Am I on wrong track or is my Apple Cider gonna waste?

I am new to this forum. I am questions regarding ACV. But for this I am writing the complete scenario for understanding.
Last year, I made ACV (watching some tutorials from YouTube) and ingredients I used were:

1. Water
2. Sugar
3. Apples as whole
   During the making of it, I had the smell of something acidic going around in the kitchen and i guess it was fine but even after fermenting and preserving it for a long time, I couldn’t see the Mother in it (the cloudy film in it).

Question 1: Did I do something wrong in it? Although I took care of everything even I tasted a bit sour and acidic too. I still have it preserved in a bottle.
Moving ahead, about 2 and a half week back from today, I started to make another batch of ACV and ingredients I used this time were:

1. Water
2. Sugar
3. Apples as whole
4. Yeast (a lil bit, not much)
5. Previous batch ACV (just a glass of it in a jar)

Problem is that I am actually worried about is, when I stirred it after one week of starting, I could see some bubbles in it, but after 2nd week when I looked at it to stir, I couldn’t see any bubbles in it and majority of the apples were sunken to the bottom, I tried smelling it closely. Okay, it smells a bit of acidic of maybe alcoholic but it’s aroma isn’t spreading like the previous one in the kitchen.

Question 2: I am worried if this batch is waste, is the yeast in it is dead, if there is less sugar in it, is there something else or if it’s going fine? (No, there is no mold or something in it, that’s atleast a good sign)

Question 3: I am not clear till day that how long do we have to ferment apples then enclose the liquid to form the Mother?

Please guide me, because I really am worried about it.

Update: I read somewhere that it happens when sugar is in excess. I just added some yeast to it and i can see that bubbling going like right now that made clear that i think i got messed up with yeast since start because i think i made a mistake by adding a lil bit hot water not lukewarm water. Will check it regularly, hopefully I have to keep a strict check on sugar and yeast so that the process could proceed smoothly.