Time Machine creates new disk image when backing up but files not visible

When I back up my files (daily) to tan external drive TM creates a new disk image (named laptop) on my desktop (in addition to the image for the external drive named TIme Machine Backups). When I click on the new disk image while it's backing up I see a list of recent backups. However the disk image disappears after completing the back up and the files do not appear in the Star Wars screen - only old back-ups from 2009. How can I access the newest backups?

alanol wrote:
A disk image labeled Time Machine Backups resides permanently on the desktop
Right-click it, and select +Get Info.+ See what the path is (after +Disk image+ near the top of the General section).
Also the amounts for Capacity and Used.
as a consequence of the repair a sparse bundle (Zero KB) folder was created.
No. That may have been created by the new backup, though.
Also a new "lost +found" folder was created containing several ".emix" files.
Those are email files.
Net, net - same basic problem, can't see the newest backups in the Star Wars screen.
I suspect they're in the disk image.
Do you have any external HDs connected?
Try a "full reset" of Time Machine, per #A4 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Similar Messages

I got this error while my mac was backing up to time machine: he backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Sanjeev's iMac.sparsebundle" could not be created (error (null)). Please could someone help

I got this error while my mac was backing up to time machine: he backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Sanjeev’s iMac.sparsebundle” could not be created (error (null)). Please could someone help

Has the backup been working ok??
If that is the case simply reboot the TC.. or if that fails, reboot the whole network, restarting in correct order..
modem.. wait 2min
TC.. wait 2min

Time Machine error: backup disk image could not be created

Iet up my new time capsule day and it's working great. Now that I've got everything sorted out, I'm ready to do the initial time machine back up on it. I went into preferences, changed the backup location to my TC and clicked 'back up now'. Very quickly I get a message that the backup failed: "Time Machine Error - The backup disk image could not be created".
I've searched the apple support area but haven't been able to figure this one out. Can anyone help, please? This is an initial backup. (FYI, it worked great on my old external drive.)
Many thanks

I had the same problem. I installed my Time Capsule, fired up Time Machine and got an error that said "The backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 436.8 GB but only 182.2GB are available."
Coincidently, these are the same sizes as the space used and the space available on my iMac's drive.
I looked in /Volumes and saw that the sparsebundle was being created on the local disk and not on the main disk. Trying to backup again gave me the "Time Machine error: backup disk image could not be created." message.
I poked around the forums, and found a post about the machine name setting in sharing. I decided to give it a look, and lo and behold, I did not have a machine name. So I gave my box a name, kicked off Time Machine again, and it worked.

"Time machine error, The disk image cannot be mounted" What can I do??

I ran the time machine. Then, "preparing backup" showed up for a long time. After that, a window pop out: "Time machine error, The disk image cannot be mounted" What is disk image? What can I do (I can't back up anything)
P.S. I use time capsule for backup. there were no problem on connection

I'm having the same issue. I do not have TC as my base station. It says right in the book that if you choose, you do not have to have it run as your router, just as a part of your existing wireless network. All software is up to date and I have already shortened the name of both my TC and TC disc to 6 characters and no spaces! I've already spoken with someone today about this. He really didn't know. Have tried backing up both wirelessly and directly connecting with an Ethernet cord. I had to finally call because when I attempted to register the product to get online support, apple.com didn't recognize the serial number!!! The gentleman on the phone got it registered for me. I bought the TC from an official apple store and for whatever reason when he put in the serial number his computer said that this TC was so "old" I guess that there was technically "no support." That basically means that even though my parents just purchased this for me a week before Christmas, that it was made a year ago and the warranty is not good?? I need to do more research on that. Right now I am very unhappy about this. I am a firm apple user and have been for years, but this is frustrating.
I had read somewhere else (not sure I've been searching apple for what seems like forever now) to make sure that the TC was showing up in "devices" of the Finder. Mine doesn't show up there, but rather in the "Network" window. Is this an issue? If it is, can anyone tell me how to fix that. I have Time Machine backing up to my TC, so I do not see why it would be.
UPDATE: I just opened up my TC on the "Shared" section of the Finder window and deleted the old "sparsebundle" (I had no clue that anything had backed up way back at 3:30pm on Dec 29) and now I get a slightly new message: Time Machine Error: The backup disc image could not be created." So now the word "mounted" is replaced with "created." This error showed up a lot sooner than the original one. Ok, no clue. I am going to try to Change the Disc again, and try again. I will post another update.
Message was edited by: kryzma

HT3275 Time machine error, backup disk image "/volumes/data-1/.sparesbundle " already in use. I don;t know what this means, can someone help?

