No sound while time machine prepares for backup

something strange happen to my OS. yesterday i updated to 10.5.2, and now, while time-machine started to prepare it's backup, i tried to listen to a mp3 song.
no sound came. in the system preferences, suddenly i don't have any sound input or output devices.
i have a powerbook g4, 1.87 ghz, 1.5 RAM.
what is going on here???.

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Leopard applications all hang while Time Machine prepares for backup

I'm sure others have posted about this but I can't find a usable solution. I have the most recent version of Leopard, a 1TB external FireWire drive dedicated to Time Machine storage and about 400GB of backups on it. Every day at some point, Time Machine starts a backup, pauses while preparing, and the entire Mac grinds to a halt. New processes won't launch, open applications hang, Finder becomes unresponsive, menus and dock freeze in whatever position they were in at the point of launch, and I can't cancel the backup process.
The only solution is to turn off the backup drive while its running and wait for the Mac to wake up again (which it does in under a minute). I have no virus protection running. I have erased the drive and started fresh at least once to no avail.
Since I am effectively breaking a live connection every time I turn the drive off without unmounting it first (an obvious no-no), the data has great potential to be getting more and more screwed up. What can I do?

Message logs:
October 12, 2009, 1:43:25 AM
Volume at path /Volumes/Racer BU does not appear to be the correct backup volume for this computer. (Cookies do not match)
Backup failed with error: 18
October 12, 2009, 11:32:32 AM
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Racer BU/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Racer X
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
No pre-backup thinning needed: 984.2 MB requested (including padding), 443.72 GB available
Copied 21948 files (368.1 MB) from volume Racer X.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 548.2 MB requested (including padding), 443.35 GB available
Copied 961 files (965 KB) from volume Racer X.
Starting post-backup thinning
Deleted backup /Volumes/Racer BU/Backups.backupdb/Eric’s Mac Pro/2009-10-10-215828: 443.35 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Racer BU/Backups.backupdb/Eric’s Mac Pro/2009-10-10-205855: 443.36 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Racer BU/Backups.backupdb/Eric’s Mac Pro/2009-10-10-195856: 443.40 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Racer BU/Backups.backupdb/Eric’s Mac Pro/2009-10-10-185908: 443.46 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Racer BU/Backups.backupdb/Eric’s Mac Pro/2009-10-10-175907: 443.51 GB now available
Post-back up thinning complete: 5 expired backups removed
Backup completed successfully.
October 12, 2009, 12:18:32 PM
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Racer BU/Backups.backupdb
No pre-backup thinning needed: 954.4 MB requested (including padding), 443.51 GB available
Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
Copied 16717 files (339.6 MB) from volume Racer X.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 569.5 MB requested (including padding), 443.17 GB available
Copied 634 files (18.7 MB) from volume Racer X.
Starting post-backup thinning
Deleted backup /Volumes/Racer BU/Backups.backupdb/Eric’s Mac Pro/2009-10-10-225832: 443.24 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Racer BU/Backups.backupdb/Eric’s Mac Pro/2009-10-10-165828: 443.25 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Racer BU/Backups.backupdb/Eric’s Mac Pro/2009-10-10-155855: 443.30 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Racer BU/Backups.backupdb/Eric’s Mac Pro/2009-10-10-145857: 443.36 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Racer BU/Backups.backupdb/Eric’s Mac Pro/2009-10-10-135852: 443.38 GB now available
Post-back up thinning complete: 5 expired backups removed
Backup completed successfully.
October 12, 2009, 4:46:51 PM
Starting standard backup
Volume at path /Volumes/Racer BU does not appear to be the correct backup volume for this computer. (Cookies do not match)
Backup failed with error: 18
etc...
The long periods between backups are when it is "preparing for backup" and nothing is happening. Sometimes this is while I'm not using it and the machine is asleep.

Photoshop elements 11 freezes when I try to back up the catalogue. i get a message "Please wait while Elements Organizer prepares for backup". what do i do?

