Time Machine backs up but backs not up

Time Machine is running normally under SL.
But when I check by entering Time Machine,
I can see that in my last backup dated today
19:43 (7:43 p.m.), the Dekstop is not up to
date : it's still the items of my desktop
date 9/24/2009.
When checking individual files, they're all
old versions, none is updated today.
Nice !
A solution ?
Thanks
Message was edited by: Hellstan

Hellstan wrote:
Not so anymore : when I check "Option" in Pref, I see the disk
I choose for TM backup in the list of EXCLUDED disks, appearing in
full (black lettering) while the disk I normally exclude that day
appears normally in gray.
That just means that TM is not going to back-up it's backups. Not a problem.
Now there is more ANNOYING : while typing this, I left "Options"
dialog open to be sure I'm not daydreaming. And I SAW automatically
my third external disk, called Archimages, which is NEVER chosen
for TM backup, but only for Images copy I do manually, launch
a backup.
Which one is selected in TM Preferences > Change Disk?
Which is a big mess, because I dont' want my HD to copy on this
3-d disk, but only on disk 1 or 2.
Am I clear ?
About what you want, yes. About what you've done and what's happened, no
All this since I installed SL 10.6 in a clean install and update to 10.6.1
PS : Now I forced TM to stop any backup on Archimages 1, and it launched automatically the initial backup I've asked, namely on TM 1 disk. Currently,
it's "calculating modifications" since 10 minutes. Bloody mess, and I guess the culprit in SL.
Your posts are a bit hard to follow (perhaps the language difference).
If you're saying that TM is not backing-up changed items, then:
1. Are you running File Vault?
2. Is there anything in the +Do not back up+ box that's excluding them?
If both of those are "no," your preferences file may be corrupted. Do a "full reset" per item #B3 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* and Restart your Mac.
From your previous post:
Backing up to: /Volumes/A-Time Machine 1/Backups.backupdb
Node requires deep traversal:/Volumes/A-Time Machine 2 reason:must scan subdirs|
That indicates that the exclusion for +A-Time Machine 2+ was removed somehow.
Copied 3 files (228 KB) from volume A-Time Machine 2.
But since TM won't copy TM backups, those are probably some of the hidden files not included in the backups.
You might want to do a +*Repair Disk+* (not permissions) on both your TM drives, via Disk Utility in your Applications/Utilities folder.
That, plus the things above, including the Restart, may re-set whatever's wrong with your setup.

Similar Messages

Time machine completes backup but does not actually backup any files

I have had this problem sporadically with time machine for a while now, most of the time it works great and everything is smooth sailing, but every now and then time machine will run and go through all of the steps but it skips actually backing up any files. For example, if I put a new word document on my desktop right now and tell time machine to back up, everything will go as it should and time machine will run and go through all of the stages (making back up disk available, calculating changes, cleaning up) except it doesn't actually transfer any files. When I go into to time machine the new word document won't appear in any of the backups. Restarting my computer does fix this but it is a very inconvenient way to fix the problem and it also leaves me having to manually go into time machine to make sure that it is in fact backing up files. And no I do not have some weird exclusion in the time machine preferences.
In the console my system log reads:
Jan 13 22:42:24 brad-bargers-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[8462]: Starting standard backup
Jan 13 22:42:24 brad-bargers-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[8462]: Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Brad%[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
Jan 13 22:42:30 brad-bargers-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[8462]: Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Brad%[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
Jan 13 22:42:31 brad-bargers-macbook-pro hdiejectd[8470]: running
Jan 13 22:42:33 brad-bargers-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[8462]: Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule/Brad Barger’s MacBook Pro_002500a2b268.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of Brad Barger’s MacBook Pro
Jan 13 22:42:33 brad-bargers-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[8462]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of Brad Barger’s MacBook Pro/Backups.backupdb
Jan 13 22:42:38 brad-bargers-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[8462]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 828.8 MB requested (including padding), 153.74 GB available
Jan 13 22:42:45 brad-bargers-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[8462]: Copied 6 files (93 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
Jan 13 22:42:46 brad-bargers-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[8462]: Starting post-backup thinning
Jan 13 22:42:46 brad-bargers-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[8462]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Jan 13 22:42:46 brad-bargers-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[8462]: Backup completed successfully.
Jan 13 22:42:48 brad-bargers-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[8462]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
Jan 13 22:42:48 brad-bargers-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[8462]: Ejected Time Machine network volume.
Jan 13 22:42:58 brad-bargers-macbook-pro hdiejectd[8470]: quitCheck: calling exit(0)
Jan 13 22:43:30 brad-bargers-macbook-pro com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.netauth.sysagent[8463]): Exited with exit code: 255
Sorry for the info dump and I hope my question makes sense. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

