Time machine didn't back up all originals in iPhoto

I have been trying to restore my iPhoto library (iLife 9) to an alternative Macbook after a Hard Drive failure. I can all the thumbnails to show but only the full res photos for those taken in 2011. If I click on earlier ones I just get a triangle with an exclamation mark in the middle. After unsuccessfully trying all the advice I could find re iPhoto (Rebuild, using iPhoto Library Manager etc) I looked directly at the files saved by Time Machine. Within the Originals folder only the 2011 folder contained any data. Indeed, this subfolder accounted for most of the total size of the iPhoto folder. In contrast the Thumbnails folders appear to be complete. I therefore conclude that Time Machine has only been backing up the current Originals subfolder. I cannot find any reference to TM being partial in this way (it's usually all or none)?
The oldest backup, which is similarly affected, is only a few months old, although I have been using Time Machine for much longer. I have a vague memory of it deciding to restart the backup from scratch a while ago, so perhaps it wiped the previous backups? At this point I am just hoping I can recover the data from the Hard Drive. I have already been told by a specialist that this is going to be difficult, and expensive even if it is possible.
I would like to know how this situation can have arisen. Obviously I should not have been so reliant on TM, but this is the worst possible failure for me: these older photos are the most valuable data I have. Anything else important is replicated in the Cloud (email and attachments, iDisk, Dropbox) - not apparently a good option for large iPhoto libraries.

Just a suggestion, but try entering Time Machine using the application and see if you can find any of the missing data. If so, see if you can restore it.
If you have 1.5 TB of data, you really need a bigger backup drive. The rule of thumb is 2 to 4 times your data. You should also have more than one backup. Either another Time Machine drive or a clone.
Clone - Carbon Copy Cloner (Often recommended as it has more features than some others)
Clone – Data Backup
Clone – Deja Vu
Clone - SuperDuper
Clone - Synk
Clone Software – 6 Applications Tested
Commonly Used Backup Methods

Similar Messages

I recently had the genius bar change my imac hard drive because it crashed. For some reason Time Machine didn't back up some of my important files. Can I get my damaged hard drive back from the genius bar to see if I can access that info?

I recently had the genius bar change my imac hard drive because it crashed. For some reason Time Machine didn't back up some of my important files. Can I get my damaged hard drive back from the genius bar to see if I can access that info?

Unfortunately, that drive is long gone, probably back to the mfr. Drives are not returned when they are exchanged. You can go by and ask them, but the chances are slim to none.

Time Machine Didn't Back Up

I have two hard drives that are both 2 Terrabytes. One is the main and the other is the Time Machine backup.
I just accidentally overwrote a Flash FLA file, so I selected it and ran Time Machine. There is no backup of this file even though it's on the main hard drive and Time Machine has been backing up every hour for months.
In fact, if I select the folder and check out Time Machine, it doesn't have a backup of the entire folder all the way back to the first week of April.
Yes, Time Machine is backing up, I didn't turn it off.
Does anyone have an idea why Time Machine would arbitrarily decide to not back up this folder? What happens if it runs out of space on the backup hard drive?
Thank you!

OK, I just checked the preferences and the Main Hard drive was put on the 'don't back up' list somehow. Weird. I must have accidentally did that. I'm backing up NOW!!

Time Machine Didn't Back-up iPhoto 11 Pictures

My iMac (running Snow Leopard) recently froze up while working . I rebooted the computer and got a white screen. I have read several threads on this topic but nothing has work (I think my hard drive is shot). I went to install my time machine backup onto my iMac's hard drive to get all my data back. Just before I did this, I looked at the most recent backups and noticed that my iPhoto library was empty. As I went back in time, it became apparent that I had iPhoto back-ups until the month that I installed iLife 11 (with iPhoto 11). After this date, it looks like none of my pictures are available. This is almost 12 months of data!
Am I missing something or do I really not have a backup? Any help would be appreciated.

It almost sounds like you only did a single backup.
If that's true, and iPhoto was open when the backup ran, Time Machine may not have been able to back up your photos. See: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4116
Unfortunately, Time Machine does not send any sort of warning message when that happens. Apparently, Apple expects you to do frequent backups (Time Machine will do them hourly if it can), so if they get missed one time, it can catch up on subsequent backups.
That's another reason many of us recommend keeping "secondary" backups. See #27 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), for some suggestions.

