Time Machine has lost the link with its old backup files

This has got me a bit puzzled.
I recently obtained a nice new iMac to use in conjunction with my trusty MacBook Pro. Previously the MBP was my main machine and I habitually plugged it into an external HDD for Time Machine to use. No problem there.
Now, since setting up the iMac I have the external HDD connected to that. I access the HDD on the MBP over my ethernet network, which is great: I can swap files, sync files easily and automatically with ChronoSync, and I'm very happy. The only problem is that I can't use the HDD for backing up the MacBook Pro anymore. Time Machine says there isn't enough room, "This backup is too large for the backup volume." Obviously TM doesn't recognise its own files from the days when the HDD was connected directly to the MBP.
I realise I can erase the HDD and tell TM to start backing up from scratch but I'm hesitant to do so. I have months of incremental backups on there already and I'm not keen to lose them. Is there anything I can do to pick up from where TM left off before I changed my cables around? It seems such a pity to throw months of backup out the window.

Have you thought about re-connecting your HDD directly back to your MBP - as you had it before. Provided the MBP's name has not changed, TM should pick-up from where it left off. Bear in mind that TM will only back up one mac at a time, and as I understand it, you would need Time Capsule or other networkable HD to back up both macs to. Considering the reasonable cost of external HD, you might be better off to get another one for your iMac.
The macs can still be connected over the network and you could still use ChronoSync for syncing etc.
Joe

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Time Machine has lost all backups

I have a time capsule that was reset on 15th April when I moved the home folder on our iMac to an external disk. It needed to be reset as there was not enough free space to keep the existing backups and continue with the new external. Time machine has been running since and backing up our files.
Today I noticed that Time Machine was working hard doing a backup and when I check the status in the top bar it shows that time machine is backing up all or our data (approx 250Gb). I opened the time machine application and it only shows a backup from today - there is no history.
What could have happened? It looks like the time capsule was wiped and time machine has started from scratch again. One other thing, I updated to the latest AirPort utility this morning, coincidence?
Hope someone can help as I do not want this to happen again.
All the best
Andrew Wright.

Thanks for the link, but the answers there did not really help explain why a full backup was done. None of the reasons in D3 were applicable. I did look at the system log and found the info below. This appears to show a 'normal' backup just before 2pm then the full backup just after 3pm. The question is still 'why would time machine want to backup everything when most files were already backed up'?
Jun 17 13:55:24 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Starting standard backup
Jun 17 13:55:24 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
Jun 17 13:55:33 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
Jun 17 13:55:37 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
Jun 17 13:55:40 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule/MyMac.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Jun 17 13:55:40 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Jun 17 13:56:02 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 841.0 MB requested (including padding), 149.65 GB available
Jun 17 13:57:28 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Copied 1601 files (183.8 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Jun 17 13:57:28 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 592.4 MB requested (including padding), 149.65 GB available
Jun 17 13:57:31 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Copied 7 files (93 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
Jun 17 13:57:32 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Starting post-backup thinning
Jun 17 13:58:02 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/MyMac/2011-05-18-162329: 149.65 GB now available
Jun 17 13:58:02 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
Jun 17 13:58:02 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Backup completed successfully.
Jun 17 13:58:06 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
Jun 17 13:58:06 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Ejected Time Machine network volume.
Jun 17 15:16:12 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Starting standard backup
Jun 17 15:16:12 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
Jun 17 15:16:21 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
Jun 17 15:16:23 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
Jun 17 15:16:26 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule/MyMac.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Jun 17 15:16:26 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Jun 17 15:16:40 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Node requires deep traversal:/Volumes/Users reason:must scan subdirs|
Jun 17 15:17:17 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Compacting storage: 297.87 GB requested (including padding), 149.65 GB available before compacting
Jun 17 15:17:17 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Stopping backup.
Jun 17 15:17:18 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Backup canceled.
Jun 17 15:17:19 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
Jun 17 15:17:19 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Compacting backup disk image to recover free space
Jun 17 15:18:11 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Completed backup disk image compaction

I have had a series of Macs. They have been backed up with Time Machine. I am trying to restore TM backup files from the older Macs using my new MacBook Pro. No go. What do I do ?

I have had a series of Macs. They have been backed up with Time Machine. I am trying to restore TM backup files from the older Macs using my new MacBook Pro. No go. What do I do ?

