Time Machine Back Up Not Enough Space
I just tried to back up my Mac Book Air and I use OS X 10.7.3.
I got a message which said that there was not enough space on my external hard drive. The message said that I needed 50 GB and the external drive only has 43 of space... Note, when I check out the hard drive, it says: ""Available 43.63 of 249.93".
The sole purpose of my hard drive is for back up purposes. So, there isn't anything other data or information on the drive...
So, what do I do?
To be clear--is this a drive you have been using with the MacBook Air previously with Time Machine? Or is this the first time you've tried to use Time Machine with this drive on this computer?
If it's not the first time, I suspect you're just getting Time Machine's warning which everyone eventually will get (unless you've turned it off or really don't change many files) that it is going to need to delete something from the drive outside of its normal scheduled elimination of backups (normally it lengthens out the period between saved backups as the backup ages, figuring you don't need every hour's snapshot for the last three years). By its nature Time Machine's needs tend to grow over time and it will eventually consume all available space on a drive that it is given access to.
Similar Messages
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Time machine back up- not enough space so can't back up?
hi my computer entire hard drive is 2TB and only 1Tb used. and my external hard drive(time machine back-up) is 2TB. and right now Time machine back up failed. and keep saying that hard drive don;t have enough space....
i erase all from external hard drive ,, back up NEW. and still saying that not enough space on back up drive, weird thing is and i have 2.8 TB to back up.. but my entire hard drive is only 2TB .. what is that? and i only used 1.1 TB ish..
somebody help me? how can i use time machine back up with this issue?What's shown for +Estimated size of full backup+ under the exclusions box in TM Preferences > Options?
If that's over the 1.1 TB used, there are a couple of possibilities:
Another internal or external drive, formatted for a Mac, is connected but not excluded, so Time Machine is trying to back it up, too. Exclude it, per #10 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
Something on your internal HD is corrupted, making Time Machine think it's much larger than it really is. Verify your internal HD, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). -
Time Machine Backup failed, not enough space...
Have iMac, Yosimite OS 10.10, processor 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5, memory 12 GB 1333 MHz DDR3, internal HD - 1TB, Time machine id 1 TB external La Cie. I see that I have 260 GB left on Time Machine disk, on Time Machine window. Additional message, "Needs 266.46 GB for back up, thus "backup failed". What is my next step? Thank you very much indeed!
Try C4 in the 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems -
time machine back up not completed due to backup disk image "/volumes/data/.....imac.sparsebundle" is already in use. How do I fix?
Pull the power cable from the back of the Time Capsule
Wait a few minutes
Insert the power cable back in the back of the Time Capsule
This will fix the problem 90% of the time. If no luck, see #C12 in this great support document by Pondini:
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html -
Time Machine Error Message Not enough Memory, How to fix?
I've been using Time Machine, backing up onto a hard drive, since last November. All of a sudden it's giving me an error message saying that it does not have enough space. So the backups fail.
The error message offers 2 alternatives: Destroy files or use a different back up location. The preferences offer no assistance, though the error message implies that I can make the backup smaller there.
How can that be? I have saves for the last 30 days, but I can't back up the current files? That seems like flawed software to me.
Does anyone know a work around?
Thanks,
JemelJeanie Marshall wrote:
Yes, I have read through this. Seems very unMac like. There really seem to be no preferences while Time machine is active.
I'm not sure what you mean by that. If there isn't room, there isn't room. As dbsneddon says, we can't help figure out what's happened without some details.
There are several possibilities:
Nothing is wrong. You have the +Warn when old backups are deleted+ option checked in TM Preferences, and that's what it did. That's why I referred you to #C4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting. See the tan box there for a detailed explanation and simple solution.
Your Time Machine drive isn't well over twice the size of the data it's backing-up, and Time Machine has to do a new, full backup. #D3 in Troubleshooting lists some common reasons for that.
