Time Machine won't backup – but no error message

Hi community,
I'm using TimeMachine with MacOs Version 10.6.8, on an iMac with an 3.2 GHz Intel Core i3 Processor.
Actually, I was pretty happy with it for several months, never had any error messages.
But suddenly, TimeMachine started to backup the same files over and over again. It created new folders with the current and correct date, but in the folders there are no "new" files, even if there are numerous of new files on my hard drive.
So I thought, perhaps there's not enough space left on my external drive, so I bought a new one. Same problem here. It backed up correctly a few weeks, then it started to back up the same files over & over again.
My hard drive has a capacity of about 1 TB, my USB drive is a Samsung with 600 GB Capacity, formatted with MacOS Extended (Journaled)
Space used on my hard drive: 417 GB, free space on my USB drive: 252 GB > haha, that's probably the problem, but I thougt TimeMachine erases the older files on the external drive if there is no more space left?
And: why isnt't there an error message, then?
Hope anyone can help! Thanks in advance!
Verena

hi eric,
thank you for your quick answer! what the console says is the following (extract):
Post-back up thinning complete: 5 expired backups removed
Backup completed successfully.
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.13 GB requested (including padding), 206.20 GB available
Copied 744 files (2.7 MB) from volume [myvolume].
No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.13 GB requested (including padding), 206.20 GB available
Copied 67 files (93 bytes) from volume [myvolume].
Starting post-backup thinning
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/[myvolume]/2011-10-05-170346: 206.20 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/[myvolume]/2011-10-05-110315: 206.21 GB now available
Post-back up thinning complete: 5 expired backups removed
Backup completed successfully.
Actually, this time it really backed up my data … but why now and a few days ago it didn't? (Console also says "Backup completed successfully." for this date.)
Hm anyways, seems to work now, but I don't like the thought that I can't rely on it … would like to understand what this machine is doing … :-)

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hi eric,
thank you for your quick answer! what the console says is the following (extract):
Post-back up thinning complete: 5 expired backups removed
Backup completed successfully.
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.13 GB requested (including padding), 206.20 GB available
Copied 744 files (2.7 MB) from volume [myvolume].
No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.13 GB requested (including padding), 206.20 GB available
Copied 67 files (93 bytes) from volume [myvolume].
Starting post-backup thinning
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/[myvolume]/2011-10-05-170346: 206.20 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/[myvolume]/2011-10-05-110315: 206.21 GB now available
Post-back up thinning complete: 5 expired backups removed
Backup completed successfully.
Actually, this time it really backed up my data … but why now and a few days ago it didn't? (Console also says "Backup completed successfully." for this date.)
Hm anyways, seems to work now, but I don't like the thought that I can't rely on it … would like to understand what this machine is doing … :-)

Time machine won't backup, yet plenty of space & not much used on Mac HD

Well, this is yet another "Time machine won't backup becuase there is not enough space" thread. I have searched Google and threads here but it's still a mystery why this error is occurring and it seems there is no clear solution. I also looked at the Apple Time Machine errors FAQ as well.
Here are my specs and what I have tried so far.
2010 Mac Pro Quad Core with 1 TB hard drive with 12 GB RAM. (137 GB used so far on internal Mac hard drive disk, so about 863 GB free space).
- New external 1 TB hard drive initialized as Time Machine backup disk when inserted for the first time.
The exact error I am getting is this: "This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 1.80 TB but only 999.20 GB are available."
I have tried deleting the Time Machine system preference, reinitializing the external disk, clearing the system caches with Cocktail, restarting and letting Time machine ask me all over again if I wanted to use the external drive for Time Machine. Still the same error.
My question is how on earth can 1.80 TB be required for the backup when I only have 137 GB of used space?

danomatic12 wrote:
My question is how on earth can 1.80 TB be required for the backup when I only have 137 GB of used space?
Two possibilities:
There's another disk (or disks) connected to your Mac. If they're formatted HFS+, Time Machine is trying to back it/them up as well. You can exclude them per #10 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). The 1.8 TB includes 20% for temporary workspace on the TM drive, so TM is estimating the backup at about 1.5 TB.
Something on your internal HD is corrupted, causing an incorrect calculation. Verify your internal HD, per #6 in [Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/DU.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Using Snow Leopard+ forum).

Time Machine won't backup up to external firewire drive

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☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the page that opens.
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Post the log text, please, not a screenshot. If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Do not post many repetitions of the same message.
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Mickmannock wrote:
I followed the proceedure described to delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist. However I note that there are very many versions of this file in other locations.
There shouldn't be. Delete any others.
Make sure the one you deleted was in your top-level /Library folder (not the Library folder inside your home folder). If you got the right one, when you went back to the Time Machine Preferences window, it should not have shown your TM drive or anything else.
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http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com/2009/05/timemachine-doesnt-back-up-iphoto-if.h tml
The next question is, does this mean I haven't had a REAL iTunes backup for months either? I AWLAYS keep that one open.

polishedstaple wrote:
I just learned the hard way that Time Machine will NOT backup iPhoto if you leave it open. In the past, I usually have iPhoto left open, and now I've lost TONS of data. Can Apple change how Time Machine works so that it backs up data of open applications?
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The next question is, does this mean I haven't had a REAL iTunes backup for months either? I AWLAYS keep that one open.
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Time Machine won't backup ANY files though no error is given

