HT3728 Time Machine only wants to do full backup not incremental

just replaced hard drive and restored from time machine however time machine looks like it is trying to do a full back up and says not enough space available when should be enough for incremental. Do I delete backup and reconnect to time machine?

There are some cases when you can continue to use the old TM backups and situations where you cannot or should not.. but before you delete your backups .. something I am always very reluctant to do, make sure you have all your files.. If you are talking about a Time Capsule you can archive off the old backup to a USB drive using 5.6 version utility or new 6.3 version. It is not available in 6.0-6.2
Then you can safely erase the drive and start over.
Read pondini on continuing your backups.
B5 and B6 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

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I recently did a full reinstall from my time machine and now my MacBook pro won't back up to the time machine. It starts a full backup ignoring the original back up, can anyone help?

I recently did a full reinstall from my time machine and now my MacBook pro won't back up to the time machine. It starts a full backup ignoring the original back up, can anyone help?

Did you follow the instructions on the page linked below?
OS X Yosemite: Recover your entire system

Time machine, did it perform a full backup?

A bit new to this. Upgraded to a new MBPro retina, mt lion from an older MBP using migration assistant.
After all was finished and all the files were on my new machine (I did not use Time machine to migrate or backup to the new mac, I used migration assistant), I connected to time machine to perform a completely new backup of the new machine. I have 295GB to copy over. So, it seemed to take forever. I was on day 2, noticed all the threads about the slowness, but then the new machine froze. It said it was around 170GB through it. I could have also had a bit of interuppted internet too in that time. I also could not access the internet on the new machine at all by that point. So, I rebooted and I assume by finding the disc and starting again, it looked like it picked back up at roughly 125GB. that took about 6 hours or so. So, I think that roughly it may have gotten the whole 250 gb but not sure.
Also, on my select disc option I have two listings for my time capsule now. Not sure if that makes a difference.
My question really is how can I see what exactly went through? I have entered time machine but can't tell really if everything in those files copied. Can I at least see the size of the backup on time machine? I would even be willing to do a forced full backup again of all 295GB, but can't seem to see how to do that.
I am a bit new to this part, so sorry if I am asking really obvious questions. I just didn't want to find out at a later time that I only have partial backups. Thanks for any advice.

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the page that opens.
Drag or copy — do not type — the following line into the Terminal window, then press return:
sudo tmutil compare
You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up.
The command will take at least a few minutes to run. Eventually some lines of output will appear below what you entered.
Each line that begins with a plus sign (“+”) represents a file that has been added to the source volume since the last snapshot was taken. These files have not been backed up yet.
Each line that begins with an exclamation point (“!”) represents a file that has changed on the source volume. These files have been backed up, but not in their present state.
Each line that begins with a minus sign (“-“) represents a file that has been removed from the source volume.
Files that you’ve excluded from backup, or that are excluded automatically, are ignored.
At the end of the output, you’ll get some lines like the following:
Added:
Removed:
Changed:
These lines show the total amount of data added, removed, or changed on the source(s) since the last snapshot.

Time Machine Has Never Performed a Full Backup that Can Be Restored From

I've been backing up my system via time machine to a time capsule. I'm using the same time capsule for both my mac and my wife's. My wife's mac is backing up fine with numerous full backups that can be restored from. However, when I recently booted into recovery mode, I discovered there were no full backups of my mac that I could restore from. I've been using this time capsule for about a year now so I'm concerned as to why there are no full backups. I can enter time machine and see my docs and files...just no full backups. Thanks for your help.

There was a bug in Mountain Lion that caused TM to fail to backup system files.
See D10 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Honestly if you want a reliable full backup get CCC or other clone type backup and do a disk image to a USB drive that you can then test boot from. Then use TM for incrementals..
What the change to Maverick will bring I am not sure.. ??
We went from big cats to card sharps in Westerns..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maverick_(TV_series)

Time Machine don't make a full backup

I just started with Time Machine. I made my first backup with a USB cabel of my Mac book Pro (28 gb used) but the Time Machine folder is only about 22 gb - how can that be?
Time Machine haven't come up with any errors but I think there is something wrong anyway.
Do one of you have any ideas?
Thanks in advance
/Kudsk

My first backup was with a usb cable but then I went wireless I wanted to use Time Machine but this time it made a new file called "Lars Kudsks computer_001b63b12c5a.sparsebundle" instead of using the "Backups.backupdb" folder. - How can that be?
And my mac book pro only finds the external drive if I open the Finder window (and in some way show "Time Machine" where to find the external drive - if you understand what I mean).

