Time Machine backups suddenly failing with error 109 (console errors inc.)

I've been using Time Machine over my Airport Extreme Base Station for months without a single error, and all of the sudden it fails constantly with the error:
*The backup disk image “/Volumes/TARDIS-1/Derek’s iMac_001f5bf60eb1.sparsebundle” could not be accessed (error 109).*
I've tried selecting the drive again since it's mounted fine. It's mounted as TARDIS, not TARDIS-1, which I thought was a clue to the problem until I went to the Console to see all of the errors:
9/15/09 Sep 15 - 8:10:16 AM com.apple.backupd[12333] Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/TARDIS
9/15/09 Sep 15 - 8:10:16 AM com.apple.backupd[12333] Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/TARDIS
9/15/09 Sep 15 - 8:13:35 AM com.apple.backupd[12333] Failed to mount disk image /Volumes/TARDIS-1/Derek’s iMac_001f5bf60eb1.sparsebundle (DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 109)
9/15/09 Sep 15 - 8:13:35 AM com.apple.backupd[12333] Giving up after 3 retries.
9/15/09 Sep 15 - 8:13:41 AM com.apple.backupd[12333] Backup failed with error: 21
9/15/09 Sep 15 - 8:13:41 AM com.apple.backupd[12333] Ejected Time Machine network volume.
I've seen others say that Time Machine quit working after updating to Snow Leopard, but i've been running it since launch and the problems only appeared yesterday. Ideas?

I'm not sure why you call it a "phantom" drive, because I was quite intentionally connected to that network drive. In any case, I did as you recommended, in case that was the issue (though over the months I've often been connected to the network drive). Sadly, no dice.
9/15/09 Sep 15 - 8:50:18 AM com.apple.backupd[13136] Starting standard backup
9/15/09 Sep 15 - 8:50:18 AM com.apple.backupd[13136] Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/TARDIS
9/15/09 Sep 15 - 8:50:19 AM com.apple.backupd[13136] Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/TARDIS
9/15/09 Sep 15 - 8:54:07 AM com.apple.backupd[13136] Failed to mount disk image /Volumes/TARDIS/Derek’s iMac_001f5bf60eb1.sparsebundle (DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 109)
9/15/09 Sep 15 - 8:54:07 AM com.apple.backupd[13136] Waiting 60 seconds and trying again.
During the step "Making backup disk available..." in the Time Machine preference pane, looking in Volumes, I have:
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root 1 Sep 10 19:48 Macintosh HD -> /
drwx------ 13 root 398 Mar 10 2009 TARDIS
drwxr-xr-x 1 derek 12288 Mar 5 2009 Untitled
So it's properly connecting to TARDIS, it would seem, as root.

Similar Messages

Since upgrading to Lion, my time machine backups are failing - error message: The backup disk image "/Volumes/Jackie Scanlon's Time Caps/Jacqueline Drabczynska's MacBook.sparsebundle" could not be accessed (error -1). Any ideas?

Since upgrading my Macbook to Lion, the time machine backups are failing - error message: "The backup disk image “/Volumes/Jackie Scanlon's Time Caps/Jacqueline Drabczynska’s MacBook.sparsebundle” could not be accessed (error -1)." I have rebooted the TIme Capsule and it worked OK, but don't want to do that every time. Any suggestions? Thanks

Any new info on this?
I had the exact same problem and went crazy and spent a hecka lot of time trying to deal with my brand new 2TB Time Capsule and almost brand new MacBook Pro. Then I thought I fixed it...and I tried SO MANY things, I don't really know what did it...except taking out any apostrophe's in names of stuff that Apple puts in there...BUT...now it's back.
Grrr...

Upgraded to Mavericks and time machine backups keep failing.