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5/15/13 10:45:26.482 AM com.apple.backupd[32]: Starting manual backup
5/15/13 10:45:26.499 AM com.apple.backupd[32]: Backing up to: /Volumes/GORT Backup/Backups.backupdb
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5/15/13 10:45:26.712 AM com.apple.backupd[32]: Forcing deep traversal on source: "Macintosh HD" (mount: '/' fsUUID: D529F94C-4C76-364B-972D-62E8137770E2 eventDBUUID: E69B6460-6ACB-4C50-906F-91D8202C8608)
5/15/13 10:45:52.813 AM com.apple.backupd[32]: Backup content size: 203.7 GB excluded items size: 13.42 GB for volume Macintosh HD
5/15/13 10:45:52.815 AM com.apple.backupd[32]: Found 1419395 files (190.28 GB) needing backup
5/15/13 10:45:52.816 AM com.apple.backupd[32]: 228.34 GB required (including padding), 999.16 GB available
5/15/13 10:45:52.826 AM com.apple.backupd[32]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
5/15/13 10:45:54.917 AM com.apple.backupd[32]: Copied 1 files (Zero KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
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So it seems like it THOUGHT there was something to back up then changed its mind? An advice is welcome.

Thanks Linc. Here you go:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
          <key>sourcePaths</key>
          <array>
                    <string>/</string>
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          <key>standardExclusionPaths</key>
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                    <string>/.MobileBackups.trash</string>
                    <string>/.Spotlight-V100</string>
                    <string>/.TemporaryItems</string>
                    <string>/.Trashes</string>
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                    <string>/Users/Shared/SC Info</string>
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                    <string>/dev</string>
                    <string>/home</string>
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                    <string>/private/var/folders</string>
                    <string>/private/var/run</string>
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                    <string>/private/var/db/fseventsd</string>
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                    <string>/System/Library/Caches</string>
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                    <string>/private/var/log</string>
                    <string>/private/var/spool/cups</string>
                    <string>/private/var/spool/fax</string>
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          <false/>
          <key>userExclusionPaths</key>
          <array/>
</dict>
</plist>

Time Machine Won't Backup to Time Capsule Error 22

Every time I click "Back up now" on my MacBook, after saying "Making Backup Disk Available" for 2-3 minutes it gives me error 22. I finally looked up in the console what was going on and this is what it says...
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Please help, I have not been able to back up my Mac for months now.
I have tried everything, erasing the time capsule disk 5 times now, reset the settings on the time capsule to default and then reset it up again, tried reinstalling Snow Leopard on my mac 3 times now, rebooted my mac, rebooted my time capsule. Nothing works. One time I got it to start backing up but stopped at about 700mb and stopped and gave me error 22.
Thanks in advance!
Message was edited by: chester4444

chester4444 wrote:
I just tried to open the sparse bundle myself through finder and the finder froze. I opened the force quit window and tried relaunching the finder but now the finder wont open, its giving me the dreaded
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I am trying to store my iTunes music library on an external hard drive because I have run out of space on my hard drive. I have moved my folder to the external drive, but before I delete the folder from my computer I want to make sure my Time Machine is backing up the drive containing my music as well. However when I go into Time Machine preferences and tell it to include the other hard drive in its backups it says "The backup was not preformed because an error occured while copying files to the backup disk. The problem may be temporary. Try again later to back up. If the problem persists, use Disk Utility to repair your backup disk."
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Time Machine won't backup my external drive

I have my iTunes library stored on an external drive and I want Time Machine to back it up.
I have a brand new TM drive. I've been using it without problems to backup my 250Gb iMac. As soon as I add the external drive to the TM backup, it fails. I have other data on this drive that I don't need backed up, so I've only included the sub directory iTunes (by excluding all the others).
I followed a couple of similar threads, but the situations don't seem to apply. I did install Time Machine buddy so I could see the error messages.
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb
Node requires deep traversal:/Volumes/Music:DVDs reason:must scan subdirs|
No pre-backup thinning needed: 151.31 GB requested (including padding), 1.56 TB available
Error: (2) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.SnapshotVolumeUUID path:/Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Tori's iMac/2009-11-25-182722.inProgress/3B5DD274-5AB6-44D1-9F1B-561934FB44AD/Music/DV Ds size:37
Stopping backup.
Copied 0 files (0 bytes) from volume Music/DVDs.
Copy stage failed with error:11
Backup failed with error: 11
Drives are all formatted OS Extended Journaled
I've run Disk Util on all the drives - no errors.
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If I remove the external drive from the backup, it starts to work again.

The mystery deepens . . .
I tried to replicate the problem. Renamed an empty partition from Misc2 to Misc2/test and copied some docs into it and ran a backup.
Sure enough, the message refers to it as Misc2:test and the deep traversal took almost a minute and a half (one folder, 3 sub-folders, total of about 30 items!), but it ran successfully.
So renamed it again, to Music/DVDs exactly like yours. No deep traversal, and it does call it Music:DVDs in the messages, but it backed-up properly.
Perhaps it was fixed in Snow Leopard? Or just another of TM's many little quirks? Perhaps the phase of the moon?
Edit: Some of your posts say you're on 10.5.3, others 10.6.2. Which is correct?
Message was edited by: Pondini

Time Machine won't backup – but no error message

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