I am at a real loss. As it happens timemachinig to an external drive HFS drive (connected to a Mac Mini M2) used to work no issues. I have also tried with an APFS just because. Did all the dances I could find (going up to page three in google searches), forget the drive, clear the related keychain keys, reconnect, reboots etc. No luck.
The thing always ends, after a few seconds, with
The network backup disk could not be accessed because there was a problem with the network username or password. You may need to re-select the backup disk and enter the correct username and password.
Which taken together with
backupd: (TimeMachine) [com.apple.TimeMachine:General] Authentication error (80) - the correct user or password info may not exist in the System.keychain or the server may no longer allow access for this user.
Seems to point to a keychain issue, since of course the corresponding keychain record exists.
An old post [https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/keychain-issues.1225417/] gave me some hope, but the solutions suggested there did not work, as my plists do not appear faulty.
I can access it & manage its content no issues, as well as (once mounted) select it as TM target. TM cannot find it when attempting to backup to it.
Also, I checked ../Preferences/apple.com.security.plist (both my user's and global) against a TM backup of a few days ago. No differences :-(
Furthermore, I installed a clean Ventura, same as the one running on the affected machine, on an external T3. Booted from it, did the TM settings dance to the network external drive... and of course things work. Looking for differences, I noticed that in the clean Ventura /Library/Preferences/apple.com.security.plist does not exist. Nor it is created upon reboot. So I deleted the one on the affected machine. TM still fails. Rebooted. TM still fails.
Following @KhaineBOT advice, I checked the console for NetSysAuthAgent events on the affected machine. It clearly show the steps to failure, as follows:
Creating MechType session for stage 0
NetAuthSysAgent Mount URL: request D3389FED-52D6-4CA1-A11E-D4783431B91A from backupd (546)
NetAuthSysAgent URL = smb://[email protected]./256GBAPFS
NetAuthSysAgent Session created
NetAuthSysAgent GetServerInfo serverParamsDict = {
GuestOnly = 0;
MechTypesSupported = {
SPNEGONegTokenInitHintsHostname = "not_defined_in_RFC4178@please_ignore";
SPNEGONegTokenInitMechs = {
"1.2.752.43.14.3" = {length = 0, bytes = 0x};
"1.2.840.113554.1.2.2" = {length = 0, bytes = 0x};
"1.2.840.48018.1.2.2" = {length = 0, bytes = 0x};
"1.3.5.1.5.2.7" = {length = 0, bytes = 0x};
"1.3.6.1.4.1.311.2.2.10" = {length = 0, bytes = 0x};
"1.3.6.1.5.2.5" = {length = 0, bytes = 0x};
"1.3.6.1.5.5.14" = {length = 0, bytes = 0x};
};
SPNEGOServerSupportsLKDC = yes;
};
SMBNativeOS = WINDOWS;
ServerDisplayName = "MiniM2.local.";
SupportsChangePassword = 0;
SupportsGuest = 1;
}
NetAuthSysAgent SecKeychainSetUserInteractionAllowed(false) secKeychainStatus = 0
NetAuthSysAgent Found Server Marker for "MiniM2.local."
NetAuthSysAgent SecKeychainSetUserInteractionAllowed(interactionAllowed) secKeychainStatus = 0
NetAuthSysAgent User has visited this machine before
NetAuthSysAgent isKnownServer 1
NetAuthSysAgent Next CredentialsStage set to 1
NetAuthSysAgent Next CredentialsStage set to 2
NetAuthSysAgent Creating MechType session for stage 2
NetAuthSysAgent Adding the user name "mini" to the MechType session info
NetAuthSysAgent NAHCreate: hostname=<private> service=cifs
NetAuthSysAgent NAHCreate: will use hostname=<private>
NetAuthSysAgent NAHCreate: will use service=cifs
NetAuthSysAgent NAH: specific name is: <private> foo
NetAuthSysAgent NAHCreate: username=<private> username given
NetAuthSysAgent NAHCreate: SPNEGO hints name <private>
NetAuthSysAgent NAHCreate-krb: have_kerberos=yes try_iakerb_with_lkdc=no try-wkdc=yes use-spnego=yes
NetAuthSysAgent MechType session created for host "MiniM2.local.", service "cifs".
NetAuthSysAgent Unable to get a MechTypes for the MechType session using credentials
... repeats above in 5 stages, and gives up
NetAuthSysAgent There are no MechTypes available for the MechType session
NetAuthSysAgent Calling OpenSession:
NetAuthSysAgent server smb://[email protected]./256GBAPFS
NetAuthSysAgent OpenSession failed 80
NetAuthSysAgent CloseSession result 0
NetAuthSysAgent Reply Connect to Server status = 80
...TM backup failed
Any ideas, pointers will be greatly appreciated.
