Time machine automatic backup not working.

I have just setup my time machine backup and it works fine when I initiate manual backups. but i have noticed that, after every hour auto backup doesn't start. i can always do a manual backup, but for some reason next backup time is increased by an hour every time for auto backups. there are no error messages. Can you please help me with this. I am on os X mavericks.
I also checked the system logs after seeing some other topics and I only see messages about manually started backups there.

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console 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 Console in the icon grid.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Initially the words "String Matching" are shown in that box. Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes.) You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard."
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Note the timestamp of the last "Starting" message that corresponds to the beginning of an an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showing, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
☞ If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

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Time machine Auto Backup not working with Maverick OS

When I boot up my iMac Desktop my Time Machine desktop icon stays yellow and doesn't auto backup and turn green like before. I have reset the Preferences several times to try and fix the problem but it still has to be manually backed up. Is there a fix available?

I have had success with the following.
I removed the backup drive from the Time Machine system preferences.
Shutdown
Disconnect the drive from the Mac
Reboot
Connect the drive to the Mac
An automatic dialogbox came up asking me if the drive I just connected should be used for Time Machine.
I selected Yes (or whatever the affirmative was)
I let the backup run.
Ever since then I have been whatching the automatic backups work successfully.
YMMV but I wish you the best of luck.

Time Machine options are not working. I am unable to schedule automatic backups.

Time Machine options are not working. I am unable to schedule automatic backups. The On-Off button is grayed out. I can perform a backup manually.

Thanks for responding. I have an external disk with plenty of room. It is used only for backup of my computer. I get a backup by clicking on the Time Machine icon at the top of the page and select "Back Up Now." When I click on Time Machine Preferences, there is a box labeled "Options" which allows me to exclude items from backup and notify after old backups are deleted. There is no option to schedule a backup. The "OFF/ON" box is gray. For "Next Backup:" it says "Automatic backups off." I would like to turn it on.

Time Machine automatic backups don't work since 10.6.4

TM stopped doing automatic backups on my MacBook Pro, apparently when updated to 10.6.4 on 2010-06-16. Backup only runs when I initiate it manually, or when the machine reconnects to the home network, after time away or upon reboot.
Each time I enter System Preferences > Time Machine, the switch on the left says TM is OFF and the Next Backup time reads: Automatic backups off. I can turn the switch to ON (the word "ON" does not turn blue, as it should, and Next Backup does not change), but when I exit and re-enter, it shows OFF again.
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist when opened in Property List Editor says "AutoBackup, Boolean, checkmark." I have dragged this .plist out of its folder and restarted, letting TM recreate it -- it didn't change anything about the above behavior.
I looked in the backup set to see whether either /System/Library/PreferencePanes/TimeMachine.prefPane or /Applications/Time Machine.app had been updated at 10.6.4. Indeed, both had changed around the day of installing 10.6.4.
I replaced the directory /System/Library/PreferencePanes/TimeMachine.prefPane from a June 1 backup. After reboot -- nothing had changed.
I replaced the directory /Applications/Time Machine.app from a June 1 backup. After reboot -- nothing had changed.
Full details at http://recoveringphysicist.com/15/ . Thanks for any ideas.

Keith Dawson wrote:
TM auto-backup is now working again. I think the magic combination was (1) 10.6.4 combo update followed by (2) restoring /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto.plist from a backup before I could possibly have messed with it.
Aha! Great!
My takeaway from this investigation is best summed up by Chuck Goolsbee
That's exaggerated. Time Machine is more complex, and does more for you, than most backup apps. Some of the messages are not helpful, and Apple's documentation is, well, inadequate.
But it does work well for most of us, and there are resources to figure out how to fix it when something does go wrong.
But, I've learned over the years (mostly the hard way, of course ), never to trust my backups to a single app or piece of hardware: no app is perfect, and all hardware fails, sooner or later.
So, like many here, I keep +secondary backups,+ in addition to Time Machine. See #27 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), for details.

Kext cleanup, now time machine and itunes not working

I cleaned up all my kext files from Sep 2013 back (as suggested in an article) to address the kernel_task overload, but now itunes won't play (play button works but songs do not move forward), time machine will not restore backup and no audio comes from google chrome. Do I need to reinstall each individual program/application? Will a reinstall of Mavericks work?

The article was written by an idiot.
If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data, then reinstall the OS.* You don't need to erase the startup volume, and you won't need the backup unless something goes wrong. If the system was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you may need the Apple ID and password you used.
If you use FileVault 2, then before running the Installer you must launch Disk Utility and select the icon of the FileVault startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) It will be nested below another icon with the same name. Click the Unlock button in the toolbar and enter your login password when prompted. Then quit Disk Utility to be returned to the main Recovery screen.
There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.
If you installed the Java runtime distributed by Apple and still need it, you'll have to reinstall it. The same goes for Xcode. All other data will be preserved.
*The linked support article refers to OS X 10.9 ("Mavericks"), but the procedure is the same for OS X 10.7 ("Lion") and later.

