Time machine backups not appearing on drive anymore

[Jamison7]

So my external drive had been partitioned to have both a time machine back up (APFS case-sensitive) and an ordinary 'external physical volume' for movies, etc. The time machine partition was working fine until recently: now there are no files/backups that appear on the partition, even though Disk Utility shows it still has space that's being used. Any idea what's happened?

Thanks!

 

[appltech]

If those files/backups weren't removed occasionally, then it looks like a baked partition system which is odd because in that case, you won't be able to see the content of any partition.
Try with Disk Utility –> First Aid (but before use View –> Show All devices and select use First Aid one-by-one)

But is there a reason why would you use case-sensitive for backups? As for me it causing some problems, especially with searching, browsing, etc

 

[gilby101]

But is there a reason why would you use case-sensitive for backups?

Time Machine formats its destination volume as APFS case-sensitive (you don't have any choice).

 

[Jamison7]

If those files/backups weren't removed occasionally, then it looks like a baked partition system which is odd because in that case, you won't be able to see the content of any partition.
Try with Disk Utility –> First Aid (but before use View –> Show All devices and select use First Aid one-by-one)

I was able to perform First Aid on the whole drive and the data partition, but it failed for the backup/time machine partition and the previous backups still remain inaccessible. The error codes for the failed First Aid job were 69566 and 69565. According to this post (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251855937) it might be repaired from Recovery mode - I'm not familiar with this. Any thoughts?

 

[HDFan]

Time Machine formats its destination volume as APFS case-sensitive (you don't have any choice).

??? I have a number of TM HFS formatted backup disks.

 

[Jamison7]

But is there a reason why would you use case-sensitive for backups? As for me it causing some problems, especially with searching, browsing, etc

I never chose that formatting; it either already was that way or switched to that formatting when the partition became used for TM. I'll consider reformatting the drive if no other cause can be identified for this problem.

 

[gilby101]

??? I have a number of TM HFS formatted backup disks.

But not newly formatted under macOS 11 or 12.

 

[HDFan]

But not newly formatted under macOS 11 or 12.

Got it.