macos 10.15.6 breaks Time Machine backups

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Level 1

9 points

macos 10.15.6 breaks Time Machine backups

I recently installed the macos catalina 10.15.6 update on my iMac. Since then, Time Machine cannot backup to my NAS, and produces the error "Time Machine could not create a local snapshot to back up from."

I also tried adding a new local drive thinking it may be a Time Machine issue backing up to NAS. When attempting a backup to the new local hard drive, Time Machine produces the same error, "Time Machine could not create a local snapshot to back up from."

Plenty of free space on my Mac hard drive, and even tried the sudo tmutil listlocalsnapshots / and then sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots and then tried running Time Machine backup again and still same error.

I contacted Apple Support and they said they are aware of the issue and it's been reported by numerous users. So in the interim, I have no way to perform a Time Machine backup while Apple figures out the fix.

I also have a MacBook Pro with macos mojave 10.14.6 and Time Machine backups are not an issue and work fine.

Posted on Aug 19, 2020 7:43 AM

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Answer 1

jjpeterson15 Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 20, 2020 7:26 AM in response to DavidWWE

DavidWWE,

Apple is supposedly working on a fix. You can restore your mac prior to the 10.15.6 update by booting to a flash drive and restoring from time machine, but then you'll lose any data saved on your mac since then. Mine was 3 weeks ago, so not worth it to me to lose everything I've saved since then. Granted, I could probably figure out which important documents, etc. have been modified/saved by a search and date modified with a simple search, but I'd rather wait for a solution from Apple. Hopefully that comes soon in the next macOS update.

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Answer 2

jjpeterson15 Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 19, 2020 11:57 AM in response to John Galt

While that may be true, I still cannot run a time machine backup with a brand new loacal USB hard drive. Produces the same error.

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Answer 3

DavidWWE

Level 1

4 points

Aug 20, 2020 5:16 AM in response to jjpeterson15

Catalina 10.15.6 has broken my Time Machine app backup. Keep getting "Could not create a local snapshot..." message. Really frustrating. Worse, Apple offers no help. No explanation. Any advice?

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