b_cubed wrote:
Thanks you for your response. I was wondering if it didn't have to do with disk utility in some way. Just to be clear what do you mean when you say "altering other volumes on the same drive"?
If you have more than one partition on a drive, and add, delete, or resize any of them, Disk Utility does a +*Verify Disk+* on the entire disk. So even if you didn't touch the boot volume, whatever DU does will cause what you've seen.
It is rather odd, that it only affects some of us. Those who have it, have it consistently. It happens on any number of hardware configurations, and I could always reproduce it with a fresh install of SL on an empty partition, so it's clearly nothing to do with any settings, preferences, 3rd-party anything, etc.
This was reported to Apple in October; on November 12 the TM engineers were able to reproduce it. They don't tell us any more than that; all we can do is hope it'll be fixed in a future update.

I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down eliminate

I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down menu with the gear box symbol to eliminate

I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
You are probably using Time Machine to backup your MacBook Pro, right? Then the additional 300 GB could be local Time Machine snapshots. Time Machine will write the hourly backups to the free space on your hard disk, if the backup drive is temporarily not connected. You do not see these local backups in the Finder, and MacOS will delete them, when you make a regular backup to Time Machine, or when you need the space for other data.
See Pondini's page for more explanation: What are Local Snapshots? http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
You have tested the library on the external drive, and so your photos are save there.
The local TimeMachine snapshot probably now contains a backup of the moved library. Try, if connecting your Time Machine drive will reduce the size of your local Time Machine snapshots.

HT201250 I had files stored on a hard drive that were not on my Mac. I used the hard drive for my first Time Machine back up, but it was not enough hard drive space to finish. Now those stored files are gone. Is there any way I can recover them?

I had files stored on a hard drive that were not on my Mac. I used the hard drive for my first Time Machine back up, but it was not enough hard drive space to finish. Now those stored files are gone. Is there any way I can recover them? No, they were not part of previous Time Machine backups, and I have checked both the hard drive the documents were lost on and the new one that I now use for backups. Any suggestions would be helpful, as the lost files are old pictures that are gone forever. :[ Thanks!

1. Yes, if both drives are formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
2. Reformat the drives if needed, open the Time Machine pane of System Preferences, and remove the drive with the pictures from the list of items set to be excluded.
(110331)

My mac Doesn't seem to see my external hard drive (seagate 1tb) I have it usb'd in to the back of my computer, but when I open time machine...it does not see it. Help

My mac Doesn't seem to see my external hard drive (seagate 1tb) I have it usb'd in to the back of my computer, but when I open time machine...it does not see it. Help...please

Yes...at least I thought it was....I have 10.6.8.
That's the whole issue. I want to run/install photoshop elements but I have to have 10.8. for that. So...be fore I install an upgrade (Yosemite is getting BAD press) I thought I'd check my back up...it's not there...I have the seagate plugged in and the usb into the back of the mac...when I try to turn the time machine "ON" it says airport device not found not ....
By the way...I REALLY appreciate the help here....

Mountain Lion will not install says HD is time machine back up but it isn't

I downloaded ML and it state will not install as HD is time machine back up but it is not, I have another external drive
for time machine back up.
I have OS 10.6.8 which a I read the information should be what is required to intall ML.
How can I get the program to recognize that my HD is not the back up disk?

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Mac Pro early 2008 2 x 2.8GHz Quad Core 10.7.5, replaced 4 x 500ghds with 4 x 3Tb and Raid card Raid5 them OK but can not load time machine back up as it does not see any of the 4 drives, neither does disc utilities, any thoughts?

On my Mac Pro, early 2008 2 x 2.8GHz Quad Core 10.7.5, replaced 4 x 500ghds with 4 x 3Tb. The Raid card Raid 5ed them OK but can not load time machine back up as it does not see any of the 4 drives, neither does disc utilities, any thoughts?

You don't see drives when using a hardware RAID only the volumes.
WD Green are not suitable for hardware RAID (or software RAID for that matter).
USB2 and TimeMachine are a disaster waiting to happen. I've used SATA (internal) and eSATA (using SATA PCIe cards) trouble-free.
I can't say I begin to understand your use or "choosing the install drive for the backup"
Install what?
You don't load TimeMachine. Maybe seems minor but that is not how to describe the behavior of software.
You read FAQ and How To http://www.apple.com/support/timemachine
Time Machine’s Gory Details:
https://www.apple.com/support/timemachine/
TimeMachine 101
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
Lion Recovry & TimeMachine
http://www.apple.com/support/lion/installrecovery/
http://www.apple.com/support/lion/
How To Restore Your System
http://pondini.org/TM/14.htmlMac OS X v10.7 Lion
Pondini's Blog: Time Machine - Troubleshooting -- B5. Would you like to inherit (or re-use) the backup . . . ?

