Time Capsule no longer backing up either of my Macs

I have two Macs. A MacBook Pro and and iMac. The MacBook Pro is a replacement of an older MacBook Pro. Both were backing up fine for two years prior to my replacing the MacBook Pro. The new MBP has not backed up since I incorrectly chose "Create a new backup" when I first brought it home. Now it thinks that it is a third Mac to backup, and there is not enough space on the TC. iMac had been continuing to backup fine on TC. Yesterday though, on the iMac I moved around a ton of files (while organizing) including emptying a folder that was on my iMac desktop that contained hundreds of files, videos, etc... and moving those files to my Documents, Photos, Movies folders in my Home folder. Since I did that the TC will not back up the iMac either. So now I have two Macs and TC will not back up either. In both cases I get the message that TC does not have enough space to backup the computer. I have no idea what to do next. Is there a way to start over and erase the entire TC? Is that the best course of action now? If so, is there a place where that process is explained step by step in non-technical terms? I have no idea what bundled files means, sparse this or that, etc... Thanks.

Between having a whole extra sparse bundle, and moving lots of things around so Time Machine backed-them up again, yes, you've no doubt filled-up your TC.
First, turn Time Machine OFF on both Macs.
The simple solution is to just erase the TC and start over. See To erase everything on the Time Capsule’s internal disk in #Q5 of Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule. Connect one Mac at a time to the TC via Ethernet (1-3 times faster than WIFI) for the first backup.
For something a bit less drastic, but more tedious, connect the iMac via Ethernet (same reason), and do the following;
Delete the sparse bundle for the old MacBookPro, via the Finder. See To delete all the backups for one Mac in the above article.
For the data you rearranged on the iMac, delete all backups made of it in the old location, per #12 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
In addition, consider the size of your TC vs. the size of the data on your Macs. If the TC isn't well over twice the size of the total used on both Macs, your best bet might be to connect a USB drive to the TC's USB port. Continue backing-up one Mac to the TC's internal HD, but back the other one up to the USB drive.

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Mac OS X v10.7 Lion
Click on the Refine This List button under the Lion and then click on Time Machine to get to the support area.

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During attempted hourly backup the error message is:
The problem may be temporary. Try again later to back up. If the problem persists, use Disk Utility to repair your backup disk.
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Just thought i would update after finally resolving this.
Tried many things after trawling the internet, eventually including reformat.
Established it was an error 11 via 'TM error log' and final solution was to change the names of one of my hard drives which had a '-' and a '/' in it.
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Time capsule no longer backing up

I recently got this error message: The backup disc image "/Volumes/Data-1/"my computer name's" macbook pro.sparsebundle" is already in use."
anybody see this or have advice.
It backed up fine last night but wont back up again.
Thanks in advance
Marc

This is a common bug in Lion and Mountain Lion.
Often, simply powering off the Time Capsule, waiting a minute, and powering it back up will get things going again.
For more fixes, see #C12 in Pondini's Time Machine -- Troubleshooting
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Time capsule no longer backs up automatically

time capsule does not backup automatically

Have you checked your Time machine settings in System Preferences?
This link may be of use:
http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html
Ciao.

Time Capsule No Longer Backs Up First Computer After Adding Second Computer

I'm new to this forum and I apologize if this has been answered elsewhere.
I have a 1 TB TC. I used it to begin backups on my MacBook Pro (OS 10.5.6). I did the first backup on 1/4/09 and, up until today, it has been working very well, with hourly backups, as it is supposed to. Today, I added my wife's PowerBook (also 10.5.6). After the first backup (by ethernet link), it now performs hourly backups on hers. On my MacBook, however, it reports "preparing to backup" for hours, with nothing happening. Again, everything was fine on my computer, until I added the second one.
Any idea what might be happening?
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Problem is solved. It turns out that I had three events that occurred, only one of which caused my problem. As you suggested, adding a second computer had nothing to do with it. A second, unrelated issue had to do with my Cannon scanner driver. An old driver version was producing the Console readout about vendor and device. The real issue was that I had experienced a screen freeze and had to to a forced restart. That likely produced the "deep transversal" discussed in the link to which you referred. In any case, waiting an appropriate length of time finally produced the back up. Everything seems normal at this point. Thanks for the help.
Marty

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Hi all,
this is the second time that this has happened. My TimeCapsule was working fine, with no issues, until I boxed it up because I was moving to another apartment. I set it up on the other end, and re-established my wireless network (still with the same name) just fine, but the TimeCapsule will no longer perform backups because it says that it can't find the backup drive!
First it will say that :"there was a problem with the network username or password" and it tells me to go into the Preferences and to "select the network backup disc and re-enter the correct username and password." Which I do.
From here System Preferences will try to find the disc when I click "select disc," and one of two things will happen: it will find the disc, I enter the password, ask it to backup and it fails, OR I get the spinning beachball forever and System Preferences stops responding and I have to force quit.
I don't get it. Literally the ONLY thing that is different is the fact that I moved 16 blocks, and I changed the wi-fi password. Everything else is identical to how it was before! Why can't it perform a backup, and why does my SysPref freeze up half the time!?
Any insight is appreciated.

