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Time Machine "The file “%@” could not be backed up."

Howard Ellacott

Howard Ellacott

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 10, 2012
217
200
United Kingdom
Anyone else seeing this? Started with the last beta. Time machine runs through all the process and does the world's slowest backup, then right at the end it fails with this message. I've restarted, and unpaired the backup disk and re-paired it and still no luck. The disk is a WD My Passport, plugged into a USB A adapter.
Screenshot 2021-07-19 at 09.48.53.jpg
 
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Great! Logged it with Apple, but wasn't sure if it was just a coincidence. Thank you for your help, somehow I couldn't find anyone else when I looked.
 
Howard Ellacott said:
Great! Logged it with Apple, but wasn't sure if it was just a coincidence. Thank you for your help, somehow I couldn't find anyone else when I looked.
Click to expand...
With a BETA, follow the guidelines and report anything out of the ordinary or failing to work as expected. You may not find issues on Beta software because, well it is beta.
 
This exact error happened to me too just now.

I've reported it to Apple. It's a bit annoying that the error message doesn't show the precise location of the file.
Also, the name of the file starting with a percent symbol suggests that this issue could have a similar cause to the recent bug with WiFi network names. (In many programming languages a percent symbol is an escape character which is followed by instructions to the program. If the programmer is expecting text in a field, they would need to take into consideration that text may contain such escape characters, and instruct the software to disregard it. When they don't do that, it can cause bugs like this.)
 
Same error and managed to complete the Time Machine backup with success following a reboot.
 
What worked me on my M1 Mac Mini is the following:
1. Deleted all local TM Backups (Not sure if this was necessary)
2. Entered SAFE MODE
3. Started the backup in Safe Mode. Backup was then completed.
4. Booted normally and then TM continued as normal.

Axel F.
 
AxelFoley said:
What worked me on my M1 Mac Mini is the following:
1. Deleted all local TM Backups (Not sure if this was necessary)
2. Entered SAFE MODE
3. Started the backup in Safe Mode. Backup was then completed.
4. Booted normally and then TM continued as normal.

Axel F.
Click to expand...
Confirming that merely restarting in SAFE MODE (I did not delete any local TM backups), manually triggering a TM backup + letting it complete while in SAFE MODE, and then returning to regular boot resolved the "%@" issue for me. Recommend this as the temp fix for everyone!

Thanks AxelFoley!

<update>
I got thru one regular backup in normal mode but now getting the "%@" error again. Looks like booting into SAFE MODE only allows a TM backup for a bit once you return to normal mode.

<update 2>
TM backups appear to intermittently work/fail. This is better than before when they were ALL failing soooo... progress?
 
Last edited:
MelTremens said:
Confirming that merely restarting in SAFE MODE (I did not delete any local TM backups), manually triggering a TM backup + letting it complete while in SAFE MODE, and then returning to regular boot resolved the "%@" issue for me. Recommend this as the temp fix for everyone!

Thanks AxelFoley!

<update>
I got thru one regular backup in normal mode but now getting the "%@" error again. Looks like booting into SAFE MODE only allows a TM backup for a bit once you return to normal mode.
Click to expand...
I am still able to successfully create TM backups after using the method, one time, in Safe Mode. Not sure why this is.

Axel F.
 
Issue still persists in B4. In my experience, it's intermittent (i.e. will sometimes backup) and hasn't changed B3>B4.
 
I've found it is caused on my machine by onedrive running. After it backed up in Safe Mode, it then wouldn't work normally. Quitting onedrive and then running the backup worked fine!
 
There's hope that this will be fixed in the next one or two betas. Feedback Assistant says:

Time Machine / backupd fail: The file "%@" could not be backed up.

Recent Similar Reports: More than 10
Resolution: Potential fix identified - In macOS 12
 
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There is something else that I have been experiencing since Big Sur actually. This is related to Time Machine drive on a network AND Time Machine on an attached external drive. When I Enter Time Machine, it takes more than 2 minutes to list files when I switch the choice to a different date in the past. Sometimes even longer. Am I alone?

Axel F.
 
AxelFoley said:
There is something else that I have been experiencing since Big Sur actually. This is related to Time Machine drive on a network AND Time Machine on an attached external drive. When I Enter Time Machine, it takes more than 2 minutes to list files when I switch the choice to a different date in the past. Sometimes even longer. Am I alone?

Axel F.
Click to expand...
Yep, started with Big Sur. I reformatted a disk to APFS and it still experiences crazy slow load times, but only when using the time machine interface. Finding files manually in the finder is fine.
 
Howard Ellacott said:
Yep, started with Big Sur. I reformatted a disk to APFS and it still experiences crazy slow load times, but only when using the time machine interface. Finding files manually in the finder is fine.
Click to expand...
I did the same thing. Reformatted to APFS however no improvement within Time Machine. In the end, I have just stopped the backups and relying on iCloud Drive and OneDrive for now.

Axel F.
 
Howard Ellacott said:
Anyone else seeing this? Started with the last beta. Time machine runs through all the process and does the world's slowest backup, then right at the end it fails with this message. I've restarted, and unpaired the backup disk and re-paired it and still no luck. The disk is a WD My Passport, plugged into a USB A adapter. View attachment 1808234
Click to expand...
This error drove me crazy. Just found out what caused it, it may be a peculiar case only valid for my MAC but here it is:
I discovered that there was a @ item in the Favorites Column. I deleted it and Time Machine worked perfectly.
Regards
 
alfa778 said:
This error drove me crazy. Just found out what caused it, it may be a peculiar case only valid for my MAC but here it is:
I discovered that there was a @ item in the Favorites Column. I deleted it and Time Machine worked perfectly.
Regards
Click to expand...
Which Favorites column are you referring to? Safari?

Axel F.
 
AxelFoley said:
Which Favorites column are you referring to? Safari?

Axel F.
Click to expand...
No, the left column of the Finder window. Check that when you click each one of them, the correspond ding link works. In my case, there was an entry whose parent item was removed. During backup, Time Machine would crash when trying to copy the nonexistent item.
 
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