HT3275 Time Machine Performs Partial Backup

I am using the Time Capsule as my backup drive. It stopped backing up about 3 weeks ago (returns immediately to the "waiting to backup" state). I deleted my hard drive image on the time capsule, and it backs up about 25 GB before going to "waiting to back up" again. Further attempts to backup show only about 300 MB of progress before it goes back to "waiting." I've tried partitioning, rebooting... pretty much everything I've found online so far. Everything leads to the same result: a partial backup of about 25 GB.
Anybody had this problem before?

It is likely something is corrupted.
How old is the TC?
Load the widget so you can find log messages from TM to find out what is happening.. TM doesn't always give rational explanations.
A1 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Also try a reset of TM.. A4 and certainly a drive verify. A5.
Did you upgrade or clean install ML onto the Laptop??
Wireless is a real issue if you upgrade installed.
Try doing the backup by ethernet.
Make sure the TC is not in Join a wireless network mode otherwise that won't work. But you should if all else fails extract the TC from the network.. do a full reset and try again completely isolated by ethernet only. When you do this turn off wireless so only ethernet is working.

Similar Messages

HT3275 Time Machine Error: The backup disk image "Volumes/Data/My Macbook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use. (How do I correct this issue?)

Time Machine did not back up:
Time Machine Error; ("The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/My MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use.")
How do I correct this issue?
Thanks!

You need to be careful Bob.. people might take this literally.
Bob Timmons wrote:
How do I correct this issue?
Call the exterminator to get rid of the bugs in Lion and Mountain Lion.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5222487?tstart=0

HT3275 TIME MACHINE ERROR: The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Sean McGuire's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" could not be created (error 1).

I can select a disk (Time Capsule) and initiate the backup. It only "waits to back up" then "making backup disk available" and remains frozen there. I tried to update the software a while back and was unsuccessful, I think that may be the issue.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated. This is the error message I receive.
TIME MACHINE ERROR: The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Sean McGuire’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” could not be created (error 1).
Thanks

See #C17 in Pondini's excellent support document Time Machine - Troubleshooting
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

HT3275 time machine states: the backup is too large for the backup disk?? not sure what to do here,

does anyone know what to do here?? time machine will not complete any backups- every time it attempts it states the backup disk is not large enough

If you decide to erase the Time Capsule and start over with a new set of Time Machine backups.....
Open Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility
Click on the Time Capsule icon, then click Edit
Click the Disks tab at the top of the window
Click Erase Disk
The Quick Erase option will only take a few minutes
Once the procedure is complete, close AirPort Utility
To start over with a new set of Time Machine backups.....
Click the Time Machine clock icon at the top of the Macs screen
Click Open Time Machine Preferences
Make sure Time Machine is On
Click Add or Remove Disks
Click your Time Capsule
Click Use Disk
A new backup should start in a few moments. Allow plenty of time for the first backup because the entire contents of your Mac will be copied over on this backup.
If you want to keep your current backup history and add a new Time Capsule, we'll need to understand how you have your Time Capsule set up in your network at the present time.
Is the Time Capsule now connected to a modem with a wired Ethernet cable?
What is the make and model number of the modem?
Does the Time Capsule provide your wireless network signal, or does another modem/router perform this service?

