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

Similar Messages

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.

I ereased my external drive now time machine doesn't back up. What should I do?

I ereased my external drive now time machine doesn't back up. What should I do? the reason I ereased was because backups wouldn't finsh because of disk error. I did disk repair. Still wouldn't back up so ereased the back up drive. Now nothing appears on it. On the internal drive of my imac in Appllications Timemachine is still there. When I click on it it goes to a screen that looks like a night sky and nothing more happens. Do I need to download some software?

Time Machine doesn't work on 10.4.7. It didn't become available until 10.5. Use a different backup software if you are going to use 10.4.7*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html

Having downloaded Mavericks to my IMac I now find Time Machine couldn't back up to the Time Machine HDD. I am using a WD 1TB independent Hard drive

Having downloaded Mavericks to my IMac two weeks ago, I now find Time Machine couldn't back up to the Time Machine HDD. I am using a WD 1TB External Hard drive. I understand that a number of people have lost data since installing Mavericks on their Western Digital external drives. Has anyone any futher info. Or is there a better way of backing up my computer. Thanks. Lee

Check the More Like This section at the right particularly i upgraded my imac hard drive to a 2tb drive. how do i use time machine to get my computer back to normal?

I moved iTunes folder location, now all my personal song ratings and playlists are gone. How can I get them back? All the iTunes files are intact, just in a new location. Running iTunes 11.1.5.5

I moved iTunes folder location, now all my personal song ratings and playlists are gone. How can I get them back? All the iTunes files are intact, just in a new location. Running iTunes 11.1.5.5 on Windows 7

Put everything back the way it was.
Them move the folder correctly.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1364

Time machine doesn't back everything up anymore B-)