Time machine doesn't back up all the estimated files

Ran Time machine for the first time today. The back up is on a seperate harddrive. It estimated about 93 gigs (I had room for 125 gigs on the partitioned drive), but suddenly stopped when it got to about 63 gigs. It acted like everything is just fine. I had no exclusions except for a few hard drives plugged in, everything else is fine for back up. I use Lion and my computer is about two years old. Please help

Just a suggestion, but try entering Time Machine using the application and see if you can find any of the missing data. If so, see if you can restore it.
If you have 1.5 TB of data, you really need a bigger backup drive. The rule of thumb is 2 to 4 times your data. You should also have more than one backup. Either another Time Machine drive or a clone.
Clone - Carbon Copy Cloner (Often recommended as it has more features than some others)
Clone – Data Backup
Clone – Deja Vu
Clone - SuperDuper
Clone - Synk
Clone Software – 6 Applications Tested
Commonly Used Backup Methods

Time Machine does not back up all iTunes music files

Hello, I'm trying to view the music files, on my Time Machine backup disc, from a CD that I recently imported into iTunes. My iTunes library resides on my hard drive. The backup disc shows files for some of the other music that is in my iTunes library, but not from the new CD. I did several backups after importing the new music, but the song files still do not show up in Time Machine. Any ideas for why the files don't show up?
My ultimate aim is to copy those music files onto another computer, but my research on the support pages suggests that I should not do it this way. Instead, I will copy the music files onto another disc (not using Time Machine) and then import them onto the other computer. Please confirm that this is the best way to proceed.
But in the meantime, I'm wondering why Time Machine does not show my newly imported music.
Thanks very much for any help you can provide.

New formulation of my question:
A file dated at 10:00 may not appear in the back-up dated 11:00.

Time machine is not backing up photos in iphoto9 /Originals folder

Just figure out the reason to cause lost of my photos after restore from Time Machine Backup:
time machine is not backing up photos in iphoto/Originals folder from month ago;
Here was how I tested the problem, I don't know why TM stop doing backup folder
1) Import some new pictures from camera to iphoto library --> FINE , I can view the new imports in iphoto and also I can find the copies of imported files under iphoto Library/Originals (by Show package content)
2) I closed iphoto and I manually ask TM to backup.
3) After TM is done, I go to backup in TM, all newly imported photos are missing in the
TM backup which I just created 5 min ago.!!
No matter what, Apple need to fix this bug!!! How many people lost their precious data
because iphoto & TM???? I will go back to 3rd party software to manually import photos
and manage photos. You never know what's next bug and the result is very serious.
I knew someone lost the whole year photos. !!! Be cautious!!!!!!
AND I think somehow it is bug in the iphoto............
PLease reply if you have similar problem!

I just lost 6 months of photos! Same problem. Not sure why Time Machine did not back them up. I couldnt even get my iphoto '09 disk to install. Had to buy the new version because the system crashed.
Any thoughts on how to find the 6 months of photos that are missing? Only thing I can think of is that iphoto started saving the new photos in a new library. Is that possible? If so where would I find it in my TM back ups?
I really dislike Apple right now... I thought they never crashed.

Lost Photos . Restoring from Time Machine didn't work. HELP!

Here's what happened. I pray someone can help. I've lost precious childhood photos.
1. I made a folder with a few albums inside.
2. I was going through my photos and moving appropriate ones into the albums.
3. With maybe 10-15 photos I would get the big, black exclamation point when I double-clicked on the photo to see a larger version of it.
4. Researched how I could fix this problem.
5. Tried all the iPhoto Repair Library (command/option open iPhoto) options. Didn't fix the exclamation point problem.
6. Downloaded iPhoto Library Manager. Started to run "Restore Library" but noticed it looked like the program froze, so I canceled it.
7. Went back to iPhoto and realized I had lost at least half my photos! PANICKED!
8. Decided to use Time Machine and my back-up hard drive to restore the iPhoto Library.
9. Started TM, but again it appeared like it wasn't working, so I cancelled it again.
10. Went back to iPhoto and noticed my photos were back but the exclamation point problems was still there.
11. Since TM appeared to work, I ran it about two hours after which time a window popped up saying something like "Can't continue operation. Only option was to click "Ok."
12. Opened iPhoto, and I'm back to missing half my photos (all of which appear to be from 2009 and earlier).
Majorly stressed out right now. Please can anyone help me?
Running OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 and iPhoto 9.6.1
Thank you!

Try this:
Starting over from scratch with new library
Start over with a new library and import the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from your original library as follows:
1. Open the library package like this.
2. Launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
3. Drag the subfolders of the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from the open iPhoto Library package into the open iPhoto window a few at a time.
This will create a new library with the same Events (but not necessarily the same Event names) as the original library but will not keep the metadata, albums, books slideshows and other projects.
Note: your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.

