My Time Machine (TM) is taking way longer "Cleaning up old backups" if i haven't even backed my computer up for that long.

I havent backed up my computer in almost 2 years due to a complication with the Time Machine (TM)
But now it is fixed and it spends hours on "Cleaning old backups"
And when it comes to backing up computers I am always scared to fix it blindly because our Time Machine backs up 3 other computers.
Is there something I'm doing wrong or do I just need more patiences?
HELP!!!

Cancel the backup.....unless you want to wait a few more days to see if it might work.
Erase the Time Capsule drive using AirPort Utility
Start over again with a new backup
Ethernet will be 4-5 times faster than wireless for the first backup

Similar Messages

Removed disk in Time Machine, now can't reselect to get my old backups back

I accidently clicked Remove Disk in Time Capsule on my MBA. Now when I try to reselect it in Time Machine (using the Time Capsule disk listed) it doesn't find my old backups.
I don't want to start again as there is all my old backups sitting on the Time Capsule taking up space. Any advice to get my backups back?
One thing I have noticed is the icon for the Time Capsule used to be the Wi-Fi 'fan', but now it's got the people holding hands icon instead. Sorry if they have correct names for the icons but that's the best description I can use. I also have no idea if this is important or not.
Thanks.

Sfem wrote:
I accidently clicked Remove Disk in Time Capsule on my MBA. Now when I try to reselect it in Time Machine (using the Time Capsule disk listed) it doesn't find my old backups.
If you mean the TM Preferences window shows "None," it just hasn't updated the window yet. See #B3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting
One thing I have noticed is the icon for the Time Capsule used to be the Wi-Fi 'fan', but now it's got the people holding hands icon instead. Sorry if they have correct names for the icons but that's the best description I can use.
I'm not sure what you mean. Can you post a screenshot?

Time machine shows larger hard drive, so never deletes old backups and maxed out my drive

So I back up my Mac Pro to a Drobo Gen 2. There is a 3tb and 3 2tb drives in it. When Time Machine backs up, it says there is a 11.88 out of 17.59 available, which isn't true. It actually ran out of room during a back up b/c it's putting so much stuff on there. There is only 238.70 left. (the 3 TB drive is not used in the Drobo system, but is there in case a drive goes bad.) My Mac Pro has 4 TB in it, and there's about 1TB left on it, so the Drobo is showing 5.19 is used, and only the 238.70 left, so all the rest is TM. TM is suppose to delete older backups when disc is getting full. But it's not b/c it thinks there is plenty of room. How do I get TM to see the proper drive space, or is there a way to have TM only do a certain number of back ups then start erasing. I'm not really tech saavy, so whoever can help and speak my language, that would be great!

To clarify, this all happened under Snow Leopard as I had said. My profile lists Tiger, since I haven't cared to update my personal profile since using that OS, and in fact I still use Tiger among other versions. I manage a lot of users. And I never got to upgrade to Mountain Lion on this system, as explained in the post above. So I don't see the confusion.
I don't think the model of Mac makes a difference for this type of problem, but in case it does, the incident was on a 2010 Intel iMac with a 4TB hard drive and 8GB of RAM. I would have mentioned that if this was a problem with hardware specific to the model of Mac. But this is more of a universal issue.
But to stay on topic, I'm guessing my old backups are toast. But if anybody has any experience with recovering from Time Machine deleting their old backups, I would be happy to hear from them. In the meantime, I am going to try to do some old fashioned file recovery, and see what I can salvage.

Time Machine: disk full (but doesn't self erase old backups?)

Hi everyone.
I am trying to do my backups with Time Machine (TM).
My HD is 1TB, external HDD (for TM backups) is 2TB.
After a few days TM tries to do new backups, but an error message pops up: "Too low space" in the 2TB HDD.
But does not TM automatically erases the oldest backups to free space for the new ones?
I do not want to eliminate some folders, because when the space will grow up I'll be in the same situation...
Thank you for any suggestions.
Stefano

I wish to move time machine to a new HD, but keeping the old backups on the new HD. New HD format (mac os plus (with register)). please help?