HT3275 Time machine keeps ejecting backup drive

I haven't been able to make a time machine backup in 63 days. Getting very concerned. Running OSX 10.8.2. Time machine spends a lot of time preparing, and after it finally starts making a backup it fails part way through. I used to be able to make backups just fine using the same external drive. Verified both backup and Mac disk. Deleted TimeMachine prefs, re-started....still won't work. Console only shows these messages for the daemon:
2012-09-30 8:21:43.989 PM com.apple.backupd[211]: Finished scan
2012-09-30 8:26:54.891 PM com.apple.backupd[211]: Found 638403 files (107.51 GB) needing backup
2012-09-30 8:26:55.397 PM com.apple.backupd[211]: 134.17 GB required (including padding), 39.51 GB available
2012-09-30 8:26:55.472 PM com.apple.backupd[211]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Mac Backup/Backups.backupdb/LarryH/2012-08-14-075425.inProgress/E3E8FC8B-ECD0-4074- 8CB5-EC0A04A7A609 containing 4 KB; 39.51 GB now available, 134.17 GB required
2012-09-30 9:52:22.463 PM com.apple.backupd[211]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Mac Backup/Backups.backupdb/LarryH/2012-08-14-075425.inProgress/F7D26A34-AA10-4B80- B63A-FF13FBC55552 containing 6.67 GB; 46.22 GB now available, 134.17 GB required
2012-09-30 9:52:22.467 PM com.apple.backupd[211]: Removed 2 expired backups so far, more space is needed - deleting oldest backups to make room
2012-09-30 10:11:09.000 PM com.apple.backupd[211]: Backup failed because the destination disk was ejected or disconnected unexpectedly!
2012-09-30 10:11:10.294 PM com.apple.backupd[211]: Error: Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-36 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error -36.)" (ioErr: I/O error (bummers)) deleting backup: /Volumes/Mac Backup/Backups.backupdb/LarryH/2011-04-23-070957
2012-09-30 10:11:10.294 PM com.apple.backupd[211]: Deleted 2 backups containing 6.67 GB total; 46.22 GB now available, 134.17 GB required
2012-09-30 10:11:10.294 PM com.apple.backupd[211]: Backup date range was shortened: oldest backup is now May 7, 2011
2012-09-30 10:11:10.295 PM com.apple.backupd[211]: Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error
2012-09-30 10:11:10.296 PM com.apple.backupd[211]: Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error
2012-09-30 10:11:10.296 PM com.apple.backupd[211]: Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error
2012-09-30 10:11:10.296 PM com.apple.backupd[211]: Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error
2012-09-30 10:11:11.240 PM com.apple.backupd[211]: couldn't determine volume-uuid of mount point: /Volumes/Mac Backup/Backups.backupdb/LarryH, error: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4 "The file “LarryH” doesn’t exist." UserInfo=0x7f9eb1d42a50 {NSURL=file://localhost/Volumes/Mac%20Backup/Backups.backupdb/LarryH, NSFilePath=/Volumes/Mac Backup/Backups.backupdb/LarryH}
2012-09-30 10:11:11.805 PM com.apple.backupd[211]: Backup canceled.
2012-09-30 10:16:23.420 PM com.apple.backupd-helper[603]: Not starting scheduled Time Machine backup - time machine destination not resolvable.

It's a 1 TB drive and my Mac Pro drive is 500Gb. Time machine is supposed to prune old backup sets as needed to make space. If you read the messages it appears that it was about to prune some more when the disk got unmounted.
2012-09-30 9:52:22.467 PM com.apple.backupd[211]: Removed 2 expired backups so far, more space is needed - deleting oldest backups to make room
2012-09-30 10:11:09.000 PM com.apple.backupd[211]: Backup failed because the destination disk was ejected or disconnected unexpectedly!
Besides, since when is it okay that Mac OSX spontaneously unmounts an external drive?

HT3275 Time Machine cannot finish backup

My time machine is giving me the error "the backup disk image...is already in use". Any ideas?? It had been working fine and last night I accidentally let my macbook pro run out of battery and it hasn't worked since then. Not sure if that's just a coincidence. I'm on OS X 10.7.5

Stardard error.. when it ran out of battery it failed to dismount the backup..
Using 5.6 utility since you have lion.. use the disconnect all users..
But you can achieve the same thing with a reboot of the TC.. ie pull the power cord.. count to 10.. plug back in.
C12 for more info.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

HT3275 Time Machine says the backup is full, how to create more space on my time machine?

When i attempt to backup, time machine says that it does nto have enough free space to backup, how can i create enough space so that it will continue to backup?

Time Machine automatically deletes old snapshots when necessary to make room for a new one. If you're getting that message, it means that all your old snapshots have been deleted, and there is still not enough room to back up all your data. Either you must make some drastic exclusions from your backups, or you must back up to a larger destination volume.

Can Time Machine perform encrypted backups for more than one computer to the same external drive?

