Time machine backup is not working

I have tried three different times to restore my computer from a time machine backup. Each time it gets stuck on the Apple logo screen once it it is done restoring the information. Not sure what to do.. every time I restart it by holding the power button it gets stuck on the same screen.

Read all the info about restore in Pondini.. I am not sure what you are looking at but he goes through the different methods here.
http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
See info for setup assistant and migration assistant.
More particular info from inside the OS.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
Q14-17
The backup could be corrupt.. and it can take a long time to work over wireless .. it is really important to use fastest possible connection.. if you are talking Time Capsule that is ethernet.. if you are talking external drive that is whatever is the best external drive system you have available.
Pondini also has info on how to verify the backup is working and to fix minor issues.
See A5 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Let me add.. TM is great when it works .. and it is a dog when it fails.. Of late.. it fails alot. Yosemite being the worst possible. If you are trying to restore a computer having loaded Yosemite it is probably no longer possible to recover back to what you were running.

Similar Messages

  • Photos gone and Time Machine Backup does not work.

    I did a rebuild of my thumbnails at iPhoto's suggestion, then left the room because it took too long. When I came back all the photos and albums etc were gone, not exclamation points but missing.
    I thought iPhoto could not find the library so I tried the option + open and chose the proper library. Still opened to an empty library. According to the library file it was 102 GB in size but oddly had no information. I did not panic because I back up ALL the time. When I tried the TimeMachine backup (each of them back to March) they also said over 100GB but when I started to transfer them it totaled only 1019 MB and now I have exclamation points and no photos. So I need help getting back the photos. TimeMachine is the ONLY backup I have. Is this an iPhoto problem or a problem with TM? In older versions of iPhoto there was a folder of folders that had all my pictures by roll number did that change in this version, because I can't find that either? FYI all photos, and library, are (were) on an external drive.
    Not gonna lie I am in a bit of a panic at this point. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
    I can clarify anything that does not make sense, I tried to keep the explanation as short as possible so people would read it!
    Thanks in advance,
    FatherTime

    Do you still have your original library that started this problem? If so use Time Machine to bring forward the last backup before the problem happened. Do not replace the current library with the backup but select the option to keep both.
    Open the recovered library and drag out the Library6.iPhoto file to the desktop and move the rest of the recovered library to the trash. Open your original library and replace the Library6.iPhoto with the file from the recovered library. See if iPhoto will open and recognize your photos now.
    If you had any imports between the time of the last backup and your current library they will not be recognized in the library but will be inside the library non the less. You can find their event folder in the Originals folder, move it to the desktop to reimport.
    TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
    I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

  • Time Machine backup does not work after 10.7.2 update

    Hi,
    after updating to 10.7.2 time machine does not perform any backups on my time capsule (error-1). What can I do? Please help. Thanks.

    Try this  - Reset the iPad by holding down on the Sleep and Home buttons at the same time for about 10-15 seconds until the Apple Logo appears - ignore the red slider - let go of the buttons. (This is equivalent to rebooting your computer.)
     Cheers, Tom

  • Time Machine backups have not worked since upgrade to Lion OS X

    I get the following error message when trying to use Time Machine - "The backup was not performed because an error occurred whilecopying files to the backup disk.  The problem may be temporary. Try again later to back up. Ifthe problem persists, use Disk Utility to repair your backup disk."

    Not one of Apple's better messages. 
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  • 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 backups do not migrate from iMac to MacBook Pro

    I just moved from a iMac G5 to a MacBook Pro. I love Apple's migration tool, but it seems that Time Machine backups do not migrate.
    I checked with support, and did a basic amount of searching, and it seems that I need to erase and reformat the backup drive, losing all of my backups.
    Can this be true? That's a pretty screwy backup solution.
    Is it possible to rename the backup folder from "iMac G5" to "MacBook Pro"?
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    Any help is appreciated.

    I'm not quite sure what you mean. It sounds like you successfully migrated, and got everything set up properly on the new Mac.
    Now you want TM to just continue backing-up the new Mac to the old Mac's backups?
    If so, then no, that's not going to work. TM keeps the backups for each Mac completely separate. This is usually an advantage, so you can back up two or Macs to the same drive without any conflicts.
    Plus, the version of OS on your new Intel laptop is very different from the one from your old PPC desktop; a whole different set of drivers, and of course code for Intel vs. PPC.
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    If I've misunderstood, please clarify the situation.

  • Yeah. Got a time machine backup, should that work? Thanks.

    Yeah. Got a time machine backup, should that work? Thanks.

