Time Machine backup failed - files can't be copied disk appears to be read

Error: <<<<<Time Machine could not complete the back - Files can't be copied onto backup disk because it appears to be read only.>>>>
I originally setup a Seagate GoFlex 1TB USB drive as my backup disk, wiped the drive and set it up as a MAC OS extended. Ran for a few days and then the error appeared - error above. Ran disk utility and verify disk - no issues found. The only way I found to resolve (temporarily) was to eject the drive, power off and reconnect. Eventually I decided the switch drives, swap the Seagate GoFlex 1TB with the WD Mybook 500GB (setup WD as MAC OS Extended), no issues till today, same error appeared..
Has anybody seen this problem, any ideas how to resolve the issue.

Hello,
http://pondini.org/TM/C6.html

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Time machine backup fails; error creating folder. Western Digital drive requires password which is perhaps/likely the issue. I can't eliminate the password/encryption.

Time Machine backup fails on new WD external drive (My Passport Studio); error creating folder (after several hours of Time Machine apparently working).
Background: I purchased a Western Digital drive from an Apple Store to use for Time Machine backup. I followed the Western Digital instructions that came with the drive for Mac. I didn't get the Time Machine prompt which the instructions indicated I would receive--namely to select whether I want to encrypt my Time Macine backups. (I already have a Time Machine backup I use at another location, which is perhaps why I didn't receive a prompt.)
I decided to install the Western Digital utilities and security software that comes on the disk--with a view to potentially encrypting the disk (since I still wanted to have an encrypted backup since I was mobile). I forgot that (from experience 2-years previous) that I shouldn't install Western Digital software because it just makes life really complicated.
I tried several times to do a Time Machine backup with failures each time (error creating the backup folder). I tried to get help from WD but I don't think the technicians were following what my issue was. Potentially I was not helpful in explaining it. I deleted the WD applications from my system after the first contact with WD. However the problem persisted--I still had an encrypted hard drive. After three phone sessions with three different WD techs I still could not get a solution. (By the second call I was not at all interested in having an encrypted drive--I just wanted to format and restore the drive to an unencrypted state so that I could have SOME kind of Time Machine backup.)
I still don't have a solution--either to get Time Machine working with the WD encryption/password on the drive, or to remove the encryption so I can backup. Right now my options are to return the drive to the Apple Store -- or get a return authorization from WD. Seems crazy since the drive is fine and I have the working password.

Never install "helpful software" provided by WD and Seagate (or any HD mfg.)
All such stuff is fluff and nonsense that interferes with normal HD operation.
Always when you buy a new HD, format it for Mac and then use it to TM backup or clone a HD, or archive data.
Less is more on HD new out of box. A "blank brick", no fluff and cotton candy software

Time Machine backup fails because "volume could not be found".

I just had my logic board replaced in my Macbook Pro and went to do a backup (yeah, I didn't do this right before it crashed) and now Time Machine backup fails with the message "volume could not be found" Under Time Machine/Choose Disk, it appears that the drive is the one selected. The computer "sees" the drive and I can read files on it. The only other thing that has happened in the meantime is that a friend helped pull a file off the hard drive that I needed for a project. No apparent issues there. Any suggestions?

You might try going to /Library/Preferences, then drag the file com.apple.TimeMachine.plist to the Desktop. Reboot your Mac, then try declaring the backup disk for Time Machine. It might help if you mount the backup disk first.
Are you using Time Machine to write its backups to the disk of a Time Capsule? If not, since this discussion section is for Apple's Time Capsule AirPort base station, a discussion involving Time Machine should be held on the discussion section for whatever version of OSX that you're using.

Time Machine backup failed - "Read Only" - does that mean external HD is full?

Just received an error message re: Time Machine -
Time Machine Could not complete the Backup.
Files can't be copied onto the backup disk because it appears to be "read only"
Does this mean I have to try and repair the external HD OR can it mean the external HD is full (which I was expecting) and I need to start a new one?
When I open Preferences, it says "Available: 2.04 of 319.94 GB
Oldest Backup - (blank)
Latest Backup - Failed
I have turned it off and don't want to do something stupid.
So, should I follow directions to try to reformat the disk using Disk Utility? Does it mean everything on there is potentially lost?
Thanks for any directions . .