Time Machine making full backups--not incremental

Hi,
I just installed Snow Leopard on my Mac Pro a couple of days ago, and have been using Time Machine to make backups (never used it before now). I have TimeMachineEditor installed, and have it set to make a backup daily at 3:30am. It backs up data from my 500GB main hard drive to another internal 500GB hard drive.
The first backup went without a hitch, and did a full backup as expected (everything). But the second, third, and fourth backups all were full backups as well....not incremental as they should've been. The fourth one was actually a manual backup I did to test it...I chose "Back Up Now" to see if it did full or incremental. It did a full backup.
So, after four backups, each a little over 100GB, I'm already running out of space Has anyone else run into this behaviour? Is this a consequence of TimeMachineEditor having screwed it up somehow? Even if it has, shouldn't a manual backup still do an incremental backup?
Very strange....

canadavenyc wrote:
V.K. wrote:
yes, well, if Toronto ever gets a team in any sport worth rooting for, I might stop posting on apple forums and start watching them.
lol...well, seeing as how you'll clearly be here a while then... ...perhaps I can prevail upon you to answer one last question that just occurred to me.
Let's say I have tons of TM snapshots on my backup drive, and at some point I want to delete a few to clear some space. I know TM automatically goes after the earliest ones when the drive fills up,
You should know that TM also constantly thins recent backups. It keeps hourly backups for 24 hours and then deletes all but one for every day; it keeps daily backups for 30 days and then deletes all but one for every week. it keeps all weekly backups till the TM drive gets full at which point it starts deleting the oldest ones.
but let's say I manually want to delete a few snapshots that contain, say, a massive cache file or something totally useless to keep around, which I could afford to delete and would gain me a lot more drive space.
When I go into the TM interface to do the removal, how can I figure out which snapshots to get rid of? How would you do it?
TM offers two options. you can delete an entire backup corresponding to a time point or it can delete all backups of a given file/folder. to do that enter TM and scroll back in time to some time point. select something and click on the "gears" action button in Finder toolbar. you'll see options "delete backup" (deletes the entire backup for that time point), and 'delete all backups of this item". deletes all backups of the selected item from all time points. I use the latter sometimes to get rid of backups of very large files.

Time Machine doesn't do a full backup

Hi there,
I have a 320GB external hard drive I use as a Time Machine backup. This has always worked before.
Recently I reformatted it and made a small partition (70GB) for other bits and bobs. Now though, whenever it backs up only a few KB of data seem to change, nothing I add or delete on my MacBook HD gets backed up to the external drive. Which is worying!
There's ample room in the backup partition to add the updated files, but it doesn't.
I've troubleshooted it, done a full reset etc, but I can't work it out. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Is it best not to have any partition at all?
Thanks in advance.
- Stevie

I did some more reading and I found that Time Machine would find the older backups once a new backup is completed. The backup ended up being a little larger than previous backups (2.65 GB vs typical incremental backups of several MB's) but when it completed, time machine updated the last backup time/date and the oldest backup time/date properly. So I guess, I don't have a problem.

