Time Machine error

[iammike1]

So, I read through that Apple Community post and I used the "log show --info --style compact --predicate '(subsystem == "com.apple.TimeMachine")' --last 24h" command and started browsing.

I spotted this as the potential problem on my own backups while the screen is off. I found other errors but this specific one seems to be the one that, if it happens, results in a failed backup and a notification. The log is very long but 3 times I found the specific combo of this first error leading to a failed backup and notification.

2024-12-01 10:53:45.594 E backupd[565:17bbe7] [com.apple.TimeMachine:FileProtection] Failed to acquire device lock assertion for '/Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/systemname/2024-12-01-105313/Data/Users/username/Library/Containers/com.apple.findmy.FindMyWidgetPeople/Data/SystemData/com.apple.chrono/timelines/com.apple.findmy.FindMyWidgetPeople/systemSmall--2050817267050937663----164.00w--164.00h--20.00r--0f--0.00t-0.00l-0.00b0.00t.chrono-timeline' (assertion state: <dropped>), error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"

miscellaneous informational messages related to wrapping up the backup attempt

2024-12-01 10:53:53.963 E backupd[565:17bdbb] [com.apple.TimeMachine:BackupDispatching] Backup failed: BACKUP_DELAYED_UNFINISHED_PROTECTED_FILES (104)

2024-12-01 10:53:53.964 E backupd[565:17bdbb] [com.apple.TimeMachine:General] com.apple.backupd.xpc: connection invalid

2024-12-01 10:53:54.053 E TMHelperAgent[23888:17be5c] [com.apple.TimeMachine:General] com.apple.TMHelperAgent.DeliverNotification: connection invalid

The yellow is just things I changed for privacy or brevity sake.

Anyway, this appears to be related to the FindMy widget I had on my desktop. I've removed it now and will see over time if this resolves the issue.

My question for everyone else is, do you have a FindMy widget on your Desktop or in your Notification Widgets? This is the only permission error I could find. It could be specific to the FindMy widget or that could just happen to be the file that is causing me issues.

Ok, I seem to have fixed it on mine at least for now. I'm unsure what specific step below resolved it but I believe it was clearing out the old snapshots.

For this you'll need a tool called Onyx. It's free software that has existed for MacOS for many many years, almost as far back as OS X (first version was for MacOS 10.2). https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

1. This step alone did not fix the problem but possibly contributed to it. I removed FindMy from my Desktop Widgets since it was a FindMyWidget file that was throwing an error when TM would fail as you can see a few posts ago.
2. Open Time Machine settings, click Options, change Backup Frequency to Manually.
3. Open Onyx and enter your password.
4. Go to the Maintenance Tab. Click Restore Defaults to make sure the default options are enabled. Click Run Tasks. It will close all open apps, run the tasks, then reboot your system.
5. Open Onyx and enter your password.
6. Go to the Utilities Tab. Click APFS Snapshots. Click Delete APFS Snapshots.
7. Close Onyx.
8. Open Time Machine Settings, click Options, change Backup Frequency to Automatically Every Hour.

For me these steps stopped the error and has worked for over 12 hours now. I verified this morning that backups did occur and complete successfully while the system was "asleep". My sleep settings are set at defaults so that the system does sleep when the screen is off and sleeps hard drives when possible. Changing those settings did not resolve my error anyway so back to default I went.

 

[kagharaht]

Ok I'm gonna wait for another status from you in a day or two...I have used Onyx once back in 2010 I think. It screwed up my MBP so bad I had to start from scratch. LOL...so I'm going to wait a bit on that.

 

[bapegg]

I had an issue with The Machine backups on my M4 Mini for the first day or two. But I haven't had any issues since then. The only thing I can think of is that I am using the same drives that had TM backups from my 2018 Mini on them.

I have since updated my 2018 Mini to Sequoia and have not had any issues with Time Machine using my original external drive.

