Time Machine estimated space is wrong resulting in unexpected out of space error.

Hello,
I'm running Mountain Lion 10.8.2 on a Mac Pro with a 300 GB boot partition and a 485 GB data partition in a RAID-5 configuration. I have two 2 TB G-Drives attached via firewire for Time Machine backups.
As I understand it, Time Machine (TM) estimates the amount of space it requires to perform an incremental backup. If there is not sufficent room on the backup drive, TM selects a number of previous backups to remove to make space. The problem I've encountered is the amount of space TM estimates is much less then is required.
While TM is performing the backup, in TM preferences the progress message shows the estimated size slowly increasing until it exceeds the amount of space available on the backup drive and eventually leads to the error "The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly."
I have reviewed the often cited link http://pondini.org/TM/C18.html. I have performed repairs on the two TM backup drives/partitions and on the internal data drive/partition and have done a verify on the internal boot drive/partition. There was one error on one of the backup drives which was repaired and all others passed without errors.
Are there any other steps that can be taken to determine the reason TM cannot accurately estimate the required space for a backup?
Thanks.
Nathan

After further testing the case ended up being not to do with any of the video codecs at all - somehow the audio was the problem. I tried a few different audio codecs which started working, but then suddenly the original started working as well. I'm not sure what exactly caused the change, but I figured I'd post as much as I knew in case someone else runs into similar problems. Look at the audio is my best guess, I suppose.

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HT201250 I had files stored on a hard drive that were not on my Mac. I used the hard drive for my first Time Machine back up, but it was not enough hard drive space to finish. Now those stored files are gone. Is there any way I can recover them?

I had files stored on a hard drive that were not on my Mac. I used the hard drive for my first Time Machine back up, but it was not enough hard drive space to finish. Now those stored files are gone. Is there any way I can recover them? No, they were not part of previous Time Machine backups, and I have checked both the hard drive the documents were lost on and the new one that I now use for backups. Any suggestions would be helpful, as the lost files are old pictures that are gone forever. :[ Thanks!

1. Yes, if both drives are formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
2. Reformat the drives if needed, open the Time Machine pane of System Preferences, and remove the drive with the pictures from the list of items set to be excluded.
(110331)

Since installing mavericks my WD time machine doesn't work, it keeps insisting it needs more space? This wasn't an issue an hour earlier?

Since installing mavericks my WD time machine doesn't work, it keeps insisting it needs more space? This wasn't an issue an hour earlier?
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Annoying!

Regarding time machine, it probably took a full backup after you put mavericks on. To investigate, open Console, select "All Messages" and type "backup" (without the quotes). It will then only show you backup-related messages. If you're not sure how to read those, copy them and paste them into a reply here; we can investigate the situation.
I don't know anything about your PPC software issue, sorry.

Time Machine - backup size seems wrong

I just started my first Time Machine backup. I am doing to to an external USB drive. My MAC drive shows 27 GB used. I have a 60gb boot camp partition but I don't think that comes in to play here.
The backup status shows xxx-of 37gb backed up. What's the deal, I only have 27gb on the source drive.
Thanks,
Kevin

What I have found so far is that when upgrading to iMovie 10 there is a conversion/duplication process that takes place in order to make your iMovie 9 events compatible with iMovie 10.
They should be nearly identical in size. You can confirm this by right clicking the "iMovie Events" folder (iMovie 9) and the "iMovie Library" package (iMovie 10) and selecting "Get Info" and their respective sizes should be nearly identical. The reason for this is unclear other than you retain the ability to run iMovie 9 which will continue to access the "iMovie Events" folder. iMovie 10 will access the newly created/duplicated "iMovie Library" package. Any new video you add using iMovie 10 will also be stored in the new "iMovie Library".
If you want to see the contents of the "iMovie Library" then right click and select "Show Package Contents". You should see all the folders (events) you created originally in iMovie 9.
At some point I presume you have the option to delete the "iMovie Events" folder if iMovie 9 will no longer be utilized or, better yet, back it up on a separate drive if like me you don't like deleting files until you're absolutely sure you don't need them. Otherwise, from what I have found, you are in fact backing up two sets of files.
For now I had to exclude the "iMovie Events" folder from my Time Machine backup because, like you, my back up nearly doubled in size (videos take up a lot of space) otherwise I got an error message from Time Machine indicating that my external drive did not have enough space for the backup file.

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

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

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

Time machine is not backing up - starts to, then stops. No error.

Time machine has stopped backing up. I have plenty of space on the external drive. When starting a backup, whether automatically or manually, the process will begin, and may even get to the backing up stage, then stop. No error message, but no backup either. This has been going on for 12 days, and I hadn't noticed as the icon at the top of the screen was not showing a backup issue.
I have checked and repaired permissions, and the external disk. There were a few issues, but they have been corrected. Still no luck.