Just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented. is it wise to do this or should i not??

just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented. is it wise to do this or should i not??

Let's hope a couple things: that you have bootable clones of your drives also; that the backup drive for TimeMachine has over 3x capacity of the data you plan and are storing. I would also switch TM backup drives so you have a 2nd.
Fragmented free space affecting performance happens when the drive is too full which may mean there isn't enough free space for a full backup set.
1.5TB for backing up 500GB, while WD Green 3TB is $140 and WD Black 1.5TB is, about the same price.
I'd be worried about the integrity and directory, and whether you can afford to lose that drive. Defragging is also a very slow operation. the ideal: to just clone a drive, or start over with another drive and wait. cloning TM volumes has not been done or has it? SuperDuper hoped to but I don't think they or Bombich's CCC made it there.
Trouble with highly fragged is when free space gets to 20% normally, 1/3 or so though for TM volumes, and finding where and a chunk of space for the file being written. Does TM use large spare image files of like 2GB?
Best would be to ask in the TimeMachine section Snow Leopard
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.6_snow_leopard?view= discussions#/?tagSet=1009
where there are some good FAQ and tutorials, and people that know the ins-and-outs and shortcomings.

I can not get Time Machine to back up an external WD Passport 2 TB drive! Has anyone else had this problem? The drive is new and I was running Snow Leopard and upgraded to Lion and it still won't do it. Time Machine backs up the internal drive fine.

I bought 2 2TB WD Passport Drives with the intention of housing my iTunes/iPhoto libraries off my older MacBook. I have successfully transferred the Libraries to one and am using the other one for Time Machine. In Snow Leopard I could back up my computer to Time Machine no problem but when I did not exclude the iTunes/iPhoto drive the back up fails. Both drives have been reformatted, permissions repaired and checked in Disk Utility and one was replaced. I have been to the Genius Bar now 5 times. I have tried using USB drive and FireWire. Both drives are recognized and are working properly otherwise regardless how they are connected. Finally yesterday the Apple store installed Lion to see if that fixed the issue and it did not. Time Machine successfully backed up a USB Flash drive, and today I will try an older external drive. Any ideas on what else to try??? Do I have to resort to third party software like Carbon Copy Cloned to get this done? Any ideas why this wont work? I am using a FireWire converter but as I said, both drives are working normally otherwise (libraries working, time machine working for the computer's hard drive. Any ideas would be appreciated!!?

Thanks so much but none of that helped. It was driving me crazy because it would back up another external drive. I just changed the name of the drive from iPhoto/iTunes Library to Media Libraries and IT WORKED!! I guess for some reason it didn't like the drive being called iPhoto or iTunes ???? I don't understand but I have tried so many solutions and exchanging things out but the name change did it????!!!
Thank you for your help and replying to this. Guess I made my own issue!

I have partitioned my time capsule, but I can't get it to work as a Time Machine back up and permanent media server for both mac and PC. What format do I need to partition the drive to so that it works for both mac and windows and so that it will be visab

I have partitioned my time capsule, as I want part of it to act as a media server for both mac and windows. However I don't know what format that I need to partition it to. I also can't make it a permanently accesible drive. I want to restore the drive to the original format (which I don't know) and start again and re-partition the drive in a format that can be used for media by both mac and PC and for time machine back-ups and make the media part of it permanetly accesible so I can add and acccess my files.
Thanks

You are mixing up a couple of things here.
The TC drive cannot be partitioned without removing it.. did you do that?
If you partition it you must use a Mac disk utility and use the HFS+ ie standard Mac format. And GUID partition table not windows type.
You can select erase disk in the airport utility.. that will take the disk back to original format. No partitions. TC is deliberately not partitioned as it is not a media server.. it is a backup device for TM. Over time .. the disk will be filled with TM backups so you have a long history of file changes to your computer.
There is no media server in the TC.. it is merely disk storage.. you can serve files from it to a media device.. but the TC itself is dumb as dumb.
Now the actual format of the drive is irrelevant to the PC.. The TC offers SMB file services to the network. You can copy files to and from the TC as if it was a local disk without caring one iota about the format. The TC handles that .. it is not a local disk .. it is a network drive.
Although you cannot partition the TC. you can still copy files to it.. this does have implications for TM.. but as long as there is plenty of free space should not be a major issue.
You can create a disk image via the disk utility in a Mac.. and as stated you can create partitions if you do it on a Mac with the disk directly connected which means breaking warranty if any exists on the TC.

