# Catalina and TM issues



## Zenon (Oct 30, 2019)

It seems Time Machine is causing my MacBook Air to restart. It is running AFPS. I see it created  two drives. HD and HD - Data. TM seems confused between the two drives.  I have sent crash reports to Apple. I have been reading about it and as I'm typing the laptop is going through a 35 minute update.  We''ll see what this update does.  I found this.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250729848


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## Zenon (Oct 30, 2019)

Well it appears having two drives is normal. I'm still checking this out. This may be self inflicted. I have been using TM on a portable drive for years. It is partitioned and I keep files on the other half. I plugged it into the iMac and immediately unmounted TM.  I'm doing some extra DATA backup for my iMac. I think TM picked something up from the iMac. I have erased it several times and still not right. After the last wipe I opened it and it showed no backup folders but when I opened TM it went back 1/2 hr. I erased and renamed it and  I'm trying again. Might have to get rid of it.

Timing is bad.  New OS and this happens so it is hard to tell what is the cause.


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## Zenon (Nov 1, 2019)

Not much interest but here it goes. Reformatted and renamed TM seemed to work. I was doing something else and had WiFi enabled on the iMac and on the air. Wednesday even it happened again. Got stuck on the preparing stage. I disabled WiFi on both devices and it has not happened since.


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## Zenon (Nov 3, 2019)

Well I know I may get some flack on this but I think it was BitDefender. I have read tons of stuff about Mac's and viruses/malware. Probably a bad decision. I was never too sure about it but they added VPN for free. I dumped it today and got VPN only service only. We travel and use non secure networks. Despite what they claim about no loss in performance my old and tired iMac is smoking now. I should have gotten rid of it long ago.


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## Victoria Bampton (Nov 6, 2019)

That's interesting to hear, thanks Zenon. I've used Bitdefender for a while now too. I'll keep an eye on that.


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## Zenon (Nov 6, 2019)

I'm transferring everything to my new iMac. Moving LR over could not have been easier. Just have to move the presets over. I'm debating installing BD as I'm never on WIFI. I have not had a single malware in years. I'll keep it on my laptop for VPN.

The entire process has been easy and I'm almost done. Fresh install. Thanks for your advice.  I'm saving setting up mail accounts for last as I'm a little edgy right now. BD was close to being renewed and I thought I'd get a VPN only service. Before the new iMac arrived  I tried Cyberghost and it was a complete disaster. Changed mail port settings and screwed up my passwords. It tool over 15 hrs (6 hrs with Adobe support) to get all our 5 devices working again. I'm sure proficient at setting up email accounts. Must have done it 50 times. I got a refund.  Compared to that setting up the new Mac has been  a delight.         

As my system is new and squeaky clean I'm going to wipe out my laptop and do a reinstall from TM backup. That was what I did when I got it a few years ago.


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## Zenon (Nov 6, 2019)

I see the presets came over as well. Even better. LR9 is rocking.


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## clee01l (Nov 6, 2019)

Zenon said:


> I'm debating installing BD as I'm never on WIFI. I have not had a single malware in years. I'll keep it on my laptop for VPN.


I don't and never have run any resident Malware apps on my Mac and I access the internet all the time.    I do have MalwareBytes that I run periodical to scan for gremlins.


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## Zenon (Nov 6, 2019)

Is that the free one? I think it is free for only a while? I'm OK with paying.  Adobe support had me install it when trouble shooting.  I may just go down that path for the new iMac. Nothing running, just scans. Which one do you use? I'll keep BD on the laptop as it has VPN for when I travel and use non secure networks.


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## Zenon (Nov 6, 2019)

Victoria Bampton said:


> That's interesting to hear, thanks Zenon. I've used Bitdefender for a while now too. I'll keep an eye on that.



