Time Machine Backups disk not automatically unmounting after backup completes in Lion

I am using Time Machine over WiFi on a 3rd party USB drive shared as an AirDisk through an Airport Extreme router. Ever since switching to Lion (clean install), I have noticed that the Time Machine backup disk will not automatically unmount after a backup is completed. This creates a problem when my MacBook Pro comes back from sleep. Specifically, the WiFi notification icon in the Finder toolbar indicates that WiFi is connected, even though it's not connected to a network, and I am unable to connect to any networks for what seems like several minutes until the Time Machine backups disk disappears from the desktop and WiFi actually connects.
Since the disk was not cleanly unmounted, Time Machine then keeps complaining that the sparse bundle file is locked and cannot be mounted every time it tries to do a backup. I have to either disconnect/reconnect the USB drive physically from the router, or restart the router every time this happens to resolve the issue. That is getting really annoying to have to do every time. I suppose I could manually unmount the Time Machine disk after every backup but it's ridiculous to have to do that every time I want to put the computer to sleep.
Is anyone else experiencing this issue and is there a fix?

For others who might be having this problem - I was able to resolve it by connecting my backup disk to my mac via USB, completely erasing it, and starting over from a new backup. Disk Utility was not reporting any errors when I verified the disk, but I went ahead and repartitioned it and started fresh. The disk now automatically unmounts after backups complete.

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Time machine fails backing up with a "backup disk not found" error after upgrade to Lion 10.7.2

Time machine fails backing up with a "backup disk not found" error after upgrade to Lion 10.7.2. I've erased and reformatted the drive; reconnected Time Machine(it saw it) and began a new backup. The backup starts again but fails before completing with backup drive not found error. I used the 10.7.2 combo update. Any help on how to fix this problem would be appreciated.

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!
After waiting since October for a fix, I have now upgraded the firmware on the Time Capsule and installed the new Airport Utility, released yesterday, and the situation is even worse.
Up until now, the Airport Utility had an option to disconnect all drives manually and the Time Capsule would then work until the next reboot – a temporary (?) work-around.
Now that option does not exist in the new-look Airport Utility. And the Airport Utility installation can’t be rolled back and the old utility won’t restore.
The sparesbundle is still not accessible. Anyone worked out a work-around in the new environment yet?
I have another Time Machine backup working fine to a trusty old Lacie Drive so erased the one on my Time Capsule to see if that works. I have renamed the Capsule and the Time Capsule Drive. But to build another full backup will take at least two days and I shall be away from tomorrow and am reluctant to leave the Capsule and computer up and running for a week. And I’ll bet the sparsbundle will still be nowhere to be found.
How can Apple screw up so badly when they are to become the richest company in the entire world and – soon – will have more cash in the bank than the entire United States? Can’t they afford someone who really can sort this out? Especially when a Firewire connected hard drive – my trusty and simple LaCie – works fine.
Words, almost, fail me.

Option to encrypt time machine network disks not available

I have two MBP' (Os10.8.4) machines that backup over a network to a MM running 10.6.8 retail.
In TM the box to encrypt the backup is grayed out. I read in Pondini' excellent instructions ( http://pondini.org/TM/31.html ) that it is only available in 10.8. as said, the MBP' are on 10.8.4.
Would this mean that because my MM is running 10.6 it is not available? seems not logic to me, but can someone confirm this or tell me the workaround/fix?
Thanks

It probably has to do with how the encryption software is written in 10.6 OS software. I would go with Pondini's
article.

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

Hi there,
I am having an error message when trying to back up time machine. Therefore I went to disk utilities and verified disk.. said it needs to be prepared. When I try to repair time machine, i then get the following message "The disk “Time Machine Backups” could not be unmounted". I tried again and then it says its been repaired. so when i tried a backup of time machine i get "time machine error. unable to complete backup. an error occurred while copying files to the backup volume"
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...
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive
Reboot, test again.
Open Console in Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when this happens.

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: 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:
* Deleting the com.timemachine.plist file from /Library/Preferences - restarting and trying again. No luck.
* 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.

Cannot access time machine, backup disk not available error code.

My time machine stopped backing up. It is a 2TB. I get error code -6584. and says backup disk not available. Coincidentally, I had to reset my time machine for a forgotten password about 6 days ago. Wi-fi works fine, but a few days later when trying to access old files throughout the time capsule I could not. Said my last back up was the day the time machine had to be reset. I have 1.79 of TB used..which is weird my computer is only 4 G and have only filled up 2.4 G of it.
ANy ideas?

We haven't seen report of problem with 6584 for a while. It generally means a corrupted backup. You need to do a verify of the back.
See A5 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
This will take a very very long time if the backup has almost filled the TC.. so at least use ethernet connection.
You do have a problem.. the formatted capacity of a 2TB disk is 1.8TB.. If you have used up 1.79TB then sorry but you really need to erase the TC and start over.
The TM can fill up huge disks if you use parallels or dropbox or any dual boot system that has a virtual disk file.. TM will backup 20GB for every 1KB change. That file is hidden btw so you might not see it but I assure you it will chew up space.
I don't know what you mean by computer having only 4GB. That would make it rather ancient.. Surely even smallest SSD must be 64 or 128GB.

