Time Machine not functioning with High Sierra

I tried today to backup my Macbook Pro and when I connect the external hard drive i get an error every time I try to do a backup. The external harddrive is a WD My book 3 TB and i formated it to HFS file-format and the problem is because of the incompatibility with APFS. The Macbook is upgraded to the latest MacOs which is High Sierra Developer Beta 2. Has anyone encountered this problem?

Accepted Reply

Are you running MacOS 10.13 beta 2 version (17A291j) or

MacOS 10.13 beta 2 update 1 version (17A291m)


I’ve been backing up to TimeMachine but I’m running 17A291j I haven’t installed 17A291m yet, and there is a note in the release notes saying not to use TimeMachine.

If you’re using 17A291m then don’t worry about TimeMachine, it’s intentionally disabled according to the release notes.

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"Time Machine is disabled for macOS High Sierra 10.13 beta 2 update 1 (17A291m). Apple

recommends turning off Time Machine for APFS volumes on earlier versions of macOS

10.13 beta 2 as the space for snapshot files may not be freed correctly. (33006905)"

Yes, and this is currently the intended behavior as documented in the Release Notes.


At the moment, APFS is not compatible as format of the source volume for Time Machine either. This is planned to change later when the new snapshot feature of APFS will work stable enough.

Sorry to be a numpty but does this mean you cannot use timemachine to backup a APFS formatted machine? Is this why when `I try the HD on my MBPro is shown in the exclusion list?

You shouldn't have an issue backing up from your APFS on your MBP to your external HFS HDD.

What is the error message you’re getting?

I backup my MBP (APFS) to an external HFS formatted HDD using TimeMachine without a problem, it actually states in the release notes that the TM drive must be HFS for now.

My HD on my MBP is in the excluded list and greyed out so I cannot remove it (from the excluded list), as a consquence TimeMachine says the backup fails as there is nothing to backup!

Hmm,

Well that's strange for sure, the only thing I can think of is a corrupt TimeMachine preference file, you could try deleting it then restarting your Mac and opening TimeMachine again, are you comfortable doing that? It can be found at - Macintosh HD / Library / Preferences / com.apple.TimeMachine.plist


If you delete the plist make sure TimeMachine is off and TM external drives are disconnected before you do it.

OK thanks I will try this, I have deleted th...plist filke before but not with TM off and without a reboot so I will try that, thanks

Better check which version of beta 2 you're running as I've just read this, but I'm running 10.13 Beta 2 (17A291j) and haven't installed update 1 yet.


Release Notes for 10.13 update 1(17A291m)

Time Machine is disabled for macOS High Sierra 10.13 beta 2 update 1 (17A291m). Apple recommends turning off Time Machine for APFS volumes on earlier versions of macOS 10.13 beta 2 as the space for snapshot files may not be freed correctly. (33006905)

I'm getting an error that says that the backup can't be done. This happens all the time when I'm disconnecting and connecting back the external hard drive.

The error that i get is the following: "There are no discs to be backed up. This can occur if all available discs are listed on the "Do not backup" list. Click Options to edit the list." And my external hard drive is formated to HFS+J. That was the stock formating from when i bought the external hard drive. I used Google Translate for translating the text because my Mac is on swedish 😀

Are you running MacOS 10.13 beta 2 version (17A291j) or

MacOS 10.13 beta 2 update 1 version (17A291m)


I’ve been backing up to TimeMachine but I’m running 17A291j I haven’t installed 17A291m yet, and there is a note in the release notes saying not to use TimeMachine.

If you’re using 17A291m then don’t worry about TimeMachine, it’s intentionally disabled according to the release notes.

10.13-beta (17A291m) this is the macOS version that i am running. So i've read also the release notes and it specifies that the Time machine is disabled. All is clear thanks for the provided help! 🙂

well i note the responses, but to clarify I have reinstalled the 10.13 beta any the same occurs, I tuned off TM,ndeleleted the timemachine.plist file, trebooted, reiinstaleed the beta and my HD is still in the excluded list and is still greyed out so no backup is possible.

Same problem here. All my backup drives are set to Exclude and grayed out. I can't set any drives to back up...

As noted several times in this thread: This is the intended behavior if the source drives are using APFS.


To clarify this once more:


1. You cannot use APFS for the Time Machine destination disk. This has never been planned and it is normal that this won't work.

2. With Developer Beta 1 and Developer Beta 2, you can use APFS volumes as backup source with Time Machine. This should work according to documentation, but in practice there is a serious bug in the new snapshot feature. In the worst case, the source disk will run out of space which could also cause complete data loss.

3. With Developer Beta 2 Update 1 and Public Beta 1, you cannot use APFS volumes as backup sources with Time Machine, because Apple has intentionally blocked this to avoid the possible data loss mentioned in item (2).