Okay,
I ran the widget, and here are the results. The backup never got to actually backing up, it got stuck on "cleaning up". After 5 minutes, I hit stop backup up, and it was stuck on that till I restarted.
Starting standard backup
Error loading /Library/Plug-ins/DiskImages/NUMPlugin.bundle/Contents/MacOS/NUMPlugin: dlopen(/Library/Plug-ins/DiskImages/NUMPlugin.bundle/Contents/MacOS/NUMPlugin, 262): no suitable image found. Did find:\n /Library/Plug-ins/DiskImages/NUMPlugin.bundle/Contents/MacOS/NUMPlugin: mach-o, but wrong architecture
Cannot find function pointer VRPreviewCFPlugInFactory for factory 20D1C6B2-6A02-11D7-B5A6-000393D45566 in CFBundle/CFPlugIn 0x105937f30 </Library/Plug-ins/DiskImages/NUMPlugin.bundle> (bundle, not loaded)
Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|

After updating my MacBook Pro to yeosemite I want my old screen saver picture back. I did a full back up before the install. I found the "Settings" folder in Time machine but when I try to open it I get an error message saying "You can not open this

After updating my MacBook Pro to yeosemite I want my old desktop picture back. I did a full back up before the install. I found the "Settings" folder in Time machine but when I try to open it I get an error message saying "You can not open this folder. It is in TimeMachine".

Can you browse the Time Machine drive from Finder?
If you can and you know where the picture was stored ie on your desktop you can browse through the folder structure to the picture copy it and paste it somewhere on your new install before right clicking it and 'set as desktop background'

HT3275 My time machine is not able to complete a backup, giving me this error message: the backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Linda's iMac.sparsebundle" is already in use. How do I fix this?

My time machine is not able to complete a backup, giving me this error message: the backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Linda’s iMac.sparsebundle” is already in use. How do I fix this?

Stock standard issue.. asked 5-10 times per day here.. look at "more like this" on the right.
Simply reboot the TC ie pull out the power. .count to 10.. plug the power back in.
Maybe need to restart the network.. in order modem.. router .. TC.. clients. 2min gap.
See C12 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

I have just switched from windows and bought myself a new mac mini, only had it a few weeks and already getting message not enough free space. Help, surely cant be out of space already

I have just switched from windows and bought myself a new mac mini, only had it a few weeks and already getting message not enough free space. Help, surely cant be out of space already

It sounds unlikely of course. But from your question it's hard to tell what might have filled your HDD. Are you constantly on file sharing or has filled the drive with movies?
Best way to tell is to start checking what folders occupy space. "Get Info" for the HDD and its subfolders is a way to start checking where the data in question resides.
And as BGreg say, call Apple support is also a good way to begin with.

Time Machine backing up to wrong drive

I woke up this morning to find that my available internal hard disk space had been cut in half. I downloaded a hard disk profiling tool (Disk Inventory X) and found that in /Volumes/Data/ there is now a directory called Backups.backupdb that contains a complete copy of everything on my hard disk, created last night at 2AM.
I opened the Time Machine Preferences panel and looked, and everything appears normal. It's still set to back up to my Time Capsule, just like it was last night. There's no indication that I can find of why it made a complete backup of my internal drive to my internal drive at 2AM.
Has anyone else had an experience like this?
How can I...
- safely delete the newly created backup?
- verify that the existing backup on the Time Capsule is still being updated?
- make sure that it doesn't backup to the internal drive again?
Thanks!

rtempchin wrote:
Has anyone else had an experience like this?
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Yes, a few folks have.
How can I...
- safely delete the newly created backup?
Turn Time Machine off.
From a Finder window, select +Go > Go to Folder+ from the menubar, then type /Volumes in the prompt.
Delete the Data folder. That will probably take a very long time. Then Restart your Mac.
- verify that the existing backup on the Time Capsule is still being updated?
Do a "full reset" of Time Machine, per #A4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum).
Then run a backup and make sure that Data folder doesn't get created again.
- make sure that it doesn't backup to the internal drive again?
Good question. This isn't common, and seems to be caused by your Mac losing contact with the TC's drive at just the wrong time and in just the wrong way. I don't recall seeing an exact cause, or a way to precent it. See: http://db.tidbits.com/article/9620

Time Machine with OSX Server; what happened to the free disk space?

Hello all,
I am trying to do something that should be pretty simple. I have an iMac, with Mountain Lion and Server installed. My wife has a Mac Air. The goal was to get her to Time Machine backup through the wifi to my external hardrive. I think it is working, but here is the small catch. Last night, while getting it all going, it was saying "making buckup disk ready" through the night until now. Now it is actually doing the backup normally, i.e. I can see the data transferring. BUT, here is the question, in the mean time the external hardrive lost about 300gb of space which is the size of MY iMac backup. So I hope that when I turned on Time Machine it dosnt back up one time as my computer and another as a server. That may not make any sence at all.
Here is a screen shot of my external hardrive:
636.33 GB, before yesterday it was half that. But my wife's hardrive is 100 GB of Data.
Just a note, I had my hardrive wiped clean the other day before Mountain Lion was installed, and I have a "carbon copy" from before that on another hardrive. Can I delete the backup of MY machine and start over?
Thanks, I hope this is clear.
Best,
Justin

