A bug triggered by OneDrive might prevent you from restoring Time Machine backups

[Extrawdw]

The new OneDrive that builds on the macOS FileProvider API (which was forced by Apple deprecating kext) might cause an issue that prevents user from restoring Time Machine backups.

Today I got my MacBook back from Apple Support, they somehow wiped my data for a Bottom Case replacement, which is ridiculous, but that's another story. I tried restore the Time Machine backup that I created, and receiving the following error:

My Mac is 512GB model, and the backup was made on that exact same device. It is not reasonable that there's 700GB of data in a 512GB hard drive, nor a backup cannot be restored by the same machine that creates it. After investigation, I found that there is a folder in my local Library folder that have size of 400GB (total size of my OneDrive), but it is only 3GB on disk (which is the File On-Demand downloads), which is a container of OneDrive:

~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.OneDriveStandaloneSuite/

After excluding this folder from Time Machine, the issue not seems to happen. So, for OneDrive users that have more files in the OneDrive than your computer hard drive can store, please make sure to exclude the above folder from Time Machine. I believe this is a bug of Time Machine or Migration Assistant, since the actual size occupied on disk should be considered instead of the total size.

 

[Shmanky]

After excluding this folder from Time Machine, the issue not seems to happen.

How did you do that if your internal hard drive was erased? How did you restore this backup?

 

[Extrawdw]

How did you do that if your internal hard drive was erased? How did you restore this backup?

I didn't. I ended up setting the computer from fresh, it sucks.

 

[toru173]

I don’t think this is a OneDrive bug. I’ve seen similar behaviour migrating data with a very large number of files in iCloud Drive, where ‘optimise storage’ was enabled. The drive cache only took up a handful of gigs on the source machine but the target wanted to ensure there was enough space for all files in iCloud. If I’m right, this might impact all users with similar workflows - including DropBox, Box, Google Drive etc.

I suspect it has something to do with OneDrive’s recent adoption of Apple’s File Provider extensions (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/fileprovider). It sounds like you have a solution but if you’d like to help Apple troubleshoot this and bring it to their attention, either file a feedback request (if you are a registered developer using Beta software), or call AppleCare, ask to speak to a senior advisor, then ask to have the case escalated to engineering. I’ve had a couple of cases where it’s gone that far but we’ve fixed bugs in macOS. It’s not quick though!

 

[Shmanky]

I want to share my solution for future googlers.

My setup:
• 15" MacBook Pro with 500GB internal SSD
• 500GB external SSD (Time Machine backup)
• 1.5TB external HDD


First, I installed macOS Monterey on the 1.5TB external HDD. I was worried that trying to run macOS from an external spinning hard drive would be horrendously slow, but, really, once an app starts and is loaded into memory, it runs as well as when using the internal SSD.

Then, I used Migration Assistant to restore the "900GB" backup from the 500GB external SSD to the 1.5TB HDD. I thought this would take forever but it only took about 3-4 hours.

When I logged in to my restored user running on macOS on the 1.5TB external HDD, I went into System Preferences > Time Machine > Options and added the following 3 directories to the exclusion list:

~/Library/CloudStorage
~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.OneDriveStandaloneSuite
~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.OneDriveSyncClientSuite

I don't know if all of these need to be excluded or just the one that OP listed but I didn't want to have to do this again.

Then, I triggered a Time Machine backup (from the 1.5TB HDD to the 500GB external SSD). It only took a few minutes since it was just removing those directories from the backup.

Then, I installed macOS Monterey on the internal 500GB SSD on the MacBook Pro. Then I made several attempts to restore from the 500GB external SSD to the 500GB internal SSD. I've restored from Time Machine many times over the years but this time very strange things happened like my user account appeared but not my data. After a few retries it did restore properly and I got all my data back and running on the internal SSD. Maybe it was because I am using Open Core Legacy Patcher to install macOS Monterey on an older unsupported Mac. Maybe it was the different names I gave to the drives.

But it eventually worked. But seriously, Apple; how can you think that a 500GB drive holds 900GB of data? 🤦‍♂️

 

[steliosaa]

I want to share my solution for future googlers.

My setup:
• 15" MacBook Pro with 500GB internal SSD
• 500GB external SSD (Time Machine backup)
• 1.5TB external HDD


First, I installed macOS Monterey on the 1.5TB external HDD. I was worried that trying to run macOS from an external spinning hard drive would be horrendously slow, but, really, once an app starts and is loaded into memory, it runs as well as when using the internal SSD.

