Time Machine couldn't complete backup.

[MacInWin]

So what could be happening is that during the night, as the machine is idle, that it does routine maintenance functions and maybe if TM triggers during the maintenance then one or more files are not available for backup either because they are being held open by the maintenance, or have been deleted during the maintenance and TM expected them to be there for the backup. So, as you say, if the message is there in the morning, run T2M2 with 8 hours, or use Mints to get 8 hours of TM log entries and look for the name of the missing file/folder.

 

[Howard Brazee]

Yesterday, she didn't get the message, today she did, and here's the result:

Check Time Machine 8 hours


tps://docs.google.om/spreadsheets/d/1YELFnM3D0IVobJ1DACNXVudVmBAktScURa76sPtlaQw/edit#gid=764540601 (outdated link removed)


Analysis from 2024-10-13 22:18:02 -0600 to 2024-10-14 06:18:02 -0600 for 8 hours:


Backing up 1 volumes to LACIE Time Machine (/dev/disk7s2,TMBackupOptions(rawValue: 257)): /Volumes/LACIE Time Machine

Current free space on backup volumes:

/Volumes/LACIE Time Machine = 586.5 GB

Destination IO performance measured:

Wrote 1 50 MB file at 69.77 MB/s to "/Volumes/LACIE Time Machine" in 0.717 seconds

Concurrently wrote 500 4 KB files at 14.36 MB/s to "/Volumes/LACIE Time Machine" in 0.143 seconds

Wrote 1 50 MB file at 80.99 MB/s to "/Volumes/LACIE Time Machine" in 0.617 seconds

Concurrently wrote 500 4 KB files at 12.61 MB/s to "/Volumes/LACIE Time Machine" in 0.162 seconds

Wrote 1 50 MB file at 143.02 MB/s to "/Volumes/LACIE Time Machine" in 0.350 seconds

Concurrently wrote 500 4 KB files at 2.15 MB/s to "/Volumes/LACIE Time Machine" in 0.952 seconds

Wrote 1 50 MB file at 127.98 MB/s to "/Volumes/LACIE Time Machine" in 0.391 seconds

Concurrently wrote 500 4 KB files at 13.70 MB/s to "/Volumes/LACIE Time Machine" in 0.149 seconds

Wrote 1 50 MB file at 104.91 MB/s to "/Volumes/LACIE Time Machine" in 0.477 seconds

Concurrently wrote 500 4 KB files at 20.80 MB/s to "/Volumes/LACIE Time Machine" in 0.098 seconds

Wrote 1 50 MB file at 95.45 MB/s to "/Volumes/LACIE Time Machine" in 0.524 seconds

Concurrently wrote 500 4 KB files at 14.31 MB/s to "/Volumes/LACIE Time Machine" in 0.143 seconds

Wrote 1 50 MB file at 53.36 MB/s to "/Volumes/LACIE Time Machine" in 0.937 seconds

Concurrently wrote 500 4 KB files at 11.51 MB/s to "/Volumes/LACIE Time Machine" in 0.178 seconds



Started 7 auto backup cycles, and 0 manual backups;

no backup has been completed successfully in the period,

currently still making an auto backup,


Created 0 new backups


Created 7 new snapshots, and deleted 8 old snapshots.


Of 7 volume backups:

0 were full first backups,

0 were deep scans,

7 used FSEvents,


0 used snapshot diffs,


0 used consistency scans,


0 used cached events.





Backup results:


Finished copying from volume "Data"


2105 Total Items Added (l: 430.3 MB p: 456.7 MB)


6855 Total Items Propagated (shallow) (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB)


896981 Total Items Propagated (recursive) (l: 476.11 GB p: 473.64 GB)


899086 Total Items in Backup (l: 476.54 GB p: 474.09 GB)


1023 Files Copied (l: 216.1 MB p: 234.6 MB)


708 Directories Copied (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB)


358 Symlinks Copied (l: 8 KB p: Zero KB)


4361 Files Move Skipped (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 4361 items propagated (l: 2.33 GB p: 2.33 GB)


