A few problems about macOS Catalina

[i0ntempest]

Hi all,
I'm experiencing a few problems with Catalina and would like to confirm if they're happening not just on me, and if possible find solutions to them.
The 1st problem: Ever since Beta 2, my Time Machine stopped working. It just stuck on "Preparing backup" forever. I've tried a few solutions I found googling with no luck. If I start a new backup, it will backup about ~20GB and then stop there forever. I'm really concerned about this cuz if one day the OS crashes I'll be completely screwed.
The 2nd problem: Since Beta 2 (again), every beta update took about 6 hours to complete. The update from Mojave->Beta 1 was fine. The progress bar stuck at about 1/4 for a really long time, then continues. Not really a big problem as I can let it sit overnight, but still really annoying.
I speculate these 2 might be related, since both started since Beta 2. Anyone else is having the same problem? Any help is appreciated!!

 

[i0ntempest]

Problem solved: the new OS corrupted my Photos Library. After examining Time Machine logs, I found it stuck in
Photos Library.photoslibrary/private/com.apple.photolibraryd/tmpoutboundsharing/ when I run the backup. When I try to access that folder Finder will also stuck there. Once I excluded it from Time Machine everything is fine again. I have iCloud Photos enabled so I just wiped the old library (took 8+ hours), but when trying creating a new one it errors out, which is prolly a bug in the new OS. Probably the update process is also slowed down by this corrupted library.

 

[TimothyR734]

A few options if this happens again when you open the Photos App hold Control and Option it will repair your library. If you go into your pictures folder right click on Photo's Library-Show Package Content your saved pictures are the original folder you can compress the original folder as a zip then store it just in case something happens you still have your pictures

 

[tethead]

oh damn, mine is doing the same thing on Preparing Backup - it has not backed up since Beta 1! I am going to try excluding Photos as well and seeing if that helps, and also do the repair. I also use iCloud Photo Library so excluding it isn't a big deal to me... THANKS!!

 

[i0ntempest]

A few options if this happens again when you open the Photos App hold Control and Option it will repair your library. If you go into your pictures folder right click on Photo's Library-Show Package Content your saved pictures are the original folder you can compress the original folder as a zip then store it just in case something happens you still have your pictures

@TimothyR734 Thanks for the tip, I'll try repairing if this happens again. Btw the rm command I issued on the corrupted library is still running (11+ hours).

 

[TimothyR734]

@TimothyR734 Thanks for the tip, I'll try repairing if this happens again. Btw the rm command I issued on the corrupted library is still running (11+ hours).

Are you on Beta 4 or Beta 5 of Catalina

 

[i0ntempest]

Are you on Beta 4 or Beta 5 of Catalina

Dev Beta 5 19A526h

 

[TimothyR734]

What are you using the RM command for ? that seems like a very long time 11 hours

 

[i0ntempest]

What are you using the RM command for ? that seems like a very long time 11 hours

I'm deleting that corrupted library. I used rm -rfv so I can know something is being done and it's not stuck...

 

[TimothyR734]

This script is safe this give you permission to delete folders put the in your /Library/LaunchDaemons folder

 

[i0ntempest]

This script is safe this give you permission to delete folders put the in your /Library/LaunchDaemons folder

Thanks, but isn't it still locked by SIP even if I mount it rw?

 

[TimothyR734]

I have my SIP disabled because I am running Catalina on a unsupported Mac but you might be right but to disable you need to be in the terminal outside the macOS such as a bootable macOS installer usb or in recovery mode command R on boot up in the terminal its csrutil disable then when you need to turn back on SIP csrutil enable

 

[i0ntempest]

I have my SIP disabled because I am running Catalina on a unsupported Mac but you might be right but to disable you need to be in the terminal outside the macOS such as a bootable macOS installer usb or in recovery mode command R on boot up in the terminal its csrutil disable then when you need to turn back on SIP csrutil enable

Yea I know that, before APFS I have SIP fully disabled, but now I have to leave fs protection enabled or abnormal shutdown could corrupt my startup disk. This had happened several times and I'm scared...

 

[TimothyR734]

sometimes reinstalling macOS does fix some issues and you won't lose your apps or data or settings

 

[tethead]

oh damn, mine is doing the same thing on Preparing Backup - it has not backed up since Beta 1! I am going to try excluding Photos as well and seeing if that helps, and also do the repair. I also use iCloud Photo Library so excluding it isn't a big deal to me... THANKS!!

update - nope. still sitting on "Preparing Backup" after excluding the library. Haven't attempted a repair, but I would think excluding it would have the same effect?

 

[i0ntempest]

update - nope. still sitting on "Preparing Backup" after excluding the library. Haven't attempted a repair, but I would think excluding it would have the same effect?

Actually mine is also stuck after completing a new backup. If u want u can delete the your old backup and it should be able to create a new one. I’ll let mine sit overnight with log enabled and see what’s going on tmmr.

 

[tethead]

well i'd rather not destroy my backup, it's my only pre-Catalina backup! what kind of drive are you using, by the way? mine is a Drobo 5D hooked up via Thunderbolt > USB-C dongle. It was really slow with Mojave for a while, but still worked. It being completely stuck is new to Catalina.

 

[i0ntempest]

well i'd rather not destroy my backup, it's my only pre-Catalina backup! what kind of drive are you using, by the way? mine is a Drobo 5D hooked up via Thunderbolt > USB-C dongle. It was really slow with Mojave for a while, but still worked. It being completely stuck is new to Catalina.

Mine is over network on a seagate 2.5 HD hooked up on another Mac running Mojave. I tried plugging the drive directly, no difference. I'm going to restore the newly created backup so I don't need to wait forever for the corrupted photo library to delete. Also if u don't want do wipe your old backups, you can create a new partition and use that for a new backup.

 

[i0ntempest]

Okay so, my Time Machine has back to fully working condition (at least for now). What I've done is made a new backup and immediately restored it in Recovery. About 40GB of disk space appeared outta no where after restoring, but I didn't find any missing stuff. Looks like everything is fine for now.

 

[i0ntempest]

Following up--update from Beta 5 to Beta 6 took only 30 mins. So the corrupted Photos Library is indeed the culprit.