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Resolved Time machine experiencing multiple issues on Monterey (my personal issue resolved)
- Thread starter MacinMan
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To also chime in. I had an old back up that stopped working. I had saved it off. But after 12.2, I tried to use it again and the back up worked fine. It completed the back up and I confirmed that the back up in November is still accessible. Back ups have been fine now for the last 24 hours.
You didn't add -p option, so these exclusions will not show up in the GUI, try these:
Bash:
sudo tmutil removeexclusion ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.findmy.FindMyWidgetItems
sudo tmutil removeexclusion ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.findmy.FindMyWidgetIntentsItems
sudo tmutil removeexclusion ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.findmy.FindMyWidgetPeople
sudo tmutil removeexclusion ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.findmy.FindMyWidgetIntentsPeopleTest using the command:
Bash:
tmutil isexcluded ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.findmy.FindMyWidget*
All my Time Machine backups problems have been resolved with 12.2 as well. Thank goodness
So it seems like my problem is still a thing on 12.2
Upon further investigation the error on the findmy files is not Invalid Arguments like you guys' . It's operation not permitted. Which is weird . Tried everything. Resetting time machine by removing the configuration plist and rebooting. Tried formatting every time machine disk I have. It's still a problem. (The problem seems to happen if you backup and let the screen lock. It's not sleeping just locked.)
Then I tried just removing all of the findmy folders in containers and rebooted. It generated a few of the findmy folders and files again.
So I tried the time machine again and it seems to be working fine now. Still testing but yeah.
Upon further investigation the error on the findmy files is not Invalid Arguments like you guys' . It's operation not permitted. Which is weird . Tried everything. Resetting time machine by removing the configuration plist and rebooting. Tried formatting every time machine disk I have. It's still a problem. (The problem seems to happen if you backup and let the screen lock. It's not sleeping just locked.)
Then I tried just removing all of the findmy folders in containers and rebooted. It generated a few of the findmy folders and files again.
So I tried the time machine again and it seems to be working fine now. Still testing but yeah.
Keep ups posted, seems like anyone having issues on 12.2 were due to stuff existing prior to the update. Since you deleted the problem files and started over, and things seem to have improved: you may be OK now.
Nope. Rebooting a couple times made a new folder . Another one of the find my and yeah it failed when locked. Same error. Operation not permitted on those files. Although my old workaround is to run the time machine first without it locking the laptop. Everytime I update OS or clean my Mac using Onyx. Then it'll work fine Everytime
I'll try the exclusion next. If it works fine imma just keep it excluded so I don't need to keep it woke up to do a tm backup every os update or something
@white7561
As I reported before, don’t expect the error messages in the log to go away. They are still here, but the backup should work despite if them.
Also, allow Time Machine to run several backups, as it may start cleaning up only after a few backups. The error seems to disappear after the cleaning. In one of my three backup destinations, it took a few backups until that happened. So don’t give up too quickly!
As I reported before, don’t expect the error messages in the log to go away. They are still here, but the backup should work despite if them.
Also, allow Time Machine to run several backups, as it may start cleaning up only after a few backups. The error seems to disappear after the cleaning. In one of my three backup destinations, it took a few backups until that happened. So don’t give up too quickly!
Yeah it doesn't backup the first time with that error if I lock the screen . If it's unlocked when it's backing up . The backups after that works just fine. But yeah after a macOS update it'll do that again.
I managed to use my old workaround to backup it once first with screen on and unlocked. Which works fine. But I want to get to the bottom of this so yeah i removed the folders (findmy stuff) and yeah the backup went fine (clean backup new drive) even with it locked. But yeah after a few reboots I saw some more findmy folders showing and yeah those one doesn't work . When i tried it again with it locked yeah it doesn't backup again.
I'm gonna try the exclusion one now. If it works fine im just gonna always set the exclusion
I had also previously excluded the problematic files and folders and since then my TM was working fine. I would always hear my TM spin the drive every hour. But I stopped checking if it actually completed successfully.