I wish to move my time machine copies to a new HD, but keeping the old backups in the new time machine HD. The new HD format is Mac OS Plus (with register). When I dragg the backups.backuodb file to the new HD I got an error message "The uppercase and lowercas of the volume....".
Please help

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for details.

HT201250 I've been working on a newsletter and have the final version. But I wanted to check something in a version I did last week. If I choose the day in Time Machine, is there any way I can view that document without "restoring" it to replace the final

I've been working on a newsletter and have the final version. But I wanted to check something in a verssion I did last week. If I choose the day in Time Machine, is there any way I can view that document without "restoring" it to replace the final version?

You can drag and drop a file from TM to the desktop.
Let's say your newsletter is on the desktop. First thing to do is to add something to the file name, say Newsletter_1.
Next open TM as if it is just another external drive by double clicking the icon. (This is not the same as "Enter Time Machine" which you do when you want to restore.) The file hierachy in TM follows the same logic as on your hard drive. Navigate to the date you want, find the file you want, and drag and drop it where you want it to be. Because you changed the name of the most recent version you can both files in the same space.
I do this often.
But remember if you make a back up now you will end up with both versions in TM.

I was exporting one of my iMovie projects, and then iMovie suddenly froze. I restarted my computer but when I opened iMovie my project wasn't there anymore. I don't have time machine is there a way to get my project back? PLEASE HELP

I was exporting one of my iMovie projects, and then iMovie suddenly froze. I restarted my computer but when I opened iMovie my project wasn't there anymore. I don't have time machine is there a way to get my project back? PLEASE HELP

If the system just Restarted on it's own, Shut down while you were working on something then started back up all those changes, edits, you had done in that app, document, are gone.

Time Machine - is there any way to allow it to work with the MacBook Air 2011 lid closed?

When the Air sleeps, Time Machine stops (although it does pick up immediately after the machine wakes). I had been leaving it on overnight, but Applecare techs tell me there's no need for that, as there are no utilities running at night, contrary to what I'd seen elsewhere.
The risk is that I'll miss the last backup. Is there any way around the problem, other than calling a manual backup and waiting for it?
This is Lion.

Sorry, I guess I wasn't precise enough. I'm concerned about this (remotely likely) situation:
10:15 p.m., TM backs up, next backup scheduled for 11:15 p.m.
11:10, I put the machine to sleep for the night. Previous backup 55 minutes ago, numerous files changed or added during that time.
7:30 a.m. next day, SSD crashes during wakeup. The last 55 minutes of operation have not been saved to the USB hard drive.
Is there an automatic way to avoid that gap in the backup?

Using Time Machine to restore to new hard drive missing recent backups

On Mac Book Pro 2009 with OS X 10.5.8.
I have been backing up to Time Machine on an external drive since 2009. A few month ago I upgrade to OS X 10.9 Mavericks.
Trying to install a new hard drive and restoring from Time Machine. Just before installing the hard drive I again backed up to Time Machine.
Trying to restore from Time Machine.
Note: this link shows the screen I am on. It isn't from my computer. Just showing for display purpose.
http://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/xlarge/public/field/image/2014 /03/time_machine_select_backup.jpg?itok=G2WbV0Vu
"Select a backup. Select the Time Machine backup you want to restore. Only complete backups of Mac OS X appear in the list"
The problem is, the most recent "complete" restore point in the list is August 2011 (OS X 10.5.8). How can that be? Over the years I have checked Time Machine and I have back ups way past 2011.
What should I do?
Thanks