I have two MBPs. The older MBP, with 1TB of storage, now contains two other MBP clones, for a total of 3 user machines on 1 MBP). I'd like to back up both my newest MBP, and the older MBP with the 2 clones, to my new 5TB drive (via wi-fi). I want to encrypt these backups, but am unclear whether it is possible. Does TM first encrypt the drive itself, or is each back up separately encrypted? I understand that if I wanted to encrypt an existing Time Matters backup on a drive, the prior data would be erased and reformatted, but here I am working with a new backup drive, on which one encrypted backup has been performed.
I just don't want to overwrite this existing backup (which was for my newest MBP).
Thanks for whatever help anyone can provide.

You should have prepared the drive better..
The drive should have been partitioned. It is possible to load the backups.. but you can get into trouble.
See http://pondini.org/TM/4.html
Since partitioning at this point would destroy the existing backup.. the best way is to setup a disk image for each of the other Macbook backups and then mount the disk image and use that for the TM backup..
Encrypting the drive or the backup.. that is something I avoid.. backups to me are useless if I forget or lose the key.. apple have warned lose the key.. the backup is useless..
But check pondini FAQ .. you might be able to encrypt a drive image.. or the backup.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
See Q25 and 31.

HT3275 Time Machine won't backup and gives this error message. The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Walter Wood's iMac.sparsebundle" is already in use

My time capsule stopped backing up and the following error message popped up, The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/iMac.sparsebundle" is already in use.
Any ideas how to troubleshoot?

Have a look here...
The Backup disk image ... sparsebundle ... is already in use.
From Pondini’s excellent Information Here...
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.htm

Time Machine doesn't backup iPhoto Library (if iPhoto is open)

I just wanted to alert other people to the fact that Time Machine DOES NOT backup your iPhoto Library (that is, any of your photos), if iPhoto is open when Time Machine performs the backup (which in my case, is all of the time).
I've just posted this information to my blog: http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com/2010/01/timemachine-is-not-backing-up-your.htm l
But the basics are that although Time Machine promises to perform automatic backups in the background, it will skip your photos if iPhoto is open. Unfortunately, it won't tell you it hasn't done the backup and you'll be lulled into a very false sense of security, broken only when you have a problem and there's no backup to be found.
So, be sure to close iPhoto when Time Machine is doing backups and check your backed up files to make sure all your photos are there.
Please spread the word. I hate to think people are losing their photos because of this.
best,
Liz
http://www.lizcastro.com/iphotobookthemes
http://www.elizabethcastro.com

OK, ran a test with iPhoto open and got this from Time Machine Buddy:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Node requires deep traversal:/Users/lizx/Pictures/Big iPhoto Library/iPhoto 7 Library current reason:kFSEDBEventFlagContainsChanges|kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEven tFlagReasonFSEvent|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonMissedReservation|
No pre-backup thinning needed: 3.91 GB requested (including padding), 60.52 GB available
Copied 12483 files (50.9 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.06 GB requested (including padding), 60.47 GB available
Copied 1088 files (16.6 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Starting post-backup thinning
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/lizxp/2010-01-14-145941: 60.54 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/lizxp/2010-01-14-095812: 60.57 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/lizxp/2010-01-14-085710: 60.60 GB now available
Post-back up thinning complete: 3 expired backups removed
Backup completed successfully.
Also, when I look on my external drive, the latest backup says it was opened on January 14, but of course, I had iPhoto open when I ran the backup (that is, it was last opened TODAY).
Now, I closed iPhoto and ran Time Machine again. I got a pretty similar message from Time Machine Buddy:
-------Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Node requires deep traversal:/Users/lizx/Pictures/Big iPhoto Library/iPhoto 7 Library current reason:kFSEDBEventFlagContainsChanges|kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEven tFlagReasonFSEvent|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonMissedReservation|
No pre-backup thinning needed: 3.90 GB requested (including padding), 60.60 GB available
Copied 10309 files (2.4 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.06 GB requested (including padding), 58.19 GB available
Copied 2935 files (16.7 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Starting post-backup thinning
No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Backup completed successfully.
If there's a significant difference there, I can't see it.
On the other hand, when I go look at the backed up file, although it still won't tell me how big it is (or I'm too impatient to wait), it does say the (backed up) iPhoto Library was last opened today. Much better.
What do you think?
best,
Liz

HT201250 Is there a way to change the intervals at which Time Machine performs backups (e.g., weekly instead of hourly or daily) past 24 hours, daily for the past month, and weekly for everything older...