My Mac mini time capsule is showing an error Time machine error, backup disk image "/volumes/data-1/.sparesbundle " already in use. I don;t know what this means, can someone help?

I had a similar problem and I solved it as follows -
In Time Machine - > I deselected time capsule Data Disk as a destination.
Then I pulled the power plug on the Time Capsule, twiddled my thumbs for 15 secs, plugged the power back in.
Went back t Time Machine -> Re-Added the Time Capsule Data Disk as destination. And then tested by selecting Backup Now.
All went well and the backup picked up from before the problem.
BTW - I also have a USB drive connected to Time Capsule that is an alternate disk for Time Machine to backup.
In Mountain Lion the GUI lets you add more than one Time Machine backup destinations very easily so I think it a good idea to have redundancy.
Hope this helps.

I have been unable to retrieve emails from my external disk. I entered the Time Machine and tried to go to April 2013, but could not find emails. I have Lion OS X 10.7.5 .Thanks!

I have been unable to retrieve emails from my external disk. I entered the Time Machine and tried to go to April 2013, but could not find emails. I have Lion OS X 10.7.5 .Thanks!
Cecilia

I have been unable to retrieve emails from my external disk. I entered the Time Machine and tried to go to April 2013, but could not find emails. I have Lion OS X 10.7.5 .Thanks!
Cecilia

Time machine creates new machine

Hi just before christmas I moved to leopard and started using time machine. Everything was fine, however 2 weeks ago I sent my computer to an apple authorised repairer as it needed a new logicboard (3rd replacement in 15 months!!!).
The machine has come back and now when it boots up I can click the time machine icon and see and access all my backups since december but as soon as the system does its hourly backup it decides to create a new system profile in time machine and to do another 60gb backup.
Basically it can't see the existing backup when it goes to update but it can when you are checking. Whilst I highly suspect it has something to do with the logic board changing I am not 100% sure.
Any ideas?

Hi, thanks, yes they are the same name. The machine is called "Big Mac". If you let it create a backup it makes a new machine called "Big Mac (2)".
It was not the same fault, The first two could not boot external drives or boot camp, the third developed a sound problem (and they forgot to attach the ir sensor back). The latest one came back today with a fan sensor problem (all fans spinning at max all the time) and there were disk images in my trash of my itunes collection where they had burnt the directory using disk image. After a big complaint they came to my house and did it onsite. I am not surprised because it shows that they were A)stealing my music and B)not testing finished work.
But enough about that, anybody with any more ideas I would be greatful.

Creating new Disk Image in disk utilities for TC. How long should it take?

I'm attempting to create a new disk image so that I can use my TC as storage in addition to back up. It's been "creating the image" since 6am today. It's 3:15pm now. ***? Is it supposed to take this long or is something wrong? I am attempting to create a large area of storage (500 GB). Could that be what is taking so long or should I hit cancel/give up...call Apple support?
Please advise. Thanks!

Hey Kristi,
How much is the actual size of the data you're trying to rebuild? This would be directly related to the duration of the process. Also, if you are doing it wirelessly, it could take forever and a day. Last night I used an archive copy of a file to install an application and it took well in excess of 90 minutes. I don't know the exact time except that this morning I woke up to find it completed. So wireless is not always painless.
Building is not the same as copy so that could be the reason for this. What would be interesting to know is whether you can check to see where it's writing wheter anything is being written.

Time machine The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Freedom Book.sparsebundle" is already in use.

I am getting the following error message from Time Machine (backing up to my 3 TB Time Capsule):
The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Freedom Book.sparsebundle” is already in use.
I have no idea why this would be in use, because only one MBP has the name "Freedom Book". Any advice on how to resolve? Running Mountaiin Lion 10.8.1.

I had the same error. I unplugged my TimeCapsule for 5 min from power. Plugged it back in to power then waited 10 min for everything to comunicate again. Clicked on backup now and it worked. Must have froze up or something.

Time machine created new backup file

After migration, time machine created a new data file in time capsule. How do i instruct it to access the original? Thanks!

I ejected the USB drive and turned it off, erased the Timemachine.plist file from the shared directory and then turned back on the USB drive. I then went into Timemachine and turned the program back on. Timemachine then started a count down sequence and then automatically started the scheduled backups. The problem is fixed.

What can I do to create a disk image when I continue to get the prompt "permission denied"? I have run the permission repair, restarted the computer and nothing changes.

I want to create a disk image for important information. I continue to get "Permission Denied" even though I have run the disk utility for repair and verify disk permissions. Is there a solution for this?

