Time Machine is not backing up

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Level 2

256 points

Time Machine is not backing up

All of a sudden Time Machine is not backing up this Mac. I have let it run all day, and what I get is this under the pull-down menu:

Here is a screen shot of the Time Machine preference next to the external-hard-drive icon on the Desktop:

Time Machine reports that the current backup should be larger than the available 60.5GB of space. But Time Machine promises to delete the oldest backups to make room for the new.

I have been using the same external hard drive for four or five years, without incident. As we see, its icon appears normally on the Desktop. As an experiment, I attempted to run Disk Utility on the external hard drive. Disk Utility got as far as checking the catalog of the external hard drive. Then Disk Utility stopped operating. Disk Utility did not progress beyond checking the catalog. I let Disk Utility alone for more than an hour without any result. I tried to quit Disk Utility. All I got was am audible system beep. After two or three such attempts, I did a force-quit of Disk Utility and restarted the computer. Now I am back to where I was before: Time Machine is "preparing backup."

I opened the icon of Time Machine Backups. All my existing backups are in there.

Does anyone have any insight as to what the problem with Time Machine is?

Mac mini, macOS High Sierra (10.13), null

Posted on Jan 15, 2018 12:29 PM

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Answer 1

R_55a Author

Level 2

256 points

Jan 17, 2018 9:51 AM in response to R_55a

Here is further information. I am using a Hitachi external hard drive. Here is the information on it:

For this external hard drive Disk Utility reports:

Checking prerequisites

Checking the partition list

Checking the partition map size

Checking for an EFI system partition

Checking the EFI system partition’s size

Checking the EFI system partition’s file system

Checking the EFI system partition’s folder content

Checking all HFS data partition loader spaces

Checking booter partition

Checking Core Storage Physical Volume partitions

The partition map appears to be OK

Operation successful.

I cannot say when my last back up my Mac was in relation to OS 10.13.2. I know I was a couple days late in upgrading this particular computer. It is possible that I installed OS 10.13.2 after the last back up. But Time Machine worked nominally all the way up through 10.13.1.

I see many other complaints here in the fora about slow backups now. Has anyone found an answer yet?

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Answer 2

R_55a Author

Level 2

256 points

Jan 19, 2018 9:42 AM in response to dot.com

I have one mds process, one mds-stores, and four mdworkers running, per Activity Monitor. The percentage of the CPU used by all processes, including these six, changes every four to eight seconds. Most of the time each mds process is under 10%, but I saw--very briefly--the mds spike to 39%. Here is a random sample:

I am not yet familiar with the "mds" concept, so I do not know know what it means.

----------------------------

I see in Activity Monitor that RealPlayer has reactivated itself. I do not know how. Earlier this week I removed it from my Log-in Items in System Preferences. I have done so again just now as I type this post.

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In the meantime a separate question has arisen. I mentioned earlier that I moved the "in progress" file out of the external drive I use for backing up the Mac. Since then Time Machine has, if slowly, operated. But now I cannot get the "in progress" file out of the Trash. I cannot delete the "in progress" by emptying the Trash, even when I hold the Control key while emptying. I have tried dragging the "in progress" file back to the Desktop. What I get is a dialog box stating that Finder is preparing to move the file to the Desktop, but nothing happens. (I admit, though, that I might be impatient and quit that preparation too soon.) If Time Machine is working, do I need the "in progress" file? And, if not, how do I get rid of it?

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Answer 3

dot.com

Level 4

2,449 points

Jan 15, 2018 12:54 PM in response to R_55a

Try this command in a Terminal window (change 12h to appropriate time interval depending on how long ago the failure occurred):

log show --predicate 'subsystem == "com.apple.TimeMachine"' --info --last 12h | grep -F 'eMac' | grep -Fv 'etat' | awk -F']' '{print substr($0,1,19), $NF}'

Then post back the results. Above was found in another post on these Apple discussion forum at TimeMachine fails after upgrade to 10.13 courtesy of John Galt - so the thanks should go to him if it helps figure your problem out.

Good luck...

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Answer 4

John Galt

Level 10

140,948 points

Jan 15, 2018 12:36 PM in response to R_55a

Does anyone have any insight as to what the problem with Time Machine is?

Disk failure, almost certainly.

Stop using that disk and launch Disk Utility again. If it can't "repair" the disk, set it aside. They can't be fixed. Its existing backup history might be intact, or it might not. In any event you need another backup disk.

