HT201250 Time Machine not keeping hourly backups.

My Time Machine backups don't seem to be working correctly. It doesn't appear to be keeping hourly backups. When I enter Time Machine and look at the backup from just one hour ago, the newest file is from several weeks ago, not one hour ago.
Same thing with monthly backups. At a certain point, the backup history skips several months.
I've scoured the internet but can't seem to find anyone else with this problem or a solution.

That's odd. Mine go away after 24 hours like clockwork.
As VA2020 says, it's probably not a significant space problem, but worth investigating, especially after that long a time.
I'd suggest downloading the Time Machine Buddy widget, which extracts TM's messages from your logs and displays them in a little window. Check your last few backups, especially for messages about "thinning".
As an example, here's my most recent set, showing routine deletion of an hourly:
*Starting standard backup*
*Backing up to: /Volumes/TmBackups/Backups.backupdb*
*No pre-backup thinning needed: 133.2 MB requested (including padding), 175.83 GB available*
*Copied 492 files (2.7 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.*
*Starting post-backup thinning*
*Deleted backup /Volumes/TmBackups/Backups.backupdb/JPs.G5.iMac/2009-01-19-191145: 175.83 GB now available*
*Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed*
*Backup completed successfully.*
If yours look hinky (pardon the technical term), especially any sort of failure message, or not being able to delete old backups, copy and post them here (be careful to get all the messages, as they often overflow the little window).
One question: have you used any of the 3rd part apps or postings about modifying TM's preference file to alter the backup schedule?

Similar Messages

Time machine not consolidating hourly backups

For some reason my time machine isn't consolidating backups at the end of the day/week/month. On my time machine drive, I currently have hourly backups going back over 2 months.
As you may imagine, this eats up a lot of storage.
Does anyone have any ideas what might be causing this?

That's odd. Mine go away after 24 hours like clockwork.
As VA2020 says, it's probably not a significant space problem, but worth investigating, especially after that long a time.
I'd suggest downloading the Time Machine Buddy widget, which extracts TM's messages from your logs and displays them in a little window. Check your last few backups, especially for messages about "thinning".
As an example, here's my most recent set, showing routine deletion of an hourly:
*Starting standard backup*
*Backing up to: /Volumes/TmBackups/Backups.backupdb*
*No pre-backup thinning needed: 133.2 MB requested (including padding), 175.83 GB available*
*Copied 492 files (2.7 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.*
*Starting post-backup thinning*
*Deleted backup /Volumes/TmBackups/Backups.backupdb/JPs.G5.iMac/2009-01-19-191145: 175.83 GB now available*
*Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed*
*Backup completed successfully.*
If yours look hinky (pardon the technical term), especially any sort of failure message, or not being able to delete old backups, copy and post them here (be careful to get all the messages, as they often overflow the little window).
One question: have you used any of the 3rd part apps or postings about modifying TM's preference file to alter the backup schedule?

Time Machine not making hourly backups since Mavericks upgrade

Recently upgraded to Mavericks from Lion 10.7.5 (took 14 hr.). Since then, when I enter Time Machine (without being connected to my external backup drive) I get a notification "your time machine backup disc can not be found". The only options given are to "set up time machine" (which I have done) or "cancel". My previous backups to my external hard drive are shown in the back ground but can not be opened and there are no hourly or weekly backups shown.

Launch the Console 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 Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try the action that you're having trouble with again. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message (command-V).
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Time Machine not thinning older backups (Hourly= Daily= Weekly)

Ever since upgrading to Snow Leopard, Time machine has kept hourly backups of my computer.
In the past under 10.5, after about 24 hours, TM would delete all but the last hourly backup of the day and keep daily backups for 30 days, then after about 30 days delete the daily backups except for 1 per week and keep weekly backups thereafter.
Now, TM does it's hourly backups like normal, but I have hourly backups from today all they way back to 29 August (about 24 hours prior to when I upgraded to 10.6) and then weekly backups from that date until 30 July (i.e. about 30 days prior to the upgrade).
Called AppleCare and talked to 2 different people. Both questioned whether TM really was even supposed to thin old backups like this (um, it's written in the da^^ preference pane, guys) and one admitted that he doesn't even use a Mac at home and that in the support office they don't have TM on their macs, so he's never used it!
Needless to say, not sure how to a) get TM to start thinning the backups like it should and b) also thin out all the previous backups so I don't have a 2 month glut of frequent backups.
I've looked all over and found nothing. Anyone with some advice? I'd like to avoid killing all my backups and starting over.

