Time Machine doesn't open backup screen

I have problems opening the time machine backups.
I use both a TC and a Synology disk station with TM, both seem to run well and TM makes backups every hour. No errors are reported and TM shows new backups are made successfully.
However when I try to open TM it stalls. Normally you get the "purple space background" layering your backups in time. I now only get one finder screen, the background goes black.....and then nothing.
I somehow hoped it would go away with Yosemite, but it stayed.
Who can help?

Question: If you make a new back-up and open it, could it also take a (very long) while to open as it is indexing? Or is "indexing" something it only does when using older bach-up sets after problems/ new setup?
The new backup should open practically instantly. You have no history and a clean simple new backup should be index and checked as part of making it.
Second thing I now remember is the problems started after using the TC back-up after a HD crash. My internal HD failed and I used the TC back-up to restore; with perfect result. But that probably has been the moment, TM wasn't functioning.
Yes, I think this is where the problem comes from. And you are now in a bit of a mess.. if you upgraded to Yosemite.. then whatever problems were there are multiplied. You cannot go backwards. So I think you might need to look at something major.
You cannot reinstall TM.. it is integrated into the OS. You really do need to do a clean install and import (using migrate your apps and files).
Before doing that I would use a software like Carbon Copy Cloner to make a bootable clone of your existing disk. And boot from it to check it is working.
Do a verify of the current install.. you will need to do this by booting to recovery area.. run disk utility and/or hardware tests.
OS X: About OS X Recovery - Apple Support
Using Apple Hardware Test - Apple Support
In the end.. using CCC is a good replacement to TM.. it is simpler and seems to not get as messed up.. so you can continue using the install as is, but with CCC as your backup.. at the same time I think it is good to be planning for a completely clean install.. painful as that is.. and you will not be able to recover .. you can migrate your personal files.. but it would be best to reinstall the applications..
Sorry I had a drop out on my internet.. adsl and it is raining.. so it all goes to pot.
Double post and I cannot fix the top one.

Similar Messages

Time Machine doesn't make backups

Hi,
I have problems with Time Machine. I deleted by error the backup file in Time Capsule, but now Time Machine doesn't create a new one, simply it doesn't work. External disks are recognized (Time Capsule or USB disk) but it doesn't make backups, only appears the "preparing" for one or two seconds and then nothing. It's the same if I try to make backups on a external USB disk.
I can not enter to Time Machine to see the backups.
Looking at "Console" for the last logs there many crash reported, for example:
18/02/09 11:59:26 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[3053] Backup requested by user
18/02/09 11:59:26 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[3053] Starting standard backup
18/02/09 11:59:27 ReportCrash[3054] Formulating crash report for process backupd[3053]
18/02/09 11:59:28 com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.backupd[3053]) Exited abnormally: Trace/BPT trap
18/02/09 11:59:28 ReportCrash[3054] Saved crashreport to /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/backupd2009-02-18-115926GK.crash using uid: 0 gid: 0, euid: 0 egid: 0
Any one with a similar problem???
Is it possible to reset Time Machine in order to restart the backups?
I bought Time Capsule and I can't use Time Machine!!!!
Thanks.

