Time Machine not working since Mojave

Ok, so after updating to Mojave I plugged in my external HDD that I use for mass storage and has a Time Machine partition on it. After plugging it in and started a backup. It started writing data but then failed in about the same place every time. Saying that there was an error copying files.

I tried again because maybe it was a one off thing, but it failed again. So I ran First Aid on the partition and it found nothing wrong. Tried again and it kept failing. I figured maybe it was something wrong with the previous backup so I deleted it and tried again only to have it fail.

After all of that it was clear to me that this was not going to work so I formatted the Time Machine partition and tried to start fresh only to have Time Machine fail to backup on a blank partition! I ran Disk Utility again and it had to make a repair to the file system and failed just now while writing this.

Any one having a similar experience and know anything I can do to fix this? Could it be a local snapshot (of which I have 8) that is corrupted and Time Machine is trying to build off that?

I have since ran a few terminal commands to delete all my local snapshots and ran Time Machine again and it still failed. This is telling me that there is something wrong with macOS Mojave and Time Machine and must be addressed.

MacBook Pro, macOS High Sierra (10.13.4)

Posted on Sep 30, 2018 12:55 PM

Top-ranking reply

GlenTheThird

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Nov 17, 2018 1:25 PM

I'm having this issue but not sure if my root cause is the same as everyone else. For me the issue appears to be caused by the iPhone back-up files (mine are encrypted). The issue started for me around the time I upgraded from High Sierra to Mojave. It's likely that the tech support gal deleted these files and is likely the reason your back-up is now working.

Background:

I interpreted the error message as having run out of enough local disk space to pre-stage the back process (ie snapshot). I proceeded to delete a ton of large files. This didn't solve my problem, so I then ran disk rescue, which took hours to complete. Once disk rescue completed I was able to finally complete a back-up and worked flawlessly for a few weeks.

It suddenly stopped backing-up again, same error message. So I worked through the steps I ran through previously. Having already freed up plenty of disk from the previous encounter I skipped this step and tried disk rescue to no avail, same bloody error message. I sat frustrated and decided to think backwards to what I had done different from the time that I originally fixed the issue and now. There was only one event that came to mind, I had upgraded my phone (from 7 to Xs) and in doing so had done various updates, syncs and backup of my old phone in order to transfer my data to the new phone.

My solution:

The iPhone back-up files being really the only recent addition to the system I decided to delete the files and re-run the failed Time Machine back-up. It worked, but why it worked I don't know. Maybe for some odd reason Mojave Time Machine couldn't read the encrypted (and password protected) iPhone backup files in order to create a snapshot. This would be fairly odd consider that it's iTunes that's handling the encryption and password protection.

So, if you're stuck, try deleting all of your iPhone back-ups.

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19 replies

Oct 23, 2018 8:47 AM in response to Dr_Macintosh

Huh, have the same problem you did. Had all the same thoughts you did to troubleshoot. Running without backup is no fun.

webroc

Level 1

4 points

Dec 23, 2018 6:58 AM in response to MBSteed

no com.apple.TimeMachine.plist and is not working!!!!

Oct 24, 2018 9:46 PM in response to Dr_Macintosh

Since installing Mojive I cannot get Time Machine to work. The progress bar said "Waiting for first backup." However 494.42 GB of my old (last) backup with Immediately previous OS 10.12 is still on time machine. I went to WDmyCloud drive as "guest" and did another install. The old backup is still there. Now the backup has started again. It's on 99.49 GB of 434.52 GB after two hours. It still says."Calculating time remaining." Earlier today the backup climbed to 248GB and I left for work. I left the MacBook open and running. When I returned the screen was black with logos on it. When I entered my Mac password it did awaken. However the Time Machine had stopped and was "Waiting for first backup" again. Is there a command I might use to stop the Mac from sleeping so the Time Machine mught still continue?

Dec 12, 2018 6:06 PM in response to Birdfish2

Opps, I posted the link to ver 1.3, please use this link to ver 1.4 of Time Machine Mechanic:

https://eclecticlight.co/2018/10/24/checking-time-machine-in-mojave-and-high-sierra-using-t2m2-1-4/

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Time Machine not working since Mojave