On Friday I upgraded to Monterey 12.2 and since then and until now (Sunday morning) the TM backup that started on Friday afternoon is still cleaning up!
I checked my list of backups and saw a few weird things:
a) turns out I have no backups after 1/20
b) on 1/29 (Friday) I have a backup from 18:09:45 which is still in progress and then another one at 18:18:00 which looks to have completed?!?! The "Latest" folder is linking to the 181800 backup.
So I checked the logs and there I found that my backups were actually failing with similar "Failed to acquire device lock assertion" errors, but on a new set of files. Now it was complaining on
and
I guess if you don't have Xcode then you won't see these errors. So that would explain why my TM failed since 1/20.
Now, in the logs I see many errors, for each file in these folders, similar to the previous errors, but with some change:
So it does look like TM is still identifying the error but will now copy the file to the backup anyway AS IS so that the TM backup will not fail.
I can only assume that the cleanup in my case takes a long time because it's the first successful backup in 9 days and it has some 40 previous backups to clean up all the changed/deleted hard links and that can take some time as probably a lot has changed in 9 days. As least I hope so.
Also, my backup drive is Mac OS Extended and not APFS (because I still kept my last backup from my previous Intel-based MBP) - don't know if that changes anything in terms of speed.
There is an option to "Skip Cleaning Up" but since it's been working for so long now, I'll give it some more time since if it actually needs to do this cleanup, if I skip it now I will only defer it to the next backup.
Why I have a newer backup 181800 that seems to have completed and the 180945 is still in progress - I have no idea.
So I hope to have some good news of my own later on ...
On Friday I upgraded to Monterey 12.2 and since then and until now (Sunday morning) the TM backup that started on Friday afternoon is still cleaning up!
I checked my list of backups and saw a few weird things:
a) turns out I have no backups after 1/20
b) on 1/29 (Friday) I have a backup from 18:09:45 which is still in progress and then another one at 18:18:00 which looks to have completed?!?! The "Latest" folder is linking to the 181800 backup.
So I checked the logs and there I found that my backups were actually failing with similar "Failed to acquire device lock assertion" errors, but on a new set of files. Now it was complaining on
~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DocumentationCache/v207/13.2.1/DeveloperDocumentation.index/...and
~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DocumentationIndex/DeveloperDocumentation.index/...I guess if you don't have Xcode then you won't see these errors. So that would explain why my TM failed since 1/20.
Now, in the logs I see many errors, for each file in these folders, similar to the previous errors, but with some change:
Failed to acquire device lock assertion even though screen is unlocked - [B]proceeding with copy[/B] of '/Volumes/...So it does look like TM is still identifying the error but will now copy the file to the backup anyway AS IS so that the TM backup will not fail.
I can only assume that the cleanup in my case takes a long time because it's the first successful backup in 9 days and it has some 40 previous backups to clean up all the changed/deleted hard links and that can take some time as probably a lot has changed in 9 days. As least I hope so.
Also, my backup drive is Mac OS Extended and not APFS (because I still kept my last backup from my previous Intel-based MBP) - don't know if that changes anything in terms of speed.
There is an option to "Skip Cleaning Up" but since it's been working for so long now, I'll give it some more time since if it actually needs to do this cleanup, if I skip it now I will only defer it to the next backup.
Why I have a newer backup 181800 that seems to have completed and the 180945 is still in progress - I have no idea.
So I hope to have some good news of my own later on ...
Yeah it seems like doing exclusion works fine . First backup works perfectly on locked MacBook. I did make a LaunchDaemon thingy that runs every boot and everytime macOS mounts a partition. To add any findmy folders into the exclusion. Since it seems like right now there are only 3 different findmy folders but I remembered about 5 before I removed all of em.