2494 Directories Move Skipped (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 885765 items propagated (l: 473.77 GB p: 471.3 GB)


16 Files Delta Copied (l: 214.2 MB p: 222.1 MB)


11 Directories Optimized Moved (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 8917 items propagated (l: 216.4 MB p: 221.1 MB)


Finished copying from volume "Data"


1101 Total Items Added (l: 211.9 MB p: 225.3 MB)


4744 Total Items Propagated (shallow) (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB)


904150 Total Items Propagated (recursive) (l: 476.37 GB p: 473.91 GB)


905251 Total Items in Backup (l: 476.58 GB p: 474.14 GB)


610 Files Copied (l: 92.2 MB p: 100.9 MB)


205 Directories Copied (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB)


274 Symlinks Copied (l: 6 KB p: Zero KB)


2463 Files Move Skipped (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 2463 items propagated (l: 1.46 GB p: 1.46 GB)


2281 Directories Move Skipped (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 896943 items propagated (l: 474.9 GB p: 472.46 GB)


12 Files Delta Copied (l: 119.7 MB p: 124.4 MB)


2 Directories Optimized Moved (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 648 items propagated (l: 175.1 MB p: 175.2 MB)


Finished copying from volume "Data"


3000 Total Items Added (l: 1.5 GB p: 1.51 GB)


210 Total Items Propagated (shallow) (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB)


20121 Total Items Propagated (recursive) (l: 8.18 GB p: 7.82 GB)


23121 Total Items in Backup (l: 9.68 GB p: 9.33 GB)


2624 Files Copied (l: 1.37 GB p: 1.37 GB)


156 Directories Copied (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB)


208 Symlinks Copied (l: 5 KB p: Zero KB)


210 Directories Move Skipped (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 19911 items propagated (l: 8.18 GB p: 7.82 GB)


12 Files Delta Copied (l: 133.3 MB p: 137.9 MB)


1 Files Optimized Moved (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 1 items propagated (l: 25.4 MB p: 26.3 MB)


1405 Directories Optimized Moved (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 878249 items propagated (l: 467.04 GB p: 464.96 GB)


Finished copying from volume "Data"


1105 Total Items Added (l: 180 MB p: 193 MB)


3889 Total Items Propagated (shallow) (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB)


903938 Total Items Propagated (recursive) (l: 476.56 GB p: 474.11 GB)


905043 Total Items in Backup (l: 476.74 GB p: 474.31 GB)


637 Files Copied (l: 80.3 MB p: 87.8 MB)


209 Directories Copied (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB)


247 Symlinks Copied (l: 6 KB p: Zero KB)


2166 Files Move Skipped (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 2166 items propagated (l: 1.52 GB p: 1.53 GB)


1723 Directories Move Skipped (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 897883 items propagated (l: 475.04 GB p: 472.58 GB)


12 Files Delta Copied (l: 99.7 MB p: 105.2 MB)


Finished copying from volume "Data"


3530 Total Items Added (l: 1.65 GB p: 1.66 GB)


239 Total Items Propagated (shallow) (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB)


19717 Total Items Propagated (recursive) (l: 8.18 GB p: 7.81 GB)


23247 Total Items in Backup (l: 9.83 GB p: 9.47 GB)


3091 Files Copied (l: 1.52 GB p: 1.52 GB)


198 Directories Copied (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB)


224 Symlinks Copied (l: 5 KB p: Zero KB)


4 Files Move Skipped (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 4 items propagated (l: 1.2 MB p: 1.2 MB)


235 Directories Move Skipped (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 19474 items propagated (l: 8.18 GB p: 7.81 GB)


17 Files Delta Copied (l: 133 MB p: 139.2 MB)


3 Files Optimized Moved (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 3 items propagated (l: 143.3 MB p: 144.2 MB)


1766 Directories Optimized Moved (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 878150 items propagated (l: 466.78 GB p: 464.7 GB)


Finished copying from volume "Data"


