"Error occurred while creating the backup folder"

WD External Drives External Drives for Mac
43

Hazaa, it works. I too have the “problem” message. Tried all sorts of stuff (all mentioned in this thread). Then, I tried the 8 step process.
One exception, at then end when I chose my backup drive in time machine it said I had to erase the drive because it was not formatted correctly. (APFS doesn’t do it? anyway, I clicked erase (no other choices) and after that it backs up perfectly.

I remember the late 90’s and early 2000’s when this ■■■■ happened all the time and, there was no one to help.

thanks for the help

44

Thanks for the information. I’ve just tried it and look forward to testing it once the initial Time Machine backup is done.

It’s disappointing however that WD sell a product that is specifically ‘for Macs’ on the box and you have to fiddle around to get it to work. Surely it should work straight out of the box.

45

24 hours later and I have what seems to be backups every hour - as it should be. Thanks MarkBC.

Its a pity that WD couldn’t provide something that worked out of the box - especially as it’s marketed as being designed for use on Macs.

46

This worked for me too. Thank you MarkBC for sharing the Apple support walkthrough with the rest of us, and for presenting it in such clear manner.

47

Sorry - it no longer does.

48

For me the fix was the actual connection route.
I had it running through a monitor which has its own USB slots, then another USB from the monitor to my MacBook Pro. This created the error message. By removing the USB extension / hub (the monitor) it works instantly! No error. Its not even going straight to the USB slot on the computer there is an adaptor on it from USBC to USB (as its a new Mac). Hopefully this may make a difference for anyone not going direct with their cables to try a new combination.

49

Thanks pinkp,

iMac running 10.14.6

The error appeared 2 days ago

I had my WD My Passport Ultra connected through a Belkin USB 3.0 4-Port Hub and USB-C

Now connected direct to iMac

WD Utilities sleep timer now set to ON

Regular auto backups resumed

50

After 24 hours the issue re appeared

Have implemented the 8 steps above, so far all good after 12 hours

51

I’m having the same problem in OS Catalina! This passport is really frustrating me!

52

Reply to mrlucky:

I have tried turning off power nap. Still fails on every backup. Running High Sierra 10.13.1 Has anyone solved this for High Sierra?

i’m running high sierra 10.13.6 with 2 wd 8 terabyte removable hard drives. using ChronoSync for backup with no issues

53

These instructions fixed my problem too - many thanks Mark. I use two external drives for Time Machine backups with MacOS Catalina, one is a new Seagate, the other is a WD (which I had used without problems with my previous iMac running High Sierra). The Seagate drive has no problems with Time Machine; I only got the backup folder creation error when the WD drive was used for a Time Machine incremental backup.

The above instructions worked even when formatting the drive as MacOS Extended, journaled, encrypted at step 4, and encrypting the Time Machine backups. I also ejected the Seagate drive first, so that the WD was the only drive connected at the time. Since then, Time Machine backups have been fine (except for a problem using Time Machine with Mail, but that’s another story…).

54

This did not work for me. Backed up once then had the same problem.

55

is the Time Machine backup still working with the new drive you got from the Apple store

56

Had the same issue with WD My Passport and MacBook Pro 15 running macOS Big Sur (11.6.5).
Could solve like follows:

  1. disconnect external hard drive (here “force eject” was necessary)
  2. close all applications
  3. start Disk Utility, selected “Macintosh HD” and click First Aid (warning: mac will be unresponsive for some time!)

The whole procedure took only a few seconds.
Afterwards I could re-connect the external drive and go on using it as time machine backup disk.