Time machine backup seems to only have a Sparsebundle folder

I have had my MacBook for a couple of years and have only just got round to backing it up. I set off Time Machine lat night for a 200Gb backup. This morning I checked it and the Time machine backup seems to only have a Sparsebundle folder of 1000s of small files but apparently no iTunes or photos??
Any ideas????

Thanks Mike,
I'm a bit new to Macs really and thought that once backed up, on my NAS system I would be able to view the photos etc. but I presume this isn't the case and I should not back up the photos as part of the Time Machine backup and back these up seperately in order to view them remotely etc?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

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Due to NAS issues, when I started a new time machine backup it did not have the old backups available. My question is do I need to delete them or will time machine automatically reclaim the space? Only one Sparse Bundle, same name.

Due to NAS issues, when I started a new time machine backup it did not have the old backups available. My question is do I need to delete them or will time machine automatically reclaim the space? There is only one sparse bundle but when I enter time machine I don't see my historic backups. I use a synology DS212 for my time machine. Started a new backup which is 218gb but it says 618 gb is occupied therefore it looks like 2 or 3 backups are still on the disk. Before my NAS issues the last backup was in 2014. As you can see there is a second sparse bundle from 2012. Not sure what that is.

This is an old message now, but what happened to me similarly was:
I had a major computer crash and through complicated pathways ended up reinstalling (Mavericks) as a new user (long story).
At least I had good Time Machine backups on an NAS drive (Synology DS212j), or so I thought - when I started Time Machine up again, the old backup file was gone, replaced by a new one using my "new computer" name. The old file was gone both by directly mounting the NAS drive and by clicking "Enter Time Machine".
It's like I had {OldShareName}.sparsebundle and then it was replaced by {NewShareName}.sparsebundle, all of the old info vanished.
(I have spent a week finding old files elsewhere and have completed a satisfactory self-restore. It pays to "archive" [my own variation of] as well as "back-up".)
My belief is that if this were a wired-netword-drive, e.g. plugged right into my iMac with a USB cable, then the old file would have remained.
But this is an NAS drive, connected directly to my Airport wireless router, and I don't know the significance of the fact that it stores its Time Machine backups as "sparsebundle" files rather than simply as plain(er) files.
As usual when things get complicated with computers (not just Apple computers) there was never a warning message. Something like "YOU'RE ABOUT TO DELETE A TIME MACHINE BACK-UP FILE!!!" would have made my life a lot simpler.
BTW, I did try a "restore from Time Machine" option the first thing I had my "new computer" (old hardware, 2009 iMac) up and running, using Migration Assistant, and it ran for many hours and then failed in the wee hours - what that has to do with anything I'm not sure.
I'm not sure that I have a question about this other than "why do these things happen to me?", but it's a warning. Apart from that I've been very happy with the stability and reliability (but not the cost or set-up complexity) of NAS vs. directly-cabled external drives.
Charles

Time Machine Backup seems to freeze after a few megabytes saying Estimating TIme Remaining

My MBP (mid 2009, osx10.8.5) seems to take forever to Time Machine Backup. I'm backing up to an external (USB) disk that has plenty of memory. THe backup starts (Status window opens), Status says "Backing up 1,314,593 items", climbs to about 310 MB of 325.01 GB and then just sits there with a line that says "Estimating time remaining". I've let this sit for 2 hours so far and no other messages or errors. I haven't done this in a while and a previous , partial, Time Machine Backup was on this USB drive but I deleted everything on it because there wasn't enough space to do the new Time Machine Backup. It will have to do a full backup I'm sure, so I expect it to take a while to back up over 300GB but I don't see anything being copied to the backup disk, except the "Backups.backupdb" folder. It stays at about 265MB.

Try D4/3 in the 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

Time Machine Backup seems to run constantly

My Time Machine backup seems to run constantly. When it happens, performance is also affected. Although a system restart will seems to get everything back to normal, the problem comes back. Any thoughts on what I am doing to cause the problem?

