Time machine calculating size
Time machine calculation size forever (at least all night) and never concludes. Have to force reboot to recover. MAC os 10.7.4.
This simple procedure will clear your Time Machine settings, including both overt and hidden exclusions. The backups won't be affected. If you have a long exclusion list that can't be recreated easily, you may prefer a more complicated procedure that preserves the exclusion list. In that case, ask for instructions. Otherwise, do as follows.
Triple-click the line below to select it:
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Reveal
from the contextual menu. A Finder window should open with a file selected. Copy it to the Desktop. Then move it (the original, not the copy) to the Trash. You'll be prompted for your administrator password. Reboot, recreate your settings in the Time Machine preference pane. It will show that you have no backups. Don't be alarmed; that's expected. Run a backup to test. If TM now performs as expected, delete the file you copied to the Desktop.
Similar Messages
-
Limiting Time Machine backup Size with WD MyBookLive and 10.8
I cannot take credit for the any part of this solution; merely for merging and clarifying how the solutions discovered by 2 Apple Support Communities contributors much smarter than I (namely “Pondini” – Florida and “himynameismarek”) - worked perfectly for my situation. All cudo’s to these two!
I have about average or better PC skills, but am an absolute newbie with Apple. This week I got a new iMac. Having a number of home PC’s all sharing files and back up space on a Western Digital MyBookLive (“WD MBL”) 3TB network drive (NAS), naturally I wanted to use it to backup the new Mac rather than rushing out to buy an Apple Time Capsule.
There are hundreds of threads on limiting size of a Time Machine (“TM”) backup, many of which required entries in “Terminal” or were devised on older versions of OSX. I’m running OSX Mountain Lion 10.8, so was concerned they may not work.
The issues I wanted to resolve were:
Time Machine will use up all of the space on my WD MBL if left to it’s own devices.
The WD MBL is compatible with Mac and PC’s… which is good… but unlike a back up in Windows 7 Pro which will allow you to make backups in a mapped “share” you create yourself, Apple TM Backups will not; they end up in a hidden folder on the NAS (much like PC backups done with WD Smartware)
At first I thought maybe I could limit the size of a share created in the MBL, but not possible, at least not that I've seen and I have searched for days.
The solutions:
First make sure you have the latest firmware for the WD MBL as of today it is MyBookLive 02.11.09-053. From what I’ve read Western Digital fixed the compatibility issues with 10.8 Mountain Lion just recently.
Next you need to start TM so that it starts to create a back up. You can stop the back up once you see files being copied. Do this before you walk thru the video tutorial by my Marek below. WD MBL will create the hidden folder you need to find for TM Backups. This folder is called “TimeMachine” but it is not visible even in the “MBL_NAME-backup” folder in Finder.
Open safari and type “ afp://xxx.xxx.x.xxx ” but use your own ip address of your MBL. Mine was 192.168.1.120, yours will be different.
It will ask how you want to connect. CHOOSE AS A GUEST even if your MBL is protected… I’m not sure why it works but it does. Then a window will come up asking which share you’d like to mount. You will see all of your own shares plus one called software and now one called “TimeMachine”. Choose that one.
Now in “Finder” you will see a mounted shared item called “YOUR_MBL_NAME-“ (the same as the one that is probably already there but with a dash(-) at the end). You’ll also see a new “device” in the device list called “Time Machine Backups” (If you already have watched the video tutorial by Marek, you’d know you are looking for a file called “YOUR_MACHINE_NAME.sparsebundle”. Well if you browse the folder “Backups.backupdb” in the Time Machine Backups device you won’t find it… again I don’t know why but you won’t. It resides in the hidden folder called “TimeMachine” that is now visible in the thing you just mounted in step 4)
NOW watch this video tutorial http://youtu.be/Nq7mSizqUSI and follow it step by step.