I am trying to restore TM backup files from the older Macs using my new MacBook Pro. No go.
Migration Assistant (Finder > Applications > Utilities > Migration Assistant) is the tool that you would use to restore backups from older Macs to another Mac.
Details are here: http://pondini.org/OSX/MigrateLion.html The same info applies for Mavericks and Yosemite. If you are saying that this is a "no go".....where are you getting stuck? What error messages do you see?

Time machine has lost a year of backups

I have time machine set to write to a Seagate Free Agent hard drive. It has 574GB spare on it, so it's nowhere near full, but I have no backups before about a month ago.
Time machine preferences say that I have backups going back to September 2009, and the timescale when I enter Time machine says the same, but the windows are greyed out and unavailable.
I haven't had any problems that I know about.
Help please?

The grayed-out windows are the clue.
What you see in the "Star Wars" display depends on how you get there and how you navigate once you're there -- if you start with a Finder window showing a folder that's a month old, you'll see all the backups that include it normally; all prior backups will appear, but be grayed-out and not selectable.
The easiest thing to do is select your Computer in the Finder Sidebar (or press ShiftCmdC before entering Time Machine), navigate to the backup in question, then see what's there.
There's a sample of this in #15 of [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

It seems as if my time machine has lost some backups.

I have had my time machine for over six months. I lost a video a couple of months ago and needed it replaced and was able to do so without a problem. For some reason that video is gone again and I went back into the time machine to get it. This time however the time machine only shows a couple of months of backups and I cant go far enough back to find the file I need. It is a 2T time machine and I have pleanty of space so I know it never got full.
Is there a way to restore or access older backups that Im guessing still must be in there somewhere? Thank you for your help

There is a likely chance that shortly after you installed Lion on your computer, that Time Machine sent you a message indicating that it needed to start a new set of backups.
At that time, the previous backups would have been deleted and new backups were started over again.
That would explain the "shorter" history of backups.
If by some chance the "old" backups are still on the Time Capsule, you can try the following:
Right-Click on the Time Machine icon on the dock
Select Browse Other Time Machine Backups
See if there is another "disk" that appears
If yes, click the other disk to highlight it and then click Use Selected Disk to see your "old" backups
Reverse the procedure above to get back to your current set of backups.
Another thought......did you delete the file from your computer at any time, thinking that it would stay on the Time Capsule?

Time Machine does not appear to auto delete old backups

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

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

Time Machine: i had a problem with removing old files from trash, that is fixed and the whole reason was to make time machine work. It has been backing up for day and one half. What should I do??

trash problem resolved. Now time machine is acting up. it has been backing up since yesterday

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the page that opens.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.
Copy the words "Starting standard backup" (without the quotes) on this page and paste into the String Matching text field. Note the timestamp of the last message shown. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Post the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear.
Post the log text, please, not a screenshot. If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — edit that out, too, but don’t remove the context.

IPhoto has lost the link to the photo library

When I open iPhoto, it not longer pulls in my photo library. I have a 2010 13 inch MacBook running OS X Lion 10.7.5 and iPhoto 9.4.3. I don't know what caused it; I have done no recent updates. I have backed up everything on a separate hard drive and also have a time machine backup.
I can tell that my photos are still on the computer because of the space that is taken up, but when I try to open photo library, it won't open. Please help, too many photos that I don't want to lose.

Download and use Find Any File to search for a file named "Library6.iPhoto". It's a file that is in every iPhoto library. FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't, like invisible folders, system folders and packages. If your library is somewhere on the hard drive FAF will find it.
OT

Time Machine has frozen the iMac

I have just opened Time Machine for the first time from the dock and the computer seems to have frozen. It opened Time Machine and now I have a screen which says Cancel - Today (Now) -Restore at the bottom and I can see my inbox going back in time. But nothing responds to the mouse and when I press command alt esc together nothing happens either. I am running Leopard not Snow Leopard.
Please could some one help and tell me how to quit this Time Machine and get back to the normal screen? Apple Phone Help isn't available until tomorrow.
Thanks very much!

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
You may have to do a force power off of your Mac (hold the power button down until it turns off).
Disconnect your TM drive before starting up again.
Once your Mac is up and running, turn TM off (via TM Preferences), and reconnect the drive.
It sounds like your TM disk is either not set up properly, or something on it is corrupted.
Start by verifying the setup, via #C1 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
If that's all good, do a +*Repair Disk+* on it, per #A5 there.
If it finds no errors, or fixes all that it finds, try another backup.

