03 GB) from volume MyHardDisk. Linked 101683.

2017-10-03 00:04:01 Failed to unmount disk mounted at '/Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/MyAir/2017-10-0 2-231633/MyHardDisk', error: {

Target = "file: Target = "file:///Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/MyAir/20 17-10-02-231633/MyHardDisk";

2017-10-03 00:04:01 Failed to unmount snapshot: com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-10-02-231633 source: MyHardDisk

2017-10-03 00:04:02 Backup canceled.

2017-10-03 00:04:08 Space based thinning deleted Time Machine stable snapshot 'com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-10-02-231633' on disk '/ in 10.6 seconds' - current free space: 14.76 GB (14,759,399,424 bytes), target free space: 26.84 GB (26,843,545,600 bytes), initial free space: 14.68 GB (14,678,228,992 bytes)

2017-10-03 00:04:08 Completed thinning of Time Machine local snapshots on disk '/' in 13.9 seconds - current free space: 14.76 GB (14,759,399,424 bytes), target free space: 26.84 GB (26,843,545,600 bytes), initial free space: 14.68 GB (14,678,228,992 bytes), urgency: 2, remaining snapshots: {(

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Reply

Answer 7

John Galt

Level 10

141,126 points

Oct 2, 2017 4:59 PM in response to bdimitrov

Thanks. Please initiate another Time Machine backup by selecting Back Up Now from the Time Machine icon. Let it fail or run to completion, whatever the outcome. Then, run that same Terminal command again, exactly as before. You can simply use the "up arrow" in Terminal to recall earlier entries. Post the new output. The idea is to determine if TM stops in the same place, or a different one, or exhibits a different failure.

Reply

Answer 8

bdimitrov Author

Level 1

24 points

Oct 3, 2017 1:36 AM in response to John Galt

Hi John, the log seems very similar to me:

2017-10-03 10:13:10 Starting manual backup

2017-10-03 10:13:10 Destination Bojidar Backup 2 (TimeMachine) could not be found (url: (null) destinationID: 3A50A2DD-313E-4B95-A004-0ABC51A170A0)

2017-10-03 10:13:10 Backup failed with error 18: The backup disk could not be found.

2017-10-03 10:13:10 Starting manual backup

2017-10-03 10:13:10 Destination Temporary Backup could not be found (url: (null) destinationID: 96F05E50-47B1-491F-8D4B-8E60325C5219)

2017-10-03 10:13:10 Backup failed with error 18: The backup disk could not be found.

2017-10-03 10:13:10 Starting manual backup

2017-10-03 10:13:11 Backing up to /dev/disk4: /Volumes/ABCDEFG/Backups.backupdb

2017-10-03 10:13:18 Failed to write unlock record UUIDs as extended attribute for disk '/', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"

2017-10-03 10:13:18 Created Time Machine local snapshot with name 'com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-10-03-101318' on disk '/'

2017-10-03 10:13:18 Declared stable snapshot: com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-10-03-101318

2017-10-03 10:13:18 Mounted stable snapshot: com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-10-03-101318 at path: /Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/MyAir/2017-10-03 -101318/MyHardDisk source: MyHardDisk

2017-10-03 10:13:20 Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: MyHardDisk

2017-10-03 10:13:29 Deep event scan at path:/Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/MyAir/2017- 10-03-101318/MyHardDisk reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|

2017-10-03 10:13:29 Reading cached event database from: /Volumes/ABCDEFG/Backups.backupdb/MyAir/2017-10-03-101318.inProgress/54BCE31E-E 635-4835-BE15-71E4E8008722/.EB254A24-39B3-37D2-91A8-15EC2ADD3982.eventdb

2017-10-03 10:13:30 Using cached disk scan

2017-10-03 10:13:31 Saved event cache at /Volumes/ABCDEFG/Backups.backupdb/MyAir/2017-10-03-101318.inProgress/A4A08495-A DCA-4A3E-910A-66CCE628F08F/.EB254A24-39B3-37D2-91A8-15EC2ADD3982.eventdb

2017-10-03 10:13:31 Not using file event preflight for /

2017-10-03 10:26:37 Will copy (15.89 GB) from MyHardDisk

2017-10-03 10:26:37 Found 432091 files (15.89 GB) needing backup

2017-10-03 10:26:39 24.26 GB required (including padding), 747.05 GB available

2017-10-03 10:29:29 Not starting scheduled Time Machine backup: Automatic backups disabled

2017-10-03 10:29:29 Starting age based thinning of Time Machine local snapshots on disk '/'

2017-10-03 10:29:29 Starting space based thinning of Time Machine local snapshots on disk '/' - current free space: 14.88 GB (14,878,130,176 bytes), target free space: 26.84 GB (26,843,545,600 bytes), initial free space: 14.88 GB (14,878,130,176 bytes), urgency: 2

2017-10-03 10:29:30 Received unmount notification of stable snapshot

2017-10-03 10:29:30 Error: (-43) SrcErr:YES Copying /Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/MyAir/2017-10-03 -101318/MyHardDisk/usr/share/terminfo/6e to (null)

2017-10-03 10:29:30 Copied 2114 items (40 KB) from volume MyHardDisk. Linked 13961.