    You can schedule backups in CCC for whatever you like. I run two CCC clones on separate disks - a weekly backup and a daily backup. You could have an hourly backup too, if you wish. You can choose to back up on some days and not others (e.g., you might not do any work on the weekend, so see no point in having a backup schedule run on those days. In this regard, CCC is far more flexible than TM.
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    That menas if your internal disk ever goes kaputt, or you wreck your system with an update or upgrade, you can simply boot back into your system in minutes by connecting the clone.
    About the only advantage I see that TM has over a bootable clone is the 'star wars/versions' type interface, which makes restoring individual files much simpler and user friendly than a clone (but since it's not that hard to do it with CCC anyway, that personally doesn't bother me too much). Others on this board will argue that TM is faster (not in my experience) and causes less wear on your drive (mines happily going 3 years later, but there's no way to empirically test this claim, AFAIK).

  • "Time Machine Backups" could not be unmounted (Disk Utilities)

    Hi there,
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    I have installed "Time machine buddy" and I am getting"error reading system logs"
    I have a mac osx 10.5.8. No antivirus or spotlight running that i know of.
    Any ideas?

    One way to test is to Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, Test for problem in Safe Mode, see if external Drive can be repaired...
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    Reboot, test again.
    Open Console in Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when this happens.

  • HT204350 USB Time Machine backup drive not visble in Mavericks Migration Assistant

    Hi all,
    Yesterday I updated my dad's iMac from Snow Leopard (SL) to Mavericks. Seemed to work ok apart from the fact that turning on iCloud wiped out the calendars. In order to get the calendars back I restored from the most recent SL Time Machine backup. This turned out to be a big mistake! It did get the calendars back but stopped all programs not included in the OS X install to stop working!
    I then managed to get a bootable flash drive installer for Mavericks sorted out and installed a fresh copy of Mavericks on the computer with the plan of using Migration Assistant to bring all my dad's files, settings, etc over. The problem is that when I open Migration Assistant and try to migrate from the USB Time Machine backup drive, the drive doesn't show up in the list.
    I have also tried restoring from the Time Machine backups that were made straight after the upgrade to Mavericks as I have exported copies of the calendars now and that was the only issue at the time but when I do that the restore fails after about 4.5% progress.
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    Thanksin advance!

    If you synchronize any of your calendars with a server such as iCloud, disable that synchronization. Quit Calendar.
    Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
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    Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
    Services ▹ Reveal
    from the contextual menu.* A Finder window should open with a folder selected. Enter Time Machine and restore that folder from the snapshot you want.
    Relaunch Calendar and test. Your calendars should be as they were when the snapshot was taken. If you don't sync with a server, stop here. If you do sync some of the calendars with a server, select each one in turn and then select
    File ▹ Export ▹ Export…
    from the menu bar. You'll get ICS files with the filename extension ".ics". Re-enable sync. Usually, all the calendars you just restored will be deleted. That's not a problem. Create a new calendar on the server for each one you exported and want to sync:
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    Go ▹ Go to Folder...
    from the menu bar, paste into the box that opens (command-V). You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

  • Time Machine: Backup Disk Not Available

    I realize there are a few topics floating around about this issue, but I'm still not finding a solution. Not sure if my situation is different than the others but figured I'd take a shot a describing my scenario in a new thread and seeing if it generates any new ideas.
    I have a 2TB Seagate external expansion drive connected to a MacMini on my home network. The drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and is not partitioned.
    I have mounted the drive on my MacBook Pro 2.66/i7 running 10.6.6. I then go to the TM Preference pane and select the drive, enter the username and password for my admin account on the Mini. It indicates that it's preparing and then comes back a minute later with a Time Machine error indicating that the backup drive is not available.
    I have an older MacBook Pro, my sons MacBook, and my wife's Macbook also on the network. Each of these Macs can mount the backup drive, select it in the TM Preference pane and successfully begin and maintain the TM backup.
    I have created a second "test" account on my MacBook Pro. I have followed the same steps and have had no problems with time machine preparing and successfully beginning the back up account.
    So - with those facts - I have had to conclude that there is something amiss with my main account.
    Other steps I have taken on my MBP with my main account include:
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    * Restarting into applejack and performing an "applejack auto restart". No luck
    * Removing all timemachine related entries in the Keychain, running Keychain FirstAid. No luck.
    * Reformatting the external drive on the Mini, repairing permissions and running a disk repair and starting all over again. No luck.
    In each case above a restart was done before attempting to reinitiate the TM process.
    So - with out blabbering on with any more details, I think it's clear that I'm at a bit of a loss as to what else I should try. I'm WIDE open to suggestions.

