- Time Machine Couldn't Complete The Backup To My Passport For Mac
- Time Machine Couldn't Complete The Backup To My Passport For Mac Windows 7
- Time Machine Couldn't Complete The Backup To My Passport For Mac Pc
Alternatively, go to Apple Menu System Preferences Time Machine. Click Back Up Now. Your Time Machine backup should carry on as usual. You’ll still see “Preparing Backup,” but it should resolve itself momentarily. Of course, keep the advice above in mind as far as the time frame. Patience is a virtue, particularly in this case. Back up failed Time Machine couldn’t back up to “My Passport for Mac” Jonty.S June 5, 2020, 4:26pm.
The last thing you want as you’re happily editing that spreadsheet
Or ordering that pair of running shoes on-line.
Or showing your best friend that crazy holiday photo.
Is to get that fateful notice. The one that says you’ve a fatal error on your Mac’s internal drive.
And now you can’t access your Mac or your files.
Worried this could happen to you?
Your Mac might need a repair. Or you need to reinstall everything.
You can get both those things done. And get back all the stuff you have on your Mac.
Easily. As long as you have a backup.
Your recent Time Machine backup to an external drive means ….
If the worst happens to your Mac you can get all your files back. And be up and running pronto.
Because you’ve kept your files safe.
Learn How to Use Time Machine To Backup To Your External Drive
Before you start there are a few things to check on the external drive you’re using for your Time Machine backup.
Is it formatted in a way that Time Machine understands?
Don’t know how to check? Quickly read this document ‘ How To Check Format Of External Hard Drive On Mac‘ on the site.
Time Machine will only backup to an external drive if it’s formatted as HFS+.
You’ll see that your Mac calls this format Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system.
And depending on the external drive you have you may need to format it first.
You can Learn how here.
Take 5 minutes to do that and head back here afterwards.
All set?
Good.
Now plug in your external backup drive and get yourself ready to backup with Time Machine.
Find Here The 7 Steps To Backup To Your External Drive With Time Machine
And setting up Time Machine for your external drive.
1. Start Up The Time Machine Software On Your Mac.
The easiest way to do this is to do a spotlight search. Click on the spotlight search icon at the top of your Mac’s desktop screen.
Type in the words ‘system preferences’.
That searches your Mac for the system preferences program. And on that screen you’ll see what you’re looking for – Time Machine.
2. Click On Time Machine.
Click on the Time Machine icon in System Preferences and your Mac’s Time Machine software starts up.
Now you’ll see your first Time Machine window.
On the left hand side of the screen under the Time Machine icon you’ll see a check box. Check this box to choose to backup to your external drive whenever you plug your drive in.
On the bottom of your Time Machine window you’ll see another check box. This check box shows Time machine icon at the top of your Mac’s desktop, in your menu bar. It’s useful to put a check in this box.
You’ll find this useful if you want to check on how your backup is going.
Now, click the button on the darker right hand side of the screen ‘Select Backup Disk…’
3. Time Machine Select Backup Disk Window.
In this popup window you’ll find all the external drives physically plugged into your Mac. Plus the option to search for an Airport Time Capsule. But that’s a whole different story.
Pick on the name of your external drive. The drive you want Time Machine to backup to.
Look at the picture below
You’ll see the drive I’m using is called SamsungT7.
Yours will be called whatever you named it when you formatted it.
Click to picked your external backup drive for Time Machine. And you’ll see it highlighted in the list.
Then decide if you want to encrypt your backup.
There’s a check box at the bottom of this Time Machine pop up window.
If you decide to encrypt your backups. Then you’ll next see a prompt to put in a password.
Take care of this password. Record it somewhere safe. You’ll need it to get to your backup. And if you forget this password you’ve lost your backup.
4. Click ‘Use Disk’
And your Mac will now use your external drive to back up to.
You’ll notice some useful information just under your external drive’s name.
The size of your Time Machine backup external drive.
The oldest backup.
And the latest Backup.
And when your Mac is due to take the next backup.
And you find out here what Time machine keeps.
Time Machine keeps local snapshots when you have space.
It will take a backup each hour for the last 24 hours. Assuming your backup drive is connected and available.
Time Machine will keep a daily backup for a month.
And weekly backup until your backup drive runs out of space.
Then Time Machine deletes your oldest backup. This creates space on your external drive to make way for the latest backups.
It’s worth knowing something. That your Time Machine backup to your external drive is incremental forever.
What does that mean?
Time machine backs up your changes. And when you’re ready to restore it recreates your Mac back to the time in point you’ve chosen from the backup.
5. Click On The ‘Options’ Button.
You won’t always need to do this but it’s worth knowing what’s there.
This Time Machine window allows you to exclude folders from your external drive’s backup.
You can click on the plus sign and add the folders you want to exclude.