Photoshop elements 11 freezes when I try to back up the catalogue. i get a message "Please wait while Elements Organizer prepares for backup". what do i do?

Thank you for responding. Nothing actually worked! After reading the posts online, I called Apple. They indicated they have seen problems with some software after their upgrades. The technician was able to fix the problem on my computer remotely, but I have no clue what he did! But, it was definitely related to their recent upgrade to my computer.

Time Machine-"preparing for EVER/backup"

i read an earlier post, saying that after mac crashes, its likely TM wants to do an initial backup again, and something in Console..
I hadnt crashed, only change was hadnt backed up in 2 weeks while traveling...so after coming home, my Time Capsule and Time Machine went to back up, and 4 hours of "preparing back up", it never backed up..And i guess my question is, why is the response from TM to want to do its initial backup as opposed to just backing up to whatever is new or had changed. Does this mean, after a day or two of not connecting with TimeCapsule or whatever External Drive I choose, that this will happen? As for now, how long would you say is a normal time, for the "preparing" to...prepare, and start to backup? And if its doing its initial, isnt it wanting to do everything, so there will be duplicates?
thank you for any help!!!

JGcalifornia wrote:
i read an earlier post, saying that after mac crashes, its likely TM wants to do an initial backup again, and something in Console..
If that's what it said, it was wrong. After a crash, TM can't be sure where everything was when "the lights went out", so it will likely do a "deep traversal", examining every file and folder on your system to see what needs to be backed-up. It will send explanatory messages to your logs. This process takes quite a while, of course, and much more with a Time Capsule, but TM won't do a full backup just because of a crash.
I hadnt crashed, only change was hadnt backed up in 2 weeks while traveling...so after coming home, my Time Capsule and Time Machine went to back up, and 4 hours of "preparing back up", it never backed up..And i guess my question is, why is the response from TM to want to do its initial backup as opposed to just backing up to whatever is new or had changed. Does this mean, after a day or two of not connecting with TimeCapsule or whatever External Drive I choose, that this will happen? As for now, how long would you say is a normal time, for the "preparing" to...prepare, and start to backup? And if its doing its initial, isnt it wanting to do everything, so there will be duplicates?
You have about three questions there.
First, TM will do a full, complete backup after certain hardware repairs, a full restore, or going several days without a backup. Just how many days is unclear, but it seems to be a combination of days and the volume of changes: 10 days seems safe, 2 weeks may not be.
And yes, this is another full backup of everything on your system. So it will take a very long time and a lot of disk space. Depending on how much space is available, you may want to erase the disk and let TM start over.
You say TM "never backed up" after the lengthy "preparing" phase. Did the backup fail, or did you cancel it?
If it failed, we need to look at the messages in your logs. Download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget from: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/timemachinebuddy.html. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window. Navigate to the failed backup, then copy and post the messages here (be sure to get them all, as sometimes they overflow the small window).

MY POSSIBLE FIX for Time Machine preparing for ages every hour

Like many others, i have had problems with Time Machines backups - ever since upgrading to 10.5.2. Every hour it would say 'preparing' for ages, and then, when it did finally backup, the data transfer was incredibly slow. Not to mention the amount of cpu usage it was using during the preparing status!
I have no idea if this is a FIX, or if i was just lucky, but Time Machine now works as it should, i.e. it backs-up seamlessly.
Anyway, this is what i did: booted from my Tiger disc (yes, even though i have Leopard) and went into its 'disc utility', from there i selected 'repair permissions'. Once the Tiger disc had completed repairing the permissions, i quit out of it and restarted my MacBook normally, i.e. not from the Tiger disc. When it had finished restarting, i went to disc utility and selected 'repair permissions'.
Ever since, TM has been just perfect. Coincidence? - i honestly do not know.
By the way, i don't know if repairing the permissions from within Leopard did anything or not, but this is the sequence i used. Plus also, it might be good to note that i had repaired permissions many a time, but with no success in fixing TM, but once doing it from the Tiger disc it fixed TM.
I hope it helps someone, because i know just how annoying it was when TM was not working correctly!