1522 Total Items Added (l: 197.3 MB p: 192.7 MB)


3513 Total Items Propagated (shallow) (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB)


886620 Total Items Propagated (recursive) (l: 475.25 GB p: 473.63 GB)


888142 Total Items in Backup (l: 475.45 GB p: 473.82 GB)


1142 Files Copied (l: 120.5 MB p: 113 MB)


186 Directories Copied (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB)


187 Symlinks Copied (l: 4 KB p: Zero KB)


1530 Files Move Skipped (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 1530 items propagated (l: 1.34 GB p: 1.35 GB)


1983 Directories Move Skipped (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 881577 items propagated (l: 473.91 GB p: 472.27 GB)


7 Files Delta Copied (l: 76.8 MB p: 79.7 MB)


9 Directories Optimized Moved (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 16541 items propagated (l: 1.3 GB p: 492.9 MB)


Finished copying from volume "Data"


2541 Total Items Added (l: 1.23 GB p: 1.24 GB)


1157 Total Items Propagated (shallow) (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB)


247288 Total Items Propagated (recursive) (l: 91.99 GB p: 92.22 GB)


249829 Total Items in Backup (l: 93.22 GB p: 93.46 GB)


2144 Files Copied (l: 1.14 GB p: 1.15 GB)


172 Directories Copied (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB)


216 Symlinks Copied (l: 5 KB p: Zero KB)


532 Files Move Skipped (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 532 items propagated (l: 327.9 MB p: 333.9 MB)


625 Directories Move Skipped (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 245599 items propagated (l: 91.66 GB p: 91.89 GB)


9 Files Delta Copied (l: 86.4 MB p: 88.5 MB)


1051 Directories Optimized Moved (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 652499 items propagated (l: 383.54 GB p: 380.86 GB)


Finished copying from volume "Data"


922 Total Items Added (l: 172.5 MB p: 183.8 MB)


4124 Total Items Propagated (shallow) (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB)


904379 Total Items Propagated (recursive) (l: 476.58 GB p: 474.13 GB)


905301 Total Items in Backup (l: 476.75 GB p: 474.31 GB)


583 Files Copied (l: 67.7 MB p: 75.2 MB)


162 Directories Copied (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB)


167 Symlinks Copied (l: 4 KB p: Zero KB)


2136 Files Move Skipped (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 2136 items propagated (l: 1.57 GB p: 1.58 GB)


1988 Directories Move Skipped (l: Zero KB p: Zero KB) | 898119 items propagated (l: 475.01 GB p: 472.55 GB)


10 Files Delta Copied (l: 104.7 MB p: 108.6 MB)





No error messages found.


Scheduling system checks are disabled.

 

[MacInWin]

Did you look at what Mints finds? There is nothing in this report that is out of order.

 

[Howard Brazee]

Did you look at what Mints finds? There is nothing in this report that is out of order.

No, I guess I'll have to download and try it next.

 

[MacInWin]

It is possible that T2M2 is not catching the error. Howard is working on a revision to it to better handle how Sequoia handles backups. It changed in recent upgrades. But Mints will retrieve all log entries made by TM for you to look at.

There is no need to post the listing here. Just look at what Mints retrieves for any messages with ERROR in them. All you are looking for is what file is reporting as being in error, then you can either exclude that from the backup or figure out what is happening. Mints output is HUGE, so what you might do is to Save the results to a text file and then use Text Edit or some word processor to search the file for Errors. Be aware that the log is, as I said, HUGE, so don't be surprised at the output of Mints.

 

[Howard Brazee]

My wife was away for a couple of hours and got the message, so I tried Mints for Time Machine and looked at 2 hours. I didn't see any clue.

 

[MacInWin]

OK then. Open Time Machine to where you can see the backups and see what backups are there. They are dated and you can open them up in the TM iinterface that looks like Finder. Or use Finder to navigate to the backup drive and look for the Folder in which her TM backups are stored and look at the names of the backups. They will/should be named by the date/time of the backup. Here is what my backup drive shows for backups:


Note that the backups are hourly for 24 hours, then the shift to one per day and eventually only one per week is kept. But if TM is workiing properly, there should be a backup for each hour of the last 24.