I upgraded to Mavericks a few days ago and now I find my time machine backups keep failing. I first tried turning off the power to the time machine then turning it on again and I managed to get one complete backup but that took over 20 hours to complete.
The time machine backup mode never seems to get beyond " preparing backup" then showing the message "backing up failed, disc already in use"
The time machine backup worked fine before I upgraded, is there a way round this problem or will I have to go through reloading the time machine as if it were a new piece of equipment?
My wife's iMac is still on mountain lion 10.8.5 and the backups on the same Time Machine work fine.
Any help would be gratefully received
Greg

Hi,
I have exactly the same problem.
MBP 2011 running 10.9 named "ebook"
MacMini running 10.8.5 server with TM share
everything works fine UNTIL for some reason the MBP is interrupted during a TM backup ...
After that I get the disk already in use error !
Rebooting the MBP wont help, but I narrowed the problem down ...
Looking on the Mini server I noticed :
- the TM backup user stays connected over AFP, even after several hours of inactivity and a couple of reboots of the MBP. Killing the AFP connection works, But problem stil continues !
- looking on the MBP with "lsof | grep ebook" showed me that the SparseBundles were still in use by the AFP process ... Using the Server control panel and restarting AFP solved that ...
After restarting the AFP process the remote TM Backup started to work again !
A couple of days later, the same problem occurred again, fixed it by this work around ...
I hope there will be a more permanent solotiun for this !

My Time Machine backup keeps failing. I get a message the "Volume has the wrong case sensitivity for a backup". Please advise.

My Time Machine backup keeps failing. I get a message the "Volume has the wrong case sensitivity for a backup". Please advise.
Thanks, Howard

You can change the case sensitivity of the sparsebundle.. but I really doubt the error is real.
See A8 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
The sparsebundle should have case sensitivity turned on.
I cannot even fathom how it could have changed.
Let me recommend before you start fooling around with the sparsebundle.
Do a full network start.
Power everything off.. start up modem.. wait 2min.. power up the TC.. wait 2min.. power up any other network gear like switches.. wait..
Now power up the computer and try it.
If the error is the same.. I would do a factory reset of the TC.. give it all short names, no spaces and pure alphanumeric. Then reset TM .. see A4 in the same reference as above.. and do a verify of the backups.. A5 above and try the backup again..
No luck..
Then erase the TC and start over.. it is sometimes necessary as TM does get itself in a knot.

I have bought a new computer and backed up off time machine backup now I cannot open photoshop get error code 150 30 help appreciated.

I have bought a new computer and backed up off time machine backup now I cannot open photoshop get error code 150 30 help appreciated.?

Have you updated your iTunes on your computer? WIth a device running iOS7, you need iTunes 11.
When you removed iTUnes, did you see something named 'apple mobile device support' or something like it? (The exact name varies from operating system to operating system). If you see that, uninstall it too. That's the drivers for your iPhone and they should self-install when you plug your device in.
If all that is fine, have you checked your cable and USB port? a malfunctioning cable can keep you from syncing.

My Time Machine backup keeps failing...how do I find out why?? MacBook Pro 5,1 OS 10.5.8, 6GB ram backing up to new OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro 2TB

Forgive my clumsiness ---
My Time Machine backup keeps failing...how do I find out why?? MacBook Pro 5,1 OS 10.5.8, 6GB ram backing up to new OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro 2TB

Have you formatted the disk to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)?
Caio.

My time machine backup keeps failing

My Time Machine Backup keeps failing . Does anyone know what I should do

Launch your console program (located in the utilities folder) and click on all messages in then left column then type "backupd" in the filter box in the upper right. Read the messages, it may give you a clue as to what's causing the problem.

Time Capsule backup constantly failing with error message - error message 11 but different file.

Hi
I have had problems with my backup failing since 12 June
Most of the time I get error message 11 (have had error message 31 once) and each time it is a different file. The last failure gave this message in console
17/06/2011 13:20:11 com.apple.backupd[1743] Indexing a file failed. Returned 200 for: /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Office/CalendarCore.framework, /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Stephen Dalziel’s iMac/2011-06-16-232227.inProgress/10F26F18-689F-47D2-959E-964D07E82445/Macintos h HD/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Office/CalendarCore.framework
I have followed Pondini C3 by excluding the file from the first message but then failure occurred with a different file so excluded that and it failed again.
Went through repair A5 - that took an age even connecting via ethernet - still not working.
I have to confess that before I got to Pondini troubleshooting I googled the problem and a forum said delete latest and partial backups from sparse bundle - I did this via Finder and now I can't get rid of them from trash - discovered via Pondini I shouldn't have done this and tried E6 but without success.
What are my options?
I can use a computer but technical jargon is like Hieroglyphics to me so if you can reply in simple plain English that would be useful

Stephen Dalziel wrote:
a forum said delete latest and partial backups from sparse bundle - I did this via Finder and now I can't get rid of them from trash - discovered via Pondini I shouldn't have done this and tried E6 but without success.
Did you delete the Latest alias, and/or the most reccent time-stamped backup? If so, your backups are toast.
Your only option is to erase the Time Capsule's disk and let Time Machine start fresh. See To erase everything on the Time Capsule’s internal disk in #Q5 of Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule.