Is there a way to change the intervals at which Time Machine performs backups (e.g., weekly instead of hourly or daily) past 24 hours, daily for the past month, and weekly for everything older...

You can edit the interval in Console or install a Pref Pane
called TimeMachineScheduler (Leopard or higher) free from:
http://www.klieme.com/TimeMachineScheduler.html
Good luck, Tom

HT3275 Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk image "/Volumes/ELBs Time Ca/ELB's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use.

For the past couple weeks, my Time Machine has not been backing up file from my MacBook Pro. I've had the Time Capsule for a couple years now. Entering the Time Machine I discovered that there are no files before "yesterday" yet there are only 161.0 GB of 998.06 GB available. A "Failed" message apprears with a popup message: "The backup disk image “/Volumes/ELBs Time Ca/ELB’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” is already in use." How can it be in use when Time Machine takes hours looking for the device?
Another error code message also pops up from time to time: Finder error code -6584. What is that? And how is it fixed?
All software is up to date on this computer and Time Capsule.

Further to my earlier response (system re-start and firmware update resulted in full Time Machine backup) I waited until the next scheduled backup to determine success.
As it has turned out, the Time Machine's next backup was for 48 kb and ran for eight hours! The progress bar was complete (solid blue) and I therefore stopped the backup. It has been "stopping backup" for the past hour.
What is wrong with this process?

Time Machine fails to backup home space.

Summary:
I've been having problems with Time Machine since I enabled it. For some reason it refuses to backup any file in my account (/Users/ritchiem/). I have spoken with the an Apple 'Genius' and they were dumb founded. So I ask here in the hope that someone has had this issue occur and know what the cause is and how to fix it. I'm not really looking for work-arounds, though I will cover that later.
*Problem Description:*
A new 500GB external drive was erased and formatted HFS+ Journaled.
TimeMachine was then opened and enabled on this drive.
Back Up Now was selected and left to run assuming it would take a while on the 500Gb internal drive that had a around 200Gi-250Gi of used.
It ran successfully.
When entering TimeMachine, history shows the top level drive and navigating down the Users folder shows only my 'test' user account. My user account 'ritchiem' is not listed.
There was no error presented from Time Machine an the System Preferences panel reported it was successful.
Console.logs shows that backup was performed successfully.
Steps already taken to address issue:
I have verified/repaired permissions on my boot drive, a few files were changed but none in /Users/ritchiem
I have deleted the Time Machine preferences: /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
I have tried a second external hard drive, in this case it was more interesting:
It was reported as being to small to perform the backup. So I added some exclusions such as my large iTunes library.
This allowed the Time Machine to proceed but again there was no backup performed of any file in home space.
This is where I thought I must be doing something wrong and went to the Apple Store the genius tried all the usual suspects, permissions, preferences. But no success.
It was only then that one of his colleagues picked up on discussion that it was only my user that was being skipped and suggested the risky move of renaming my user. He showed me the 'Advanced' panel in the Account System Preferences. (I never realised you could use a nice gui to do the renaming of a user in all the right Apple places.)
So I swapped users and renamed my account, and moved my home space to a new user name. mv /Users/ritchiem /Users/martin
I then logged back in to my account to verify the rename all worked and it had.
_*Time Machine now worked!*_
HOWEVER, that is a total hack. I use the username 'ritchiem' all across my local network and it was not recommended to have a user ritchiem but a home space in /Users/martin.
I renamed my account back to 'ritchiem' and Time Machine again is blocking backups of /Users/ritchiem
Somewhere on my drive there MUST be an exclusion that is preventing the first user that I created on my 2008 MacBook from being backed up. So far my grep-ing of the filesystem for 'ritchiem' has not shown any likely suspects. If anyone here knows where the mystic plist/file is that I need to zap then that would be great.
If of course you have another work-around that does not require me to rename either my account or my home space then that would be great.
Oh and I also tried to trick TimeMachine by creating a symbolic link in /Users to my home space (ln -s /Users/ritchiem /Users/martin). It resolves the link and refuses to backup the contents of my home space just as before.
Please remember here that in all backups that Time Machine performed there was no error, console.log and the UI all report success.
Now if I had a new blank machine and some time I could test out the theory that it is always the first user of a freshly installed machine. However, if other people have it working then it is perhaps not that simple.
TIA
Martin