BE CAREFUL: Don't mess with the backups in Finder, just look at them as individual folders. These are snapshots of her system as it existed at the time of the backup. If one is missing in the sequence of hours, then that one had issues. But if there is one current, that is, within the last hour, TM is working as it should.

All of that is stated with the presumption that TM is at the default interval for backups, which is one hour.

 

[Howard Brazee]

Interesting. Both her iMac and mine are set to automatically backup every hour. But her finder shows it much less frequently, maybe because of this issue.

 

[MacInWin]

Maybe it's time for you to contact Apple Support. At Apple.com you can either open a chat or schedule a phone call.

 

[Jimmysb]

OK then. Open Time Machine to where you can see the backups and see what backups are there. They are dated and you can open them up in the TM iinterface that looks like Finder. Or use Finder to navigate to the backup drive and look for the Folder in which her TM backups are stored and look at the names of the backups. They will/should be named by the date/time of the backup. Here is what my backup drive shows for backups:
View attachment 39791

Note that the backups are hourly for 24 hours, then the shift to one per day and eventually only one per week is kept. But if TM is workiing properly, there should be a backup for each hour of the last 24.

only if that is the setting, mine back up once a day.

 

[MacInWin]

Which I said in post #27.

 

[MacBiter]

Interesting. Both her iMac and mine are set to automatically backup every hour. But her finder shows it much less frequently, maybe because of this issue.

There's an app - Time Machine Buddy - which lets you set the frequency of backups. I have set it for every 4 hours as I think every hour is excessive.

 

[MacInWin]

There's an app - Time Machine Buddy - which lets you set the frequency of backups. I have set it for every 4 hours as I think every hour is excessive.

That depends on your situation. In a business environment with lots of changes, hourly is good. In a home environment where you don't need that frequency, TM can be adjusted to be as little as weekly. In TM itself, you can set hourly, daily, and weekly, in addition to manually. I used to use Time Machine Editor to set the frequency, as you do, but I used twice a day as the frequency. Since TM has gone to snapshots I've stopped with TME and let it go hourly as the snapshots are very little overhead or disk space.

 

[MacBiter]

Since TM has gone to snapshots I've stopped with TME and let it go hourly as the snapshots are very little overhead or disk space.

When did that start?.

 

[MacInWin]

I don't recall. It was there in Sonoma, now in Sequoia. According to this: A brief history of Time Machine
It was in High Sierra, at least as part of the process. The article isn't totally clear to me, but it looks like th format of the backup changed in Big Sur, when TM started requiring APFS format for the backup drive.

 

[MacBiter]

I don't recall. It was there in Sonoma, now in Sequoia. According to this: A brief history of Time Machine
It was in High Sierra, at least as part of the process. The article isn't totally clear to me, but it looks like th format of the backup changed in Big Sur, when TM started requiring APFS format for the backup drive.

Thanks - no, not clear to me either!.

 

[Howard Brazee]

That depends on your situation. In a business environment with lots of changes, hourly is good. In a home environment where you don't need that frequency, TM can be adjusted to be as little as weekly. In TM itself, you can set hourly, daily, and weekly, in addition to manually. I used to use Time Machine Editor to set the frequency, as you do, but I used twice a day as the frequency. Since TM has gone to snapshots I've stopped with TME and let it go hourly as the snapshots are very little overhead or disk space.

That is a .wdgt file. I don't know how to run it. Hopefully deleting it after changing how often she backups will be easy. I just changed her backup to daily right now and I'll see what it does to her messages.

 

[MacInWin]

That is a .wdgt file. I don't know how to run it. Hopefully deleting it after changing how often she backups will be easy. I just changed her backup to daily right now and I'll see what it does to her messages.

So the offending file is a .wdgt? That is very likely a widget and you should be able to add it to the exclude list in the TM settings area.

 

[Howard Brazee]

So the offending file is a .wdgt? That is very likely a widget and you should be able to add it to the exclude list in the TM settings area.

No, that is the utility recommended for me to change how often Time Machine does backups.

 

[MacInWin]

Sorry, I don't understand. What is the name of the app to make the changes in Time Machine? ".wdgt" is not an app name..