Time Machine Refuses to Back up a specific file

Hi all!
I have a huge VMWare file that I have excluded from Time Machine. It's 15GB in size. Let's call the file "A".
Last thing I wanted was for it to make a new generation 15 GB backup every time I use VM ware.
I figured, I'll be smart about it. I'll just go and make a copy of the file in a new directory which I WON'T exclude from Time Machine. Let's call it "A*". I'll copy A over to A* whenever I want to make a backup and time machine will take care of the rest!
The Problem:
Time Machine won't backup the copied file A* either even though the directory it is in, isn't being excluded!
So. Is the question is, is there an attribute set on the file by Time Machine that prevents the copy A* from being backed up too?
I thought that perhaps it wasn't picked up by Time Machine because the 'last modified' date was the same as the origina so I 'touched' A* by opening it with VM Ware. This updates the last modified date on the file but still, after manually triggering a backup, it starts and seconds later, it stops. Clearly not enough to transfer 15GB of data to Time Machine.
Any ideas?
Thanks!

VMWare has coded Fusion so that their VM files are specifically excluded from TM backups. They wrote and registered a TM rule to do this... because of the issues it would cause. I got this info from the VMWare Fusion product manager himself... it came in the 1.0.1 or 1.1 update to Fusion.
I don't know how to remove the rule, but you can manually copy and back up the files.

Similar Messages

Time machine no longer backs up changes to files in home folder.

My Time Machine seems to be in some sort of weird state where it has stopped backing up any files/folders in my home (~/) folder or below.
This is obviously a big issue since those are the files most needing to be backed up.
It does catch changes to the /Applications folder, the /Developer folder, and the /usr folder, for some examples.
A typical backup where it misses a lot of changes in my home folder is as follows:
Starting standard backup Backing up to: /Volumes/My Backup Disk/Backups.backupdb No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.22 GB requested (including padding), 253.01 GB available Copied 20 files (157 bytes) from volume . Starting post-backup thinning Deleted backup /Volumes/My Backup Disk/Backups.backupdb/My Computer Name /2009-09-11-185523: 253.01 GB now available Deleted backup /Volumes/My Backup Disk/Backups.backupdb/My Computer Name /2009-09-07-124935: 253.05 GB now available Deleted backup /Volumes/My Backup Disk/Backups.backupdb/My Computer Name /2009-10-03-205432: 253.05 GB now available Deleted backup /Volumes/My Backup Disk/Backups.backupdb/My Computer Name /2009-10-03-205215: 253.05 GB now available Deleted backup /Volumes/My Backup Disk/Backups.backupdb/My Computer Name /2009-10-03-204044: 253.05 GB now available Post-back up thinning complete: 5 expired backups removed Backup completed successfully.
And looking at it in TimeTracker it just shows a lot of 0 byte backups, with the occasional backup with only changes to the above-mentioned folders visible.
How can I reset Time Machine and get it back on track?
I'd like to preserve the current backups on it if possible.

Are you running File Vault?
Besides your TM disk, what's shown in the +Do not back up+ box in TM Preferences > Options?
If nothing there would prevent your home folder from being backed-up, try a "full reset" per #A4 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum.

Time Machine no longer backs up to OSX Server

I have a client who got a new MBP running Mountain Lion to replace her broken MBP running Snow Leopard.
She also has a Snow Leopard server which has some AFP shares and is used as a Time Machine target.
However, after restoring from backup on her new machine using Setup Assistant Time Machine will not back up to the server.
I've tried a bunch of things such as republishing the share, using TMUtil and creating a new share but they all fail with no helpful message.
When I tried TMUtil I got the below message:
tmutil setdestination afp://user:password@Server/Backups/User
Destination does not support lock stealing. (error 45)
The backup destination could not be set.
Is this a compatibility issue between Snow Leopard and Mountain Lion?
If not, how do I fix this?
Note: When I did the migration I was unable to do it over the network so I shutdown the server, removed the USB drive and plugged it in directly to the new MBP.
After it finished I reconnected it to the same port on the server and turned it back on.

If your backup drive is about the same size as the drive you're backing up, then you would be much better served by a bootable clone that is set to run automatically during the week (you pick the frequency but remember there are pro's and con's of daily versus weekly). For cloning, I like carbon copy cloner.
To your specific question, you can read the relavent pondini article
http://pondini.org/TM/C18.html

Time Machine - data to back up keeps on increasing as it's backing up!