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, on another drive, if you don't already have one. One backup is never enough to be safe.
If you choose to keep using the problem drive, turn Time Machine OFF temporarily in its preference pane, then launch Disk Utility, select the backup volume, and run Repair Disk. This operation may take several hours. If that action 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.

Does Time Machine backup system files (/usr/local/*)?

Does Time Machine backup system files (/usr/local/*)?
If so how do you locate them in the Time Machine interface?
If I go into Time Machine mode and type say "/usr/local" in the Time Machine search bar I get nothing although I can open a terminal application and cd to /usr/local and see bin, lib, include, etc.
Of course I can never see /usr/local in Finder either ... only at the command line.
Thanks.

John, another tech pro ("baltwo") suggests:
Run this in the Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 1
OPTION-click and hold on Finder's Dock icon->Relaunch which reveals all hidden files. Then, look for that file and delete it. To hide all of those, use the same command, substituiting zero for the one, and relaunch the Finder.

Time Machine:Backup failed with error: 11

All of a sudden this weekend my Time Machine backup stopped working. I just installed a new Time Capsule about 2 months ago and was backing up with no problems until now. When the backup starts it runs for a few minutes, then throws the following error:
So I ran Disk Utility on the Time Capsule and I got this:
Verifying volume “Time Machine Backups”
Checking file systemChecking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Detected a case-sensitive volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Checking extended attributes file.
Checking multi-linked directories.
Incorrect number of directory hard links
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume Time Machine Backups was found corrupt and needs to be repaired.
Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk.
My question is this, if I run Repair Disk on my Time Capsule, am I going to lose all the data on there? Granted, I'd be punting 2 months worth of backups, which isn't the worst thing in the world, but if there is any way to save the data I'd prefer that option.

You have to repair to get the data to copy off.. generally.
But you can try to copy beforehand.. plug in a USB drive of adequate size and archive off the current backups.. you do this via the v5 utility.. apple simply left it out of v6.
That means you have to install v5 on Mountain Lion do it thusly.
How to load 5.6 into ML.
1. Download 5.6 for Lion.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
Click to open the dmg but do not attempt to install the pkg.. it won't work anyway.
2. Download and install unpkg.
http://www.timdoug.com/unpkg/
Run unpkg on the desktop.. it is very simple.. drag the AirPortUtility56.pkg file over to unpkg.. and it will create a new directory of the same name on the desktop.. drill down.. applications utilities .. there lo and behold is Airport utility 5.6 .. drag it to your main utilities directory or just run it from current location.
You cannot uninstall 6.1 so don't try.. and you cannot or should not run them both at the same time.. so just ignore the toyland version.. the plastic hammer.. and start using 5.6.. a real tool.
If the file doesn't copy that is half-expected as it is corrupt.
Run the repair.
Do the archive if you want.. of the repaired backup.
Now do an erase of the TC.. I would recommend a one pass erase which will take several hours as it has to low level format the drive. Any errors means the drive is no longer to be trusted. Take it back to apple and say the drive is corrupt.. that isn't good enough and you want a new one.

Time Machine backup fails in extended network

Dear all,
I've recently setup an extended network using 2 additional AirPort Express units connected to the main Airport Extreme modem (all working well). I'm using the Extreme for Time Machine Backups, which used to work just fine as well.
However, when connected to the Expresses, the Time Machine Backups fail with the message that the backup file is already in use. I'm guessing the Express modem tries to connect to the backup file, while the Extreme is keeping the file stand-by or something.
Does anybody know a fix to this problem?
Kind regards,
Dennis

It took a Snow Leopard a while but after 2 days it started working again. I've checked whether the connection was directly to the Extreme, but the connection actually went through one of the bridged Expresses.
I guys one just has to hope for the best ;-)
I've upgraded to Lion last week and backup works fine with the new operating system as well.

