Time Machine Backup is only 1GB?

I'm running OS X Mavericks v10.9.5, and I just did a time machine backup. However, the backup only took a few seconds and it appears to have only backed up 1GB? Is this normal? I've done many TM backups before and they all took 12 hours and were 300GB. Did TM update itself and start compressing backups on the external disk?
Thanks in advance

If Time Machine really has to back up 300 GB, 12 hours would not be unusual at all. After that 300 GB backup though, the only items Time Machine will periodically back up will be those that changed since its previous backup, and a few moments to complete that task is typical.
If you observe what you believe should only be incremental backups appear to be full backups instead, read what the late Support Communities contributor Pondini had to say in his FAQ: D3: TM is doing a full backup for no good reason. The reasons explained under "Mountain Lion and Lion (10.8.x and 10.7.x)" remain applicable to Mavericks.
Pay scant attention to the "Backing up xxx of yyy" messages that appear in the Time Machine icon during backups. It's not much more than an estimate. To determine the amount of data that was actually backed up, you have to peruse system.log and look for "Copied xxx items ... from volume Macintosh HD" log entries that appear subsequent to the backup and preceding post-backup thinning.
Still, "Backing up xxx of yyy" shouldn't routinely be anywhere near 300 GB.

Similar Messages

How to search files on a Time Machine backup disk only once perfile

Greetings,
Goal: I want to find all user files in a set of Time Machine backups residing on a single disk that contain the string "escalator". Now, there are multiple hard links to each file, so a simple search would search each file multiple times. That would take a very long time. Is there a way that I can search (grep) all text files and mail files only once and list those that contain the string? Note that I only want to search user directories; that is,
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/username’s iMac/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users
where "Latest" can also be any of the dates of all the backups.
Thanks!

Well, to clarify:
I want to find all user text files and mail messages on a Time Machine backup disk that contain the word "escalator".
By user files I mean those in
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/<username>iMac/*/Macintosh HD/Users
and subdirectories thereof.
I was trying to use the find command, but it was taking a very long time, so I aborted it. I then realized that most of the files have many hard links, and therefore will be searched many times. That, of course, is a great waste.
Is there some way to search each file only once?
Thanks.

Time Machine Backup not only from boot volume

hello
As far as I know, Time Machine, makes a backup from a boot volume to a second volume.
Is their a way to include a second or third volume in this backup. What i want is the following. On the boot volume is a normal OS X, we have a iSCSI-RAID connected with 4 1Tb Harddisk in RAID5. This give us high-speed access over the 1Gb/s Ethernet. We a looking to save this RAID to a external SATA HD using Time Machine, to take this home in case the RAID is lost by fire or theft.
Is this possible with Time Machine?
Who has a solution
Regards
Gérard

time machine will back up all directly attached disks not just the boot one provided they are formatted mac os extended. you have to remove the disks you want to be backed up from the TM exclusion list in TM system preferences. However, TM can only have one backup drive and will back up all the disks to the same disk. if you want different backup disks for different drives you need to use a different backup solution.
see this post for a list of options
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7495315#7495315

I can see Time Machine backups for only last 10 days.

I lost majority of my Documents content.
To my surprise Time Machine has partial backup of that folder for only last 10 days.
Can I somehow access previous backups (that are not visible)?
thx

When you Enter Time Machine, do the older backups appear in the timeline on the right at all?
If they do, but the little "tick marks" are faded-out and you can't select them, see the pink box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #15A.
If the backups don't appear at all, Time Machine probably ran out of space on the backup disk, and had to delete old backups to make room for new ones. If so, your backup drive is probably too small. See #1 in the above link.

Extremely slow Time Machine backup for only 4 Gb

I have a WD Passport for Mac, which is only a month old, so is in prestine condition. This is not the first backup, but the past few times I have tried to back up my data it takes hours for just a few megabytes. I am running a late 2013 model of the RD Macbook Pro, with OSX 10.9, obviously.
I have tried restarting in Safe Mode and trying again, but that does not fix it. I have also Verified the disk in Disk Utility and it came out clean. I believe the issue is related to this constant message I get in Console: "mdworker: (Warning) Import: Bad path"

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.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message that corresponds to 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.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included—anonymize before posting.

New MacBook on old Time Machine backup-creates a new one!