Voila... issues resolved. Thank you Pondini and Marek!Try Use Terminal to limit Time Machine sparcebundle size on timecapsule,
should work to limit Time Machine backup size on any NAS or external disk (or not...)
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize 500000
to return to ilimited
sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize
if you want to reclame deleted files space shrink it use
hdiutil resize -size 500g -shrinkonly /Volumes/TimeMachineYOURNAME/YOURNAME.sparsebundle/
Regards -
Limiting Time Machine backup size onto external drive
I have a 6TB RAID LaCie external drive that I would like to use with Time Machine. My mac has a 1TB HD which is not full. I do not want Time Machine to fill up my external drive with multiple backups. Is there some way to limit how much space Time Machine will use on an external drive? My understanding is that Time Machine will fill up the drive completely, then start overwriting the oldest files.
I do not think that I could partition the drive. But I am not sure how to do that, if it works with mac, and if I can do it now without reformating the drives. I am looking to see if there is a solution on the Time Machine software side.Try Use Terminal to limit Time Machine sparcebundle size on timecapsule,
should work to limit Time Machine backup size on any NAS or external disk (or not...)
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize500000
to return to ilimited
sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize
if you want to reclame deleted files space shrink it use
hdiutil resize -size 500g -shrinkonly /Volumes/TimeMachineYOURNAME/YOURNAME.sparsebundle/
Regards -
Time Machine Backup Size Calculation Error
This is what I have:
Internal:
Mac OS partition: 266GB (257GB Used)
BootCamp partition: 32GB ( 12GB Used)
External:
External USB 2.0 HD: 153GB (142GB Used)
TM Backup Drive: 466GB ( 0GB Used)
*What I have excluded:*
- TM Backup Drive
- BootCamp partition
*Therefore what I'm trying to backup are only:*
- MacOS partition
- External USB 2.0 HD
Time Machine Preferences Options Pane reports "Total Included: 398.4GB", and that's totally correct for what I'm intending to backup (i.e. MacOS partition + External USB 2.0 HD = 257GB + 142GB = 399GB). So far so good.
But when TM kicks off after the countdown, an error dialog pops up saying:
*Time Machine Error*
This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 478.0 GB but only 465.5GB are available.
To select a large volume, or make the backup smaller by excluding files, open System Preferences and choose Time Machine.
[Preferences] [OK]
Now how does TM figure out that 478.0GB number?
If I add up all used spaces for all drives (excl. TM drive), I only get 411GB.
If I add up all capacity of all drives (excl. TM drive), I only get 451GB.
How in the world did TM calculate that 478.0GB number? Why is there a discrepancy between what's reported in the options pane and the error dialog?
BTW, I have verified all my disks and they are all fine.
All my drives and partitions (except the bootcamp partition) are formatted properly to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Someone please advice.
Much appreciated.Disregarding the Mac/Win partitions, my internal HD as a whole is 298GB. My external USB drive is 153GB.
nestea247,
Your computer info says : iMac Aluminum 24" ....... 320GB HD.
So, I assumed your internal HD is 320GB and you are currently using 298GB of it. Therefore my simple calculation was not "298GB + 153GB" but "320GB + 153GB(ca.)". Did I misunderstand?
My point was: For the first-time backup, in order to copy the entire image (including the *free space*) of the volume to backup, TM might think it needs about the same size of backup volume as your internal HD ( + external USB drive, in your case). Not simply adding up the size of the *used space*.
Leter, however, it will get more realistic and adjust to the actual data size; so, after completing all the hard link setup, the size of its backup seems to "shrink." Your TM could be still calculating.... perhaps struggling to adjust? (I too hope it is not a critical bug.)
I'm afraid my reply doesn't help solve the mystery of 478.0GB. Hope someone else can.
Best of luck! -
Time Machine calculating incorrect backup size
Hi. Some help required please.
Approx 2 weeks ago we had a corrupt hard drive on our mid-2010 iMac running 10.8.3
It's the standard 1TB drive which is backed up using Time Machine to an external 750GB USB Hard Drive.
