Excluding items from back up and Time Capsule not recognising ext HD

I'm relatively new to the world of Time Machine and Time Capsule. I have a 250Gb iMac, but because my iTunes library was becoming so large I purchased a Iomega 500Gb ext HD and transferred it over to this where it is currently occupying about 350Gb of space. I still have about 220Gb duplicated on my iMac at the moment as a kind of back up. I then discovered Time Machine and because there was only about 100Gb of space left on the ext HD to do back ups on I excluded my music and iTunes library from this. This has been going along fine for the past month.
I purchase a 2 TB Time Capsule (TC) yesterday. I reconfigured Time Machine to use the TC as the back up and I removed the excluded music/iTunes library so that everything would be backed up. As soon as I asked TM to back up it started excluding millions of items which I am assuming is related to the ext HD since when I turned this off it started to back up my iMac computer content correctly. However I want to be able to back up the stuff I have on my external HD so that I can eventually delete all the duplicated stuff off the iMac. I read a similar post on here about this and have tried deleting all the old TM backups but it is still not recognising the ext HD. I currently have it connected via an ethernet cable just to speed up the initial back up. Any help or explanations would be greatly appreciated.

Dear Bob
Thanks for trying to help me with this
Bob Timmons wrote:
I read a similar post on here about this and have tried deleting all the old TM backups but it is still not recognising the ext HD.
Sorry, I am confused here. You mention that you have a new 2 TB Time Capsule, yet talk about trying to delete old TM backups. What old TM backups, if you have a new 2 TB Capsule? Can you clarify, please?
but it is still not recognising the ext HD
A bit more clarification here, please. When you refer to "it", do you mean Time Machine?
Time Machine will not backup an external drive connected to a Mac unless the drive has been formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Did you format the drive this way when you first got it?
If the drive was formatted as FAT32 when it was new, it would work OK if you attached it directly to your Mac. But if you want Time Machine to backup the Iomega drive attached to your computer, the drive must be formatted correctly to work with Time Machine.
If you have the drive attached to the Mac and you open Time Machine Preferences and click Options, can you "see" the Iomega drive and not select it, or can you not "see" it at all?
If you can "see" it, but it is grayed out so you cannot select it, the drive is not formatted correctly as mentioned above. If that is the case, you will somehow need to copy all of the data on the drive to another location, format the Iomega drive to use Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and then transfer the data back to the Iomega drive. Then, Time Machine will backup both your Mac and the external drive attached to your Mac.

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Can I use two Time Capsules? one as an extension of my laptop (for music and video storage) and the other one to back up everything from the laptop and Time Capsule (for music and videos)

Can I use two Time Capsules? one as an extension of my laptop (for music and video storage) and the other one to back up everything from the laptop and Time Capsule (for music and videos)

Not via Time Machine. It cannot back up from a network location.
The 3rd-party apps CarbonCopyCloner and ChronoSync may be workable alternatives.
EDIT: And, if you're going to do that, you could back up from the Time Capsule to a USB drive connected to the TC's USB port. Second TC not required.
Message was edited by: Pondini

Yosemite and Time capsule not working?

I just started using Yosemite on my mac book pro laptop and my mac desktop. Time machine has been fine on my desktop with my external drive which is plugged into the computer. I had no problem with new backups. But, I can't get time machine to work with my laptop and time capsule. I have another external cloud drive as well, and it will not work with that one now either. First, I can no longer just open up my backups from the folders in the finder like I used to be able to. instead all I see is a disk image with my back up and when I click on it I can not open it and get an error message (see below). Also, it will not back up at all, it give me the other error message in this picture. What is going on here? I am so frustrated. I may just have to go to the genius bar but this is so frustrating.
I also can't even access my back ups now from before even if I go in through the finder window and select the hard drive the back up do to go very far back. Only a few days. I am worried that somehow all of my backups are gone but am hoping that is not the case. It all worked fine before I installed Yosemite. I would appreciate any help or guidance.
For the first image, if I try to back up to time capsule I get the exact same message except it says could not back up to the name of my time capsule drive.

