Time machine back up. When is it safe to disconnect the external hard drive?

[BebeDahling]

I feel like this is a "stupid" question but I've searched the internet and can't find a solution.
I have done my first complete back many months ago for the entire disk. I have unplugged the external. I've had several backups since then. When the TB icon is not spinning I assumed it was finished and I properly unplugged my usb device.

Today day is the first time I have backed up turning off the automatic back. I was going to update from Mojave to the next version before Big Sure. I am behind.

It is also the first time I have gone to the drive and looked up the backup file to see how much space I have used on the external hard drive. I shows the last update as last night which is correct but the file name is 2011-06-11-093640.inProcess. I went to Time machine and unchecked the auto backup as no data would change during the upgrade.

I don't know if I should get a message, back up is completed. I can't find anywhere that says to just disconnect and it will close the backup file. Am I ok just properly disconnecting the external hard drive?

 

[MacInWin]

If the file has the name ".inProcess" it is not finished. When it is done, the name will be just the date/time stamp. You said you "properly unplugged" your drive. Did you unmount it first? Did you get any error message when you unplugged it? What happens when you enter Time Machine? Do you get the Finder-like screen with the history of backups along the right hand edge?

Normally TM doesn't send a message to say it is complete. TM is designed for the drive to be continually attached so that TM can make a backup every hour. If you don't want to do that, you would have to turn TM off, then unmount the TM drive, then unplug it, to do it the right way.

If you try to unmount a drive and it is in use, the system will throw up an error message to the effect that the drive is in use. But if you just unplug it, no such error, just a message that you should have unmounted it first.

 

[BebeDahling]

Update for question. Before I turned off to not auto update, i think it may have updated the 1, min, 5, minute, 1 hour, etc. Now it shows ( in the attached photo. Oops. I did unplug the EHD and got the message and then plugged it beck in. Do I have to start over. The screen shot is after I did that. I did hit the arrow up beside the drive name but that didn't work. The second time I right clicked and chose "EJECT Backup ..... Please tell me I don't have to start over. Before I start the backup I unchecked. update automatically. I unchecked that while it said inProcess. I think non of my previous backups are good. I started it at 11 pm and checked it at 6 am. I feel brain dead.

 

[BebeDahling]

If the file has the name ".inProcess" it is not finished. When it is done, the name will be just the date/time stamp. You said you "properly unplugged" your drive. Did you unmount it first? Did you get any error message when you unplugged it? What happens when you enter Time Machine? Do you get the Finder-like screen with the history of backups along the right hand edge?

Normally TM doesn't send a message to say it is complete. TM is designed for the drive to be continually attached so that TM can make a backup every hour. If you don't want to do that, you would have to turn TM off, then unmount the TM drive, then unplug it, to do it the right way.

If you try to unmount a drive and it is in use, the system will throw up an error message to the effect that the drive is in use. But if you just unplug it, no such error, just a message that you should have unmounted it first.

I did select

If the file has the name ".inProcess" it is not finished. When it is done, the name will be just the date/time stamp. You said you "properly unplugged" your drive. Did you unmount it first? Did you get any error message when you unplugged it? What happens when you enter Time Machine? Do you get the Finder-like screen with the history of backups along the right hand edge?

Normally TM doesn't send a message to say it is complete. TM is designed for the drive to be continually attached so that TM can make a backup every hour. If you don't want to do that, you would have to turn TM off, then unmount the TM drive, then unplug it, to do it the right way.

If you try to unmount a drive and it is in use, the system will throw up an error message to the effect that the drive is in use. But if you just unplug it, no such error, just a message that you should have unmounted it first.

I did choose EJECT "BackupPlus

 

[MacInWin]

Update for question. Before I turned off to not auto update, i think it may have updated the 1, min, 5, minute, 1 hour, etc. Now it shows ( in the attached photo. Oops. I did unplug the EHD and got the message and then plugged it beck in. Do I have to start over. The screen shot is after I did that. I did hit the arrow up beside the drive name but that didn't work. The second time I right clicked and chose "EJECT Backup ..... Please tell me I don't have to start over. Before I start the backup I unchecked. update automatically. I unchecked that while it said inProcess. I think non of my previous backups are good. I started it at 11 pm and checked it at 6 am. I feel brain dead.

I'm not sure what " think it may have updated the 1, min, 5, minute, 1 hour, etc." means. Maybe you can explain. TM by default makes an update to the backup every hour.

Unplugging the drive in the middle of the backup is how the .inProgress folder was created. I don't think you can pick up where it was because the date/time no longer applies.

What I would recommend is to reconnect the drive, let it mount, then turn on TM and see what it does. If it can somehow pick up and finish, or delete the unfinished backup and get you going again, great. Otherwise you will have to start over.