SEP 14.3 RU1 corrupts macOS Catalina 10.15.7 Time Machine backups in a network share

[A-P]

Hi,

I upgraded my MacBook Pro to 14.3 RU1 on Saturday and the next Time Machine backup after the installation, which did backup verify, ended up telling me I need to start the backups from scratch:

After this, I uninstalled SEP, booted the machine, then re-installed 14.3 RU1 and booted again. Then I started Time Machine backup from scratch. About 8 hours later, the backup part finished ok, but the verify failed again with the same error message.

Then I uninstalled SEP again, booted the machine and then started the Time Machine backup once again from scratch (without SEP). This time it finished without problems.

I have been using SEP successfully with two macOS laptops for years in this setup. The previous version 14.3 MP1 worked perfectly fine for the last months.

There is definitely something wrong with 14.3 RU1 here, at least when doing Time Machine backups to a network share (NAS). I haven't had a single Time Machine problem in 2 years with my current NAS setup and the previous SEP versions have been working perfectly as well.

I would recommend to not install 14.3 RU1 if you're using Time Machine to network shares, until Broadcom has fixed the software! Perhaps this will also affect Time Machine backups to directly connected drives.

I hope we'll get a fix for this as soon as possible. This problem will prevent me from upgrading to Big Sur and I am now stuck with the current Catalina, unless I look for some other brand of security. I would really not want to run the machine without security software.

Regards,
A-P

[A-P]

I created a support case for this:

Case 32425470

[Michael Reid]

Any feedback from the case you opened with Broadcom support?

[A-P]

Hi,

The end result of the support case was this:

"The time machine backup failure in RU1 version we do not have a solution  right now and we request you to reverse  back to the old version and can wait for the fixes in future."

I ended up uninstalling RU1 and purchasing a license for another security software product. After this I successfully installed Big Sur and everything works smoothly now! Actually, the Time Machine backups seem to run faster now with the other security product.

A-P

------------------------------
Product Development Manager
Caverion Suomi Oy
Finland
------------------------------

[Michael Reid]

With the new release of 14.3 RU1 (refresh) build 14.3.3385.1000, I didn't notice a specific mention of this issue (release notes). Does anyone know if it resolves the issue? I want to know if it's now safe for me to upgrade from 14.3 MP1 (refresh) build 14.3.1169.0100.

[Abbers]

"Perhaps this will also affect Time Machine backups to directly connected drives."

I ran a Time Machine backup to a directly connected drive earlier today, and I did not see an error during the backup process.

My Mac is running Big Sur and SEP 14.3 RU1, and the directly connected drive is a USB-C connected external hard disk.

Of course, I still need to check that I can restore the data, and I'll report back with my results after I've fully restored it.

Thank you

[A-P]

This was verified by Michael Reid as well, the local USB backups are not affected by this bug.

A-P

------------------------------
Product Development Manager
Caverion Suomi Oy
Finland
------------------------------

[Abbers]

Thank you A-P

I can confirm that my local USB Time Machine backup has been successfully restored to my Big Sur Mac.