Time Machine does not recognize my iMac backup. Reports: not enough space; can't back up. How do I get it to recognize the backup?

Time Machine does not recognize my 430 GB iMac backup on 1 terabyte Time Capsule. Reports: not enough space; can’t back up. How do I get it to recognize the old backup and continue backups?

Thanks for the Time Machine Troubleshooting link. Apparently things have changed since 10.7.0. Backups.backupdb doesn’t exist. Path now is: Time Capsule/Data/Daru’s iMac.sparsebundle. So I did Terminal (I usually avoid Terminal) using the instruction in B6. It does not appear to be working. It went through looking for backup, preparing backup, and is now stopping backup, and the TMBackup has disappeared from the sidebar.
Well, just now Time Machine progressed to preparing backup again; the Tiime Machine Backups appeared in sidebar, and with it Backups.backupdb/Daru’s iMac/2012-04-21-112939.inProgress. So it does exist... I’ll let it run, see what happens... But that is a strange date. Today is 28.
I’ll let you know the outcome.
Oops. Just ended! Real time report: “Backup too large for disk...“ So it is not recognizing the old backup. I’ll look at those instructions again, see if I can do the Terminal thing with the backup running. I doubt I can damage anything except the existing baackup which I'll lose anywy if I can’t achieve recognition.
Daru

Similar Messages

Time machine does not appear to backup an external HD. how do I get that included in the backup?

time machine does not appear to backup an external HD. how do I get that included in the backup?

In the Finder, press the key combination shift-command-C, or select
Go ▹ Computer
from the menu bar. A window will open showing all mounted volumes. Select the one in question and open the Info window. What is shown as the Format in the General section? If it's not "Mac OS Extended," Time Machine can't back up the volume.

HT4527 My old mac book was backed up to a Time Machine drive. That Macbook is dead. I have a new Mac Mini. How do I get the iTunes library (not just the music files but all other data...playlists, ratings, etc) on the new Mac from my Time Machine?

My old Mac died. I had it backed up to a Time Machine external drive (fortunately). I have a new Mac. I want to get my entire iTunes library from the Time Machine drive to the new Mac. I want not only the music files but all the "library" metadata, playlists, song rankings, unique genre designations. How do I do this?

No backup is a huge mistake.
You can redownload some itunes purchases in some countries:
Downloading past purchases from the App Store ... - Apple - Support

Why does time machine say my wireless hard drive doesn't have enough space when it clearly does?

I have a 2 TB western digital hard drive connected via USB to my airport extreme (Y2012) that i've been using the past 2 years to connect to wirelessly. The hard drive has 2 partitions, ~1 TB each. 1 partition for backing up, the other for storing media. Recently I deleted my macbook pro backup. My macbook pro has a 500GB hard drive, of which about 120 GB is free.
Since I deleted the old time machine backup disk image and told time machine to start a new backup, I am now receiving an error. It's telling me there isn't enough room on the drive, when the 1TB partition i'm trying to use (as i've sucessfully done in the past) has nothing on it. 1 full TB free, and my macbook pro can't backup a 500 GB hard drive, which isn't even full itself.
PLEASE HELP!! I have a macbook pro early 2011, and I never know when the board is going to go koput again and I don't currently have a backup of my stuff while this problem persists.
Thanks!

Start with Section C in the 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

Time Machine does not see original backup file on Time Capsuel after reset.

I recently moved. I have a Time Capsule which is also my airport base station. I have about 7 months worth of back-ups on the drive for an iMac and a MacBook. The local cable company would only hook up the modem directly to my iMac and would not set up through the Time Capsule as it is not one of their routers. No problem. I did it once -- I could do it again. After discovering that it was not as simple as plugging the ethernet cable into the Time Capsule (after doing so, the Time Capsule recognized it had internet feed -- the iMac recognized the Time Capsule/Airport network -- but I could not get onto the net.) I discovered that I needed to do a hard reset. The instructions said the files would not be erased. They were not. I can still see the original back-ups for both computers in finder. But Time Machine does not recognize that either computer was ever backed up. There is no history and when I try a back-up it begins from scratch and creates a brand new back-up file.
How do I get Time Machine to recognize the original back-up files? I tried "choosing disk" in Time Machine preferences but it only lets me choose the actual disk (the Time Capsule) and not an individual back-up file
Thanks in advance to the collective brain trust.
Robert