Thanks Mike,
I'm a bit new to Macs really and thought that once backed up, on my NAS system I would be able to view the photos etc. but I presume this isn't the case and I should not back up the photos as part of the Time Machine backup and back these up seperately in order to view them remotely etc?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

Time machine backups seem to be gone

I have been running time machine flawlessly for a while. However, on April 26, I created a new user account. I dragged a very large file (clone of a different computer and time machine backup of a different computer) to that user desktop. Those files were previously being excluded from backups. Apparently, wehn I moved them to the new user it tried to include them and I got a warning about the External Drive not being large enough for the backups. I sorted out excluding that user completely but now I can not access any backups prior to the new user being created. Are they lost forever? Did it delete the External Drive to try to make room for the backup? I would think that it would have to check the size before it even does any deleting and then if it knew the backup was too big it wouldn't delete and it would just abort the backup. Can anyone help? When I enter into time machine the last backup shown is April 26, when I browse the drive the oldest folder is April 26 and when I look at the time machine menu it says the oldest backup is April 26.
I am using an iMac with Snow Leopard installed.
Also, I tried looking at the logs in the console but I could not seem to go back far enough.

Are you going into Time Machine from the old user? If you enter Time Machine from the new user, you won't see any files created before that user existed.
You can manually go into your Time Machine volume from the Finder, just to verify that your backups are all there. Don't make any changes in the Finder. Even if Time Machine's "starfield" interface isn't functional, you could still restore files manually if you had to. If Time Machine is really confused, best option is usually to just erase the Time Machine drive and start a fresh one.

Time Machine Backup Failed, don't have old backups

Last night I ejected my external hard drive to use that USB port to plug in a card reader and download a bunch of videos and images. This afternoon, when I plugged my external drive back in, I got a Time Machine Error: "This backup is too large for the backup volume". When it tries to back up, I get the more detailed message that this backup needs 6.7 GB of space but there are only 6.2 GB available.
This is the only computer I've ever attached to this external hard drive, so the 49.38 GB that are currently being used should be being used by Time Machine to back up this computer (and so Time Machine should delete old weekly backups to make room for the most recent backup). However, when I open Time Machine to go look at my backups, it says I only have one backup, from last night.
I do like the fact that I can go restore old stuff I've deleted or disastrously edited, so, if possible, I'd like to get my old backups back. Failing that, I guess I need to clear the external drive and just do a new back up.
If someone can help me 1) get my old back ups back or 2) get Time Machine do a successful completely new backup, I'd be really grateful.

My first reaction was that that couldn't possibly be the problem (because I've had no problems at all backing things up for the past year and a half), but it appears that you are correct.
Apparently, all of the pictures and videos are, in fact, too much for my Time Machine external hard drive. I don't have anything else on the external hard drive, but my TM drive is, in fact, much, much smaller than my internal HD.
Time Machine Backups
Capacity: 55.57 GB
Available: 6.19 GB
Used: 49.38 GB
Macintosh HD
Capacity: 232.57 GB
Available: 175.45 GB
Used: 57.12 GB
I see the problem. I guess I'll move all of the videos to a folder that I can exclude from backups. (I much prefer to have excel spreadsheets I put data on every day backed up than blizzard videos shot with my spouse's camera: those I can lose.)
I was so certain that I wasn't running out of space that I didn't check, so I was thinking that I should still have old backups. Since they've been deleted, that's fine with me.
Thanks for asking me to check the relevant sizes!

Disk Repair notified me it could not repair the HD. Iam to reformat the disk and restore backed up files. OS Utilities give me a "Restore From Time Machine Backup" option. I have not reformatted the disk; does this restore option do both?

Disk Repair reported that it could not repair the HD Disk. I am to reformat the disk and restore backed up files. OSX Utilities give me a choice of restoring from time machine backup (which I have on MyPassport) but no information on reformatting the disk, which I assume I have to do first. How do I reformat the HD ...or does the restore from Time Machine do both things?

Boot OS X Recovery and use Disk Utility.
If Disk Utility reported the disk cannot be repaired though, you should replace it with a new one.

Time Machine backups seem to be being randomly deleted

I was away in May-June and my time capsule was disconnected. When I left I had daily backups for most but not all the days in the previous month (a few days were missing due to absences from home). The first backup since my return was on Saturday 16th April. In the three days since then, backups for the month prior to my departure seem to have been deleted in a random fashion. All that remain are those for 28th April, 5th and 12th May, all Saturdays. Until yesterday I had a backup for Sunday April 15th, as the last one that had been kept prior to the 28th. That was deleted overnight. I now have weeklies going back from Wednesday April 11th: namely April 4th, March 27th etc. But I am getting worried that those too might go. Can anyone explain what is happening?
Just to point out that my time capsule is currently connected via ethernet cable and I am using TimeMachine Scheduler to restrict backups to the wee hours.