Forensic
I suggest you follow the advice posted above by V.K., once installed it will provide a log of what TM is doing.
Once you have that info, post back here and someone far wiser than I will help you to resolve the issue.

HT3275 Time Machine not deleting oldest backups when the disk is full

Time Machine not deleting oldest backups when the disk is full

Unfortunately, when this happens, Time Machine cannot erase enough space to create room for the new backup. Your options now are:
1) Add a new Time Capsule or a hard drive to the USB port on the existing Time Capsule and continue with backups
2) Manually delete backups from Time Machine....which is a long and tedious process. After a few hours, not much space will be reclaimed and it will not be long before the Time Capsule is full again
3) Erase the Time Capsule....if you really do not need all the old backups from months ago....and start over with a new Time Machine backup and move forward again

I am using 10.9.1 on a 21.5" iMac. I am backing up using Time Machine. The hourly backups are over kill. How do get TM to backup daily?

I am using 10.9.1 on a 21.5" iMac. I am backing up using Time Machine. The hourly backups are over kill. How do get TM to backup daily, only?

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for details.

Why does Time machine not delete old backups

I dont understand Why time machine is not deleting old backups. As it worked first time with the same size backup drive as the drive its backing up, I assumed it would just delete the old backup as needed. Do I need a bigger backup drive?

Roglee wrote:
I just want it to delete the old backup & replace it so i just have a copy. I guess i could just re format the drive each time but that just seems a waste of my time when TM should do this for me!
If this is all you want to do, turn off Time Machine, download SuperDuper! and use it for free. This will clone whatever drive you want and the free trial will erase your back up drive each time. I can't remember if it will let you choose what to back up or if it wants the entire drive. Also, I'm not sure if the Scheduler works with the free trial. Below are some verbiage for SuperDuper!. Looks like if you want Scheduling you will have to purchase a license.
Download Now!
You can download SuperDuper! v2.7.1 right now and back up and clone your drives for free— forever!
Buy Now!
Buy now to unlock scheduling, Smart Update (which saves a lot of time), Sandboxes, scripting and more!
Time Machine will keep making back ups and when it determines it needs space, it will delete older back ups. But it doesn't delete older ones each time it backs up.

Time Machine Not Overwriting Older Backups

Time Machine is telling me that the 1TB backup disk is full, albeit there is 62GB of available space (why is TM stating it's full?). In any event, TM is not overwriting the older backups. How can this be enabled?
Thank you!

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.

HT201250 "Time Machine Not Configured", but appears to be working?

The Time Machine menu in the toolbar says "Time Machine Not Configured", yet I have it fully configured in Prefs, it is "On", and when I browse the drive it appears to be doing backups. Anything I can do to fix the menu item?

Solved... Erased entire backup disk, reformatted and seems to be working again.

Time Machine not performing routine backups

Hi all,
I noticed recently that Time Machine has not been completing my scheduled backups. A full backup has not been completed since December of 2011. The backups start but never progress past "Preparing Backup", today I let it sit with no other applications open or processes running for 4 hours and nothing occured.
I have reviewed many discussions here and so far nothing seems to be working. I deleted the preference file and have powered the Time Machine off and on to no avail.
Here is a snippet of the log from my latest attempt at running a backup. I'm sure I need to give more information but I'm not sure what that is. I would appreciate any help.
QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
Disk image /Volumes/Data-1/Jen Bradshaw’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Capsule
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Capsule/Backups.backupdb
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: No space left on device
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: No space left on device
Exception writing exclusions cache. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: No space left on device
Unable to create exclusions cache data.
Failed to write exclusions cache. Continuing anyway.
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: No space left on device
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)

volley15 wrote:
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: No space left on device
That's a problem writing to the (hidden) log Time Machine keeps on the Time Capsule, not your internal drive. (As Linc says, you also need free space on your internal).
Do you have other data there, besides Time Machine backups? Usually that's how this condition happens -- Time Machine always leaves a bit of space, so the next backup can get started, see if there's enough room for the backup and if necessary start deleting old backups to make room. But if the very last of the free space gets used, it can't get started.
First, connect via Ethernet cable if at all possible. What you have to do, and the next backup, will take a while, but be 2-3 times faster than via WIFI.
If you have other data there, copy some of it elsewhere and delete it (50 MB should be enough), and copy it back after the next backup completes.
If there isn't any other data there, delete your oldest backup, per Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #12, and "compact" the sparse bundle per the pink box there.
The next backup will take quite a while -- TM has to do a "deep scan" first, to see what needs to be backed-up (since the previous backup failed), then "compact" the sparse bundle, then start deleting backups to make room.
Once you get this sorted out, if you have other data on the TC, see #Q3 in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule for some workarounds to keep this from happening again.
Message was edited by: Pondini