I have two computers, a Macbook Pro and a Mac Mini, both running 10.5.8. Both have external firewire drives (a LaCie on the Macbook Pro and an Iomega on the Mac Mini) and in both cases Time Machine has stopped backing everything up - it does all the right things but the number of files backed up is small.
I'll ask separately at this point, as the fixes may be different for each one and it will get confusing (to me and everyone else!).
The MacBook Pro backs up to a LaCie 250Gb external firewire drive. It used to work happily (since 2008) until last month (approx), now when I connect it it backs up normally but quite often nothing in the /Users/ directories gets backed up. Maybe about the time I upgraded from Aperture 2 to Aperture 3.
Here's an example from this morning from the system log:
Mar 20 10:00:53 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[19205]: Backup requested by user
Mar 20 10:00:53 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[19205]: Starting standard backup
Mar 20 10:00:54 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[19205]: Backing up to: /Volumes/LaCie/Backups.backupdb
Mar 20 10:01:11 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[19205]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 102.9 MB requested (including padding), 8.36 GB available
Mar 20 10:01:43 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[19205]: Copied 465 files (10.6 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Mar 20 10:01:43 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[19205]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 100.0 MB requested (including padding), 8.35 GB available
Mar 20 10:01:44 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[19205]: Copied 62 files (93 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
Mar 20 10:01:46 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[19205]: Starting post-backup thinning
Mar 20 10:01:48 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[19205]: Deleted backup /Volumes/LaCie/Backups.backupdb/falstaff/2010-03-13-113744: 8.35 GB now available
Mar 20 10:01:50 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[19205]: Deleted backup /Volumes/LaCie/Backups.backupdb/falstaff/2010-03-13-113622: 8.35 GB now available
Mar 20 10:01:51 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[19205]: Deleted backup /Volumes/LaCie/Backups.backupdb/falstaff/2010-03-13-113500: 8.35 GB now available
Mar 20 10:01:52 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[19205]: Deleted backup /Volumes/LaCie/Backups.backupdb/falstaff/2010-03-13-101432: 8.35 GB now available
Mar 20 10:01:52 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[19205]: Post-back up thinning complete: 4 expired backups removed
Mar 20 10:01:52 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[19205]: Backup completed successfully.
Mar 20 10:02:11 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[19205]: Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!
(the previous backup was 18th March at 20:30, since then I used the machine all day at work, reading mail, rss feeds etc).
But if I look at the backup using TimeTracker nothing got backed up in the /Users/ directories, especially in the "Pictures" directory where my Aperture 3 library and vaults live.
Interestingly, just now, I rebooted after installing the latest version of "little snitch" and when I re-attached the LaCie disk it backed up a lot more, but still not the Aperture Library and vaults.
Mar 20 12:07:18 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[437]: Backup requested due to disk attach
Mar 20 12:07:18 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[437]: Starting standard backup
Mar 20 12:07:20 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[437]: Backing up to: /Volumes/LaCie/Backups.backupdb
Mar 20 12:07:43 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[437]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 151.0 MB requested (including padding), 8.35 GB available
Mar 20 12:11:29 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[437]: Copied 3452 files (660.6 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Mar 20 12:11:37 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[437]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 100.0 MB requested (including padding), 7.68 GB available
Mar 20 12:11:43 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[437]: Copied 588 files (14 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Mar 20 12:11:46 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[437]: Starting post-backup thinning
Mar 20 12:11:46 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[437]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Mar 20 12:11:46 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[437]: Backup completed successfully.
It estimated 151Mb but actually backed up 660Mb!
If I look at TM restore, my Aperture Library hasn't been backed up since 1st March, even though I added some photos Thursday night.
I have just copied two jpeg files into the Pictures folder, that seems to have triggered it into
backing up 4.6Gb worth of Aperture Library, but not the Aperture Vault.
Mar 20 12:26:09 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[494]: Backup requested by user
Mar 20 12:26:09 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[494]: Starting standard backup
Mar 20 12:26:09 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[494]: Backing up to: /Volumes/LaCie/Backups.backupdb
Mar 20 12:26:16 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[494]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 100.0 MB requested (including padding), 7.68 GB available
Mar 20 12:31:08 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[494]: Copied 628 files (4.6 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Mar 20 12:31:09 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[494]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 100.0 MB requested (including padding), 3.04 GB available
Mar 20 12:31:09 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[494]: Copied 498 files (54 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Mar 20 12:31:10 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[494]: Starting post-backup thinning
Mar 20 12:31:10 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[494]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Mar 20 12:31:10 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[494]: Backup completed successfully.
I have run disk verify and permissions verify on the startup disk, and disk verify on the LaCie disk, I have also tried a time machine reset (several times) and a spotlight re-index (several times). I have nothing excluded in TM or Spotlight.
Confused,
Dave

Hi. Sorry for the delay, work always gets in the way!
See #D5....
Already checked the exclude list, have also tried a full reset.
That said, I mentioned above that TM seemed to have started working again, it has continued to work since. I had done a verify on the disk(s) and not restarted afterwards, I wonder if the SL bug also applies to Leopard - it did seem to start working after the reboot.
I'll keep an eye on it and see if it happens again.

Time Machine doesn't back up newest items

I have done the first round of time machine where it backs up everything on my mac- now when it backs up, it tells me it is backing up, but I don't see my newest files, photos, music, anywhere on the backup disc. what is happening? doing it manually just puts my entire photo library back onto the external HD again which would take forever. someone please HELP! thanks for your time

Having the same problem. Initial Time Machine backup goes fine. After that, no new files are backed up. I've reformated the external/Time Machine drive twice now.
Can someone suggest something. I've tried everything. No nothing is excluded, Time Machine does automatic/scheduled and manual backups just fine, but it doesn't actually appear to be backing up any new information.

Time Machine doesn't back up anymore due to a failure during copying. Get this message for several weeks. And all my back ups are lost!

Can anybody help me, because suddenly all my back ups on the the time capsule are gone, and time machine cannot make any back up due to a failure during copying. I already installed the latest firmware on the time capsule, but nothing seems to help. I also changed the back up disk to the HDD in my Mac (programs and mavericks are running on an SSD. Hope someone can help me out.

