Time Capsule backup gets stuck, Spotlight related?

This just started yesterday: my Time Capsule backs up as normal, and seems to be finished, but doesn't quite make it. The Time Machine icon in my menu bar stops spinning and even says the backup has completed, but the backup icon on my desktop does not eject, and I can hear the drive still spinning. I downloaded the Time Machine Buddy widget on the advice of other posts here, and have retrieved the following message from there: "Backup completed successfully.
Waiting for Spotlight to finish indexing /Volumes/Backup of MacBook/Backups.backupdb"
This repeats until I manually eject the backup icon from the desktop. I tried exempting the Time Capsule from Spoltlight searches in System Preferences, and this seemed to do the trick. After doing this, the backup will complete successfully, the icon will eject, and the drive stops spinning, but I would like to include my Time Capsule in my Spotlight searches, so any ideas? Thanks.

Thanks for the reply. Tried the repair, it completed, but didn't report anything, is this normal? Here's a copy of the widget log form my most recent backup, this one is probably a bit longer than usual because the back was verified:
Starting standard backup
Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Stephen%20Agusta@Time%20Capsule%20b724f1.afpovertcp.tcp.local/Stephen%20Agusta's%20Time%20Caps
Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Stephen%20Agusta@Time%20Capsule%20b724f1.afpovertcp.tcp.local/Stephen%20Agusta's%20Time%20Caps
Running backup verification
QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
Backup verification passed!
QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
Disk image /Volumes/Stephen Agusta's Time Caps-1/Stephen Agusta’s MacBook_002332bf0274.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of Stephen Agusta’s MacBook
Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of Stephen Agusta’s MacBook/Backups.backupdb
No pre-backup thinning needed: 2.87 GB requested (including padding), 372.13 GB available
Copied 42457 files (1.5 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 214.1 MB requested (including padding), 370.72 GB available
Copied 965 files (2 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Starting post-backup thinning
Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of Stephen Agusta’s MacBook/Backups.backupdb/Stephen Agusta’s MacBook/2010-03-04-192143: 370.72 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of Stephen Agusta’s MacBook/Backups.backupdb/Stephen Agusta’s MacBook/2010-03-03-182013: 370.72 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of Stephen Agusta’s MacBook/Backups.backupdb/Stephen Agusta’s MacBook/2010-03-31-232041: 370.72 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of Stephen Agusta’s MacBook/Backups.backupdb/Stephen Agusta’s MacBook/2010-03-31-221502: 370.72 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of Stephen Agusta’s MacBook/Backups.backupdb/Stephen Agusta’s MacBook/2010-03-31-215517: 370.72 GB now available
Post-back up thinning complete: 5 expired backups removed
Backup completed successfully.
Waiting for Spotlight to finish indexing /Volumes/Backup of Stephen Agusta’s MacBook/Backups.backupdb

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Time Machine backup gets stuck - Please help

Hi all,
I'm backing up my MBP via ethernet to a Time Capsule. The incremental backups take forever and are driving me nuts. The backups seem to be getting stuck midway. The disk sounds like it's spinning but the progress bar doesn't move. Also, it seems to be copying over too many files every hour, like >60000 or so (log below). I doubt that so many files get modified every hour.
I've tried everything (I could think of and find on the discussion boards) like deleting the sparsebundle, deleting the entire backup drive, playing with the backup frequency, nothing works.
Please help!!
Thanks,
DB
11/27/08 10:02:57 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[7045] Starting standard backup
11/27/08 10:02:57 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[7045] Network mountpoint /Volumes/TC Backup Disk not owned by backupd... remounting
11/27/08 10:02:57 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[7045] Network volume mounted at: /Volumes/TC Backup Disk-1
11/27/08 10:03:07 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[7045] Disk image /Volumes/TC Backup Disk-1/Dhiren's MBP_002332d43774.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of Dhiren's MBP
11/27/08 10:03:07 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[7045] Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of Dhiren's MBP/Backups.backupdb
11/27/08 10:04:39 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[7045] No pre-backup thinning needed: 570.5 MB requested (including padding), 426.79 GB available
11/27/08 10:14:44 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[7045] *_Copied 87124 files_* (20.3 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
11/27/08 10:14:48 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[7045] No pre-backup thinning needed: 559.1 MB requested (including padding), 426.69 GB available
11/27/08 10:15:02 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[7045] Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
11/27/08 10:15:02 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[7045] Error: (-39) SrcErr:YES Copying (null) to (null)
11/27/08 10:15:14 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[7045] Copied 1067 files (10.6 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
11/27/08 10:15:22 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[7045] Starting post-backup thinning
11/27/08 10:15:22 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[7045] No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
11/27/08 10:15:22 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[7045] Backup completed successfully.
11/27/08 10:15:26 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[7045] Ejected Time Machine disk image.
11/27/08 10:15:32 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[7045] Ejected Time Machine network volume.
11/27/08 10:15:32 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[7045] Ejected Time Machine network volume.
Message was edited by: dhiren9