For some reason, Time Machine may have started a new set of backups. A common reason is having the Logic board in your Mac replaced. See #C8 in Troubleshooting.
There are others, of course, but start by checking those out. -
Time Machine unable to free enough space
Just returned from a longer trip, taking a lot of pictures, and now my Time Machine backup is failing. Here's what I can read from the logs:
1) For about 45 minutes, it determines what needs backing up
2) Then, it determines it doesn't have enough space
3) It gets rid of a few backups (between 1 and 10), but still doesn't have the space
4) It gives up
This pattern has been repeating for days, once an hour, and no backup has happened.
How can I recover from this?
Here is the log of a run:
Jan 14 02:47:06 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Starting standard backup
Jan 14 02:47:06 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Backup destination alias resolved to path: /Volumes/Weird Ed's Time Capsule
Jan 14 02:47:08 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Disk image /Volumes/Weird Ed's Time Capsule/WeirdEdMBP_001f5be6fa3e.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of WeirdEdMBP
Jan 14 02:47:09 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of WeirdEdMBP/Backups.backupdb
Jan 14 02:47:21 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Jan 14 02:47:21 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
Jan 14 03:31:54 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Backup destination alias resolved to path: /Volumes/Weird Ed's Time Capsule
Jan 14 03:31:55 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Disk image /Volumes/Weird Ed's Time Capsule/WeirdEdMBP_001f5be6fa3e.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of WeirdEdMBP
Jan 14 03:35:50 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 52.66 GB requested (including padding), 16.57 GB available
Jan 14 03:38:15 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of WeirdEdMBP/Backups.backupdb/WeirdEdMBP/2008-12-10-003030: 16.57 GB now available
Jan 14 03:39:01 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of WeirdEdMBP/Backups.backupdb/WeirdEdMBP/2008-12-18-235052: 16.57 GB now available
Jan 14 03:39:33 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of WeirdEdMBP/Backups.backupdb/WeirdEdMBP/2008-12-18-225055: 16.57 GB now available
Jan 14 03:40:04 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of WeirdEdMBP/Backups.backupdb/WeirdEdMBP/2008-12-18-215132: 16.57 GB now available
Jan 14 03:40:48 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Backup of WeirdEdMBP/Backups.backupdb/WeirdEdMBP/2008-12-18-204435: 16.57 GB now available
Jan 14 03:40:48 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Stopping backup.
Jan 14 03:40:54 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Backup canceled.
Jan 14 03:41:01 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
Jan 14 03:41:01 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Compacting backup disk image to recover free space
Jan 14 03:42:12 weirdedmbp /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1931]: Completed backup disk image compactionRight, I understand that there isn't enough space, but I also was under the impression that Time Machine is supposed to manage the space. The backups are the only thing on the time capsule. I'm backing up a single MacBook Pro with a 200GB drive to the 500GB time capsule, so Time Machine should be able to make space by simply deleting old backups. An so far, that has worked.
I get the impression that there's a limit to how many old backups are being removed, and it feels like a time limit. Meaning: If TM deletes backups for more than 10 minutes or so, and there's still not enough space, it gives up.
Trouble is that each turn of deleting some old backups is preceeded by that ~45 minute period of "determining what to back up".
That's what I'm doing now: Deleting old backups, and once that completes I'll compact the sparse bundle. Hopefully, that'll do the trick. So if I let this go on for days/weeks/months, it probably will eventually free up enough space again.
Still, this would seem like a rather common case, this should really work. So far, not very impressed with Time Machine. -
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. -
Timeline won't back up (not enough space)
Timeline won't back up because it says there is not enough space on my external drive. This never happened before.
I have 10.6.8. I just restored my new hard drive from Timeline. It was an easy restoration. The first time I
backed up on Timeline, it said there was not enough space. I do have my external drive partitioned. I thought old backups
were deleted when the space was needed. What happened? Thank YouI thought timeline deleted old backups on it's own so you would not run out of space. Did I misunderstand this? Is it just a coincidence that this occcured the very first time I tried to back up after I restored my hard drive from the external drive, through Timeline?