Time Machine backup not completed with error "The disk was not ejected probably..."

I have been using an UBS 3.0 capable external 2.5" hard drive from Lacie to backup my old 21.5" iMac for the last 2 years without problem.
Recently I bought the new late 2013 27" iMac running 10.8.5 and try to migrate the data from the Time Machine backup without success. After a while, Mountain Lion complained with the below error and only data before this message appear were migrated. When I connected the same disk back to my old iMac and ran disk utility, everything looks fine and I was able to complete the TM backup. Eventually, I managed to migrate the data using network copy, instead of TM backup.
Now that my new iMac is back online and I tried to setup Time Machine backup using the same 2.5" Lacie drive, the same error message appeared again in the middle of TM backup (after 3 minutes).
Wonder if anyone ran into the same issue and if there is an issue with the UBS 3.0 port on the new iMac, or there is a work around to this problem.
Any help or pointer would be highly appreciated.
Cheers,
Richard

The system is losing connection with the drive for some reason, likely because the drive is losing power and unmounting, but there could be other reasons as well. Do you have access to an external power supply for the drive? If so then connect tthat so it is not relying on the USB bus power to keep the drive running. I have also found this to happen with some USB 3.0 enclosures, and it appears to be a compatibility issue with them and Apple's USB 3.0 drivers, so another option is to get a USB 2.0 hub and use that for the connection. Things will not run at USB 3.0 speeds, but the drives will not continually disconnect.

I had my hard drive replaced and since my Time Machine backups say failed

I had my hard drive replace and since my Time Capsule backups are failing. The exact message is:
The backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk.
The problem may be temporary. Try again later to back up. If the problem persists, use disk utility to repair your backup disk.

No, replacing your hard drive has nothing to do with it. There is a problem with your backup drive. As far as Time Machine is concerned replacing a drive is no different than buying a new computer. Time Machine will need to make a brand new backup from scratch.
If you have a large enough backup drive this may not be a problem. Otherwise, you may not have sufficient space to maintain a new backup and keep the old one. So, I would suggest under the circumstances that you erase your backup drive, then start a new Time Machine backup from scratch.
Drive Erase
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After Disk Utility loads select the volume you wish to format from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the Disk Utility main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
For additional help with Time Machine: Visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.

Restore from Time Machine backup is failing

The internal drive on my daughter's iMac has failed for the second time in less than two years. I'm not able to restore from the Time Machine backup. The Time Machine restore process failed last time as well. Not surprisingly I'm now questioning whether Time Machine is an appropriate backup solution.
First question: *Is Time Machine a reliable backup and restore solution?*
- I get no errors whatsoever during backup from Time Machine
- Have yet to successfully be able to restore system (TM is 0 for 2 for us)
Second question: *Is it an issue with my setup?*
Based on the Macs and other items I already had, the setup that the local Apple store recommended to me for backup is what I followed. Here's a summary:
- 4 Macs on a network with Airport Extreme for router/wireless access
- Mac mini with 10TB of external storage has one 2 TB drive setup as a centralized Time Machine drive, which all the Macs on the network connect to
Backups all work with no error messages. Restoring individual files here and there through Time Machine has worked fine. Never really needed, but I tested it a few times from each Mac just to ensure everything was working fine.
Unfortunately, when my daughter's iMac internal drive failed I discovered that the restore not work. First issue was that restoring the system during OS X install was not an option because I was not able to get it to use the network drive. I was told to go ahead and install OS-X and then use the migration assistant, which unfortunately didn't work. Summary of what happened:
- My account on the iMac was successfully restored
- The main account with all the critical data (my daughter's) was created, but none of her data (iTunes music, school work, photos, etc) were restored
- No error message at the end of the restore
I know the Time Machine backup for her account was working as I had specifically checked to make sure that her iTunes music and photos were included in the backup just a week ago. Since the backup was being done to a drive connected to another Mac on the network, her iMac's backup was stored as a sparsebundle. In speaking with Apple support this morning, they had me try to mount the backup by double-clicking on the sparsebundle, which results in an error message indicating that it is corrupt. ARG!
After two failed restores, I'm convinced I need to change the setup either moving to drives directly connected to each Mac (seems like a waste) using Time Machine or switch to another backup tool.
What are your recommendations?