Time Machine Not Recognizing Old Backups after getting hard drive replaced

Hello! I have a 13' Black Macbook pro which had a faulty hard drive so I had it replaced. Ever since then, all my old backups in Time Machine have been grayed out. I have no idea how to fix this and have tried almost everything on the web.
The only folder that allows me to "go back in time" is my Macintosh HD folder which I know I can access everything but it's a huge nuisance to not be able to click on a folder and go back in time in the same folder.
I just want things the way they used to be! Thanks for the help!

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
The problem is, you have a different HD. Even if it has the same name and contents as the old one, it's still a different HD, and Time Machine treats it as a different one.
There's no way to fool it into thinking it's not.
Technically, it has a different UUID (Universally Unique IDentifier); that's what OSX uses to keep track of drives, not their names.
As you do new backups, you'll be able to access them just as you did with the old drive.

Time Machine doing HUGE hourly backups

TM seems to be doing gigantic backups every hour -- copying 2-4 GB worth of data each time. Now clearly I'm not modifying that much data on an hourly basis. Is there any way I can monitor which files are being copied?
My naive expectation is that in TM Preferences, under the progress bar, there would be a little disclosure triangle that, when clicked, tells you the name of the file currently being copied. Of course no such thing exists. Is there any way of knowing what the heck is going on?

Time Machine will back up data if anything has changed. Even the slightest change to permissions will force a new backup. For example: I defragged my hard drive recently. Since I optimized the metadata table and moved the files around, TM thought I had new versions and prompted doubled my sparsebundle size overnight. It did not bother to compare filenames or sizes (and I do not think iDefrag changes the "modified" date), but some some puny little flag somewhere had been changed so it backed the file up again. I really do like TM, but the more I use it, the more I can see that it really is not "smart" with respect to incremental backups.
Anyway, that might be something for you to investigate. I'm willing to bet tat even if you change the name of a directory then change it right back, TM will backup it up fresh. Time Machine has a ways to go yet. Hopefully Apple will release a "2.0" version in the near future that will address many of the irregularities that seem to plague the program.

Time Machine starts new "hourly" backup in under an hour

My last backup was completed at 9:44. Time Machine just started a new backup at 10:27! It now says completed at 10:31, next scheduled at 11:25 (still under an hour) Per Genius advice, I just reinstalled Snow Leopard which at least help the backup time drop down to about 3-5 minutes. It used to take 30 minutes to backup 50mb. But even after the reinstall, I am seeing Time Machine kick in under an hour between backups!?!

the next backup time is determined by the start time of the previous backup, not by the finish time. and there are always small variations anyway as the launchd (the mechanism that schedules periodic tasks) doesn't check on them every second. what you see is quite normal.

Time machine not doing incremental backups - instead doing full backups

hi,
Time machine does a complete full backup, and then instead of doing incremental backups, it wants to keep doing full backups.
help.

why do you think it's doing full backups?
install TimeMachineBuddy widget and see exactly what it says. also install TimeTracker and see what exactly is being backed up every time
http://www.charlessoft.com/
but first, verify both the internal and TM drive with disk utility. verify disk, not permissions. if it reports any errors repair both drives. you'll need to boot from the snow leopard DVD to repair the main startup drive.
also, see Pondini's troubleshooting tips at the top of the TM forum.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2057525
Message was edited by: V.K.

Backup disk is full ... Time Machine not deleting old backups

In my Time Machine preferences it says "The older backups are deleted when your disk becomes full." Well ... my disk is full but Time Machine is not deleting its old backups to make more room.
So now TM is failing to backup.
Any suggestions for freeing up some disk space and getting back to getting backed up?
Thanks.
Ramone

ramonekalsaw wrote:
In my Time Machine preferences it says "The older backups are deleted when your disk becomes full." Well ... my disk is full but Time Machine is not deleting its old backups to make more room.
So now TM is failing to backup.
What message does it send? See #C2 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it. If that doesn't help, post back with details, including all the messages, your setup (especially the destination for the backups), what you've done, and the results.
Any suggestions for freeing up some disk space and getting back to getting backed up?
Do you have other data on the disk, in the same partition? If so, that's not a good idea, and may be the source of the problem. See #3 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).

HT201250 Time Machine not keeping hourly backups.

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