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Time Machine Backup anomaly
#46857 11/15/17 06:17 PM
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grelber Offline OP
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Every so often when TM goes for backup I'll get a slew of couplets — sometimes numbering into the dozens — such as the following:

17-11-15 1:05:00.000 kernel: add_fsevent: unable to get path for vp 0xffffff80117424d8 (crls; ret 22; type 2)
17-11-15 1:05:00.000 kernel: add_fsevent: unabled to get a path for vp 0xffffff80117424d8. dropping the event.

Then TM continues merrily along, ultimately announcing that:

17-11-15 1:05:23.063 com.apple.backupd: Backup completed successfully.

What does this all mean? And under the circumstances how can the backup be construed as "successful"?

Re: Time Machine Backup anomaly
grelber #46862 11/16/17 02:19 PM
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What's your Mac - macOS setup? ...How do you have the external hard drive for Time Machine setup / connected?

I've been steadily using TM through all the macOS updates / upgrades (including upgrade to High Sierra & change to APFS) for the last several years, and I've not had any issues. ...I'm not discounting your issue; but, my experience hasn't been such I think there's an endemic issue with TM. As result, I'm thinking there's a particular issue with your setup that might be the root cause of your issue.

As example & given my MBP 15 (using about half of my 1TB SSD) with TB3, I connect a 7200rpm LaCie Mobile 2TB - USB-C drive via a TB3 cable (USB-C compatible) directly to my MBP. However, I regularly dismount the drive about mid-day and reconnect the next morning (& reactivate TM). I mention to highlight I'm regularly stopping / starting my TM given my MBP use pattern; so if there were some endemic bug in TM, I think I might have seen it by now.

As result, we need to dig a bit into your setup to sort out your issue.


MacStudio M1max - 14.4.1, 64 GB Ram, 4TB SSD; Studio Display; iPhone 13mini; Watch 9; iPadPro (M2) 11" WiFi
Re: Time Machine Backup anomaly
pbGuy #46864 11/16/17 07:35 PM
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grelber Offline OP
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For the sake of completeness, my set-up is:

iMac 21.5" mid-2011, 2.5GHz Intel Core i5, 500GB Serial ATA Drive (57GB used); running Mac OS X Lion (10.7.5)

Time Machine Backup: 1TB Western Digital My Passport USB drive; 270GB used

Re: Time Machine Backup anomaly
grelber #46868 11/17/17 03:03 PM
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Regarding your setup, I'm not familiar with the WD My Passport USB drive; but, I've now looked at WD's Support Forum.

Here are some thoughts (meaning, I can't advise what I know to be a for-sure solution)...

- Perusing several of the Support Threads, there seems to be some possible issues related to WD's Drive Helper utility. And, some Posts discussed uninstalling (if currently installed). Other than simple deletion of the actual utility, Spotlight search & manual deletion of remnants was also recommended. So if you have this Helper utility installed, deleting might be worth a try.
- While some Posts mentioned reformatting the WD drive was to no avail, I think it might be worth a try. Within your initial post (I can not accurately interpret the details about "unable to get path"), those problem details might be resolved by using Disk Utility to erase / reformat the drive.
[Of course, this step would force you to initiate a new (fresh), Time Machine backup. ...FYI, I do this reformat step (say, around 12 months) when my TM drive begins to have B/U's from such an extended period, I know I'll never need to restore any of those really old files (particularly, legacy macOS related files). IMHO, I think this procedure is ultimately faster than allowing the TM drive to fill up and delete on its own.]
- If you've not already posted your issue at the WD Support Forum, doing so might be worth a try.

As an observation (and in no way do I imply might help with your issue), I notice you are using OS 10.7.5. Your iMac (as a mid-2011) could certainly handle a newer macOS, say, at least, to Sierra (10.12). Before getting my current MBP 15, I was using a MBP 17 (mid-2010) with Sierra installed; the MBP 17 handled it nicely. Upgrading your OS might be worth consideration (unless, you have specific reasons for not doing so). ...Others in this FTM forum might be able to offer considered opinions which might help you decide.


MacStudio M1max - 14.4.1, 64 GB Ram, 4TB SSD; Studio Display; iPhone 13mini; Watch 9; iPadPro (M2) 11" WiFi
Re: Time Machine Backup anomaly
pbGuy #46869 11/17/17 03:22 PM
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grelber Offline OP
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Thanks for the various suggestions, but at the moment I'm not into 'correcting' something that I don't understand and which might not even need 'correcting' — especially since it happens only every so often and doesn't seem to have other than momentary import to the machine(s) and backup process.
I just want to know what's going on and whether or not it's a real problem.
All I can gather is that for some file save events the backup function can't determine a path and stops trying to but which in turn doesn't cause the backup process to abort or not complete.

