External Time Machine Disk Will Not Unmount

This past weekend I did clean installs of Lion on new SSD drives in my MacBook and MacPro. The MacBook backs up to a Time Capsule with Time Machine and is working perfectly. The MacPro backs up fine and says the backup is completed but it will not unmount the external Time Machine disk I use for the backup after completion. This was not a problem using the same setup with Snow Leopard. I looked at the Console which says Backup completed successfully. Any idea what is going on with this? Thanks in advance.

RecalcitrantRon wrote:
The MacPro backs up fine and says the backup is completed but it will not unmount the external Time Machine disk I use for the backup after completion.
Wait a minute . . . I missed that before.
Is that disk connected directly to the Mac? If so, no, Time Machine doesn't unmount directly-connected drives after a backup, only sparse bundles on network drives.

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Time Machine Backup will NOT unmount

Can anyone help me troubleshoot? I'm using Time Machine with Time Capsule. After updating to 10.5.5, I've been seeing some odd behavior. Backup prepares, completes and finishes properly, but the image will not unmount. I tried manually unmounting it with mixed results. Sometimes it would do so properly and others it would not saying it was in use by another application.
All firmware updates are installed.
Thanks.

Milton,
It's unclear which disk icon you're referring to.
You see when Time Machine initiates a backup it first mounts the Time Capsule hard disk (Green drive with Clock), then it mounts the disk image of your backups (White drive icon).
Often, the TC disk (Green drive with Clock) will NOT unmount on it's own, particularly if you have manually mounted it already. That OK, subsequent backups will proceed successfully with the TC disk mounted on the desktop.
However, if the disk image (White drive icon) does not unmount once the backup is complete then you have problem. Frequently the very next backup sill fail, because Time Machine thinks it is still "in use." See an article on this here:
[http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1715977}
So which disk are you referring to?
Hope this helps.
Cheers!

My external Time Machine disk is almost full. I know TM is supposed to erase the oldest back-ups to makew room for newer ones but is it safe for me to just erase the back-ups from 2 or so years ago to make room for TM as well as anything I might want to

My external Time Machine disk is almost full. I know TM is supposed to erase the oldest back-ups to make room for newer ones but is it safe for me to just erase the back-ups from 2 or so years ago to make room for TM as well as anything else I might want to add to this external drive?

Time Machine makes room for backups as necessary in a complex and sophisticated fashion, and it's not something to mess with lightly. However there are instructions at the bottom of this link which tell you how you can. Those instructions are part of the ultimate resource for all things Time Machine, put together by an Apple Support Communities member who is greatly missed.

Time Machine disk is not unlocked automatically

I have a FileVault2-encrypted Time Machine disk connected to my MBA through a Thunderbolt display in my office (the disk is a Buffalo Thunderbolt drive).
When I leave the office, I eject the drive. put my MBA to sleep and disconnect it from the Thunderbolt display (the drive still connected to the display).
When I return in the morning I reconnect the display, wake up the MBA and log in. But then I always have to manually unlock the external drive with Disk Utility. Otherwise it won't show up in the finder and Time Machine won't make any backups. That's annoying, because I often forget this procedure and TM silently fails to make backups.
Is there a way to automatically unlock the drive when I login in the morning, just like it does when I reboot the computer?
(the passcode for the encrypted drive is in my keychain)

I have had trouble twice with TM, both occasions involving similar odd messages about available space. Once on OS 10.5 and once on Lion 7.1
Try:
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Home.html

After restoring backup new macbook with time machine Firefox will not start. says missing profile

after restoring backup on new macbook with time machine Firefox will n to start. It says it is missing profile although profile exists and profile manager will not start. Also reinstalling does not help. Direct after starting Firefox it says profile is missing and then quits Firefox. Please help edit

Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.
See "Basic Troubleshooting: Make a new profile":
* https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Basic+Troubleshooting#w_8-make-a-new-profile
There may be extensions and plugins installed by default in a new profile, so check that in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions & Plugins" in case there are still problems.
If that new profile works then you can transfer some files from the old profile to that new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.
See:
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

Time Machine server will not let me use external disks to share over network

Hi Apple land,
Im running a lion server from a headless MacBook Pro, its running install and diagnostic netboot images well.
I have added an eSata card via the expresscard 34 slot.
drives connected to it work well, nice and fast.
Now, i can mark the drive for timemachine and it will change the icon and get ready for backup, no worries, for the local system only.
but going through server.app to make it a timemachine destination for others over the network give me an error:
"This disk drive may not support Time Machine backup over the network."
there is a link to this error, but it simply says make sure you dont remove the power to this drive as it could cause backups to fail.
It still lets me select the drive, shows 'writing time machine settings' but then the big switch flicks itself to OFF
I have searched and found the exact message posted in 2008 on this site, without resolution
so i guess i want to know, for lion server to have a drive available for others, does it have to be internal? or is it because its running through an expresscard then eSata thats confusing it?
would any of the terminal command tricks work (the ones that force compatability)
I didt want to breaking anything just in case
thank you in advance.
Richard