 

[blakespot]

This has started happening to me since updating to from Sequoia 15.0 to 15.1.1. I have my Mac Studio 2022 set to never sleep, but the display sleeps. I come down in the morning and get this message. The backup drive is attached and I can browse it fine. I am simply using an external 8TB USB hard disk as a backup drive.

I hope this is widespread enough that it gets Apple's attention for a proper fix.

 

[iammike1]

Ok I'm gonna wait for another status from you in a day or two...I have used Onyx once back in 2010 I think. It screwed up my MBP so bad I had to start from scratch. LOL...so I'm going to wait a bit on that.

Still no errors here. For now, I'm absolutely convinced my problem is resolved. Now, that doesn't mean it won't come back at some point. No idea why that particular file in my logs was causing the problem and no guarantee it had anything specifically to do with FindMy. Might have just been a random file that just happened to be related to FindMy for me. Could happen to another file. No clue.

 

[blakespot]

And now... I just kicked off a TM backup manually here as I am working at the desk. It ran for about 10 mins then reported the same message. "...backups will resume when your Mac is unlocked."

It's unlocked, friend! I am sitting here writing code -- fully awake and unlocked.

I see there has been no successful backup day or night since I upgraded to 15.1.1, up from 15.0.

This is a real problem, Apple.

 

[blakespot]

I attached the end of a recent session of (failed) backup, but look at an excerpt here.

See, in the middle of this excerpt, is mention of data for MuffinTerm, which is a terminal emulator program that I installed on the same day that I upgraded to 15.1.1. Is this app, installed after the latest Sequoia update somehow given the wrong perms on its data?