I upgraded from Tiger to Leopard, which is why i believe i have had trouble.
What is 'A&I or E&I'?

Time Machine preparing for over 19 hours ??

Is this exceptionally long? There has not been a backup of the laptop (to the Time Capsule) for about 3 months. I have installed the monitoring widget for time machine and this shows that it is doing the full scan - but come on surely nearly a day preparing is too much. I have the laptop connected directly to the time capsule via ethernet.
Piers

pierslofi wrote:
Is this exceptionally long?
Yes. It's clearly stuck.
There has not been a backup of the laptop (to the Time Capsule) for about 3 months.
After that long, TM will almost certainly do a full backup. So if your TC isn't considerably more than twice the size of the data it's backing-up, your best bet will be to erase it and let TM start fresh.
Also, try all the things in item #D2 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum.

Time Machine looking for backup disk/not finding

Time Machine backed up the HD on my 2009 20" iMac up till Feb. 4 when I downloaded Since then there have been no new backups of my HD and there have been problems wihen I have Time Machine "on" with other applications (TextEdit, Pages, Adobe Bridge CS4) opening or not responding after being open and with Finder not responding. I have also had grey screen freezes multiple times so that I have to use the power button to shut the computer down. When I take TM off of the Automatic backups, most of the problems with applications quitting and the grey screen freezes stop happening. (Although I believe I've had at least one or two grey screen freezes even then.)
Today I've run Verify Time Machine Backups. It completed that. Then I turned on Automatic Backups again. But then it showed "Looking for Backup Disk". So I selected the Backup Disk. Then I checked back in a while and it still showed Looking for Backup Disk. I removed the selected backup disk, shut down and rebooted, and reselected the backup disk. It is still showing Looking for Backup Disk.
The Time Machine is a 1 Terabyte size. My iMac is using 203.6 Gigabytes of its 319.21 G space.
In looking at what my Finder is showing as the name of my Backup Disk, I see that it is showing my Backup Disk as Virginia's Computer (3). It should be showing my Backup Disk as Virginia's Computer. If this is the source of the problem, how do I get my Backup Disk named back to Virginia's Computer? Is it possible to get it changed back?
My TM is used as a router for two iMacs and up through Feb. 4 I was sharing files between both computers. When the problems started, I turned off File Sharing in the other computer (Jim's iMac). I had noticed that frequently my computer's name as shown on the other computer would be changed to Virginia's Computer (2) or Virginia's Computer (3) and I would change it back when I noticed. Perhaps this is how the problem started.

I finally contacted Apple Support. Three support people and seven and a half hours later Time Machine began working correctly. Multiple things were tried. The Time Capsule ended up getting erased. Many files and folders were deleted from several places on my hard drive. It seemed that the final ones that made a difference after the Time Capsule was erased were files that were in my Keychain.
I have to thank Apple's Support people for persistence, especially Jim who is the one who got things back to normal as far as the Time Capsule & Time Machine goes. I have to keep watch to see if anything acts up now on my hard drive and then the solution will go further. But the issue with the Time Capsule and Time Machine appears to be resolved!
Thank you, Apple Support!!!

