LS 4.2 and Time Machine issues

[SmokeJaguar]

Hello all,

First post - so please be kind.

I recently replaced my old NAS with a newer QNAP, and post-the 4.2 update I am encountering some issues that appear to be unique to Little Snitch. Specifically, if network monitor is running at all (including Silent Allow mode), backupd errors out when attempting to connect to the NAS with "Error 18: The backup disk could not be found". I'm confident that this is related to Little Snitch at this time because a) my other macs without Little Snitch do not have this issue at all, b) testing with a second MacBook has shown the same issues and c) turning off the network monitor, starting a backup with Time Machine and then turning on the network monitor allow the TM backup to process with no issues.

Given this, I've reset the rules to factory stock, and have run Little Snitch specifically in permissive mode to see if that resolves the issues. No new login rules/suggestions were found, and I'm seeing the same issues post reset/permissive mode.

Has anyone else run into this? Any thoughts?

Thanks,
SJ

[maelcum]

Using multiple Mojave machines all on 10.14.2, LS 4.2.4 (and all earlier versions since 3.something), QNAP with current firmware version 4.3.3.0789 and Time Machine without any problems.
Have you tried to create a new account on the machine that has problems, configure time machine there and try to backup? It could very well be the account having a problem, not LS.

[SmokeJaguar]

Yes, I have tried this. The account and machine both work well - BUT, only if the network filter is turned off. At this point, I have exhausted most normal trouble shooting...the problem is something to do with how network filter is configured, but neither reinstalling nor clearing all the rules has resolved it. At this point, I think that Little Snitch may not be long for life on this machine, which is a shame as it has been a great product for me in the past.

My QNAP version is 4.3.6.805 - so we may be seeing some of the problem here, but that should not explain the network filter issue.

I do appreciate the suggestion though, thanks!

[cortig]

The latest nightly build that came up today had something interesting in its release notes:
Fixed an issue causing Time Machine backups to Samba servers to stop working under some circumstances.
https://obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/download-nightly.html

I've had issues with Time Machine on a Synology drive for a while now (after a while, I was getting a warning telling me that the required features for TM were not supported on the drive) and I have high hopes that this will correct the problem.

Corentin

[SmokeJaguar]

That is excellent news. I'll give it a try and see if it resolves the issue. Thanks for the heads up.

[SmokeJaguar]

Cortig - thank you for the posting, this seems to have cleared up my issues, at least so far.

Devs - Can you give us some more information beyond "Fixed an issue causing Time Machine backups to Samba servers to stop working under some circumstances." on what the actual problem was?

SJ

[ericandresen]

I have a MacBook Pro running Mohave 10.14.2. I have been using LittleSnitch for years. I had been chasing esoteric SMB vs. AFP threads trying to figure out why Time Machine was failing. Bottom line line now is that Time Machine always works first time. Once it starts doing incremental backups it fails if Little Snitch Network filtering is on and works if it is off. I will work on scrubbing the LS rules when I have some time, but it remains OFF for now. Are others still having issues too? EA.

[SmokeJaguar]

So, this is the same problem that I was having as well. The network filter was definitely my issue, and I spent way too much time working the LS rules. I recommend that you download the daily build referenced above in this exchange - it solved my issues as I had mentioned.

I *would* really still like some additional information from the devs though.

-SJ

[ericandresen]

Thanks SJ. So I actually had the latest nightly build installed when you sent that post and it was not working. Because you had had luck with it - I decided to uninstall and remove rules etc to do a fresh install using latest nightly. I am now working just fine with Time Machine and clicking away to approve all the normal Mac OS Application chatter. Appreciate the help! Eric.

[SmokeJaguar]

Eric:

Glad it helped, sorry you had to reinstall. That is always "fun". The good news is that the latest nightly (.56) has not caused any new issues, at least on my machine.

Best of luck,
SJ