Time Machine has failed twice- freezes halfway into initial backup

In my first attempt, the backup "froze" half way. the progress bar would not move after several hours so I stopped the backup.
In the second attempt, I let it run as long as possible eventually failing with the message
" Unable to complete backup. An Error occurred while creating the backup directory"
I am backing up to a new GTech drive that has functioned perfectly so I don't think it is a HW problem.
Has anyone else encountered this? Any ideas?

I have fixed my problem and have a succesfull initial backup!
1. deleted time machine Prefs file.
2. set SLEEP to NEVER in Energy Saver.
3. unchecked "put hard disk to sleep when possible" in Energy Saver.
4. dismount/remount backup drive.
5. start backup.
6. Success !

Time Machine has stopped backing up to my Seagate Backup Plus.

My external drive is formatted for Mac OS and has worked since January with no problem. Now, all of a sudden, it will not backup and I cannot see any of my backups for the last 30 days. I have tried using disk utility to verify the disk, but keep getting the error message that the disk needs to be repaired, but when I try, it says the disk cannot be unmounted. I am hoping there is some way that I can fix this. Please help!

Take a look at this link, Take a look at this link, http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

Time Machine issue on a new iMac - "Cleaning old backups..."

Just got a new iMac. Migrated my system over from a TM backup from my old iMac.
I then let TM inherit the backups on that drive. Now, I am attempting to do a TM backup, and it stays on "Cleaning up old backups..." forever.
What's the deal?

Information in C4 in 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

I have 60 000 songs on a hard drive. The songs are referenced to the media file and not stored in the media file. I have moved the songs to another external drive. The itunes library has lost the link to the media files. How can I restore the links?

I have all my songs (60 000) on a remote drive. The drive is wireless networked. I installed a new router and had to map the drive again. Once this was done itunes could no longer locate the music. My music is not sitting in my media file but is rather referenced to the location of the music. Now that the location has changed due to the remapped drive how can I link the itunes library to the songs (media)again.
I have read many help comments and forums but so far nothing specific about relinking once the songs have already been moved and are referenced songs.
A step by step procedure would be helpful.
Thank you
Graham

I've uploaded a newer version that might catch that error. For some background on the script look at this thread.
iTunes remembers the location of each file in the database. If you right-click on a missing file, click Get Info, cancel when it asks you to try to find it, then look on the summary tab it will show you the last known location in the form file://localhost/<some path>. If you put the files back where they are expected to be, close iTunes and reopen, then iTunes will find them again. If not my script can attempt the task. When the script asks for a media folder you should respond with Z:\ since that seems to be where the artist folders are located.
tt2

Full restore from Time Machine has not restored my photos

I was getting a triangle with an exclamation mark in it when I tried to click on my photos in iPhoto (photos uploaded from my camera only - iPhone pics are still there). A backup from Time Machine didn't work, so I did a full restore from Time Machine to a date when I knew all was well with my photos but I still get the triangle/!. Where are my photos?

The ! means that iPhoto has lost the link to the original file.
Are you running a Managed or a Referenced Library?
A Managed Library, is the default setting, and iPhoto copies files into the iPhoto Library when Importing. The files are then stored in the Library package
A Referenced Library is when iPhoto is NOT copying the files into the iPhoto Library when importing because you made a change at iPhoto -> Preferences -> Advanced. (You unchecked the option to copy files into the Library on import) The files are then stored where ever you put them and not in the Library package. In this scenario you are responsible for the File Management.

What do I fix so time machine will recognize the backup file it created on my external drive?

I use a 1TB Toshiba external HDD (MacOS extended, journaled format) for Time Machine and have had no problems for a year or so. Shortly before my video circuit died and I had to have the logic board replaced, TM stopped backing up with the "backup volume could not be found" error or the "insufficient disc space" error. When I open TM it shows no backup files available. I don't recall making any changes around the time this cropped up, but who knows? Any suggestions on reconecting TM with its old "Backups.backupdb" ?

Thank you for the pointer. I somehow didn't find all the links to begin with, so mea culpa for troubling folks before doing enough homework. For those bumbling around like me with older MBPs that get new logic boards late in life, the problem is nigh insoluble since the new board looks to TM as a new computer, which it is. Best to borrow another disk to copy the old backup if needed and then to start clean with a new TM backup.

Time Machine has lost the link with its old backup files

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