If you get a warning that your backup failed, there is low disk space, or that it's been several days since your last successful backup; it is important to fix this immediately. MacPractice Technical Support is happy to help with finding the reason for failure and helping resolve this. However, here are some troubleshooting steps you can try on your own.

First, determine whether the backups have failed or were not started at all. 

Open

You will get an alert if the backup fails. You can also check in Reports > Management > Backup Report. Within the Status column, you can see whether backups Failed or were a Success.
Backups that were not triggered would not be listed on the report despite the settings in Preferences > Server Backups.

Failed Backups

Failed Backups appear on the Backups Report as "Failed".

• Check the settings for the scheduled backups on the server under MacPractice Preferences > Server Backups. Make sure the Enabled checkbox is checked and that the file path is accurate.

• Re-toggle the Backup Path: Add another Backup Path exactly as it is and delete the original.

• Go to System Preferences > Energy Saver and check the following settings:

  • Make sure "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off" is checked.

  • Uncheck "Put hard disks to sleep when possible".

  • Click the Schedule button and confirm the computer is not set to sleep or shut down at night.

• If you see errno 28, this usually indicates that the destination of your intended backup has a full hard drive. Freeing up some space or removing older/temporary backups will resolve this problem.

• If the backup path is a location on the Network, MacPractice support cannot assist with Network Backups. We cannot guarantee the stability of the network connection when writing a backup directly to a network location. You may try to write the backup to a local location. Once that backup is written, then transfer the backup over the network. 

Note: If you are attempting to remove backups to resolve a full hard drive issue and can't get into the Backup Folder, add your OS user to the MacPractice_Backup user group in System Preferences.

Failed Backups to External Drives

If a backup to an external drive fails, attempt a manual backup internally. MacPractice Support does not support external hard drives, however there are a few simple things that might be checked:

• Check that the backup that failed is going to to the right location. For example, if you have two external drives, you should verify that the correct drive is plugged in, and that the name in the Backup Path matches.

• Backups to an external drive should be sent to a folder rather than the root of the drive. Create a folder on the drive, ensure it has full "Read & Write" privileges set for everyone, and reset your automated backup in your MacPractice Preferences to point at this folder instead of at the root.

• The external drive could have incorrect formatting. We recommend Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The outdated MS-DOS (FAT) formatting, which has a 4 GB per file size limit amongst other limitations, can cause backups to fail.

• You may need to check the formatting type on an external drive. Simply right-click on the drive and select 'Get Info.' The window that pops up with display the Format of the drive.

Backups Did Not Start

Backups that did not get triggered will not appear appear in the Backups Report.

• Check the settings for the scheduled backups on the server under MacPractice Preferences > Server Backups. Make sure the Enabled checkbox is checked and that the file path is accurate.

• Re-toggle the Backup Path:

• Add another Backup Path exactly as it is and delete the original.

• Check System Preferences > Energy Saver and make sure "Computer Sleep" is set to "Never". You may also wish to click the Schedule button and confirm the computer is not set to automatically shut down or sleep at night.

If these steps did not resolve the issues, please contact MacPractice Technical Support for more assistance.