I've read lots of posts on this, but I can't seem to find the anwer to my problem.
I have a Time Machine backup of the last year. However, I just bought a new MacBook Air and I need for Time Machine to inherit this new Mac to my old backup.
I used Migration Assistant to transfer evrything from my old MacBook to the new one.
But when I turned Time Machine on, it starts creating a new backup.
I need it to keep using the backup of my old MacBook.
From what I've have read in other web pages where they show how to's on Time Machine, is that once I bring everything from my old Mac (restore from the Time Machine backup) the only thing I need to do is to plug in Time Machine to my new MacBook and it would start backing up where it left of, but it doesn't happen that way. It creates a new backup file. It has the same computer name but it appends a number "1" to the name to differentiate it from the original.
Please help
Thanks

You should have used Setup Assistant, not Migration Assistant, to transfer your data. I suggest you start over by booting into Recovery, erasing the startup volume, and installing OS X. When you reboot, Setup Assistant will start automatically. Follow the prompt to import data from a Time Machine snapshot. The backup history will then be inherited. The first backup will still be a full one; that can't be avoided.

Restoring a Time Machine backup on Mac OS X Lion

I planned on doing a fresh install of Mac OS X Lion — and clearing the hard drive and applications — rather than simply updating and keeping all my data. I figured a clean update could limit any bugs or issues I'd have.
I currently have a Time Machine backup from my computer running OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8. I wanted to ask if I could restore this backup onto the wiped machine once I've installed Lion. It's important for me to restore the Time Machine backup not only for my files and accounts, but also applications like the Adobe Creative Suite 5 where I only have licensing to download one copy. Is this possible, or is there any better way to do this? Thanks!

bbour38 wrote:
I planned on doing a fresh install of Mac OS X Lion — and clearing the hard drive and applications — rather than simply updating and keeping all my data. I figured a clean update could limit any bugs or issues I'd have.
Unless you're having problems you can't fix any other way, there's no reason to do that. In most cases, just upgrading is the easiest, quickest, most reliable way to go.
I wanted to ask if I could restore this backup onto the wiped machine once I've installed Lion. It's important for me to restore the Time Machine backup not only for my files and accounts, but also applications like the Adobe Creative Suite 5 where I only have licensing to download one copy. Is this possible, or is there any better way to do this?
If you do a full system restore, that will restore Snow Leopard.
Without a second partition or external HD, there's no easy way to erase your system, then install Lion, since you need Snow Leopard to do the download.
You can, if you really want to, download Lion, but don't install it directly; instead, copy the installer to a DVD, USB stick, or partition on an internal or external HD. See Making a Lion Install disc or partition for instructions.
Then erase your internal HD and install Lion from the copied installer, then when your Mac starts up, use Setup Assistant to transfer everything else from your backups. You may, however, have to re-enter purchase keys or serial numbers for some 3rd-party apps. See How do I set up a new Mac from an old one, its backups, or a PC? for details.
But in most cases the result will be exactly the same as simply upgrading.

Migration problem: migration assistant won't migrate both user accounts from time machine backup

My Mac was formatted due to some technical issues. Before handing to the lab- I backed it up using time machine ( and only that ).
I had two user accounts on the Mac before handing it to the lab.
One of them I never actually used -I'll call it the secondary.
The second one was the main one - which I used all the time - the principal account. All my data is there on that account.
The Mac was formatted at the lab.
Using the setup assistant I migrated one user from the Time Machine Backup.
Only later I realized it was actually the account I never used.
Since I never used it - I couldn't remember the login password and had to reset it, took a while.
I then tried to to migrate the principal account - the one I actually wanted to migrate, in the fist place, during the setup procedure - using the migration assistant.
At the relevant window I tick the principal account- the mac does some thinking and then in the login window my only options are the secondary account and guest account, the principal account is not to be seen.
I'm really really stressed and worried.
BTW -when looking into the actual external disk used for the Time Machine at this path: computer name--> backups-->macintosh HD -->users--> principal account - I see all the folders and files with a 'no entry' icon next to them.
clicking on the folders - I get the following notice - 'the folder xxx can't be opened because you don't have permission to see the contents''
What's going on?
I'm running on a 2.9Ghz intel core i5
16GB RAM 1600MHz DDR3
SW version: 10.9.4
would appreciate any kind of help,
Thanks
Dana

thanks,
the thing is the Mac was behaving strangely - that's why I sent it to the lab in the first place.
This Mac is just over a year old but it's content was initially migrated from the older mac.
And it (the new Mac) wasn't working properly from the get go..
It took ages for it to start up and wouldn't start up if any external disk was attached (via USB).
I had to start it up and only then connect external disks.
In the lab - They couldn't find and HW issues.
So they formatted and reinstalled the OS - I think that's all they've sone in the lab
The idea was to start afresh and slowly reinstall softwares - only those necessary.
So, having said all that- does that change your answer?