Time Machine only showing new Mountain lion backups

HI All,
Time Machine in 'star wars' display is only showing 2 recent Mountain lion backups even though 2 other older are there but greyed out, unable to access.
Is a USB external backup disk.
Have tried the method: http://pondini.org/TM/E2.html
but only seeing 1 disk to select from when choosing 'browse from other time machine disk'/
I can see the older backup files via finders but unable to move them to dektop as getting 'The operation cannot be complete as you dont have permission'.
Can any one help?
Have tried http://pondini.org/TM/E10.html
but as cannot not access it via 'Stars wars' mode unable to copy to image...
HELP please!!!
Thank you

I can't see backups for a disk/partition that's no longer connected

Time Machine ignoring excluded items (performing full backup)

Hi.
I started having problems with Time Machine recently.
My macbook hard drive has 250 GB, 80 GB free. In the Time Machine preference pane options I have selected a couple of folders so that an "estimated full backup" is 52.9 GB. When I'm running TM it tries to backup the full drive (160GB) ignoring the folders I chose to exclude.
I have verified and repaired both my main hard drive and the external drive used for Time Machine.
The log in the console initially says that it is going to backup 44GB and then it continues copying more data:
1/24/10 10:14:02 PM com.apple.backupd[378] Starting standard backup
1/24/10 10:14:03 PM com.apple.backupd[378] Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
1/24/10 10:14:10 PM com.apple.backupd[378] Backup content size: 157.0 GB excluded items size: 113.0 GB for volume Macintosh HD
1/24/10 10:14:10 PM com.apple.backupd[378] No pre-backup thinning needed: 53.73 GB requested (including padding), 260.74 GB available
1/24/10 11:14:04 PM com.apple.backupd[378] Copied 4.1 GB of 44.0 GB, 1471 of 782012 items
1/25/10 12:14:05 AM com.apple.backupd[378] Copied 6.3 GB of 44.0 GB, 20599 of 782012 items
1/25/10 1:14:06 AM com.apple.backupd[378] Copied 9.0 GB of 44.0 GB, 48709 of 782012 items
1/25/10 2:14:06 AM com.apple.backupd[378] Copied 11.1 GB of 44.0 GB, 124469 of 782012 items
1/25/10 3:14:07 AM com.apple.backupd[378] Copied 21.9 GB of 44.0 GB, 155468 of 782012 items
1/25/10 4:14:08 AM com.apple.backupd[378] Copied 42.0 GB of 44.0 GB, 156348 of 782012 items
1/25/10 5:14:08 AM com.apple.backupd[378] Copied 62.5 GB of 62.5 GB, 156455 of 782012 items
1/25/10 6:14:09 AM com.apple.backupd[378] Copied 83.1 GB of 83.1 GB, 156517 of 782012 items
1/25/10 7:14:10 AM com.apple.backupd[378] Copied 103.7 GB of 103.7 GB, 156648 of 782012 items
1/25/10 7:56:21 AM com.apple.backupd[378] Copied 183712 files (114.1 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
1/25/10 7:56:23 AM com.apple.backupd[378] Backup canceled.
1/25/10 7:57:55 AM com.apple.backupd[378] Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!
1/25/10 8:20:53 AM [0x0-0xb50b5].backupd-helper[2308] Not starting Time Machine backup after wake - failed to resolve alias to backup volume
1/25/10 8:46:07 AM com.apple.backupd-auto[2421] Not starting scheduled Time Machine backup - time machine destination not resolvable.
Thanks for the help!

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
We have seen this on rare occasions.
Start by Repairing your Time Machine drive and verifying your internal HD, per #A5 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
Also do a "full reset" of Time Machine via #A4 there.
If that doesn't help, there's probably something corrupted in OSX.
You'll need to reinstall it from your Snow Leopard Install disc, then download and install the "combo" update to get back to 10.6.2. Info and download available at: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL959 Be sure to do a +Repair Permissions+ via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) afterwards.