Or check the box to exclude your Mac’s system files and your applications.
If you make no changes here then Time Machine will back up everything on your internal drive.
You’ll also see ready checked the box ‘Back up while on battery power’. This means that you’ll need to have your Mac plugged into external power to do your backup.
This is a good thing as the last thing you want is for your Mac to run out of battery power part way through your backup. Ruining your backup.
Click on the ‘Save’ button if you’ve made any changes or ‘Cancel’ if not.
6. Hurray You’ve Set Up Your Time Machine Backup To Your External Drive.
Your first Time Machine backup could take some time depending on how much you have to backup. And how fast your external backup drive is.
Backup’s after that will be much quicker. As only changes since the last backup will be backed up.
7. How To Check On The Progress Of Your Time Machine Backup.
When you checked the box to show the Time Machine at the top of your desktop this is how you use it.
Click on the Time Machine icon.
You’ll then see what Time Machine has already backed up to your external drive. And what is left to backup.
You can also click on this icon to find out when your backup is finished.
There are a couple of other ways.
Your drive icon on your desktop may turn green (depending on the version of Mac OS you’re running).
You may get a message telling you your Backup is Complete.
Remember To Eject When Your Backup Is Done
Your Mac holds all sorts of information in its memory while your drive is connected and backing up.
And it’s important that you plug out your external drive the right way so you won’t ruin your backup.
Right click on your drive’s Icon on your desktop. And pick Eject.
That way your Mac will write all that it needs from its memory to your external drive. When your external drive icon disappears from your desktop. And any activity light on your on your external drive goes out. Or keeps steady or whatever is appropriate for your external drive.
Then you can plug out your USB cable. And put your external drive safely away till the next time you want to backup.
Doing Your Next Time Machine Backup To Your External Drive
When you’re ready to do your next backup. Your Mac will remember the external drive you’ve chosen.
Plug it in. Plug in your Mac to external power. And that’s all you have to do.
Click on the Time Machine icon at the top of your desktop to check on the progress of your backup.
Be sure to Eject your drive properly when your backup is done.
To Backup An External Drive To An External Drive With Time Machine
Is easy to set up.
First have both drives plugged into your Mac.
They both should show up on your desktop. Though they may not show side to side like in the photo above.
If your Mac has only two USB C ports then you’ll need something to help.
A USB C Hub Like The Satechi Aluminum Multiport Adaptor. Check The Write Up Here.
A USB hub allows you to plug your Mac into power and plug in more USB drives.
You can read an article on this site about it at the link above.
When you’ve both external drives connected to your Mac. Then walk your way through steps 1 through 4 above to pick the one you’re going to use as your backup drive.
At step 5 click on the ‘Options’ button.
Now you need to understand that your Mac automatically excludes external drives from your Time Machine backup. And that means you’re going to have to change that.
When your second external drive is plugged in on the Time Machine options popup you’ll see your second external drive. The one you want backed up.
You’ll see in the photo the greyed out Samsung T7 drive (the one I am backing up to).
And the arrow in the photo shows a Seagate Desktop drive (the one I want to backup with Time Machine).
Now click on the drive you want Time Machine to backup.
Then click on the minus sign and take your second external drive off the excluded list. And then it’ll be included in the backup.
Yes, I know, it’s a little hard to wrap your head around it.
But your second drive was on the list of things excluded from your backup. Click on the drive and click minus. And now it’s included in the backup.
Now Time Machine will back up everything. Your Macs internal drives and the second external drive.
Or
If you ONLY want the files of your external drive backed up by Time Machine. Then you’ll need to exclude the contents of your Mac.
On the options screen as well as clicking minus to take your external drive off the list.
You also click plus to include your Mac’s internal files on the excluded list.
By starting at the top level /.
Then you’ll be doing an external drive to drive backup using Time Machine.
When you’ve finished your changes click ‘Save’
Once set up your Mac will remember what you’ve set up. And the next time those drives are plugged in for backup It’ll be how you set it up.
At any time you can go into the Time Machine option screen and change it.
Related Articles
Time Machine is an important backup utility offered by Apple. Using it, Mac users can take a timely backup of their important files on a PC or a preferred location like an external drive. But sometimes it fails to function and shows error messages like Time Machine not backing up data or getting stuck at preparing backup.
This complicates things. So, if you too are facing this problem in this article, we will talk about ways to resolve it.
Before we move ahead with a detailed explanation, here are some quick troubleshooting fixes.
Quick Ways to Fix Time Machine Backup Failed
- Mac software should be updated.
- Whenever you face Time Machine restore or backup failed error try restarting Mac.
- If you use Airport Time Capsule update firmware.
- Mac should be connected to the same network as the backup drive.
- The connected drive should be switched on.
- When taking backup in third party external drive, make sure the firmware is up to date.