Time machine won't back up

I just got a new MacBook Air with Lion. On my old Mac, I thought I remembered that Time Machine would only backup files that have changed since the last time I backed up my drive. I used Time Machine to transfer my old desktop to my new Air. Today when I tried to use TIme Machine to back it up, it said I did not have enough space.
I'm not clear if it's trying to back up the whole drive or just things that have changed since the install (which is all I need).
What should I do to make more room for my current back up or to instruct Time Machine only to back up items that have changed since the last backup?
Thanks.

FWIW I had this sort of problem which generally #$%^& me off. I had a brainstorm and tried somebody's MBP and it worked just as expected. So I reinstalled Leopard after erasing and formating the drive and using time machine off my external LaCie.
That didn't work worth a #$%^&
So I once again, reformatted the drive and reinstalled leopard FROM THE DVD and then used time machine as part of the migration assistant, and everything worked perfectly, and I can now use TC with my Mac Pro octo.
So something MIGHT be hosed on your system, and if you feel that you have a solid back up, reinstall off the DVD and then migrate with time machine.
Hope this helps. I spent about 2 days getting this straightened out.

How do I redirect time machine to current back up?

I just sent my Powerbook to Applecare for a repair (screen, fans, and keyboard), and I just received it yesterday. The first thing I did was click time machine to go back into time to retrieve some files that I didn't want to be somehow (purposely or more likely accidentally) affected by Apple's repair. Only the problem is, there is nothing there. Can't go back in time. Then an error pops up telling me that my disk has 1.99 GB's left to use and it needs 77 to create a new back up. The issue here is the fact that my partition has 200 GB's to back up on, and the reason that I only have 1.99 is because everything is already currently backed up to the backup bundle already created and used before sending it to Applecare. How do I make Time Machine recognize the current back up again (which has been in use since October) so that I can actually access all the files and continue to back up? I know the files are there, and I know the .sparsebundle still exists (I'm looking at), so how do I make Time Machine recognize and utilize it like nothing has happened?

Thanks a lot for responding, I really appreciate you taking the time to respond. I did check the computer name and it is the same. There are no new backups since I've received my computer back from Applecare so I'm not afraid to loose and current saves, all the ones I want are in that bundle. Once I saw that it tried to create whole new back up (sparsebundle) and couldn't because it didn't have enough space, I turned time machine off to make sure nothing changes from what was previously set. It's just a matter of figuring out how to make Time Machine recognize all the backups again so that I can access the them and continue to back up on it.
I'm not sure if I wrote this in already, but thought I would to see if it helps. My external hard drive is set up with the backups on it. When I access the external hard drive in finder, it shows a file that says "Kagan Buck's Powerbook G4's backups.sparsebundle" (not exact, but you get the drift). And it's trying to create a new one of those. So my basic question how do I make Time Machine access the current bundle again to utilize it like it always used too.
Sorry again if I'm being repetitious, but I feel like that's the first time I've actually correctly described the issue.
Thanks a lot.

Time Machine won't back up onto Time Capsule

I upgraded to Mountain Lion last week, and Time Machine won't back up to my Time Capsule. When it fails, I get the message:
Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to "Tom's Time Capsule".
The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/TomsMac.sparsebundle" could not be created (error 60)
I sometimes get the same message, but with "error 17"
I also get the following error message popup (even though the disk is the one in my Time Capsule):
The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer.
The popup offers three choices: Initialize, Ignore, Eject.
My local Apple Store Genius concluded that the problem must be with the Time Capsule, so I bought a new one. That didn't fix the problem.
Time Machine Buddy messages:
Starting manual backup
Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://Tom%[email protected]/Data
Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Data using URL: afp://Tom%[email protected]/Data
Creating disk image /Volumes/Data/TomsMac.sparsebundle
Error 60 creating backup disk image
Failed to create disk image /Volumes/Data/TomsMac.sparsebundle, status: 60
Backup failed with error: 20
Failed to eject volume /Volumes/Data (FSVolumeRefNum: -108; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
I did Repair Disk Permissions and Verify Disk and everything's OK.
I erased the Time Capsule using AirPort Utility and did a hard reset on the Time Capsule.
I did a re-install of Mountain Lion and that didn't fix anything.
My MacBook Pro is accessing the Time Capsule wirelessly, as it always has.
Help!