2024-12-03 10:14:44.828 I TimeMachineSettings[37622:3b3c4e] [com.apple.TimeMachine:LogLimits] Limiting logging for limit: aFewTimes key: "map auto_home"
2024-12-03 10:14:54.795 I SystemUIServer[826:3b413e] [com.apple.TimeMachine:LogLimits] Limiting logging for limit: aFewTimes key: "map auto_home"
2024-12-03 10:14:56.282 E backupd[268:3b408e] [com.apple.TimeMachine:General] com.apple.backupd.sandbox.xpc: connection invalid
2024-12-03 10:15:35.281 E backupd[268:3b4241] [com.apple.TimeMachine:General] com.apple.backupd.sandbox.xpc: connection invalid
2024-12-03 10:15:48.802 I TimeMachineSettings[37622:3b3d31] [com.apple.TimeMachine:LogLimits] Limiting logging for limit: aFewTimes key: "map auto_home"
2024-12-03 10:15:56.275 E backupd[268:3b4546] [com.apple.TimeMachine:General] com.apple.backupd.sandbox.xpc: connection invalid
2024-12-03 10:15:56.963 I SystemUIServer[826:3b491f] [com.apple.TimeMachine:LogLimits] Limiting logging for limit: aFewTimes key: "map auto_home"
2024-12-03 10:16:11.015 E backupd[268:3b49e0] [com.apple.TimeMachine:General] com.apple.backupd.sandbox.xpc: connection invalid
2024-12-03 10:16:29.654 E backupd[268:3b47da] [com.apple.TimeMachine:General] com.apple.backupd.sandbox.xpc: connection invalid
2024-12-03 10:16:32.057 E backupd[268:3b4241] [com.apple.TimeMachine:General] com.apple.backupd.sandbox.xpc: connection invalid
2024-12-03 10:16:52.894 I TimeMachineSettings[37622:3b4c2f] [com.apple.TimeMachine:LogLimits] Limiting logging for limit: aFewTimes key: "map auto_home"
2024-12-03 10:16:57.274 E backupd[268:3b4af1] [com.apple.TimeMachine:General] com.apple.backupd.sandbox.xpc: connection invalid
2024-12-03 10:17:00.804 I SystemUIServer[826:3b491d] [com.apple.TimeMachine:LogLimits] Limiting logging for limit: aFewTimes key: "map auto_home"
2024-12-03 10:17:19.886 E backupd[268:3ae197] [com.apple.TimeMachine:FileProtection] Failed to acquire device lock assertion for '/Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/Sedona/2024-12-03-094741/Data/Users/blake/Library/Containers/com.mollysoft.MuffinTerm/Data/Library/Application Support/com.mollysoft.MuffinTerm/V1/MuffinTerm.bbsdata' (assertion state: <dropped>), error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"
2024-12-03 10:17:56.279 E backupd[268:3b4241] [com.apple.TimeMachine:General] com.apple.backupd.sandbox.xpc: connection invalid
2024-12-03 10:17:56.886 I TimeMachineSettings[37622:3b4a0c] [com.apple.TimeMachine:LogLimits] Limiting logging for limit: aFewTimes key: "map auto_home"
2024-12-03 10:18:04.826 I SystemUIServer[826:3b4ba1] [com.apple.TimeMachine:LogLimits] Limiting logging for limit: aFewTimes key: "map auto_home"
2024-12-03 10:18:10.285 E backupd[268:3b4af1] [com.apple.TimeMachine:General] com.apple.backupd.sandbox.xpc: connection invalid
2024-12-03 10:18:28.778 E backupd[268:3ae197] [com.apple.TimeMachine:FileProtection] Failed to acquire device lock assertion for '/Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/Sedona/2024-12-03-094741/Data/Users/blake/Library/Metadata/Assets/com.apple.MobileAsset.SpotlightResources.plist' (assertion state: <dropped>), error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"
2024-12-03 10:18:40.594 E backupd[268:3b5298] [com.apple.TimeMachine:General] com.apple.backupd.sandbox.xpc: connection invalid
2024-12-03 10:18:55.339 E backupd[268:3b4af1] [com.apple.TimeMachine:General] com.apple.backupd.sandbox.xpc: connection invalid
2024-12-03 10:19:01.004 I TimeMachineSettings[37622:3b4a0c] [com.apple.TimeMachine:LogLimits] Limiting logging for limit: aFewTimes key: "map auto_home"
2024-12-03 10:19:04.284 E backupd[268:3b5299] [com.apple.TimeMachine:General] com.apple.backupd.sandbox.xpc: connection invalid
2024-12-03 10:19:08.901 I SystemUIServer[826:3b4ba1] [com.apple.TimeMachine:LogLimits] Limiting logging for limit: aFewTimes key: "map auto_home"
2024-12-03 10:19:15.063 E backupd[268:3b545c] [com.apple.TimeMachine:General] com.apple.backupd.sandbox.xpc: connection invalid
2024-12-03 10:19:15.954 I backupd[268:3ae197] [com.apple.TimeMachine:CopyProgress] Finished copying items for "Data" (device: /dev/disk3s5 mount: '/System/Volumes/Data' fsUUID: 11FFCFBE-1AA1-495F-9689-8E691B0FCF41 eventDBUUID: 27B3D228-91E8-44A4-983D-AD0F928C781C)
Time elapsed: 29 minutes, 36.000 seconds

 

[kagharaht]

I haven't seen the error come up since Sunday. I haven't done anything different. Can it actually fix itself?

 

[blakespot]

Error happens to me every day still, since I updated to 15.1.1. I had a person on Bluesky saying they are seeing the same thing as well. So, one more victim...

 

[jdw13]

Error happens to me every day still, since I updated to 15.1.1. I had a person on Bluesky saying they are seeing the same thing as well. So, one more victim...

Me too, on two M1 computers. For me, I use TimeMachineEditor to do just one TM a day at night, and I schedule wake-up just before the scheduled backup. Seems that often the auto backup happens in the morning when I start working. Also, it then seems to begin taking local TM snapshot every hour which I had disabled. Apple seems to have done something with 15.1.1 update.

Wonder if people are still seeing this on the 15.2 beta?