Hello all,
I am trying to do something that should be pretty simple. I have an iMac, with Mountain Lion and Server installed. My wife has a Mac Air. The goal was to get her to Time Machine backup through the wifi to my external hardrive. I think it is working, but here is the small catch. Last night, while getting it all going, it was saying "making buckup disk ready" through the night until now. Now it is actually doing the backup normally, i.e. I can see the data transferring. BUT, here is the question, in the mean time the external hardrive lost about 300gb of space which is the size of MY iMac backup. So I hope that when I turned on Time Machine it dosnt back up one time as my computer and another as a server. That may not make any sence at all.
Here is a screen shot of my external hardrive:
636.33 GB, before yesterday it was half that. But my wife's hardrive is 100 GB of Data.
Just a note, I had my hardrive wiped clean the other day before Mountain Lion was installed, and I have a "carbon copy" from before that on another hardrive. Can I delete the backup of MY machine and start over?
Thanks, I hope this is clear.
Best,
Justin

Time machine on server doesn't show correct amount of free space

Hi
I have a mac mini server running 10.9.3, with a drobo raid connected via usb (I wouldn't have chosen the drobo, but not my decision..). The server has Time Machine service enabled, pointing to a folder on the drobo.
When users connect to it (various mavericks clients) they can choose to use it for Time Machine, but when the clients starts to back up, they all quits quite fast, because it states that there is only from around 3-400 MB to around 80-90 GB free space.
There is, however, around 1.5 TB free space on the disk, and this registers also fine in the server app on the server.
I have tried to use another drive as the backup target, which leads to the same issue.
I have also tried to remove the backup and initiate a new on the client, but still the same. It is not consistent how far the client backup gets - the one that have gone furthest is around 45 GB.
Any idea on what it might be?
A few more details:
- the drobo is hfs+ journaled
- I have checked the size restriction in the time machine settings on the server and have tried with both a 500 GB restriction and no restriction
- the clients are all set up to do unencrypted backup
- the clients have both been cabled connections and wifi connections
- the clients have no problem backing up to a local connected drive
TIA,
Peter

I haven't got access to the server right now (so I can't provide the complete details), but something like 6-700 GB (which is more than it shows in the client time machine windows, but less than what is true (which was around 1,5 TB))

HT3275 Time Machine says the backup is full, how to create more space on my time machine?

When i attempt to backup, time machine says that it does nto have enough free space to backup, how can i create enough space so that it will continue to backup?

Time Machine automatically deletes old snapshots when necessary to make room for a new one. If you're getting that message, it means that all your old snapshots have been deleted, and there is still not enough room to back up all your data. Either you must make some drastic exclusions from your backups, or you must back up to a larger destination volume.

Time Machine won't create diff. back-ups despite sufficient disk space

Hi,
I have one full back up on my external HDD, and several differential back ups. However, despite there being over 80GB left on my external HDD, Time Machine will fail to complete further differential back ups when I disconnect my external HDD and then reconnect (say a week later or so). Time Machine seems to want to create another full backup when I reconnect my external HDD (or it seems this way). My questions are: why won't Time Machine create further differential backups based on my original full backup when I reconnect my external HDD and/or can I change a setting so that TM will create ONLY differential backups (given that one full back up already exists)?
Advice appreciated,
SM

I should add that when TM attempts to create another backup after I reconnect my external HDD, it fails, stating 'not enough disk space' - which is why I assume it's attempting another full backup. Cheers, SM.

If my time machine is full and it deletes backups to free up space does it mean i will eventually loose data

I have been backing up my hard drive with a external hard drive as atime machine
the last time i backed up time machine said that it had deleted the oldest backup to make more space for newer ones .
I looked back through the various back ups i have made and found that all my vidoes that i had taken off my computor and put on my external hard drive were only on the earlest backups
my question is if the earliest backups are deleted to make space will i eventually loose all my videos - if so is there a way to avoid data being lost

troyboy65 wrote:
My time machine is full as it is backing up my imac and macbook. I am getting the orange flashing light.
I have looked at the settings and it does not seem to give many options on length of backups etc.
Im not sure what to do.
You may not need to do anything; Time Machine ordinarily deletes your oldest backups automatically when it needs room for new ones. The orange light is completely separate and independent from that.
Are both Macs getting backed-up regularly? Check via Time Machine Preferences > Options.
How much data is on each of your Macs, and how large is your TC?
I do have an old 500gb hard drive. Can i re format this and piggy back it to the time capsule to give me 1.5 tb?
No. Time Machine backups can't "span" multiple drives.
But if there really isn't enough space, you could connect that drive to your Time Capsule's USB port and back up one of the Macs to it, instead.

Time Machine estimated space is wrong resulting in unexpected out of space error.

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