Thank you for all your advice and suggestions. Apologies for the delay I had difficulty locating my original install DVDs.
Summary
I have performed all the steps and checked items as requested however backups are still not including my home space (/Users/ritchiem)
What I do find interesting is the output of the TimeMachine backup log (at the very end of this VERY long post) which states that 84.8 GB should be backed up but only 24.3 GB is actually backed up.
Would love to know why TM decided 60.5GB of data should not be backed up but not explained in any of the log files and a successful backup reported.
Before I go on to the details of what i've done, I should also mention in case it is important that I have of course been logged in with my user (ritchiem) whilst performing all of these backups. I assume that is normal and that you shouldn't have to log out for TM to actually backup your data. To verify this previously I have logged out user ritchiem and logged in as a test account. The path /Users/ritchiem still failed to backup. I have not tried this recently, however, I would be really surprised if you had to log out of your user account for the data to be backed up.
Detail
So to answer V.K. first: My drive did indeed have some items that it said I should repair. Hence the search for the install DVDs. I ran the Disk Utility from the Leopard installer and it repaired the drive. The verify now runs green.
As I had just rebooted the machine and it was all fresh I repeated Pondini's previous steps as well.
* Disabled TM
* Exited System Preferences
* Deleted /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
I then also deleted the Backups.backupdb from my external drive so everything was fresh and new. I would have just formatted it (which would have been waaay faster, but I have some copies as backups on there for now.)
I started the TM prefs panel and added a few items to the disabled list to a) speed up the backup but also b) I have a 320g internal drive and only a 250g external. My total disk usage is 288 which won't fit, especially with the breathing space TM likes to have.
Here is the data from console.log from the first two backup runs:
*The first automated run that occured whilst I was still disabling items*
Jul 9 00:05:28 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: Backup requested due to disk attach
Jul 9 00:05:28 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: Starting standard backup
Jul 9 00:05:28 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Red-5/Backups.backupdb
Jul 9 00:05:52 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: ramaII
Jul 9 00:05:53 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: Backup content size: 288.2 GB excluded items size: 0 bytes for volume ramaII
Jul 9 00:05:53 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 347.15 GB requested (including padding), 134.18 GB available
Jul 9 00:05:53 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
Jul 9 00:05:53 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
Jul 9 00:05:53 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: Backup Failed: unable to free 347.15 GB needed space
Jul 9 00:05:59 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.
*The second much smaller backup run*
Jul 9 00:06:29 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: Backup requested by user
Jul 9 00:06:29 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: Starting standard backup
Jul 9 00:06:31 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Red-5/Backups.backupdb
Jul 9 00:06:32 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: ramaII
Jul 9 00:15:57 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: Backup content size: 288.2 GB excluded items size: 203.4 GB for volume ramaII
Jul 9 00:15:57 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 103.06 GB requested (including padding), 134.18 GB available
Jul 9 01:10:18 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: Copied 191916 files (24.3 GB) from volume ramaII.
Jul 9 01:10:19 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.75 GB requested (including padding), 108.05 GB available
Jul 9 01:10:25 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: Copied 114 files (93 bytes) from volume ramaII.
Jul 9 01:10:25 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: Starting post-backup thinning
Jul 9 01:10:25 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Jul 9 01:10:26 ramaII /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[371]: Backup completed successfully.
What I find interesting is that only it only copied '191916 files (24.3 GB)' It said it was going to backup '103.06 GB requested (including padding)'.
As requested here is the hidden .exclude.plist file, I printed the contents using the Terminal rather than TinkerTool.
.exclude.plist
ramaII:~ ritchiem$ sudo cat /Volumes/Red-5/Backups.backupdb/ramaII/2009-07-09-011025/.exclusions.plist
<?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>
</array>
<key>standardExclusionPaths</key>
<array/>
<key>systemFilesExcluded</key>
<false/>
<key>userExclusionPaths</key>
<array>
<string>/Users/ritchiem/Music</string>
<string>/Users/ritchiem/dev</string>
<string>/Applications</string>
<string>/Users/ritchiem/Desktop</string>
<string>/Users/ritchiem/Downloads</string>
<string>/Users/ritchiem/Movies</string>
<string>/Users/ritchiem/ritchiem.sparseimage</string>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>
This content mirrors what is in the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist I resaved this to my desktop as a xml plist so I could print it for copying:
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
ramaII:~ ritchiem$ cat Desktop/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
<?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>AlwaysShowDeletedBackupsWarning</key>
<true/>
<key>AutoBackup</key>
<true/>
<key>BackupAlias</key>
<data>-snipped-</data>
<key>ExcludeByPath</key>
<array>
<string>/Users/ritchiem/Library/Calendars/Calendar Cache</string>
<string>/Users/cristina/Library/Calendars/Calendar Cache</string>
</array>
<key>MaxSize</key>
<integer>0</integer>
<key>RequiresACPower</key>
<false/>
<key>SkipPaths</key>
<array>
<string>~ritchiem/Music</string>
<string>~ritchiem/dev</string>
<string>/Applications</string>
<string>~ritchiem/Desktop</string>
<string>~ritchiem/Downloads</string>
<string>~ritchiem/Movies</string>
<string>~ritchiem/ritchiem.sparseimage</string>
</array>
<key>SkipSystemFiles</key>
<false/>
</dict>
</plist>
*Other Steps*
Whilst running TM I also setup dtrace to log every file open: (http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071031121823710)
Looking for any files in my home space that it might have opened returned none:
ramaII:~ ritchiem$ grep "/Users/ritchiem" tm.dtrace |grep "entry backupd" |wc -l
0
Yet looking for all the files backed up from the /Users directory there were 458!
ramaII:~ ritchiem$ grep "/Users/" tm.dtrace |grep "entry backupd" |wc -l
458
Dtrace also highlights the files that backupd uses unfortuately the only files it opened before it started its backup were:
0 17720 open:entry backupd /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
0 17720 open:entry backupd /var/db/.TimeMachine.Cookie
0 18506 open_nocancel:entry backupd /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Res
ources/StdExclusions.plist
The only file on that list I haven't seen mentioned before is the StdExclusions but I'm sure that is the same on everyone's machines... just incase though:
ramaII:~ ritchiem$ cat /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/StdExclusions.pl ist
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>