We repaired the disk & restored using Time Machine and all worked beautifully...however...since that day, Time Machine will now not back-up as it says that there are 2.44 EB (yes I had to look up what an Exabyte was !) to back up & so insufficient space on the back-up drive to action the back-ups.
In reality we are using 220GB out of the 1TB available on the internal drive & there's 400GB free left on the external USB for backing up.
We also have a second USB hard drive that we use for storage (1TB capacity approx 400GB used) but this is excluded from the backup process within Time Machine prefs)
Any ideas would be most welcome
ThanksThis simple procedure will clear your Time Machine settings, including both overt and hidden exclusions. The backups won't be affected. If you have a long exclusion list that can't be recreated easily, you may prefer a more complicated procedure that preserves the exclusion list. In that case, ask for instructions. Otherwise, do as follows.
Triple-click the line below to select it:
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Reveal
from the contextual menu. A Finder window should open with a file selected. Copy it to the Desktop. Then move it (the original, not the copy) to the Trash. You'll be prompted for your administrator password. Reboot, recreate your settings in the Time Machine preference pane. It will show that you have no backups. Don't be alarmed; that's expected. Run a backup to test. If TM now performs as expected, delete the file you copied to the Desktop. -
Time Machine - Calculating Changes
Many have suffered from Time Machine getting stuck at 99% after a Time Capsule added to system. I was tortured by the same problem and finally fixed it by reasoning things out. Remember, Time Machine looks to back up everything. When you add a Time Capsule your old Time Machine files remain somewhere. In my case it was on another smaller internal SATA. When I added the TC, I forgot to exclude my old Time Machine drive. I went into TM preferences and excluded it and Voila! No more problems. Calculating 99% went away and the backup through ethernet Time Capsule proceeded quite quickly and without problem. I guess Time Machine does not like to back up it's own files on a non-selected drive.
I hope this helps others who are suffering. Worked like a charm.
Ted Stamhc2008 wrote:
Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/WD External
Disk image /Volumes/WD External/HCC.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
It +has found+ the sparse bundle. It's not looking for the previous backups on your other internal HD.
Backup content size: 157.8 GB excluded items size: 3.5 GB for volume Macintosh HD
That message is sent when +Calculating Changes+ finishes -- TM has estimated how large the backup will be. The +Copying xx of yy GB+ message should be shown on the TM Preferences panel and the menu when you press the TM icon in your Dock.
Try all the things in #D2 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
Be sure the disk is formatted properly -- either GUID or APM *Partition Map Scheme* and +Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+ Format.
Try all the things in #D2 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting User Tip, also at the top of this forum.
Also try connecting via Ethernet if possible, for the first full backup. That will be much faster, of course, and will rule out a bad WIFI connection.
As a last resort, per your earlier post, try erasing the TM disk. -
Time machine backup size fail error
Hi there, Aaargh, Time machine says I need 1.04 Tb for my backup when in fact all i've used up on the hard drive is about 250-300gb. I've excluded assorted folders to no avail. Restarting & relaunching finder seemed to work previously I vaguely recall. I wonder if it 'resets' itself if the external hard drive is unplugged & replugged??
using osx 10.6.8 - everything up to date
my external hd is a new portable WD 1TB, ext. journaled drive, with about 455gb space. Other manul backups on it already, no issues etc etc
thanks in advance!
ps I'm currently reading this which will hopefully work...
http://pondini.org/TM/6.htmlDisregarding the Mac/Win partitions, my internal HD as a whole is 298GB. My external USB drive is 153GB.
nestea247,
Your computer info says : iMac Aluminum 24" ....... 320GB HD.
So, I assumed your internal HD is 320GB and you are currently using 298GB of it. Therefore my simple calculation was not "298GB + 153GB" but "320GB + 153GB(ca.)". Did I misunderstand?
