Time Machine ("anti-virus software may be preventing Time Machine")

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Level 1

4 points

Time Machine ("anti-virus software may be preventing Time Machine")

When I try to start Time Machine, I get an error message that says, "Error occurred while starting the backup. anti-virus software may be preventing Time Machine from writing the backup." I haven't installed anti-virus software and this hasn't been a problem in the past.

I've seen some topics like this, but no helpful solution was found in answers, hence this topic.

I'm on MacBook Pro, 27 GhZ, intel Core i7, Sonoma 14.6.1

Trying to backup on external Segate 5TB. It used to work ok in the past (also this year).

How can I resolve this?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 14.6

Posted on Nov 27, 2025 5:42 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

bdrapella Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 27, 2025 8:22 AM in response to Barney-15E

nothing specific recently... but what I did is reformat the external drive, reinstalled it as Time Machine and that helped (backup in progress)... so case closed :). Hope it would help others. Thanks Barney for your time & eagerness to help.

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,042 points

Nov 27, 2025 6:05 AM in response to bdrapella

I haven't installed anti-virus software and this hasn't been a problem in the past.

What do you have installed? Maybe you have something else that acts in the same way.

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