Time Machine not backing up since Mojave upgrade

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Time Machine not backing up since Mojave upgrade

Time Machine backup is failing since I upgraded my OS to Mojave10.14 yesterday. I have a 4tb Hitachi hard disk for backup, and it is not quite half full. Time Machine runs for a couple of minutes, updating about 370mb out of 540mb, then I get an error message suggesting that I run Disk Utility. I did so, and the Time Machine got a clean bill of health.

I don't know if the fact that I have been having problems with the computer running slowly is an issue here. I ran EtreCheck yesterday and discovered that my hard disk is failing. I ordered a new computer, arriving next week, and I would like to be able to have a complete backup to use when it arrives.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

iMac, macOS Mojave (10.14)

Posted on Oct 11, 2018 11:41 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,850 points

Oct 12, 2018 6:02 AM in response to denisefrombay village

denisefrombay village wrote:

The Hitachi drive is 5 years old; I didn't realize that I've had it for that long until I checked. I'm guessing it's time for a new one, pronto.

Yup, that's what I suspect. Do yourself a favor and get an OWC Mercury Elite Pro. You can find them at OWC Mercury Elite Pro: Production-Grade External Hard Drive

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Answer 2

Oct 20, 2018 6:25 AM in response to denisefrombay village

As it turns out, a new external hard drive did NOT solve the problem. Does it have anything to do with the fact that the iMac hard disk is in APFS format and the external disk is not? It wasn't a problem until the Mojave upgrade.

It took over $200 and three days to copy files and I am right back where I started. If I reformat the new hard drive will the backup have to be erased? Not sure where to go from here.

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Answer 3

Oct 21, 2018 1:20 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Actually buying a new external hard drive did nothing to solve the problem, just set me back $200. I finally found the answer after searching other internet forums. I went into the backups folder of the drive and deleted the "in-progress" files, then emptied the trash. Whatever had been causing the issue was solved.

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Answer 4

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,850 points

Oct 11, 2018 11:46 AM in response to denisefrombay village

There may be a hardware problem with your EHD. I would first recommend using First Aid which is in the Disk Utility app on the EHD. If the EHD reports errors attempt to correct them using First Aid.

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Answer 5

Oct 11, 2018 1:20 PM in response to rkaufmann87

I ran First Aid and no problems were detected. I am currently running it again.

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Answer 6

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,850 points

Oct 11, 2018 4:10 PM in response to denisefrombay village

First aide is not 100% accurate in detecting problems. If you have another drive you can test with that would be helpful. How old is the Hitachi drive??

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Answer 7

Oct 12, 2018 4:45 AM in response to rkaufmann87

The Hitachi drive is 5 years old; I didn't realize that I've had it for that long until I checked. I'm guessing it's time for a new one, pronto.

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Answer 8

Oct 12, 2018 6:04 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Thanks for the info.

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Time Machine not backing up since Mojave upgrade

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