My point was: For the first-time backup, in order to copy the entire image (including the *free space*) of the volume to backup, TM might think it needs about the same size of backup volume as your internal HD ( + external USB drive, in your case). Not simply adding up the size of the *used space*.
Leter, however, it will get more realistic and adjust to the actual data size; so, after completing all the hard link setup, the size of its backup seems to "shrink." Your TM could be still calculating.... perhaps struggling to adjust? (I too hope it is not a critical bug.)
I'm afraid my reply doesn't help solve the mystery of 478.0GB. Hope someone else can.
Best of luck! -
I have an MBA mid-2012 wtih only 250GB of internal SSD space. I have run my back up since last year, but have subsequently removed my older back ups through Time Machine. I now have only two entries one day each for December of 2012 and January this year. The backup space consumed seems to have grown to 900GB. My external drive is 2TB large, but it seems that the Time Machine back up space has grown over large.
How can I trim it to size short of starting from scratch? I actually don't have problems starting my backup over, but if a more elegant solution is available then I am all ears (or eyes in case of the internet and my screen).Thank you for the link. It helped immensely. Attached is a screenie of my disk usage. So I didn't realise earlier that my virtual machines (save for Boot Camp) could be eating up a sizeable chunk of the back up space. I think I'll do a complete redo of my Time Machine back up, I keep a copy of each VM I use as a pseudo snapshot anyway. I've added a number of exclusions too, since I only really use several folders in my home directory as temp (e.g. watching a movie I copy it to my Videos folder so I so I can disconnect my external HDD).
-
Time Machine file size vs actual file size of Aperture library
My Aperture database is 74.5GB. I have a referenced library. My photos are backup up on their own using Time Machine. I also use Time Machine to backup my Aperture database. However, I noticed yesterday that the Aperture filesize on my time machine backup is only 28.3GB. I need to upgrade my hard drive and had planned to just restore form time machine backup, but I am worried about losing Aperture data. Does anyone know why there is a discrepency?
-DebbieJohnk93 wrote:
MacDLS,
I recently did a little house-cleaning on my startup drive (only 60Gb) and now have about 20Gb free, so I don't think that is the problem.
It's probably not a very fast drive in the first place...
I know that 5MB isn't very big, but for some reason it takes a lot longer to open these scanned files in photoshop (from aperture) than the 5MB files from my camera. Any idea why this is?
Have a look at the file size of one of those externally edited files for a clue - it won't be 5MB. When Aperture sends a file out for editing, it creates either a PSD or an uncompressed TIFF after applying any image adjustments that you've applied in Aperture, and sends that out. Depending on the settings in Aperture's preferences this will be in either 8-bit or 16-bit.
As a 16-bit uncompressed TIFF, a 44 megapixel image weighs in at a touch over 150MB...
Ian -
Why does Time Machine folder sizes exceed physical capacity?
I have a MAC G3 Server Serving multiple MACs as a Storage, Media Server, and Time Machine storage. These other external MACs are all running Version 10.8.3. Only the Storage server is running 10.5.8.
All of the extenal Macs use Time Machine to backup to the served Storage media volume called "Time Machine".
The physical size of the "Time Machine" volume is 2.0 TB.
Yet when I am on the G3 Server, and perform a "Get Info" on the "Time Machine" volume, and also the folder that contains the Server's backups, the stored capacities exceed the physical capacity of the drive to which the volume resides.
The single physical drive is 2.0 GB and only has one partition called "Time Machine". In the root directory of this volume there is the one folder called Backups.backupdb, and a .sparsebundle DMG file for each of the remote systems that are bing backed up by Time Machine.
Each of the sparsebundles are well below the dirve's physical capacity, but both the local server's backup folder (Backups.backupdb) and the G3 server's local volume "Time Machine" show a used capcity that well exceeds the physical capacity of the drive on which it resides.
