Interference with Time Machine backups

I've had Bitdefender for several years now and it just started preventing my Time Machine backups, any solutions for this?

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Best Answers

  • SteveI
    Answer ✓

    Since this has become a long term issue for many of us, how about coming up with a work around such as telling us how to temporarily disable Bitdefender so we can do a back-up and then turn it back on. Is this possible

  • Alexandru_BD
    Alexandru_BD admin
    Answer ✓

    Hi,

    I think the only workaround would be to turn off or disable Time Machine Protection:

    1. Click Protection on the navigation menu on the Bitdefender interface;

    2. Select the Anti-Ransomware tab;

    3. Disable the Time Machine Protection switch.

    Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user

Answers

  • Gjoksi
    Gjoksi DEFENDER OF THE YEAR 2022 / DEFENDER OF THE MONTH ✭✭✭✭✭

    Hello.

    This is a known issue. Check out these topics:

    There is nothing much you could do, but to contact Bitdefender Consumer Support, by following these steps:

    First, take screenshot(s) of the issue

    and create a log file on your MacOS device using BDProfiler, by following these steps:

    https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/1863/

    Next, contact Bitdefender Consumer Support by e-mail (select: How to's & Troubleshooting Bitdefender products -> Troubleshooting -> Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac, scroll down, click on "Contact Support" and click on "Send us an email!:):

    https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/help/

    with short description of the issue.

    After that, you will get an automated reply by the Bitdefender Customer Care Team, with your ticket number.

    Now, in reply to that automated reply, you can send the screenshot(s) you already took and the log file you already created in the first step.

    Since you are all done, just wait for the support engineers to investigate your issue and find a solution to fix the issue.

    Remember that the screenshot(s) and the log file will help a lot to the support engineers for better and faster investigation on your issue and finding a solution.

    Regards.

  • Hi,

    This is a known issue and has been acknowledged by the development teams who are pushing for a fix.

    Thank you for your understanding.

    Regards

    Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user

  • Has there been any update on a fix? I use Netgear Armor. It stopped allowing Time Machine backups on one computer but not the other. The problem seems to have been festering for a long time. Is there a workaround to disable a portion of Bitdefender to allow Time Machine to back up? I'm starting to be very sorry that I re-upped with Bitdefender.

  • Using Netgear Armor and I have the same problem - time Machine stopped working. For those of us who rely on Time Machine as our primary backup for MacOS ( and I would guess that's most of us on this thread of the forum), this is a critical problem. Bitdefender - please advise on ETA for a fix.

  • Hello,

    The engineers and product teams have underlined the importance and priority of this situation to our partner Netgear and I'm confident they will soon reach an agreement on the best way to resolve this problem.

    The troubleshooting process was very challenging and they ran into some blockers. Again, this was not a walk in the park and multiple teams are involved in the task. We don't have an ETA at the moment, but an update on the progress was requested today.

    Regards

    Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user

  • From what I can tell the last post was a month ago. Any progress being made? Is the only workaround removing Bitdefender in order to use Time Machine for backups?

    Best

  • Hi,

    A fix for this behavior is still undergoing development. We do not have an estimated time for the release of the fix yet, but it will be implemented by an automatic update of Bitdefender. Please keep in mind that all reported bugs require investigation, fixing and testing time. Since product updates are usually released once a month, it may take at least 1 month until a fix is implemented in the product, once found - this does not include the debugging period.

    Regards

    Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user

  • Great work around! I disabled it for an hour and backed up my computer and turned it back on.

  • Glad to hear it worked @SteveI 🙂

    Have a good weekend!

    Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user

  • Hi @Alexandru_BD ,

    I'm another Netgear Armor customer having the same problem with Time Machine backups being blocked by Antivirus for Mac. Thanks for advising that there's a fix on the way.

    More generally, my version of Antivirus, which is the latest available under my Netgear subscription, is 8.4.0.36. But the latest version available from the Bitdefender website is 9.2.0.12.

    Why is Netgear so far behind?

    Cheers,

    Ben

  • Hi @Ben P,

    I think this is something that only the developers assigned to fix the issue together with our partners know for sure.

    We don't have any news at this point, we are aware that efforts are being made to come up with a resolution asap, but there's no ETA and it's difficult to predict one, since various teams are involved in the task. This is still on the priority list and it's one of those situations that require investigation and debugging time.

    Regards

    Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user

  • Well, with all due respect and understanding how this can happen, let me say that it would have been appropriate to at least broadcast such a BIG problem. I have wasted hours researching this issue thinking it was my problem when it was yours—you know a bit of understanding and empathy—like saying "sorry this has happened, we know it's a problem please bear with us, and we'll solve ASAP" would have been in order to say the least and not ignore the problem. I think it's fair to say most of those who use Bitdefender trust the product - it's up to you to keep that bond of trust alive and this is certainly not the way to go guys. I'm rather angry thinking about the hours I have put behind solving this issue because my data is of the utmost importance to me and my business: without my data I'm in a hole and I sweat cold thinking what would happen if I were without it. I have two independent backup disks working on alternate days and when one is at work the other is completely offline and disconnected from the power line as well to guarantee its integrity. You should keep the needs of your customers at the centre of your attention...

  • FIX THIS PROBLEM!!!!! ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!! IT’S BEEN MONTHS!!!!

  • Gjoksi
    Gjoksi DEFENDER OF THE YEAR 2022 / DEFENDER OF THE MONTH ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Alexandru_BD

    Mate, i think that Bitdefender dev team should fix the issue as soon as possible!

    Regards.

  • Hello,

    This has proven far more difficult to fix than expected. Obviously, all teams involved are aware of the impact and the developers are making continuous efforts to solve this issue once and for all, but as I've mentioned earlier on, there are some critical implications and the operating system's characteristics play a big role in the development of the fix.

    We don't have an ETA yet.

    Regards

    Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user

  • Arno_007
    edited January 2023

    Hello Dev-team,

    I have been searching a while what is causing my backups to break. Now I discover that this a known problem for several months!

    Please fix this as soon as possible, and give us an ETA. My subscription ends by end of January. If I don't have a solution I don't have an other option than not to renew this.

    Best regards

  • I find the fact that bitdefender is still advertising Time Machine Protection as a feature knowing it’s not functional a bit disconcerting. I’m coming up on renewal from an antivirus competitor and was going to make the switch. This feature was the deciding factor. It’s the beginning of May, any news on whether a fix has been implemented?

  • Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user

  • Hello, the problem came back on Mac with MacOS 14.0 (Sonoma).

  • Hello @Merlin31650,

    On the same topic, check out this thread:

    The developers could reproduce this behavior for macOS Sonoma as well and a fix has been uploaded. It's not technically an update, but an automatic hotfix. There won't be an actual notification for the fix and this is for the latest non-Netgear version. The hotfix was released in the same day when the issue was reported, however it make take some time to propagate to all users. I can't say for sure when the rollout was completed, but it should be available to everyone by now. It is not related to the manual update feature.

    The file is downloaded when the antivirus starts (so from when the system starts). If it fails to load, it will keep trying to download every 5 minutes. The issue may appear during install as well, but once the file is downloaded, it should no longer be present. A permanent fix will also be released for this behavior and the antivirus will include it so that this download won't be required anymore.

    One of our members confirmed that they have successfully upgraded to macOS Sonoma 14.0 on their iMac (M1, 2021) - and both Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac as well as Time Machine appear to be working as expected.

    Let us know if this worked for you.

    Regards,

    Alex

    Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user

  • Just started having this issue today. Intel Mac running Sonoma 14.0. Got 25 notifications in 3 minutes. Is there a fix?

  • Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user