Just to be sure, we're talking about a Time Capsule -- not an AirPort Extreme connected to an external hard drive. Right?
If so, proceed as follows.
Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode* and log in to the account with the problem. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
*Note: If FileVault is enabled under OS X 10.7 or later, or if a firmware password is set, you can’t boot in safe mode.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem(s)?
After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

Time machine is not backing up the folder

Just figure out the reason to cause lost of my photos after restore from Time Machine Backup:
time machine is not backing up photos in iphoto/Originals folder
Here is how I tested the problem, I don't know why TM stop doing backup folder
1) Import some pictures from camera to iphoto library --> fine, I can view the new import in iphoto and also I can find the copy of imported file under iphoto Library/Originals (by Show package content)
2) I manually ask TM to backup.
3) After TM is done, I go to backup, all newly imported photos are missing in the TM backup which
I just created 5 min ago.!!
No matter what, Steve Jobs need to fix this bug!!! How many people lost their precious data
because iphoto & TM???? I will go back to 3rd party software to manually import photos and
manage photos.
AND I think it is somehow must bug in the iphoto..........
PLease reply if you have similar problem!

icestone2010 wrote:
Just figure out the reason to cause lost of my photos after restore from Time Machine Backup:
time machine is not backing up photos in iphoto/Originals folder
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 this forum).
If that doesn't help, repair your backups, per #A5 there.
No matter what, Steve Jobs need to fix this bug!!!
Be sure to call him and tell him that.

I'm running Pages version 5.2 on a Desktop Mac version 10.9.2. with the Pages app open how do I use the Time Machine to go back five hours to see the work?

I'm running Pages version 5.2 on a Desktop Mac version 10.9.2. With the Pages app open how do I use the Time Machine to go back five hours to see my page? Can I access Time Machine within an app like Pages? How do I enter Time Machine within the application? It always takes me to the Finder. I apolgise for the mumbo jumbo. I simply do not know how to use Time Machine. It makes sense when I follow the Tutorial but then I lose it.

OK. You've kind of skipped over the reason why you want to go back five hours, but my assumption would be that you've made changes to a Pages file that you want to revert.
There are two ways to tackle this. From Pages itself, open the current version of your document, and from the File menu, click Revert To, and Browse All Versions. You'll then be in the Time Machine interface for that file, and can browse back to the version you want.
Or, outside of Pages, you can select the file (or the folder it was originally in, if you've since deleted it) and enter Time Machine from the TM menu (it sounds like you've already tried this?)
best
Matt

Time MAchine won't back up due to not enough space, but there is

TIme Machine won't back up. Displays this:
Actual capacity of the external backup drive is 999.68 GB and available is 135 gb .
The imac internal HD capacity is 999.01GB and used space is 636.321 GB.
This problem has occured periodically in the last 12 months or so, so prior to OS version10.8 install in Jul 2012.
I previously called AppleCare, as I have a contract, and tech said I just need to reformat the external drive and start over.
I did that the last time this happened a few months ago, but I don't like that option, as it eliminates all the prior backups,
What if I needed to try to recover something I deleted 3 weeks ago, for example. I couldn't do so as all backups would have been deleted, of course, by me having refomatted the drive and basically starting over. Also, I noted in another post about a person having a problem due to using a partitioned drive. Mine is not partition, as far as I can tell. See this:
Any ideas? Thanks

The solution is essentially "simple." You need a larger hard drive for these backups or you need to use a different backup solution. By this I mean using backup software that does not preserve an archive of old copies of a file, but simply erases old copies in order to replace them with the new copies. By replacing your backup drive can always accommodate the drive it backs up if it is large enough - say the same size. I can suggest:
Backup Software Recommendations
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
SuperDuper!
Synk Pro
Tri-Backup
Others may be found at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
All of the above are capable of being scheduled. Synk Pro makes immediate backups of any changed file on the hard drive. You may configure it to archive changes (like Time Machine) or to delete prior copies.

Time Machine won't back up after system restore

I just restored my system after a failure, and now Time Machine won't back up my hard drive. It gets about 40 out of 90 Gigabytes done, and then gives me an error message that just says that there was an error while backing up, and doesn't give any other information. I ran a Verify Disk with Disk Utility, and there is nothing wrong with the backup drive, and there is more than 200 Gigabytes of space left on that drive.
Thank You.

zhoffmanster wrote:
Ok, so here's the thing: I tried backing up again today, and it worked just fine. Before, what would happen is a message would pop saying "an error has occurred during backup" (or something close to that). The point is, the message didn't give any detail.
No, the point is, you seem to have ignored this:
See the Time Machine - Troubleshooting post at the top of this forum.

Time machine didn't back up all originals in iPhoto

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