Time Machine Cannot Complete Back Up

All of the sudden I am getting this pop up message on my Macbook - Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup to “Starchild Time Capsule”. The backup disk image "/Volumes/Steve Mitchell's Time Casu/Macintosh.sparsebundle" is already in use. How can I fix this?

First, try restaring the Mac and the Time Capsule. This solves the problem in most of the cases.
If that doesn't work, see > http://pondini.org/TM/C12.html

Similar Messages

My time machine cannot complete my back up saying the "sparse bundle could not be accessed" error -1 Help please

My time machine cannot complete my back up. The message I receive says the "sparse bundle cannot be accessed. (error -1) Help please.

GG,
Please read over Pondini's Time Machine Troubleshooting guide, specifically C17.

HT3275 Time machine cannot complete my backup

Time machine cannot complete my backup because 'an error occurred while creating the backup folder'. How do I solve this problem?

Failed again this morning. I checked my logs and one thing it showed was, "Error: (-50) Creating directory..." I saw this...
ssls6
Re: Time Machine Issue-Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder.
Jan 29, 2012 10:42 AM (in response to HMR529)
one thing you can try
Open system prefs and go to spotlight, in the privacy section add your Macintosh HD and any other drives you back up. Give it a few seconds then remove your Macintosh HD and any other drives you added. Close system preferences. Watch the spotlight symbol on the top menu bar "looks like a magnifying glass". It should have a dot in it as in is indexing all your drives again. When the indexing is over (it can take a long time of your drive is big) now try to create a new backup with time machine...."
As usual, it's gonna take a couple days to see if it works. I'll let y'all know...and y'all should try it also, and let us know.

HT3275 My Time Machine cannot complete a backup.

My Time Machine cannot complete a backup. The error message reads "The backup disk image "/Volumes/Brad Blocksidge's Time Caps/Macintosh.sparsebundle" is already in use. Suggestions???

Most common error reported here.. absolutely stock standard what you expect with Mountain Lion.
Restart the TC will fix 98% of them..
Pull out the power cord.. count to 10.. plug in the power cord.
Check the info here for further info.
C12
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Time Machine cannot complete backup to MyBookLiveDuo

Time Machine cannot complete backup to MyBookLiveDuo
I am trying to use TimeMachine to setup a backup from a mid-2011 iMac running OSX 10.9.3 to a 4TB WD MyBook Live Duo drive on a network. I have 3 other MacBooks setup to use this shared drive using Time Machine as well as a PC using WD backup software.
The backup from the iMac is failing with a message “The backup disk image /Volumes/TimeMachine/PM’s iMac.sparsebundle could not be accessed (error(null)).”. After looking through Pondini I change the name of the iMac from "PM’s iMac" to "Family" but the problem is not fixed.
In fact the iMac seems to still uses the old machine name in the error message.
In the console I see the following messages
5/29/14 3:02:47.124 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Failed to eject volume /Volumes/TimeMachine (FSVolumeRefNum: -106; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
5/29/14 3:02:47.125 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Waiting 60 seconds and trying again.
5/29/14 3:03:22.547 PM spindump[427]: Saved hang report for Disk Utility version 13 (517) to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Disk Utility_2014-05-29-150322_Family-iMac.hang
5/29/14 3:03:29.854 PM mds[37]: (Normal) Volume: volume:0x7fcffb877000 ********** Bootstrapped Creating a default store:0 SpotLoc:(null) SpotVerLoc:(null) occlude:0 /Volumes/TimeMachine
5/29/14 3:03:53.026 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/TimeMachine
5/29/14 3:04:49.260 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Failed to eject volume /Volumes/TimeMachine (FSVolumeRefNum: -106; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
5/29/14 3:04:49.261 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Waiting 60 seconds and trying again.
5/29/14 3:05:32.882 PM mds[37]: (Normal) Volume: volume:0x7fcffb89d400 ********** Bootstrapped Creating a default store:0 SpotLoc:(null) SpotVerLoc:(null) occlude:0 /Volumes/TimeMachine
5/29/14 3:05:52.689 PM apsd[61]: Unrecognized leaf certificate
5/29/14 3:05:55.561 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/TimeMachine
5/29/14 3:06:44.339 PM mds[37]: (Warning) Volume: vsd:0x7fcffb82d600 Open failed. failureCount:6 {
DisabledRecycleCount = 6;
5/29/14 3:06:52.608 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Failed to eject volume /Volumes/TimeMachine (FSVolumeRefNum: -106; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
5/29/14 3:06:52.609 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Giving up after 3 retries.
5/29/14 3:06:52.814 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Backup failed with error 21: 21
5/29/14 3:07:12.831 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Failed to eject volume /Volumes/TimeMachine (FSVolumeRefNum: -106; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
Ha anyone seen this problem and been able to resolve it.
Thanks!