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From the Finder's Go menu, choose Computer:
Double-click your hard disk icon. It is usually named "Macintosh HD":
Look for this folder:
Drag it to the Trash.

Just bought a Macbook Pro. I want a clean install so won't use a Time Machine backup but how can I install the software I bought from Apple Store? can I just delete it from the old machine that is going to someone else?

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The ne
The new machine has Mavericks which is fine. And I will leave it as is. I don’t want anything from my old machine other than 2 apps that I will need on the new one. I want to be able to install those apps that I bought from the App Store onto my new computer. I assume Apple doesn’t want me to have the apps installed on 2 machines at the same time so I wonder if just uninstalling them from my old machine will release them for re-install on the new one.

Time machine backup fails in my seagate 3tb external drive

Time machine backup fails in my seagate 3tb external drive

Without any specifics it's impossible to assist you, however the best tool for debugging TM failures is using Pondini's Time Machine Troubleshooting guide.
Good luck.

Time Machine Backup Failed even though I still have 1.9TB of a 2TB Time Capsule. I am using Yosemite.

Time Machine Backup Failed even though I still have 1.9TB of a 2TB Time Capsule. I am using Yosemite 10.10.3 on an iMac (mid 2010)

The recent update in Yosemite (10.10.3) is causing some issues for some users.
Try a complete network power cycle as follows:
Power off each and every device on your network......modem, Time Capsule, computers, printers, etc......in any order that you want
Wait a minute
Power up the modem and let it run 2-3 minutes
Then, power up the next device that is connected to the modem an let it run a full minute
Then, continue to power up devices one at a time about a minute apart until everything is back up
Check the network
Wait for a backup to occur and report on your results

HT201250 Will Time Machine backup the files on my desktop?

Will Time Machine backup the files on my desktop? Backup files anywhere on my computer even if they're not neatly in the document folders?

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3107
Most commonly used backup methods explained

Time Machine backup fails linking files

I recently had a external disk fail that was still under warrenty, so I dually went to the Apple store and got a replacement. After plugging it in I went into Time Machine and performed a restore (I was backing up the external disk to another external time machine managed disk). All worked perfectly so far. However, come the next backup I got
"Time Machine Error Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while linking files on the backup volume"
Searching the forums I don't see any obvious solution. In the system log I also see 'Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: MyBigDisk' every time there is a backup.
Anyone got any ideas how to fix this?

Ok, I finally figured this out. The problem is that the old and new disks both had the same name (MyBigDisk) and time machine was getting consused. To fix
Complete the restoration of the drive via timemachine
Rename the drive (on Leopard in finder under devices ctrl-click / right-click on the name and rename)
Go into time machine preferences and remove the drive from the exclusion list
Perform a Time Machine backup
This will re-backup the freshly restored external drive but this isn't a big issue as older files will be deleted from Time Machine as necessary.
Restoring files on the external disk from before the failure: Now the drive is renamed the older backups seem to have disappeared. Actually, they are there, just tricky to find. To find an old file on the old named disk:
Go into finder and make sure show path bar is selected
Go to you home directory in finder
Enter Time Machine
Select the date you want to go back to
In the path bar find the directory with the name like 2011-11-12-202011, click on folder
The old drive will be in that directory - use the normal restore process
Why is it broken
My guess is that to avoid accidentally backing up the wrong disk (after all every WD My Book is called MyBook when plugged in) they use the UUID (Universally Unique ID) to identify the drive. But, we see the MyBook name in Finder and Time Machine so they need to link the UUID to the MyBook name. This is a one shot, once done, never undone.
So, now when it tries to check that link with the new disk it will have a different UUID (that's the UU bit!) and complains. Renaming that disk breaks the link (there's no MyBook now, so no link to check)

How might I move my Time Machine Backups.backupdb file to a partition on a different drive to enable reformatting the drive it is on, so that might put it back in place later?