Apologies if this has been asked and answered before, but I couldn't find anything on it when I searched.
I want to install Mavericks on my iMac, currently running 10.8.5, but before I do so, I want to do an up-to-date Time Machine backup.
I already had Time Machine set to back up to an external 1TB drive, but after several versions of backups over the past few months, and also me adding and creating several GBs of new data on my iMac, Time Machine ran out of space to do any more backups to the external HD.
So to be safe, before the Mavericks install, I wanted a fresh new up-to-date backup of all my data. I did a quick erase of the external HD to clear the space on it, and also deleted quite a few GBs of unnecessary data on the iMac. After that, I had 999GB of free space on the external HD and just 850-ish GB of data on the iMac to backup. So I set my Time Machine to run, and watched it start backing up... 1GB of 850GB... 2GB of 850GB... 3GB of 850GB... And so on. All going as expected. No problems there.
So then I leave my Mac to get on with it, as it estimates it's going to take several hours.
After the estimated time has passed, I come back to see if it's done, but to my surprise, the progress bar is now reading something along the lines of 850GB of 900GB. Where did the extra 50GB come from to take it up to 900GB?
Worse still, as I sit and watch it continue, it progresses along the lines of 860GB of 920G (60GB remaining), then 870GB of 940GB (now 70GB remaining), then 880GB of 960GB (now 80GB remaining) and so on.
So not only is the total amount increasing for some bizarre reason, but it's also increasing faster than it's backing up!
What on earth is going on here?!
It may be worth mentioning that I originally tried doing this with approx 900GB of data to back up to the external 1TB disk, and a similar thing happened, but when I came back to check on that a couple of hours after it was due to complete, I came back to see an error message stating that Time Machine could not do the backup because it needed an additional 100mb of space. Just 100mb, that's all.
After that error, I removed approx 50GB, way more than 100mb, and got my data down to 850GB before starting this again. But the same thing is happening. The total amount just keeps on increasing and increasing and increasing as it progresses!
It's worth noting that I am not doing ANYTHING else on my Mac whilst this is running that would take up data / disk space. No apps are running at all.
Can anyone please tell me what's going on here, and more importantly, how can I fix it?
Thanks!

Thanks for the suggestions.
I am aware that you can turn Time Machine on and off completely via the preferences, but that basically defeats the purpose of having a "set and forget" backup. Especially since Time Machine specifically includes an option to not backup when on battery power.
I'll try the "full reset" option described in the link to see if that helps.

IMac freezes while Time Machine updates the back up. What to do?

Ever since I upgraded to Lion my iMac freezes or nearly freezes for 5 - 10 minutes every hour while Time Machine updates the back up. What to do?
I have tried everything I can think of but its only improved from total freeze while Time Machine backs up to freeze with an occasional few seconds of activity.
I am really fed up with this.

When I first updated to Lion everything was a mess with freezes happenng constantly like every two or three minutes. Then when looking at the app store I noticed in purchased items that Lion was showing install instead of installed so I downloaded and installed again.
After this install every time Time Machine updated a backup my iMac froze for about 5 or 10 minutes while the backing up was in progress. I was getting really fed up and started this thread. Then one morning I got up and the iMac would not start up. It just sat there with the progress thingy spinning. I started in T mode to look at it from my MacBookPro and two copies of the HD appeared. Both showing zero files. I ran Disk utility on the MacBookPro to try to fix the disk. It showed 8 copies of the disk and all not reparable.
I then created a startup USB drive using my MacBookPro, used it to start up the iMac and restored everything from the previous day's backup. Since then it has been running smoothly with no freezes so maybe the answer is simply to restore a recent backup.
I am using Imation external drives and I don't believe the problem is drive specific.

Time machine does not back up iPhoto in mountain lion ?

My Time Machine does not back up my iPhoto library. When I open Time Machine I get Desktop display going back to installation date.
All other applications respond correctly including Mail, Contacts, etc. My Seagate drive is not involved in the present programme of repair I have been told by Apple. Any ideas?