    I resolved this issue just this morning (see below). This may not (or may) apply to your situation because yours magically corrected itself, but hopefully it will help somebody.
    Environment Architecture: We appear to have a very similar system architecture to the one you describe. In my case, we have 4 macs all relying on Time Machine and a networked 1TB Time Capsule for backups. Each of 3 workstation macs share data from the 4th, which we use as a primary server. I ran into my problem when the Time Capsule filled up and stopped backing up our primary server due to lack of available space. All recommended solutions for freeing up space appeared time consuming, and because we do daily off-site backups through MOZY (we use Time Machine for simplicity of recovery for hourly backups) I could take the "easier" path of just reformatting the Time Capsule's data drive and start again fresh.
    Problem identified: Per instructions, I used Airport Utility to erase my Time Capsule data drive, but thought I'd check my existing settings while I was there. Seeing the password prompt, and not remembering for sure what my password was, I thought I'd just reset it to what I wanted. Seemed benign at the time. When I started my 1st system's backup, I was prompted for the Time Capsule's password, and entered the new password. It accepted it as it should have, but then rejected the backup with a message indicating that I had provided the incorrect network account and password. The odd part was that it had originally accepted it, and even flashed the available space on the Time Machine preferences window. After much searching through these topics, I discovered that the password is stored multiple times -- some correctly and some not. Correcting the passwords fixed the problems.
    Where to look:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2048
    Mac OS X 10.5.3 or later: Time Machine - "Backup volume could not be mounted" after changing network volume's password
    * Last Modified: October 14, 2008
    * Article: TS2048
    As it turns out, Apple stores that password in multiple places in your Keychain (don't ask me why!), even using the identical Keychain entry name. All I can presume is that one piece of the software looked in one Keychain entry, and another looked in a different Keychain entry. The passwords were different (one was my original password, and one was my new password). Once I changed them to the same thing on each of my satellite stations, they all worked again and Time Machine is happily chugging along on all workstations.

  • Time Machine "Backup Disk Not Available" over WAN

    I have port forwarded port 46 (TCP and UDP) to port 548 a Mac mini server running Mac OS X 10.6.8, and I have Time Machine backup disk on it set as a share point with Time Machine support enabled. On my Mac Pro running OS X 10.8.5, I am able to connect via AFP to my server with the address "afp://my-ip-address:46" and can read and write on the backup disk share point. I tested that, and it works. When I am on the same LAN as the server, I can use that disk for Time Machine and have been doing so for years. However, I cannot do a Time Machine backup to that share point over the WAN. When I open Time Machine preferences, I can select the share point as my backup disk, but once I start the backup, it says "Backup disk not available" and fails to start. How could I fix this problem?
    In case you're wondering, I forward port 46 to port 548 instead of port 548 to port 548 to minimize hacking attempts. Last time I used a default port, a computer in Taiwan started spamming SSH authentication failures.

    I did find this article via Google
    <http://www.macgurulounge.com/make-time-machine-remotely-back-up-to-your-time-cap sule/>
    Personally, I use CrashPlan (free option using my own disks) to backup over the internet.  It works very well when I'm away from home.  Everything is encrypted.

  • 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.
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    Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

  • HT201250 Time Machine backup disk not found

    I recently reconfigured my external disks, creating a 500GB oartition for Time Machine backup. thefirst time I set up Time machine to use that partition all went well. Seconed time it failed "cannot find backup disk." 
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    If I select the top drive - I have the option to "Remove Disk" - NOT to "Use this Disk." So I have to select the bottom "Time Machine" drive.  The backup will then run once but on the second try I get "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to "Time Machine". Unable to complete backup. An error occured while creating backup folder."  Whether I remove the top listed disk or not doesn't seem to matter, sometimes it finds the drive, sometimes not!
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    There is a backup folder on the Time Machine drive with six backups - however I have to "reset" the Time Machine each time to get it to backup.  It craps out on the second try every time.  Got me buffaloed!  Any ideas?

    Assuming you have nothing on your Time Machine volume that you need, erase that volume and Verify it from Disk Utilities. Repair if necessary. Then, go into the Time Machine Preferences and Remove the selected drive to use. Now, reselect it and try a backup.

  • Time Machine backup slow (not first backup) - Why?

    Hi, I recently purchased a new 3TB backup drive to backup my iMac system (10.9.4).
    I set up a Time Machine backup of my system + external HD, and began scheduled backups about a week ago. As expected the first backup took several hours (overnight) since it was backing up  nearly 1TB of data. Subsequent backups were fast and everything seemed fine.
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    Thanks
    Tom

    Open Time Machine Preferences>click "Select Disk">click on the appropriate TM disk under the bottom window titled "Available Disks." Force a backup and see if it works. If this doesn't fix it reboot your iMac and/or Time Capsule and try forcing a backup again once the iMac and/or TC have fully booted up.

  • Time Machine Backup does not fit on HDD

    Hi,
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    Thanks for your help.

    Erbsenroller wrote:
    When I run through the recovery process formatting the 750GB drive the drive utiliity tool
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    After erasing the HD, quit Disk Utility and select the Restore From Time Machine Backup option.
    See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #14 for the gory details.

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