Time Machine Backups Completing but not Saving to Backup Drive?

[Aragornii]

Since installing the public beta Time Machine shows regular backups completing, but the backup drive is not being touched. Are the backups just being stored locally?

Also, I can enter time machine but when I select a prior backup it never loads (stuck on "waiting"). The bars on the right hand side are all red, but I can't find any key as to what that color coding refers to.

Anyone else experiencing something similar?

 

[Mike Boreham]

Since installing the public beta Time Machine shows regular backups completing, but the backup drive is not being touched. Are the backups just being stored locally?

Also, I can enter time machine but when I select a prior backup it never loads (stuck on "waiting"). The bars on the right hand side are all red, but I can't find any key as to what that color coding refers to.

Anyone else experiencing something similar?

Time Machine makes snapshots on the boot drive but these are quite separate from what should be appearing on the TM backup drive.

First question would be are you sure the intended backup drive is definitely selected in the TM Preference Pane?

 

[Vr6]

Mine works great and I backup to two nas devices

 

[Aragornii]

Time Machine makes snapshots on the boot drive but these are quite separate from what should be appearing on the TM backup drive.

First question would be are you sure the intended backup drive is definitely selected in the TM Preference Pane?

Two options for disks appear in Time Machine preferences. "NAS-TimeMachine.local" and "NAS.local". It shows the correct backup folder it I select either one, but the behavior is still the same.

Note that I see then nas-timemachine as a network drive in addition to the nas on finder. if I select nas-timemachine and click on backups finder crashes.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Two options for disks appear in Time Machine preferences. "NAS-TimeMachine.local" and "NAS.local". It shows the correct backup folder it I select either one, but the behavior is still the same.

Note that I see then nas-timemachine as a network drive in addition to the nas on finder. if I select nas-timemachine and click on backups finder crashes.

I don't have any experience of NAS drives but I note that in What drives can be used by Time Machine Apple says:

"Many third-party NAS devices support Time Machine over SMB. For details, check the documentation for your NAS device". This implies that not all NAS support Time Machine. Are you sure yours does?

Maybe as a check that something else isn't going on, it would be worth (as a diagnostic test) checking that TM works with a direct connected drive. If it doesn't then it is unlikely to work with an NAS.

 

[drbill]

Since installing the public beta Time Machine shows regular backups completing, but the backup drive is not being touched. Are the backups just being stored locally?

Also, I can enter time machine but when I select a prior backup it never loads (stuck on "waiting"). The bars on the right hand side are all red, but I can't find any key as to what that color coding refers to.

Anyone else experiencing something similar?

I have the same issue. Starting with beta 7 I get a snapshot on my boot drive but nothing on my TM external drive. Applies to both auto and manual backups. This has persisted after updating to beta 8. Yet the backup appears to complete uneventfully, no errors reported. Time Machine Preferences says "Latest Backup: September 15, 2021" which is the last backup prior to updating to beta 7 (and the last snapshot on my TM drive).

I used TheTimeMachineMechanic (T2M2 - Eclectic Light Company) and it reports:
"...Started 1 auto backup cycles, and 1 manual backups;
no backup has been completed successfully in the period,
currently still making an auto backup..."

But, I enter time machine and see newly added docs and can restore them successfully. This appears to be from the boot drive snapshot because I can restore without connecting the external TM drive.

Anyone have any ideas?

BTW, M1 MacBook Pro

 

[drbill]

I have the same issue. Starting with beta 7 I get a snapshot on my boot drive but nothing on my TM external drive. Applies to both auto and manual backups. This has persisted after updating to beta 8. Yet the backup appears to complete uneventfully, no errors reported. Time Machine Preferences says "Latest Backup: September 15, 2021" which is the last backup prior to updating to beta 7 (and the last snapshot on my TM drive).

I used TheTimeMachineMechanic (T2M2 - Eclectic Light Company) and it reports:
"...Started 1 auto backup cycles, and 1 manual backups;
no backup has been completed successfully in the period,
currently still making an auto backup..."

But, I enter time machine and see newly added docs and can restore them successfully. This appears to be from the boot drive snapshot because I can restore without connecting the external TM drive.

Anyone have any ideas?

BTW, M1 MacBook Pro

Update:

This issue persisted even after update to Monterey 12.0.1. But I've found a workaround and what appears to be a fix.

The workaround is to delete the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist file in /Library/Preferences. The backup then completes successfully but this needs to be done before each new backup.

Now, at the suggestion of Apple Support, I've excluded the /Users/Shared folder from backups. Backups have completed successfully multiple times and so I think the problem is fixed.