Cannot access old time machine backups

Hi,
I recently had some issues regarding my MacBook Pro and decided the best course of action would be to ensure it was completely backed up; reinstall OS X Yosemite and pick the old backup for useful files.
Unfortunately, when it came to resetting up Time Machine, it asked me if I wanted to use the existing backup. I imagined the safe answer would've been "Yes" and that it would've been smart enough to create a clean backup at the date of restore.
It seems that this is not the case...
Any backup, despite being listed on the Time Machine interface, prior to the date of restore was "greyed out" and could not be accessible. Unfortunately, the "Browse other Backup Disks" option didn't work (are there issues with this option for NAS backups?), and unfortunately, a repair disk doesn't seem to either.
I have only managed to get the .sparsebundle (encrypted) drive to mount once by using a repair disk; every other time I attempt to remount using repair disk, the button is greyed out. :/
The time I did get into the "Time Machine Backups" volume; only once backup was listed for ".inProgress" – a 70GB file (the sparsebundle is ~500GB+).
Any ideas on steps I can try to find these phantom files?
At present, Disk Utility doesn't have the "Repair Disk" option available and DiskWarrior 4.4 is throwing up error 2154; low memory; on a 16GB RAM rMBP.
Any help would be appreciated.
Regards,
Jamie

I am having a similar problem and do not understand the solution. I have a new Macbook and transferred my data from my Powerbook G4. However, I cannot access anything! There is a no entry sign on the folders and if I click them I get this message: 'The folder “Pictures” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents.'
Help - but please, in simple language
Thanks

Restoring a time machine backup on a bootcamped computer?

Can I restore a Mavericks Time Machine backup to the OSX partition on a bootcamped computer and not have issues with the Windows 7 partition and boot camp? I hope this makes sense.
Thanks

bbour38 wrote:
I planned on doing a fresh install of Mac OS X Lion — and clearing the hard drive and applications — rather than simply updating and keeping all my data. I figured a clean update could limit any bugs or issues I'd have.
Unless you're having problems you can't fix any other way, there's no reason to do that. In most cases, just upgrading is the easiest, quickest, most reliable way to go.
I wanted to ask if I could restore this backup onto the wiped machine once I've installed Lion. It's important for me to restore the Time Machine backup not only for my files and accounts, but also applications like the Adobe Creative Suite 5 where I only have licensing to download one copy. Is this possible, or is there any better way to do this?
If you do a full system restore, that will restore Snow Leopard.
Without a second partition or external HD, there's no easy way to erase your system, then install Lion, since you need Snow Leopard to do the download.
You can, if you really want to, download Lion, but don't install it directly; instead, copy the installer to a DVD, USB stick, or partition on an internal or external HD. See Making a Lion Install disc or partition for instructions.
Then erase your internal HD and install Lion from the copied installer, then when your Mac starts up, use Setup Assistant to transfer everything else from your backups. You may, however, have to re-enter purchase keys or serial numbers for some 3rd-party apps. See How do I set up a new Mac from an old one, its backups, or a PC? for details.
But in most cases the result will be exactly the same as simply upgrading.

Time Machine only shows the current copy of the file I am trying to restore. There is none of the time machine backup histories shown. I am running OSX 10.7.5. I see the backup files on my external Time Machine hard drive. Help

Time Machine only shows the current copy of the file I am trying to restore. There is none of the time machine backup histories shown. I am running OSX 10.7.5. I see the backup files on my external Time Machine hard drive in the Backups.backupdb folder.
Time Machine does show the history of my Macintosh HD, but when I try to navigate to the folder I wish to restore the backup history disappears. I've been searching for answers and I have not found one that works for me.

Time Machine only shows the current copy of the file I am trying to restore. There is none of the time machine backup histories shown. I am running OSX 10.7.5. I see the backup files on my external Time Machine hard drive in the Backups.backupdb folder.
Time Machine does show the history of my Macintosh HD, but when I try to navigate to the folder I wish to restore the backup history disappears. I've been searching for answers and I have not found one that works for me.

Can I select certain drives only for Time Machine backup?

I have several internal drives and several external drives connected to my MacPro desktop computer. If I backup everything in all of the drives using Time Machine, the capacity on my designated external drive for Time Machine backup will soon be filled. Is there any way to selectively backup via Time Machine from only designated drives, not all drives connected (internally or externally) to my computer? Is so, how can that be done? I assume that Time Machine will start deleting data when its capacity is exceeded. If that is so, and I remove the designated Time Machine drive at that point and replace it with a new drive, will the removed drive thereafter be able to be reinserted and the prior material read and transferred as needed? Is there any way to utilized Time Machine after I insert the replacement drive to only archive new material saved after the switch of drives?

