Time machine missing backups

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Level 1

8 points

Time machine missing backups

I have a 2017 MacBook running High Sierra 10.13.6. My Time Machine is a 3 TB time Capsule version 7.7.9. A few weeks ago I had issues backing up to the TC. My backups previously went back to 2016. Due to the issues accessing the backups and receiving messages along the lines of "preparing for 1st backup". I decided to make a clean start. So two weeks ago I deleted my sparse bundle, leaving my SO's backup alone. I verified that a new backup was created and all was well. This morning, I saw that my time machine was again " preparing for 1st backup". Entering time machine shows backups only to the previous day. Running "tmutil listbackups" outputs "No backups found for host." The sparsebundle associated with my MacBook is over 600gb and was created July 17th, 2018, which is really strange because my HD is only 250GB and has over 30 GB free.

I attempted to Verify backups, No issues were found, I attempted the "inheritbackup" command, still missing previous backups.

I have run 1st aid on my hard drive and the TC disk, all is well. I have changed the placement of the time capsule and airport express and removed the airport express from my set up. The issue persists.

MacBook, macOS High Sierra (10.13.6)

Posted on Aug 2, 2018 5:10 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Tesserax

Level 10

148,811 points

Aug 5, 2018 6:59 AM in response to butlerchr

Since macOS Sierra, we see numerous posts here about issues with Time Machine backups to the Time Capsule.

Here are some things you can try:

Check your Mac first:
- Remove or disable any anti-virus programs that it may be running.
- Verify that it does not have any adware or malware present. I would suggest that you consider using Malwarebytes for Mac if you currently aren't already doing so.
- Configure your Mac's network configuration to use, as a minimum: IPv6 Link-local only
  - System Preferences > Network > Ethernet OR Wi-Fi > Advanced > TCP/IP > Configure IPv6: Link-local only
  - Note: This should not be performed if your ISP is providing you with a full implementation of IPv6. In that case, use the IPv6 settings recommended by your ISP.
For the TC:
- Use a fixed local IP address for the TC.
- Use WPA2 Personal for the wireless security type.
For both the base station name AND the wireless security password, use between 8-16 characters that do not include spaces or special characters in the name to begin with. If successful, you can increase the security by adding special characters to the mix.

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Answer 2

butlerchr Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 5, 2018 5:00 AM in response to Tesserax

Thank you for the suggestions. I removed my AV, and ran Malwarebytes. No Malware was detected. I followed your suggestions for the network changes. The TC was already set up as suggested.

I was still having issues, so I re-ran "verify disks" and "new backup" was suggested, so I'm starting over from scratch. I hope this resolved the root issue. I'll keep an eye on it for the next few days.

Hopefully, Time Machine is more stable in Mojave.

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Answer 3

Aug 5, 2018 6:26 AM in response to butlerchr

If you are looking for reliability with Time Machine, my advice would be to use a hard drive that is connected directly to your Mac using USB......in addition to the Time Capsule.

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Time machine missing backups

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