Unable to make backup using Time Machine

iMac Retina 5k, 27-inch, late 2015

Catalina 10.15.1

Lately I checked Time Machine and realized that my last backup was 2 months old. I had used Time Machine Editor to make the incremental backups once a day.

I erased the external HDD and started a full backup. After a few unsuccessful tries I assumed an HDD problem and got myself a new HDD. Same problem. After at least 10 hours the backup is stuck at around 730GB of 900GB. The "remaining time" goes up and the backup never finishes. I swapped the USB port but again same result.

Posted on Dec 15, 2019 11:03 AM

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macjack

Level 10

111,240 points

Posted on Dec 15, 2019 01:03 PM

It's odd. You might try starting up in Safe Mode and see if that makes a difference.

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support

EDIT: Oh and if you still have TM Editor please delete it for now.

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4 replies

Top-ranking reply

macjack

Level 10

111,240 points

Dec 15, 2019 01:03 PM in response to kraut55

It's odd. You might try starting up in Safe Mode and see if that makes a difference.

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support

EDIT: Oh and if you still have TM Editor please delete it for now.

macjack

Level 10

111,240 points

Dec 15, 2019 11:16 AM in response to kraut55

When you set up Time Machine in System Preferences > Time Machine did you click on Options and exclude those other volumes from being backed up?

kraut55 Author

Level 1

15 points

Dec 15, 2019 12:27 PM in response to macjack

Yes I did.

kraut55 Author

Level 1

15 points

Dec 17, 2019 03:47 AM in response to macjack

Deleted TM Machine, started in Safe Mode plus used an SSD as backup disk. I do have a full backup! Thank you very much. What I don't get is that it took almost 14hours to backup 900GB to an SSD.

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Unable to make backup using Time Machine