I saw a post on another discussion about this subject, and one user found this workaround:
2) Start the backup via wireless connection. Stop the backup. Unplug external HD and plug in via USB or FW (you want FW800). Time Machine appears smart enough to continue your backup in a manner that is useable by the AEBS.
This only makes sense for the first backup (or if you have a lot of data for one particular incremental backup), as it removes the whole convenience factor of wireless.
The post got this reply:
Thx for your #2 tip on using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Base Station, then switching to a wired connection. Worked perfectly.
Started the TimeMachine b/up wirelessly, allowed it to run for a couple minutes, then stopped it, unplugged the USB drive from the AEBS, plugged it into the computer directly via FW400, opened TimeMachine and it recognized the Disk. Ran TimeMachine via the wired connection, after it finished I ejected it, plugged it back into the AEBS, initiated the AirDisk in the finder, then opened TimeMachine and presto!!
Awesome tip. Note: this works for first-time TimeMachine wireless backups only. Saved me over 40 hours of wireless waiting!!
http://gizmodo.com/370017/how+to-use-time-machine-with-an-airport-extreme
Can anyone confirm that this will work?

HT201250 Time Machine does not recognize external drive at start up

I have an external WD 2TB drive which I use as my Time Machine back up drive. When I restart the iMac desktop the Time Machine drive does not start automatically and I must open Time Machine each time and remember to identify the external drive that contains my Time Machine back up data. Is there some way to make this drive the default Time Machine back up device when the system starts? It is annoying to have to remember to do this each time my machine restarts. I have a drive icon that displays as "My Book" on restart where the Time Machine icon is located but this icon is yellow and my Time Machine drive icon is blueish green. Once I set the correct drive it will go into the mode to refresh the backup (usually in 118 seconds) and then once the backup is updated then the icon become blueish green and all works normally. Please help! Thx Tom

I called Apple tech support and went through the recommended actions with doing the disk check with the Utilities and all checked out okay. They had to ask the senior support advisor and was told that it does not automatically start the Time Machine drive until the next scheduled back up. There was a misconception that this drive SHOULD be identified as the Time Machine drive on boot up but that is not the case. I waited for the next schedule back up after reboot and it DID recognize the drive and it appears to be working fine.
The Time Machine does start on boot up but does not indicate that the Time Machine is recognized until the back up is done then it is back on cycle and will operate normally until the next reboot where it will then refresh during that cycle and become recognized in green. Until that time the drive will appear as a yellow icon for the disk.
Oh, by the way, the drive has external power on my WD 2 TB drive.

Since installing Lion, I have not been able to utilize Time Machine (does not recognize the back-up drive); my wireless mouse does not function properly; I have experienced unreasonable delays in the system. Is there a fix or upgrade coming?

Is there a fix or upgrade to deal with the many problems I am experiencing since I installed Lion? I can no longer utilize Time Machine (Does not see the back-up drive); my wireless mouse does not work properly; my iMac has slowed down considerably. I am reminded of having a PC machine again. Bummer!

Either downgrade to Snow Leopard or try reinstalling Lion.
Reinstalling Lion Without the Installer
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alterhatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.
Downgrade Lion to Snow Leopard
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.1.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files.

My Time Machine does not recognize Airport Time Capsule 2TB

I just connect my new Airport Time capsule 2TB and the wifi work fine in the whole house.
But Time machine does not recognize my Airport time capsule. It remain stuck on my ex baxkup My Book. If I press select disk or option nothing happen . If I click on remove backup disk nothing happen. I want to use Airport Time capsule as my back up disk.
Thank you for your help.
Guy-Gabriel

Do a full TM reset.. see A4 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
You might also need to manually mount the TC disk..
In finder use Go, Connect to server in the top menu.
AFP://TCname or TCIPaddress (using the actual name or IP of course).