Internal Time Machine "looking for backup disk" (not time capsule)

Hello,
I have the infamous "looking for backup disk" issue. My Time Machine drive is an internal drive, NOT a time capsule. It is mounted and visible, and the backups show up on it in the Finder. When I select to enter the Time Machine "starfield" UI, all my previous backups are browsable. But when it comes time to actually back up... it just says "looking for backup disk" forever. I've tried leaving it like that for something like 40 minutes, no joy. This is not a huge disk, there are about 700 GB of backups on it. The HDD activity light on my computer is NOT showing any activity when I am idling but it is "looking for backup disk," so I don't think it's scanning the drive or anything.
I have tried turning TM off and on, removing the drive and re-selecting it, unmounting it and remounting it, deleting the TM preference plist file from the library, rebooting, and all manner of combinations thereof. Nothing seems to work.
Anyone have any advice? This is on OS X 10.8.2 by the way. The TM backup worked fine through 10.8.1 and 10.8.2 with no problems until now. I don't recall doing anything specific to mess up TM or the disks in any way, although I may have turned TM during a reboot cycle prior to this happening (don't recall if this is actually the case, but in any case it shouldn't have caused such an error, no?).
Thanks in advance,
—Gabriel

[Just a note, TM only works on OS X Journaled drives (i.e. HFS+ drives). TM does not back up your FAT drive.]
Isaac:
If you unloaded the NTFS and FAT kexts, your TM backups might (might!) work again, but of course in that case you would not be able to see your FAT or NTFS drives in OS X, and if you removed the FAT kext then a lot of USB keys would be unreadable in OS X - not a good solution.
The kexts are specific to OS X, so removing them should not affect Windows... but may affect boot camp, I don't know how boot camp is programmed (which would be a problem). Luckily if your Windows drive became inaccessable from boot camp with removed kexts, it should be easy enough to simply boot back into OS X, restore the kexts, and then Windows should work again.
I would recommend not mixing partition types on drives with shared OSX/Win functions, it seems to "tempt fate" as it were with possible errors. I don't know what has precipitated this error in your case, if it was the MSE or disk error or something else, and unfortunately I don't have a real fix to offer beyond trying things with the kexts removed and seeing if they work.
NOTE THAT THIS IS AT YOUR OWN RISK, messing with kexts is not a very recommendable practice since these files enable core functionality in the OS. Make a backup before if you can, and consider your options carefully. In OS X, navigate to /System/Library/Extensions and you'll find a bunch kext files. The two you need are msdosfs.kext and ntfs.kext. Copy ntfs.kext into a backup folder (e.g., on your desktop). Delete the original ntfs.kext from the S/L/E folder. Reboot and see if you can still access windows. If so, reboot into OS X and see if Time Machine works again. If you're good on both those points, then consider going without ntfs.kext on a permanent basis – it is rare that you need to read an NTFS drive while in OS X. On the other hand, if this does not fix your problem, you may try restoring ntfs.kext, and backing up / deleting msdosfs.kext to see if THAT is the culprit. Unfortunately, if msdosfs.kext is causing the TM error, you're kind of out of luck, since going without FAT access will be pretty annoying any time you need to use a drive to swap files between Windows and Mac (using a USB key).
Ultimately I don't have a solution, as I have noted, so much as I've narrowed down where the error is occuring in some peoples' cases (like my own). Good luck!

Time Machine "Looking for Backup Disk...." to Synology NAS

My time machine used to work well connected from my Macbook Pro (10.8.3) connected to my Synology NAS then suddenly stopped working a while ago.
I have finally got around to looking at it but cannot seem to get it to rework
I folloed all instructions on the http://pondini.org/TM/A4.html full reset option but without success.
I can view all the previous backups on the NAS by entering Time Machine but when trying to backup again now continually get "Looking for Backup Disk...."
Any ideas?

This happens when you backup to a non-apple device.. actually a TC in particular is the only apple supported network device for TM.
Did you try a reboot of the whole network.. and you can verify the backups .. see A5 in pondiini.
The same thing happens even on a USB drive plugged into an Airport Extreme. It can work fine for ages and then just suddenly refuses to connect.
See http://pondini.org/TM/Airport.html
Did this happen when you updated to 10.8.3.. does the date of the last backup correspond to the update? It would not surprise me if they did some little tweak that took out your non-authorised backup method.
Now I have not tried it but lots of these issues started with Lion when the security level in AFP was changed. Security for a file protocol is irrelevant on your local network so really only relevant to using BTMM and iCloud.. which was also introduced with Lion.. that is when everything went to pot.
I would look at the Synology as running better at the older level of security and making the adjustments required on your computer.
See http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4700
I have a NAS and I have the same issue happen a couple of times. I am still using Snow Leopard though so the above suggestion is not a cure all.. I think you just have to accept that Apple builds a walled garden.. if you try and step out of the garden.. anything over the wall.. can be expected to behave badly on occasions. Set up another folder on the synology and start a new TM backup. Or use CCC or superduper etc..