Richard,
I am running a headless mac mini with Lion Server. Same setup as yours, except externals are connected via USB. I have no problems backing up our macbook pros over newtork via Time Machine. My current backup drive is an old 500GB WD Book-whatever. I have also successfully used a 2TB drive in a generic Rosewill JBOD external enclosure. Both were freshly formated HFS+ (journaled) with GUID map prior to TM use. Make sure you format journaled using GUID.
I also get the "This disk drive may not support Time Machine backup over the network." popup but after ignoring it am able to add the disk (don't bother following the information link in the popup...hello 2005!).
Not much help, but a note to say that it can be done and don't give up.
Of note...if you are successful and one day you suddenly can't mount the backup volume on your server, fire up the Terminal and disable then reenable journalling on the volume using diskutil. The Disk Utility app will check the drive/volume and say it they are fine, but the volume won't mount until you play with the journaling.

External Time Machine disk not showing up

Hi there.
Today, when I connected my external Western Digital My Passport disk, that's also my Time Machine backup, it didn't show up in Finder.
I haven't done like unplugging it without ejecting. By the way, even if the hard drive doesn't show up in Finder, it is recognized by Disk Utility, that's asking me to repair it. If I try to repair it, the process gets stuck.
I tried to do two actions:
1) opening Time Machine and trying to understand if the hard disk is recognized. And the answer is YES, and I can also recover backups! Unfortunately, I stored some files (my entire iTunes library) on it not as backups.
2) trying to use an external software like DriveGenius. It recognizes it, but it can't repair (and it doesn't showing up in the repairable devices).
So,
what can I do? I can't lose that files!
Thanks in advance
Screenshot:
http://cl.ly/image/112F112W2e3V Disk Utility message

I couldn't migrate from Snow Leopard drive either -- Snow Leopard used PGP encyption, migration copied the files, but they seem inaccessible to Lion with "permission denied" errors.
It sounds like you did migrate successfully. It's normal for the permissions to be wrong -- Migration Assistant creates a new account with the files from the old one.
What I would do in your place is start over. First, decrypt the SL volume and uninstall PGP. You should do that anyway, because PGP is a turkey and not needed in Lion. Erase the Lion volume (assuming you have no data on it that isn't already on your SL volume), reinstall Lion, and then use Setup Assistant, not Migration Assistant, to do the migration.

TIme Machine - disk volume not showing in history

I have time machine backing up my boot volume, and an external disk that holds my itunes library and iphoto data. The external drive has failed. I have a new drive to restore to, but when I look at the time machine history it no longer shows the old volume attached, it just shows the new one.
Do I have to name the new disk, the same as the one that died? If so, is there a way to find that name (I don't remember what I called it).

tbrinker,
Well, it should be relatively easy to determine the name of the old volume, with a little bit of detective work. COnnect your Time Machine backup drive, and navigate it using the Finder. Inside the backup folder, you will find nested folders going back into the past. Find one that is named with a date that you know would have included the old iTunes/iPhoto volume, and open it.
You will see at least two folder: One named for your startup volume, another for the iTunes/iPhoto volume. BINGO!
Now, all you need to do is re-name the volume on your new external drive. For now, let's disconnect the Time Machine drive. Select the Desktop icon for the volume on your new external drive, and press <RETURN>. This should highlight the name for editing. Re-name it using the exact same name as the folder you found in your older backup (the name of your old iTunes/iPhoto volume), then press <RETURN> again to exit the "edit mode."
With the now re-named volume still mounted, connect you Time Machine drive. When it is available, navigate in the Finder to the root of the new drive (not the Time Machine drive), then click the Time Machine icon in your Dock. You should now be able to go back in time to a point where the window you are seeing is populated with folders (namely, your iTunes and iPhoto libraries). When you find it, select everything, then click "Restore."
Scott

HT201250 trying to set up time machine, it will not connect to airport utility, inspite the wi-fi is very strong.

I have tried repeatedly to connect time machine to my air port utility, and keep getting the message that it was undetected. I have a strong wi-fi connection in my house and I just don't understand that it will not connect. Can anyone help me with this?

Power off both your Mac and the Time Capsule and wait a few minutes
Power up the Time Capsule first, and let it run 2-3 minutes by itself
Power up the Mac next and let it run a full minute.
Go into Time Machine Preferences again and see if you can select the Time Capsule as a destination for Time Machine backups. Do this by first removing any existing disks for Time Machine. Click Add/Remove Disk and remove the existing disk that is set up. Then repeat to select and add the disk again.
If still no luck, open Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences
Locate the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist file and move it to the desktop
Then repeat the complete the entire procedure above to see starting at the top, to see if you can select the Time Capsule for Time Machine backups.

Time Machine basically will NOT complete a backup...

Since upgrade to Yosemite I am having issues getting Time Machine to complete a backup... I have see all most non-existent progress at times and a backup that used to be done in a couple hours now seems to likely take days... I have written other files to my USB backup disk with no issues...
I have seen other similar complaints but no clear fix... this was first reported last Oct-Nov but I have the latest OS installed and I don't see any answers...
Can anyone advise on status of this issue ??

