Why my Time Machine disk is not mountable suddenly

I'm trying to track down why my time machine disk is not mountable suddenly. I called apple support for where are the logs for either disk utility or time machine. the log at ~beckers/Library/Logs/DiskUtility is from 2014 and says "disk utility started" and that's it. one line. where are the rest of the logs of either? this is sonoma 14.4.1



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iMac (M3, 2023)

Posted on May 8, 2024 3:09 PM

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5 replies

May 10, 2024 4:45 PM in response to becki181

It is also possible you have a hardware issue of some sort. The backup drive could be failing, or you have a bad cable, adapter, or USB port. Also, make sure to disconnect all other external devices from the computer in case one of them is causing a problem.


You can also try booting into Safe Mode to see if that makes any difference....if so, then you most likely have some third party software installed which is interfering with the normal operation of macOS.


To check the health of the external drive you can try running DriveDx (free trial period) and posting the complete text report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper on the forum editing toolbar. You will need to install a special USB driver in order to attempt to access the external drive's health information, but even with this special driver some external enclosures will not allow the necessary communication to access the external drive's health information.


@etresoft is correct that the macOS system logs are nearly worthless for troubleshooting these days. It is very rare you will discover anything, but it is almost guaranteed the logs will drive you crazy & insane.

May 8, 2024 3:21 PM in response to becki181

You can go to terminal and copy and paste this line. Copy the whole line as it extends across the visible window:

printf '\e[3J' && log show --predicate 'subsystem == "com.apple.TimeMachine"' --info --last 6h | grep -F 'eMac' | grep -Fv 'etat' | awk -F']' '{print substr($0,1,19), $NF}' 


There will be some information there, but not sure if it is what you are looking for.

Why my Time Machine disk is not mountable suddenly

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