Time Machine storage for backups.

Hello
Quick question: I've been using an external USB drive as a Time Machine backup disk since I bought my MacBook Pro 13" in 2009. The MBP hard drive is 250GB whilst the external hard drive is 80GB. I've only just reached the point where the MBP's disk has just over 80GB of data on it.
Now I know that Time Machine has been deleting older backups on the external drive for some time because the disk is full. I realise that it deletes older backups because it is the multiple versions of backups that are taking up the drive space.
However, what happens when the total amount of data on the MBP drive exceeds the storage capacity of the external drive? I haven't asked it to exclude anything from the backups and as Time Machine makes a complete copy of everything on the MBP drive, how does it manage when the external drive is not as big as the data on the computer's drive?
I do realise that I may just have to buy another bigger external drive to deal with what was an inevitable problem but I'm curious as to how Time Machine is continuing to back up without any apparent problem.
Thanks for your help.

Thank Shootist007
I know.
What I was curious about was why Time Machine wasn't telling me that and was happily going on to do backups without any error messages.
Thomas's reply probably explains why so before I do get to that point, I will go and get another hard drive...
Cheers

Time Machine Preparing for ages

I know this has come up a lot, but there seem to be so many possibilities, I thought I'd post some data from Time Machine Buddy.
Basically it had all been working great, but seems to have gone AWOL recently. Its still saying preparing just now in my latest attempt. (To be fair, hasn't been that long), but I'd been getting some error messages about not being able to mount etc.
And that appears in the TMB report so far :
Starting standard backup
Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Iain%[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
Backup destination mounted at path: /Volumes/Time Capsule
Failed to mount disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule/Iain MacDonald’s MacBook Pro_002332b100e6.sparsebundle (DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 60)
Waiting 60 seconds and trying again.
Failed to eject volume /Volumes/Time Capsule (FSVolumeRefNum: -101; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
Backup destination alias resolved to path: /Volumes/Time Capsule
Any clues as to what my next steps should be would be much appreciated.
Many thanks.
Message was edited by: Iain MacDonald1

I upgraded from Tiger to Leopard, which is why i believe i have had trouble.
What is 'A&I or E&I'?

I can't seem to set up time machine. Time machine window for backup but no window to pic back up volume

I can't seem to set up time machine. I open time machine preference and check hard drive, but I get no window to set backup volume. so I get an error message no backup volume has been selected.

If you want to back up to an external HD (USB or Firewire, directly connected to your Mac), see #21 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
If you want to back up to a Time Capsule, see #Q1 in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule.

HT201250 Can I recover the backups from Time Machine, but the backups is deleted by the Time Machine!

Unfortunately, the Time Macchine deleted my oldest backups in my hard drive.
I have the important files in the backups.
So hope someone could help me to recover the backups.