HT3275 My time machine does not back up and giving me this error message: The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data-1/Amiel's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use. Pls help.

My time machine does not back up and giving me this error message: The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data-1/Amiel’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” is already in use. Pls help.

Make sure that there are no other Macs backing up at the present time.
Pull the power cord from the back of the Time Capsule
Count to ten
Plug the power cord back in
This will "fix" things about 98% of the time. Post back if you are in the unlucky 2% category.

Restore from time machine does not list all my backups. I know they exist but there dates are not present on the restore list. Any help appreciated.

Restore from time machine does not list all my backups. I know they exist but their dates are not present on the restore list. Any help appreciated. If I must use one of these older dates to restore, how do I then get the more current data off time machine?

Ok, so am i correct in saying that the steps to fix are as follows.
That's one option, but not what I meant by restoring in the time-travel view. The latter is what you get when you enter Time Machine.
is the fresh install not going to be able to "see" the time machine backups that I have at the moment.
It should, but sometimes people report that it fails. I'm not sure why that happens.

Time Machine does not appear to auto delete old backups

I would like old backups to be automatically deleted, but so far does not appear to have occurred as I have not received any warnings. I have checked the box in the setup dialog box to do so. I have only 60GB remaining and receive warnings from Tech Tools that the free space threshold is at 2% remaining.
Does the drive have to be fully exhausted before older backups are automatically deleted (causing the warning), and if so should I turn off the Tech Tools warning for remaining disc space for that drive?
I am using an OWC Mercury Elite AL Pro 2TB external drive with an eSATA connection. Our typical business files can range from 100 to 300MB each. In the Apple Support Mac 101 Time Machine article it states "As your backup disk begins to fill up to its capacity, Time Machine intelligently deletes the oldest backups to make room for newer ones (and will alert you if the "Warn when old backups are deleted" option is selected in Time Machine preferences)." To date, this warning has not appeared making me think no deletions have occurred.
Thanks for any thoughts, Scott

Scotttt wrote:
I would like old backups to be automatically deleted, but so far does not appear to have occurred as I have not received any warnings. I have checked the box in the setup dialog box to do so. I have only 60GB remaining and receive warnings from Tech Tools that the free space threshold is at 2% remaining.
Does the drive have to be fully exhausted before older backups are automatically deleted (causing the warning)
The oldest backup(s) won't be deleted until there isn't room for a new one. And "warning" is a bit misleading -- when there isn't enough space, the backup will fail, without deleting anything, until you deselect the option. See #C4 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).
Note that this has changed for Snow Leopard; it does the deletion(s) automatically, then sends a notice.
and if so should I turn off the Tech Tools warning for remaining disc space for that drive?
Yes. That accomplishes nothing. Time Machine manages it's space automatically.
To date, this warning has not appeared making me think no deletions have occurred.
That's not strictly true; it applies only when Time Machine has to delete your oldest backups to make room for new ones. But it also deletes "expired" backups every time it does a new one. See #12 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).

Time machine does not backup anymore

Hello all,
I've been using my time machine for a month now, I kept it turned off and only connected the disk when I wanted to make a backup. Then I just hit Back Up Now from the menu and it always backed up everything (I used to check it afterwards). FYI, I've got a 500GB drive and for backups I use a 500GB partition on an external disk, where about 100GB is still free. All of a sudden, my time machine does not backup anymore. It does its run, whether a scheduled hourly one when turned on, or an on-demand one, but it only lasts a split second as though there is nothing to backup and when I enter the time machine, the files are really missing. I can't make it backup anything anymore. What is going on?
thanks everyone

cukerko wrote:
Hello all,
I've been using my time machine for a month now, I kept it turned off and only connected the disk when I wanted to make a backup. Then I just hit Back Up Now from the menu and it always backed up everything (I used to check it afterwards). FYI, I've got a 500GB drive and for backups I use a 500GB partition on an external disk, where about 100GB is still free.
It's not related to this problem, but that may not be large enough. What's important is not the size of your internal HD, but how much is on it (or is expected to be on it in the next year or so). It varies widely, of course, depending on how you use your Mac, but Time Machine usually needs 2-3 times the space of the data it's backing-up.
. . . it only lasts a split second as though there is nothing to backup and when I enter the time machine, the files are really missing.
That sounds like the year-old unfixed bug detailed in red in #D5 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).