Londinense wrote:
I think I can rule out the fact that my MacBook has been connected via ethernet
Yes, that makes no difference.
So could the problem have been caused by TimeMachien Scheduler, which I have only been using since March or thereabouts? What do you think of that app?
I don't think so, but anything's possible. All those apps do is start a backup; all the actual work is done by the normal OSX programming -- there's no way to alter the "thinning" schedule.
I don't recommend altering Time Machine's default schedule of hourly backups. Unless you're making lots of changes to large files, the backups should be fast and unobtrusive. If they do cause performance problems, then something else is wrong. Reducing the schedule is just dealing with the symptoms.
If the backups are too large, considering what you've done since the last backup, see #D4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
If the sizes seem reasonable, but the backups are slow and/or affect the performance of your Mac, see #D2 there.

Time Machine Backups Seem to take a long time

I'm running OS X 10.5.8 on a G5 iMac, and I've noticed some strange behavior recently when Time Machine does it's back ups. I back up to a LaCie external drive with a capacity of 465 GB and it currently has 65GB available. When Time Machine does it back ups, it seems to take a very long time, eventhough not much has changed. It might go for 30min to an hour. Sometimes the back up fails. I've tried to stop the back up, but that doesn't stop Time Machine, and also System Preferences becomes unresponsive. I can't quit or force quit System Preferences. I have to turn off the iMac to quit System Preferences by holding in the power button. I'm not sure if this is a Time Machine issue, or an issue with the external HD. I know the iMac is a bit dated, and due to be replaced. The HD is also at least 3-4 years old, and has only been used as my Time Machine back up. Any ideas on how I might fix this? Thanks!!

ELFritzen wrote:
I had problems verifiying and repairing the LaCie HD. At first the the computer would hang on "verifying" the HD. I finally got the HD verified by switching the on/off/auto switch on the HD from auto to on. At this point verification went quickly.
That doesn't sound good.
Try different port(s), cables, and combinations of the two (a plug that works fine in one port may not make good contact in another).
Do you have (or can you borrow) another HD you can try?
Or another Mac you can try with that drive?
As an extra measure, I tried to repair the HD, but again the program hung up and I had to reboot.
Just for future reference, there's no point to verifying an external HD -- just run Repair. They both do all the same checks. Starting with Verify on your startup drive makes sense, since, if there's a problem, you have to start from another source to repair it.

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.

Why does time machine backup seems to freeze iMac

Have just attached external hard drive to my new iMac - backup appears to have worked (although no confirmation). However, when clicking on icon in desktop, time machine is entered then freezes. Only way to get out is by disconnecting the hard drive from the USB port. Additionally, even if I'm not in Time Machine, but with the hard disk connected, I appear to be unable to turn the iMac off.
What am I doing wrong - have I not left things long enough to backup?

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Sounds to me your hard drive doesn't have the appropriate firmware to be compatible with your version of Mac OS X. See my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/firewirebug2.html
Fortunately you can take the hard drive out and put it inside another case that does work. You can purchase these cases from http://www.macsales.com/ even in the UK.
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

After upgrade to Mavericks I can do Time Machine backups but I cannot have access to them

After upgrading my iMac 20" (early 2008) from Snow Leopard to Mavericks, I can backup with Time Machine and I can see that the copies have been made. But when I enter to Time Machine mode, all these copies in the right bar goes from pink to translucent in some few seconds, and I cannot have access to them.
I have a dedicated external 400GB HD for the copies, formated in Mac Os Plus, and I can go there and open, copy, etc. any file "manually", so, the copies are right (I guess).
Any idea about why I cannot "go back" in Time Machine, although it "sees" the disk, and the copies exist?
Thanks in advance for your help.

After upgrading my iMac 20" (early 2008) from Snow Leopard to Mavericks, I can backup with Time Machine and I can see that the copies have been made. But when I enter to Time Machine mode, all these copies in the right bar goes from pink to translucent in some few seconds, and I cannot have access to them.
I have a dedicated external 400GB HD for the copies, formated in Mac Os Plus, and I can go there and open, copy, etc. any file "manually", so, the copies are right (I guess).
Any idea about why I cannot "go back" in Time Machine, although it "sees" the disk, and the copies exist?
Thanks in advance for your help.