I'm now fixed and done (update to latest software and learn how to use it)
Thanks again Ivan for the article, it alerted me to otherwise incomprehensible changes in iPhoto/Time Machine operation such as in my case would transfer 3.8GB of data to restore a single photo, while apparently loosing all photos added after that backup time.
However the article says:
When using iPhoto ’11 (version 9.2 or later) and Time Machine with OS X Lion 10.7.2 (or later), iPhoto no longer has the Browse Backups option. This means that instead of restoring specific photos within your iPhoto Library, you must restore your entire iPhoto Library.
This may be practically true but it is technically false.
To restore a single photo in iPhoto '11 with Time Machine it goes something like this:
Start with your Time Machine hard drive and navigate many steps (including showing package contents where necessary) all the way through to the photo/date you want. Drag it to your desktop. (Do not make any edits in Time Machine!) Import to iPhoto. Click on last import in iPhoto. Right click the photo and change the event name, then look for it at the right date in iphoto with the new event name.
Hopefully those with more time and patience can check this out and see what it can do. I had to do it twice with Apple suport senior tech to get it. What a pain compared to iPhoto' 09 but at least now I can restore iPhoto library or a photo if necessary.
David

I keep getting the message "The backup disk image "/Volumes/Donald Baker's Time Capsul/Donald Baker's iMac.sparsebundle" could not be accessed (error -1). does anyone know what this means? My time capsule refuses to back up.

I keep getting the message "The backup disk image “/Volumes/Donald Baker's Time Capsul/Donald Baker’s iMac.sparsebundle” could not be accessed (error -1). does anyone know what this means? My time capsule refuses to back up.

Time Capsule and Time Machine master guru Pondini has all the answers.
Check # C17 in his excellent support document Time Machine -- Troubleshooting.
http://Pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

My time machine will not back up and i get this message: /Volumes/Data/Kathy P's MacBook.sparsebundle" is already in use

my time machine will not back up and i get this message: /Volumes/Data/Kathy P’s MacBook.sparsebundle” is already in use....i have tried multiple fixes but still unable to back up

If you have tried the fixes in Pondini's Time Machine Troublshooting, specifically #C12 and nothing helps, then it is time to let one of the genius types at an Apple Store take a look.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
If you cannot take the Time Capsule to an Apple Store, contact Apple Support directly.
http://www.apple.com/support/contact/

I'm running Pages version 5.2 on a Desktop Mac version 10.9.2. with the Pages app open how do I use the Time Machine to go back five hours to see the work?

I'm running Pages version 5.2 on a Desktop Mac version 10.9.2. With the Pages app open how do I use the Time Machine to go back five hours to see my page? Can I access Time Machine within an app like Pages? How do I enter Time Machine within the application? It always takes me to the Finder. I apolgise for the mumbo jumbo. I simply do not know how to use Time Machine. It makes sense when I follow the Tutorial but then I lose it.

OK. You've kind of skipped over the reason why you want to go back five hours, but my assumption would be that you've made changes to a Pages file that you want to revert.
There are two ways to tackle this. From Pages itself, open the current version of your document, and from the File menu, click Revert To, and Browse All Versions. You'll then be in the Time Machine interface for that file, and can browse back to the version you want.
Or, outside of Pages, you can select the file (or the folder it was originally in, if you've since deleted it) and enter Time Machine from the TM menu (it sounds like you've already tried this?)
best
Matt

Having downloaded Mavericks to my IMac I now find Time Machine couldn't back up to the Time Machine HDD. I am using a WD 1TB independent Hard drive

Having downloaded Mavericks to my IMac two weeks ago, I now find Time Machine couldn't back up to the Time Machine HDD. I am using a WD 1TB External Hard drive. I understand that a number of people have lost data since installing Mavericks on their Western Digital external drives. Has anyone any futher info. Or is there a better way of backing up my computer. Thanks. Lee

Check the More Like This section at the right particularly i upgraded my imac hard drive to a 2tb drive. how do i use time machine to get my computer back to normal?

Time MAchine won't back up due to not enough space, but there is

TIme Machine won't back up. Displays this:
Actual capacity of the external backup drive is 999.68 GB and available is 135 gb .
The imac internal HD capacity is 999.01GB and used space is 636.321 GB.
This problem has occured periodically in the last 12 months or so, so prior to OS version10.8 install in Jul 2012.
I previously called AppleCare, as I have a contract, and tech said I just need to reformat the external drive and start over.
I did that the last time this happened a few months ago, but I don't like that option, as it eliminates all the prior backups,
What if I needed to try to recover something I deleted 3 weeks ago, for example. I couldn't do so as all backups would have been deleted, of course, by me having refomatted the drive and basically starting over. Also, I noted in another post about a person having a problem due to using a partitioned drive. Mine is not partition, as far as I can tell. See this:
Any ideas? Thanks

The solution is essentially "simple." You need a larger hard drive for these backups or you need to use a different backup solution. By this I mean using backup software that does not preserve an archive of old copies of a file, but simply erases old copies in order to replace them with the new copies. By replacing your backup drive can always accommodate the drive it backs up if it is large enough - say the same size. I can suggest:
Backup Software Recommendations
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
SuperDuper!
Synk Pro
Tri-Backup
Others may be found at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
All of the above are capable of being scheduled. Synk Pro makes immediate backups of any changed file on the hard drive. You may configure it to archive changes (like Time Machine) or to delete prior copies.