Time Machine will remove old backups automatically. It tells you when it does, but of course by then it's too late.
There is no recovering deleted backups, since it was necessary to overwrite them with newer backups.
For further explanation read the following entries from Apple Support Communities contributor Pondini's Time Machine FAQ:
12. Should I delete old backups? If so, How?
20. Once my Mac is backed-up, can I delete some stuff to save space?
Time Machine is for backups. It is not an archiving utility. To archive files requires something like one of these:
Carbon Copy Cloner ($39.95) http://sites.fastspring.com/bombich/product/ccc
or
SuperDuper! ($27.95) http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

HT203177 very long 'preparing for backup' for Time Machine

None of the issues discussed in the apple support page on this issue seem to apply to me (except one below regarding not completing the 'prepare for backup'). It still takes way too much time (a night is not enough) to prepare for time machine backup, even though there was a backup recently, and it is not a one-time event but a recurring problem, and there are no big changes to my files or disks.
And of course because most days it does not complete the backup before I have to leave to work, the condition on 'not interrupting the backup' cannot be respected. This looks like plain poor design.
The only thing that helps is to connect my laptop directly to the Time Machine by Ethernet but it is very inconvenient.
This is really annoying. I wish I had bought another disk back-up solution.

saggybaggy wrote:
The Mac Pro I'm backing up is Leopard 10.5.8, could this be the issue?
No, Time Machine works on 10.5.8.
I'm trying to back it up before I upgrade my operating system.
Good plan!
Also, for the backup I'm using the same external drive that I used to backup my MacBook Pro already... not sure if this would cause any issues in preparing.
Not in preparing, but it's usually not a good idea to use the same partition on the same drive for both. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #4 for an explanation.

Time machine makes 30 backups for the last two days, no backups for any earlier times: is there a way to control it?

I've been running Time Machine in the background for as long as I've owned my current Mac--- a few months. It is a completely generic set-up: it's a desktop (rarely shut off or asleep) connected to an external hard drive that is much larger (1 TB) than my internal hard drive (0.5 TB), and Time Machine is configured to save backups of my whole internal drive to the external drive. The external is half-full, and the internal is a little more than half-full. I often hear my external crunching away, working on something.
I recently needed to access an old file, so I went into Time Machine mode on the folder where it had been deleted a few weeks ago. While I'm not upset that it isn't available (it's my own fault for deleting it), I didn't expect the Time Machine to have such a bad distribution of saved backups. There are 30 backup snapshots of the past two days, and nothing earlier. I was expecting something more like a few from today, a few from this week, a few from this month, and a few going all the way back in time--- a broader distribution.
I don't see any way to control this in the Time Machine Preferences (in fact, very little control at all). Is there a secret way to control it, or some tip to ensure a more useful distribution of saved snapshots?
Thanks,
-- Jim

Thanks, but it doesn't exactly address my question. TimeMachineEditor allows me to set the intervals or times when backups occur, but it doesn't control the algorithm that decides which snapshots should be deleted. My problem was that Time Machine chose to delete all of the old snapshots and keep only the most recent ones: I'd like it to keep more of the recent ones than the old ones, but still keep some old ones.
In fact, the (unmodifyable) text on the Time Machine control panel says that it keeps:
hourly backups for the past 24 hours
daily backups for the past month
weekly backups for all previous months
That would be perfect if it were true.
Perhaps the algorithm did the wrong thing because the size of my internal hard drive varied quite a lot a few days ago: a process got out of control and used up all of my internal disk space. I killed the process and deleted its output (several times), so my internal disk eventually went back down to normal. Perhaps in the intervening hours, Time Machine made a backup, once an hour, and used up all of the external drive space. When it had to choose between keeping "weekly backups of previous months" and "hourly backups of the past 24 hours", it chose to keep hourly backups of the past 24 hours. This was the wrong choice in my case (it was the unwanted output) and is probably the wrong choice in most cases.
Is there a way to control the algorithm that decides which backups to keep and which to delete? I would have it delete the hourly, daily, and weekly backups in a way that preserves their relative distribution.
By the way, while I have made it sound like my problem was a runaway log file (something that would be easy to put in an excluded directory with Time Machine's "Options" button), it was a VirtualBox snapshot merge. The data in question are precious, but were unnecessarily copied many times while VirtualBox failed to merge them properly. I can't simply exclude a directory: I'm talking about a more general problem.
Thanks!
-- Jim

No sound while time machine prepares for backup

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