Time Machine Backup Fails Repeatedly macOS 10.13.6

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Level 1

13 points

Time Machine Backup Fails Repeatedly macOS 10.13.6

I installed the Security Update 2018-002 for macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.6 on 11/6/2018 and have NOT been able to complete a Time Machine backup since.

Keep getting "Backup Failed. Time Machine couldn't back up to Iomega HDD" message. It takes many minutes in "preparing backup" then finally starts backing up, but never finishes.

Most recent attempt this evening 11/20/2018:

8:42 PM - Started Time Machine backup, in "preparing backup" for 66 minutes

9:48 PM - "Backing up: 71.8 MB of 16.64 GB" and "Calculating time remaining..."

9:55 PM - "Backing up: 907.3 MB of 16.64 GB" and "About 5 hours remaining"
9:56 PM - "Backing up: 987.0 MB of 16.64 GB" and "About 4 hours remaining"

9:57 PM - "Backup Failed. Time Machine couldn't back up to Iomega HDD"

My last successful backup was 11/5/2018, the day before I installed the update taking me to macOS Version 10.13.6.

I dare not move to Mojave until I have a Time Machine backup for my current system.

Help please!

Mac Pro, Other OS, macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.6

Posted on Nov 20, 2018 10:08 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

El_Perrino

Level 1

8 points

Dec 17, 2018 5:29 AM in response to gail208

I had a similar problem and it seems that the issue was with a corrupt file. Here is what I did to find the issue.

Open console
run the Time Machine ('TM') back up
Check the error messages in console
When the back up fails, it shows the detail of the TM error in console
Locate the file and then exclude it from the TM back by editing the TM options
Run the TM back up again

If the process then works, look into the file causing the issues.

For me, the problem was with and App Cleaner & Uninstall utility that I downloaded some time ago. It used to work with no problems but I have not been able to complete a TM back since late Nov 2018.

I've had no issues since completely removing this app and its associated files from the Library. Hope this helps.

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Answer 2

Jan 8, 2019 5:17 PM in response to El_Perrino

Got the same Problem (07.01.19),

‎⁨excluded "Macintosh HD⁩ ▸ ⁨User ▸ ⁨Me ▸ ⁨Library⁩ ▸ ⁨Containers⁩ ▸ ⁨com.nektony.App-Cleaner⁩" and the TM Backup worked again.

Thanks a lot!

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Answer 3

CPW

Level 1

62 points

Jan 30, 2019 8:07 AM in response to CPW

It appears that there is a problem with those backups. I deleted the backups.backupd folder from one of the drives and enabled it as the only the backup destination and it is working.

I'm pretty sure I ran First Aid on my time machine drives so I think that may have damaged the time machine files in some way. If it safe to do this>

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Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Nov 20, 2018 11:29 PM in response to gail208

Sadly, a lot of upgrade problems are only solved by a startup with CMD+r keys & choosing Reinstall OS.

But...

http://www.baligu.com/pondini/TM/Troubleshooting.html

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Answer 5

CPW

Level 1

62 points

Jan 26, 2019 9:10 AM in response to CPW

Reinstalled the OS, which also did a firmware update. No difference. Each TM run hangs on Preparing Backup and only writes 12KB of data. The latest try ran for 17 hours without progress. I have removed and selected each of my backup discs in turn and always get the same result.

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Answer 6

CPW

Level 1

62 points

Jan 25, 2019 12:07 PM in response to gail208

I have a similar issue with 10.13.6. I have three separate time machine drives, a WDC WD20EZRZ-00Z5HB0 (internal), and two external WD My Book drives, a 1144 and a 25EE. There hasn't been a backup since 12/23/18. One drive only says "waiting to complete first backup" for the past several weeks while the other two drives hang for hours on "Preparing backup..." I removed one of those drives from TM to get it to use another one, and no change.

One site suggested stopping all backups and deleting the DATETIME.inProgress file, rebooting then trying again. That did not help.

This does not appear to be drive related since it happens more or less on all three drives. Each have plenty of available space. I can open Time Machine and access

Started a backup on one of the external drives almost 5 hours ago and sysmon shows backupd having read 17.26GB and write 12KB. I will probably try BDAqua's ReinstallOS, but will wait to see if anyone else has any ideas.

mid-2012 Mac Pro.

Chuck

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