Time Machine does not backup all files

I recently did a clean install and to my horror i can see that Time Machine does NOT back up all my files.
It seems to be worst in my music library which fortunately is pretty easy to rebuild do to itunes index.
But is there any way to make sure that Time Machine does in fact back up all files?
Or is it just broken and should be avoided?
I have 1,5 year old Macbook Pro Retina 15 inches 500 GB SSD

If you use the third-party application "Dropbox," you may see files in the Finder that are not present locally, but are actually on a network server. Those files won't be backed up and won't appear in Time Machine, even though they show in a Finder window. If the files in question are in a Dropbox folder, disable the software or refer to its developer for support.
Continue only if you've ruled out Dropbox or any similar product as a possible cause of the issue.
Open the Time Machine preference pane and unlock the settings, if necessary. Click the Options button. If there is one particular folder with items that are not being backed up reliably, add it to the list of excluded items. If there are many such folders, add your home folder to the list, or add a whole volume (i.e., what Apple calls a "disk.") Save the changes.
Start a backup, or wait for one to happen automatically. When it's done, open the preference pane again and remove the exclusion(s) you made earlier. Back up again and see whether there's a change.

Time Machine does not backup all of my files

Hi,
If I compare my Dropbox folder to what Time Machine backups there are differences which means that Time Machine does not backup all files:
diff <(cd "/Users/phil/Dropbox" && ls -R | sort) <(cd "/Volumes/TimeMachineBackup/Backups.backupdb/Computername/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/phil/Dropbox" && ls -R | sort)
There are also differences if I compare my user folder to the Time Machine Backup:
diff <(cd "/Users/phil/" && ls -R | sort) <(cd "/Volumes/TimeMachineBackup/Backups.backupdb/Computername/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/phil/" && ls -R | sort)
I did not exclude the folders affected from the Time Machine backup.
I have verified this behaviour on other computers as well.
Does anybody else have this kind of problem?
Philipp

These commands solved the problem for now:
1) Stop the Dropbox desktop application (if needed)
- Click on the Dropbox icon.
- Choose Quit/Stop/Exit
2) Open your Terminal app (Located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
3) Copy and paste the following lines into the Terminal, one at a time, and press RETURN after each one. PLEASE make sure you copy and paste these commands (don't type them by hand), as getting them wrong could cause some harm. You'll be prompted for your computer user's password (not your Dropbox password) after entering the first command. Keep in mind that the password field in the terminal will remain blank as you type your password. After you type it, just press ENTER.
sudo chflags -R nouchg ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox ~/.dropbox-master
sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"
sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox ~/.dropbox-master
sudo chmod -RN ~/.dropbox ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox-master
chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox ~/.dropbox-master

Logic Board was replaced - Now Time Machine does not show previous backups

Hi
Bit desperate here.
My Apple store changed my hard disk and the logic board along with it.
I'm now aware that this means my MAC address has changed - which is what your Time Machine looks for when it tries to back up.
So now the backups are failing, and I KNOW there's a HINT offered on macosxhints.com
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080128003716101&query=Time%2Bmach ine%2Blogic
- but I have absolutely NO previous experience with TERMINAL and minute I try to re direct terminal to my Time Machine Volume : it tells me there is no such file or directory. It's all gobbledygook to me. I think the person that wrote it ASSUMED some previous knowledge of using terminal.
The things I DO know are: My MAC address number, and my TM Volume is called The BIG BACKUP (not Time Machine). It doesn't
Can anyone make this clearer for me, or indeed is there an easier way.
I know I could just tell TM to change disk and just star afresh - but I'm under the impression that it's very uneccessary for me to lose all my previous backups.
Hey, many, many thanks if you can help
Simon

