Invalid handle causes backup to fail

[amkassir]

I'm doing a backup of my boot drive, and encounter errors shown below. One is "MapError: unknown Mac error 11", and the other is "Trouble reading files, error =1,100 (invalid handle)". This last error leads to an incomplete execution. Any thoughts on how to fix this?

Thanks.

+  Recycle backup using MBP SSD Backup to T7 Solo at 2/25/23, 3:37:26 AM (Activity Thread 1)
    2/25/23 3:37:26 AM: Finished scanning backup set data files
    To Backup Set T7 Solo Backup...
    2/25/23 3:37:26 AM: Recycle backup: The Backup Set was reset
    -  2/25/23 3:37:26 AM: Copying MacBook Pro SSD
    [*] MapError: unknown Mac error 11
    *File "/Volumes/MacBook Pro SSD/Users/amkassir/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox/.Trash/": can't read, error -1,002 (unknown Mac OS error)
    2/25/23 3:38:12 AM: Found: 1529865 files, 297893 folders, 592.1 GB
    2/25/23 3:38:18 AM: Finished matching
    2/25/23 3:38:38 AM: Selector "All (no Cache, Retro Catalogs, iOS backups, et al)" was used to select 1,410,557 files out of 1,529,865.
    No prior backup found for MacBook Pro SSD, skipping Anomaly Detection
    2/25/23 3:39:10 AM: Copying: 1373253 files (363 GB) and 37304 hard links
    !Trouble reading files, error -1,100 (invalid handle)
    2/25/23 4:46:23 AM: Execution incomplete
    Remaining: 323,817 files, 237.8 GB
    Completed: 1,049,436 files, 125.2 GB
    Performance: 1,936.2 MB/minute
    Duration: 01:08:57 (00:02:43 idle/loading/preparing)

[Lennart_T]

What version of macOS?

What version of Retrospect?

What kind of Macbook Pro? 

What happens if you empty the Dropbox trash? (Since the first error concerns the Dropbox trash.)

[amkassir]

Hello Lennart.

• Mac OS Ventura 13.2.1
• MacBook Pro 15" 2018 2.9 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i9
• Retrospect Version 19.1.0 (219)

I permanently deleted the single file in Dropbox trash online (I couldn't find a Dropbox trash folder on my Mac, even when making invisible files/folders visible). Despite not finding the Dropbox .Trash folder, for good measure, I ran the terminal command, sudo rm -r /Users/amkassir/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox/.Trash/ The command didn't return any error. I'll try another backup and report back.

[amkassir]

Unfortunately, the same "invalid handle" error recurred and prevented the backup from completing. The other file not found errors are not concerning.

+  Recycle backup using MBP SSD Backup to T7 Solo at 2/28/23, 10:40:12 PM (Activity Thread 1)
    2/28/23 10:40:12 PM: Finished scanning backup set data files
    To Backup Set T7 Solo Backup...
    2/28/23 10:40:12 PM: Recycle backup: The Backup Set was reset
    -  2/28/23 10:40:12 PM: Copying MacBook Pro SSD
    2/28/23 10:41:00 PM: Found: 1546642 files, 298019 folders, 592.5 GB
    2/28/23 10:41:06 PM: Finished matching
    2/28/23 10:41:26 PM: Selector "All (no Cache, Retro Catalogs, iOS backups, et al)" was used to select 1,411,955 files out of 1,546,642.
    No prior backup found for MacBook Pro SSD, skipping Anomaly Detection
    2/28/23 10:41:59 PM: Copying: 1374651 files (363 GB) and 37304 hard links
    *File "/Volumes/MacBook Pro SSD/Users/amkassir/.Trash/.DS_Store": can't read, error -1,101 (file/directory not found)
    *File "/Volumes/MacBook Pro SSD/Users/amkassir/.Trash/Cocktail16VE.dmg": can't read, error -1,101 (file/directory not found)
    !Trouble reading files, error -1,100 (invalid handle)
    3/1/23 12:03:30 AM: Execution incomplete
    Remaining: 324,403 files, 237.9 GB
    No longer present: 2 files, 2.8 MB
    Completed: 1,050,246 files, 125 GB
    Performance: 1,591.7 MB/minute
    Duration: 01:23:18 (00:02:52 idle/loading/preparing)

[amkassir]

Problem solved.

I decided to do piecemeal backups of my volume to see if I could determine where the problem file resided. I found that the “invalid handle” error occurred when backing up my user folder, and this time, some of the offending files were listed in the log. It appeared to be more than a thousand files with the same error, all of which resided in the Dropbox folder (~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox/). I copied those files to a different volume without any problem and tried to back them up, with no errors. Then I removed Dropbox and all its files from my computer, then reinstalled Dropbox and downloaded all the files again from the Dropbox cloud. After doing this, I was able to do the backup without any “invalid handle errors.” So I guess it was something that went awry in the Dropbox folder. To wit, now the Dropbox folder only contains one item, Dropbox, while previously it contained all other Dropbox folders and files as well. This is strange because all my files are downloaded to my Mac for offline usage, so this might be a symptom of whatever was wrong before.

[Lennart_T]

Thanks for providing the solution.