I have been using the same external hard drive for four or five years, without incident.

It's about time. Hard disk drives just don't last very long any more, and the enormous number of files needed to be written by Time Machine tends to wear them out more than others in more routine use.

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Answer 5

John Galt

Level 10

140,948 points

Jan 15, 2018 12:53 PM in response to Keith Barkley

That's just a junk thread. There are way too many possible causes for TM failure to back up. For example, the most recent reply is from someone using a non-Apple NAS which will never work, has never worked, and can't be made to work with Time Machine. Others are using non-Apple "anti-virus" garbage, which will also never work. Others may have posted actual solutions to specific problems, but that's not what you're experiencing.

In your case, you are using a unequivocally supported TM backup drive that Disk Utility says is no longer working. That's all you need to know. Don't be distracted by a dozen or more other potential causes. They're irrelevant to your concern. Buy a new USB hard disk drive and your problems are over.

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Answer 6

R_55a Author

Level 2

256 points

Jan 15, 2018 1:44 PM in response to dot.com

I went back six hours. Here is the report from Terminal (substituting "[user]" for my name):

Last login: Mon Jan 15 15:38:05 on ttys000

Macintosh:~ [user]$ log show --predicate 'subsystem == "com.apple.TimeMachine"' --info --last 6h | grep -F 'eMac' | grep -Fv 'etat' | awk -F']' '{print substr($0,1,19), $NF}'

2018-01-15 10:01:57 Starting automatic backup

2018-01-15 10:02:05 Backing up to /dev/disk2s2: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb

2018-01-15 10:02:15 Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: 499GB HD

2018-01-15 10:03:10 Deep event scan at path:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|

2018-01-15 10:03:10 Reading cached event database from: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Mac mini/2018-01-15-100215.inProgress/2A236B97-F5B5-4B11-808A-8C5A387F7532/.06E5C76 9-B2DE-3624-8388-0AB0182B4D63.eventdb

2018-01-15 10:03:10 Unable to use cached scan; fsevent uuid mismatch (5EA06588-87AD-476A-87DA-597D17F3EFC4 vs 1B3FFCC2-5201-4EBA-91EC-252F1DA6E037)

2018-01-15 10:03:10 Running event scan

2018-01-15 11:10:53 Finished scan

2018-01-15 11:10:54 Saved event cache at /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Mac mini/2018-01-15-100215.inProgress/204A093A-CAD7-4865-9774-5C6883F0C403/.06E5C76 9-B2DE-3624-8388-0AB0182B4D63.eventdb

2018-01-15 11:10:54 Not using file event preflight for /

2018-01-15 12:11:58 Will copy (Zero KB) from 499GB HD

2018-01-15 12:12:05 Backup canceled.

2018-01-15 12:14:24 Not starting scheduled Time Machine backup: Automatic backups disabled

2018-01-15 12:18:27 Starting manual backup

2018-01-15 12:18:36 Backing up to /dev/disk2s2: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb

2018-01-15 12:18:49 Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: 499GB HD

2018-01-15 12:18:49 Waiting for index to be ready (100)

2018-01-15 12:18:56 com.apple.TMHelperAgent.SetupOffer enabled

2018-01-15 12:19:03 Backup canceled.

2018-01-15 12:19:18 Starting manual backup

2018-01-15 12:19:18 Backing up to /dev/disk2s2: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb

2018-01-15 12:19:41 Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: 499GB HD

2018-01-15 12:19:42 Waiting for index to be ready (100)

2018-01-15 12:20:05 Deep event scan at path:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|

2018-01-15 12:20:05 Reading cached event database from: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Mac mini/2018-01-15-121941.inProgress/204A093A-CAD7-4865-9774-5C6883F0C403/.06E5C76 9-B2DE-3624-8388-0AB0182B4D63.eventdb

2018-01-15 12:20:05 Using cached disk scan

2018-01-15 12:20:05 Saved event cache at /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Mac mini/2018-01-15-121941.inProgress/A0801B9E-D839-40E9-8847-2A55A78400E3/.06E5C76 9-B2DE-3624-8388-0AB0182B4D63.eventdb

2018-01-15 12:20:05 Not using file event preflight for /

2018-01-15 12:48:49 com.apple.TMHelperAgent.SetupOffer enabled

2018-01-15 12:48:49 Will copy (Zero KB) from 499GB HD

2018-01-15 12:49:01 Backup canceled.