Time machine won't back up

I just got a new MacBook Air with Lion. On my old Mac, I thought I remembered that Time Machine would only backup files that have changed since the last time I backed up my drive. I used Time Machine to transfer my old desktop to my new Air. Today when I tried to use TIme Machine to back it up, it said I did not have enough space.
I'm not clear if it's trying to back up the whole drive or just things that have changed since the install (which is all I need).
What should I do to make more room for my current back up or to instruct Time Machine only to back up items that have changed since the last backup?
Thanks.

FWIW I had this sort of problem which generally #$%^& me off. I had a brainstorm and tried somebody's MBP and it worked just as expected. So I reinstalled Leopard after erasing and formating the drive and using time machine off my external LaCie.
That didn't work worth a #$%^&
So I once again, reformatted the drive and reinstalled leopard FROM THE DVD and then used time machine as part of the migration assistant, and everything worked perfectly, and I can now use TC with my Mac Pro octo.
So something MIGHT be hosed on your system, and if you feel that you have a solid back up, reinstall off the DVD and then migrate with time machine.
Hope this helps. I spent about 2 days getting this straightened out.

Time Machine won't back up after system restore

I just restored my system after a failure, and now Time Machine won't back up my hard drive. It gets about 40 out of 90 Gigabytes done, and then gives me an error message that just says that there was an error while backing up, and doesn't give any other information. I ran a Verify Disk with Disk Utility, and there is nothing wrong with the backup drive, and there is more than 200 Gigabytes of space left on that drive.
Thank You.

zhoffmanster wrote:
Ok, so here's the thing: I tried backing up again today, and it worked just fine. Before, what would happen is a message would pop saying "an error has occurred during backup" (or something close to that). The point is, the message didn't give any detail.
No, the point is, you seem to have ignored this:
See the Time Machine - Troubleshooting post at the top of this forum.

Time Machine won't back up to drive. Five days backing up so far

A week ago I got a message saying that Time Machine could not back up to my external hard drive but that I could access my old backups. I pointed Time Machine to another hard drive and it has been backing up there for five days so far - all the time stating Time remaining 5 seconds. It is now in a cleanup mode. I have been reading about various bugs concerning Time Machine and wonder if there is a fix I can carry out so that I can use the original external hard drive again.

Stop the backup. Boot in safe mode and log in. Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including Wi-Fi on certain iMacs. The next normal boot may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin. Test while in safe mode. Same problem? After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

Time Machine won't back up external drive to Time Capsule

I recently got a Time Capsule, and successfully set it up to back up my iMac's primary drive, but for some reason Time Machine won't back up my external drive to the Time Capsule.
I removed the external drive from the exclusion list in System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, and from what I've read this should be sufficient to make Time Machine back up the drive.
The external drive is connected to my iMac via Thunderbolt > Thunderbolt-to-Firewire adaptor > Firewire 800 input, and the Time Capsule is connected via Ethernet to my LAN.
Since I'm using Ethernet, I've disabled Wi-Fi on the Time Capusule by going to AirPort Utility > My Time Capsule > Edit > Wireless > Network Mode > Off.
The reason I believe the external drive is not being backed up is because when I click the Time Machine icon in the upper-right status bar and choose "Enter Time Machine", none of the folders on external drive show any older versions.
Furthermore, when I click Finder > Time Machine Backups > Backups.backupdb, I can see only one sub-folder which has the name of my iMac's primary drive. I can't see any equivalent folder for my external drive.
Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

I don't see anything you have done wrong.. perhaps it does backup in a different way.
Load the widget.. A1 here... http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
That will allow you to track the log of TM to see what it is doing.
I would also try rebooting the computer.. exclude the drive again.. reboot.. and remove the exclusion.
You should be able to check the actual settings of TM in plist file.
And you can do a full reset of TM as well.. See A4. Check what is in the file. Pondini lists the location for you.
Nothing surprises me with Mountain Lion ...!!

Time Machine Refuses to Back up a specific file

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for