The indication that the backup completed successfully is the best evidence that it did. If you want something more explicit, you can proceed as below.
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.
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 Capsule Backup gets slower and finally stops!!! HELP!

Hi,
I am using since a view years an Airport Extreme (as base station, connected to the internet modem) and an Airport Express as network extension.
Because of backup requirements I bought some days ago a 1GB Timecapsule and setup the network "from the scratch". Now the Timecapsule is connected to the internet modem as primarily base station and the other two devises help to extend the network all over my house. This is working fine.
BUT: the backup with time machine does not work. I started with my MacBook with 57GB data to be backuped. The process started via air promising (quite fast), but slowed down later on. And finally, it breaks up, often even with restarting the whole laptop. I did not yet succeed in the initial backup of this MacBook!
Can anyone help me? Can I do something wrong with the standard adjustments on the network via the Airport Utility SW? Why is the data transfer slowing down?
Funny enough, I had a similar effect some months age when I tried to use an external HD connected to my MacMini. At that point in time I thought that the issue is because of using a separate MacMini or a separate, external HD. That was also the reason why I decided to buy the integrated system from Apple: Time Capsule.
Matthias
Message was edited by: Matthias Koehler

Hi,
I am using since a view years an Airport Extreme (as base station, connected to the internet modem) and an Airport Express as network extension.
Because of backup requirements I bought some days ago a 1GB Timecapsule and setup the network "from the scratch". Now the Timecapsule is connected to the internet modem as primarily base station and the other two devises help to extend the network all over my house. This is working fine.
BUT: the backup with time machine does not work. I started with my MacBook with 57GB data to be backuped. The process started via air promising (quite fast), but slowed down later on. And finally, it breaks up, often even with restarting the whole laptop. I did not yet succeed in the initial backup of this MacBook!
Can anyone help me? Can I do something wrong with the standard adjustments on the network via the Airport Utility SW? Why is the data transfer slowing down?
Funny enough, I had a similar effect some months age when I tried to use an external HD connected to my MacMini. At that point in time I thought that the issue is because of using a separate MacMini or a separate, external HD. That was also the reason why I decided to buy the integrated system from Apple: Time Capsule.
Matthias
Message was edited by: Matthias Koehler

HT203177 I have a MacBook OSX 10.5.8 and a Time Capsule 500GB since July 2008. My problem is (for the 4th time in 4 yrs) the backup gets stuck in "preparing" indefinitely (hours). In the past, wile still under apple care warranty, tech support had me redo

I have a MacBook OSX 10.5.8 and a Time Capsule 500GB since July 2008. My problem is (for the 4th time in 4 yrs) the backup gets stuck in "preparing" indefinitely (hours). In the past, wile still under apple care warranty, tech support had me redo backup (loosing previous backups). Now I'm out of warranty and still having this problem. Any help is greatly appreciated.

I have a MacBook OSX 10.5.8 and a Time Capsule 500GB since July 2008. My problem is (for the 4th time in 4 yrs) the backup gets stuck in "preparing" indefinitely (hours). In the past, wile still under apple care warranty, tech support had me redo backup (loosing previous backups). Now I'm out of warranty and still having this problem. Any help is greatly appreciated.