<key>PathsExcluded</key>
<array>
<string>/.Spotlight-V100</string>
<string>/.Trashes</string>
<string>/.fseventsd</string>
<string>/.hotfiles.btree</string>
<string>/Backups.backupdb</string>
<string>/Desktop DB</string>
<string>/Desktop DF</string>
<string>/Network/Servers</string>
<string>/Previous Systems</string>
<string>/Users/Shared/SC Info</string>
<string>/Users/Guest</string>
<string>/dev</string>
<string>/home</string>
<string>/net</string>
<string>/private/var/db/Spotlight</string> 
<string>/private/var/db/Spotlight-V100</string> 
</array>

<key>ContentsExcluded</key>
<array>
<string>/Volumes</string>
<string>/Network</string>
<string>/automount</string>
<string>/.vol</string>
<string>/tmp</string>
<string>/cores</string>
<string>/private/tmp</string>
<string>/private/Network</string>
<string>/private/tftpboot</string>
<string>/private/var/automount</string>
<string>/private/var/log</string>
<string>/private/var/folders</string>
<string>/private/var/log/apache2</string>
<string>/private/var/log/cups</string>
<string>/private/var/log/fax</string>
<string>/private/var/log/ppp</string>
<string>/private/var/log/sa</string>
<string>/private/var/log/samba</string>
<string>/private/var/log/uucp</string>
<string>/private/var/run</string>
<string>/private/var/spool</string>
<string>/private/var/tmp</string>
<string>/private/var/vm</string>
<string>/private/var/db/dhcpclient</string>
<string>/private/var/db/fseventsd</string>
<string>/Library/Caches</string>
<string>/Library/Logs</string>
<string>/System/Library/Caches</string>
<string>/System/Library/Extensions/Caches</string>
</array>

