Why does my Time Machine no longer work?

Question

Level 1

6 points

Why does my Time Machine no longer work?

My eternal drive for Time Machine suddenly gave me the error:

"Time Machine couldn't back up to "Time Machine"

I've used this drive for months with my Mac Studio. I can't seem to use it anymore, although the Mac does see it and Disk Utility sees nothing wrong. Tried to reformat the external drive in various formats but to no avail. It used to back up everything fine but now seems to just not work as a Time Machine option. How do I fix this issue?

Device: Mac Studio M1 Max

macOS: Ventura 13.3.1

Mac Studio, macOS 13.3

Posted on Apr 15, 2023 01:42 PM

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Answer 1

Mangoat Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 18, 2023 09:02 PM in response to Mangoat

I have not done anything to my setup since the other replies above. Haven't changed the cables or tried restarting again. Have not booted into safe mode. Suddenly Time Machine started working...? I'm not sure why. Haven't deleted anything, such as software. Noticed it backed up a couple of hours ago and I just manually tried again and seems to be backing up again just fine. So I guess my issue is resolved, although I have no idea why.

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Answer 2

tbirdvet

Level 6

16,697 points

Apr 15, 2023 04:49 PM in response to Mangoat

I would suggest that you first remove the drive as a TM drive from the TM preference pane. If the drive is not first removed from the TM preference pane Disk Utilities will not format it. Then you should be able to use Disk Utilities to erase and format to APFS. If that works fine then you should be able to once again use it as a TM backup drive.

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Answer 3

tbirdvet

Level 6

16,697 points

Apr 16, 2023 05:31 AM in response to Mangoat

The other possible issue is that you have some app or file that TM cannot read to copy and aborts the backup. Have you tried another cable to be sure the connection is solid? What drive do you have and how old is the drive? TM is now very picky with the lates OS and can have all types of issues. I have had similar issues starting with Big Sur and now Monterey and Ventura. I even had to change my cable once and also my enclosure of my SSD to get it working again.

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Answer 4

Mangoat Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 18, 2023 07:07 PM in response to tbirdvet

I bought the drive in 2018. It is an 8TB My Book from Western Digital. The model is: WDBBGB0080HBK-NESN

This isn't an SSD drive. It is an HDD.

The cable it uses isn't something I have extras of on hand.

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Answer 5

Mangoat Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 15, 2023 08:38 PM in response to tbirdvet

I have tried that. Removed it from the Time Machine system settings. Reformatted the drive with Disk Utilities to APFS. Went back into the Time Machine system settings and added it as the Time Machine drive. I've tried this both encrypting data and without encrypting data. Both result with the same error message:

Backup Not Completed

Time Machine couldn't back up to "Time Machine".

I've tried every APFS format option and have tried other names for the drive, since I thought maybe "Time Machine" was conflicting in some way, but the drive name doesn't seem to matter.

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Answer 6

Apr 15, 2023 09:28 PM in response to Mangoat

Have you rebooted yet? Time Machine is now using APFS snapshots and sometimes it can get stuck. The easiest thing to try is a restart of macOS. Then try forcing a Backup to run immediately.

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Answer 7

Mangoat Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 18, 2023 07:01 PM in response to James Brickley

Yes, I have rebooted and tried doing a backup right away. Did not solve the issue.

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Why does my Time Machine no longer work?

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