TM backups get stuck if Spotlight is enabled on the TM volume

Hi,
I habe a problem with time machine backups. The problems just appeared recently, I don't know why.
The backup gets stuck in the middle of the process (e.g. it stays at "backing up xx MB of zz MB) for hours, even days. In the logs I do not get any error messages, also the nice Time Machine Buddy widget does not give me any errors.
I tried everything. Nothing helps EXCEPT for one thing: If I turn off Spotlight indexing for the TM volume, everything works fine.
So this clearly is a problem with Spotlight interfering with TM.
Any clues what might be wrong?
Of course I tried resetting the spotlight index, deleting the index, turning it off and back on (in that case, Spotlight indexes the volumen forever end never stops). Nothing seems to help, except for turning it off completely.
I found similar posts to this in the forum, but none ever really presented a solution.
Any help appreciated!

Are you running any virtualization software, such as Parallels or vmWare? If so, that may be the culprit. Exclude the vm file from Time Machine (per #10 in theFrequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum), and delete all backups of it, per #12 there.
If not, or if that doesn't help, you might be able to find the culprit via the +Activity Monitor+ app, in your Applications/Utilities folder. Examine the various processes associated with Spotlight (mds, mdworker, mdhelper). Select the process, then the Inspect icon in the toolbar (or +View > Inspect Process+ from the menubar), then the +Open Files and Ports+ tab.

When my time machine tries to backup to my time capsule I get the following message"The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Kent's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use. " What do I need to do to fix this?

When my time machine tries to backup to my time capsule I get the following message"The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Kent’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” is already in use. " What do I need to do to fix this?

Restart the Time Capsule.

Problems with Full restore using Time Capsule backup???

For some reason my MacBook Pro recently crapped out completely, and I am trying to do a complete restore of the OS via a full backup I made with using Time Machine onto my Time Capsule disk, but I am running into some problems doing so and I was hoping someone might have some insight as to how I should deal with things at this point...
Here's where things get messy...
- I insert my Mac OS X 10.5 Installation DVD into my Macbook and boot from the drive, and I immediately choose the menu option to 'Restore from Time Capsule Backup'...
- After logging into my Time Capsule and then choosing the proper .sparseimage file to restore from, I click 'continue' and it brings me to the screen where I choose where I want to restore to (which in my case, is the one and only internal HD inside my Macbook Pro)
- The bottom of this window tells me that it's "Calculating space required to restore data..." but it simply hangs at the point with a spinning wheel indicating its still doing the calculating, but never actually presents me with the space required, not does it allow me to click continue to perform the restore?? I've allowed it over an hour to calculate the space required and it still just spins its status wheel...
This is where I am stuck at this point, and I have no idea how to get it to proceed to the next step to allow me to perform the restore??
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, as I will have no choice but to do a complete reinstall (including all apps and data) if I can't get the backup restored... Thanks!

I had the same problem when installing a new HDD in my Macbook. The solution I found was to reinstall Leopard onto the new HDD from the install CD, then reboot off the install CD once I had done this. I was then able to choose the 'Restore from Time Capsule' option and get my HDD to show up in the window.
A word of warning, once you have reinstalled Leopard and it starts asking you for all you info, as if for the first time to set up your computer, there is an option at the end of that process to restore your data from a Time Capsule backup. While this did restore all my files and so forth, it did not update any of the 'Apple' apps, i.e. iTunes, iPhoto, Quicktime, or the operating system itself, suggesting a 500Mb download via 'Software Update' to update the system. It was faster for me to reboot of the install CD and restore via the process outlines above. That way you get all your system updates included.
Not sure if this is the 'approved' method but it worked for me! The restore process took about 75 minutes for about 100Gb of data from my external backup drive connected to my Macbook via a Firewire cable.
Hope this helps!

Restoring an existing Time Capsule backup to a new HD

The hard drive on my 6 month old MacBook Pro failed inexplicably several days ago. After wasting half a day trying to repair the disk, I caved in and made an appointment at the dreaded "Genius" Bar.
They verified my suspicions; complete failure. They kept the laptop, ordered a new drive and two days later informed me it was fixed. I sat down and connected it to my Time Capsule with an ethernet cable. When I turned it on, it played through that now insufferable multicultural "welcome"-in-twenty-languages jam and I followed Apple's instructions +Restoring an existing Time Capsule backup to a new Mac+:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1177?viewlocale=en_US
My favorite step is #12: +Your Mac will check the Time Machine backup for a period of time.+ When that period was clearly going to be a while, I went on a run, came back 40 minutes later and...it had returned me to the initial post-willkommen-bienvenido-etc. screen where I get to choose a language. Okay, my bad for leaving it unattended. I started over at #2, and this time it only took about half an hour. It showed the folders on the Time Capsule, I selected all of them, and clicked Transfer.
Almost immediately, it dove back into the welcome song! Now, for the third time, I'm at step #12. It's been over half an hour, and still no sign of hope. Just the progress bar checking for backups.
Would they have installed Snow Leopard on my Leopard machine? I definitely told them what I had been running, but it seems like a plausible reason for the hang-ups.
Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks!