magali mistral wrote:
Hello!
Thanks for your message. The Time Machine Buddy widget was helpful. Although I couldn't mark the text, copy and insert it here.
You should be able to highlight them by dragging your mouse over them, then cmd-C to copy to the clipboard, then cmd-V to copy it here.
Event store UUID don't match for Volume: Macintosh HD
This means TM isn't sure whether the last changes to your internal HD got logged to OSX's File System Event Store, a log of all changes that TM can normally use to see what needs to be backed-up. Most commonly caused by an abnormal shutdown.
Node requires deep traversal:/
Reason: kFSEDBE even FlagMustScanSubDrs /kFSEDBE vent Flag Reason Deep Backup/
Since it can't trust the Event Store, this means it has to examine every file and folder on your HD. Quite a lengthy procedure, of course.
Then it said - I didn't copy that - something like "thinning out" isn't necessary because there was still 368 GB or so space left - 7 GB were backed up - but it did "thin out" some outdated file afterall, whatever that is - hope it didn't delete something I wanted to keep.
All normal. TM automatically deletes it's hourly backups after 24 hours, except the first of the day, which is called a Daily backup. That is kept for a month, when a similar process converts the first of a week into a Weekly backup, and deletes the others.
Only when the disk is near full (TM does need some workspace) will you see deletion of one or more of the oldest weeklies, instead of the first message.
Then the next problem started. It wasn't possible to eject the external drive. I waited for quite some time but each time tried to eject it, a window opened saying that it was still in use and could not be ejected. Although it had defenitely finished doing the backup and the next one was to be done about half an hour later.
Is there anything else on your external drive, besides TM backups? Could you have been looking at it via the Finder, when you tried to eject it?
Try this: de-select the drive (chose the "none" icon) in TM's preferences, then quit System Preferences. Then go back and re-select it. Sometimes this resets TM's lock on the drive.
If not, and it happens again, try turning TM off, then ejecting the TM drive. You shouldn't have to do this -- TM is supposed to let you eject it, then automatically do another backup whenever you re-connect it.
Now that you have a good full backup, just keep an eye on it. Your incremental backups should be very, very quick under normal circumstances.
There are a few things that may cause long backups, such as an abnormal shutdown, certain hardware repairs, not letting TM back up for several days (seems to be about 10, some say), and the use of certain apps. File Vault, Entourage, vmWare, running Windoze are a few. If you do see long backups, post the messages here in a new thread.

Time machine can't open backups after installing Mavericks

When upgrading to Mavericks the installation failed with a disk error. In the shop they formated the disk and re-installed 10.6.8. It appear that there was nothing wrong with the disk anyway.
Of course formatting caused me to loose all data, but I had made a new Timemachine backup before the installation.
Getting the computer back with old OS and empty I called to ask which should be the order of the following:
1. Upgrade to Mavericks
2. Restore my data from Timemachine
Advice was the above so this morning I upgraded successfully to Mavericks. However when I would like restore data (after a few issues making the Mac see the external backup disk) it appears thet Timemachine cannot open the backups older than this morning. It can see then on the right side of the screen, though. Can anyone tell me how to access these backups made under 10.6.8, please.
Another challenge will be that iPhoto does not seem to exist anymore. So if the Timemachine backup gets to work, to where would I restore photos?
Kind regards
Morten

Explanation is that Time Machine created a "new" backup when backup disk was first time connected after migration to Mavericks. This backup was obviously empty, i.e. only containing Mavericks but no user data. Consequently Migration assistant would find no data to migrate.
Solution was to go to Backups.backupdb on the external disk (in Finder) and manually delete the backups created after the migration to Mavericks. Now the Migration assistant saw the backup I created just before the initial failed migration to Mavericks and could succesfully migrate all my data.
I guess you should be VERY careful with what you do manually on the backup disk, but I was out of options and the advice from the local shop worked.

Time Machine doesn't recognise backup

I made a clean install of Maverick on my Macbook 15" and I have a Time Machine backup created on a Time Capsule and everything worked fine before. But now when I've done a clean install it doesn't recognize the backup. It recognizes the disk and I can connect it but if I look in a folder and opens up Time Machine there's no backups previous to today.
So I'm guessing it believes it's a separate backup, how do I tell it that the backup is the right one for this computer?

See B5 and B6 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Let me suggest it is much better to start afresh.
Archive off the existing backup.. do an erase of the TC and start a new clean TM backup.
In the end you should preserve the existing backup anyway.. as using TM now will likely erase the entire existing backup anyway.

Time machine doesn't show backups

So I my logic board died and I decided to reformat my computer after it was repaired just for a fresh start. My time machine has all the backups, however, when I tried to restore from it, i opened up time machine to see that NOTHING was there. I set the drive to be the same drive used before and the drive DOES actually contain all the backups. It's just when i open up time machine to restore nothing is there. Does anyone know how I can fix this?