I spoke too soon... after having this issue couple times and stopping the backup after seeing it stalled, today I watch it set stuck initially but just let it grind... whatever was wrong eventually cleared and it finished in four hours.... so maybe this post will at least give others reason to give it time...
I did eject the USB drive, restart, and cycle WIFI just to try and get something going... just not sure what that something was...

My old backups on the Time Machine disk are not accessible.

Hi everyone,
I installed a fresh OS X Mountain Lion yesterday. I tried to use Migration Assistant (in the Utilities folder) for the first time, to migrate my old data from the Time Machine back-up disk.
After almost 6 hours, my data was completely in place from the backup disk. In fact, the data was gotten from the latest version of backups as I expected. But now, when I go to Time Machine to browse my old backups, it seems that all backups are still there, detected by the Time Machine itself, but it is not possible to access any of them.
In fact, selecting one of the past backups from the Time-Line on the right edge of the screen, has no effect. All the windows behind the current finder window in the Time Machine are also dimmed, seems that no backups are there. But the Time-Line on the right edge of the screen displays several items from the first backup on my disk to the latest which was for the day before yesterday.
This is not what I expected from the Time Machine. I was so glad when the Migration Assistant read all my data from the backup disk and put them in place. But I did not expect to lose my old backups which are still there on the disk, but Time Machine behaviour is like the times where there are no backups.
It is important to note that before migrating data using Migration Assistant, I was able to browse all my backups in the Time Machine. This was also one the great features of Time Machine, since I had a fresh OS installation, and all my data from the past were accessible in the Time Machine.
I could also get my data one by one and restore them in-place using Time Machine but it was some how cumbersome.
Now is there any one to let me know why this has happened? I Appreciate your time to write.
Mani Hamedani

Troubleshooting information:
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

Time Machine Disk Icon not Displaying Properly After Reconnect

I'm noticing a little oddity that has been happening since I upgraded to Mavericks. If I disconnect my Time Machine (TM) volume, then, reconnect it later and perform a backup, the disk icon on my desktop isn't changing to the green TM icon, it's still displaying as the orange Firewire icon. I can correct this by opening the TM preferences, clicking "select disk" and, then, reselecting my TM volume. The icon will, then, change and it will remain correct as long as the volume is connected. Normally, the icon should change automatically when the first backup is initiated.
Anyone else seen this and know why this might be happening? I'm wondering if there might be something screwy with my TM preferences. As a next step, I might try resetting TM (i.e. trashing the .plist file) and see if that fixes the behavior.
This isn't affecting TM functionality at all. TM is still working perfectly. This is, at best, an annoyance.

I suspect Apple took this funcionality out of Mavericks for some reason. I'm running several Macs at our business, and they all are doing the same thing.

Time Machine backup will not complete

Backup to Time Capsule will not complete. This just started happening about a month ago. It used to work fine. I have tried deleting prior backups and reformatting the Time Capsule.
Thanks,
Ken

Kenneth Epstein wrote:
get an error message in Time Machine about error occurred while copying files:
Error parsing SystemMigration.log to determine source volume of system migration.
That's not really an error message; just a notice that TM doesn't know whether you migrated from another Mac or backups, or did a full system restore.
2012-06-01 07:48:59.367 ReportCrash[1527:2503] Saved crash report for backupd[1518] version ??? (???) to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/backupd_2012-06-01-074858_localhost.crash
Rats. Backupd crashed again, just as before. The "combo" didn't update whatever's damaged/corrupted.
Try installing a fresh copy of OSX (that won't disturb anything else), also per Installing the ''combo'' update and/or Reinstalling OSX.

Ejecting Time Machine disk will prompt to choose its partitions

By clicking to eject the TM disk my Mac asks which partition I'd like to eject. Of course, if really present, those partitions were automatically created by the Mac itself, not by me, thus asking me which one sounds useless to me!
Besides, Disk Utility shows only one partition, while others seem to be undisclosed.

I connected the backup drive, let it performing a backup, turned the TM feature off, launched Disk Utility, selected the icon of the drive (not the volume), clicked on Repair Disk (btw Repair Permissions button was greyed out), waited several minutes for the operation to complete and got the drive led stuck flashing. Tried to eject the disk and got the same prompt window, remounted the disk with Disk Utility, reactivated Time Machine, ejected the disk and the window didn't prompt.
For now it worked! Thank you.
PS
I rewrote the whole procedure, in case someone reading this topic should not exactly understand what to do before and after what you suggested.

HT201250 Recently upgraded my virgin Internet ie to super hub big mistake I cannot now use the time machine it will not connect to my apple

I recently upgraded my virgin Internet to super hub big mistake I cannot get hub to recognise the set up with the apple

Your download or install of the update may have been corrupt. Visit the Mac App Store and re-download the update or visit http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1726 and download the 10.9.2 update combo and re-install.
If that fails to solve the problem please post back and post a EtreCheck Report which you can locate at:
http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

External Time Machine Disk Will Not Unmount

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