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Time Machine back-up not completing
Had bad HD replaced on my iMac by Apple. I updated the OS to Mountain Lion, boot in restore mode, start the restore from the last back up, get the "restoring..." dialog box with the progress bar, but it just keeps running and never finishes. Neither the iMac internal drive nor the external drive I use for Time Machine back-up seem to be doing any read/write activity. I even let it run over night justto see and nothing. Any ideas on what might be going wrong?
Disconnect and connect the external disk again. It happened the same to me and this solved my issue
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Time machine backup fails--not enough room.
I have a 2 TB drive in a Mac Pro running Yosemite (10.2) that I have been using for Time Machine backups. I have a 1 TB drive as my main hard drive that is about 2/3 full and another drive with less than 200 GB used. Unit recently, Time Machine has been working as it should. However, in the last week, I have been getting an error message saying there is not enough room (321 GB available). As I understand the process, older backups should be deleted when there is no longer enough room. Additionally, it should only be updating the backup and there should be enough room for that. Why can I not get a backup?
Try C4 in the 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems -
Time machine : Doesn't have enough space on the restore drive.
I've a very weird situation. My time machine backup has two partitions: one is of 95 GB (where I have only one back up of my Mac Lion) and the other of 65 GB is unformatted (total space on the drive is 160 GB). Now when I get to the point of Disk Utility's Restore from time machine backups (through Ctrl + R) and select my new internal HDD (of 128 G), I get the yellow warning at the bottom that 'there isn't sufficient space on this drive'. I'm really baffled as to what could be the root cause of this. Is Time machine accounting for the entire hard drive (of 160 GB) for restore? Or is it doing some tricks behind the scene by which it needs more space (greater than 128 - 95 GB) than the backup? If so, how much is this space?
Really confused here.
Thanks in advance!@Linc: The internal drive has a GUID partition table and the required partition in the correct format, yes. It actually already has a brand new installation of Lion (could that be interfering?).
Also, this may be useful: My original hard drive was 320 GB and this new one is 128 GB. I'm suspecting this thread has what I need: https://discussions.apple.com/message/15920201#15920201. What do you think?
Thanks! -
Time Machine does not recognize my 430 GB iMac backup on 1 terabyte Time Capsule. Reports: not enough space; can’t back up. How do I get it to recognize the old backup and continue backups?
Thanks for the Time Machine Troubleshooting link. Apparently things have changed since 10.7.0. Backups.backupdb doesn’t exist. Path now is: Time Capsule/Data/Daru’s iMac.sparsebundle. So I did Terminal (I usually avoid Terminal) using the instruction in B6. It does not appear to be working. It went through looking for backup, preparing backup, and is now stopping backup, and the TMBackup has disappeared from the sidebar.
Well, just now Time Machine progressed to preparing backup again; the Tiime Machine Backups appeared in sidebar, and with it Backups.backupdb/Daru’s iMac/2012-04-21-112939.inProgress. So it does exist... I’ll let it run, see what happens... But that is a strange date. Today is 28.
I’ll let you know the outcome.
Oops. Just ended! Real time report: “Backup too large for disk...“ So it is not recognizing the old backup. I’ll look at those instructions again, see if I can do the Terminal thing with the backup running. I doubt I can damage anything except the existing baackup which I'll lose anywy if I can’t achieve recognition.
Daru -
Migration Assistant Not Enough Space
Hey all,
I'm having a problem with Migration Assistant that's driving me crazy. I just bought a new Macbook Pro with a 256GB internal drive, and I have a backup of my old computer from last year that is about 350GB in size. What I am trying to do is individually take over some items from the Time Machine so that I don't fill up the HD. Here is what I have done so far:
I took over 100GB of an iTunes library as well as other system settings and documents. I had left something like 50GB on my internal hard drive. Not enough for my 109GB photo library.