Time Machine backups seem to stop being active prior to 13th December 2009

Hi,
The earliest date on my TM backup time-line (on the right hand side of the screen) is "July 2009" - when I installed the Lacie 1TB backup drive on my iMac.
The bar icons are "light grey" back to "Sunday 13th December" and then "dark grey" prior to this date. The driver has 400GB+ free space available and I have never had a "need to delete earliest backup" message.
I am sure this must be "dumb question" - but why can't I got back further than last Sunday?
The dates all pop-out of the bar back to July - but it will not scroll back in time to let me see those files?
Thanks in anticipation
Mark

There are a couple of possibilities:
If what you're looking at when you enter Time Machine wasn't available at the time of every backup, that backup will be grayed-out. For example, if it's backing-up an external HD, that isn't always attached, you'll see all the dates in the timelines, but the backups done while the disk wasn't attached will be grayed-out. Similarly, if you made a new folder on 12/13, and start with a Finder window set to that folder, you can't select a backup prior to 12/13.
You'll see similar conditions if you rename your internal HD: TM treats it as an entirely different disk. The same will happen if you rename any folder.
The other possibility is, TM started a new "sequence" of backups for some reason. See #E2 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

I used my not empty hard drive for the time machine, so now i only have stuff from time machine, everything else is gone!!! please help, does this mean everything else is completely gone?

Did mac format everything that was there? if not, why cant i see it when i opebn the drive, and if it did format it is there a way to bring it back? my whole life is on that harddrive!!!!

If you clicked through a warning that Time Machine was going to erase the drive, then yes, everything that was there before is gone. Restore from one of your backups.

Time Machine Backup Fails With Error 36 on Music Folder?

Hi. I've been having backup errors since a clean install of Leopard (and immediate upgrade to 10.5.2). I keep getting a pop up that says time machine has failed. I started isolating my user folders (Pictures, Downloads, Music), and turns out its my iTunes Music folder that has files that are causing Time Machine to fail. If I exclude Music, the backup works perfectly. If I include it, it recognizes that it has 19 GB more to backup, but then I get the following errors (this is just a subsection):
Feb 24 01:38:50 jordan-martons-imac /usr/sbin/ocspd[592]: starting
Feb 24 01:40:22 jordan-martons-imac kernel[0]: disk0s2: 0xe0030005 (UNDEFINED).
Feb 24 01:40:22 jordan-martons-imac kernel[0]:
Feb 24 01:40:22: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Feb 24 01:40:22 jordan-martons-imac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[204]: Error: (-36) copying /Users/jordanmarton/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Maroon 5/Songs About Jane/12 Sweetest Goodbye.mp3 to (null)
Feb 24 01:40:42 jordan-martons-imac kernel[0]: disk0s2: 0xe0030005 (UNDEFINED).
Feb 24 01:40:42 jordan-martons-imac kernel[0]:
Feb 24 01:40:54: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Feb 24 01:40:44 jordan-martons-imac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[204]: Error: (-36) copying /Users/jordanmarton/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Martin Page/In the House of Stone & Light/01 In the House of Stone and Light.mp3 to (null)
Any idea what is going on?

Hi. I've been having backup errors since a clean install of Leopard (and immediate upgrade to 10.5.2). I keep getting a pop up that says time machine has failed. I started isolating my user folders (Pictures, Downloads, Music), and turns out its my iTunes Music folder that has files that are causing Time Machine to fail. If I exclude Music, the backup works perfectly. If I include it, it recognizes that it has 19 GB more to backup, but then I get the following errors (this is just a subsection):
Feb 24 01:38:50 jordan-martons-imac /usr/sbin/ocspd[592]: starting
Feb 24 01:40:22 jordan-martons-imac kernel[0]: disk0s2: 0xe0030005 (UNDEFINED).
Feb 24 01:40:22 jordan-martons-imac kernel[0]:
Feb 24 01:40:22: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Feb 24 01:40:22 jordan-martons-imac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[204]: Error: (-36) copying /Users/jordanmarton/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Maroon 5/Songs About Jane/12 Sweetest Goodbye.mp3 to (null)
Feb 24 01:40:42 jordan-martons-imac kernel[0]: disk0s2: 0xe0030005 (UNDEFINED).
Feb 24 01:40:42 jordan-martons-imac kernel[0]:
Feb 24 01:40:54: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Feb 24 01:40:44 jordan-martons-imac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[204]: Error: (-36) copying /Users/jordanmarton/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Martin Page/In the House of Stone & Light/01 In the House of Stone and Light.mp3 to (null)
Any idea what is going on?

Time machine backup seems to only have a Sparsebundle folder

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