Unable to access Time Machine, incorrect password?

[hempomatic]

I had an incident of getting that same message about needing a TM password. I had never set one, never had one, just like you. I shut down the Mac and rebooted and tried again and the TM was available, no password needed. Just thought I'd throw that out there just in case you haven't done a shutdown/restart.

Thanks Jake. Yeah, tried that. It wouldn't have been the first time I overlooked the obvious ;-) If it DID actually have a password, I'm 100% confident that I'd know it. I'm super careful documenting things like passwords for exactly this reason. Who knows, maybe someday, someone will write an app.

 

[hempomatic]

1. Check the external hard drive’s file system.

There is no way to do that I'm aware of if disc Utility doesn't see it.

2. Check free disk space on the external hard drive.

I know from when I saw it on the old computer there was 900 gig of 1 TB used. This computer running Catalina doesn't see it. Regardless, if I'm correct, when Time machine is full, it deletes the oldest files to make room for the new ones, at least that was my understanding.

3. Check for junk files or other unwanted data as it might be causing problems.

It worked fine when using the old computer before being updated to Catalina. Wouldn't junk files or unwanted data ALSO just get backed up?

4. Check if the Mac software is updated.

I'm running Catalina on this computer. Are you suggesting Monterey may see it when Cataliina does not? I'm in no way prepared (totally paranoid) to do that. The problems didn't occur until I upgraded from Mojave.

5. Try restarting your Mac.

Restarted everything several times

6. Check if the mac and the backup drive are connected to the same network.

There is only one network and Time machine is plugged directly into it

Hope it helps!

Sadly no, but thank you for your effort

This has all become FAR to frustrating to continue. I've reluctantly accepted the loss of all of my music and photos. Some of the music can be replaced, but unfortunately, the pictures can not. Live and learn. How many times have I seen "back up your data, back your data .....". I thought I did. Now it appears I need back up for my back up. Next time however, I will run a back up program AND copy data to a remote drive and NOT use a back up program on that 2nd drive so I'll still have access to the data when the back up drive fails.