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I have been unable to backup my MBP since June. After some Googling, I found this link that suggested I should trash my .inProgress files. However, I find that I am subsequently unable to empty my trash folder. I found this thread, which provided the correct way to delete .inProgress files. However, I cannot use tmutil, because I get this error:

Invalid deletion target: (error 22)

This seems to be because the .inProgress files are now in .Trashes, and tmutil needs the files to be in a backup directory at least. Now I am trying to put the .inProgress files back into the Backup folder so I can use tmutil to delete them. However, when I try to put them back, I get this error:

This operation can't be completed because backup items can't be modified.

How do I go about deleting the .inProgress files without risking damaging my existing backups?

Suggestions?

James Donovan
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  • I don't know if this will work but I'd try moving the inProgress file back to your machine's backup folder, then try tmutil. You might need to use single-user mode or another computer to bypass TM's write restrictions. – At0micMutex Jan 08 '21 at 17:45
  • I wrote the original post you're referencing! My recommendation is to use the recovery mode system. Restart your computer into recovery mode and use disk utility to ensure your disk is mounted. Then, open up the Terminal utility and cd into /Volumes and find your disk. From here, cd into .Trashes and you should be able to rm stuff. – Ezekiel Jan 08 '21 at 21:45

  • I wrote the original post you're referencing!

    Wow, I am not worthy. Thanks @EzekielElin! Just to make sure, in the second thread I linked, @theklaus says that using rm will mess with the previous backups. Is this going to be a problem with the .inProgress files?

     – James Donovan Jan 08 '21 at 22:14
  • It shouldn't interfere with the files on the disk, but I can't guarantee that it won't mess smoething up with the ability to add new backups - however if those are already broken... – Ezekiel Jan 08 '21 at 23:29

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