- The external drive should have enough space to store the backup.
- Before backing up data using Time Machine, you should clean all junk and redundant data. For this, you can try using TuneUpMyMac. It is the best Mac optimization and cleaning utility that cleans all unwanted data in no time.
Now, let’s learn how to fix Time Machine Backup Fails Repeatedly.
How to Fix a Time Machine Backup Failed?
Unfortunately, several Mac users, after updating their Mac, face Time Machine backup failed error. If you are one of those unlucky users, here are some troubleshooting tips to fix the problem.
1. Check External hard drive’s file system.
If your external drive doesn’t have enough storage space or is formatted wrongly, you might face Time Backup error. Therefore, you need to make sure the external drive you are using has a native macOS format. The FAT or NTFS file system doesn’t work with Time Machine.
Besides, if the external hard drive is in APFS macOS format then also it won’t work with Time Machine backup.
To check the format of the drive you are using, follow the steps explained below:
1. Attach the external drive to your Mac.
2. Now, launch Finder.
3. Here, look for drive> select it > right-click Get Info.
4. This will show drives format under General information.
If the external drive you are using is having one of the incompatible formats, you’ll need to reformat it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID Partition Table (GPT).
To do so, you can use Disk Utility. Follow the steps to format the external drive:
1. Attach the external drive to Mac.
2. Open Finder > Go > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility
3. Open Disk Utility and choose the attached drive (external) from the left pane.
4. Click Erase present at the top of the Disk Utility window. As shown in the screenshot below:
5. In the new pop-up window that opens rename the drive if you want and alters and drive format to the supported one (Mac OS Extended (Journaled) > Erase.
This will change the format of your external drive and will make it compatible with Time Machine. Now you can take backup using Time Machine.
2. Check free disk space on external drive
If you still face any problem check for the available space on external drive. There should be enough room to back up the Time Machine. If that’s not the case get rid of unwanted files stored on it and free up space for Time Machine backup. Alternatively, you can use a new external hard drive or one with enough available space.
Additional Tip
If you want to backup optimized and clean data using Time Machine, we suggest cleaning junk files, duplicates, unwanted cache, cookies, and other unrequired data from Mac. For this, you can check out the dedicated app known as TuneUpMyMac. This amazing Mac optimizer and cleaning tool helps perform various tasks. Using it, you can optimize your Mac in a single click, delete privacy exposing traces from the browser, junk files, duplicates, large files, old downloads, and more.
It also helps boost speed, and shred deleted data entirely so that it cannot be recovered.
How to fix Time Machine backup fails frequently?
When you backup temporary files, Time Machine backup fails repeatedly. Therefore, to fix this issue, you need to clean up these files.
To do this, follow the steps below:
1. Turn off the Time Machine. To do so click Apple logo > System Preferences > and look for the Time Machine tab.
2. Here, uncheck the Back Up Automatically option.
Next, clean Time Machine’s working files. To do so, follow the steps below:
1. Open Finder > select external hard disk.
2. Now look for folder names Backups.backupdb
3. Please open it and delete the file with .inProgress suffix. For this right-click and select Move to Trash/Bin.
4. Empty the Trash and reboot Mac.
Now, enable Time Machine and try taking backing up data. You should not face any problem.
Time Machine Couldn't Complete The Backup To My Passport For Mac
Check for junk files, and other unwanted data as it might be causing problems.
Sometimes junk files, system cache, temp files, prevent an application from running correctly. In such cases knowing the exact reason for the problem is impossible. Therefore, to deal with such issues, I would recommend using TuneUpMyMac.
This excellent Mac optimizer and cleaner know where to look for junk files, app leftovers, temp files, and other unwanted data that creates problems. It quickly scans Mac for all the unwanted data and helps clean them smoothly. To use TuneUpMyMac and clean junk files, system cache, and duplicates, follow the steps below:
1. Download TuneUpMyMac.
2. Install and click Start System Scan to run the app.
3. Let the scan finish. TuneUpMyMac will not list down all junk and unwanted data.
4. Click Clean Now to delete detected junk files and other unwanted data that is creating the problem.
Time Machine Couldn't Complete The Backup To My Passport For Mac Windows 7
Now try to use Time Machine and take a backup so you should not face any problem.
So, this is all as you learned about the different reasons that can lead to Time Machine backup failure error messages. The most important thing that you need to do whenever you face the problem is to check the format of the external drive. If it is incompatible, nothing will work. Therefore, make sure you use supported formats. In addition to this, if you keep your Mac optimized, you can not only solve the Time Machine problem but other problems too. For this, you can try using TuneUpMyMac, a must-have utility that performs various tasks in a single click.
Time Machine Couldn't Complete The Backup To My Passport For Mac Pc
Hope you find the information useful. Do share your thoughts in the comments section.