Time Machine’s back ups HD does like my Mac so much, it does not want to eject.

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I have been having this problem of late after finishing doing a back up: I select time machine with the cursor, giving focus to its little green HD icon, then “right click” on it and choose “Eject Time Machine.”

… (the minutes go by)

Nothing

…

Again: “Eject Time Machine”

….

Nothing

….

Try ejecting from the Finder

Nothing.

Say things you are not allowed to write here and unplug Time Machine, to the howls of horror of the OS. (An alternative, and, I am told, also a questionable one, is to “Force Eject” TM.)

Well, that is my story so far.

Looking around in the Web, I came up with several suggestions less than a year old and of these, the least potentially fatal advice I have found is here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/taking-a-long-time-to-eject-time-machine-disk.2269534/

In particular the one comment about using the Disk Utility.

To be clear, I am running Big Sur, and it seems this is a Big Sur bug, so the practical idea seems to be to use some working and workable workaround to bypass this bug.

I shall very much appreciate the opinions of people here who may be familiar with this problem. Thanks in advance for any practical advice.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Yeah when I normally eject the Time Machine disk it seems to have to be disabled (unticked) in the System preferences and then alas it still seems to take forever to eject. Biggest problem with Time Machine is to get it to delete the older backups so the Storage medium does not fill up.

One of Apple’s quirks I presume. Does not get any better with OS Monterey either.

 

1 user thanked author for this post.

OscarCP

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BobbyB: ”

“Biggest problem with Time Machine is to get it to delete the older backups so the Storage medium does not fill up.

One of Apple’s quirks I presume. Does not get any better with OS Monterey either.”

This running out of HD space is one I have avoided from the start, by getting myself a 4TB hard disk for Time Machine that is still less than 1/3 full after close to five years of use, thanks goodness.

You are telling me that it gets worse with Monterey: I was wondering what new problems are coming to us, users of Intel Macs, with Monterey now that at Apple they are most likely more occupied and preoccupied with getting “Silicon” machines and their software there to work properly, than with Intel ones like mine, and with their software.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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BobbyB wrote:

Biggest problem with Time Machine is to get it to delete the older backups so the Storage medium does not fill up.

This is not a problem as Time Machine deletes old backup to free up space, automatically

..Apple deletes the oldest backups on your hard drive if you’re about to lose space. In other words, you don’t have to delete this manually…

https://www.imore.com/how-delete-older-time-machine-backups.

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Alex: “This is not a problem as Time Machine deletes old backup to free up space, automatically”

I know that this is supposed to be what happens, but I believe that BobbyB is telling us that this is no longer all plain sailing, with the new versions of macOS, in his own real-life experience.

Personally, as I have explained already, I got no experience with this, as I have a 4TB HD for making backups with Time Machine and only one third of it is full after more than four and a half years. So, with any luck, it should remain with plenty of free space by the time my Mac reaches retirement age. If I can get it to eject safely, which is the point of, and my reason for, starting this thread.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Since the Time Machine storage device is not being unmounted normally, have you tried to safely power down your Mac?

This may not be related to your problem but have you tried to turn off Time Machine and then eject the drive?

(advice from here… https://www.ultfone.com/mac-data-recovery/how-to-fix-time-machine-backup-failure-and-errors.html)

1 user thanked author for this post.

OscarCP

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I have asked about this among people who know Macs, and and the best answer has been:

“I’ve been told by Apple’s business sales team that generally it’s OK to unplug the hard drive and just ignore the error message.”

So that is how sophisticated high-tech really can be.

Good to know, anyways: unplug away!

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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