I had same problem as I was trying to build a windows iso following the bootcamp instructions (last evening). I learned you cannot create a disk image at root due to changes in the operating system made by apple. As a user (even an admin user) you can only create a disk image below root (such as in your desktop). Any attempt to creat an image at root will return permission denied.
The Apple Disk Utility (on three macs I have tried so far) defaults to creating an iso image at the root. If you tell it to create the image - you immediately get a permission denied error.
None of the iso creation instructions I have found on apple site so far speak to this.

Time Machine - The backup disk image.. .could not be created (error 60)

Using an external 2 TB disk for Time Machine for iMac and MacBook Pro, both running 10.8.2. One month ago, upgraded MacBook from 10.5 to 10.8. Three weeks later, Macbook backups started failing. Ran TechTool on backup disk, found much corruption, reformatted it. iMac has always backed up to this disk just fine, but MacBook backups keep failing. LONG "Preparing to Backup" time, then suddenly "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer - Initialize, Ignore or Retry" followed immediately by "The backup disk image "Volumes/Backup2TB-1/MacBookPro.sparsebundle" could not be created (error 60). When I check the TMP file on the backup disk, it's gotten to about 17.9 Mb before quitting.
What could be getting in the way?
Thanks.

Launch the Keychain Access 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 Keychain Access in the page that opens.
Select the System keychain in the list of keychains in the sidebar of the window. If you don't see the list, click the down-arrow icon below the sidebar. Then select Passwords in the Category list at lower left. Click the Kind heading in the list of keychain items to arrange it by Kind. Locate the AirPort Disk Password with the name of your Time Capsule. Double-click the item and check the box marked Show Password in the inspector window that opens. You'll be prompted for the administrator login password. Make a note of the AirPort password, then close the inspector window and delete the item. Also delete all other AirPort DIsk Password items for that same Time Capsule, which may have had a different name in the past. Quit Keychain Access and try to back up again.

Time Machine Creates New Sparse Bundle

I have a 1TB hard disk connected to a Mac Mini over USB. That disk is shared on the network. My laptop and my wife's laptop are both set up to use that shared disk for Time Machine backups. Generally, things have worked fine.
This morning, I discovered a message from Time Machine on my laptop stating that there wasn't enough space on the drive to complete the backup. That didn't make sense - too few files had changed. When I investigated, I discovered that Time Machine had, after a successful backup at 21:29 last night, started creating a new sparse bundle for its backups.
I restarted my laptop and ran Disk Utility's Repair function on the shared drive (using the Mac Mini to run the repair). I've toggled Time Machine off and back on in System Preferences. The behavior remains: even though there is an existing sparse bundle (machinename.sparsebundle) on that share, when I tell Time Machine to do a backup, it creates a new sparse image: machinename-1.sparsebundle and starts backup up all of my files to it.
Also, if I "Enter Time Machine," Time Machine informs me that it can't find the disk. But it does offer for me to "Use Previous Disk..." if I first mount the "old" disk image (machinename.sparsebundle). Having the old disk image mounted does not prevent Time Machine from making machinename-1.sparsebundle when I tell it to do a backup, however.
I'm at a loss. I've checked the console logs and there's nothing useful there. Is there some hidden setting something that "forces" Time Machine to write to a specific sparse bundle?
I'm rapidly reaching the conclusion that these "over the air backups" aren't worth the bother: a directly-attached disk seems much simpler and more reliable.
Thanks in advance for any helpful hints,
Tony

Pondini wrote:
When you do a +*Repair Disk+* on a directly-connected volume that contains a sparse bundle, the sparse bundle itself may not be repaired. Drag it into the Disk Utility sidebar via the Finder, then select it and try +*Repair Disk+* again.
Okay. I did this - but it told me that the disk appeared to be okay. Which jives with my intuition, since Time Machine is able to use that image +for recovering files+ if I manually mount it and inform Time Machine that it should use it.
Pondini wrote:
Try the widget in #A1 of [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
Does the widget source a different set of logs than the Console app? When I select "All Messages" in Console, I get the following when I attempt to do a backup:
11/12/10 2:35:23 PM com.apple.backupd[9404] Starting standard backup
11/12/10 2:35:23 PM com.apple.backupd[9404] Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://media@Media%20Center.afpovertcp.tcp.local/Terrabyte
11/12/10 2:35:25 PM com.apple.backupd[9404] Mounted network destination using URL: afp://media@Media%20Center.afpovertcp.tcp.local/Terrabyte
11/12/10 2:35:26 PM com.apple.backupd[9404] Creating disk image /Volumes/Terrabyte/transient 1.sparsebundle
11/12/10 2:35:26 PM kernel AFP_VFS afpfs_mount: /Volumes/Terrabyte, pid 9405
11/12/10 2:35:28 PM hdiejectd[9413] running
11/12/10 2:35:38 PM hdiejectd[9413] quitCheck: calling exit(0)
I read this as "Time Machine didn't even bother trying to use my 'transient.sparsebundle' that exists on that disk."
A couple of notes:
* My wife has no difficulty backing up to her image on that same AFP share.
* Between my initial post and this one, I updated to 10.6.5 - with no change in behavior.