Have you checked your Time machine settings in System Preferences?
This link may be of use:
http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html
Ciao.

Time capsule will not back up my iMac since I replaced the hard drive

I replaced the hard drive in my iMac, now time machine won't back up to time capsule because there is not enough space. I believe time machine/time capsule thinks the new hard drive is a new computer and therefore must perform a new complete backup even though the data on the new hard drive came directly off the old hard drive (the was backed up on time capsule. Our time capsule is currently backing up two computers (both Macs). How do I get time capsule to start backing up the new hard drive?

You'll have to be more specific -- that's like emailing an auto mechanic saying only "My car won't start."
Has it ever worked?
Does your Mac recognize your Time Capsule?
Do backups start?
If so, do they hang, or fail? If they fail, with what message?
Start with Time Machine - Troubleshooting. It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it. If that doesn't help, post back with details, including all the messages, your setup, what you've done, and the results.

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How do I transfer data from one time capsule to new time capsule when TC backs up an iMac and MacBookPro

It is generally better to leave the old backups and start again.. unless there is something you particularly need.
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http://pondini.org/TM/18.html
Take particular note of the initial comments.. ie before you read how to do it.. don't do it.

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Can anyone tell me how to use my new Time Capsule just for back up not as a wireless router?
I have an ATT Uverse for my wireless service and have not been able to get the two to work together.
I just want to plug my Time capsule in and connect it to my MacBook Pro with an ethernet an click backup.
So far my computer doesn't reconnect the Time Capsule.
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You will need to configure the Time Capsule (TC) to join the wireless network provided by the ATT Uverse router, as follows:
Either connect to the TC's wireless network or temporarily connect your computer directly (using an Ethernet cable) to one of the LAN port of the TC, and then, using the AirPort Utility, change this setting:
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This configuration will allow your Mac to connect by wireless to the ATT Uverse router and perform Time Machine backups wirelessly.
If you want to only do this backups by wire, then you will need to connect the TC directly to the ATT Uverse router by Ethernet, and then, reconfigure the TC as a bridge. You can then connect the Mac to the TC by Ethernet as well for backups.

Time machine no longer backs up

My Time Capsule no longer showed any previous backups, only the latest one. Previously it deleted the oldest backups to make way for new ones. The single backup that is still visible is many times larger that the data on my hard drive. Here is the details from the Time Machine Buddy Widget:
Starting standard backup
Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Fred Schlomka's Time Capsul
QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
Disk image /Volumes/Fred Schlomka's Time Capsul/Charlie-6.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Charlie-7
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|
Starting pre-backup thinning: 98.88 GB requested (including padding), 49.60 GB available
No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
Backup Failed: unable to free 98.88 GB needed space
Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.
Ejected Time Machine disk image.
Ejected Time Machine network volume.
Can anyone help.
Thanks.
Fred

Is there anything else on your Time Capsule? It appears that other data may be taking up most of the space on the TC.
How much data is Time Machine backing-up (what's shown for Estimated size of full backup under the exclusions box in Time Machine Preferences > Options)?
How large is your Time Capsule?

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Can i get the time capsule to automatically back up my file from my Mac Book Air but have certain files which are only stored on the time capsule and not the computer? Then can i access these files only on the time capsule without connecting it?

igonneau wrote:
Can i get the time capsule to automatically back up my file from my Mac Book Air but have certain files which are only stored on the time capsule and not the computer?
You can, but how are you going to back up those other files? When (not if) your Time Capsule fails, you risk losing them. See #Q3 in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule for details.
Then can i access these files only on the time capsule without connecting it?
Not sure what you mean. You have to connect a computer, either via Ethernet cable or wirelessly, to read or write to the disk.

HT1338 My Time Capsule isn't backing up.

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Hello,
Thanks for your message, I have attempted to repait the permissions as tou suggested. The first time this produced a long list of exceptions and took quite a while, however although it said "Permissions repair Complete" when I ran it again there were still about 20 exceptions, I have repeated the procedure and this is unchanged. The Time Capsule now does not spend hours "Preparing", but the backup attempt fails after a few minutes with the error message "The backup volume could not be mounted." Any further ideas would be appreciated. When I use Disk Utility I can't see the Time Capsule volume, if I could I'd be tempted to re-format it and start from scratch.

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I'm receiving this error message about my Time Capsule:
"The backup disk image '/Volumes/Data/my name's iMAC.sparesebundle" is already in use. The time capsule is not backing up any files.

1. Open the Sharing preference pane and check that the computer name hasn't changed without your knowledge. For example, if the name was "X's iMac," it might now be "X's iMac (2)". In that case, restore the original name. You may have to click the lock icon in the lower left corner of the preference pane to unlock the settings. Test. If there's no improvement, or if the name had not been changed, continue.
2. If you're backing up to a Time Capsule, or an AirDisk attached to a 2013 or later model AirPort Extreme base station, restart it in either of the following ways:
☞ Disconnect and reconnect the power adapter.
☞ Select the device in the AirPort Utility application and then select
Base Station ▹ Restart
from the menu bar.
If AirPort Utility notifies you of a firmware update, install it.

Time Capsule no longer backing up either of my Macs

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