Then, I used Migration Assistant to restore the "900GB" backup from the 500GB external SSD to the 1.5TB HDD. I thought this would take forever but it only took about 3-4 hours.

When I logged in to my restored user running on macOS on the 1.5TB external HDD, I went into System Preferences > Time Machine > Options and added the following 3 directories to the exclusion list:

~/Library/CloudStorage
~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.OneDriveStandaloneSuite
~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.OneDriveSyncClientSuite

I don't know if all of these need to be excluded or just the one that OP listed but I didn't want to have to do this again.

Then, I triggered a Time Machine backup (from the 1.5TB HDD to the 500GB external SSD). It only took a few minutes since it was just removing those directories from the backup.

Then, I installed macOS Monterey on the internal 500GB SSD on the MacBook Pro. Then I made several attempts to restore from the 500GB external SSD to the 500GB internal SSD. I've restored from Time Machine many times over the years but this time very strange things happened like my user account appeared but not my data. After a few retries it did restore properly and I got all my data back and running on the internal SSD. Maybe it was because I am using Open Core Legacy Patcher to install macOS Monterey on an older unsupported Mac. Maybe it was the different names I gave to the drives.

But it eventually worked. But seriously, Apple; how can you think that a 500GB drive holds 900GB of data? 🤦‍♂️

Really smart! I am trying it now. I hope it works! I just spent the last 1 hour talking to Apple Support but no results. I hope this helps!

 

[steliosaa]

Okay so it worked. It took a lot of time as the external HDD was super slow. All my loggin programs had to be "validated" so it took a lot of time to set-up. These steps are not exactly correct as it depends if you have already an account on the internal disk, or if the macbook is erased to be empty. But in general you can follow these and figure it out. I made an internal ssd account first so I can download Monterey and install it on the external drive. Make sure to write down the login password for any user you create in any monterey install as to not forget them.

So some tips if you will do this.
1. See how much space is your "time machine backup" on the migration assistant and find an external drive that can fit.
2. If your external drive you use for time machine backups is big enough (mine was 4TB and the backup was 356GB) you can use that drive.
3. When using the time machine drive (APFS encrypted), just add a new volume unencrypted (APFS only) and name it "monterey external"
4. Download the monterey installer, install it on that new volume on your external. In the setting change the startup drive to"monterey external" and restart
5.When setting up the external monterey, go through the migration assistantand restore
6. When you log in, go to the time machine settings and EXCLUDE ALL THE DRIVES EXCEPT THE EXTERNAL ONE WHICH IS WHERE YOU SET UP YOUR EXTERNAL MONTEREY
(I had trouble here as the backup didn't work and kept backing up the internal SSD instead)
So basically, I "ejected" the internal SSD called "Macintosh HDD - Data", ejected any other volumes, and left only the BACKUP volume of the time machine, and the EXTERNAL MONTEREY backup.
Ejecting them helps with stopping spotlight slowing the whole system down by trying to read and list down all the files in all these volumes.
7. Go to the Library, and delete this (~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.OneDriveStandaloneSuite)
The other directoris Shmanky said were not there on my system.
8. Start the backup
9. Change the Startup Disk from the settings back to the internal drive.
10. Restore the new backup which had that OneDrive Library folder deleted.

My feedback to Apple:
Doing a backup in the time machine while having OneDrive installed, will cause imposibility to restore via Migration Assistant.

Time Machine will not backup any files which are set to be available on the OneDrive cloud only (setting is called "free up space"). So those files are backed up as placeholders so it is 0 size on disk. However, when using Migration Assistant to restore the backup, now Migration Assistant will see the placeholders and count them as ACTUAL files with big size, and includes ALL the OneDrive files which were never on the internal disk.

My 256GB Macbook Air M1 2020 which was backed up via Time Machine showing a 156GB backup "size on disk", was calculated by migration assistant to have 360 GB restore size. So I couldn't restore it as it exceeded my mac's total size!

 

[Shmanky]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I think this step is what I did wrong and caused problems for me:

6. When you log in, go to the time machine settings and EXCLUDE ALL THE DRIVES EXCEPT THE EXTERNAL ONE WHICH IS WHERE YOU SET UP YOUR EXTERNAL MONTEREY