Time Machine Backup

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I recently upgraded my Mac to Catalina. Time Machine backup is failing because it sees two drives with same name. What do I do?

Thanks

Tom
 

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A warm welcome to Mac-Forums and thank you for your post.

You will get more expert advice shortly, but may I ask a question oe two and suggest a possible way forward?

When you did your Time Machine Backup (BU), did you continue to use the same External Hard Drive (EHD) as you had used for BUs under the previous Operating System (OS)? Or did you use a fresh EHD?

One way of approaching your problem is to use a different/fresh EHD, format it Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) and start your Time Machine BU.

The article Linked below discusses problems such as yours:

Time Machine and backing up in Catalina – The Eclectic Light Company

Further advice will follow.

Ian
 
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Was the drive connected when you upgraded? Or did you do a clean install of Catalina, where you erased the startup drive first?
 
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The backup remained connected during the upgrade. It is a Seagate Plus.

- - - Updated - - -

Yes, I used the same backup, which remained connected during the backup.
 

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Yes, I used the same backup, which remained connected during the backup.

Well, this may be the problem according to the article I linked. Not saying it definitely is, but I would suggest getting or using another External Hard Drive (EHD), formatting it Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), and running a new Time Machine backup.

this is a quote from the article about why this is a good idea anyway:

There are good reasons for creating a new backup set for Catalina anyway. As all system files are replaced, most other files change paths, and Catalina has a complete new layout on two APFS volumes, the first backup after upgrading is likely to approach the size of a full backup anyway. Giving it a clean start also means that your existing backups shouldn’t be converted to the new format, allowing you access to them if you needed to revert to Mojave, for instance.

Ian
 
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I haven't tried this yet, will have to purchase another backup drive.

I have thought of something else. I upgraded to Catalina on 12/20/19, and this issue didn't start until 1/1/20. My Seagate drive backed up fine for ten days, and then the problem occured. I have no idea what this means, just putting it out there as food for thought.
 

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As advised, the best thing to do is start over with a new Time Machine backup. As noted above by the article that Ian referred to, it's a good idea to start fresh. Unless you really need those older Time Machine backups, just erase the drive and go from there. How useful are older backups going to be for you now that you have updated to Catalina? Catalina has also formatted your internal drive to APFS.

You might also want to consider using another backup strategy. Most of us use and recommend cloning software: Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. Both programs offer a very effective way for backing up and restoring data.
 
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Just a followup.

I erased my backup drive and reformated. After restarting the computer, the backup was able to back up the machine. All good.

Thank all of you for help.

Tom
 

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Well done, Tom. That's just how it should be:)

Ian
 
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Well, I thought all was well, maybe not. It backed up several times yesterday, and once at 6:24 AM this morning. When I got home from work this afternoon, there was a "backup fail" message again.

It says.
Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to "Seagate Backup Plus Drive"

Two of the disks to back up have the same name. Rename one of the disks named "Macintosh HD".

Last successful backup: Today , 6:24 AM


The drives are listed as:
Macintosh HD
Macintosh HD - Data

This is the same thing it did before. It backed up for ten days successfully after installing Catalina, then started the backup fail.

One other thing, and I don't know if it is related or not, and it has been ocurring for a long time. I go through periods where the computer says, "Backup not ejected properly". Sometimes the backup has worked properly even with this message occuring. Then it quits saying this for a time. I just never know.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Tom

- - - Updated - - -

I'll try another restart and see what happens.
 
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Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD - Data are two volumes that Catalina creates and are both valid names and drives. And Catalina needs both. The Data drive has all of the user information and the other has all of the system information. Finder and other parts of Catalina merge these two into one virtual drive for the user so that the user experience is what it has been for a long time, that is, there is a Macintosh HD that represents the boot drive.

However, outside Finder, using Disk Utility, for example, you can see both volumes in the Container. And if you use Finder to look at the backup drive directly, you can see the two volumes separately backed up because TM must do that to recreate the two volumes if you need to restore.

Given that background, how are you getting the "list" of the drives that shows the two? It is perfectly normal and expected to have two.

I suspect the issue is not with TM, but with whatever is triggering the "Backup not ejected properly" message. If that occurs in the middle of a backup, TM will error out. When I have seen that message before has been when I have a drive that has a sleep function, or a power save function. When the drive thinks it's not in use, it powers down. Then when TM wants the drive, the drive has to wake up, spin up and respond, but takes too long to accomplish that before the OS says the drive isn't there, triggers TM to fail and the message about being ejected improperly. About the only cure is to get a new drive, one that either doesn't have the power save function or sleep function, or to use something like Amphetamine (search for it) to query all attached drives every few seconds to keep them spinning.
 
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After the restart, the drive backed up ok.

When I use Disk Utility and Finder, I do see all the data you stated above. That all makes sense. I will look at my backup drive closely and see what I can find. If all else fails, I will try another drive.

Thank you

Tom
 

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Screen Shot 2020-02-13 at 1.09.21 pm.png

Here is a screen shot of my TM drive contents and I as always create a new TM backup on major upgrades. Note that three Volumes are listed; Macintosh HD, Macintosh HD - Data and Recovery.

This is as it should be I believe. I have had no problems with backups to far after all Macintosh HD, Macintosh HD - Data are not the same name.

I think it may come down to a bad connection or the Seagate HD itself.
 

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