So, I purchased a large SD card (128GB) to be the permanent home for my photo library. However, I had to maneuver some things around to get this to work, which has been a HUGE pain.
What I ended up doing was copying my whole iTunes library, which was about 98GB to the SD card. I juggled some other things around beforehand, and even though my photo file on the backup is only 109GB, it kept telling me I didn't have space. So I did the whole iTunes library instead of parts of it...
I now have 150GB free. Migration Assistant still tells me I don't have enough space for the transfer. How is that possible!? That's an extra 41GB of data.
Anyone have any suggestions? I've already verified the HD on the macbook is fine via Disk Utility, not sure what else to do.Well yeah, I could always buy a bigger external. I was thinking about exchanging the 128GB SD card for a 256GB, but I've been able to make it work in the meantime. I freed up another 10GB of data on the hard drive, and that allowed the photo library to come off the time machine back up. Then I cut down my iPhoto to 97GB instead of 111GB, and am in the process of transferring that to the SD card. I put the iTunes off on a 2nd computer in the meantime, and once I have iPhoto off this computer, I can make sure all my documents are on here, then erase the old time machine backup, and re-partition the drive to have half time machine back and half storage space for another iPhoto back up and miscellaneous items.
Thanks for the advice! -
We recently had the hard drive replaced on our Mac as part of Apple's replacement programme. Prior to sending it off for repair we did a final Time Machine back up, which was completed successfully. SInce getting the computer back we restored everything from the backup disk using Time Machine, which all worked fine, however now we are having problems with it completing regular backups. We receive a message each time telling up that the backup disk doesn't have enough space on it. It is telling us that it needs in the region of 370gb and only has around 30gb available. The computer hard drive is in the region of 350gb and the hard drive is a 400gb one. It is almost as if it is not recognising that the data already on the disk is the back up of this computer and is trying to complete a completely separate back up as opposed to just updating the backup already on the disk.
Has anyone else got any experience of this and therefore could give me some hints on what to do. I am reluctant to wipe the backup drive and start again, however I would prefer not to have to buy another hard drive if I can avoid it as this one is technically big enough
I look forward to getting some responsesHi, I never use TM myself.
Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Can't imaging something not being covered there.
PS. It's generally recommended a TM drive be at least twice the size of your main drive. -
My Lacie External backed up on Time Machine after the first back up but now says there's not enough room. I thought TM deleted old back ups to save new versions. What am I doing wrong. This happens to me constantly. Every single external hard drive I've purchased for the MacBook Pro (5 of them) has not worked either initially or at the second back up. It either isn't formatted properly so I have to go to Genius bar to help me set up for the first back up, or after the first back up, it says there's not enough space and I have to go back to Genius Bar. Is there a way I can fix this on my own?
I just purchased 2 external hardrives. a LaCie Minimus and a G Drive. Each 1 TB. The guy at Apple told me that would provide 2 good TM backups for me. My internal HD has 750 GB capacity, of which I'm using 700 GB. Perhaps the ratio is not great enough. I do wish they would have told me this before I purchased the two Bummmmer! I even had them format and get the first back-ups going because of issues I've had in the past. I also just bought a 750 GB for photos.
So, I won't be able to buy another bigger external since I've just purchased 3. Ugh. Well, I'll just exclude some files and divide things up. Eventually, I just want my 20,000 iphotos on one of the 1TB externals, and a TM back-up on another so that iphoto will function once more. It really hates how many photos I have and is brutally punishing me for it.I seriously need to do some housecleaning!
Thanks for the advice. Just moved from US to Australia last week and was hoping to upload a few photos and the domino effect has lead me to this. Just went to Genius Bar in Perth today and they told me how to reformat drive to transfer iphoto library over, but I got stuck at trying to back-up my TM.
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