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Time Machine back

When I enter the Time Machine, it would appear that my MacBook Air using Sierra 10.12 is backing up quite frequently throughout the day.

But when I click on the Time Machine icon on the top bar of my machine it says (a) that the last back-up was on 11th February whereas today is 17th, and (b) when I click on Back Up Now, it returns this rather worrying message:

Time Machine completed a verification of your backups on “XYZ’s Wi-Fi Network”. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.

Click Start New Backup to create a new backup. This will remove your existing backup history. This could take several hours.

Click Back Up Later to be reminded tomorrow. Time Machine won’t perform backups during this time.

I'd be grateful if someone could explain what on earth is going on.

Many thanks.

G (a very anti-Sierra user!!)

What on earth is going on is that your existing Time Machine backups are corrupted.

Click Start New Backup to have Time Machine erase the existing  backup file and start a new backup all over again.

Hopefully, the alarming message that you see now won't appear again in the near future. But....it will appear....the only question is when.......not if.

Time Machine will operate much more reliably if you back up your Mac to a USB drive that is connected directly to your Mac, so you might want to consider that as another option in addition to your normal backups.

Thanks very much Bob.

But are you 100% sure that the existing Time Machine backups are corrupted?  That sounds quite a severe explanation and a little strange to me because three other computers (an iMac and two other MacBook Airs) continue to successfully backup to the same Apple 3GB Time Capsule.

Another key point which I omitted to mention and which could be important in explaining the message is that the MacBook Air experiencing the problem is brand new, replacing my wife's 6-year old MacBook.  I used the rather crude Migration Assistant in order to ensure that her new machine pretty much resembled her old one (she's quite a technophobe!).  AppleCare Support told me that the new machine should continue to back up normally without me having to do anything, which appeared to be correct - Time Machine certainly shows my wife's files going back to 2014.

I think your suggestion of also backing up directly to what you call a USB drive (which I assume is the same as an external HDD) is a good one.  I do that periodically for my iMac and keep that device in a separate building on the grounds that, were my house to burn to the ground, all my computers and the Time Capsules would go with it, rendering the back-ups pretty useless!!

I want to make 100% sure before selecting the option you mention because the prospect of Time Machine erasing all the back-ups does seem a little draconian!!

Any further insights before selecting that option will be gratefully received!

Cheers

G.

But are you 100% sure that the existing Time Machine backups are corrupted?

The message that you see will not appear unless the backups are corrupted. You can confirm that the backup file is damaged by holding down the option key on your Mac while clicking on the Time Machine "clock" icon at the top of the Mac's screen. Then click on Verify Backups.

The process will take 15-60 minutes depending on how much data is on the Mac.

The point here is that you will not be able to back up the Mac again until you click to Start New Backup, and that process will begin by first erasing the old corrupted backup file.

Unfortunately, Macs that are running the Sierra operating system seem to be much more likely to experience the corruption issues. That does not mean to imply at all Sierra users are experiencing problems though.

Since the Mac is new, you might also want to contact Apple Support to confirm and verify that the information we have provided is correct.

Thanks Bob.

I've just spent an hour on the phone with  a senior guy in Apple Support and can confirm that, as I suspected, the files weren't corrupted.

The new machine was running on Sierra 10.12 but the latest ver is 10.12.3.

Also, as it was a brand new machine, in the end we merely needed to establish a connection between this new MacBook Air and the Time Capsule, download the latest version of Sierra and once it restarted, it automatically started its first lengthy back-up.

I'm assured that frightening message won't reappear!

Thanks again Bob.

G.

Unfortunately, if you are running Sierra on your Mac that alarming message will appear again. The only question is "when", not "if".  This is a major issue with Sierra that is attracting the attention of major publications. For example, see the link below for more info:

https://www.macworld.com/article/3170844/macs/when-backups-go-bad-the-problem-wit h-using-network-drives-with-time-machine…

Apple has not yet provided a fix for this issue, but we can hope.

I would recommend that you add a USB drive and connect it directly to your Mac and use that for Time Machine in addition to the Time Capsule. Next time, you may not be so lucky.

I am backing up to a Time Capsule, and have just started to get the same error-

iMac 2017, Mac OS 10.12.6, latest Time Capsule 3GB

Just got a new RAM module installed because the last one failed- since I got it back, it has thrown up this message overtime I try to back up to my Time Capsule.

Weirdly, I can enter access my Time Machine backups through the timeline - but it just won't back up anymore.

I also use the same Time Capsule to back up my MacBook Pro- and have had no issues with that machine.

AppleCare was unable to help, and advised me to delete my existing backup, and start a new one- but my Time Capsule holds valuable past versions of academic papers, so I would take hours to pull them out first.....

Anyone having same issue??

最後更新：2017-10-05 09:42:48

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