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Since update to MacOS 15.0.1 Time Machine backups do not work

My Time Machine backups were working fine until I updated to 15.0.1. Now I constantly get:



The NAS is working fine. I have restarted my Mac and restarted the NAS. Just stopped working after upgrade to 15.0.1.

Mac Studio (2023)

Posted on Oct 5, 2024 1:33 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 6, 2024 3:29 PM

So here's more information from my side.


I use TimeMachine as a convenience, not my only backup option. I've been to this rodeo before with Apple and TimeMachine.


My system wasn't failing to connect to the Synology or the backup data. Everything connected fine. The backup access was long enough to copy 6.5 MB then failed.


After forgetting the target disk and reconnecting it, the OS properly recognized that a prior backup existed, then asked if I wanted to delete the backup history, which sounded like it was different than the actual backup itself. I thought it was just going to delete all the indexes to the backup data and that during the backup process those indexes would be recreated. My Bad.


While fiddling with it a bit more I was watching connections to the Synology.


The Backup starts, creating one SMB3 connection to the Synology.

Then about 5 minutes in, while the TimeMachine application in Settings is still doing the "Cylon bar" & Preparing the backup. There's another SMB3 Connection made to the Synology.


About 90 seconds or so after that, the newer connection is closed.


A few minutes after that, TimeMachine reports that the connection to the backup disc was lost and that the backup failed.


I'll let Apple worry about it. I've spent way too much time over the years being an unpaid Software Quality Assurance person for them. I am a career SQA guy so I'm a bit mercenary about it.


I reported it so that other people who might rely on TimeMachine didn't lose their minds, or their data, trying to fix a problem Apple introduced with 15.0.1


Apple broke it, it's their backup system, it's their OS, they can diagnose and fix it.

23 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 6, 2024 3:29 PM in response to endelight

So here's more information from my side.


I use TimeMachine as a convenience, not my only backup option. I've been to this rodeo before with Apple and TimeMachine.


My system wasn't failing to connect to the Synology or the backup data. Everything connected fine. The backup access was long enough to copy 6.5 MB then failed.


After forgetting the target disk and reconnecting it, the OS properly recognized that a prior backup existed, then asked if I wanted to delete the backup history, which sounded like it was different than the actual backup itself. I thought it was just going to delete all the indexes to the backup data and that during the backup process those indexes would be recreated. My Bad.


While fiddling with it a bit more I was watching connections to the Synology.


The Backup starts, creating one SMB3 connection to the Synology.

Then about 5 minutes in, while the TimeMachine application in Settings is still doing the "Cylon bar" & Preparing the backup. There's another SMB3 Connection made to the Synology.


About 90 seconds or so after that, the newer connection is closed.


A few minutes after that, TimeMachine reports that the connection to the backup disc was lost and that the backup failed.


I'll let Apple worry about it. I've spent way too much time over the years being an unpaid Software Quality Assurance person for them. I am a career SQA guy so I'm a bit mercenary about it.


I reported it so that other people who might rely on TimeMachine didn't lose their minds, or their data, trying to fix a problem Apple introduced with 15.0.1


Apple broke it, it's their backup system, it's their OS, they can diagnose and fix it.

Oct 6, 2024 10:28 AM in response to endelight

I'm having the same sort of problem. Verification of the backup also fails with the same message.


I get the following message using a Synology NAS.



For me, the backup fails at 6.5MB every time. That's what led me to trying a backup verification.


The NAS itself is functioning just fine.


Looks like Apple broke something. If you haven't updated to 15.0.1 you might want to hold off a bit.


Mackbook Pro M2 2023

Oct 26, 2024 7:23 AM in response to Steve Davidson

This is really good news, but I since I am seeing more such issues related to broken connections, I hope Apple will not set a focus on TM but on the general underlaying problem.

for example I was using a remote session to an lab environment with Chrome and the connection was broken in random intervals! After a while I remember weed the TM issue and turned the local firewall off. After this change I did not face any connection related issues anymore.


Oct 11, 2024 12:54 PM in response to endelight

Same issue here, usually making backups with TimeMachine to a Synology shared NVMe USB-C Drive without any problem. After upgrading to Sequoia 15.0.1 Final Release, TimeMachine crashes randomly seeing also High CPU utilization few seconds before. We have this enormous issue + Calendar Widget Language issue. This is the quality expected on a Final release?

Oct 19, 2024 7:02 AM in response to RedLighthouse

I wish I found this thread a two weeks ago, but I have some good news. After struggling with this for days, I contacted Apple. After days of back-and-forth calls with them, my third Advisor confirmed that in macOS 15.0.1 they introduced a bug in the Firewall feature, that they are working on a fix (hopefully a soon-to-be released 15.0.2), and there is no setting that we can make to create a firewall pinhole (which I asked for).


In the meantime the recommended work-around is to set Time Machine backups to be manual (not hourly or daily), to turn off the Firewall when ready to do a TM backup, manually kick it off, and (when it is done) to turn the Firewall back on. Effectively, we have to "lower shields to use the Transporter" (Trek fans will recognize the analogy). It sucks, but at least it gets the job (sort of) done.


I would recommend, before you run your next TM backup, you "lower shields" (Firewall) and option-click on the TM Menu Bar icon to run a Verify process to be sure that this problem hasn't corrupted your TM backup. After this happened (on October 3), my TM back up was corrupted and I had to start over (twice or three times during the debugging process).


[Edited by Moderator]

Nov 22, 2024 6:42 PM in response to Bill_Halberstadt

Thank you. At least they didn't break it further from 15.0.1 vs. 15.1.1.


No one at Apple has apparently tested it because they could not answer the question you have answered for me. I will consider doing the upgrade and continue to use the workaround of the Firewall down. Apparently, the one with reindexing does not work any more with 15.1.1.


Best regards,


M

Oct 6, 2024 1:14 PM in response to DL

@DL: your case seems to be a bit different than mine. But I found a solution and Time Machine backups are now working. I had to remove my Time Machine target in the System Settings and had reset the broadcast setting on the NAS:



After that Time Machine found the Time Machine target and I could re-attach to the backup and continue.

Since update to MacOS 15.0.1 Time Machine backups do not work

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