Time Machine doesn't back-up files at desktop

Recently I connected a 3TB drive ( USB) to my iMac (10.8.5 - 3,4 GHz Intel Core i7 - 32 GB - 3TB Fusion Drive), but when I go to latest back-up on my drive there is nothing on the desktop.
The rest of the folders are fine.
Am I doing something wrong?

quicklook the file /library/preferences/com.apple.timemachine.plist. make sure it's not listed among any exclusions there. some of things listed in that files don't show up in the exclusion list. if it's there then delete that file and set up TM and the exclusion list from scratch.

Similar Messages

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

Time Machine doesn't notice new files.

Alright, so I have Time Machine set up with my external drive. Everything with the setup process went smoothly, and the initial backup successfully copied everything. Since then, however, Time Machine doesn't notice when new files appear. If I create a new project in Logic, for example, it will never get backed up.
Here's what I know:
-The only thing I have told Time Machine to not back up is the other partition on my external drive.
-Logic project files get stored to the default ~/Music/Logic/ directory, which is on my internal hard drive.
-Time Machine will never notice that new projects have been added, no matter how long I wait (hours, days, weeks) or if I tell Time Machine to back up now.
-Time Machine will back up the files if I format its partition and start fresh with the same configuration.
-Reviewing the Backup.log files shows that Time Machine isn't detecting any significant changes (or new files, in my case).
-Other directories are working fine, such as /Library/WebServer/Documents/
Anybody have any ideas?

According to Ars' Leopard review, Time Machine uses a new file system change notification system framework called FSEvents (which is explained quite well in the Ars article). Since FSEvents depends on the system used by Spotlight, can you tell us whether Spotlight is updating or not?
If Spotlight is up to date, the next thing to see is whether the FSEvents framework is capable of receiving updates. To do so, the fseventsd process must be running (I imagine that you should be able to see if under Activity Monitor). If it is not running, there lies the problem: you must launch it and make sure that is launches at startup.
If the fsevetsd is running and you have free disk space (the FSEvents framework stores files events on a directory .fseventsd at the root of each file system), you might want to check that the .fseventsd directory of the file system where you have your home direcotry does not have a no_log file inside telling it not to log events for that file system. If such a file does exist, deleting it should do the trick (no guarantees though, I don't have Tiger yet to test my words!). If it doesn't exist, I hope someone else can help you further along, because I am afraid that I have run out of suggestions.
Good luck.

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 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 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 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 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.

Time Machine no longer backing up files.

so basically my question is... what do i do? is there a way to recover files? do i need to wipe out all data on my TC?
this is the story....
-TC was good for 2 months.
...Recently....
-I tell TC to backup.
-It takes FOREVER to "preparing backup..."
-then a window pops up that says,
"*Time Machine Error*
The backup disk image could not be mounted"
-When i go to Time Capsule in Finder, it doesnt say "My Backup's" anymore theres something that looks like it replaced that, which says "MyMacbook32r_2rf.Sparcebundle"
-Also, when trying to access old files via Time Machine... nothing happens.
-Another window just popped up that said,
"The Storage Location for Time Machine Backups Can't be Found"
Recent things that happened that could have caused this...
i tried downloading a movie in my TC but it was way too slow downloading so i just cancelled.
i downloaded another movie to my TC, Pineapple Express, and that worked.. but i couldnt seem to find it in the TC. i always had to open QT and go to recently played and use it from there. sketchy.
I tried using that Disk Utility thing...
2008-11-05 10:42:43 -0500: Disk Utility started.
2008-11-05 10:46:15 -0500: Verify and Repair volume “Backup of Bradley Stewart’s MacBook”
Starting repair tool: 2008-11-05 10:46:15 -0500
2008-11-05 10:46:16 -0500: Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
2008-11-05 10:46:16 -0500: Detected a case-sensitive catalog.
2008-11-05 10:46:17 -0500: Checking Extents Overflow file.
2008-11-05 10:46:17 -0500: Checking Catalog file.
2008-11-05 11:50:11 -0500: Invalid sibling link
2008-11-05 11:50:11 -0500: Volume check failed.
2008-11-05 11:50:11 -0500: Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.2008-11-05 11:50:11 -0500:
2008-11-05 11:50:11 -0500: Disk Utility stopped repairing “Backup of Bradley Stewart’s MacBook” because the following error was encountered:
Filesystem verify or repair failed.
2008-11-05 11:50:11 -0500:
2008-11-05 12:34:43 -0500: Verifying volume “Backup of Bradley Stewart’s MacBook”
Starting verification tool: 2008-11-05 12:34:43 -0500
2008-11-05 12:34:43 -0500: Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
2008-11-05 12:34:43 -0500: Detected a case-sensitive catalog.
2008-11-05 12:34:44 -0500: Checking Extents Overflow file.
2008-11-05 12:34:44 -0500: Checking Catalog file.
2008-11-05 12:56:47 -0500: Invalid sibling link
2008-11-05 12:56:47 -0500: Volume check failed.
2008-11-05 12:56:47 -0500: Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.2008-11-05 12:56:47 -0500:
2008-11-05 12:56:47 -0500: Disk Utility stopped verifying “Backup of Bradley Stewart’s MacBook” because the following error was encountered:
Filesystem verify or repair failed.
2008-11-05 12:56:47 -0500:

These suggestions have worked for others...
*_"The Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Mounted"_*
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.
One poster reported: “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.
Also, try removing the apostrophe from the disk images name (sparsebundle).
Let us know if any of the suggestions above helped to resolve your issue.
Cheers!

Can I use Time Machine to recover backed-up files from a stolen computer?

Hi everyone,
I used Time Machine to back up my MacBook Pro but unfortunately it was stolen this week. I'm going to buy a new MacBook Pro and would like to recover the backed-up files from my old computer via Time Machine, though not necessarily transform the new computer into a clone of the old one. Can anyone point me to step-by-step directions for how to do this with Time Machine? Is there a way of using Time Machine to select, a la carte, which backed-up data you want to restore to your new machine, or is it an all-or-nothing deal?
Thanks for your help and advice!

Yes. Use the migration assistant.
First, I'd set up the new computer and choose not to migrate any data (this sometimes causes issues). Run all software updates, then run the Migration Assistant (In applications). It will allow you to choose a time capsule to migrate information from. You will be able to choose what information to pull from the time capsule: it won't simply clone the old computer.

Time machine doesn't restore all files

Recently I did a complete format and restore in Mavericks. Prior to moving to Mavericks I did a complete backup in Mountain Lion. After restoring from Time Machine many files were missing for Adobe CS4. When I look at the backup disc with Finder I see all the tiles that I need are listed but when I open Time Machine only a third are retrieveable. Without the files that are missing Photoshop CS4 will not run. How can I get the remaining files?

OK, I;m back up and running. Found out that /Library/Applicaiton Support/Adobe was in two places. One was at the root level and another was in my account area. Each had similar files but the root one had the ones I was missing.

Time machine doesn't back everything up anymore B-) Part 2

In an earlier post, now archived so I can't add to it, I was having trouble with TimeMachine on 10.5.8 not backing everything sometimes, notably the contents of my home folder.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11247368#11247368
I said it had started working again after a reboot, since then it's done the same thing several times and a reboot always gets it working properly again.
So I thought that fseventsd must be involved somewhere as it records the changes for TimeMachine to use to create the backups.
Sure enough, before things start to go awry, fseventsd logs "interesting" things, like last night:
Jun 30 18:55:32 falstaff fseventsd[38]: callback_client: ERROR: d2fcallbackrpc() => (ipc/send) invalid destination port (268435459) for pid 1802
then later on after a sleep and wake:
Jun 30 21:43:15 dhcp102 fseventsd[38]: callback_client: ERROR: d2fcallbackrpc() => (ipc/send) timed out (268435460) for pid 491
Jun 30 21:43:15 dhcp102 fseventsd[38]: client: 0x810800 : USER DROPPED EVENTS!
Still later on, the backup worked OK (well it backed lots up!).
Jul 1 00:04:39 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[2987]: Backup requested due to disk attach
Jul 1 00:04:39 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[2987]: Starting standard backup
Jul 1 00:04:40 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[2987]: Backing up to: /Volumes/LaCie/Backups.backupdb
Jul 1 00:05:37 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[2987]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 780.0 MB requested (including padding), 4.08 GB available
Jul 1 00:08:45 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[2987]: Copied 10231 files (608.3 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Jul 1 00:08:47 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[2987]: Starting post-backup thinning
Jul 1 00:10:01 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[2987]: Deleted backup /Volumes/LaCie/Backups.backupdb/falstaff/2010-06-01-190823: 3.55 GB now available
Jul 1 00:10:01 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[2987]: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
Jul 1 00:10:02 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[2987]: Backup completed successfully.
But tonight when I got home from a day's use of the system at work, I got this:
Jul 1 20:13:19 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[4848]: Backup requested due to disk attach
Jul 1 20:13:19 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[4848]: Starting standard backup
Jul 1 20:13:20 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[4848]: Backing up to: /Volumes/LaCie/Backups.backupdb
Jul 1 20:13:29 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[4848]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 100.0 MB requested (including padding), 3.55 GB available
Jul 1 20:13:29 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[4848]: Waiting for index to be ready (906 > 0)
Jul 1 20:13:55 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[4848]: Copied 393 files (398 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Jul 1 20:13:55 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[4848]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 100.0 MB requested (including padding), 3.55 GB available
Jul 1 20:13:56 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[4848]: Copied 8 files (93 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
Jul 1 20:13:56 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[4848]: Starting post-backup thinning
Jul 1 20:13:56 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[4848]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Jul 1 20:13:56 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[4848]: Backup completed successfully.
Jul 1 20:14:17 dhcp102 fseventsd[38]: expected to read 65536 bytes but only got 0 from /.fseventsd/00000000eb6cafa8
and none of my home folder got backed up. So I rebooted and immediately re-did the backup:
Jul 1 20:15:45 falstaff fseventsd[38]: bumping event counter to: 0xeb6dc3a6 (current 0x0) from log file '00000000eb6cafa8'
Jul 1 20:19:20 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[210]: Backup requested by user
Jul 1 20:19:20 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[210]: Starting standard backup
Jul 1 20:19:20 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[210]: Backing up to: /Volumes/LaCie/Backups.backupdb
Jul 1 20:19:54 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[210]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 100.0 MB requested (including padding), 3.55 GB available
Jul 1 20:21:10 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[210]: Copied 4606 files (14.4 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Jul 1 20:21:11 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[210]: Starting post-backup thinning
Jul 1 20:21:11 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[210]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Jul 1 20:21:11 dhcp102 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[210]: Backup completed successfully.
And my home folder was backed up.
Ideas?
Dave