How to restore Time Machine back-up if not even Recovery Tools work?

After a hard and unexpected crash on 2012 macMini I tried everything from this list: OS X Yosemite: Ways to start up your Mac Only 2 things worked: hardware test (via Ethernet: option+D; everything passed) and detailed status mode (command+V) which listed a bunch of errors concerning booting (missing or corrupted files and/or folders). Which is probably the reason I couldn't launch Recovery Tools - neither locally nor directly via Internet (Ethernet plugged in, option+command+R). I would get the message that the Tools are launching, but after the Apple logo showed up followed by the spinning circle, the screen would go light grey 4-5 seconds into the process and the thin black progress bar would appear. It would grow to 1/3 of its length, stop for several seconds, then the computer would restart, the bar would show up again, grow to 1/3 etc., etc.
Assuming that nothing else could be done I started the mini in the target mode (T), plugged it into my old 2007 mini and re-formatted the internal drive, thinking that I could either try Recovery Tools again (no luck) or just clean install Yosemite on the 2012 mini first and then use my Time Machine back-up to restore my files. Unfortunately 2007 mini can only install Lion - even on the external drive - but nothing higher (so I can't upgrade to Mountain Lion, Mavericks and finally to Yosemite). And 2012 would not start with Lion on it. Still no luck with Internet Recovery Tools btw (same symptoms).
The only other thing I can think of is finding a newer Mac and use it to install Mavericks or Yosemite on my 2012 mini. If this fails, it's a trip to the Apple store.
If anyone has any other ideas, please share.
(2012 has no CD/DVD drive)

Your description of Internet Recovery sounded much like Safe Mode, not Internet Recovery. I don't think you will see an Apple at all. It should be a spinning Globe. Or, when you say "spinning circle" was that the globe spinning?
From the App Store on the 2007 mini, can you download the Yosemite installer?
That's about all I can think of besides taking it to an Apple Store.

I tried to manually clear my Time Machine back up drive (a La Cie). But now the Trash is filled with files (over 130,000) and it doesn't seem to want to trash them - how do I get rid of them now in a quicker way?

I tried to manually clear my Time Machine back up drive (a La Cie) of some of the older backups. But now the Trash is filled with files (over 130,000) and it doesn't seem to want to trash them - it's taking forever!! how do I get rid of them now in a quicker way?

dear Sue
i've tried the alt solution to empty trash but it does not work
I still got the -8003 error
for emptying time machine backups that i foolishly put in the trash
i've also tried this solution using terminal and it did not work either
http://www.imore.com/how-force-empty-trash-your-mac-using-terminal
any help you might offer would be greatly appreciated
i am using a 24 inch iMac
OSX 10.6.8
Message was edited by: summer_laughter

Is it possible to change the read/write permissions on a time machine back-up of iTunes? I need to restore it, but old version is locked....

Is it possible to change the read/write permissions on a time machine back-up of iTunes? I'm needing to restore it as my phone deleted half our playlists during sync & am not seeing a way to unlock the permissions. I have the current version unlocked, but can't seem to get the backed-up version. When I click on restore I get a pop-up that says iTunes can't be deleted as it is part of the OS. I'm not even trying to delete, just restore the old version. Any suggestions?

