Mojave time machine back up failing

These workarounds are great but I am concerned that Apple is not correcting the root cause of the problem. If a software vendor's folder naming misstep is allowed to break Time Machine something is seriously wrong with the underlying utility, i.e., Time Machine. At the very least Apple should alert the user of the problem in a user friendly way and continue to backup all non-offending folders and files. To break the ENTIRE backup process due to one vendor's issue is simply wrong and puts end users at risk. What, if anything, is being done to alert Apple about these issues so they can fix the real problem?

I had this happen one of my external HD's recently so I rebooted and hit Command+R and once I got into Disk Utility I highlighted the external HD and used Firat Aid on it. It took what seemed forever but what was ailing the drive, First Aid fixed. Your mileage will vary. (It might or might not fix it) since Mojave is a different beast that High Sierra was with the new file system that Apple is using.

I had problems with App Cleaner before I did the Mojave update. If I ran App Cleaner, the Time Machine backup would fail. So I think my problem is not with Mojave. I am running App Cleaner V6.0. Will the V6.2 update fix my problem?

I experienced the same issue with Time Machine after installing Mojave on my iMac and my MacBook Pro. Apple support offered no working solution. Each time I awaited the next call back with a "fix" from support, I tried my own experimentation. Since the problem was never repeating the same way, I looked at the terminal to see if I could spot an offending process but found nothing. I was then advised by Apple support to delete the App Cleaner & Uninstaller but that had no effect. I then remembered that support's first attempt at a fix was to reformat my LaCie external drive to APFS which turned out to be a disaster that I had to spend some effort to undo. However, that got me thinking it had to be some sort of file incompatibility issue so I tried a reformat using the "case sensitive" option. IT WORKED on my MacBook Pro so I then tried it on the iMac and it also worked. I wish I could say I was smart but there was some lucky fumbling around in the weeds involved and a little bit of searching around the forums. I wish I had seen the reply here sooner so I could've avoided the call to Apple. They were, however, VERY responsive and tried to be helpful but were mostly useless as they were more concerned about not admitting to this obvious flaw in their new OS.

I just wanted to chime in that I'm having the same/similar problems. After comments on this thread, I took a deep breath and erased one of my two Time Machine backup drives and reformatted it from Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) to see if that would work.

It didn't.

About five times now, over 24 hours, Time Machine has gone for many hours copying hundreds of GB before stopping without warning. My Time Machine drive now contains one inProgress file that's been stuck at 895.46 GB since throughout the last three backup attempts.

Disk Utility says my backup drives are fine. Also, backup has been consistently failing on both my backup drives since I upgraded from Sierra to Mojave (I skipped High Sierra). It was backing up flawlessly before then.

I've got 3TB of storage in my 2012 Macbook Pro, across a 1TB SSD and a 2 TB HDD (living in my old DVD drive space). Mojave reformatted my SSD to APFS but kept my internal HDD as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I wonder if that's got it confused.

Should I reformat my internal HDD as APFS and try again?

Sigh.

Did you read the posts about the App Cleaner related problem? Several folks have fixed this issue by addressing the App Cleaner issue. I did not have App Cleaner installed but the case sensitive reformat of my backup disk fixed my problem, as did backing up to a Time Capsule (which is formatted case sensitive). If neither the App Cleaner workaround nor the case sensitive format of your backup disk workaround alleviate the issue there is likely another failure mode that is causing the problem with Time Machine. I tried working with Apple on this for well over a week but their diagnostic data capture process would not work with my online connection and they gave up without resolving the problem. From my perspective they do not appear to be very interested in finding the root cause of this problem but I hope that I am wrong. A misbehaving app should not be allowed to break Time Machine.

Thanks you for this, I'm going to try the alternate backup. I expect some software not to work with a new system software update but expect Mac software to work with a Mac system update. I'm going to keep my current backup drive as is and get another one to start new backups in the hopes that the Time Machine issue will be resolved at some point. Not crazy about buying a new external to solve this problem.

Thanks for replying. Yes, I had read that and have not used App Cleaner before.

The odd thing is that, after about 15 seemingly aborted attempts at backing up, my Time Machine has now completed a full backup. Gasp!

Each time it would back up about 200 GB (of my 3 TB) then stop. It did that about 15 times, only once popping up a generic "An error occurred while copying files" error. The InProgress file on my backup hard drive stayed the same size the whole time when I used Get Info on the Finder. However, I luckily noticed that each time it was attempting to backup less of my computer, and in Disk Utility each time it said the hard drive contained more content. So I persisted in restarting "Back up now" each time it stopped.

After three days now, I now have a complete and seemingly operational backup again. I hope it's OK.

So that's one thumb up from me for the option of reformatting Time Machine to Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled).

I confirm that despite the macOS 10.14.1 update the TimeMachine problem of it growing up indefinitely IS NOT FIXED at all.

Same for my 2 other upsetting bugs: vertical lines appear as dashes when windows overlap, and iMessage always remembering what you typed lass, and puts it into the app into the typing area for you to send it again (always have to empty the typing area).

Just what was this "upgrade" worth then? Emojis? That's it?

Essentially nothing. Was hoping for acknowledgement of the issue and being told that it would be addressed in a future update.

I encourage all with this issue to contact Apple support and get them really investigating this and not just writing it off to 3rd party programs.

you're not overly surprised are you? Never like Apple not to acknowledge something...oh wait they've been doing that for twenty year. Seem to be worse at it last few years though...blame something else, third parties, the user if you need to, deflect, avoid, obfuscate because why ever would you track issues on your own forums or think if thousands of people are reporting similar experiences there was a problem?

I’ve been on the phone with Apple Care twice, only I person said she had seen this problem, suggested I reload Mojave’s, no luck. Recommended reformatting disk, did not do, has over a years worth of backups. Suggested reformatting as AFSP and I’ve read a couple of places that does not work.

The only way I found how to get it working again is run time machine until it keeps pushing at increasing the remaining end of the backup the 80gb or 30gb, then click skip this back up.

And do this at least the amount of times the backup does not finish.

Eventually after approx. 3-4 times you will get finally the message completed backup at xx:xx...

I have not tested the quality of time machine yet but at least the backup to time machine seems to work...

Apple needs to fix this and not keep this from the customer

For several days I have been reading on this Forum continuous requests for help because Time Machine no longer works. Even after the latest Mojave update to version 10.14.1, you report that Time Machine still does not work.

I'm sorry to hear these requests for help to stop running regular backups with TM!

I can assure you that, after the update to version 10.14.1, which happened perfectly, I have never had any problems with Time Machine; indeed, on today's date I have already performed n. 5 backup of my disks (one internal rotary HDD of Apple and the other external, a Crucial SSD of 1TB), backups that have always ended positively.

At this point I do not know what to think of Apple!

The question that I now ask myself is this: but why does the operating system of Mojave (I refer in particular to Time Machine) work well here in Italy, where I live, while in other parts of the world does Mojave give continuous problems?

I dare not think of two versions of Mojave that are released simultaneously ... !!

TM worked perfectly for me on all 3 systems during Beta, but in General release, one of my 3 systems has backup problems. Even after a clean install and removal of the Beta backups. No idea. I have opened a feedback bug report as AppleCare didn't care and denied that "MacOs could ever have bugs" (their words not mine) and I have also reported it up in the management levels by email.

Not good Apple.