Time Machine is not backing up

I would have recommended canceling the backup that was in progress before removing the folder named "...in progress..." - think it's a bad idea to rip out the guts while Time Machine is still preparing stuff. Maybe you did this and just didn't mention it?

What website are you referring to that recommended to remove the in progress file?

You need to let Time Machine do it's thing and complete the backup. Aborting it only leads to complications. Patience is a virtue...I understand that is what you are trying to do but you seem to be having a problem and it's really hard to track down this sort of thing by this sort of discussion.

Your run of Disk Utility seems to indicate that the drive has no file system errors, but it will do nothing to check the integrity of the Time Machine backups themselves. You might want to cancel any backups in progress and then verify the Time Machine backup. See the website at:

https://www.macworld.com/article/2873556/how-to-verify-a-time-machine-backup.htm l

for a video with more information. Have you ever restored a file to know if things are working correctly?

If this were my system, I would think about trying another disk as a Time Machine destination and see if the backup now starts working at a reasonable rate - again this rate depends on how the drive is connected to the computer (usb3 vs usb2 vs thunderbolt vs ...) and the type of drive. Keep in mind that the first backup will take a LONG time to complete to a new drive, so be patient.

Perhaps the thing to do is try to get help from your local Mac store or user group or other tech resource that can sit down with you and the system and try to figure out what is going on. Is that an option?

Good luck...

I think for Time Machine disks, you should never have them being indexed by Spotlight, Just makes things slower. In fact Spotlight indexing might have something to do with why your backups are going slow. Look at Activity Monitor and see if you have any "mdworker" or "mds" processes chewing up lots of CPU (don't forget to display ALL processes from the View menu). That in itself is not a problem, as indexing occurs from time to time, and so it's normal for those processes to be running and using lots of CPU if there is nothing else going on (they are supposed to back off if some other user process needs to do something, in other words they are background tasks and should not be using excessive resources unless they are not needed elsewhere, but if they are using resources like cpu or memory when they should not be, that might be a problem.

Good luck...

Take a look at what pondini had to say about cleaning up after Time Machine hickups at Time Machine - Troubleshooting A10. Deleting an "inProgress" package and also at Time Machine - Troubleshooting E6. Can't empty the trash after deleting backups via the Finder and see if that doesn't help get things back to normal.

The pondini web site content is stiill really a good resource for Time Machine details. The guy was a valuable resource for Time Machine and his efforts over the years are still worth looking at, even after his passing away over 4 years ago.

If you're still not able to get things working after reading over pondini's suggestions, let us know.

Good luck...

Forgot to say something about looking into "mds" and related issues. Take a look at What Are mds and mdworker, and Why Are They Running on My Mac? and see if that helps.

mds and mdworker and other processes are things the OS uses to manage things like Spotlight behind the scenes. You will probably never need to invoke them directly, but when they have problems it's helpful to be aware of what they do and how to deal with them when they do act up.

Good luck...

There seems more to it than a bad disk. Other folks are having the same problem, like me...
Time machine backup not working in macOS high sierra

I did not write that, that was the OP.

I did not write that, that was the OP.

I re-flashed my time capsule last night, I will see if that fixed the problem.

My mistake for replying to someone else. If Keith is having TM problems he should create his own Discussion. Otherwise, things become confusing.