Hmmm, ok I'll give it a shot. I've always had the iTunes sync w/ my phone set up to only load selected playlists to the phone b/c there's a lot more in iTunes than I have room or desire for on my phone. A few months back I started having trouble w/ trying to sync everything & subsequently adding more to the phone than it could hold. The quickest thing at the time was to unclick the sync music option in iTunes so I could still backup the phone to the computer & not have a problem.
When I asked about it during one-to-one session shortly after, they advised me to delete the music off my phone & then re-sync it to the computer, run a backup of the phone & redownload the music to the phone. When I tried this it ended up deleting all my playlists (but not my husband's) from iTunes. Irritating, but I've been rebuilding the playlists since. I had also unclicked sync music again & an Apple person told me the most likely best fix was to delete & reload iTunes completely.
A few days ago I realized I hadn't backed up the phone to the computer in over a month so after deleting & reinstalling iTunes, & w/o changing anything (sync music was STILL unchecked) I ran a backup & my phone went from having 4 GB free space to being 2 GB over capacity due to iTunes trying to download the entire music library to the phone. I made a one-to-one appt again & it was suggested AGAIN that I delete all the music off my phone & then resync it to the computer & redownload the music. We did this (though a few random songs that had previously been purchased somehow remained on the phone), I got home, connected the phone & instead of the music that shows as 'on my device' disappearing from iTunes it just sat there, so, as the guy had told me I MIGHT have to do, I threw all those songs showing in iTunes as being on my phone, in the trash so that it was completely clear.
At this point I checked sync music, made sure the options were 'selected playlists only', checked the ones from my own list that I wanted (I usually have one playlist of comedians from my husband's folder that I also have on the phone, but didn't check it at this point). It uploaded all my stuff just fine, but for whatever reason when it saw that I wasn't uploading that comedy playlist any longer, it not only didn't upload it but proceeded to delete my husband's entire folder of playlists from iTunes. -_- I got on the phone w/ an Apple support person right away but he wasn't able to tell me anything .. basically said we'll have to rebuild everything. I asked about the possibility of using time machine, he said he's not qualified to answer that, so that's when I started looking around online & found, among others, the link I referenced a couple replies ago.
I hope this all makes sense. It's been a long-term issue so I'm trying to go from memory as I figured to begin w/ that I had just made a mistake somewhere, so didn't try to document anything. Now w/ it having happened a 2nd time, I'm not sure if it was 'user error' or something else.......

Time machine back ups can not be found in Time Capsule

Hi
My time machine stopped worked a few weeks ago. It started showing an error indicating that sparse bundle couldnt be found. I could still see the 'Time machine backups' drive in Finder, but after a few days, it stopped showing it. Previously to it, I had started using some spare space within the Time Capsule as extra space to save some data. So now, I can only see that folder I used to save some extra data, but not a trace from the 'Time machine backups'. But I can see i have only 600 Gb free in the Time Capsule when it is 2 Tb and my data takes about 300 Gb.
Anybody can help here?
I am running Lion and have the 2Tb Time machine (bought 1 year ago)
Ta

Have you done a simple reboot of everything. The TC first and then the whole network, restart in correct order.. Modem.. TC.. clients.. with 2min gap.
A lost sparsebundle should then be found.
Otherwise look at some of the stuff from Pondini, as this is fairly common issue. More common lately on Mountain Lion but it did also affect lion.
Look at C12 and C17 as these are the most common ones.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Come back to us if you have issues having done the above.
One important question.. did you put this extra data inside the sparsebundle.. or in a separate directory under data on the hard disk.. if you put it inside the sparsebundle of TM.. you will have totally messed up the backup.

Western Digital My Book World EditionI have bought a WD My Book World Edition to use for back-up of my iMac, but when I try and log onto the drive with Apple time Machine (back-up software) or connect in any other way i get the message 'There was a proble

I have bought a WD My Book World Edition to use for back-up of my iMac, but when I try and log onto the drive with Apple time Machine (back-up software) or connect in any other way I get the message 'There was a problem connecting to the server "MybookWorld.local" The version of the server you are trying to connect to is not supported. Please contact your system administrator to resolve the problem'
It is a brand new iMac and running Lion OSX
Any ideas on how to solve would be gratefully received?

Followed the directions on this page and it worked!
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1102423
Part One - Turn on SSH (in the admin panel)
[1] Go to to http://mybookworld.local
[2] login: username will be admin, password will be whatever you have setup. If you can't remember it should be in your Mac OS X keychain (Utilities > Keychain Access, search for "mybookworld"). If you have not changed if from the default the password will be admin as well.
[3] Switch to advanced mode.
[4] From the System tab, pick Advanced.
[5] Enable SSH Access, and click submit.
[6] Click on the network tab and then the LAN button
[7] Make a note of the IP address
Small, maybe obvious, but nevertheless important point: For the install to work, your NAS needs to be connected to a router with internet access.
Part Two - Install netatalk2.2
[8] Open Terminal.app (Utilities > Terminal)
[9] Enter the following command (substitute in 127.0.0.1 for the actual IP address you noted down in step 7), then hit return:
Code:
ssh [email protected]
[10] When prompted, enter the ssh password (will be welc0me).
[11] You are now going to download the installer. Enter the following command, then hit return:
Code:
wget http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/local--files/netatalk2-2-on-whitelight/install_netatalk.sh -O install_netatalk.sh
[12] Once completed, you will need to run the installer. Type:
Code:
sh install_netatalk.sh
[13] You will be asked a number of question during install, answer yes to all. When asked about the "DHX2 login process", I opted to install the modified version, so I can confirm it works.
[14] Once the box has restarted, you should be able to connect to your afp shares and continue to use Time Machine.

Time Machine backs up but backs not up

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