Time Machine index; Backups not visible in TM

I have a problem with Time Machine. It seems to make backups without problems. New recently dated folders are created inside the sparse bundle directory "Backups.backupdb", but when I enter Time Machine I can't see any backups.
I can see that the process mds is very busy and recently I had disabled indexing for Backups.backupdb, but is now enabled.
Could it be that Time Machine is dependant on an index for this directory in order to display backups in the Time Machine? If it's not related what could be the reason that the backups are not visible in Time Machine? The backups are on an external drive connected by USB.

I've got Time Machine configured to backup to a sparse bundle. It used to work before, but changed behavior to this after having used Lion for some time. Backups can still be restored by going into the file directory, but entering Time Machine fails without any error message. I prefer to use a sparse bundle as opposed to the official setup of using the whole partition for Time Machine as it is more flexible in terms of space usage. Has anyone found a solution to this?

Time Machine password does not work.

Hi all,
I have just bought a 2TB WD mybook external hard drive and now need to set time machine to use it as my backup. This is the first time I have used time machine and it will not accept my password. PUBLIC doesn't work either.
Is there a way I can reset or recover my time machine password?

Time Machine doesn't have a password.
That must be a password on the external HD. If you haven't put anything on it yet, your best bet is to erase and reformat it, per #5 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Time Machine Restore Interface not working (all else seems fine)

I needed to get into Time Machine the other day to restore a file I acccidentally deleted. I entered Time Machine to resore interface. The timeline on the right shows all the past backups but the I was not able to call on any of the backup dates and times. The two arrows to the bottom right of the screen did not allow me to sift through the windows either. I know that the Time Machine is working and creating backups, and when I go through Finder to the disk, all the backups are there. I was able to restoree the file I need using Finder and that was no big deal. But that still leaves non-working restore interface which is something of a nuisance. Does anyone have the same problem?
I am using MacPro 4.1 running OS X 10.9.3. My TM setup is to internal dedicated HD, RAID1 set up via disk utility. The disk size is 2TB and currently has about 1.6TB of data (400GB free).
Any help would be appreciated,
Thanks in advance,
Heidi

I feel exceptionally stupid.
The default window that appears on the restore interface was set to a particular folder from a drive that I do not backup on Time Machine. I was trying to go to the date that I wanted to restore from first instead of navigating to the file I needed to restore. Once I chose one of the drives/folders that I back up on Time Machine, all was fine. I wish Time Machine would make the distinction obvious by graying out excluded items right away (when you go back in time, that does happen but not in the 'present' screen).
Hope above helps in the future for those who may encounter the same problem before having had their first cup of morning coffee.
It is good to know that Time Machine is working as it should, and I count myself one of those fortunate ones who do not have to use Time Machine to restore files that often (hence this elementary question: file under "my computer's not working because I didn't check to see if it's plugged in before calling customer service").

Time machine back up not working

Hi, I recently had to put in new hard drive in my macbook pro because old one failed. I plugged in my external hard drive to get all my files back, then used time machine option because thats what I had been doing before with my external hard drive although I had not backed it up for 2 months. That worked fine and my computer looks the same but when I tried to do a time machine back up like usual it says there is not enough space. When I open time machine there is only one back up. please help?

The backup drive has malfunctioned and corrupted itself. If that has ever happened before, or if it ever happens again, replace the drive. You may want to consider replacing it anyway for the safety of your data.
You should start another backup now, if you don't already have one, on a different drive. One backup is not enough to be safe.
If you choose to keep using the problem drive (which I don't recommend), turn Time Machine OFF temporarily in its preference pane, then unmount and remount the backup volume. Launch Disk Utility, select the volume, and run Repair Disk. That operation may take several hours. If it doesn't solve the problem, you'll have to erase the volume and start over. Don't do that unless you have at least one other complete backup. Remember to turn TM back ON.
If the backup drive is internal or on an eSATA bus, and Disk Utility displays a message about a "S.M.A.R.T. error," the drive has irreparably failed and must be replaced immediately. You can't go on using it. A drive connected via USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt doesn't show a S.M.A.R.T. status.

Time machine (older) backups not recognized after renaming the drive

Hi all.
For quite sometime I've been backing up my data (in my Mac Book Pro) using the time machine to an external drive.
Recently I changed the name of the drive I was backing up to from Finder and now I see the older backups using Finder but they're not recognized in Time Machine mode.
Is there anything I should do to make it know that those older files are actually in the same drive? I'm guessing changing a couple of lines in a text-only file (such as an XML file) where there's a file mapping will fix the issue but I'm not sure which file and where exactly that is.
Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the valuable online resource you shared.
There's a lot of critical information there. Bookmarked.
Back to the issue… Before taking any action I created an additional user in Mac OS. This had nothing to do with the awkward behavior of the TM, it was just something I should have done long ago.
After I created that user I wanted to make sure that the problem persists before doing anything. So I logged of the new account and switched to the admin account, and for the one last time I entered the TM mode. Guess what? While managing users the system must have corrected something and it finally decided to recognize my older backups! This is pretty awkward but it just happened and I'm seeing all the backups in TM mode now.
Thanks again for the help and the link

