Time Machine not backing up.

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Level 1

4 points

Time Machine not backing up.

Hi All.

Still on Mountain Lion (for recording studio reasons) and TM has been temperamental lately. The disk is mounted and I can use it freely in the finder but TM just says 'Looking for backup disk...' and nothing happens. I have formatted two different fresh disks, one connected via SATA 2 and the other via USB 3 and it's still the same. If I log in as the user 'Admin' I can choose 'backup now' and it will work for a few hours back in the normal user ID (which has admin privileges). I got a dialog pop up at one point that said 'files can't be copied onto the backup disc because it appears to be read only'. If I look at the privileges on the backup disk from another computer the first privilege is for another junk ID I have on the computer, 'read & write', then it says staff 'read only' and finally everyone 'read only'. If I look at the same disk from the computer in question I see myself, staff and everyone 'read and write'. This only started after I tried encrypting my backups a while back, then deciding not to bother recently.

Thanks.

Mac Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Nov 11, 2018 3:09 AM

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Answer 1

stratblue Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 11, 2018 3:11 AM in response to stratblue

Forgot to mention, I have deleted the TM prefs numerous times, removed and re added discs, restarted , run Discwarrior, reformatted and repartioned disks. The goat gets sacrificed tonight. Had a look at Pondini.Org, nothing on there either.

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Answer 2

Nov 11, 2018 6:48 AM in response to stratblue

Disk permissions can get complicated (and beside the point) when viewed from another computer.

What has always given me good luck (locally, not from another computer) is these:

Owner (single person-silhouette): System: Read & Write

Group: Admin (or possibly Wheel) : Read & Write

Everyone: No access (or possibly Read-only if its only you and trusted family on your Mac)

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Answer 3

stratblue Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 13, 2018 2:35 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hi there.

You're saying my permissions have got messed up somehow? If I select the users as you suggest, should this then be applied to all the descendant folders within? Or do they need to apply only to the disk or to the backups.backupdb folder? Currently, this folder has system:r+w and staff and everyone is read only. Thanks.

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Answer 4

Nov 13, 2018 6:22 AM in response to stratblue

Time Machine is built into the System, and has System Permissions, so the settings you have should work.

should this then be applied to all the descendant folders within?

NO!

The permissions set on individual files are the permissions of the file they came from. If you propagate permissions all the way through, Nothing you restore will be usable.

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Answer 5

stratblue Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 13, 2018 6:50 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

Time Machine is built into the System, and has System Permissions, so the settings you have should work.

Now I'm lost I'm afraid, you say that the settings I have should work... but they don't. Have I misunderstood you?

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Answer 6

Nov 13, 2018 10:34 AM in response to stratblue

You can change the Top-level permissions to match your other drive -- just do not "propagate permissions..." to all the enclosed folders.

Permissions problems keeping the drive from being found are still a guess at this point.

Another thing to try after that is to use Disk Utility -- Repair Disk on that drive.

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Answer 7

stratblue Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 13, 2018 11:23 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hi there.

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

You can change the Top-level permissions to match your other drive --

I don't know what you mean by this, what drive is this other drive? I thought they were correct.

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

just do not "propagate permissions..." to all the enclosed folders.

Agreed.

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

Permissions problems keeping the drive from being found are still a guess at this point.

They seem to be correct?

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

.

Another thing to try after that is to use Disk Utility -- Repair Disk on that drive.

I've formatted and repaired two different disks, with Disk utility and Discwarrior.

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Answer 8

stratblue Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 11, 2018 3:15 AM in response to stratblue

Correction: Viewed from another computer the TM disk privileges are junk user id 'Read & write', everyone 'no access'.

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Answer 9

stratblue Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 13, 2018 6:54 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

https://photos.app.goo.gl/CCahv4EzeXM91YBY9

The permissions.

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Time Machine not backing up.

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