Hello K.V.
(I'm having to come back to this when I get a minute at the moment)
Many thanks for your suggestions so far. Several things have occured:
Firstly I did what you instructed in your last post, that seem to let me go on without any further errors - so I then when back to my desktop - dismounted The BIG BACKUP and restarted the whole mac, remounting the The BIG BACKUP. I went to the 'Back Up Now' commend to test it and it failed, sayind it could not find the file or directory.
So this evening I started in terminal from scratch - when I got to the ls -al command I noticed that my old address was no longer in the list, it was on the line before the new address before (I also punched in the wrong mac address intially but spotted it and rectified my mistake .001f5beb34e5 being the correct one) as you can see from below it now says my old address is No such file or directory.
Here is a copy of what happened
Last login: Mon Jul 21 19:27:07 on ttys000
simon-evanss-imac:~ simonevans$ cd /Volumes/"The BIG BACKUP"/Backups.backupdb
simon-evanss-imac:Backups.backupdb simonevans$ xattr -p com.apple.backupd.BackupMachineAddress "simon-evanss-imac"
No such file: simon-evanss-imac
simon-evanss-imac:Backups.backupdb simonevans$ xattr -p com.apple.backupd.BackupMachineAddress"simon-evanss-imac"
simon-evanss-imac:Backups.backupdb simonevans$ cd ..
simon-evanss-imac:The BIG BACKUP simonevans$ ls -al
total 104
drwxr-xr-x@ 16 simonevans staff 612 20 Jul 22:44 .
drwxrwxrwt@ 6 root admin 204 21 Jul 21:13 ..
-r-------- 1 simonevans staff 16 24 Apr 23:56 .001f5beb34e5
-rw-r--r--@ 1 simonevans staff 6148 21 Jul 19:08 .DS_Store
drwx------ 3 simonevans staff 102 24 Apr 23:55 .Spotlight-V100
d-wx-wx-wt 3 simonevans staff 102 19 Jul 09:25 .Trashes
-rw-r--r-- 1 root staff 0 25 Apr 09:23 .com.apple.timemachine.supported
drwx------ 8 simonevans staff 272 21 Jul 19:32 .fseventsd
drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root staff 102 20 Jul 22:56 Backups.backupdb
-rw-r--r--@ 1 simonevans staff 1024 1 Jan 1970 Desktop DB
-rw-r--r--@ 1 simonevans staff 2 1 Jan 1970 Desktop DF
-rw-r--r--@ 1 simonevans staff 0 1 Jan 1970 Icon?
drwxr-xr-x 5 simonevans staff 170 24 Apr 23:55 MANUALS
drwxr-xr-x 5 simonevans staff 170 24 Apr 23:55 SOFTWARE
simon-evanss-imac:The BIG BACKUP simonevans$ sudo fsaclctl -p /Volumes/"The BIG BACKUP"
Password:
Access control lists are supported on /Volumes/The BIG BACKUP.
simon-evanss-imac:The BIG BACKUP simonevans$ sudo mv .001b639a9935 .001f5beb34e5mv: .001b639a9935: No such file or directory
simon-evanss-imac:The BIG BACKUP simonevans$ sudo mv .001b639a9935 .001cb37264bc
Password:
mv: rename .001b639a9935 to .001cb37264bc: No such file or directory
simon-evanss-imac:The BIG BACKUP simonevans$ sudo mv .001b639a9935 .001f5beb34e5
Password:
mv: .001b639a9935: No such file or directory
simon-evanss-imac:The BIG BACKUP simonevans$
Very confusing huh.
To be honest now, I guess my prime concern is if I've made any damaging changes to things I don't understand or not - and I think it may be best if I accept the Time Machine starting afresh from square one by clearing the external drive and re-directing TM to it. I could live with this I guess, so long as it worked.
What do you think?
Many thanks
Simon

Time Machine does not recognize my iMac backup. Reports: not enough space; can't back up. How do I get it to recognize the backup?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for