2018-01-15 13:15:00 Not starting scheduled Time Machine backup: Automatic backups disabled

2018-01-15 14:05:25 com.apple.TMHelperAgent.SetupOffer enabled

2018-01-15 14:07:34 Starting manual backup

2018-01-15 14:07:35 Backing up to /dev/disk2s2: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb

2018-01-15 14:07:54 Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: 499GB HD

2018-01-15 14:07:54 Waiting for index to be ready (100)

2018-01-15 14:08:20 Deep event scan at path:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|

2018-01-15 14:08:20 Reading cached event database from: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Mac mini/2018-01-15-140753.inProgress/204A093A-CAD7-4865-9774-5C6883F0C403/.06E5C76 9-B2DE-3624-8388-0AB0182B4D63.eventdb

2018-01-15 14:08:20 Using cached disk scan

2018-01-15 14:08:20 Saved event cache at /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Mac mini/2018-01-15-140753.inProgress/383893AD-59C0-43F0-81DE-29AB1A27C306/.06E5C76 9-B2DE-3624-8388-0AB0182B4D63.eventdb

2018-01-15 14:08:20 Not using file event preflight for /

2018-01-15 14:23:02 Not starting scheduled Time Machine backup: Backup already running

2018-01-15 15:18:53 Not starting scheduled Time Machine backup: Backup already running

Macintosh:~ [user]$

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Answer 7

Jan 15, 2018 2:24 PM in response to John Galt

I did not say anything other than my backup gets hung on "Preparing Backup", so I don't know why you say that I have "In your case, you are using a unequivocally supported TM backup drive that Disk Utility says is no longer working."

I am backing up to a time capsule that works fine with my other non-high-Sierra Macs.

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Answer 8

John Galt

Level 10

140,948 points

Jan 15, 2018 3:35 PM in response to Keith Barkley

Keith Barkley wrote:

I did not say anything other than my backup gets hung on "Preparing Backup", so I don't know why you say that I have "In your case, you are using a unequivocally supported TM backup drive that Disk Utility says is no longer working."

The reason is that's what you reported:

Keith Barkley wrote:

As an experiment, I attempted to run Disk Utility on the external hard drive. Disk Utility got as far as checking the catalog of the external hard drive. Then Disk Utility stopped operating. Disk Utility did not progress beyond checking the catalog. I let Disk Utility alone for more than an hour without any result. I tried to quit Disk Utility. All I got was am audible system beep. After two or three such attempts, I did a force-quit of Disk Utility and restarted the computer.

Those are the classic signs of a hard disk that is not working. It will happen again, possibly in a short period of time, so don't rely upon it. The other Macs are probably working because they are using sectors of its hard disk that have not yet become corrupted.

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Answer 9

R_55a Author

Level 2

256 points

Jan 16, 2018 7:05 AM in response to John Galt

It was I, not Keith, that reported the experiment with Disk Utility.

Later, as I reported, Time Machine started working again, spontaneously. But it was late in the day. I turned off the Mac for the night, before Time Machine was able to finish backing up.

Time Machine automatically reactivated this morning when I started the Mac. Forty-five minutes later, Time Machine is still "preparing backup." I wait to see if it resumes backing up as it did at the end of the day yesterday.

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Answer 10

dot.com

Level 4

2,449 points

Jan 16, 2018 10:13 AM in response to R_55a

Well, that's good it's now working. You might want to do the same thing about looking at the log info for the time period it worked and see if there is any helpful info to understand the failures. According to the log records you gave above, there was a mismatch in the UUID's between two backups. I did a google search on

"Event store UUIDs don't match for volume" time machine backup

And a web page at macos - Time Machine "Event store UUIDs don't match for volume" after swapping disk - Super User talks about just waiting and the problem will resolve itself. Appears that happened to you when it started working.

In general if you're having Time Machine backup problems it's best to let it finish trying to figure things out, rather than aborting, unless you know you can resolve the problem on your own. Deep traversals of source volumes can take a long time and if that is required, then let it finish.