Re: Time Machine Backup anomaly
grelber #46883 11/17/17 07:32 PM
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Originally Posted By: grelber
For the sake of completeness, my set-up is:

iMac 21.5" mid-2011, 2.5GHz Intel Core i5, 500GB Serial ATA Drive (57GB used); running Mac OS X Lion (10.7.5)

Time Machine Backup: 1TB Western Digital My Passport USB drive; 270GB used


Is the external drive formatted MacOS or FAT?


Photo gallery, all about me, and more: www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Re: Time Machine Backup anomaly
tacit #46888 11/17/17 10:10 PM
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grelber Offline OP
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TM backup formatted exactly as the iMac: Mac OS Extended (journaled).

Re: Time Machine Backup anomaly
grelber #46899 11/18/17 06:45 AM
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grelber Offline OP
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Following is the log from one complete backup cycle which has only a single dropped fsevent couplet and might be helpful:

17-11-18 1:19:16.235 com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup
17-11-18 1:19:16.602 com.apple.backupd: Backing up to: /Volumes/Mac Backup/Backups.backupdb
17-11-18 1:19:40.252 com.apple.backupd: 4.52 GB required (including padding), 679.47 GB available
17-11-18 1:19:58.000 kernel: add_fsevent: unable to get path for vp 0xffffff800b50fc98 (app.com.apple.DiskUtility.playlist; ret 22; type 9)
17-11-18 1:19:58.000 kernel: add_fsevent: unabled to get a path for vp 0xffffff800b50fc98. dropping the event.
17-11-18 1:20:00.623 com.apple.backupd: Copied 1148 files (16.9 MB) from volume Mac.
17-11-18 1:20:00.768 com.apple.backupd: 4.50 GB required (including padding), 679.45 GB available
17-11-18 1:20:04.614 com.apple.backupd: Copied 670 files (433 bytes) from volume Mac.
17-11-18 1:20:06.409 mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
17-11-18 1:20:06.412 com.apple.backupd: Starting post-backup thinning
17-11-18 1:20:24.280 com.apple.backupd: Deleted /Volumes/Mac Backup/Backups.backupdb/grelber’s iMac/2017-11-16-181500 (17.7 MB)
17-11-18 1:20:24.280 com.apple.backupd: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
17-11-18 1:20:24.716 com.apple.backupd: Backup completed successfully.

[Note: The mds error (line 9) occurs in every backup but seems to have no significance.]

Re: Time Machine Backup anomaly
grelber #47141 12/05/17 02:12 PM
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grelber Offline OP
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Originally Posted By: grelber
Thanks for the various suggestions, but at the moment I'm not into 'correcting' something that I don't understand and which might not even need 'correcting' — especially since it happens only every so often and doesn't seem to have other than momentary import to the machine(s) and backup process.
I just want to know what's going on and whether or not it's a real problem.
All I can gather is that for some file save events the backup function can't determine a path and stops trying to but which in turn doesn't cause the backup process to abort or not complete.

That, together with the immediately preceding post, hasn't generated commentary on what's going on in well over 2 weeks. So I guess that's a dead end.
Carry on regardless. At least that's what I'll do.

Re: Time Machine Backup anomaly
grelber #47146 12/05/17 09:08 PM
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I would be happy to compare your LOG with mine - except I have no idea how to locate it. (It isn't in the folder marked "Logs" in my Library Folder.)

Re: Time Machine Backup anomaly
MG2009 #47149 12/05/17 11:59 PM
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grelber Offline OP
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Open Console, et voilà.

Re: Time Machine Backup anomaly
MG2009 #47150 12/06/17 12:18 AM
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Originally Posted By: MG2009
I would be happy to compare your LOG with mine - except I have no idea how to locate it. (It isn't in the folder marked "Logs" in my Library Folder.)

If you are running OS X 10.11 or earlier, in the Console app search for Backupd. That no longer works in MacOS 10.12 and 10.13. The best I have come up with in Sierra and High Sierra is to open the Terminal app then copy and paste the following shell script and allow several seconds for the script to run.

Code:
#!/bin/sh

filter='processImagePath contains "backupd" and subsystem beginswith "com.apple.TimeMachine"'

# show the last 12 hours
start="$(date -j -v-12H +'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')"

echo ""
echo "[History (from $start)]"
echo ""

log show --style syslog --info --start "$start" --predicate "$filter"

echo ""
echo "[Following]"
echo ""

log stream —style syslog —info —predicate "$filter" 

Surely Apple, or some enterprising third party developer will write an app and put a nice clean GUI interface on this — eventually. At the moment I suspect Apple's Time Machine developers are still working on backing up to APFS formatted drives, RAID arrays, and lots of backup features and enhancements made possible by APFS.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein

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