Yes, mount the drive by opening a new Finder window and clicking on your base station's name in the left column that says 'Shared'. Then double click on the drive name to mount it on your desktop. From there, open Time Machine prefs and select that mounted drive as your backup disk. Time machine will then back up to it. Theoretically.
If you want that disk to automatically mount every time you login to your computer, go to Sys Prefs Panel and select 'Accounts'. Then click 'Startup Items'. From there, drag the mounted drive's icon from the desktop in to that startup items list. It will then auto-mount from there forward.
I have had many problems backing up this way with Time Machine. It will, 9 times out of 10, fail over a wireless backup with an Airport Extreme Gigabit base station and a 1TB Western Digital My Book. Nothing seems to fix, so I have given up. When TM is finally fixed - I will use it. Until then, it's junk software as far as I'm concerned.
But - best of luck. The instructions above are how it's 'supposed' to work..

How do I connect Airport Extreme and Time Capsule to my new iMac so that AE is used for network and TC only used for Time Machine backup?

I didn't realize that Time Capsule will only support the print function of a wireless multifunction printer. So I want to use Extreme for my network to have full use of my printer and use TC as the Time machine backup only. How to I make the connections?

Thanks for your response and this is getting complicated but I just purchased a new iMac as well as the Airport TC. I've had the Airport Extreme for a year or so. The Airport Extreme worked perfectly with my old iMac wirelessly and I had all functions of my printer with no problems. I was expecting the same with the TC. But the instruction that came with TC say to connect the printer to the TC via USB...which I did. And the print function worked perfectly but nothing else. In researching I discovered that when wired that way the TC only supports the print function...not scan or fax or anything else. I tried going wireless since my AE worked perfectly via wireless but I got no printer functions at all that way. But I'm wondering also if I tried that during a time I was having other issues...I had to delete and re-add my printer which solved some other problems. I may try that again...and see if I can get all print functions with just the TC connected
As far as connecting both your AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule on your network, we're not clear on exactly how you want to do this. Will the AirPort Extreme connect to your modem using an Ethernet cable and the Time Capsule connect to the AirPort Extreme using an Ethernet cable?.......or......do you want the Time Capsule to connect to the network using wireless?
Well... first of all I would like not to have to use the AE at all...I would prefer using just my TC for network, all print functions and Time Machine backup if that's possible. My printer will not accept Ethernet connections (Canon MX512).
After failing at getting this to work, I decided I would try to use my AE for net and print functions and just use my TC for Time Machine backup. I tried several different connection configurations with no success until finally I connected cable modem to my AE via Ethernet and went wireless with the AE and printer. but connected the AE to the TC via Ethernet and amazingly everything worked like a charm (for a while) and I was patting myself on the back for being so smart. But now I find that the connection only lasts for a short time. If I leave it for a while the TC goes invisible...or at least I see a message saying the Ethernet is unplugged...but it is not... and I lose internet connection even though I have a green light on my AE. So now I'm at a loss. I don't know why I keep losing network signal and why my system thinks the Ethernet is unplugged.
So... after all this...I figured I wasn't so smart after all and I must have things wired incorrectly.
So... it sounds like you are saying I should go back and try again to get my new TC to work as I want it to via wireless instead of connecting via USB...is that correct? Could you tell me exactly how I should wire my equipment from cable modem to AE and/or TC to achieve net capability, full functions of my printer and Time Machine backup...
Thanks...

I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and i can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help

I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and I can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help? I can find the mail folder in my libraries, but the Restore Button is grayed out

OSX treats the reformatted drive as a different one; it's the same as replacing it, and the old one is no longer connected.
See #E3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting to see and restore from the "old" drive.
And, you may not want to restore via the Finder; see the blue box in #15 of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Can't restore latest Time Machine backup after drive replacement- only the very first.

My 13" Macbook Pro running 10.8.5 had a bad hard drive which had to be replaced. After the new drive was put in I tried to restore everything to the new drive with Time Machine but could only restore the first backup I ever did after getting the computer, which was over a year ago. I can drag and drop files but I would rather have all my preferences and bookmarks etc. How do I restore the latest backup which was only about a week ago? Thank you.

Not yet; I'm not sure if Migration Assistant is quite right. Since I posted the question I ran across this youtube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYUem-QfYBs
which suggests that I need to start up from a bootable external disc in order to restore a Time Machine backup to the same computer that the backup came from when the drive is replaced. The video actually seems to describe my issue exactly. The only confusing thing is I don't know why I would have been able to restore the very first Time Machine backup if I need to boot from an external disc. More investigation needed.

Time Machine Backup is only 1GB?

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