 

[kagharaht]

Well I'll post here if it happens again for me. As of Sunday it hasn't popped up on my iMac M3 again.

 

[iammike1]

Me too, on two M1 computers. For me, I use TimeMachineEditor to do just one TM a day at night, and I schedule wake-up just before the scheduled backup. Seems that often the auto backup happens in the morning when I start working. Also, it then seems to begin taking local TM snapshot every hour which I had disabled. Apple seems to have done something with 15.1.1 update.

Wonder if people are still seeing this on the 15.2 beta?

I was on 15.2 beta and still had the issue until I took the steps I outlined earlier. Since then I've not gotten any errors.

 

[kagharaht]

Ha it just popped up on my iMac M3...Oh well.

 

[blakespot]

So, I was using PowerPhotos to cull unwanted photos and videos from Photos library. (Removed about 60-70GB quickly.) I noticed the free space does not show in the filesystem... Looking into it, I see it is due to TimeMachine APFS snapshots holding onto the data (temporarily). Time Machine was not working for me, so after determining it was safe to do so, I deleted the two snapshots from the disk. No issues there, using

tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2020-08-03-161551

...as an example.

And the next time Time Machine ran ... the backup completed with success.

Just sharing my experience. I am not TimeMachine / APFS guru, so I don't want to be responsible for hosing anyone's data. In looking at forums, I saw people saying it's safe to delete the TM snapshots using that command, as long as you have a recent backup of the data so as not to lose many changes. FYI.

I am still on 15.1.1.

 

[jdw13]

As mentioned by others on this thread, after doing the following yesterday I had a 'normal' TimeMachine backup just after 5AM this morning"
Remove the password required turn off the

System Settings/Lock Screen/Require password after screen saver begins…

To do this, I had to change settings on iPhone Mirroring application to “Ask every time”.

So the final thing to get back to my normal once a day nightly Time Machine backup was to make sure the Mac was left unlocked overnight.

I agree with "c0rb4c" that this is not a solution. I am at home and can leave my machine unlocked, but this is generally a bad move on Apple's part. When in an office environment, running the default hourly backup would lead to not having a backup of your last hour's work until you come in and unlock your Mac on the next workday.

I have reported this to Apple on their Apple Feedback assistant: https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/.
Mine is FB16064504 and the top reports that there are no recent similar reports.

 

[blakespot]

As mentioned by others on this thread, after doing the following yesterday I had a 'normal' TimeMachine backup just after 5AM this morning"
Remove the password required turn off the

System Settings/Lock Screen/Require password after screen saver begins…

I have my system set to not lock screen / screensaver with password (and, thus, the same setting for iPhone Mirroring) and this problem arose from me when I moved from 15.0 to 15.1.1.

So, that can't be the entire cause of the issue.

But, as I said, after deleting the two TM snapshots from my system, I had a normal backup.

 

[Craig M]

Even after updating to 15.2, TimeMachine backups still fail when display is asleep. Possibly also related (to powering down/napping when it shouldn't), the FindMy does not update the last location of my Mac Mini M4 Pro when the display is asleep. Really needs to be fixed.

 

[McMario]

Just updated to 15.2 and the problem persists: Time machine requires my 2021 MBP to be "unlocked" in order to continue backup operations.

Again, Apple seems to be well aware of this issues, as they officially state that mac must be unlocked to do backups.

This is no solution at all, and I have already tickets opened with support. Please do the same so we can get an answer.

EDIT:

Also, I did check the logs now & I do have the same issue with a findmy-object; I deleted all three widgets in my sidebar (or whatever it is called) and will report if this changes anything.

Update:

Deletion of the find-my-widgets didn't help.

 

[genexx]

Even after updating to 15.2, TimeMachine backups still fail when display is asleep. Possibly also related (to powering down/napping when it shouldn't), the FindMy does not update the last location of my Mac Mini M4 Pro when the display is asleep. Really needs to be fixed.