Time machine creating new backup for external hd every time it is connected.

Hi.
I have recently gotten a Time Capsule to back up my files.
I want to back up my internal harddrive as well as an external harddrive with master images from aperture.
Theoretically time machine should skip trying to back up the external drive when it is not connected, and make a backup when it is. (I only connect the disk when working with the images)
However, the problem is that every time I connect the external hd to back it up, time machine seems to create a total new backup of the whole drive and not just the changes. It seems to not recognise that it has already backed up the disk before. Does anyone know how to fix this?
I know it is possible, since I have used this system before, but can't quite figure out how to solve the problem.
Thanks!

However, the problem is that every time I connect the external hd to back it up, time machine seems to create a total new backup of the whole drive and not just the changes. It seems to not recognise that it has already backed up the disk before. Does anyone know how to fix this?
If the drive is not recognised.. you should see multiple external drives in the backup.. is that in fact what is happening.
What makes you think it is doing a whole new backup??
One factor you may not have considered is that Time Machine does need to do a deep scan of the disk when it has missed more than a few days. A deep scan can take ages over wireless as it will have to actually compare the backup with the files on the disk. Determine what has changed, make up a list of files that need backup and then start and actually do the backup.. this might even take longer than a straight clean backup.
Have you checked the TM log for what it is really doing?? Pondini widget will give you that info. See A1 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
I have a simple solution.. that will cost you around $40.. use Carbon Copy Cloner.. not Time Machine. It simply handles this kind of thing better.
There are a number of other solutions that you can buy.. 3rd party backup software.. you can even do it manually via rsync.. however.. a tool like CCC which is based on rsync is a heck of lot easier than writing your own backup scripts.

Time machine - "the backup disk image could not be mounted"

SInce a few days, I am unable to backup via Time Machine.
I always get the message:
TIME MACHINE ERROR
The backup disk image could not be mounted
I use an Apple Time Capsule and still have more than enough free space on it.
Use OS X 10.5.5
Help.....
Tks

Rosy,
*_"The Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Mounted" (Console - “Failed to mount disk image”)_*
First, it is important to distinguish this error message from another, similar Time Machine error that states “The backup volume could not be mounted”. This is important as the causes and cures for these two errors can be very different.
Consider each topic below separately. When one option does not resolve your issue, then move on the next one.
*Unmount the Backup Disk Image* (TC)
If, for some reason, you have manually mounted the Time Machine backup disk image (sparsebundle), or Time Machine failed to eject it after the previous backup, subsequent backups may fail. (Console - “Failed to mount disk image”… “Backup failed with error: 21”)
Eject the backup disk image (white drive icon) by either clicking the little Eject icon to the right of the disk image in the Finders’ Sidebar, or Ctrl-Click the drive icon on the desktop and select “Eject” from the contextual menu. Now try backing up again or launching Time Machine to view previous backups.
*“Disconnect All Users…”:*
If your Time Machine backup drive (“Backup of Users Computer”) is mounted on your desktop or in the Sidebar of the Finder window. then Time Machine may think the drive is already in use. Alternatively, if the Time Capsule hard disk has been recently accessed by a Windows machine, it may not have fully relinquished control. Do the following:
Open Airport Utility and select the Time Capsule on the left.
Click “Manual Setup”.
Select “Disks” at top of window.
Click “Disconnect All Users…” at bottom of window.
Close the Airport Utility.
Now try Backing up again.
“I got it resolved. Apparently it had to do with one of the files being open on the disk from the drive. I had browsed the disk with one of my windows boxes here and it must have left one of the folders "open". Anyway, I rebooted the TC and we are good to go now.”
*Proper Computer Name* #
Make sure your computer has a proper name. Go to System Preferences --> Sharing. Time Machine needs to differentiate your computer from others on your network (i.e. "Bills MacBook" or "Office iMac"). If the "Computer Name" field is blank, create a name. Realize that if this step is necessary, you will likely have to start the Time Machine backup process over again and do another full initial backup.
According to this article, [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1760], Time Machine may experience problems if your computer name includes certain characters. Make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from the following set.
(0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ)
Once a change in the computer name occurs, you should stop and restart Sharing on the affected computer. Uncheck and then recheck Sharing in the Services list on the left.
Let us know if any of the suggestions above resolves your issue.
Cheers!

Time Machine creates new disk image when backing up but files not visible

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for