Daniel Greeney wrote:
So I just purchased an internal drive (separate from my system drive) to use as a Time Machine drive, for both of my computers (only one partition). Since they will be backing up every day, I will retain much more recent material in case of drive failure.
Let Time Machine back up every hour, as it's designed. That will protect you best.
My question is this - if I have a drive failure on my current internal system drive, and the internal Time Machine is intact, is it possible for me to take my external bootable backup (say 3 weeks older than Time Machine in how recently it was backed up), make a cone of that on a new internal system drive, and then use Time Machine to restore that drive to what is most current on Time Machine?
Does this question make sense?
The question makes sense until you realize that Time Machine backups contain everything you need (unless you do something silly, like exclude your system files).
Once the new drive is installed and formatted, you can restore your entire system from the TM backups faster than you can copy the clone to the new internal HD. See #14 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum. Note that you use the Snow Leopard Install disc only for the Installer on it; you don't install OSX from it.

Time Machine is estimating 1,302 days to do a backup for 520gigs

Hello,
I have a brand new 1.5 tb hardrive to use as my time machine backup. It is formatted mac os journald extended. I was able to manually copy the computers hard drive in about 3 to 6 hours on the same drive. But when I turn the time machine back up on to back up the same amount of space it says that Time Machine is estimating 1,302 days to do a backup for 520gigs.
How do I get this to work properly?

Cancel and try again - or just sit it out for a day and see if that estimate doesn't go down. I've never seen a Time Machine backup display that kind of message. Even my first - way back when - didn't take over 4 hours.
How is your external drive connected? USB 2.0 or 3.0? Firewire? Do you have it partitioned? What did you use to copy the contents of your internal drive to your external?
At this point, there's no question that you should just cancel the backup. But I'd like to know how you're connected, if you've partitioned the drive, and if you have erased the drive after you copied over the contents of your hard drive. Time Machine doesn't like other data on the backup drive - could this be a problem?
Clinton

I need to create a second back-up of iPhoto from Time Machine to a separate external drive. The old iPhoto in TM will not open. Please help!

I need to create a second back-up of iPhoto from Time Machine to a separate external drive. The old iPhoto in TM will not open. Please help! And thank you!

Most Simple Back Up:
Drag the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to another Disk. This will make a copy on that disk.
Slightly more complex: Use an app that will do incremental back ups. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically.
Example of such apps: Chronosync - but there are many others. Search on MacUpdate or the App Store

Time Machine issue on a new iMac - "Cleaning old backups..."

Just got a new iMac. Migrated my system over from a TM backup from my old iMac.
I then let TM inherit the backups on that drive. Now, I am attempting to do a TM backup, and it stays on "Cleaning up old backups..." forever.
What's the deal?

Information in C4 in 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

How do I transfer from time machine lightroom programme to my girlfriends computer (backed up on time machine) with out setting up my full desktop - i need it until i can afford a new computer to restore my old set up completely.

How do I transfer from time machine adobe lightroom programme to my girlfriends computer (backed up on my hard drive via time machine) with out setting up my full desktop - i need it until i can afford a new computer to restore my old set up completely.
Any ideas, I can access files - i.e. jpegs of old work, but can't edit new photos...
P

If you have a license for Lightroom, you should be able to reinstall it from an installer disc or re-download it from Adobe after explaining the situation and clarifying the license issues. Either will be simpler than trying to extract and install it from a TM backup of a different Mac, I think. If it's anything like other Adobe products, it has bits and pieces all over the place that you'll have to find and put in their right places on your girlfirend's Mac.

Can anyone help please with my Time Machine, I have been getting the following message The backup disk image "/Volumes/Mac Backup/Stephen Smith's iMac.sparsebundle" is already in use.

Can anyone help please with my Time Machine, I have been getting the following message The backup disk image “/Volumes/Mac Backup/Stephen Smith’s iMac.sparsebundle” is already in use.

See > http://pondini.org/TM/C12.html

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

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

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

My Time Machine (TM) is taking way longer "Cleaning up old backups" if i haven't even backed my computer up for that long.

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