Yes, sorry, I didn't read the initial post carefully enough.
If babolat is still at the restore stage, the best answer is to boot up from the Leopard install disk and choose Restore from a Time Machine Backup from the Utilities menu. This will get the system back where it was and may also associate the backup directory with the new hardware (not totally sure of the latter though).
The backed up data itself can be accessed using the Browse Other Time Machine Disks option in Time Machine. I believe the Migration Assistant approach will work to get the full user across, but will not associate the existing backup directory with the new hardware.

Time Machine doesn't see backup!

Hi. My laptop crashed. I couldn't launch it. However, I was able to open it as a drive from my desktop while holding down the T button. I ran Time Machine and backed up the Laptop. However, the root of the backup is called by my desktop name, since it was backing it up as a hard-drive connected to my desktop. I erased the laptop disk and reinstalled OSX. It offered me an option to transfer my files from a backup (I attached my desktop to the laptop as a hard drive.) I said yes, but then it said that the backup is running a newer version of OSX! So I wasn't able to transfer anything. I restarted the laptop and did a software update. Then I open up Time Machine and it takes me to that horribly ******** galaxy screen and it doesn't see the backup that exists on my desktop (which is connected as a hard drive to the laptop). How can I make it see that backup? Please help!!!!

Hello, mp1lcri.
Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities.
Try the steps in the articles below as they may help with the Time Machine issue you are experiencing.
Time Machine: Troubleshooting backup issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3275
OS X Mavericks: Time Machine problems
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14187
Cheers,
Jason H.

Time Machine doesn't find Backup-Volume

Hi guys!
I am going crazy... i use a time capsule and a iMac, both 6 months old.
So, we have moved into a new appartment and i had to reinstall the wlan. Of course, the timecapsule had to to be resetted and the new wlan settings had to be done with the airport programm. now, everything is ok, the airport programm finds the TC and the light is green.
Now i want to make the first backup, in the time machine programm i can chose my TC.
But, if i start the backup, time machine starts to search the Backup-Volume and doesn't end.
Even after 14 hours, still searching the Backup-Volume. And i have done it twice...
Does anybody can help?
Thanks a lot

Are you actually using Lion??
Did you update to 10.7.5 early in the piece as there was a supplement to fix slow TM backups ironically.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1599
If your revision is already the latest .. ie the patched revision to update.. if you can follow all that.. (something is smelling in the testing division these days).
Then I would do full reset to TM.
A4 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
As well as full verify to both the local disk and the old backups.. A5
And load the widget so you know what the heck TM is doing. A1
After you do all that.. erase the old backup and start again.. often the only fix.
Or get a USB drive and use that instead of TC.
Or download Superduper and use that.. it is far less featured.. and has far less issues. The two being closely linked.

Time machine will not open backup file

Error shows the backup volume (on a WD Backup drive attached to airport extreme, is in use. WIl not open the backup file. Any ideas?

Item C 12:
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Airport Utility 5.6 - Download to Downloads Folder and leave download there.
Run Terminal command:
cd ~/Downloads && pkgutil --expand ./AirPortUtility56.pkg ~/Downloads/AirPortUtility56 && gunzip -c./AirPortUtility56/AirPortUtility56Lion.pkg/Payload | sudo tar -C / -xvf - "./Applications/Utilities/AirPort Utility 5.6.app"
Check Applications/Utilities for Airport 5.6. Then see: Pondini again.

Time Machine doesn't see backup disk

My wife has a late '06 macbook running 10.6.5. We are trying to setup time machine for wireless backups through our airport extreme and our iomega 500gb hard drive. When opening time machine from system preferences and clicking on "select backup disk..." there are no disks that appear in the selection window. I have a macbook pro that is currently using the same iomega in time machine so yes, the external is formatted for mac and it is working great with my pro. I have shut off and powered back up the external, restarted my wife's macbook, and searched forum after forum and cannot seem to get this to work. The external does not show up in disk utility on her's but does on mine. She just recently had a new hard drive installed at our mac retailer because her original one just up and crashed...no warning or anything so we really want to start doing backups to avoid loosing anymore data. Anymore help would be much appreciated.