Actually it may be Time Machine. The new iMac is  using APFS but the ED was formatted to journaled. I thought I read you couldn't do that on a spinny disk. I called Apple support today to ask about how to transfer music. When done I asked why Time Machine would not do the first backup on the ED for the iMac. They told me to format to APFS. I just got home and 3 successful backups. I'm going to format the the portable ED to AFPS for the laptop.


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## mikebore (Nov 6, 2019)

Zenon said:


> Actually it may be Time Machine. The new iMac is  using APFS but the ED was formatted to journaled. I thought I read you couldn't do that on a spinny disk. I called Apple support today to ask about how to transfer music. When done I asked why Time Machine would not do the first backup on the ED for the iMac. They told me to format to APFS. I just got home and 3 successful backups. I'm going to format the the portable ED to AFPS for the laptop.



I may be misunderstanding what you seem to be saying, but the Time Machine disk has to be formatted HFS+ even with Catalina. Types of disks you can use with Time Machine on Mac


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## Zenon (Nov 6, 2019)

I guess Apple support wasn't that helpful.


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## Zenon (Nov 6, 2019)

It did format itself to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I did read it would select the correct format but Apple support said to use AFPS. Better off to get info on forums.


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## clee01l (Nov 6, 2019)

mikebore said:


> I may be misunderstanding what you seem to be saying, but the Time Machine disk has to be formatted HFS+ even with Catalina. Types of disks you can use with Time Machine on Mac



Victoria said APFS not HFS+.  I don’t think she would make this mistake.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## Zenon (Nov 7, 2019)

I tried to format as APFS but it wouldn't let me.


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## mikebore (Nov 7, 2019)

clee01l said:


> Victoria said APFS not HFS+.  I don’t think she would make this mistake.



I can't see that Victoria said TM backup drives have to be APFS? 

There is absolutely no doubt that they have to be HFS+.  Read the Apple link I posted or try using an APFS drive as TM backup drive.

I think there are some misunderstandings,  maybe by me,  in this thread!


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## clee01l (Nov 7, 2019)

mikebore said:


> I can't see that Victoria said TM backup drives have to be APFS?
> 
> There is absolutely no doubt that they have to be HFS+.  Read the Apple link I posted or try using an APFS drive as TM backup drive.
> 
> I think there are some misunderstandings,  maybe by me,  in this thread!


And I've confused myself.  Victoria did not make that statement  Sorry for the confusion.   I'm still waiting for the dust to settle before I upgrade to Catalina.


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## Victoria Bampton (Nov 7, 2019)

LOL made me look twice!!


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## Zenon (Nov 9, 2019)

Victoria Bampton said:


> That's interesting to hear, thanks Zenon. I've used Bitdefender for a while now too. I'll keep an eye on that.



I don't think it is BD. I turned it off for the last several days and still having odd issues. The OS shuts down due to a problem, fans kick into high gear, external drive disconnects or Time Machine backup fails . These all happen when the screen is in the down position. I reinstalled the OS and ran first aid on both drives. I've been busy with the new iMac and a VPN/email disaster (prior to the the new iMac). I'll put some time into the laptop now. I'll probably first wipe the drive and do an install from the new iMac's Time Machine and if that fails then clean install like I did with the new iMac.


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## Zenon (Nov 10, 2019)

Well I wiped my drive but it is too small to back up from Time Machine from the iMac. Maybe I'll try the migration assistant after yer OS is installed. If not I'll just do it manually. Then I'll install BD in a few days and see if it caused any issues. It as fine for years. Something may have become  corrupted.


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## Zenon (Nov 11, 2019)

The wipe and re-install went well and no problems so far but I have noticed something else on both my iMac and Air. If open email and use Time Machine it won't let me go back in time. If I open the desktop it will work. I'm with Apple support right now and the person said to wait 5 minutes because this as an interesting case which means they don't know.

Anyone else seeing that?


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## Zenon (Nov 11, 2019)

It's a Catalina glitch. It is backing mail up but  it gets stuck on the mail page.


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