Time Machine Only Keeps Most Recent Sparsbundle

Hey everyone,
I'm just now realizing that I asked this question in the Snow Leopard forum, like an idiot. So, I'm re-posting it here.
I apologize if this topic has already been covered (I believe it has, in a 2012 post that didn't have the answer for me). But after an hour on the phone with Apple — with no solutions — I turn to the community for answers. I use a WD My Cloud (2TB) as my backup device, primarily for two things: 1) Storing my music library, which my Sonos system reads from. 2) Wireless Time Machine backups.
For starters, I didn't know that when you use a network attached drive with Time Machine, it stores backups as sparsbundles, as opposed to the standard folder structure that is used for locally attached hard drives. It works that way even using Apple's own Time Capsule. So, that was news to me.
That said, the issue I have is that when using My Cloud for Time Machine backups, it is only holding onto the most recent backup created (in sparsbundle form). For instance, today is Dec. 7. When I mount the sparsebundle created by Time Machine, there is only one backup contained within: The latest one, from Dec. 5. And for the record, I understand how to use Time Machine, I used it for years on my iMac. Even entering Time Machine yields the same results: Only being able to go back as far as Dec. 5 (image attached)
I want Time Machine/My Cloud to store multiple backups, not just the latest.
I don't think it's a storage issue either. As you can see from the attached image, I have only used a fraction of the drive's space. And in the My Cloud settings (Settings > General > Mac Backups), I haven't changed the default configurations, which allows for up to 2TB for backups.
Can anyone help? Thanks.

A third-party NAS is unsuitable for use with Time Machine, especially if it's your only backup. I know this isn't the answer you want. I know 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 says my drive is full, but it's not

time machine says my drive is full, but it's not. it is a 298 gig external drive with 51 gigs available. my internal drive on my lap top (the one I am backing up) is a 148 gigs with 44 gigs available. the backup folder on the external drive is
152 gigs.
how can i fix time machine so it can figure out that the external drive isn't full?

Lisa W wrote:
Thank you both for your replies. Something is seriously wrong with a backup program that needs that much extra space! So much for incremental back ups.
It doesn't, necessarily. We still have no information on what's going on with your situation.
It's a back up for a laptop and I would like to connect it to the backup hard drive once a week or so, but from what I read time machine only works one way... for a computer to have it active all the time.
No. It works BEST that way, but isn't required.
That just won't work for me for many reasons. Most importantly, time machine slows up my computer and I have to leave it off to run my applications.
Then something else is wrong. Again, without any details, we can't help you determine what.
There is no setting to have it turn on in the middle of the night or once per week.
Not in TM itself. But there is a free 3rd-party app that will do this, Time Machine Editor: http://timesoftware.free.fr/timemachineeditor/
It would sure be nice if I could back up when I want. Seems like time machine is just one of those ideas that apple didn't think all the way through.
You can. And TM works just fine for most people. There is something unusual in your setup, or the way you're doing things, that's causing your difficulties.
Let's be clear: if you'd like some help with this, please answer my previous questions and download and post the messages from the wIdget.

I bought a new external hard drive for backups, but time machine won't do a full back up. I think it is remembering backing up onto previous external hard drives, which I don't own anymore. How do I do a new full backup?

I bought a new external hard drive for backups, but time machine won't do a full back up.
I think it is remembering backing up onto previous external hard drives, which I don't own anymore. How do I do a new full backup?
When I bought the new (used) iMac, I also bought an external hard drive for backups. It worked fine, but my husband stole it.
Then I bought a new external hard drive (Seagate) and it worked fine for three weeks, then died.
So I just got a new external hard drive, which was put together from an internal hard drive and a hard drive enclosure.
Time machine did the first backup today, and it should have taken 9 hours like it did on the previous first time full back up. Instead, it took 30 minutes. That can't be right. I want to start over and do a full backup to make sure everything gets onto my new external hard drive, but I can't figure out how to do that. Please help.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
tmutil compare -E
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
The command will take at least a few minutes to run. Eventually some lines of output will appear below what you entered.
Each line that begins with a plus sign (“+”) represents a file that has been added to the source volume since the last snapshot was taken. These files have not been backed up yet.
Each line that begins with an exclamation point (“!”) represents a file that has changed on the source volume. These files have been backed up, but not in their present state.
Each line that begins with a minus sign (“-“) represents a file that has been removed from the source volume.
At the end of the output, you’ll get some lines like the following:
Added:
Removed:
Changed:
These lines show the total amount of data added, removed, or changed on the source(s) since the last snapshot.