Your suggestion to Connect to Server led me down what seems to have been the right path.
I first tried restarting the whole network in order, and that made no difference: Time Machine still did not see the external drive partition.
I used Connect to Server to get to the external drive. That made no difference: Time Machine still did not see the external drive partition.
I mounted the external drive partition that holds the sparsebundle. That made the difference: the partition was then visible to Time Machine, so I selected it. A dialog box popped up asking for the TC’s password so Time Machine could access the TC. I entered it, and the partition was successfully selected as the backup disk.
I then tried to backup, but that failed, saying that the backup on PartitionName-1 was in use. I tried it again and looked at /Volumes while it was trying, and saw both PartitionName (presumably mounted by Finder) and both PartitionName-1 (presumably in a futile attempt to be mounted by Time Machine). I cancelled that backup and told Finder to dismount the partition, which caused Finder to dismount the whole Time Capsule. I reconnected to the Time Capsule but did not mount the partition, and tried to backup. That, finally, worked.
So here’s what I needed to do:
In Finder, use Connect to Server to connect to the Time Capsule.
In Finder, open the partition on the Time Capsule’s external drive.
In Time Machine Preferences, select the partition as the backup disk.
Enter the Time Capsule password when it’s prompted for.
In Finder, dismount the partition.
(Possibly unnecessary: In Finder, use Connect to Server to connect to the Time Capsule.)
In Time Machine, Back Up Now.

Time Machine doesn't open

Hello,
it seems that since I installed OS X 10.8 I need to visit these forums more often...
Ok, the problem is just the following screenshot...
I've tried restarting, plugging an external HD (with the proper format), but I don't know how to handle this one. I use a MBP Early 2011, 13" with Mountain Lion. I must say that these forums do work, because I can say that... so far so good with  issues. Hope this time I can find a solution...
Thank you all.
Carlos

If anyone has this proble, reinstall OS X.

Time Machine doesn't backup iPhoto Library (if iPhoto is open)

I just wanted to alert other people to the fact that Time Machine DOES NOT backup your iPhoto Library (that is, any of your photos), if iPhoto is open when Time Machine performs the backup (which in my case, is all of the time).
I've just posted this information to my blog: http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com/2010/01/timemachine-is-not-backing-up-your.htm l
But the basics are that although Time Machine promises to perform automatic backups in the background, it will skip your photos if iPhoto is open. Unfortunately, it won't tell you it hasn't done the backup and you'll be lulled into a very false sense of security, broken only when you have a problem and there's no backup to be found.
So, be sure to close iPhoto when Time Machine is doing backups and check your backed up files to make sure all your photos are there.
Please spread the word. I hate to think people are losing their photos because of this.
best,
Liz
http://www.lizcastro.com/iphotobookthemes
http://www.elizabethcastro.com

OK, ran a test with iPhoto open and got this from Time Machine Buddy:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Node requires deep traversal:/Users/lizx/Pictures/Big iPhoto Library/iPhoto 7 Library current reason:kFSEDBEventFlagContainsChanges|kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEven tFlagReasonFSEvent|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonMissedReservation|
No pre-backup thinning needed: 3.91 GB requested (including padding), 60.52 GB available
Copied 12483 files (50.9 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.06 GB requested (including padding), 60.47 GB available
Copied 1088 files (16.6 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Starting post-backup thinning
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/lizxp/2010-01-14-145941: 60.54 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/lizxp/2010-01-14-095812: 60.57 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/lizxp/2010-01-14-085710: 60.60 GB now available
Post-back up thinning complete: 3 expired backups removed
Backup completed successfully.
Also, when I look on my external drive, the latest backup says it was opened on January 14, but of course, I had iPhoto open when I ran the backup (that is, it was last opened TODAY).
Now, I closed iPhoto and ran Time Machine again. I got a pretty similar message from Time Machine Buddy:
-------Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Node requires deep traversal:/Users/lizx/Pictures/Big iPhoto Library/iPhoto 7 Library current reason:kFSEDBEventFlagContainsChanges|kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEven tFlagReasonFSEvent|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonMissedReservation|
No pre-backup thinning needed: 3.90 GB requested (including padding), 60.60 GB available
Copied 10309 files (2.4 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.06 GB requested (including padding), 58.19 GB available
Copied 2935 files (16.7 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Starting post-backup thinning
No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Backup completed successfully.
If there's a significant difference there, I can't see it.
On the other hand, when I go look at the backed up file, although it still won't tell me how big it is (or I'm too impatient to wait), it does say the (backed up) iPhoto Library was last opened today. Much better.
What do you think?
best,
Liz