2017-10-03 10:29:31 Failed to unmount disk mounted at '/Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/MyAir/2017-10-0 3-101318/MyHardDisk', error: {

Target = "file: Target = "file:///Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/MyAir/20 17-10-03-101318/MyHardDisk";

2017-10-03 10:29:31 Failed to unmount snapshot: com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-10-03-101318 source: MyHardDisk

2017-10-03 10:29:31 Backup canceled.

2017-10-03 10:29:43 Space based thinning deleted Time Machine stable snapshot 'com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-10-03-101318' on disk '/ in 13.8 seconds' - current free space: 14.93 GB (14,927,921,152 bytes), target free space: 26.84 GB (26,843,545,600 bytes), initial free space: 14.88 GB (14,878,130,176 bytes)

2017-10-03 10:29:43 Completed thinning of Time Machine local snapshots on disk '/' in 13.8 seconds - current free space: 14.93 GB (14,927,921,152 bytes), target free space: 26.84 GB (26,843,545,600 bytes), initial free space: 14.88 GB (14,878,130,176 bytes), urgency: 2, remaining snapshots: {(

Reply

Answer 9

bdimitrov Author

Level 1

24 points

Oct 3, 2017 4:12 AM in response to John Galt

OK, I started two more backups, both failed, and in both cases the last message in the log was like this: "Completed thinning of Time Machine local snapshots on disk '/' in 13.9 seconds - current free space: 14.76 GB (14,759,399,424 bytes), target free space: 26.84 GB (26,843,545,600 bytes), initial free space: 14.68 GB (14,678,228,992 bytes)"

It seems that there is backup activity (snapshots?) stored ALSO on my internal disk (disk '/' ), which indeed is close to capacity (14-15 GB free). I guess the backup process fails when it needs to write 26.84 GB on my local disk, which only has 14,68 GB available.

Is this correct behavior (storing backups on / when I'm backup up to an external disk)? I guess I need to free up disk space and test my theory.

Reply

Answer 10

bdimitrov Author

Level 1

24 points

Oct 8, 2017 7:34 AM in response to Eddie Ski

Hi Eddie,

first of all, thanks a lot for your suggestion! To be honest, I was not aware that MacOS makes a backup (1) on the internal drive and (2) at the same time it is performing a backup onto an external drive.

I think that your suggestion would have solved my problem, but I cannot test it because after analyzing the TimeMachine log (as seen in the previous replies to my question) I decided to free up about 30 GB on my internal SSD, and I was then able to make a backup successfully.

But Apple seems to have a bug here, don't they? I don't think that TimeMachine should terminate the backup on the external drive due to the fact that the backup onto the local drive failed. What are your thoughts about this?

Once again, thanks a lot!

Reply

Answer 11

bdimitrov Author

Level 1

24 points

Oct 8, 2017 7:38 AM in response to John Galt

Hi John,

already before reading your reply just above I decided to free up 30 GB on my internal drive, and after that my backup onto the external drive succeeded. So:

1. my immediate problem has been solved

2. it seems strange that MacOS performs a backup not the internal drive (is it in a different/hidden partition?) WHILE it is performing a backup onto an external drive. And it seems to me to be a bug that failing the backup onto the internal drive terminates the backup onto the external drive.

I'm currently traveling. Once I'm home, I will probably try to report this bug to Apple, but I will be happy knowing that I am able to backup while they are working on a solution.

Thanks again and best regards!

Reply

Answer 12

fred242

Level 1

31 points

Nov 13, 2017 6:06 AM in response to bdimitrov

I have been trying to troubleshoot essentially the same problem and have the following comment:

My time machine backup is set to backup to two drives, one a locally attached ssd using HFS+ and a network connected macmini server which has a two HD raid array connected over usb-c which takes the whole household's time machine backups. Only the network backup is being flaky, giving me the error message:

The selected network backup disk does not support the required capabilities

This problem is intermittent and is discussed in a related thread on this site. What caught my attention is that my laptop internal storage is also almost full and if your theory is correct I should perhaps solve the issue by turning off internal backups, on the other hand why is the local external backup not having the same issue? I am very confused but the problem certainly started with High Sierra /APFS even though all my backup volumes are HFS+

Reply

Answer 13

Nov 26, 2017 10:02 AM in response to Eddie Ski

Hi Eddie,

I just upgraded (ironic choice of wording) my MBA to HS. Backups to servers worked great until now. Same issue as others - "insufficient space on source drive(s)." I tried your commands; however, I receive the following:

-bash: sudu: command not found

I have a Windows partition for a few programs that are unavailable for Mac. I have had that all along with no issues before upgrading to HS. I could remove that partition and then I would have enough space for the Time Machine backup, but that would really handicap me in using the MBA for all of my needs. Thoughts?

Additional Comments: BTW, I do have full Admin rights and my MBA Time Machine is stating it is "Waiting to complete initial backup." I had many backups before and they still show up on the server.

r/Jim

Reply

Answer 14

Sep 30, 2017 4:51 PM in response to bdimitrov

Just an FYI.... Time Machine does not work if you convert the drive to APFS. Leave drive formatted HFS+.

Reply

Answer 15

bdimitrov Author

Level 1

24 points

Oct 2, 2017 2:36 PM in response to dianeoforegon

Hi Diane, thanks a lot for your comment, but I'm using the same external drive that worked without issues under 10.12. It is (still) formatted as Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled).

Reply