A really good Time Machine reference was created by James Pond, aka "The Great Pondini", but he passed away in 2013. His web site with lots of good Time Machine info and suggestions and how-to topics that are still helpful in reading thru. Take a look at http://oldtoad.net/pondini.org or at https://web.archive.org/web/20170724135218/http://www.pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

If I'm reading your info correctly, it looks like you're backing up more than one computer to a 1TB time capsule - which is fine depending on how much the different systems are backing up. Generally a 2-4 to 1 (i use a value of 3 just to keep it easy to remember) ratio of backup-space to backed-up-files is recommended. Another thing to keep in mind is that doing backups every hour on multiple systems will result in sometimes slow response if the size of the incrementals gets large. Do you really need hourly backups? If not there is a handy utility called TimeMachineEditor that lets you adjust the schedule to whatever you want. It's available at https://tclementdev.com/timemachineeditor/ -- I don't have anything to do with them, but have simply used the utility for years and am quite happy with it.

Good luck...

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Answer 11

R_55a Author

Level 2

256 points

Jan 16, 2018 10:49 AM in response to dot.com

As to the number of machines that I back up to the external hard drive, I looked in there and saw one folder labeled "Macintosh." I do not remember for sure which Mac that was. I have not updated that back up in over two years. I suspect, then, that that "Macintosh" is a computer that I no longer use. (These machines don't last forever, after all.)

As long as I had plenty of space in the external hard drive, I never paid attention to how many back ups are in the external hard drive. Now I am looking. May I simply delete the folder that Time Machine has not backed up since 2015? Or do I need to do some more sophisticated action in order to remove this inactive folder?

This is important, because Time Machine has been running for two to three hours now, and it has backed up only 328 mg of data.

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Answer 12

dot.com

Level 4

2,449 points

Jan 16, 2018 11:28 AM in response to R_55a

According to the image you put in your original post, there is about 60GB of the 1TB still available on the Time Machine backup drive named "Time Machine Backups". Time Machine will simply delete the oldest backups in order to make room for whatever it needs to backup.

Not sure what you're referring to about the "not backed up since 2015". How did you determine that? Are you talking about what is on the Time Machine volume or about what is on the volume that Mac OS is running off or ???

As to why it's running slow, could be lots of reasons. Not easy to figure out via this kind of discussion. How old is the drive? What kind of connection to what kind of Mac is it (USB2 on a Mac Mini or ???). I get about 10-20 Mbytes/sec thru my USB3 Time Machine backup drive typically, so a 328MB of data would take about a minute or two, so 2-3 hours seems way too long, unless there is something else going on.

Do not start removing stuff on the Time Machine volume itself. You will put your entire backups in jeopardy. Look at the Pondini documents I referred you to and take some time to learn about how to interact with Time Machine without causing yourself problems. If that sort of stuff is not your cup-of-tea get some help from a friend or Mac user group or Apple authorized tech support that can sit down and look at the machine in person. A very simple test if you have a spare disk drive sitting around is to try to add it to the pool of disks that Time Machine will backup to. It will use them in a round-robin fashion. Then when it actually uses the additional drive, does it take a lot less time (this is hard to gauge as you need to look closely at how much is getting backed up and other factors)?? Is the computer itself busy doing other stuff when the backups are happening (take a look at Activity Monitor)?? Try running the "etrecheck" software to see if it can find problems.

Disk drives do fail - four or five years is not that new, so perhaps drive is having old-age problems. My best advice is to start going thru the pondini.org Time Machine tips and see what you can discover, or have someone with disk and Time Machine expertise take a look at it.

Good look...

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Answer 13

R_55a Author

Level 2

256 points

Jan 17, 2018 9:54 AM in response to dot.com

Dot: sorry about the connotations of my response a couple minutes ago. I should have found your answer in this thread before posting my next message.

Well, anyway, Disk Utility says that the external hard drive is good.

I'll look at pondini next.

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Answer 14

dot.com

Level 4

2,449 points

Jan 17, 2018 10:09 AM in response to R_55a

http://pondini.org web site is no longer with us unfortunately, but the two links above have a complete copy of what used to be there and are still helpful, even though the pages have not been updated in almost five years.

good luck...

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Answer 15

R_55a Author

Level 2

256 points

Jan 17, 2018 10:44 AM in response to dot.com

As with the Pondini Archive, I found another website that recommended moving the in progress file to the Trash. I have done so. I restarted the computer, but I have not yet emptied the Trash.

This website also recommended setting Spotlight not to index the external hard drive. I did that, too, before moving in progress to the Trash and restarting.

As of this writing Time Machine is still preparing backup. Time Machine has not yet reported the progress of the preparation. It usually does so by now.

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