Amenity wrote:
Almost immediately, it dove back into the welcome song! Now, for the third time, I'm at step #12. It's been over half an hour, and still no sign of hope. Just the progress bar checking for backups.
Connect to your Time Capsule via Ethernet if at all possible.
After booting from your Leopard Install disc and selecting Utilities, select +Disk Utility+ and see if it can find the +sparse bundle+ containing your backups on your Time Capsule. You may have to join the network, etc., via the Airport icon in the menubar. If you can get the sparse bundle to appear in Disk Utility's sidebar, select it and do a +*Repair Disk+* (not permissions) on it.
Would they have installed Snow Leopard on my Leopard machine? I definitely told them what I had been running, but it seems like a plausible reason for the hang-ups.
That's fairly likely; it happens a lot, probably because most folks have upgraded and installing SL has become a habit. But it shouldn't matter -- as long as you're using your Leopard Install disc, it should work fine. Once the restore actually starts, the first thing that happens is your internal HD is erased, and everything is restored from your backups.
It's also possible that whatever was going wrong on your internal HD corrupted something critical in your installation of OSX, and the corrupted stuff was backed-up, and that's what's giving TM a problem. If nothing else seems to help, try restoring from a previous backup.

Use external drive for Time Capsule backups AND file storage?

I have an external drive formatted by my MBP. I'm using it to store my iTunes music library and iPhoto pics. Can I use the drive for Time Capsule backups as well?

Yes, but that is not recommended. Storage and backup should be kept separate to reduce the chances of a disk failure. This is especially important because you cannot even partition a Time Capsule drive. Go get a separate drive for your storage needs. Get another drive for a second backup and use a different method of backup than Time Machine

Can't Connect to My Time Capsule Backups, Please Help!!!

I have been using Time Machine/Time Capsule to back my data up for over a year. I bought a new MacBook Pro this morning. I did not want to use Migration Assistant to transfer everything over because there were many bugs and corruptions on my old disk and was scared that would all be transferred to my new machine. It was time for a fresh start.
I set up my new computer and transferred most of the files I needed via a flash drive. I am now trying to set up my MacBook Pro to connect to my Time Capsule backup disk via Time Machine, but once I enter Time Machine it does not allow me to go "back in time" to see all of my previous backups and restore points. There are some really important files I am trying to get to, but this computer isnt connecting to the Time Capsule backups. The old computer has already been completely reformatted, but it is still able to access the Time Capsule backups.
I have done some internet research and learned that Time Machine uses a computer's ethernet MAC address to allow access. There are some codes posted on various websites that allow to alter what Time Machine thinks you MAC address is so that you can access your backups with a new computer/different logic board. None of these Terminal workarounds worked for me. The Genius Bar and Apple Care couldn't help either.
I am hoping somebody can help me out. I understand I can use my old computer to get into Time Machine and retrieve what I need then transfer those to the new machine. But there must be a way to allow a new computer to fully access Time Capsule backups, but curiously, I can't find it. I rather have my new computer have full access because I am selling the old laptop and so I wont be able to use it to access my backups any longer.
Sorry for the long explanation, but I hope that gives someone all the facts required to both understand what I am saying and help me fix the problem.
-Amir

Right now it is just empty because I have unmounted and disconnected my Time Capsule. I'm trying a low-tech work around to see if this works, but much rather do it the "right way."
What I am doing is this:
(1) Use Migration Assistant to copy everything from the Time Capsule to the new machine (this is exactly what I was trying to avoid initially). Migration Assistant has been copying files for about 5 hours now (still not sure what is going to happen).
(2) Create a full backup on Time Capsule with my MacBook Pro now that it has everything from the Time Capsule on it.
(3) Do a fresh install of Snow Leopard.
(4) Hopefully, have the fresh start on my machine I wanted, but still have access to at least one archived copy of my old computer and files/folders.
Does this make sense? Basically, the new machine does not allow me to access the old backups. So I am handicapping the machine now by reverting to my old settings via Migration Assistant, will back that up, then start all over from scratch again but hopefully have the peace of mind that my files are not gone because I will at least have that one copy of all my old copies in a Time Capsule backup that the new machine can access.

