Time Machine Back up failure in macOS 10.13.1 (High Sierra)

Question

Level 1

19 points

Time Machine Back up failure in macOS 10.13.1 (High Sierra)

Back up only gets to 238mb then falls over every time I have tried to back up since upgrading to High Sierra. Any ideas on what to do?

thanks

MacBook Air, macOS High Sierra (10.13.1)

Posted on Nov 17, 2017 11:27 AM

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Answer 1

i_rina

Community Specialist

Nov 20, 2017 3:32 PM in response to Ben Nat

Hi Ben Nat,

Thanks for reaching out in Apple Support Communities. I understand that you're having trouble with using Time Machine to back up since upgrading to macOS High Sierra. I know how important it is to be sure you have a recent back up of your data and I'd like to help. I'd recommend you start by working through the steps that apply to your configuration here: If you can‘t back up or restore your Mac using Time Machine

Best Regards.

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Answer 2

jeremy_v

Community Specialist

Nov 24, 2017 11:01 AM in response to Ben Nat

Hi Ben-

Thank you for providing those details. Next, I'd suggest testing to see if you're able to successfully complete a backup using safe mode on your Mac. Use the steps here to boot in to safe mode, Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac , then initiate a Time Machine back up.

Let me know what you find.

Warmest Regards.

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Answer 3

v-22

Level 1

18 points

Nov 27, 2017 8:01 AM in response to Ben Nat

It may help to have Utilities/Console open during an attempt to backup and to take note of any errors that appear.

Once Console is open, select your Mac under Devices and then search for "backupd" and press enter. Finally, run the backup. Messages should start appearing after that.

It's not super easy to interpret, but it might lead you somewhere. Although, I think one or two balls were dropped in the making of High Sierra and there may be nothing you can do other than send feedback to Apple.

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Answer 4

Ben Nat Author

Level 1

19 points

Nov 20, 2017 8:52 PM in response to i_rina

Hi there

Thanks for responding to my question. Unfortunately, your response is unhelpful for the following reasons:

1. I have been using time machine to back up for years with virtually no problems at all

2. My configuration is correct, the drive is fine, the connection direct via USB

3. The backup starts and then hangs at 238mb every time I try to back it up to the existing backup I made before upgrading my OS to 10.13.1

Having read widely in the community comments as well as more widely on the web, I understand that this is a known issue which has affected others. What I need is a fix or a work around which will resolve my problem and ensure I have a usable backup.

Thanks!

Ben

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Answer 5

Nov 25, 2017 6:27 AM in response to Ben Nat

Possibly related: I've had two computers report that after a verification a new backup is required -- each one doing that twice (once after a new backup was created). They are both backing up over the network, but to DIFFERENT drives (both externally connected to a AirPort Extreme). This has been a stable configuration for the past two years, and within days after upgrading to High Sierra (and APFS) they started doing this. Therefore I have to conclude that there's a bug in High Sierra or APFS.

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Answer 6

v-22

Level 1

18 points

Nov 26, 2017 12:14 PM in response to Ben Nat

I'm also having some issues with backups after installing 10.13.1. I think I was able to backup fine with 10.13.0... and it has certainly been fine with Sierra using the same configuration.

As a test, I used a newly formatted external drive and Reset Time Machine according to http://oldtoad.net/pondini.org/TM/A4.html, but the problem is not resolved.

In the middle of the backup, let's say 15%, the backup just stops - no error is reported. And the latest backup is still the previous backup.

My backup consists of my MacBookPro 8.1 and an external drive via Firewire. This is backed up to another external drive via Thunderbolt 2.

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Answer 7

v-22

Level 1

18 points

Nov 26, 2017 1:16 PM in response to v-22

I get these errors in the console:

Error #1

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

Copying still resumes with this error. However, the backup stops after the following errors:

Error #2

Failed to unmount disk mounted at '/Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/Vitor’s MacBook Pro/2017-11-26-215812/Local Disk', error: {

Action = Unmount;

Target = "file:///Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/Vitor%E2 %80%99s%20MacBook%20Pro/2017-11-26-215812/Local%20Disk";

}

Error #3

Failed to unmount snapshot: com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-11-26-215812 source: Local Disk

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Answer 8

Ben Nat Author

Level 1

19 points

Nov 27, 2017 2:51 AM in response to Eric Root

Hi Eric,

Thank you for your suggestions. Unfortunately, these did not work. Now Time Machine hangs on "preparing back up" and does not even get to the beginning. This is now at critical point.

thanks for any other ideas.

Ben

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Answer 9

itsalec

Level 1

14 points

Jan 17, 2018 12:13 AM in response to Ben Nat

Apple MacOS High Sierra 10.13.2 Still has many issues with backup, Time Machine. We have experienced many failures from clients who have upgraded to 10.13.2. ALSO, this version of OS does NOT (yes, that is correct, it DOES NOT) format hard drives. We have gone from being able to read all drives and re-formatt them to any format, to all drives fail when trying to format them. The drives fail so badly that they are un-readable. To fix the drives, we have reformatted them with our Windows PC to NTFS, so they are readable, then connect them to our old 10.12 MacOS MacBook Air and then formatted them to "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" If I use the old Mac, it works, if I use the new MacOS High Sierra 10.13.2 it fails. So once it has been formatted "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" on the old system, it then works as a drive for Time Machine Backup.

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Answer 10

Ben Nat Author

Level 1

19 points

Jan 17, 2018 7:37 AM in response to itsalec

Hi, While I have not had format issues, largely because I have not tried to format any disks, the backup error / fault has returned. I can no longer do a time machine back up to the backup disk created before upgrading to High Sierra (now running 10.13.2).

This is sad and seems to indicate that Apple is not being careful to be downward compatible. While High Sierra does have some good features (especially the disk optimisation feature), it does slow down my machine, reduce battery life and have annoying bugs like the back up issue.

Apple - please fix?

thanks

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Answer 11

Feb 6, 2018 9:08 PM in response to Ben Nat

The update 10.13.2 is complete crap. it DOES NOT FIX the bug. 10.13.3 DOSEN'T EITHER. I can get ONE back up only if I do it manually. Then I get a message that back up failed. Come on Apple is this another "slow down" manuever? Lets get this fixed!!!

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