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My time capsule no longer backing up under Catalina 10.15.6

since upgrading to 10.15.6 by Airport Time Capsule Time Machine backups have stopped. (mine is a tall tower variant Serial No C0PNJ*******)


My Airport Time Capsule has been backing up daily since 2015 (if required) and while it is almost full, just 172Gb of 3TB available.

Yet under "Open time machine preferences" then "options" it estimates now a full backup is 1.02TB, yet if I exclude the users directory 860GB, that message does not drop, and an attempt to backup appears to fail after about 50Gb.


I was under the impression it automatically deleted backups, which it must as it Time machine reports oldest backup is 26th May 2018, yet does it delete enough space to generate the new required size ?


It might be coincidence by this all happened when I moved to Catalina OS 10.15.6, but was ok in previous version of Catalina.


Just switched over to another external drive for Time Machine and it is backing up, so how do I release some of the older backups on the time capsule if OS is now unable to do this ?


thanks

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Aug 12, 2020 3:55 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 12, 2020 5:47 PM

It might be coincidence by this all happened when I moved to Catalina OS 10.15.6, but was ok in previous version of Catalina.


More likely you were just lucky to get away with it that long.. 10.15.5 is when lots of new people got added to the lists.


Catalina has determined it needs to create a whole new backup. The why is very obscure.. but now that it has happened you really need to figure out how to move forward which is not easy.


I was under the impression it automatically deleted backups, which it must as it Time machine reports oldest backup is 26th May 2018, yet does it delete enough space to generate the new required size ?


That works as long as you never upgrade or install large patches. In fact for ages now the issue is Time Machine cannot figure out what to delete to reduce the size of the backup because it does not have enough details on which files are essential and which are not.

Failed backups also create havoc. The fact that you attempted to backup by excluding the user files just leads to making the old backup less usable.


how do I release some of the older backups on the time capsule if OS is now unable to do this ?


Attempts to do this yourself are specularly unsuccessful. Don't bother.

You need to wipe the existing backup/s and start over.


If you wish to retain the history you can archive the existing backups. Airport Utility disk tab offers archive.. so plug a standard Mac formatted USB drive 3TB or larger, into the TC and archive.. it will take 1-2days.

Then you can start over.


Or just shrug.. consider that old backups for a working computer.. to which you are doing the right thing by creating a new backup will be unlikely to help in the future.. just do a quick erase of the drive and start over.

However Catalina is having issues backing up to network drives.. especially the Apple Time Capsule.. which is now out of date since Apple moved protocols for network to SMB3. TC only ever supported SMB1 which is now a security risk and deprecated across all OS.


We are strongly recommending people use Carbon Copy Cloner or equivalent 3rd party app for now.. big sur might finally invest in updates to Time Machine.


My Airport Time Capsule has been backing up daily since 2015


On a more general note.. 5 years on a TC is pretty well its economic lifespan. Hard disks do not last forever and the risk of total failure is increasing daily. You may like to consider moving to other ways of backing up.

Apple got out of the business. For now the best, cheapest and most reliable solution is a USB drive plugged directly to the computer as you are doing.

For networks a NAS.. synology for example is best.. but they are expensive.

Similar questions

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 12, 2020 5:47 PM in response to goslings

It might be coincidence by this all happened when I moved to Catalina OS 10.15.6, but was ok in previous version of Catalina.


More likely you were just lucky to get away with it that long.. 10.15.5 is when lots of new people got added to the lists.


Catalina has determined it needs to create a whole new backup. The why is very obscure.. but now that it has happened you really need to figure out how to move forward which is not easy.


I was under the impression it automatically deleted backups, which it must as it Time machine reports oldest backup is 26th May 2018, yet does it delete enough space to generate the new required size ?


That works as long as you never upgrade or install large patches. In fact for ages now the issue is Time Machine cannot figure out what to delete to reduce the size of the backup because it does not have enough details on which files are essential and which are not.

Failed backups also create havoc. The fact that you attempted to backup by excluding the user files just leads to making the old backup less usable.


how do I release some of the older backups on the time capsule if OS is now unable to do this ?


Attempts to do this yourself are specularly unsuccessful. Don't bother.

You need to wipe the existing backup/s and start over.


