Time Machine won't work with external HD

[SoCalResident]

I have a new MacBook Pro running OS X High Sierra 10.13.6. I've hooked up a Time Machine external 5 TB hard drive. It's been backing up the Macintosh HD (why do they call it a HD when it's a SSD?) but does not back up a LaCie 5 TB external hard drive. I can tell that by the Time Machine message: "Backing up: x.xx GB of 32.03 GB" and my LaCie has 2.9 TB of data in it. Also the Time Machine disk info lists "Used: 356,321,083,392 bytes (356.32 GB on disk)" which is the contents of my Macintosh HD.

Both the LaCie 5 TB and the USB External Volume that I'm using for Time Machine are Mac OS Extended (Journaled) formatted. The LaCie is a Thunderbolt HD direct to the MacBook Pro while the Time Machine HD is a standard USB to eSATA running through a OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock. Not sure if that has anything to do with the problem.

In Time Machine Preferences > Options the LaCie drive is listed for me to exclude it from the backup so Time Machine does "see" the LaCie. It is also listed in the Disk Utility application.

One thing I did notice is that the LaCie is not listed in the Finder Sidebar while the Time Machine HD is. To eject the LaCie I need to go to the MacBook Pro desktop and right-click on it. Not sure why.

Thanks for any help.

 

[CoastalOR]

Can you try connecting the LaCie 5 TB directly to the new MBP to see if that works? My first impression is to suspect the OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock and to try to eliminate that from the setup as a test.

 

[SoCalResident]

Can you try connecting the LaCie 5 TB directly to the new MBP to see if that works? My first impression is to suspect the OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock and to try to eliminate that from the setup as a test.

Good idea!

I just connected the Time Machine HD via a USB to USB-C adapter directly to the MacBook Pro. Selected "Back Up Now" in Time Machine, same result.

I've had the LaCie HD hooked directly to the MBP all along.

~Paul

 

[SoCalResident]

Not sure what the problem was but doing an Exclude / Add about three times seemed to make a difference. Works as expected now.