Time Machine cannot complete backup to MyBookLiveDuo
I am trying to use TimeMachine to setup a backup from a mid-2011 iMac running OSX 10.9.3 to a 4TB WD MyBook Live Duo drive on a network. I have 3 other MacBooks setup to use this shared drive using Time Machine as well as a PC using WD backup software.
The backup from the iMac is failing with a message “The backup disk image /Volumes/TimeMachine/PM’s iMac.sparsebundle could not be accessed (error(null)).”. After looking through Pondini I change the name of the iMac from "PM’s iMac" to "Family" but the problem is not fixed.
In fact the iMac seems to still uses the old machine name in the error message.
In the console I see the following messages
5/29/14 3:02:47.124 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Failed to eject volume /Volumes/TimeMachine (FSVolumeRefNum: -106; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
5/29/14 3:02:47.125 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Waiting 60 seconds and trying again.
5/29/14 3:03:22.547 PM spindump[427]: Saved hang report for Disk Utility version 13 (517) to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Disk Utility_2014-05-29-150322_Family-iMac.hang
5/29/14 3:03:29.854 PM mds[37]: (Normal) Volume: volume:0x7fcffb877000 ********** Bootstrapped Creating a default store:0 SpotLoc:(null) SpotVerLoc:(null) occlude:0 /Volumes/TimeMachine
5/29/14 3:03:53.026 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/TimeMachine
5/29/14 3:04:49.260 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Failed to eject volume /Volumes/TimeMachine (FSVolumeRefNum: -106; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
5/29/14 3:04:49.261 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Waiting 60 seconds and trying again.
5/29/14 3:05:32.882 PM mds[37]: (Normal) Volume: volume:0x7fcffb89d400 ********** Bootstrapped Creating a default store:0 SpotLoc:(null) SpotVerLoc:(null) occlude:0 /Volumes/TimeMachine
5/29/14 3:05:52.689 PM apsd[61]: Unrecognized leaf certificate
5/29/14 3:05:55.561 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/TimeMachine
5/29/14 3:06:44.339 PM mds[37]: (Warning) Volume: vsd:0x7fcffb82d600 Open failed. failureCount:6 {
DisabledRecycleCount = 6;
5/29/14 3:06:52.608 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Failed to eject volume /Volumes/TimeMachine (FSVolumeRefNum: -106; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
5/29/14 3:06:52.609 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Giving up after 3 retries.
5/29/14 3:06:52.814 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Backup failed with error 21: 21
5/29/14 3:07:12.831 PM com.apple.backupd[220]: Failed to eject volume /Volumes/TimeMachine (FSVolumeRefNum: -106; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
Ha anyone seen this problem and been able to resolve it.
Thanks!

Time machine cannot complete follow-up backups

I reformated my USB 3 external drive and after 16 or so hours, my Time Machine backup completed without giving off an error message. However, I leave 'Auto Backups' turned on and subsequent backups fail with a useless, uninformative error message (Backup Failed). This has happened several times with at least two separate disks.
AppleCare tells me the backup was corrupted. But having to endure another 16 hour backup is not ideal, everytime I change data on my computer. I store one external disk offsite in my safety deposit box at all times.
Should I just put time Machine 'in my rear view mirror' and use Carbon Copy Cloner, which I own?
Gary

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message that corresponds to an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showing, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

Time Machine cannot complete backup

My time machine backup cannot complete because it thinks there is not enough disk space. After trying a number of things, I decided to start over by reformatting my backup disk (I have a secondary backup). I have a 2TB external disk. I have a 2TB internal disk that is 95GB full. Certainly there must be some overhead for the backup process, but it can't double the backup. I'm trying to do a full backup on an empty, newly formatted disk. The message is:
The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly. Time Machine will try to make more space available by removing expired backups during the next scheduled backup.
I'm using OSX Mavericks 10.9.4
Any ideas?