As many have mentioned, removing old snapshots in disk utility may fix your problem:

View APFS snapshots in Disk Utility on Mac

In Disk Utility on Mac, view a list of APFS snapshots, copy information about the snapshots, and delete them.

support.apple.com

I may have not the Problem because i always do a TM Backup before and after the Updates.

 

[iammike1]

Just updated to 15.2 and the problem persists: Time machine requires my 2021 MBP to be "unlocked" in order to continue backup operations.

Again, Apple seems to be well aware of this issues, as they officially state that mac must be unlocked to do backups.

This is no solution at all, and I have already tickets opened with support. Please do the same so we can get an answer.

EDIT:

Also, I did check the logs now & I do have the same issue with a findmy-object; I deleted all three widgets in my sidebar (or whatever it is called) and will report if this changes anything.

Update:

Deletion of the find-my-widgets didn't help.

As I mentioned in my instructions, more was required to fix my issue including deleting existing Time Machine snapshots. Removing the widget alone also did not solve it for me but I haven't had the issue come back now since I did my fix I outlined earlier in the thread.

 

[polyphenol]

As many have mentioned, removing old snapshots in disk utility may fix your problem:

View APFS snapshots in Disk Utility on Mac

In Disk Utility on Mac, view a list of APFS snapshots, copy information about the snapshots, and delete them.

support.apple.com

I may have not the Problem because i always do a TM Backup before and after the Updates.

How long should it take to display APFS snapshots?

I left Disk Utility for over half an hour looking at one of my backup SSDs. (Only took a fairly short time to find the ones on my Macintosh HD.)

 

[genexx]

How long should it take to display APFS snapshots?

I left Disk Utility for over half an hour looking at one of my backup SSDs. (Only took a fairly short time to find the ones on my Macintosh HD.)

Should be visible almost instant.
If you exclude your Backup SSD`s from the TM Backup there should be none.

You can also list them in the Terminal via:

tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

it looks like:

➜  ~ tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
Snapshots for disk /:
com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-12-17-163845.local

They should automatically be deleted when you make TM a backup.

 

[McMario]

As I mentioned in my instructions, more was required to fix my issue including deleting existing Time Machine snapshots. Removing the widget alone also did not solve it for me but I haven't had the issue come back now since I did my fix I outlined earlier in the thread.

Unfortunately that didn't work for me:
- for a few days (1-2..) it ran without error (why I don't know)
- now again it gave me the same error, still showing blocking "findmy"-widget...
- which shouldn't exist anymore
- in a snapshot from today...

So in between it must have been working, but now it doesnt.

I will try to completely remove all snaps locally and watch the outcome.

 

[JSRinUK]

Some things I did notice, one, the new TM backup hates a Ethernet connection and actually disconnects the TM and fails after about an hour.

I wonder if this is similar to what I’m experiencing. My TM is just a USB HDD and it worked fine until I connected a USB hub to my MBP, which also has Ethernet (because my Wifi isn’t brilliant where I’m sat). Since I did that, I come back to my MBP later to a bunch of 'Disk Not Ejected Properly. Eject “MBP Time Machine” before disconnecting or turning it off’ messages, even though I hadn’t done anything to the MPB, the HDD, the Hub, or anything.

I’m going to try leaving the hub unplugged for a while and see if I get the same errors.

 

[golfnut1982]

Since updating to Sequoia my Time Machine backups have been failing during night. Every time I wake up the display, I get the same error: "Time Machine did not finish backing up because some files were unavailable. Backups will resume when your Mac is unlocked." My Mac actually never sleeps; I only put the display to sleep. The next backup after waking the display always works.
Anyone is having the same problem?

Try and add this to the exclusion to the Time Machine options under Time Machine Settings ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.findmy.FindMyWidgetPeople

Happened to me as well. I added the above exclusion and no issues anymore.
Also this thread...https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255816799?sortBy=rank
I've seen this before on Sonoma. It eventually gets fixed.