A third-party NAS is unsuitable for use with Time Machine, especially if it's your only backup. I know this isn't what you want to hear. I know that Time Machine accepts the NAS as a backup destination. I know that the manufacturer says the device will work with Time Machine, and I also know that it usually seems to work. Except when you try to restore, and find that you can't.
Apple has published a specification for network devices that work with Time Machine. None of the third-party NAS vendors, as far as I know, meets that specification. They all use the incomplete, obsolete Netatalk implementation of Apple Filing Protocol.
If you want network backup, use as the destination either an Apple Time Capsule or an external storage device connected to another Mac or to an 802.11ac AirPort base station. Only the 802.11ac base stations support Time Machine, not any older model.
Otherwise, don't use Time Machine at all. There are other ways to back up, though none of them is anywhere near as efficient or as well integrated with OS X. I don't have a specific recommendation.
If you're determined to keep using the NAS with Time Machine, your only recourse for any problems that result is to the manufacturer (which will blame Apple, or you, or anyone but itself.)

Time Machine and Time Capsule not backing up

I could really use some help please. A little while ago I could back up to my Time Capsule via Time Machine. Then it became slow. Then it decided that it couldn't find the backup disk. After 1-2 hours of waiting, then I couldn't stop the backup even when it wasn't backing up, other than via Activity Monitor.
I have tried suggestions offered such as:
Deleting the, com.apple.TimeMachine.plist (although not the one below it, i.e. com.apple.TimeMachine.plist.lockfile)
Stopping backup via Activity monitoring
Resetting Time Capsule
Powering down and back on again - everything
Starting in safe mode and restart etc.
I am at a loss to back up my data. Yet more hours lost trying to resolve this situation. Shouldn't back via Time Machine just work??
I see my Time Capsule as connected in Finder.
I finally got to the point of, "I don't belive this", when Safari didn't function correctly, Activity Monitor didn't open.
My operating system is Lion 10.7.5 on my iMac. I have got Filevault enabled. I am using Parallels 7.
Any ideas that work, greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Alani

Hello Alani,
Thanks for the question, and welcome to Apple Support Communities.
I understand you are having issues with Time Machine backing up to a Time Capsule. I also understand that you have already completed some in-depth troubleshooting. While you may or may not have already covered the steps outlined in this article, It may be useful as it links to many relevant resources:
Time Machine: Troubleshooting backup issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3275
Thanks,
Matt M.

All Time Machine dates are white, no pink. How can I be sure data is backed up on Time Capsule, not just on iMac itself?

Apple support http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4256 says "If you back up to a Time Capsule or other network disk, a message briefly appears while Time Machine connects your computer to the backup disk." When I enter Time Machine on my iMac (OS 10.6.8) I get a window entitled "Connecting to Server" and says, "connecting to backup volume" with a horizontal blue and white barber's pole. This message goes on for about 60 seconds before Time Machine opens.
Apple support goes on to say, "Gray tick marks on the timeline represent snapshots stored on your internal drive (portable computers only). Pink tick marks represent backups stored on your backup disk." All the tick marks and dates are grey and become white when mouse is rolled over them. No dates are pink.
If I have not pink dates, are my backups stored on my Time Capsule? Or, are all backups local on the iMac itself? What do I need to do to ensure backup is on the Time Capsule?

ttown wrote:
I just backed up my whole computer on an external drive with Time Machine. I wanted to clean off my old files from my computer, but I didn't want to erase them until I knew I could go back and get particular items from the back-up.
No, No, No, a thousand times, no!
Pardon the dramatics, but don't do that. Time Machine will, sooner or later, delete the backup copies of anything that's no longer on your Mac.
Plus, of course, if you delete the originals, you no longer really have backups (backup = an extra copy in case something happens to the original).
Your best bet might be to get a larger internal HD for your Mac. Second best would be to get another external HD, format it for a Mac, and move some stuff (perhaps your entire iPhoto library) to it, and let Time Machine back up both your internal HD and the new external.

Time Machine and Time Capsule not working well.

Greetings,
I am having strange issues with Time Machine and the Time Capsule. I am using a MacBook Pro and have the 1TB Time Capsule. I am also using the Time Capsule as the wireless base station for my network.
The issue is, Time Machine has only once created a full back-up. Since then, it could not either connect to the disk or mount the image. I have tried several things like renaming my computer and renaming the Time Capsule. I have also tried copying via LAN and wireless. I even went as far as erasing the disk.
Now that the disk is erased, Time Machine cannot create an imgage on the drive. This is my latest issue.
Is this kind of trouble wide spread or very rare? Any way to fix it?
As a work-around, I am using Smart Backup instead of Time Machine to do my back-ups.