Check the TC disk with finder. The sparsebundle should still be there.. simply open it from Finder and mount the backups.
Follow Pondini's instructions to see if your files are there.
Q15 here http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
You don't have to restore the files.. you are just checking the backup is accessible and intact.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
I would also recommend you do a verify.. A5 in the reference above.
TM is problematic on Mavericks.. some of the problems are due to its poor networking.
Exactly how is the TC setup?? By that I mean is it wired to the main modem and doing either router or bridge?
Is the computer using wireless to the TC? If not please make sure the wireless connection is via the TC and not via modem router or extender.
I strongly recommend you reset the TC to factory. No files are deleted.
The Factory Reset universal
Unplug your TC/AE. Hold in reset. and power the TC/AE back on.. all without releasing reset and keep holding in for about 10sec. The time is not important.. it is the front LED rapid flashing that indicates you are in factory mode.
Release reset.
If it doesn’t flash rapidly you have released reset at some point and try again.
Be Gentle! Feel the switch click on. It has a positive feel.. add no more pressure after that.
TC/AE will reboot after a couple of minutes with default factory settings and will wipe out previous configurations.
No files are deleted on the hard disk.. No reset of the TC deletes files.. to do that you use erase from the airport utility.
Redo the setup of the TC.. please use all short names, no spaces and pure alphanumeric. Do not use the names the airport utility setup wizard will recommend to you. eg TCgenx (base station name.. x can be a number which is your gen TC). Wireless name.. TCwifi.
Wireless Security will be WPA2 personal and use 10-20 character pure alphanumeric password with mix of case and numbers.
Reset TM as per A4 in the Pondini reference above.
If you still have issues.. manually mount the TC in the computer.. in Finder use Go, Connect to server.
AFP://TCgenx or AFP://10.0.1.1 (where you replace my example name with your actual name.. or replace the IP which is default with your actual IP).
The computer should find the network resource and request a password. Type that in (your disk access password) and save it in the keychain.
Then try again with TM.
Strongly also recommend even if you get TM to work.. it is problematic on Mavericks.. buy CCC or one of the other 3rd party backups.. With CCC you can do a bootable clone to a USB drive.. easily the best way to get a dead Mac going again.

Time Machine doesn't back everything up

Having a quirky issue with Time Machine - it's only backing up the 'Users' folder from the OS hard drive, not the 'Applications', 'Library' or 'System' folders. Therefore, if I ever needed it to reinstall it wouldn't have enough of the data.
Any ideas how to tell Time Machine to back up all folders on the OS drive? Nothing I can see in Time Machine settings/preferences with such an option...
For info, the OS is on a 250GB inernal SSD and Time Machine is backing up to a 2TB external drive.
Thanks!

Just as an update, I tried deleting the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist preferences file and effectively 'resetting' Time Machine but it made no difference. I ran the diagnostic and reported it as a Bug to Apple. For your info, details of report are below.
Thanks
Andy
20-Aug-2013 10:42 AM Andy Worby:
Summary:
Time Machine is failing to back up all top-level folders present on the main OS hard disc, even though they do not appear in the 'Exclusions' list within Time Machine preferences. As a result, 'System', 'Library' and 'Applications' top-level folders are not backed up. The only folder being backed up is 'Users'.
Upon investigation, the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist preferences file contains exclusions for above mentioned top-level folders (see screenshot 1), although they have 'not' been purposefully added to the 'Exclusions' list via the Time Machine preferences window.
Deleting the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist preferences file and then setting up Time Machine once again via the preferences window does not change the result - the three affected folders still fail to back up.
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Delete com.apple.TimeMachine.plist preferences file to perform a full reset of Time Machine.
2. Enter Time Machine preferences window.
3. Select backup hard disc ( in this case, I am using an external 2TB hard disc via Firewire 800 connection).
4. Click options
5. Ensure that only the backup hard disc is selected in 'Exclusions' list.
6. Click Save
7. Commence a Time Machine backup.
8. Allow backup process to complete.
9. Go directly into the backup hard disc.
10. View top-level folders that have been backed up from the OS hard disc.
Expected Results:
All top-level folders from the OS hard disc should have been backed up.
Actual Results:
Only the 'Users' top-level folder from the OS hard disc has been backed up.
Regression:
Problem is continuous, and has occurred for some time, although I do not know from which exact date.
Notes:
I have included the following attachments:
1. Study iMac.tmdiagnostic.zip
2.Screen shot 1 - this is a screenshot of the Time Machine preferences file
3. Screen shot 2 - this is a screenshot of the top level folders within my OS hard disc

