MP 7,1 Restore APFS snapshot,An error occurred while rolling back the local snapshot. the system may be in an inconsistent state.

[zhpenn]

I have now set it up to an every 5 Day clone using CCC from Internal to a PCI-E SSD in Mac Pro.
Tested to boot from the PCI-E SSD backup successfully.

Because I notice there are APFS snapshots and CCC snapshots. I still have some questions.
As to APFS snapshot, If I want to restore the Mac to a previews state, I went Command + R to Recovery mode, then select TimeMachine, then select restore from local Macintosh HD, then select one of the back up to restore, am I doing the right step?

I tried to do that today, but it shows:An error occurred while rolling back the local snapshot. the system may be in an inconsistent state.

But wired thing is that when I restart it does when back to that time state. Deleted files come back. Is this normal?



I have also enabled CCC snapshots and SaftyNet as well.
I have the first back up clone(10.15.2) to PCI-E SSD Backup Drive
Then OS update to 10.15.3 and tested and believed it is stable, Then I click clone to do the 2nd and 3rd backup to the same PCI-E SSD backup Drive.

Because I turn on CCC Snapshot and SafetyNet, I clicked the Manage Snapshot I can see there are snapshots on it.
Is that means I can restore from any of those CCC snapshots to the Internal drive when things happen?

If my PCI-E SSD is large enough to hold many CCC Snapshots, then I do not need to have 2 PCI-E SSDs to do one daily back up and the other for weekly back up, I can just use one PCI-E SSD for multiple backup then restore from the different snapshot, am I understand right?

There is one thing in Catalina very confusing
Because Macintosh HD is now separated into two Drive
Macintosh HD
Macintosh HD - Data


Every time I back up, “Macintosh HD - Data” will have a CCC snapshot, but on “Macintosh HD”, not every backup has a snapshot.

For example, If I have done the 1st backup at 1 am, the 2nd backup at 2 am, the 3rd back up at 3 am

On “Macintosh HD - Data” will have all 3 CCC snapshots backups, but on “Macintosh HD” only have 1st and 2nd backup but no 3 am backup. (maybe there is no change from 2-3 am?)

But If I want to restore from 3 am backup if I restore in 2 partitions Macintosh HD(2 am backup) and Macintosh HD(3 am backup) - Data separately, will it be a problem?
Thanks a lot

 

[verdi1987]

I have run into the same error as you when attempting to restore a Time Machine APFS snapshot. Like you, despite the error, an inspection of the file system suggests that the restoration was successful. About 50% of the time the restore succeeds with no error. The other half of the time I get the error, but it seems as though it succeeded anyway. Today I did two restores. The first one succeeded. The second claimed to have failed no matter which snapshot I chose. Even the snapshot that succeeded the first time claimed to have failed the second time.

Like you, I am running CCC. I do not have CCC Snapshots enabled for the system disk, so I do not think CCC is causing the error.

As for the discrepancy between the snapshot times for the OS disk and the Data disk, I think that is because the OS disk is separated from user data, so if there have been no system changes, there would not be a backup. That is just my guess.

 

[bxs]

I have now set it up to an every 5 Day clone using CCC from Internal to a PCI-E SSD in Mac Pro.
Tested to boot from the PCI-E SSD backup successfully.

Because I notice there are APFS snapshots and CCC snapshots. I still have some questions.
As to APFS snapshot, If I want to restore the Mac to a previews state, I went Command + R to Recovery mode, then select TimeMachine, then select restore from local Macintosh HD, then select one of the back up to restore, am I doing the right step?

I tried to do that today, but it shows:An error occurred while rolling back the local snapshot. the system may be in an inconsistent state.

But wired thing is that when I restart it does when back to that time state. Deleted files come back. Is this normal?



I have also enabled CCC snapshots and SaftyNet as well.
I have the first back up clone(10.15.2) to PCI-E SSD Backup Drive
Then OS update to 10.15.3 and tested and believed it is stable, Then I click clone to do the 2nd and 3rd backup to the same PCI-E SSD backup Drive.

Because I turn on CCC Snapshot and SafetyNet, I clicked the Manage Snapshot I can see there are snapshots on it.
Is that means I can restore from any of those CCC snapshots to the Internal drive when things happen?

If my PCI-E SSD is large enough to hold many CCC Snapshots, then I do not need to have 2 PCI-E SSDs to do one daily back up and the other for weekly back up, I can just use one PCI-E SSD for multiple backup then restore from the different snapshot, am I understand right?

There is one thing in Catalina very confusing
Because Macintosh HD is now separated into two Drive
Macintosh HD
Macintosh HD - Data


Every time I back up, “Macintosh HD - Data” will have a CCC snapshot, but on “Macintosh HD”, not every backup has a snapshot.

