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Time Machine error
- Thread starter Jamacfer
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Yeah, me, too. After a couple of months of smooth sailing, it looks like updating to 15.5 set me back again.
I swear, this is the most annoying bug...!
Yeah, it's sad that it's no a Priority for Apple it seems. More Emoji, that one for sure is #1 Priority.
I mean, what really gets me is that I'll coast along for months with no problem! So, they get it right...and then it messes up again!
Have you checked the logs to see what program is causing this in your case? For me, the recent lock up was the result of me doing something new, running a program I hadn't run in a long time.
Checking is as simple as running
log show --last 8h --predicate 'process=="backupd"' | grep "Failed to acquire"
in Terminal. "--last 8h" means "during the last 8 hours" and assumes the error happened within that window of time.
In part:
So, it looks like the FindMy widget.
Except...
I don't run the FindMy widget!
I don't run it either.
I did an experiment. I rebooted and looked in Activity Monitor for process names starting with "findmy". There were a few, but none of them mentioned widgets. I then selected "Edit Widgets" from the context menu on the desktop. I did nothing else - I didn't search for anything or even scroll in the list. I then went back to activity monitor and a new process was there named "FindMyWidgetItems".
So, user behavior unrelated to running the widget can trigger that problematic process to be launched. In my case, I'm guessing that a general query for available widgets triggered it.
Oh well. Certainly it's easy to work around the problem by excluding the directory containing the blocked files from Time Machine backups.
Also aside from just the annoying message, it doesn't seem to corrupt or damage the backup. It eventually get's it done without causing any other issues, eventually.
Interesting. For me, when the error happens, the backup aborts and never resumes. Eventually, after logging in and getting the files unlocked, I see a backup start, but it seems to be a full, new backup.
When all is happy, TM uses file system events (since last backup) to decide what needs to be backed up. After an error, TM will do a more thorough check on what needs to be backed up. So it will take longer.
This version of Mac OS 15.5 is actually worse for Time Machine. Every morning now when I use the iMac M3, which is not sleeping, but the screen is off and locked, the Time Machine failed backup alert comes up. Every Morning now. Before it would be ok for days or weeks but now it's every day. I can't understand how Apple Engineers are not seeing this or don't care at all. 
I'm seeing this same issue on my M1 MBP, but not on my 2018 Intel Mac miniThis version of Mac OS 15.5 is actually worse for Time Machine. Every morning now when I use the iMac M3, which is not sleeping, but the screen is off and locked, the Time Machine failed backup alert comes up. Every Morning now. Before it would be ok for days or weeks but now it's every day. I can't understand how Apple Engineers are not seeing this or don't care at all.
Not only are my Time machine backups failing overnight when my M1 MBP isn't being used, but it looks like backups aren't completing during the day, either!
The top backup that's running now never finishes. The time remaining gets longer and longer, then it fails over to the Seagate drive. I don't even know why the other one hasn't backed up fir a few days now.. This is pretty lame.
The top backup that's running now never finishes. The time remaining gets longer and longer, then it fails over to the Seagate drive. I don't even know why the other one hasn't backed up fir a few days now.. This is pretty lame.
I've had to keep my screen active and in use for the backups to finish. As soon as my Screensaver comes on, the backups stop.
May26 through June 5, no Time Machine Error. I almost got 2 weeks of TM error free...then it occurred 2 days in a row. June 8 today I start the countdown again.
Is there any possibility that you guys are using any non-standard app or have anything special in your setups? I remember once when I had a rare error and the culprit was a (completely unrelated) app that was capturing keystrokes. It was an app coming from a solo developer, not the Mac app store.
It's trivial for a user to find out which files are locked in their case; that will probably provide enough clues to tell which process is causing the problem.
In my case, it would happen the night after I ran some camera software from Eve Home. That's non-standard. But it also happens when some standard bluetooth framework leaves some files locked. The variability relates directly to how a computer is being used.
I just replaced my Time Machine drive, and am now getting this error.
I excluded the findmywidget (which I wasn't using) and see some of the Milo files others mentioned, but so far having problems finding the files to exclude. I will just check and see if it keeps happening before trying further.
I was looking into time capsule replacements with the upcoming os stopping support, so I need to get a reliable backups working.
I excluded the findmywidget (which I wasn't using) and see some of the Milo files others mentioned, but so far having problems finding the files to exclude. I will just check and see if it keeps happening before trying further.
I was looking into time capsule replacements with the upcoming os stopping support, so I need to get a reliable backups working.
For what it is worth, I had the error again just now, and looking at the log posts above determined it was the milod directory. (I previously excluded the widget listed in previous posts.) I used theses instructions to exclude it, as just doing it via the gui time machine did not work (Hidden file?)
I remember that I also made that exclusion from the terminal. I went back just now to double check and noticed that the directory was not hidden. I also went to a second Mac and noticed it wasn't hidden there as well. I'm not sure what changed. In any case, usually just typing "cmd-shift-." exposes hidden things when using the selection dialog and the Finder in general. (It's just a toggle to show or hide hidden files or directories.) But, I suspect I used the terminal because that toggle failed to show the directory.