Time Machine and Finder not working

I have Mac OS 10.6.3. My internal harddrive is full but I cannot back up my data on external hard drive. I tried moving files to external drive using Finder but Finder never finish the transfer and hung. Finder works okay but hang up when dealing with external drive. I tried to force quit finder and relaunch. But on relaunch it is giving me error 10810 and says :"finder cannot be launched". I have to force Macbook shut down. I tried Time Machine but it also hang and I have to shut everything down.
I have bought bigger hard drive and used disk utility (restore) to clone my hard drive. But I won't get rid of this problem. I won't be able to back up my data by upgrading hard drive as it is clone of my old hard drive and will carry all problems forward.
any suggestions how I can get rid of this problem? I want to backup all my data and some applications too which I have paid for but lost installation CDs.

nasarke wrote:
Invalid sibling link
Rebuilding catalog B-tree.
Does this means that I cannot retrieve any data form this disk. This is the only disk I have with all my data.
This is your backup disk, right? You still have the original data, on your +internal HD,+ don't you?
See the pink box in #A5. Those errors are some that +Disk Warrior+ can often repair. As it says, your only other option is to erase the disk and start over.
I will buy new external drive and try to back up with time machine. I have few questions
Ideally, you need one disk for Time Machine, another for a "clone." If it's large enough, you can put them in separate partitions on the same drive, but when it fails (and they all do, sooner or later), you risk losing both.
1. Should I clone new drive (I haven't installed it yet) with my repaired internal drive before I install it.
That would be safest. Then you can boot up from it to be sure it's working ok. Run a +*Verify Disk+* on it, and use many of your apps to confirm that everything's ok before taking the old HD out.
2. Is there any difference between using Disk utility or with Super Duper.
Yes. Use CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. They're designed for this, and when/if necessary, you can run updates to them. With Disk Utility, you can only run a whole, new "clone."
3. Should I partition new external hard drive I buy.
If you're going to use it for other things besides Time Machine backups, yes. See #3 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Time Machine Exclude Items Not Working

So I just started using TM, or rather trying to use it.
I have a pretty big HD to backup, and since 200GB of it is just a copy of one large folder on a server I wish to exclude it from backup. So I go into Time Machine and click the "Options" button, click "+" and add the folder (it's actually ~/Documents/Audio). Everything looks fine, it tells me the size etc. Then I click "Done".
Trouble is, when I look again in the list the folder is gone. In fact no matter what I try I cannot add any folders to this list. Time Machine seems to totally throw away anything I add to the exclude list.
Any ideas anyone?
--Tim

So, I'm having somewhat the opposite problem, Time Machine is busily "Excluding..." items, currently up to about 6 million and going strong. The problem is, sort of the opposite you were experiencing, I have no files/drives in my exclude list, yet it is finding something to exclude.
I stopped it last attempt, when it had excluded some 30 million items, seemed to be making no progress whatsoever, and followed the troubleshooting hints for a full reset #A4 (http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html). Just for grins I also erased the drive again, to start with a clean slate.
I'm backing up to a WD 1 TB drive connected to my old G4 PowerBook running 10.5.8, and connected to it over the network, with the machine and the drive shared out. I can see the drive and files, and can read from and write to the drive. TM has no issue mounting the drive, and has written a small file to it (~1 gb so far).
Is this symptomatic of some other odd TM behavior, or should I just let it run and see what it does?
Thanks for any insights,
--Jon

Does time machine automatically backup external hard drives?

Hi
I have 4 external disks connected to my macPro and a 5th which I am using to backup too. In the TM prefs I have selected the drives & specific folders that I DON'T want backed up. Can I assume it will back EVERYTHING ELSE up, including the external drives?
I conducted an experiment - I unmounted one of the external drives (my main Logic projects disk), then entered TM. I COULDN'T FIND the Projects disk even though the BackUp disk was still mounted! So if there was a problem with the Projects drive HOW would I access my backed-up projects?
I don't have much faith in TM at the moment.
Cheers
Chris

Hi
Time Machine will back up the files for all users, as well as the system files.
best,
Matt

Automatic Backup not working like it should

Is anyone else having any problems with their iDevice not doing the automatic iCloud backups? Ever since I installed iOS 5, I have had to run the iCloud backup manually and its a little concerning that it wont run automatically.

Yep same here no indication that any settings are incorrect, plugged the phone in, made sure wi-fi is connected lock screen on and........nothing. Manual only. Too wierd.
iPhone 4, Lion

Time Machine "Latest Backup" not showing up

I am using a Western Digital 1TB Mybook as a TM Backup on my G5. It has been connected since October 2008 and still has 163Gb of free space. It is still backing up hourly and when I enter TM I can access all backups.
However, when I click on the TM icon in the menu bar, it shows "Latest Backup: --" so I can't quickly scan up there to see when it last backed up.
I've run Onyx and TTools on the G5.
Any thoughts?
Steve

Sounds like a corrupted preference file to me!
Before doing anything after this line, make a note of any exclusions you've made in TM's preference pane.
In Finder, click on "Macintosh HD" then Library then Preferences. Find the file com.apple.TimeMachine.plist and move it to the desktop or delete it. Log out of your account & back into it or restart the computer.
See if things work properly after that.
~Lyssa

Time machine automatic backup not working.

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