Time Machine Issue

[mrsr71]

I’m trying to backup my wife’s 2013 MacBook Pro.

When I plug-in the Seagate drive the icon appears on the desktop but when I start the backup in Time Machine it states it can’t be found and to try a different drive. The drive has been reformatted in APFS & Mac OS Extended.

Does anyone have a clue as to what the issue is?

Thanks…Dan

 

[McScooby]

Haven't used Big Sur for ages, off the top of my head thinking, did you just use disk utility to reformat it & haven't added it via Time Machine as a legit backup as per here - https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mh11421/11.0/mac/11.0
Have you changed the user permissions on the drive to ignore drive ownership (iirc there was general funkiness with this left on) through selecting the drive via get info when secondary clicking it (padlock at the bottom)?
Can't remember if big sur has to have usb access to devices approved in settings and Time Machine backups allowed on battery found in TM Options, can't remember if that was there then or came later.
Other thing could be if if's a huge back-up to start with it can take a few attempts to get it going.

 

[Fishrrman]

I can't help with time machine -- I've never used it, not once, ever.

But if you keep "getting nowhere" with tm, I'd like to offer a suggestion:

Try SuperDuper instead.
It should work fine with a 2013 MBP.
It's free to download and try (link initiates download):

https://shirt-pocket.com/mint/pepper/orderedlist/downloads/download.php?file=https%3A//shirt-pocket.com/downloads/SuperDuper%21.dmg

SD creates a BOOTABLE cloned backup of the internal drive.

Having said that, there's another alternative, similar but not the same:
Carbon Copy Cloner.
CCC gives you a few more options, but is a little more involved to use.

CCC is also free to download and try out for 30 days.

I suggest you try BOTH of them, and choose which you like better.