<key>UserPathsExcluded</key>
<array>
<string>Library/Application Support/SyncServices</string>
<string>Library/Caches</string>
<string>Library/Logs</string>
<string>Library/Mail/Envelope Index</string>
<string>Library/Mail/AvailableFeeds</string>
<string>Library/Mirrors</string>
<string>Library/PubSub/Database</string>
<string>Library/PubSub/Downloads</string>
<string>Library/PubSub/Feeds</string>
<string>Library/Safari/Icons.db</string>
<string>Library/Safari/HistoryIndex.sk</string>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>
Finally here is the backup log that was generated incase you spot something I haven't
Backup.log
ramaII:~ ritchiem$ sudo cat /Volumes/Red-5/Backups.backupdb/ramaII/2009-07-09-011025/.Backup.log
2009-07-09-00:06:32 - Starting backup
Previous snapshot:
None
Will traverse "ramaII" (mount: '/' fsUUID: 3E4CD731-945C-3BA3-85D5-67B401082442 eventDBUUID: FDD41B79-8CEF-4F57-810C-B1C56476640B)
=== Starting backup loop #1 ===
Will use FirstBackupCopier
Running preflight for "ramaII" (mount: '/' fsUUID: 3E4CD731-945C-3BA3-85D5-67B401082442 eventDBUUID: FDD41B79-8CEF-4F57-810C-B1C56476640B)
Excluding /Users/ritchiem/Music: 36.1 GB (6083 items)
Excluding /Users/ritchiem/dev: 20.8 GB (488641 items)
Excluding /Applications: 9.6 GB (15070 items)
Excluding /Users/ritchiem/Desktop: 26.3 GB (2444 items)
Excluding /Users/ritchiem/Downloads: 3.8 GB (1127 items)
Excluding /Users/ritchiem/Movies: 79.6 GB (167 items)
Excluding /Users/ritchiem/ritchiem.sparseimage: 27.2 GB (1 items)
Should copy 2853633 items (84.8 GB) representing 22223169 blocks of size 4096. 35174679 blocks available.
Preflight complete for "ramaII" (mount: '/' fsUUID: 3E4CD731-945C-3BA3-85D5-67B401082442 eventDBUUID: FDD41B79-8CEF-4F57-810C-B1C56476640B)
Time elapsed: 9 minutes, 25.000 seconds
Processing preflight info
Space needed for this backup: 103.1 GB (27016262 blocks of size 4096)
Finished processing preflight info
Copying items from "ramaII" (mount: '/' fsUUID: 3E4CD731-945C-3BA3-85D5-67B401082442 eventDBUUID: FDD41B79-8CEF-4F57-810C-B1C56476640B)
Finished copying items for "ramaII" (mount: '/' fsUUID: 3E4CD731-945C-3BA3-85D5-67B401082442 eventDBUUID: FDD41B79-8CEF-4F57-810C-B1C56476640B)
Time elapsed: 54 minutes, 20.000 seconds
Copied 191916 items (24.3 GB)
Gathering events since 390504228.
Needs new backup due to change in /Library/Preferences
=== Starting backup loop #2 ===
Will use IncrementalBackupCopier
Running preflight for "ramaII" (mount: '/' fsUUID: 3E4CD731-945C-3BA3-85D5-67B401082442 eventDBUUID: FDD41B79-8CEF-4F57-810C-B1C56476640B)
Calculating size of changes
Should copy 4 items (0 bytes) representing 0 blocks of size 4096. 28325806 blocks available.
Preflight complete for "ramaII" (mount: '/' fsUUID: 3E4CD731-945C-3BA3-85D5-67B401082442 eventDBUUID: FDD41B79-8CEF-4F57-810C-B1C56476640B)
Time elapsed: 1.243 seconds
Processing preflight info
Space needed for this backup: 1.8 GB (459904 blocks of size 4096)
Preserving last snapshot /Volumes/Red-5/Backups.backupdb/ramaII/2009-07-09-000552.inProgress/79ECBD8C-12 BE-4067-A202-B7033190FD82
Finished processing preflight info
Copying items from "ramaII" (mount: '/' fsUUID: 3E4CD731-945C-3BA3-85D5-67B401082442 eventDBUUID: FDD41B79-8CEF-4F57-810C-B1C56476640B)
Finished copying items for "ramaII" (mount: '/' fsUUID: 3E4CD731-945C-3BA3-85D5-67B401082442 eventDBUUID: FDD41B79-8CEF-4F57-810C-B1C56476640B)
Time elapsed: 6.147 seconds
Copied 114 items (93 bytes)
Gathering events since 406201626.
Finalizing completed snapshot
Finished finalizing completed snapshot
Backup complete.
Total time elapsed: 1 hour, 3 minutes, 54.000 seconds
*Next Steps*
I've been thinking about what i could try next and not having many ideas. So I'm really hoping someone here will have a flash of inspiration.
If I find some time at the weekend then I will try renaming my account again and verifying that it does backup under a new name.
Just incase there is something odd about the first user account created, i.e. UID:501 I will make a new 'ritchiem' account (which will have the next UID, UID:504) and see if that gets backed up, I can try this while my current account has been renamed. If that does work then I can copy my files back in to that account and verify it isn't something in my home directory that is upsetting TM. Although I doubt this is the case as it never read any files from home space during the backup process.
Here's hoping there is something in the above logs etc, that give a clue to what might be going wrong.
Cheers
Martin