If you wish to retain the history you can archive the existing backups. Airport Utility disk tab offers archive.. so plug a standard Mac formatted USB drive 3TB or larger, into the TC and archive.. it will take 1-2days.

Then you can start over.


Or just shrug.. consider that old backups for a working computer.. to which you are doing the right thing by creating a new backup will be unlikely to help in the future.. just do a quick erase of the drive and start over.

However Catalina is having issues backing up to network drives.. especially the Apple Time Capsule.. which is now out of date since Apple moved protocols for network to SMB3. TC only ever supported SMB1 which is now a security risk and deprecated across all OS.


We are strongly recommending people use Carbon Copy Cloner or equivalent 3rd party app for now.. big sur might finally invest in updates to Time Machine.


My Airport Time Capsule has been backing up daily since 2015


On a more general note.. 5 years on a TC is pretty well its economic lifespan. Hard disks do not last forever and the risk of total failure is increasing daily. You may like to consider moving to other ways of backing up.

Apple got out of the business. For now the best, cheapest and most reliable solution is a USB drive plugged directly to the computer as you are doing.

For networks a NAS.. synology for example is best.. but they are expensive.

Aug 25, 2020 3:41 AM in response to LaPastenague

Hello again

When I look at the copied external USB I don not see a finder type of backup, which I do on the TC when in finder.


I've decided to reformat the archive disk and try again, but beforehand ....


Out of interest rather than use the archive disk utility in airport utility what is to stop me just copying off a "selective: structure of the TM.

Say just all those dated 2019 & 2020 and the "Latest" directory, is there anything else maybe hidden I need to copy?

and give it the same structure

Backkup.backupdb

- Ian's iMac

- 2019-01-29-021238

- others ect.

thanks for your help.


Aug 19, 2020 3:44 AM in response to goslings

Performed a archive copy of the TC to external USB, sizes are the same, but the USB version only loads up a NOW backup and all previous dates are not there, but there are on the TC ?


You need to leave it running in Time Machine for spotlight to reindex the backup.. might take an hour or more.. if the backup is large.. then a long time.

If the sizes are the same then all the files are indeed there.

At the last resort you can access them manually via Finder.. not recommended but possible.


Aug 24, 2020 4:16 PM in response to LaPastenague

I left it running overnight, spotlight was not running.

Still 9 hours later there is only two red bars on the right in TM

Dated with the day the TC archive finished and one day later for the single additional backup I made.

The size was the same as TC, so data is there but there is no way of being able to get to it.


Still might wipe the new external drive and archive the TM once more, just in case.

Aug 25, 2020 8:11 AM in response to goslings

I've just looked more closely at the graphic I posted above.

The Airport Time Capsule is on the network and there is just one other external USB attached (TC-Copy) which has been formatted.

And yet there is a "Time Machine Backup" ???? from 2018-05-26 to 2020-08-13

I am rather confused,

Could I not copy this to the external USB for safe keeping ? and then wipe the TM


Aug 25, 2020 3:10 PM in response to goslings

Say just all those dated 2019 & 2020 and the "Latest" directory, is there anything else maybe hidden I need to copy?

and give it the same structure

Backkup.backupdb

- Ian's iMac

- 2019-01-29-021238

- others ect.


You cannot just snip off bits of the backup. The end result is that it won't function. You might still be able to dig out files but truly not worth the effort.

Also you will have issues doing it.. I have tried and it keeps giving format errors, even when the disk is correctly formatted.


Not sure what you gain doing this. Yes it will use less space but it will only be required until you build up a few months worth of backup anyway. Then you can wipe it and go back to using your normal backup.


And yet there is a "Time Machine Backup" ???? from 2018-05-26 to 2020-08-13

I am rather confused,

Could I not copy this to the external USB for safe keeping ? and then wipe the TM


You are looking inside the backup.


On the TC a backup is stored in a sparsebundle. This is a virtual disk. When you mount the sparsebundle it opens and shows the contents as a second mounted disk.. Time Machine Backups.. i.e. you have the TC disk and separately the virtual disk but they are both the same thing.


You can attempt to backup the main backups.backupdb to your USB drive directly. I think you will run into problems. Just as mentioned above it will not allow you to copy it.

I will have a go and see if you can get around the copy protection.. but I doubt it.


My time capsule no longer backing up under Catalina 10.15.6

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