Stuck in Time Machine

Hello, I am trying to transfer files only from an older iMac to Mac Book Pro using Migration Assistant. Somehow I have managed to open Time Machine Backup on the Mac Book Pro. It says the files are transferred but when I open contacts, nothing is there that was supposed to be transferred. Meanwhile there is a green Mac HD symbol on my Mac Book Pro desktop and Time Machine is counting up to 42Gb . The firewire symbol is still floating on my iMac and there are no instructions on how to proceed that I can find anywhere on the website. Everywhere I read says this is supposed to be a no brainer, but I am having a terrible frustrated time and this is my second run trying to transferring files. How do I get the files into their appropriate applications? How do I get the fire wire symbol to stop? What is going on with the TIme Machine? Help please

Thank you for your help. I am now working with a Apple programmer to help solve my many issues. I now have double time machine HD icons on my Mac Book Pro desk top. We are migrating again after creating a Test account on the MBP. I have to call back tomorrow. He says he is going to research the double Time Machine HD. Hopefully this is all working to the road to recovery. This is my first unpleasant experience with Mac. But the help is phenomenal. It is American Made....Hooray.

Similar Messages

Navigation is stuck within Time Machine

I am trying to restore several folders from a Time Machine backup, but when I enter Time Machine, the finder within Time Machine comes up pointing to my User folder, but won't navigate to any other folder or any other drive. It doesn't matter where I have the finder window before I enter Time Machine, I always get the finder pointing to my user folder within the Star Wars display. I can navigate between backups in time, but that does no good if I can't choose the folder I want to restore.

Thank you for your help. I am now working with a Apple programmer to help solve my many issues. I now have double time machine HD icons on my Mac Book Pro desk top. We are migrating again after creating a Test account on the MBP. I have to call back tomorrow. He says he is going to research the double Time Machine HD. Hopefully this is all working to the road to recovery. This is my first unpleasant experience with Mac. But the help is phenomenal. It is American Made....Hooray.

Frozen in Time Machine

Hey all,
I have a xserve (new within 2 months) and it is stuck "in time machine." You can not click cancel, no stars are flying by, nor can you really do anything else. I had this happen before and when I hard rebooted it would no longer boot up and simply went to a null screen. So where do I go from here? Does anyone have any experience with this happening? Thanks.

Oh, yeah and the blue lights on the front (I think refer to load) are all blue.

Conflict between Time Machine and Intego VirusBarrier X5?

Ok, so I was fiddling around tonight after I had some trouble. I got stuck in Time Machine and could only get out by holding down the power button. In Time Machine, I could do nothing--could not look at backups, could not cancel out. The starfield moved, but no activity from the application. Moreover, using the power button I could not quit or shut down normally, only holding the button down worked.
Ran maintenance scripts and repaired permissions. Same problem. Finally, I turned off real-time scanning for the new version of Intego VirusBarrier. That seems to be the trick. Looks like a problem there.

I understand the majority opinion, but having lost a mac hard drive to a virus in 1987 and having recently spent a week cleaning my secretary's pc of a host of malware and viruses, I'm going to be a cautious user and run Intego.

Time machine stuck in time "long ago and far away"....

Strange issue I came across today: After a reboot following a hard disc repair (Drive Genius 3) my MacPro is stuck in a time slot of several months ago. All time machine backups (even of yesterday's date stamp) just take me back even further in time. None of my app updates are there - for example, some time ago I purchased iPhoto 11 from the app store - now I can't open my iPhoto library because "it was modified using a newer version of iPhoto". The app store doesn't think I ever purchased anything, even though iPhoto was one of several (some free). Interestingly Aperture 3.0 is there (purchased when it first came out), and all my recent photos are there as well.
Anybody have a clue as to what might be going on?

I may have found the solution, although how this was created is a complete mystery to me. On the drive that was repaired by DriveGenius I found a complete "parallel universe" with all the latest files, folders, apps and everything. I can understand how it might duplicate some of the applications since I tended to keep some of them there, but how it ended up with a complete operating system, home folder, etc. essentially a clone of my root drive???? Booting into that drive got me right back to where I had been a day ago. It would almost suggest that I had been running off that drive all along, but that flies in the face of the Drive Genius repair protocol that does not allow (similar to Diskutility) repair of the drive you are booted from (somewhat obvious since it needs to be unmounted in order to be repaired).
I guess all I have to do now is clone all this back to my usual start-up drive and be done..
Thanks for your efforts! I guess this one is one for the "mark it up as experience" books....I'd still love to hear your opinion on what I might have done or ben doing that could have caused this...
Ed

How do I stop a copy of backup files? Time Machine filled my extern HD, I bought a 2TB, drag and drop the old backup files and now my iMac has been stuck in "preparing copy" mode all night.