For example, here is the information from "Get Info" on the Backups.backupdb folder on the "Time Machine" volume when viewed from all systems:
Kind: Folder
Size: 3,456,930,478,415 bytes (3.46 TB on disk) for 122,254 items
But the Physical Volume "Get Info" shows this:
Kind: Volume
Capacity: 2.0 TB
Available: 169.92 GB
Used: 3,456,930,478,415 bytes (3.46 TB on disk) for 122,254 items
(NOTE: this is identical to the size
My guess is that there is some sort of deduplication involved.
If so, I would like to know the type of deduplication is performed?
Is it File Level deduplication, Block Level, or Content Level?
Also, is the deduplication inhererant on the volume (File System) level, or only specifically for Time Machine, via symbolic links?
Thank you in advance.
Jeff CameronThis is due to the way Time Machine stores files. While there is only one copy of each version of each file stored, there are multple links to that file, and each link is reported in Get Info at its restored size.
How Time Machine Works its Magic -
Time Machine backup size has doubled since updating to iMovie 10.0
So since installing Mavericks and running iMovie 10.0, the size of my Time Machine backup has increased enormously.
It seems clear that Time Machine is backing up my iMovie content twice, that is seeing the old iMovie Events and iMovie Projects folders (which are still present in my Movies folder), and the new iMovie Library package, as separate things even though they cannot be separate as they are not taking up any more space on the disk.
The backup is also taking much longer than usual, though I'm not so worried about that.
Any ideas about the cause or how to fix this?
I'm running Mavericks on a late 2008 MacBook 2.4 GHz Unibody with 8GB RAM and 250GB SSD, backing up to Time Capsule with 2TB hard driveWhat I have found so far is that when upgrading to iMovie 10 there is a conversion/duplication process that takes place in order to make your iMovie 9 events compatible with iMovie 10.
They should be nearly identical in size. You can confirm this by right clicking the "iMovie Events" folder (iMovie 9) and the "iMovie Library" package (iMovie 10) and selecting "Get Info" and their respective sizes should be nearly identical. The reason for this is unclear other than you retain the ability to run iMovie 9 which will continue to access the "iMovie Events" folder. iMovie 10 will access the newly created/duplicated "iMovie Library" package. Any new video you add using iMovie 10 will also be stored in the new "iMovie Library".
If you want to see the contents of the "iMovie Library" then right click and select "Show Package Contents". You should see all the folders (events) you created originally in iMovie 9.
At some point I presume you have the option to delete the "iMovie Events" folder if iMovie 9 will no longer be utilized or, better yet, back it up on a separate drive if like me you don't like deleting files until you're absolutely sure you don't need them. Otherwise, from what I have found, you are in fact backing up two sets of files.
For now I had to exclude the "iMovie Events" folder from my Time Machine backup because, like you, my back up nearly doubled in size (videos take up a lot of space) otherwise I got an error message from Time Machine indicating that my external drive did not have enough space for the backup file. -
Resize Time Machine sparsebundle size in Disk Utility
I have two MacBooks backing up to a 500GB Time Capsule. Each has a sparsebundle on the Time Capsule that seem to have maximum sizes of the entire disk.
Can I resize each sparsebundle in Disk Utility to something smaller, say 100GB, by simply dragging the partition size down?
If I create a third sparsebundle and mount it can I then use it to store miscellaneous files, basically acting as a NAS drive.
I have seen many topics that discuss ways to limit the size of a Time Machine archive, but I don't think that this one hasn't been presented.
Thanks.You've got other problems in addition to the Erase being grayed out.
The menu icons at the top are not right either. The Info, Burn and Eject menu items should be active also.
I'd suggest quitting Disk Utility, reboot your system and trying again.
Post back if that doesn't fix it.
regards -
TM is telling me that it cannot back up because it needs 1.2TB of space when all the files selected total to only 880GB. It worked fine for a while, then stopped working. I tried deleting preferences, reformatted the 1tb time machine drive (931GB available) and re set TM from scratch but to no avail. i have the same problem. I also verified and repaired the drive.
any ideas?
thanks!A TB is really only 976 GB. (1000 vs. 1024)
Also TM needs some "headroom" while backing up.