It may be helpful for others for me to post the approach I've decided to take, which seems to be working well.
Background:
I've confirmed with an Apple genius and with support, that the likely issue with both of the failed TM restores is that the TM backup was corrupted by the drive failures. Files get corrupted and are backed up to the drive. That is why in both cases it is the specific account that was running (also the highest priority for restore) is the one that is corrupted.
In nearly 3 decades of computing, I've yet to ever need to restore a single file or folder that I accidentally deleted. It's just not a scenario I care about. TM seems to fit this requirement well and has a very cool user experience to do it. Unfortunately, it also seems to have a tendency (0 for 2 in my case) to fail at restoring after drive failure.
Decision: no TM in my back up approach.
My primary need is for backup in case of drive failure. I also have some files that are extremely important that I want redundant backup for.
Decision:
1. ChronoSync for bootable backup clone of drives scheduled monthly and done over the home network. Can easily be triggered manually if there is a big change (SL install, etc) that I want to make sure is included
2. ChronoSync based sync of just critical files to a shared network drive that syncs daily. This is actually a large amount of data and includes family photos (Lightroom catalog and all photos), iTunes libraries, PLEX media library and other user created files.
Pluses:
1. Allows me to keep drives centrally located, which is definitely preferable for me
2. Easy rotation of drives with critical files for offsite storage
3. Over the network sync is fully supported by ChronoSync
4. Easy yet highly configurable UI. Unlike with TM I'm finding I can get the software to do precisely what I want, when I want.
Cons:
1. $40 cost for ChronoSync
I also looked at SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner.
I tried implementing the above first with SuperDuper, but found the setup confusing and the overall execution and sync was not what I expected. For example, SuperDuper encountered some file errors and just halted the sync as a result.
I tried Carbon Copy Cloner next. The setup was more intuitive than SuperDuper; even though the UI is not as polished. I kept the offending files on the drive to see how CCC handled them. It did much better in that it identified the file issues, but completed the sync for the rest to the files on the system. Clear error message at the end with summary information and the ability to look at the details in the log.
Since I wasn't thrilled with either SD or CCC, I decided to check out ChronoSync. For me, it does a very good job of presenting a simple UI with the ability as need arrises to get in to adjust and fine tune the specifics (options, configuration, schedule, etc) to precisely what I want. Scheduling, including sequencing, is very well done. Performance was the best of the three. Full cloning and incremental sync/backups with ChronoSync were the fastest. Not really an issue for me, but still a plus. A big plus for ChronoSync was that it did by far the best job of maintaining file permissions. SuperDuper did the worst. For some reason after all three uses of SuperDuper with the backup approach above many of the original files had user and file permission changes. For example, user name was "Rachel" with Read/Write access. After sync/clone, user became "_unknown" with read/write access. CCC did a better job; though I did have a number of issues when using cloned drive to boot (these were resolved) and with restore some file permissions were not maintained.
I really think Apple (at least retail and genius employees) should be clearer about the limitations and issues with TM. After my first failed restore, I was told it was an unusual and very rare case. I was assured that the approach (including using a network drive was fine). With a second failed restore from TM, it became crystal clear in my opinion that this is not a very rare occurrence; and that there are fundamental aspects of TM that make it susceptible to backup corruption when a drive fails.
TM is a sexy solution for incremental file backup and restore when you accidentally delete a file or folder. If that's what you need, go for it. As part of a backup solution for drive failure? I just don't see the value UNLESS you want to have incremental hourly, daily, weekly, monthly backups that you can use for accidental deletions. The accumulation of all those snapshots ends up taking up a fair bit of space. I was surprised at my actual backup storage needs in my switch to the above approach.
Your needs are likely unique to you, so your mileage may vary. This is just my perspective after a fair bit of pain and a lot of discussion, reading and testing.