Standard Lion and ML issue..
Just reboot the TC.. sometimes with ML you may need to reboot the whole network.
In Lion you can use 5.6utilty and disconnect all users.. but apple has not made 5.6 utility available for ML or not yet. Perhaps they don't know about the bug. or if you put your head deep enough in the sand you can pretend there is no such problem.. it does expose some other parts!!
Pondini has info on a work around to load 5.6 utility into ML.
Read C12 and C17
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Time Machine and Time Capsule not working

Hello,
I got a Time Capsule yesterday and set it up and it was working fine. I saw it backing up my iMac and my internet connection was fine with my MB and iMac. But today the backup to TM failed. I tried going to Airport utility but it does not detect the TC, nor does TC...Help please?
Thanks,
David

David,
*Cycle Airport Preferences*
Open Network Preferences.
Click “Turn Airport Off”, wait 10 seconds.
Now click “Turn Airport On”. Close Prefs.
Does it now show up in Airport Utilities?.
If not go to the “File” menu and select “Rescan”.
Does it appears now?.
If not, unplug the TC, wait 10 seconds, and plug it back in.
Let us know if this helps.

Excluding and including items from back-up.

Initially I excluded from back-ups in Time Machine a certain number of items. Then I decided that one of them (the cache folder for Adobe) should be backed-up. So I took it out from the exclusion list (by highlighting the item and pressing the minus sign in the Time Machine window). The folder no longer appears on the exclusion list. But that folder is still not being backed-up, as if it were still in the excluded list. I am assuming that putting items on the excluded list is not irrevesible (if not, why have the minus sign?). I have spoken to a member of the Genius Bar in my town, but they had no suggestions (apart from wiping all the back-ups, and starting again, which I am a bit reluctant to do, for obvious reasons...).
The backing-up is being done to a 1 Tb external Lacie, which has about 500 Mb free space. The computer is a 1-year old iMac, running under Snow Leopard.
Many thanks for any help.

As a rule Time Machine will exclude files like, cache files, temporary files, Spotlight indexes, and items in the Trash. This is one of the space saving features used by Time Machine.

Hi.. I'm new to mac, I've got a mac book air and time capsule is it possible to save music,video from iTunes Store directly to time capsule leaving my 128GB Mac free? If so please help..

Hi.. I'm new to mac, I've got a mac book air and time capsule is it possible to save music,video from iTunes Store directly to time capsule leaving my 128GB Mac free? If so please help..

You can move your iTunes library.. Apple have explicit instructions to do it. If the library is moved to the TC and accessed over wireless, the efficiency of the whole system will drop dramatically..
A file you download goes.. Modem---TC--Laptop--Back to TC--Store on disk. Double looping the wireless slows it dramatically..
As far as using TC for your iTunes.. you CAN.. but SHOULD YOU?
Store files on the TC.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/24380694#24380694
This is asked several times a day.. obviously people are struggling with their latest SSD being too small.
The TC is not suitable for network file server.. but many people having no choice press it into service as such.
It cannot be partitioned. It was and is and ever shall be a backup device for Time Machine.
Major issues.
1. No backup.. no way Time Machine can backup a network drive. No place to backup to.. So all your files will be at risk. And you will need to buy a third party like CCC to do backup.
2. The TC cannot be partitioned and mixing TM backups and data is not great.
3. The drive is slow to spin up and quick to spin down.. there is no controls.
4. iPhoto in particular can easily corrupt its entire library with wireless networking causing a disconnection to one photo. Even if you do this;;; do not move your photo library... you have been warned!!
5. iTunes will constantly lose connection to the library. The disk is too slow to respond.. itunes on the computer will constantly spit out errors. Even in the midst of streaming the TC can spin down the disk due to caching.
6. Do not use any live files on the TC no matter what else you do.. if you edit files in whatever program the file must be on the local hard disk.
7. The only suitable location for most libraries is a computer. You can plug in an external hard disk.
Read pondini for some work arounds.
Q3 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html

What is the best way to auto back up from a pc to time capsule?

IN MY HOUSE WE HAVE ONE MAC AND THREE WINDOWS PCS/LAPTOPS. I AM LOOKING FOR THE BEST WAY TO AUTOMATICALLY BACK UP THE PCs TO THE TIME CAPSULE.

windows 7 will not back up to a time capsule. because windows backup demands ntfs, and time capsules aren't true nas devices (they don't include the ability to fool windows into thinking its an ntfs partition)
i thnk your going to need another back up utility for your windows computers, like maybe acronis or paragon or rdrive, etc etc
theres nothing stopping you from copying files back and forth from a windows computer to a time capsule, but when it comes to windows backup it won't work

I have a mac notebook and time capsule. I got a message that my startup disc is almost full. not sure where to go from here. if i delete files will they still be on the time capsule.