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

Time Machine doesn't back up system disk but does complete second disk

I have set up Time Machine to back up my system disk and one additional internal drive. Two other internal drives are excluded. The backup disk is external. On the initial backup Time Machine gets only one file from the system drive even though it has recognized that there are 121.5 GB included on that drive, but it backs up all 133 GB from the second drive. BTW, I haven't excluded anything but the two other drives. Here's the log from TM Buddy:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Aeronomy1
Backup content size: 121.5 GB excluded items size: 3.5 MB for volume Macintosh HD
Backup content size: 133.6 GB excluded items size: 0 bytes for volume Aeronomy1
No pre-backup thinning needed: 311.66 GB requested (including padding), 792.03 GB available
Copied 1 files (0 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
Copied 2411 files (133.4 GB) from volume Aeronomy1.
Starting post-backup thinning
No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Backup completed successfully.
I've double-checked that the drive and partition are properly formatted with a GUID partition table. The only thing I can't do is turn off the antivirus for the backup drive--the system administrator has eliminated the ability to modify the Symantec Antivirus app. But since it is working in general, it wouldn't seem that is an issue.
Any help is appreciated for getting my main drive backed up!

Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X 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 Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger and Leopard.) 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 installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

Why does my time machine backup turn itself off all the time?

This has happened to me several times that I notice that the icon on the menu bar is grayed out for the backup... I just noticed that again for the 10th time, and that the last backup was on December 30th, but I never turned off time machine. I was wondering if this was a glich in the system? Has anyone else has this problem? Never had it before till last year...
Thanks!
Miguel

Miguel.Miami wrote:
what has happened before is I look at it and see that its grayed out and when I opend Prefs panel I see that the time Machine has been switched to OFF. Which is very wierd, I was wondering if anyone has had this problem. It just happened to me today, I saw that is was grayed out again, and looked the last backup was Dec 30th....
No, I've not seen that posted here before.
A clue may be lurking in your logs. Use the widget in #A1 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting to display the backup messages from your logs. The widget may not go back to Dec 30, so you may have to use the Console app to look at your older logs, per the pink box there.
Either way, see if you can find the Dec 30 backup. If it says it completed successfully, look for the next attempt -- if so, copy and post all the messages here.
If not, keep an eye on it, and the next time it happens, the widget should show something that will help pin it down.

Trying to set up time capsule with airport exteme. Apple advises to use manuel setup and click on Advanced. Then enter mobileme ID. I did this but Time Machine doesn't display anything on the capsule window.