Time Machine fails to backup HD and stalls computer when backing up to external HD (Western Digital WD5000MT) when using Firewire 800 but works fine using USB

I have a mid 2012 MBP (MacbookPro9,1) running Mountain Lion 10.8.2. When I start a Time Machine backup to an external Western Digital HD (WD5000MT) connected using a Firewire 800 cable, my open programs stop responding and in general my computer freezes up not allowing me to open activity monitor or the console utility. I can't even shut down or restart my computer and must hard boot to reset. Though removing the firewire cable that goes to the external HD can sometimes get my system working again. However, the WD external HD also has a usb port and when I connect it to my computer via a USB cable, Time Machine seems to backup my system fine without stalling my computer. This same external HD worked fine with Firewire 800 using my old late 2007 MBP running snow leopard. I should note that my brother has the exact same model WD external HD and he also had issues with the firewire port on his MBP running mountain lion. I have run the disk utility checking for disk/file permission errors and the drive itself seems fine. I initially formatted that drive as ExFAT but while troubleshooting reformatted to HFS+ and still had the same issue. I tested using a different firewire 800 cable but still had the same issue. Can't think of anything else to do. I don't have another firewire-compatible device to test if it is the HD vs the firewire port. I would prefer to use the firewire port for quicker transfer speeds but I'm stuck with USB for now. Any suggestions?

Maybe these will help:
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11194
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3275 (note - older article)
Have you tried looking at the Western Digital web site to see if you can find anything?
http://support.wdc.com

Warning: Time Machine won't backup iPhoto if left open

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?
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?
Probably not. Few backup apps can manage to back up a single file that's being written-to by another app at the same time. What would it do with a partial file? What would YOU do with part of a photo, if you had it and could restore it?
iPhoto is much more complex than a "normal" folder -- it's a "package," with various files, indexes, and cross-references, many of which can be open at the same time -- worse, all the data that the app has written isn't necessarily on the disk yet; it's likely in an OS buffer somewhere, and may not actually go out to disk until the app is closed.
The next question is, does this mean I haven't had a REAL iTunes backup for months either? I AWLAYS keep that one open.
I can't be sure, but I think iTunes is probably ok (but by all means check it), depending on what you were doing at the time of the backup. If you were downloading a file, that file most likely wasn't backed-up; but if you were just playing songs, it's probably up to date.
Click here to download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window. If you look at the messages for various backups, you may see some that mention doing a "deep traversal" on your iPhoto library, because of a "missed reservation." That's a clue that some things weren't backed-up earlier because of open file(s).
But I would agree entirely that Time Machine ought to send some sort of message when it skips things -- perhaps if something like iPhoto doesn't get backed-up in a 24-hour period.
Feel free to suggest that to Apple at: http://www.apple.com/feedback

HT3275 Time Machine Performs Partial Backup

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