Time Machine backups not working with Yosemite upgrade?

Time Machine backups "Waiting" with no data after Yosemite install?

But still not working.....Im getting some error message/info come up though that i never had come up before when running mavericks....I can't even insert a 2.9MB pic/image of pic i took of screen error msg...says 3.0MB Max??
Saying something about the disc couldn't be found.....but i have highlighted/encrypted back up disc selected...not "available discs".....back up disc is the one I've always backed up to....can anyone on here just help me with this please!!??
Thank you.

Time Machine silently skipping files with disk I/O error

Last week, my machine started periodically freezing for roughly 20-30 seconds at a time. I noticed corresponding "disk i/o error" entries in the system log and the problem seemed to be getting worse.
I bought a new hard drive, did a final Time Machine backup, swapped drives, restored from my Time Machine backup, and rebooted. Everything seems to be working fine, until I tried to open a VMware Fusion virutal machine (named Win7.vmwarevm). Fusion complained of a missing file. I check Fusion's log file and notice that it was failing to load one of the files inside the Win7.vmwarevm bundle that holds the VM's disk image (s009.vmdk). I did a "Show Package Contents" to peek inside and, sure enough, noticed that 2 files were missing from the sequence of 2GB files that make up the disk image (s009.vmdk and s010.vmdk).
I went back to my Time Machine backup and confirmed that the last backup of Win7.vmwarevm was indeed missing the 2 files in the bundle. I looked thru successively older backups and noticed the same phenomenon until I got to a backup made on December 20th, which included the 2 missing files. I restored Win7.vmwarevm from the Dec 20 backup and it worked fine. Unfortunately, I lost all my work between Dec 20 and Jan 5.
What concerns me is that in the 4 backups I'd done between Dec 20 and Jan 5, these 2 missing files failed to be backed up, yet Time Machine never complained. No warning, no error, nothing. This seems like a serious bug to me. Without an error message that says "[n] files failed to be backed up", you assume that your backup was successful, when, in fact, some files were skipped. This behavior seriously undermines my confidence in Time Machine. At this point, I have no idea how many of my original files have been recovered.
I poked around a bit and stumbled on this blog entry that seems to describe a similar problem:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080129063748614
Is this is a known issue? When will it be fixed?

peymano wrote:
I agree that it's best to backup each VM using backup software running within that VM, but the problem remains that *Time Machine appears to silently skip files when it encounters a disk i/o error*.
I don't think so. Usually what happens is, it sends a message about "indexing a file failed" or "an error occurred while copying files to the backup volume," and the backup fails, citing Error 11.
As I posted, I don't use any of these, but it's my understanding that the whole PC system is in a disk image -- to OSX, that's just one monster file; that's how Time Machine will back it up, too. I don't know how it could back up the files individually, since it doesn't understand the Windoze file system -- it cannot back up a Boot Camp partition, for example.

Can time machine backup multiple computers with encryption?

I want to use the encryption option with Time Machine, using a single portable drive between multiple computers. Will this work; does it encrypt the entire drive, or each individual backup? If it does encrypt the entire drive, can the other computers make use of it?

Although the documentation says you can copy Time Machine backups in the Finder, it sometimes doesn't work.
Launch Disk Utility, open the built-in help, and search for the term "Duplicate." Follow the instructions.

Time machine backup suddenly not good enough for my 2011 MBP

My macbook pro refused to back up today, stating that the identity of the time machine backup that it has been using for several months has changed identity. It then proceeded to backup the ENTIRE computer again to a new sparsebundle named the exact same thing but with a 1 after it.
I was able to connect to and explore the original backup by pointing time machine to it, but when it backed up next it made the new sparsebundle again.
What gives? How can i force the computer to use the old backup again?

Hi C,
See if this looks familiar: http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/C15.html
And here's a whole bunch of stuff you can try digging through: http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Home.html

Time Machine backups suddenly failing with error 109 (console errors inc.)

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for