Time Machine unable to backup. "Backup disk not available"

I have been having issues backing up to Time Capsule for a few weeks. I keep getting error messages. The latest backup attempt was 'delayed'. When I clcik to see why, it says "The backup disk not available". It says the last successful backup was at 8:00 PM tonight, but that doesn't seem to make sense since it says it was delayed.
Are there steps I can take to try and resolve this?
Thanks

I have consistantly had this problem.
Time Machine could not complete the backup.
The backup disk could not be found.
Make sure the backup disk is connected or open the Time Machine preferences to select a different backup disk.
If I unplug it and plug it back in it will probably work, although I have had to totally start from scratch a couple times to get it working.
Is this a DHCP issue or how can I avoid this in the future?
Thanks,

HT3275 time machine back up not completed due to backup disk image "/volumes/data/.....imac.sparsebundle" is already in use. How do I fix?

time machine back up not completed due to backup disk image "/volumes/data/.....imac.sparsebundle" is already in use. How do I fix?

Pull the power cable from the back of the Time Capsule
Wait a few minutes
Insert the power cable back in the back of the Time Capsule
This will fix the problem 90% of the time. If no luck, see #C12 in this great support document by Pondini:
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Backup disk not available - Time Machine

I have an external disk attached to my Airport Extreme through a usb hub and also my printer. Since the upgrade to Yosemite I get constant warnings from TimeMachine "Backup Disk Not Available". In order to make backups I use to

Here is the normal set of changes I tell people to make .. but Yosemite is poor and none of these individually or collectively may help.. sorry.. the issue is directly caused by Apple and until they give a proper fix you are going to be doing jiggery pokery and a lot of hoping for the best.
A factory reset of the TC is the start.. it is required so you can find it again.
Factory reset universal
Power off the TC.. ie pull the power cord or power off at the wall.. wait 10sec.. hold in the reset button.. be gentle.. power on again still holding in reset.. and keep holding it in for another 10sec. You may need some help as it is hard to both hold in reset and apply power. It will show success by rapidly blinking the front led. Release the reset.. and wait a couple of min for the TC to reset and come back with factory settings. If the front LED doesn’t blink rapidly you missed it and simply try again. The reset is fairly fragile in these.. press it so you feel it just click and no more.. I have seen people bend the lever or even break it. I use a toothpick as tool.
N.B. None of your files on the hard disk of the TC are deleted.. this simply clears out the router settings of the TC.
Setup the TC again.
ie Start from a factory reset. No files are lost on the hard disk doing this.
Then redo the setup from the computer with Yosemite.
1. Use very short names.. NOT APPLE RECOMMENDED names. No spaces and pure alphanumerics.
eg TCgen5 and TCwifi for basestation and wireless respectively.
Even better if the issue is more wireless use TC24ghz and TC5ghz with fixed channels as this also seems to help stop the nonsense. But this can be tried in the second round.
2. Use all passwords that also comply but can be a bit longer. ie 8-20 characters mixed case and numbers.. no non-alphanumerics.
3. Ensure the TC always takes the same IP address.. you will need to do this on the main router using dhcp reservation.. or a bit more complex setup using static IP in the TC. But this is important.. having IP drift all over the place when Yosemite cannot remember its own name for 5 min after a reboot makes for poor networking. If the TC is main router it will not be an issue.
4. Check your share name on the computer is not changing.. make sure it also complies with the above.. short no spaces and pure alphanumeric.. but this change will mess up your TM backup.. so be prepared to do a new full backup. Sorry.. keep this one for second round if you want to avoid a new backup.
5. Mount the TC disk in the computer manually.
In Finder, Go, Connect to server from the top menu,
Type in SMB://192.168.0.254 (or whatever the TC ip is which you have now made static. As a router by default it is 10.0.1.1 and I encourage people to stick with that unless you know what you are doing).
You can use name.. SMB://TCgen5.local where you replace TCgen5 with your TC name.. local is the default domain of the TC and doesn't change.
However names are not so easy as IP address.. nor as reliable. At least not in Yosemite they aren't. The domain can also be an issue if you are not plugged or wireless directly to the TC.
6. Make sure IPv6 is set to link-local only in the computer. For example wireless open the network preferences, wireless and advanced / TCP/IP.. and fix the IPv6. to link-local only.
There is a lot more jiggery pokery you can try but the above is a good start.. if you find it still unreliable.. don't be surprised.
You might need to do some more work on the laptop itself. eg Reset the PRAM.. has helped some people. Clean install of the OS is also helpful if you upgrade installed.
Tell us how you go.

Time machine: I get the following message: The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data-1/Clemens's iMac.sparsebundle" is already in use - what to do? Where and how do I find that file and get rid of it?

time machine: I get the following message: The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data-1/Clemens’s iMac.sparsebundle” is already in use - what to do? Where and how do I find that file and get rid of it?