Can't set up my time capsule on Airport Extreme (updated). Apple instructions are to use manual set up. Click on Advanced tab. Click on Mobileme and enter Mobileme ID and password. I did this. But Time Machine window is blank. Tryed to click on update window after entering Mobileme ID but Airport does not respond (turn of then on)

mickair wrote:
I have been experiencing some networking problems
Welcome to Apple's discussion groups.
I have the latest Time Capsule ("TC"), an old Airport Extreme Base Station ("AEBS") bought in 2007 and 2 Airport Expresses, one bought in 3 months ago ("AE-Alpha") and the other bought back in 2007 ("AE-Beta"). All of them have been updated with the latest firmware.
Based on those dates, the AirPort Extreme is probably flat (as opposed to dome-shaped), making it 802.11n-capable. The Newer AirPort Express is probably an 802.11n-capable model A1264, while the older one is probably a model A1084 or A1088.
I use {the TC's} DHCP function ... to avoid unauthorized use.
This a discussion for another thread, but that's not what DHCP is for.
The wireless setting for it is to participate as WDS Main, but after reading various posts, it seems WDS is a bad idea
With that older AirPort Express you're stuck with WDS unless you decide to replace it with a newer model.
The AEBS is currently setup as being a WDS Relay at the moment
Why a relay? That's only needed if there's another base station "beyond" it that is configured to depend on it.
Since the AEBS is connected to the TC via Ethernet, you should probably configure it as a "roaming network":
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2273124
{The AE-Alpha} connects fine as WDS remote at the moment
I don't have any experience with mixed WDS and non-WDS networks, but since it's 802.11n-capable, you may be able to configure it to "extend" the network of the TC rather than as WDS. Look for a setting on the TC to "Allow this network to be extended".
Physical location:
AEBS in one end, TC and AE-Alpha in the middle while AE-Beta on the other end.
A device such as "AE-Beta" that's supposed to extend a network shouldn't be "at the end" but should be half way between the central base station and the clients that need an extended network.

Does Time Machine automatically resume backing up when the external HD is connected?

My daughter has a MacBook Pro at college. I recently bought her an external hard drive to use with Time Machine. We connected the drive, the system said, "do you want to use this drive for Time Machine?", we said, "yes, please", and it started doing its backup thing.
Then we disconnected the drive, waited a few minutes, then re-connected it. I was expecting / hoping that Time Machine would automatically see the drive and resume its backup. But I didn't see any visual indication of this and am not convinced that's what happens.
My daughter is a college student and will probably not remember to start Time Machine every time she reconnects the hard drive. Is there a way to have Time Machine *automatically* resume its backup any time it sees the drive attached? Also, how do you see the status of the backup?
Thanks!

webwiz wrote:
Then we disconnected the drive,
Oops. Never disconnect an external HD without ejecting it first. That can damage the file system on it, and Time Machine won't be able to back up to it without it being repaired (see below).
Did a backup complete? See what the System Preferences > Time Machine window shows:
You can also get to that by selecting the TM icon in the menubar, or right-clicking the TM icon in the Dock, and selecting Open Time Machine Preferences.
My daughter is a college student and will probably not remember to start Time Machine every time she reconnects the hard drive. Is there a way to have Time Machine *automatically* resume its backup any time it sees the drive attached?
TM will do backups hourly (just of what's been changed since the last one) while the disk is connected. If it's not available for over an hour, it will just wait until it is (and send a message after 10 days without a backup).
If the drive was only disconnected for a few minutes, though, it won't start a new one until the hour is up.
If the Preferences window doesn't show a "Latest backup," the backup may have been damaged. If it's been over an hour, and no new backup has started, try to repair the backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting
You might want to review the Time Machine Tutorial, and perhaps browse Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Time machine doesn't work because reads the wrong disk size

Time machine started insisting I had not enough space on the disk. Normally it would delete old backups and get on to it. But this time I kept getting the "disk full"or "not enough space message" (do not remember witch one). So I formatted the disk, many times. The message stuck.
No I checked what Time Machine itself was seeing, and it is pretty weird. Time Machine thinks it is a 700mb disk, while it is a 1Tb one as you can see below.
It was working well enough, thank that started.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.
PS: I use Yosemite 10.10.1, Imac 20, mid 2011

The first screenshot shows the amount of data on the volume, not its capacity. Apparently it's not large enough to hold all the data you're trying to back up, including about 20% of padding that Time Machine requires.

Time machine doesn't back up all the estimated files

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