So by doing this every findmy folders will be excluded
So by doing this every findmy folders will be excluded
Exactly. I’ve also found such entries in my log, and I’ve come to the same conclusion.
As to Xcode, I have excluded the Xcode app from the backup since long which speeds up Time Machine significantly. It shouldn’t be a problem to exclude the app, as it can be reinstalled any time if necessary.
@TriciaMacMillan : Do you have any thoughts on why these items are affecting mainly Apple Silicon users, and Intel users (like myself) have not experienced these things? Most of the repetitive reports have come from Apple Silicon Mac users (at least on this particular thread.)
That’s a most interesting question, but I guess we can make only assumptions. I imagine that it is due to some low level code that handles file attributes and/or access rights, and that has been implemented separately for Apple Silicon, perhaps because it is written in assembler.
But, as I said, just assumptions.
Well, it's still really strange because quite a few people didn't even know TM had an issue with Monterey until pointing them to this thread. Both Intel, and Silicon users. It seems like Apple has resolved it in 12.2. It's just strange how it hit a handful of people usually with the same, or similar problems, and on Silicon based Macs. The other odd thing is, it was usually related to FindMy. Now Apple has usually automatically excluded non essential system parts from the backup. I was thinking they probably should have added this to that list as well, since it doesn't seem to need to be backed up. The Data is stored in iCloud, and if the files are removed, the system recreates them automatically. Really strange. Maybe the cause will come out as we move forward with later releases of Monterey.
UPDATE: the cleanup finished about 15 minutes after I posted the message above.
The backup from 180945 disappeared and only the latest 181800 remained.
The next backup which started today at 11:20 was actually the first backup in 2 days because of the very long cleanup time. Its cleanup also took more than 3 hours.
But ever since, all hourly backups are short. I removed the exclusion of FindMy and Metadata and again all seems fine now.
So let's hope this issue is now behind us ...
Thanks to all for your help!
That’s true. I have configured two almost identical MacBook Pro 2021. I’ve had these problems on one of them, but the other never had any such issues. I wouldn’t know how I’ve set them up any different from each other.
I am now unable to make reliable Time Machine Backups on 2 M1 Macs and an Intel based IMAC when using OS12.2. On the intel mac the initial file was created successfully but my NAS drives are not being updated, only local snapshots are being stored. On my M1 Macs, I was only able to create the initial backup in Safemode but subsequent backups appear to only be local snapshots as well.
Does the log still show the errors? Mine is perfect now since i used my LaunchDaemon that automatically adds every findmy folders to the exception. I didn't just do it once because there are many findmy folders and sometimes it doesn't show and then it shows up. So by adding the exception every boot & everytime it mounts. I can be sure it always adds new unknown findmy folders to the exception
But yeah it's weird how not all people have this problem. I've had this since 12.0.1 and only on findmy folders
Yeah i agree with that. It is unacceptable from Apple not to fix so long. Time machine is crucial for me.
Be sure not to have it as your only backup solution. Don't assume when you need to do a restore that it will work.
For 256gb macbook i need something more? I don’t have crucial files on the mac. I have nas for that. But i hate if i try to restore the mac for some reason and time machine not work... Do you recommend something else?
The recommended 3-2-1 backup strategy involves:
1. 3 copies of your data
2. on 2 different media types
3. 1 stored in an off-site location, such as a bank vault
Note that this policy also applies to a NAS. A NAS configuration even with RAID is just another storage location.
In my case I have multiple TM backups (as I have experience TM failures in the past), local disk clones, CCC backups to hard drives, and backups to 2 cloud backup services - backblaze and Crashplan.
1. 3 copies of your data
2. on 2 different media types
3. 1 stored in an off-site location, such as a bank vault
Note that this policy also applies to a NAS. A NAS configuration even with RAID is just another storage location.
In my case I have multiple TM backups (as I have experience TM failures in the past), local disk clones, CCC backups to hard drives, and backups to 2 cloud backup services - backblaze and Crashplan.