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Initially the words "String Matching" are shown in that box. Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes.) You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard."
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Note the timestamp of the last "Starting" message that corresponds to the beginning of an an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showing, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
☞ If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Time machine not completely backing up certain folders

Has anyone run into a problem with their Time Machine continually neglecting to backup one or two of their folders? I know some people have problems with TM not backing up items on their desktop, but my desktop data is fine. There are just two folders (as far as I know) that TM refuses to back up (unless there are new items, then it will backup only those items). One is my 'documents' folder. And another folder I created called 'OS media'.
About my setup:
I recently set up Time Machine with my Macbook Pro (running Mavericks). TM is backing up the internal SSD along with an external hard drive that is always attached via USB. The drive they are being backed up onto is a Western Digital My Book Live via wifi--which I know is not advised as it is not officially approved by Apple, but I'm hoping that's not the cause of this particular problem. Because otherwise the MBL has been working pretty well.
More details:
Both of the problem folders happen to be from the external hard drive (not internal SSD), and in the first tier of folders. But the other folders on that tier (about five other folders) are fully entact in TM, so I don't think it's an issue with the external HD. And the missing files are not a certain file type, they are all the sub-folders and files under the problem folders.
I went into the Western Digital (Time Machine) drive itself via Finder and verified that the files are indeed missing, so it wasn't a lag issue. And I have nothing excluded from backups in TM preferences.
I noticed that within those two problem folders, if any file was modified or created within that folder since my initial TM full backup (about two weeks ago), even if it was just a modified .ds_store file, TM would begin to include that file in the backup. This make me guess the problem was something that happened during the initial TM backup. The folders were somehow missed, and subsequent TM incremental backups aren't able to detect that it's missing. So unless anyone has any other suggestions, I'm just going to try to redo a full backup. I'm reluctant though, because it's going to take about two days to complete, and I really have no idea if it's even going to help.
And I don't know if this is related, but when I'm in Time Machine and I do a search for any of my files, I always get zero results.
Important sidenote:
While browsing my folders in Time Machine (Star Wars view), I found that clicking on an alias to a folder would open up that folder, but it didn't show the contents of the folder as they were in that particular backup version; instead, it showed the contents of that folder as they appeared in my computer currently. In other words, it appeared that I was looking at an old backup version of the folder, but it was actually the present time folder. This could easily mislead someone into thinking that their current data is backed up, when it is not.

oregonjoe wrote:
Am I to understand people should not post questions that involve any 3rd party products that are not officially supported by Apple?
No, but you must understand that Time Machine does not support the configuration you are using.
The exhaustive list of devices supported by Time Machine amounts to the following:
AirPort Time Capsule's built-in hard disk (any model)
External USB hard disk drive connected to a Time Capsule (any model)
External USB hard disk drive connected to an AirPort Extreme (current model only)
A hard disk drive directly connected either to the source Mac, or a Mac on your local network.
That is all.
Use whatever backup device you want, but you should be aware that this site is full of reports of misery from hapless individuals who had been using third party NAS devices for Time Machine backups, only to find that they were incomplete, corrupted, or useless in the dire circumstances in which they were required. Apple won't care if you lose your data while using a Time Machine configuration specifically excluded from their technical support documents.

Time machine cannot complete backups - please help

I hope somebody can help me - my Time Machine has been unable to complete backups for about six weeks or so.
Having read some useful information on the support forums yesterday, I verified both my internal HD and my external disk. The external disk appears fine, yesterday my internal disc needed some 'minor repairs'. I booted from the Leopard disk, but could not find where to repair disk so simply verified disk again and it was apparently fine.
I have verified both disks today and they are again fine. However when I try to back up I get this message:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
Node requires deep traversal:/Users/macbookowner/Pictures/iPhoto Library reason:kFSEDBEventFlagContainsChanges|kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEven tFlagReasonFoundInDeepTraversal|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonMissedReservation|
No pre-backup thinning needed: 90.99 GB requested (including padding), 158.90 GB available
Error: (-8088) SrcErr:NO Copying /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Version Cue CS3/Client/3.0.0/VersionCueUI.framework/Versions/Current to /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Debs' Macbook/2012-10-10-125404.inProgress/FDAAD4E0-7030-4317-925F-63C9D273908B/Macin tosh HD/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Version Cue CS3/Client/3.0.0/VersionCueUI.framework/Versions
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/macbookowner/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2012/30 Sep 2012/IMG_2772.MOV to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:NO Copying /Users/macbookowner/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2012/30 Sep 2012/IMG_2772.MOV to /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Debs' Macbook/2012-10-10-125404.inProgress/FDAAD4E0-7030-4317-925F-63C9D273908B/Macin tosh HD/Users/macbookowner/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2012/30 Sep 2012
Stopping backup.
Error: (-8062) SrcErr:NO Copying /Users/macbookowner/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2012/30 Sep 2012/IMG_2772.MOV to /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Debs' Macbook/2012-10-10-125404.inProgress/FDAAD4E0-7030-4317-925F-63C9D273908B/Macin tosh HD/Users/macbookowner/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2012/30 Sep 2012
Copied 20247 files (72.6 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Copy stage failed with error:11
Backup failed with error: 11
I have no idea what to do.
Can anybody help? Thankyou so much

