Time Machine stops works suddenly

[BSoares]

Everything was going well. Even after the latest update to 10.14.4. But then it stopped working out of nowhere.

Here's what I've tried:
- Reboot
- Disconnect each of the 2 time machine drives I have and try to backup to the one that remained connected (just to rule out a physical issue)
- Ran First Aid on all disks (both TM disks and the internal Fusion drive)
- Deleted the 2 snapshots that existed on the Fusion drive and then rebooted, tried again. Hoping it was just a corrupt snapshot.

None of those seem to get it going again. I ran the console and isolated backupd, here are the errors. They seem to be similar to issues people had right after Mojave came out but I'd think Apple already addressed those. I know Fusion took longer to be converted to APFS but that's what I have now (on internal disk, external TM drives are still formatted the old way).

default 10:57:05.700021 -0400 backupd isMacWithSE(): boardID = Mac-FC02E91DDD3FA6A4 -> isMacWithSE = 0
error 10:57:25.099309 -0400 backupd Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.SnapshotVolumeFSEventStoreUUID' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"
error 10:57:25.099566 -0400 backupd Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.SnapshotVolumeLastFSEventID' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"
error 10:57:25.099949 -0400 backupd Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.SnapshotVolumeUUID' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"
error 10:57:25.100081 -0400 backupd Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.PreviousSnapshotVolumeUUID' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"
error 10:57:25.100419 -0400 backupd Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.PreviousSnapshotVolumeName' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"
error 10:57:25.100509 -0400 backupd Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.VolumeBytesUsed' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"
error 10:57:25.100619 -0400 backupd Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.VolumeIsCaseSensitive' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"
error 10:57:25.100759 -0400 backupd Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.fstypename' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"
error 10:57:25.101223 -0400 backupd Failed to remove attribute 'com.apple.backupd.VolumeIsEncrypted' from 'file:///', error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted"

Any ideas of what to try next? I appreciate any help.

Bruno

 

[jimthing]

Time Machine is a BIG bag of hurt. Especially on recent macOS's.

I'd strongly suggest saving yourself the headache that is TM, and instead just going with CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner, or perhaps Super Duper). The former I use and does the same thing as TM, just without the OTT 'going back in time' file recovery GUI; instead you simply search the clone or the history locations to find your file (very easy).

It can also keep files deleted too, if you set the keep removed files setting, so you get the benefits of a bootable clone with the benefits of incremental file backups. All for ~$40 or so.

 

[faraway52]

TM is sometimes a bit bitchy.
A "brute force" reformat (HFS) of the backup volume is often a quick and easy cure.
Anyhow you should have two backups create with two different programs. That is when CCC becomes a good choice for the second backup on a second external volume.

 

[jimthing]

TM is sometimes a bit bitchy.
A "brute force" reformat (HFS) of the backup volume is often a quick and easy cure.
Anyhow you should have two backups create with two different programs. That is when CCC becomes a good choice for the second backup on a second external volume.

Re. Brute force.

That fails more often than not. So really isn't the solution most will find works. Nothing typically works; and that's the main problem.

Re. Two types.

I agree for smaller backups.

But that's not scalable for larger data volumes. If you're dealing with double figure TB's of media files (quite commonplace with many users' media servers, these days), it's just not practical to use multiple local backup methods.

And TM cannot handle large volumes over time. It irrepressibly corrupts.

Whether APFS is supposed to better handle this in future, I don't think Apple have made clear yet, AFAIU.

 

[BSoares]

I do use Super Duper to clone the disk and keep one clone out of the house at all times. TM is nice to have for versioning and a quick restore if needed. I agree that it’s not perfect but would be nice to fix it. I forgot to mention but neither of the TM disks have the .inprogress folder so the backup process is stuck on the source.
If my iMac was still under warranty I’d try to get Apple to help fix this.

 

[Honza1]

TM is nice when it works. I had multiple issues with TM and usually found ways to fix them. Here is my standard procedure:
1. Check the disks using Disk tools. Both.
2. Restart OSX, connect TM disk to different port.
3. Use Onyx and force various "rebuilding" in their standard set. This solves surprising number of OSX weird behaviors.
4. Use Onyx and force rebuild of Spotlight index (TM depends on it). Leave running overnight, it takes long time to reindex.
5. If all fails, buy new TM disk and start new TM disk = I gave up, not worth more time ;-) .
Somewhere through this procedure TM always started to work, well, step 5 worked always.

 

[BigMcGuire]

These posters are correct and I'm far from an expert. I know Windows like the back of my hand. But, I bought CCC and love it. I have 4 hard drives. 2 for TM and 2 for CCC (two at work, two at home). I've had to reset TM a handful of times over the last 5 years. Since I have lots of backups I don't mind doing this.

Yeah just format the drive.

 

[CTHarrryH]

Did you have any applications that were updated just before this happened. I had this issue 6? months ago and it turned out that 1 application left some garbage on Mac's hard drive. So when backup got to that point it failed - no matter if new backup disk or not. Another backup software noted the error but continued the backup. When I went to the site of the app that had been updated before the errors started they had a note about it and what to delete to make Time Machine work again.
I know this isn't a lot of detail help but again if you recently updated an app - look at that app for help.

 

[jimthing]

Again, the problem is that TM doesn't fail safe. It instead falls over, and then ruins the rest of the users day (week/mth/yr!) trying to figure out a future course of action.
...of course most users give-up and start again long before that, out of absolute frustration.

 

[BSoares]

Did you have any applications that were updated just before this happened. I had this issue 6? months ago and it turned out that 1 application left some garbage on Mac's hard drive. So when backup got to that point it failed - no matter if new backup disk or not. Another backup software noted the error but continued the backup. When I went to the site of the app that had been updated before the errors started they had a note about it and what to delete to make Time Machine work again.
I know this isn't a lot of detail help but again if you recently updated an app - look at that app for help.

Perhaps, I recall updating Citrix Workspace App around that time. A new version came out yesterday, maybe that will help if it’s caused by that app.