I have a Mac notebook and back up to time capsule. I Got a message that my statup disc is almost full and I need to delete files. Not sure which files it means and will i lose my files if they are saved on the time capsule.

Visit
The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on the hard drive. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
About TM "Backup Drive is Full"
Alert TM only deletes older files if they have been deleted from the source and when TM needs space on the backup drive for a new incremental backup. Time Machine "thins" it's backups; hourly backups over 24 hours old, except the first of the day; those "daily" backups over 30 days old, except the first of the week. The weeklies are kept as long as there's room.
So, how long a backup file remains depends on how long it was on your Mac before being deleted, assuming you do at least one backup per day. If it was there for at least 24 hours, it will be kept for at least a month. If it was there for at least a week, it will be kept as long as there's room.
Note, that on a Time Capsule the sparsebundle grows in size as needed, but doesn't shrink. Thus, from the user's view of the TC it appears that no space has been freed, although there may be space in the sparsebundle.
Once TM has found it cannot free up enough space for a new backup it reports the disk is full. You can either erase the backup drive and start your backups anew or replace the drive with a larger drive.

My 'old' files have been backed up onto time capsule (Leopard), I have upgraded to Lion (thro snow leopard) and now checking back to retosre some old files i can't see or access beyond the date I upgraded to Lion? Help please?

My 'old' files have been backed up onto time capsule (Leopard), I have upgraded to Lion (thro snow leopard) and now checking back to retosre some old files i can't see or access beyond the date I upgraded to Lion? Help please?

Use the manual methods.. but it is possible for TM to wipe the old files in trying to fit into the space.
Try Q16.. but read all the section 14-17
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

After formatting my HD and eventually restore my system from a backup on Time Capsule, will I still have access to my old backups as normally used to do via Time Machine?

I have a Time Capsule (4th Gen) and my backups on it, I need to completely erase my hard drive. My question is: after formatting my MacBook HD and eventually restore my system (OS X 10.6.8) from a backup on Time Capsule, will I still have access to my old* backups as normally used to do via Time Machine?
*(-and to the newer backups- if I had not restored my system from the last backup).
THANKS

That's a good question. Technically, Time Machine should make a new backup but not erase any old backups. But if there isn't sufficient space on the backup drive, then I'm not sure if Time Machine will simply warn you or just go ahead and remove old backups to make room for the new ones.
In any case, the new backup should have a different backup folder on the backup drive. That's my understanding. You can learn more at pondini.org.

How can i send the music, photos and films from extern hdd to time capsule?

how can i send the music, photos and films from extern hdd to time capsule?

Hi Niel, i open Time Mchine, starts a new screen where i can see all Data (program etc.), my macbook and my extern hdd. there i have musik, films and picture...when i click them, where i have to set them?
Sorry, i got the last 20 years a pc, this is my first macbook pro and from today my first 2TB air port time cap.

I used an ethernet cable between my iMac and Time Capsule for the initial backup. Now that initial backup is concluded, can I simply unplug the Time Capsule from my computer?

I used an ethernet cable between my iMac and Time Capsule for the initial backup. Now that initial backup is concluded, can I assume I can simply unplug the Time Capsule from my computer without any glitches and Time Capsule will then run wirelessly. Is this assumption correct?

can I assume I can simply unplug the Time Capsule from my computer without any glitches and Time Capsule will then run wirelessly. Is this assumption correct?
Yes, if the computer will be able to receive a strong wireless signal from the Time Capsule.
I did not disable wireless. So I assume the backups are occurring both with the ethernet and wirelessly.
It is inot possible to have both an "active" Ethernet and "active" wireless signal simultaneously. If an Ethernet connection is established, your computer will default to the Ethernet connection. If the Ethernet cable is unplugged, the computer will revert to the wireless connection.
I also show 2 wireless networks available through Airport. Shouldn't there only be one now?
You have a simultaneous dual band Time Capsule. That means that it will always be providing both a 2.4 GHz and a 5 GHz network.
I named my new network the same name as the old network. This enabled all of our devices to continue with their connection without entering the new network and/or passwords; however, I am afraid this may pose problems in the future somehow. Any input on this issue as well?
Things should be fine. Devices will connect to the best signal.....either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz....based on their capabilties and location in relation to the Time Capsule.

Excluding items from back up and Time Capsule not recognising ext HD

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