My 235 MB external HD was full, I bought a new 2TB and dragged and dropped the old backup files to it. Now my iMac is frozen in "preparing copy" mode. How can I 'unfreeze' it? How should I move the backup files from one external HD to the other?

This has been answered here so may times (especially by pondini, e.g. in this thread Time Machine stuck in repeating "preparing files" cycle), so please search this forum the next time before asking such a question.

Time Machine is (kind of) stuck...

Time Machine has been working more or less flawlessly for me up until a few days ago.
I have my Time Machine backup on an external USB drive and I am running my Mac on a Standard account. Now, every time it is backing up, it is stuck at a certain percentage for hours and hours without continuing to back up. For example, it it stuck now at "5.8 MB of 258.2 MB", and the Time Machine menu bar icon is spinning but nothing is happening. I waited for at least 10 hours...
Interestingly, Time Machine does not seem to be completely out of whack since I can stop the backup without problems. I click "Stop backing up" and it does so without problems. Also, I can access old backups easily.
Even more peculiar, I find, is the fact that Time Machine works without problems when I log into my Admin account.
I tried repairing permissions and to 'reset' time machine by deleting the plist file, but none of those worked.
Any ideas why that could be and what to do to fix it?
Thanks!

Well, it is fixed now. Somehow, this problem had to do with Spotlight. For a different reason, I had to reset Spotlight by adding my internal hard drive as well as the USB drives attached to my Mac (including the one with the Time Machine backups) to the excluded list in the Spotlight Privacy Systems Preferences pane, and immediately removing them again. This forces the Mac to reindex for Spotlight. As soon as I did this, Time Machine finished the stuck backup happily and it works now without problems.
Maybe this helps someone else out.

Macbook stuck on startup when trying to restore from time machine

Recently, my MacBook Pro (running 10.6.3) crashed and when I tried to restart, it got stuck on the grey startup screen with the Apple logo with the spinning gear beneath it. I tried several times to start my Mac up, but each time it got stuck on that screen. I left it for an hour and came back with the same screen still up.
I then booted up off the install disc and used the disc utility to check my HDD status. It reported a fatal error in my HDD so I bought a new hard drive. After installing the new hard drive in my macbook, I once again booted up from the install disc and told it to restore my hard drive using my last time machine backup (which was created one day before the initial crash). Once again, the computer got stuck on the grey startup screen mentioned above.
I force-shutdown and started up again off the install disc. This time, I installed Snow Leopard fresh without any restoration from a previous backup and my computer started up just fine. Since then, I have tried numerous times to restore my machine from several time machine backups made in the last few weeks and each time, it stalls when I try to boot up. But each time I install Snow Leopard by itself, everything works normally.
What's going on in the time machine backup that is causing all of this? Is there some kind of startup routine that just gets stuck in a loop that I can delete from my time machine backup files? Please help!

Sly Park Mark wrote:
After installing the new hard drive in my macbook, I once again booted up from the install disc and told it to restore my hard drive using my last time machine backup (which was created one day before the initial crash). Once again, the computer got stuck on the grey startup screen mentioned above.
Two possible causes:
You used a Leopard install disk, instead of a +Snow Leopard+ one. All you needed to do was install Snow Leopard over it; but since you've now done other things, your best bet is to just do it over, using a Snow Leopard disc.
Whatever was going wrong with your internal HD damaged some things on your system, and that damage was backed-up, so is restored along with everything else. In that case, do it over, but select an earlier backup.

OSX Yosemite : time machine backup stuck in preparation stage

Time Machine Backups on Hard Drive as well as on my Time Capsule seem to be stuck in preparation stage for the whole day. Any idea what i need to do to solve this issue ? Appreciate the assistance. Thank you.

Look at this Trouble Shooting link, especially D2:
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Ciao.