I have an external drive I use as my Time Machine backup location.
Recently, I started getting an error on it. It tells me there is a problem, and to repair it with Disk Utility. Disk Utility cannot verify the disk, and needs me to repair it, but it cannot repair it. It advises me to copy all of the important files from this disk to another location, and then reformat the drive.
So, I have copied all of the files that were not part of the Backups.backupdb folder structure to a partition on another disk, and removed them from the defecting drive, leaving ~250GB of files in the Time Machine backups files.
I cannot seem to get this to copy to a ~350GB folder on another drive, formatted Journaled, Extended as recommended.
What do I do?

A Time Machine backup is owned by TM.. this is standard kind of issue.. the very fact that you cannot copy it suggests it is corrupt.. or you cannot change permissions on the whole file.. let me assure you the way TM works.. what you have so far copied is completely useless.
Have you run a verify of the backup??
The fact that disk utility is not working means something is wrong.. it should be able to fix a drive..
And the fact the drive is only 12-18months old is also not relevant.. the present state of the drive is too poor to be considered reliable.
What type of drive is it.. ie USB2 USB3 and what brand??
It is not just the disk that can go bad but the controller/power supply as well.. and some brands seem to have bad batches.. eg seagate USB drives I was seeing recently.
I prefer drives where I buy a shell and put the drive into it.. so I can move the drive to another shell without breaking warranty (or the case).
The actual command for terminal I always just look up when I want to do them.. I am getting old and I have no space left for command line stuff.. although it was all there in the past.
eg today I hit. http://www.cnet.com/au/news/using-the-os-x-terminal-instead-of-the-finder-to-cop y-files/
This includes the rsync command.. lets try this one..
I can copy my downloads directory to a time capsule disk. I start with login as super user just to make sure I don't have permissions issues.. you should definitely do this. running rsync is great as it will give you info when it fails and it will do incremental if you run it again later. You construct the command by simply dragging the folder from finder into terminal and slightly modifying it as per the article above.. So my actual command as I am copying deliberately to a new folder on the TC.. You don't want files to land on the root.. even if it creates another folder.
$ sudo su
Password:
sh-3.2# rsync -av /Users/Ray/Downloads/* /Volumes/DataTCgen3/downloads/
building file list ... done
#A 12v25v Descrip.doc
$T2eC16V,!)!E9s2fB+iqBQNKwsSzpQ~~60_3.JPG
$_12.JPG
0198f23d9wahwkzzsf20dk15czcy.pdf
0340039AINETCNCTKGS.PDF
I have 60GB or so in this folder and it is copying at about 20MB/s over ethernet.. so it is not super fast.. but there is probably some error checking going on at the same time.

Time machine backup failed to restore

HHaving had major issues with Mail I decided to restore from a Time Machine backup. With hindsight I wish I hadn't! Having foolishly agreed to the 'this will erase everything' warning I waited 8 hours (twice) to get the message that my backup failed to restore. No more detail than that. Does anyone have any ideas / suggestions? I have a MBA with latest upgrade of Yosemite (last upgrade probably caused my Mail issue). Everything is backed up using Time Machine to a Netgear NAS. When going through the restore process I have no is

TThanks Eric. At present I can't connect the NAS directly. I dont seem to have a usb to usb cable. It is connecting via a network cable. My MBA can see the NAS and I've successfully entered my login details and chosen the backup I want to restore.
On C's recommendation I tried reinstalling OSX and planned to then try importing all my files on,y to find that there was not enough disk space. I've now erased everything as it occurred to me that starting with most of my 250G drive free might help. I'm having one more go at restoring directly from the TM backup as this would be my preferred solution (indeed what I had assumed Time Machine was meant for). On,y another 7 hours 26 minutes to wait. If that fails I will have another go at a fresh OS X install and reimport from TM (on the assumption that an empty hard disk will allow that this time).
ANd do all this because MaIl stopped working with my old POP account and I screwed up the switch to IMAP (by dragging my old Pop account contents across to the new IMAP account is created - will need to do that more carefully if I ever get back to where I started!).

Time Machine backup failed - files can't be copied disk appears to be read

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