Your problem is that 1 TB is not large enough for your drive.
You need to offload some of your files to permanent storage elsewhere, or do without backing them up by excluding them.
A TM drive should be at least 3 times the size of your internal drive to work properly.
A TM backup is not a clone. TM stores not only your present OS, but everything you have deleted from it, to the TM drive must be large enough to hold everything you have ever had on your drive since you started using TM, including any large files that you deleted in the past. That's why it's called Time Machine, rather than a cloner.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe -
Time machine backup size differences
I have backed up some VMWare fusion Virtual Machines but restoration loses a file that is in the package. I cannot see the package content when exploring in time machine but I can restore the whole package. It's consistenly missing one file in the package in all backups. Notably it's a 2 gig file. The backups show a size of 44 gig but when restoring it's only copying 42 gig. So is the other 2 gig file in the package and can it be restored? Are there advanced time machine options that might help me?
thanksFiles that are open for writing are not backed up by Time Machine. Virtual disk files should be excluded from backup and the contents backed up from within the guest OS, using a native backup method.
-
Time Machine - backup size seems wrong
I just started my first Time Machine backup. I am doing to to an external USB drive. My MAC drive shows 27 GB used. I have a 60gb boot camp partition but I don't think that comes in to play here.
The backup status shows xxx-of 37gb backed up. What's the deal, I only have 27gb on the source drive.
Thanks,
KevinWhat I have found so far is that when upgrading to iMovie 10 there is a conversion/duplication process that takes place in order to make your iMovie 9 events compatible with iMovie 10.
They should be nearly identical in size. You can confirm this by right clicking the "iMovie Events" folder (iMovie 9) and the "iMovie Library" package (iMovie 10) and selecting "Get Info" and their respective sizes should be nearly identical. The reason for this is unclear other than you retain the ability to run iMovie 9 which will continue to access the "iMovie Events" folder. iMovie 10 will access the newly created/duplicated "iMovie Library" package. Any new video you add using iMovie 10 will also be stored in the new "iMovie Library".
If you want to see the contents of the "iMovie Library" then right click and select "Show Package Contents". You should see all the folders (events) you created originally in iMovie 9.
At some point I presume you have the option to delete the "iMovie Events" folder if iMovie 9 will no longer be utilized or, better yet, back it up on a separate drive if like me you don't like deleting files until you're absolutely sure you don't need them. Otherwise, from what I have found, you are in fact backing up two sets of files.
For now I had to exclude the "iMovie Events" folder from my Time Machine backup because, like you, my back up nearly doubled in size (videos take up a lot of space) otherwise I got an error message from Time Machine indicating that my external drive did not have enough space for the backup file.
Maybe you are looking for
-
9.0.3 can't find .xcfg configuration file in classpath
I could run a test client against my EJBs using 9.0.2 (part of the Developer Suite). When I try to use 9.0.3 standalone version I get the following error: oracle.jbo.JboException: JBO-29000: Unexpected exception caught: oracle.jbo.JboException, msg=J
-
I want to know that if there is any beautiful forms / text fields / multiple choice groups /etc. for us to implement the system? Except J2ME polish, does anyone can give me some examples? I remember one of the free UI called Sxxxxxxxx but i forget th
-
I want to buy a macbook air and load Windows on it, but given the small hard drives available, I was thinking about loading it on an SD card and running it off there (64GB+). Is that possible?
-
Hi, In classical report we click on the pattern and write the funciton module name there to get the import and export parameter of the fucntion. Can somebody tell me how to call the class method in the program with the parameters coming automatically
-
I am a newbie and I was wondering if it is possible to create an increment number field in a JSP page? I am trying to create a number that increments every time the a form is opened. I have created to where the field value is shown when the form is o