Time Machine Question (want to keep old back up and start a new one)

Hello
I have a MacBook Pro that I back up using Time Machine to a Segate External Harddrive. I have several weeks worth of back ups stored using Time Machine. Then I needed to have my system wiped clean due to overheating. I just got it back and I have been working to restore my system (application by application.... folder by folder, file by file) from the most recent Time Machine.
However I didn't put it all back - I kind of picked and choose what I reinstalled.
I would like to set my MacBook Pro back up with Time Machine BUT I really really do not want to overwrite the old backups. In my ideal world I want to start a whole new set of backups. However I can't figure out how to do that.
I tried changing the name of the folders in Time Machine and that didn't work. I tried copying them, that didn't work either. It keeps telling me "The operation can’t be completed because it isn’t supported."
Is there any way to start a whole new time machine back up using the same external hard drive? This way I still have my old Time Machine Back ups should I need them (from my computer before we wiped it clean).
Thanks!
Alison

alreilly wrote:
However I didn't put it all back - I kind of picked and choose what I reinstalled.
That's usually a recipe for disaster. You're likely to miss all sorts of things that way. Plus, if you have any "complex" apps (typically, the ones that come with their own installers and put other files on your system), they won't work properly, if at all, unless you also copy those files. Or reinstall them from the original discs.
Your best bet is to do a full system restore, then delete what you don't want.
I would like to set my MacBook Pro back up with Time Machine BUT I really really do not want to overwrite the old backups.
Time Machine won't necessarily do that. But it will make a new full backup of the "new" drive (since it was erased, it's treated as a different drive). If there's not enough room for it, it will start deleting old backups trying to make room for the new one.
(That doesn't happen if you do a full system restore, or use Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant to put your data back.)
You can avoid that by manually telling Time Machine to "associate" the new drive with the old backups, per #B6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting. TM will then do an "incremental" backup, of just what's new or different from the last backup.
If you don't do that, you won't see the backups of the "old" drive normally, but you can via the procedure in #E3 of the same link.
In my ideal world I want to start a whole new set of backups. However I can't figure out how to do that.
If there's enough room on the backup disk, you don't need to.
Is there any way to start a whole new time machine back up using the same external hard drive? This way I still have my old Time Machine Back ups should I need them (from my computer before we wiped it clean).
Again, if there's room, you don't need to do that. If there isn't, you can't, short of using a different disk.
But if there's room, and you want to keep the old backups indefinitely, you might be able to create a second partition, and start backing-up to it. See #3 in Using Disk Utility.

Time machine only copies User Info and Users (Applications, Library, and System are missing) from my quad core Mac Pro. 45 Gb of 162 Gb are missing. Any one having success with time machine copying all folders using Mavericks? What do I need to do dif

Time machine only copies User Info and Users (Applications, Library, and System are missing) from my quad core Mac Pro. 45 Gb of 162 Gb are missing. Any one having success with time machine copying all folders using Mavericks?
What do I need to do differently?

The late, great Pondini was investigating that issue before he passed away.
See here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5125969
I think there might be information there on how to reset Time Machine to do a full backup. I think you basically have to reset it and start over.

Time machine only displays my desktop folder

When I enter Time Machine, I want to be able to move back in time and browse my ENTIRE COMPUTER in the past - - - including the top level of my internal hard disk and see all files and folders on it.
However TM only displays list views of my desktop folde and will show me this desktop folder back in time as if that was the ONLY folder it had backed up. Even though an icon for my internal HD appears on my real time desktop, the desktop folder displayed by Time Machine does NOT include the hard drive so I have no way of browsing back anywhere but in my desktop folder. How do I change views in Time Machine so I can get to the top level of the hard drive and see all files and folders on it.
It's next to useless to ONLY be able to see an incomplete snapshot of my desktop folder.

Steve Holton wrote:
If the sidebar is hidden when you enter TM, you can still navigate. The "see the location of the current folder" icon (the one just to the left of the 'i' info icon will show you the folder hierarchy up to you machine name.
You mean the "Path" icon? (which is not one of the defaults).
As with the sidebar, that works IF you have a toolbar in the Finder window, and IF it has the proper icons. As with the sidebar, once you're in TM without it, you can't make it (or new icons) appear.

HT3728 Time Machine only wants to do full backup not incremental

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