After trying to restore from time capsule, I get the following message when I try to access the folder "data." The folder "Data" can't be opened because you don't have permission to see its contents. Any ideas?

after trying to restore from time capsule, I get the following message when I try to access the folder "data": "The folder “Data” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents." Any ideas?

Are you restoring from a TM backup??
Check the methods Pondini outlines to do restore.
Q14-17
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

When doing a restore with Time Capsule, I get -8003 error; restoring nothing

Hi,
When doing a full restore with Time Capsule, I get -8003 error; restoring nothing. This happens with all recent backups. Also after doing a verify/repair of the TimeCapsule disk.
This is a dissaster for my originals (my Ableton Live projects). I am very dissapointed in TC and TM at this moment, because I trusted my backup system in combination with my MBP fully.
Please help?
Best regards, Tom

Hi Pondini,
Sorry for the late response, but the problem was something else and were two separate ones.
Somewhere along the way the TC backup couldn't find backup to the original TC volume, that's why I let TM backup towards my user volume named 'Tom'.
When I wanted to restore the root of my drive when selecting the diskname and 'Restore' in any point in time, this resulted in error -8003 in the activated TimeMachine.
Then I tried to do it via the recovery OS and even via the original OSX DVD. Both not enabling me to select the TC volume named 'Tom'. Then I remembered that I first backed-up onto the original 'TimeCapsule' volume/partition. When I copied the sparsefile to the 'TimeCapsule' partition, I was able to recover the entire disk using the recovery OS.
All my files are backup and I am a happy Mac user once again :-)
Thanks & Regards, Tom

Using disk utility with Time Capsule backup disk

When backing up, i get an error msg that tells me to run disk utility on my backup drive. It says it's having problems coping files. In Disk Utiltiy, I don't see a way to choose the time capsule backup drive but only the hard drive on my laptop. Help pls.

The error message is fundamentally stupid. You cannot use disk utility on a network drive.
You can however fix or test the sparsebundle which is the virtual disk file TM creates on the TC.
See A5 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Time Capsule "backup disk could not be found"

I occaisonally receive an error message on my Macbook Pro and iMac, both running OS 10.8 that my time capsule "backup disk could not be found." I can access the Time Capsule with Airport Utility, can see my backups in Time Capsule-it just won't back up. It doesn't matter whether I am connected via wifi or ethernet cable. I have had to basically disconnect and then go through a complete backup when this happens, which kind of makes Time Capsule useless for a real backup plan Any suggestions?

I recently came accross an instruction to reduce the number of characters in the Time Capusle backup disk name. After a year of having to restart my Tiem Capsule to get my MacBook Pro to backup, it now seems to do so consistently.

Is a windows partition on Mac that has regular time capsule backup also backed up?

I am setting up boot camp w/ parallels desktop, and I wonder if this windows partition on my Macbook Pro will be part of the automatic time capsule backup? Or do I have to do something specific to ensure this windows partition is also backed up?

If you are asking about the Time Machine backup application.....Time Machine cannot backup Boot Camp, if you are running that on your Mac, or for that matter....a Windows partitiioned drive.
If you want to backup these files, you will need to use a Windows backup application. The simplest set up would have Boot Camp backing up to a separate hard drive connected to your Mac.
It is possible to have Boot Camp back up to the Time Capsule, but things can get mighty complicated this way, and I would not recommend this for most users.
I had some success a few years ago backing up the Windows files to a Time Capsule using an application called Genie Timeline Pro, which uses a similar concept to Time Machine, so you might want to give that a look if you want to try this.
Genie Timeline Pro | Overview | Time Machine Backup Software for ...
I have not backed up Windows files in a few years, since I only use Macs now, so you might want to wait to see if other users will post with some current recommendations.

Time Capsule backup gets stuck, Spotlight related?

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