Time machine doesn't backup regularly

Since upgrading to Lion from OS X 10.6.8, I find that Time Machine doesn't backup regularly. If I'm away from home (where the Time Capsule resides) for a day and return home, TM used to start backing up as soon as I connected my MBP to my home network, but it doesn't do this anymore. Furthermore, even though TM indicates that a backup will occur at a certain time, this doesn't happen, and the backup time gets postponed another hour.
What could be wrong?

I'm making an assumption here... but your post doesn't have a ton of detail about your setup so...
It probably has more to do with the fact that you actually shouldn't be backing up a mysql database with time machine if the database is running/live (Of which Time machine has no idea about any of this).
You can't backup open database just like that and it doesn't only apply to time machine. You need to first be doing a dump of the database either manually or with an automated script and then you could allow time machine to backup the dump. You're asking for trouble and behavior similar to what you noticed here if you backup a mysql (or any other open database) in this manner. This includes the LDAP database if this machine is an OD master and cyrus database if you run the OS X mail server (pre 10.6).
Just an FYI that it is quite likely that time machine backed up the files in question but that the database was probably damaged or missing data for the reasons I mentioned above.
There are tools out there that can automate this process (mysql website itself has a Mac GUI client that can do automated backups).

I tried to install a new hard drive using Snow Leopard to back up with Time Machine. When I installed the new HD I installed Leopard (10.5) on it and tried to use time machine to restore the backup I had made using 10.6. Kernel panic screen occurred.

I backed up my system using 10.6 Snow Leopard's Time Machine to an external hard drive. I did this because I purchased a new internal hard drive to upgrade my 2007 White Macbook from 80GB to 320GB. When I installed the new hard drive, I installed 10.4 (Tiger) and then 10.5 (Leopard) and once Leopard was in I tried to use Time Machine to restore my backup from 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and received a kernal panic screen directly after the bootup.
The screen had code asking for 10.6, so does this mean that the computer is searching for Snow Leopard? If so, how can I do this? Will a bootable drive with Snow Leopard on it be able to solve the issue or will I somehow need to find a way to wipe out this new hard drive?
-Steve

Booting From Snow Leopard Installer Disc
1. Insert Snow Leopard Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo appears.
5. Wait for installer to finish loading.
Drive Preparation and Installation
1. 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. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
7. After formatting is complete quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.

Library Update rqstd on Aperture 3.2; now won't open get msg "error opening data base for the library "~/Pictures/Aperture Library.aplibrary" TIme machine won't load backup "error code -8003"

Aperture working on OS 10.6.8 then Library Update rqstd on Aperture 3.2; said yes;
now Aperture won't open, get msg "error opening data base for the library "~/Pictures/Aperture Library.aplibrary"
TIme machine won't load backup "error code -8003"
Tried reloading Aperture 3.2 but get same result.

You’re running an outdated copy of Safari on your Desktop. That won’t work.
In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Applications
from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-A to open the Applications folder. Check that the Safari application is in that folder. If it is, use it, and delete the copy on your Desktop. Never move or copy built-in applications.
If you've deleted Safari from the Applications folder, back up all data, then reinstall OS X. If your Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade, so make a note of those before you begin.

Time Machine doesn't list Time Capsule as backup option

I'm trying to restart Time Machine, but Time Machine doesn't show Time Capsule as a backup option even though I'm connected to it wirelessly on our network. I was successfully backing up to my Time Capsule until I changed its name. Any ideas on how to fix this.
Thanks

Sounds like the drive is dead.
Take it to your local Apple Store or Authorized Repair location.

Time Machine doesn't open backup screen

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