Time Machine Backup stuck on Finishing Backup

Hello
I am backing up my macbook (on snowleopard) for the first time using Time Machine and the WD My Book for Mac external hard drive. The dialogue box shows that Time Machine has finished backing up 370KB of 370KB, but it is stuck on "Finishing backup". I've left it running overnight, but it is still stuck on this message. If I open Time Machine (to the star wars-looking section), it appears that the back up was successful (but of course I've only checked random files - not every single file). I can still use some applications on the macbook, but some things, like Safari, Mail and Preview are frozen.
I've searched this forum and looked at http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html but have not been able to find a solution to this issue.
Please can anyone assist?
Many thanks in advance!

Thanks so much for your prompt response!
I ran Repair Disk on the TM volume - there were no problems.
I then ran Verify Disk on the source volume and got the following message: "Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Start up your computer with another disk (such as your Mac OS X installation disc), and then use Disk Utility to repair this disk." I've proceeded to insert the installation disc, but was not sure where to go from here. I've tried to follow the instructions on this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=13107919&#13107919 however, the options that come up are not as per the instructions on the thread. Specifically, after inserting the disc and pressing 'Continue', the only option it gives me is to re-install the OS in its entirety. It does not give me the option, as anticipated in that thread, to select a language nor does any menu bar appear allowing me to select Disk Utility etc etc.
Do I need to shut down the macbook and insert the installation disc only after it has rebooted? (Apologies in advance if this is an obvious question. I am hesitant to reboot unless this is what I am supposed to do as it often leads to all sorts of other issues).
Many thanks!

Since upgrading to Mavericks, my Time Machine is stuck on "Preparing Backup".

Since upgrading to Mavericks, every time I attempt to run a Time Machine backup, I can only get it to go as far as "Preparing Backup". I've left it like that for hours just to see if it's slow. I've also stopped and restarted Time Machine multiple times to no avail....it just gets stuck at that point. Please help.

Since upgrading to Mavericks, every time I attempt to run a Time Machine backup, I can only get it to go as far as "Preparing Backup". I've left it like that for hours just to see if it's slow. I've also stopped and restarted Time Machine multiple times to no avail....it just gets stuck at that point. Please help.

Time Machine gets stuck on cleaning up

Hi, I can't complete a back up successfully with Time Machine. I get stuck on the 'cleaning up' phase and then it stays there forever. I actually went to work and when I came home it was still in the same state. Then I can't stop the back-up cleanly. I have to go in to Activity Monitor to force quit.
Following the advice on pondini.org I have installed the Buddy widget. It tells me that....
Starting standard backup
Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Data
Failed to attach to image: /Volumes/Data/gemzap_001f5bed6067.sparsebundle, DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35
Disk image /Volumes/Data/gemzap_001f5bed6067.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of gemzap
Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of gemzap/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|
Node requires deep traversal:/Users/gemzap/Pictures/iPhoto Library reason:contains changes|must scan subdirs|found in deep scan|missed reservation|
Following advice on here, I have also done a verify/repair disk on both my macbook and the time capsule external drive. Both reported to be ok.
Any ideas? Any help would be much appreciated!
Many thanks
gemzap

No luck I'm afraid.... I dismounted (then completely unplugged) the time capsule. Then reconnected, clicked in to the timecapsule drive to make sure it wasn't napping, and tried again. The messages on the time machine read as follows..
22:25 Making back up disk available
Calculating changes
22:27 Scanning 800,713 items
Preparing xxx items
22:58 Cleaning up - for 8 hours.
So at 7am this morning I clicked stop back up. But again that hasn't don't anything, so have just done a force quit in Activity Monitor.
Time Machine buddy says...
Starting standard backup
Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Gemma%[email protected]/Data
Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Gemma%[email protected]/Data
QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
Disk image /Volumes/Data-1/gemzap_001f5bed6067.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of gemzap
Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of gemzap/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Node requires deep traversal:/Users/gemzap/Pictures/iPhoto Library reason:must scan subdirs|missed reservation|
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|
I'm at a loss.
Should I try deleting the gemzap_001f5bed6067.sparsebundle file? Could that help?
Many thanks
gemzap

Time Machine getting stuck on random hourly backups?? Please help!