A clone is an exact bootable copy of your Hard Drive.
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Or SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
Or the most expensive one & my favorite, Tri-Backup...
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html
How to format your disks...
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html
(To Install OSX on an IntelMac the Drive it needs the GUID Partitioning scheme mentioned at the bottom.)
Thanks to Pondini, Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks...
http://Pondini.org/OSX/DU.html

Time machine: cannot complete because sparsebackupdb temporarily unavailable how do I fix that?

my time machine will not complete because the file was and contines to be in use

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
http://pondini.org/TM/C12.html

TS1550 I keep getting the message that my sparsebundle is already in use and that Time Machine cannot complete the backup. Any ideas?

I keep getting a message that says Time Machine could not complete the backup. It says that my home wifi sparsebundle is already in use. I do not know how to solve this problem. Any ideas?

Disconnect the power from your backup device, wait two minutes, then reconnect the power. This usually solves the problem.
See The Backup disk image ... sparsebundle ... is already in use.

Time machine cannot complete backup sparse bundle already in use

I'm getting an error message: time machine unable to complete backup, sparse bundle already in use?
Please advise, I need to find the "yellow brick road", guess it wouldn't be cool for a guy to click red slipper heels together?
Help? Much appreciated....
Macmanusider

What constructive purpose do these smart mouth answere provide? I have been through the "more like this" discussions and the mostly have answers referring you to "more like this". The troubleshooting links refer to old and outdated systems. After all these years, doesn't anyone have an intellrgent suggestion? Is there any way to make the Time Machine backups dependible? It's not worth the trouble to have to reconnect by USB, reboot the time machine, etc. every couple of weeks.

Time Machine Cannot complete backup: disk image already in use!?

I successfully backed up my Powerbook wirelessly a first time with Time Capsule. Then when it try to back up again, I got an error message saying that the "Backup disk image /Volume/Data-1/Power Book.sparsebundle" is already in use!!!??? Can anyone help? Thanks

See # C 12 in Pondini's excellent support document....Time Machine - Troubleshooting
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Time Machine cannot complete the backup.

Time Machine software is not "remembering" the exceptions I put into the settings in System Preferences, and is trying to backup the whole HDD to the Time Capsule (which doesn't have enough space). It's trying to stuff 421GB of stuff into 350GB of remaining space.
Once I delete and put in the exceptions (the size goes down to 175GB), and it can backup. But after that one time, it "forgets" the exceptions and the errors return.

That sounds like the preferences file may be corrupted. Try a "full reset" of Time Machine, per #A4 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum).
If that doesn't help, something may be corrupted in your installation of OSX. I'd suggest downloading and installing the 10.6.5 "combo" update. That's the cleverly-named combination of all the updates to Snow Leopard since it was first released, so installing it should fix anything that's gone wrong since then, such as with one of the normal "point" updates. Info and download available at: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1324 Be sure to do a +Repair Permissions+ via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) afterwards.
If still no help, reinstall OSX from your Snow Leopard Install disc (that won't affect anything else), then apply the "combo" again.

HT3275 Time machine cannot backup due to "The backup disk image "/Volume/Data/Dave's Macbook Pro."sparse bundle" is already in use." Does anyone know what this means and how to fix it??

My time machine is sending me a message; "The backup disk image "/Volume/Data/Dave's Macbook Pro "sparse bundle" is already in use". As a result, the time machine cannot complete a backup. Any suggestions?

Look at the more like this column on the right.. this is the most common problem reported here.
You need to restart the TC.. that is all..
Pull out the power cord.. count to 10.. plug in power cord.
There are a few occasions where this fails.. see C12 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Time Machine Cannot Complete Back Up

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