DaveHill wrote:
So I thought that fseventsd must be involved somewhere as it records the changes for TimeMachine to use to create the backups.
Correct, most of the time.
Jun 30 21:43:15 dhcp102 fseventsd[38]: client: 0x810800 : USER DROPPED EVENTS!
I don't think the earlier messages indicate much, if any, of a problem, but this one likely does.
Jul 1 20:15:45 falstaff fseventsd[38]: bumping event counter to: 0xeb6dc3a6 (current 0x0) from log file '00000000eb6cafa8'
Yes, something wrong with the event log still/again.
Ideas?
It does look like something going wrong with the event log. Just what isn't so clear.
I'd start by booting from your Leopard Install disc and repairing the internal HD, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
While you're at it, you might do the same on your backups, just to be sure they're ok, too.
When you reboot and run the next backup, Time Machine should log a UUID message about your internal HD, and do a "deep traversal." That will ignore the event log, instead comparing everything on your system to your backups, to be sure they match. That should "catch up" anything missed earlier.
Subsequent backups should revert to using the event log. Keep an eye on the messages (see #A1 in Troubleshooting for a handy widget); if the event log errors continue, something else is clearly wrong.

Time Machine "error" in backing up files..

So I just got a new external drive, and I began backing up files for the first time on it when at around 10% completion I got an "Error, files can not be backed up..." message or something along those lines. I tried to resume the backup several times but it would keep quitting at that point, which leads me to believe that there is a corrupt file somewhere on my computer that can not be copied. Am I right in this guess, and if so how do I find what is preventing the backup and continue to back up my computer?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Tom

Tomholton wrote:
So I just got a new external drive, and I began backing up files for the first time on it when at around 10% completion I got an "Error, files can not be backed up..." message or something along those lines.
Then you need to fix it, or something along those lines.
I tried to resume the backup several times but it would keep quitting at that point, which leads me to believe that there is a corrupt file somewhere on my computer that can not be copied. Am I right in this guess,
Depending on what the message said, probably. Or something.
and if so how do I find what is preventing the backup and continue to back up my computer?
Start with #C2 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it.

Time machine doesn't back up Win OS installed in Parallels.

My mac has just been restored from Mac OS 10.9.5 crash. Well i have a time machine backup by which i got my data restored but time machine failed to restore Windows 8 originally installed on parallels before OS crash. Is there any other settings to be marked that i recover WIN OS from time machine back up.
Regards
Yash Panchal

You need to backup virtual machines manually, outside of Time Machine. The way those things work, if you used them with Time Machine you would have a 40GB backup every hour. That would get old fast and fill up your Time Machine with useless junk.

Time Machine doesn't back-up files at desktop

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