Time, destination

1. The duration and timestamps for the analysis. The first line of text states the number of hours which have been analysed, and the dates and times (normally in UTC rather than local time) of the start and end of that period, for example

Analysis from 2017-06-01 10:36:51 +0000 to 2017-06-01 12:36:51 +0000 for 2 hours:

You may find times in UTC appear confusing, but they are necessary to allow for clock and time zone changes.

2. The backup destinations. The next lines of text should state the backup destination being used, in my example reading

Backing up to /dev/disk3s2: /Volumes/PROMISE PEGASUS/Backups.backupdb

If you have multiple backup destinations in use, then each should be identified individually in a separate line.

If that line doesn't appear in the log, this is probably a serious issue, and you should see the line

No backup folder was selected.

instead. The first thing to do is ensure that the Time Machine pane is properly configured, and is trying to back up to a volume which is mounted on your Mac. If you are backing up to a NAS, then the message here should give details about that NAS, although its format may vary.

3. Free disk space on the backup volume(s). In versions of macOS up to and including Mojave, this should be a list of the amounts of disk space free on that backup volume at the start of each backup, giving that for the oldest backup first,

on which there were 2.9 TB, 2.9 TB, 2.9 TB, 2.9 TB, 2.9 TB, 2.9 TB, 2.9 TB available.

If you have multiple backup volumes active, then these will reflect the free space on each, as they are rotated for each backup. So you might see something more like

on which there were 2.9 TB, 1.8 TB, 2.9 TB, 1.8 TB, 2.9 TB, 1.8 TB, 2.9 TB available.

when rotating between two volumes with 2.9 and 1.8 TB free, for example. Catalina doesn’t provide this information, though.

T2M2 also checks for the amount of free space currently on the backup volumes, at the time that you Check Time Machine, and shows an emoji to provide an indication of its quantity. This doesn’t alter the top traffic light status, and is ➜ detailed here .

➜ Backups and times

➜ Interpret result

The Eclectic Light Company – https://eclecticlight.co