For example, If I have done the 1st backup at 1 am, the 2nd backup at 2 am, the 3rd back up at 3 am

On “Macintosh HD - Data” will have all 3 CCC snapshots backups, but on “Macintosh HD” only have 1st and 2nd backup but no 3 am backup. (maybe there is no change from 2-3 am?)

But If I want to restore from 3 am backup if I restore in 2 partitions Macintosh HD(2 am backup) and Macintosh HD(3 am backup) - Data separately, will it be a problem?
Thanks a lot

Have you read through all the CCC supporting documentation that describes snapshots and rolling back to a previous system state. The documentation is quite voluminous and complete. This should help you understand how the snapshots help you roll back successfully and what the limitations are. If in doubt then send an enquiry to the CCC author and the CCC help desk via the CCC's facility for sending questions and problems, and the CCC log files. You will get a quick response as CCC's Bombitch is very attentive to the issues reported.

 

[bsbeamer]

Are your Time Machine backups "local" to a direct connected device (via PCIe, USB, TB3, etc) or are they network attached in some capacity (via ethernet or wifi)? There is a similar report for MBP16,1 via wifi and do think this might be a Catalina issue vs. MP7,1 issue.

 

[martyedwards]

I've started seeing the same error in the past month. Has there been a solution for this?

 

[verdi1987]

I've started seeing the same error in the past month. Has there been a solution for this?

I never found a solution. It seems about half my restorations have that error. Despite the error, in my experience the restoration completes properly.

 

[martyedwards]

Thanks so very much for responding. I thought after so long I might not get a response. I get the error every time but on top of the error I cannot restart the Mac from the menu at the top of the recovery screen. I have to force power the Mac down and then restart it. After I get back into Catalina the snapshot restore has worked but something is certainly not right.

I may just do a clean install of Catalina from scratch and reinstall all my apps and see if that takes care of it. A clean reinstall should reinstall the recovery partition. Perhaps there is an issue with it. I’ll report back if I get this resolved.

 

[verdi1987]

I get the error every time but on top of the error I cannot restart the Mac from the menu at the top of the recovery screen. I have to force power the Mac down and then restart it.

I may just do a clean install of Catalina from scratch and reinstall all my apps and see if that takes care of it. A clean reinstall should reinstall the recovery partition.

I also run into the problem of the system locking up after a reportedly failed restoration. Once I was able to get the restoration to succeed by re-attempting it right after the failure message. However, that only worked once.

FWIW, my installation of Catalina was brand new as of the launch of macOS 10.15. It is an iMac17,1 that also has Mojave in a separate APFS container along with several external drives. In theory they should not affect the restoration, but it’s worth noting.

After purging all snapshots with tmutil, the subsequent restoration attempt succeeded, but that may have just been a coincidence, and it did not solve the issue long-term.

 

[martyedwards]

Thanks much Verdi1987 for your information. After reading what you posted, I'm not sure a clean install will help. I'm very sorry you are having this issue, but glad to know that it's not just some anomaly here. And, now I know that someone else has had the reboot issues after a reported failed restore, which is actually successful.

This is happening on the iMac Pro which has the T2 chip. I can't help but wonder if this is part of the error and it trying to protect the file system. My wife has a 2015 MacBook Pro with Catalina, and I've restored with snapshots twice on her system, and it's perfect. Basically an instant restore, reboots, and back to the restore point.

I have the iMac Pro set up and all is running great. I don't feel like a full reinstall, but if I knew that would fix it, I would. I will wait and see if Big Sur solves this. I might perchance do a clean install then since it won't be all that long until release.

Thanks again,

Marty

 

[verdi1987]

Hi, Marty.

The iMac I have is the 2015 5K, which does not have a T2, so I do not think the error is related to the T2. Just based on the users in this thread, the error has manifested on an iMac, an iMac Pro, and a Mac Pro (all desktops). I have a 2018 MBP and haven’t run into the issue there, but the times I’ve needed to do a restore on the MBP are few.

I have wondered if the plethora of attached USB devices might be a problem, but I haven’t tried disconnecting everything when attempting a restore.

 

[martyedwards]

Thanks again, Verdi. I do have a "homebuilt" USB drive with just simply an SSD in an enclosure for Time Machine backups. I have an old mechanical keyboard that I love.... comparable to the old IBM 101 keyboards. I have to use an USB adapter to get it to work since is has a PS/2 connector. (ancient, I know) The keyboard works great, but perhaps at such a low level of working with firmware, the iMac is balking at it.