I'm on Mountain Lion and have version 6.1 of AirPort utility so there is no button to "Disconnect All Users"and the only other option of "removing and re-selecting the drive via Time Machine Prefs" doesn't work either. So this will work.
Launch Airport Utility and select the TC "Edit" button, then select the Disks tab. Deselect "Enable File Sharing" and click "Update". The TC will reboot then follow the same procedure and reselect "Enable File Sharing" and click "Update". After TC reboots again you'll be up and running. Not the neatest way to do it but saves having to unplug the TC which risks disk damage and the whole procedure takes less than a minute.The "Enable File Sharing" button seems to have replaced the "Disconnect All Users" button but with the slight disadvantage that it reboots the TC which takes up additional time.

Time Machine Change Disk - Getting original backups

I wanted to look at another disk which I had been using for backup before getting a Time Machine. When I switched back, I answered too many questions and ended up disconnecting the Time Machine and did a reboot.
When I finally reconnected to the Time Machine (and the internet), I found out I am doing a full backup and the original backups.backupdb does not show up on this Time Machine, even though the space is claimed.
What do I need to do to start backing up only the changed disks to the original backups.backupdb?
Send thoughts to mailto:[email protected]

Juan Terrazas1 wrote:
What I wonder is if I delete the TM plist then where is TM Preferences reading its information?
No, the only place that's kept is in plist in the /Library folder at the top level of the drive.
Sometimes there's a file with the same name in a user library, but it doesn't have that info. That's why it looks like either the file didn't get deleted, or the wrong one was deleted, or System Preferences was still running, with the info in memory.
Is there another plist file that I should delete?
No.
But let's be clear; do you mean the disk is still shown as your Time Machine drive on the Preferences panel (after Name):
|
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or that it shows up in the list of items you can select when you click +Select Disk:+
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I'm having some difficulty with Time Machine. It appears to be deleting backups from random dates on my external hard drive. I am not deleting them. Are they hidden and how do I prevent this from happening? Can I retrieve them?

I'm having some difficulty with Time Machine. It appears to be deleting backups from random dates on my external hard drive. I am not deleting them. Are they hidden and how do I prevent this from happening? Can I retrieve them?

... I didn't know that Time Machine was more a last resort back up instead of main back up.
Don't rely upon Time Machine to the exclusion of all else. I compliment Time Machine with a periodic "clone". TM is much better than nothing, but it's a safety net, not a hammock
Here is my understanding of Time Machine's file deletion algorithm, distilled from Pondini's FAQ, Apple's KB articles, and my own observations.
Time Machine deletes ("thins") files from the backup disk as follows:
Hourly backups over 24 hours old, except the first backup of the day
Daily backups over 30 days old, except the first backup of the week
Older backups get deleted when Time Machine requires space and you deleted them from the source disk.
Therefore, assuming TM has been performing at least one backup per day, backup files will remain available:
at least thirty days, if they existed on your Mac for at least a day
until you run out of space, if they existed on your Mac for at least a week
In addition to the above, Time Machine always keeps one complete copy of your source disk so that the entire volume could be restored if necessary. Any files that remain on your source volume will be present on the TM backup, no matter how old they are.
If you are using 250 GB of space on your source disk, its Time Machine backups are likely to require at least twice that much. A good estimate of the minimum required backup volume size would be about three times the size of your source disk - 1.5 TB in your case.
A more thorough explanation would require Pondini since he has plumbed Time Machine's mysteries far more than I have.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427

Time Machine error: Disk image could not be mounted

I had two macs 1 and 2.
1 was stolen. I bought a new one (New 1) and it took the place of mac 2.
Mac 2 was reformated and restored from the TimeCapsule with the backup from the old 1.
The new 1 succeeded in continuing the back-up from 2.
But the mac 2 can't get used to backing up on another sparseimage on the Time Capsule. The result is, that both of the computers now makes back-up to the same sparseimage as if they were two users on the same computer. But the TimeCapsule doesn't accept that they can be using the sparseimage at the same time and claims that the backup is used by another.

I was encountering the same problem. I would navigate to my external drive and I would see the folder for the sparceimage and it would have a circled minus sign icon on the folder and it was not possible to mount it using DiskImageMounter. I would get a window stating the "operation not supported on socket". When I looked at the Time Machine preferences, the disk image was not available so I could confirm that it was chosen as the backup disk. However, when it became the scheduled time for Time Machine to do its scheduled backup according to the information in the Time Machine preferences pane, the disk image mounted and the backup seemed to commence. Similarly, when I went to Time Machine and asked it to "Backup Now", the disk image mounted, and the backup proceeded. However, the disk image then dismounted and again it was no longer available to Time Machine. When I ran Time Machine, I could not choose the disk image and restore files from it because it was no longer mounted.

Time Machine Backups disk not automatically unmounting after backup completes in Lion

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