Trying to backup my new MacBook Air (with an external HD) and getting an error message

[ducaticanine]

Hi. I just bought a brand new MacBook Air (it has the latest OS, Sonoma 14.2.1). I have a Verbatim external HD that I've used for a couple of years with my old 2019 MacBook Air. So now, when I plug in this external HD to my new MacBook Air and open up Time Machine, I see it there listed, but it has a red exclamation mark (it will not work/allow me to back up my new computer). When I click on that red exclamation mark, I get this message: Time Machine cannot back up because some iCloud Drive files have not finished syncing. Any idea what to do here? Thanks

 

[raythompsontn]

Any idea what to do here?

Wait a day to see if the syncing finishes. Sometimes it does take awhile.

 

[ducaticanine]

Wait a day to see if the syncing finishes. Sometimes it does take awhile.

Thanks!

 

[Mom's Computer]

In this case it was odd, as the time machine had made as several backups until that error message appeared. What worked for me was signing out and signing back into the icloud (on a mac air sonoma). It's a glitch, as there is only one icloud account and it shows that it had synced just fine.