I might just disconnect these one at a time and see if the restore works. My wife's MacBook Pro has none of those devices other than an external monitor connected via Thunderbolt, and never an issue. This gives me a good starting point to troubleshoot. I had never considered the USB connected devices to be an issue. One is "ancient." I'll report back if disconnecting any of those solve the issue.

Marty

 

[verdi1987]

I am also using a mechanical keyboard, albeit USB. I’m impressed you’re using a PS/2 keyboad and that the pins are intact!

I look forward to the results of your tests.

 

[martyedwards]

That's interesting that you also are using a mechanical keyboard. I'll test probably in the morning. I have a mechanical USB keyboard as well that I can test with as well as in Apple corded keyboard that I'll use to test.

I think I'll use tmutil to force a snapshot after I connect a more modern keyboard and unmount the external drive. Then I'll attempt to restore from that.

I appreciate the discussion. This has really given me some options to try.

 

[martyedwards]

Success! I couldn't wait until morning. For the first time in a few weeks, I was able to restore from a snapshot with no errors and it rebooted perfectly on it's own. I did two things, then one and they both worked. I connected an Apple wired keyboard and physically disconnected the "home made" external USB. I rebooted into recovery mode and it worked perfectly. I love this keyboard (I even have an exact spare) and so I connected it back via it's USB connector, and left the USB drive disconnected. I then rebooted into recovery mode, and it restored perfectly. The USB drive seems to have been the issue. I rarely use it as most of my Time Machine backups are to a NAS located in our garage shared by my wife and her Time Machine backups.

Just a note. Since this is actually a PC keyboard, I don't have an option key and can't boot into recovery. I use the terminal command sudo nvram recovery-boot-mode=unused and then sudo reboot to have the Mac boot into the recovery mode on it's own. That works perfectly everytime. In Mojave quotation marks were needed. In Catalina, it will not work with the quotation marks.

Thanks again. It was very nice to see a quick and easy snapshot restore.

Marty

 

[verdi1987]

That’s fantastic news!

Does the Alt key not function as Option at boot? It does on modern Windows keyboards, but I am uncertain about a PS/2 keyboard. (Edit: I think maybe you mean the Command key, since you’d be unable to type Command-R on a 101 keyboard.)

I look forward to the article!

 

[martyedwards]

Thanks! No, on the old PS/2 keyboard, the Alt key will not work as an Option key. I have a "modern" windows keyboard that will work. But, the keys are "soft" and do not have the feedback of this buckling spring keyboard. But, the software work around in terminal works quite well.

I had removed that about the article since I thought you might not want me to reference you, but if you don't mind, I will. I'll write something up for AppleWorld.Today and get it posted and credit your user name here and the forums. I'll be sure and let you know when it's published. I'll probably do it the first part of the week. I thought it would be worth an article to help anyone else with this issue.

Marty

 

[verdi1987]

I don’t mind being credited at all!

 

[martyedwards]

Ok. Thanks! I certainly will. And being a new poster here, I'm sure I cannot link, but I'll let you know when it's up on AppleWorld.Today.

I did another snapshot a few moments ago with tmutil snapshot, and the Mac quickly and perfectly restored to it. I love this feature because it let's me test software, and quickly roll back without having to do a full Time Machine restore. It has really changed how I use the Mac and will freely experiment knowing I can go back so quickly.

Again, thanks. Your clues and comments helped me solve my major, and really only, issue I was having.

Marty

 

[verdi1987]

Snapshots have saved me on more than one occasion when I’ve inadvertently done “rm -R *” on my home folder. ?

 

[martyedwards]

I imagine they did save you! It’s a great safety net Apple has built into macOS X.

 

[martyedwards]

Snapshots have saved me on more than one occasion when I’ve inadvertently done “rm -R *” on my home folder. ?

Verdi1987, I did NOT publish the article on AppleWorld.Today. The very next snapshot restore failed and has been failing every time but one since I last posted here. I speculate if I go to Mojave it might solve it, but I can live with the workaround until Big Sur, and hope it is resolved. I like some of the things of Catalina and really don't want to reinstall Mojave. I do have a USB installer to test that if I decided to do so.

Again, thanks for your help.

Marty

 

[verdi1987]

I’m sorry to hear the restore failures have resumed. Have you found that the reported failures have indeed been incomplete restorations? I was never able to find anything amiss after a reported failure.

 

[martyedwards]

I should have qualified that the restores are not a failure. The restores appear to be successful but just simply receive that error and then the iMac would lock up and not be able to reboot until I force power off.

When I would powered back up it would return to the recovery screen and then I could click on reboot and the snapshot seems to have restored successfully. I just have to jump through a few hoops to get there. I can live with that until it’s resolved. Thanks again.