Backup skips files

Question

Hi
I have a strange error with my Time Machine backup.
The backup is skipping newly created files.
The only way I can get the backup to include the new files is to go in to the very top level "Macintosh HD" or other directory and change a file so that the #changed" date is changed at the top level.
Sometimes that does not help if files are very deep in the structure i suspect ...
I did reinstalled the system and started over the time machine backup. Things was going fine for a couple of days. But soon started to skip files again.
Sometimes a restart does help. And sometimes not.
I have also tried "safe reboot" and that helped.
But the problems always comes back after some time.
What can cause this kind of trouble?
Could it be that the user account is corrupted?
I have a test account that seems to be backed up ok. But I have not tested for very long.
Could it be the actual hard drive? I have one of the Imacs with Seagate drives that is part of exchange program.
I don't get any error messages or anything.
Any help would be apreciated.
Regards
olle

Answer 1

If you use the third-party application "Dropbox," you may see files in the Finder that are not present locally, but are actually on a network server. Those files won't be backed up and won't appear in Time Machine, even though they show in a Finder window. If the files in question are in a Dropbox folder, disable the software or refer to its developer for support.
Continue only if you've ruled out Dropbox or any similar product as a possible cause of the issue.
Time Machine uses the modification times of folders to determine whether their contents need to be scanned for changes made since the time of the last snapshot. For some reason, that criterion occasionally fails, and TM doesn’t scan folders with contents that have changed. You may be able to get backups to resume by updating the modification times of all your folders.
Important: This procedure will change the modification times of all folders on the startup volume. It won’t affect anything that’s not a folder, and it won’t change your existing backups at all. If you have a reason to want to keep the modification times of folders as they are, STOP.
Before proceeding, you must have a current backup of all data. Since your existing Time Machine backups may not be current, you’ll have to back up in some other way; for example, by starting a new TM backup set on another external drive. It’s a good idea to do this anyway, as you always need more than one backup, even if everything is working perfectly.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
sudo find / -xdev -type d -exec touch {} \;
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ 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.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. Confirm. You don't need to post the warning. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear. You can then quit Terminal.
The next snapshot will take longer than usual, because all folders will be scanned for changes. When it’s complete, check the results to see how much data has been backed up.
This procedure will only affect the backups of your startup volume. If you back up other source volumes with Time Machine and are having the same problem with those, you’ll need to take additional steps.