I set up Time Machine the yesterday, it compleated it's initial backup fine, and performed about 10 or so hourly backups, then randomly on one of it's hourly backups it got stuck. It never actually started the backup. The preferences said it was backing up, but the progress bar wasn't moving, and there was no activity on the drive. I stopped the "backup", and from then on I could not get it to do another backup.
So last night I reformatted the external and decided to let TM start over. Once again it finished the initial backup fine, and I went to bed. While I was in bed it finished 3 more hourly backups, and I woke up this morning to find it stuck again, trying to do it's 2:05AM backup. The computer was awake all night, so it should have no problems. The preferences say it is backing up, but never makes any progress, and there is no drive activity.
Here is the relavent errors from my System log:
Nov 1 02:05:50 todd-sullivans-imac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[304]: Backup requested by automatic scheduler
Nov 1 02:05:50 todd-sullivans-imac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[304]: Starting standard backup
Nov 1 02:05:57 todd-sullivans-imac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[304]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup/Backups.backupdb
Nov 1 02:05:57 todd-sullivans-imac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[304]: Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
Nov 1 02:05:57 todd-sullivans-imac KernelEventAgent[35]: tid 00000000 received unknown event (256)
*Nov 1 02:05:59 todd-sullivans-imac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[304]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume  Macintosh HD*
*Nov 1 02:05:59 todd-sullivans-imac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[304]: Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|*
Nov 1 02:09:45 todd-sullivans-imac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[304]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 14.57 GB requested (including padding), 132.30 GB available
Nov 1 02:09:46 todd-sullivans-imac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[304]: MDBackupBegin() returned result (909) > 0, waiting
Nov 1 02:10:16 todd-sullivans-imac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[304]: MDBackupBegin() returned result (906) > 0, waiting
Nov 1 02:10:46 todd-sullivans-imac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[304]: MDBackupBegin() returned result (906) > 0, waiting
I bolded the entries that I assume are the problem, but I don't know what it could be. Why does it randomly get stuck on hourly backups. BTW The "waiting" is just repeating over and over etc..... Help! Or it's back to CCC for me. Thanks
EDIT: Tried it a 3rd time, and this time it managed to do 25 hourly backups before getting stuck. does anyone have a clue here, I'd like to get this working. Every time it stops working I have to format the drive and start over to get it to backup again.
Message was edited by: tms2010
Message was edited by: tms2010
Message was edited by: tms2010

The deep traversal is being done because something in the TM data base is corrupted or not trusted. The deep traversal means the TM backupd process has to traverse your whole set of volumes being backed up. This is a very lengthy process.
No matter, it does seem you're hitting a snag of some kind. The best response I can give is for you to send the evidence to Apple feedback for the software engineers to review.
People on this forum are unlikely to know what the problem is nor have a fix for you.
When you formatted your TM backup Volume to you zero it out using Disk Utility. You could be running into an unrecoverable disk i/o error - a bad spot on the backup HD or even a bad spot on your internal HD.

Time Machine Backup Stuck in a Loop?

Since upgrading to ML I've noticed that my Time Machine backup icon seems to be in constant motion. I've also noticed that it never seems to be backing up as it's been stuck at "427kb of 479mb" for the past hour. I'm backing up to a Time Capsule and can access the time capsule just fine.

Sly Park Mark wrote:
After installing the new hard drive in my macbook, I once again booted up from the install disc and told it to restore my hard drive using my last time machine backup (which was created one day before the initial crash). Once again, the computer got stuck on the grey startup screen mentioned above.
Two possible causes:
You used a Leopard install disk, instead of a +Snow Leopard+ one. All you needed to do was install Snow Leopard over it; but since you've now done other things, your best bet is to just do it over, using a Snow Leopard disc.
Whatever was going wrong with your internal HD damaged some things on your system, and that damage was backed-up, so is restored along with everything else. In that case, do it over, but select an earlier backup.

Time Machine gets stuck on 'Making Backup Disk Available'

This has been happening a few days now. Time machine kicks off a backup but it never gets anywhere. It just keeps spinning and saying 'Making Backup Disk Available'
The log says only:
Starting standard backup
Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/Jim's%20Time%20Capsule
Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/Jim's%20Time%20Capsule
I tried to use Disk Utility to repair the sparsebundle and although it says it needs to be repaired, when I click repair it quickly says it 'Volume Repair Complete' but then gets stuck on ''Updating Boot Support Partitions for the volume as required'. I left it on all night to see if it would ever finish and it never did.
Where do I go from here?
Thanks

Where do I go from here?
if disk utility can not repair the sparse bundle you can try repairing it with disk warrior or a similar tool. if that does not work either you need to trash the sparse bundle and start backups from scratch. there isn't anything else you can do.
Thanks

Stuck in Time Machine

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for