Time Machine hung up while "backing up"

Time Machine's first attempt at a back up failed this morning. And as this has happened before, I simply did what I had done in the past ... a manual "back up now". But today, it didn't work. Instead, the Time Machine preferences states that it is "backing up" and seems to get hung up like that. When you check the TM Buddy widget, the following line is listed over and over 10-15 times ...
Waiting for index to be ready (915 > 0)
TM has been hung up for hours ... seriously hours ... like this. I've manually stopped the back up, restarted the computer, etc. all to no avail. And now when I've tried to b/u, my widget displays nothing. So, I don't even have anything to post to aid in assistance. TM is currently turned off.
Any help on where to go from here is greatly appreciated.

Hjeirce wrote:
Waiting for index to be ready (915 > 0)
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
This can be caused by several things.
First, are you sure it's formatted properly? Use Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder). Select the top line (with the make and size). Down towards the bottom, *Partition Map Scheme* should be GUID for an Intel Mac, +Apple Partition Map+ for a PPC Mac.
Then select the second line. Down towards the bottom, Format should be +Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+
If you're running any anti-virus scans, exclude your TM disk from them.
Also exclude it from Spotlight, at least temporarily, via System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy.
If those don't help, that leaves the drive itself:
Is it FireWire or USB?
If USB, does it have it's own power supply, or does it get power from your Mac? If it uses your Mac's power, try another port (not one on your keyboard), and try unplugging other USB devices such as printers.
The drive may be "spinning down" at idle. Try System Preferences > Energy Saver and de-select +Put the hard drives to sleep ...+ Some drives respond to that setting, some don't.
Does it have an automatic "Spin down" mode of it's own? If so, can you disable it? Check with the manufacturer's web site, support, and/or forums. Some WD drives, I think, have a recent firmware update that may fix this.

Similar Messages

  • HT201250 Anyone have time machine "lock up" while backing up and not completing the task?

    I have the drive connected for over 24 hrs and time machine will only back up 25% of the 75Gb it claims to need to back up.
    I have re tried and get the same result, and T.M. will show "backing up" even after 24 hrs.
    I know it is not the drive being too full or being defective, since a partition set up for a pc works just fine.

    Hi, many people have, but I think you need to Repair the TM Partion, & maybe your Boot drive, maybe more.
    Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
    http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
    Can't imagine something not being covered there.

  • Time Machine spends hours partially backing up and then fails with "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup due to a network problem."  Tried suggestions I've seen on the forum.

    Time Machine spends hours partially backing up and then fails with "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup due to a network problem."  I've tried various suggestions I've seen on the forum but nothing has worked.  TIme Machine worked fine for the last two years and just suddenly started having this problem every time.  The only thing that was a little different is that the computer was off for a week while on vacation and then I added a large amount (20 GB) of photos. Now the requested backup size is 82GB, which is large, and process proceeds very slowly for 2-3 hours before failing with the message mentioned.  I have more than enough available backup storage space for it.  Before failing, Time Machine has backed up no more than 12GB or so of the backup.  It fails during different files each time.
    I've turned off the computer sleep feature, and I've checked that the NAS is set to never automatically power down. I normally backup over Wi-Fi, but I've also tried connecting to Ethernet and it still has the same problem.  It's odd because I also have a MacBook Pro that is still backing up fine to the same NAS using the MacBook's Time Machine. 
    I am using an iMac with OS X 10.6.8 and an Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 NAS.
    I have system logs that I can share if helpful.  The logged messages vary a bit from run to run, but here are some messages that I've been seeing:
    I always get this message near the beginning of the backup:
    Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
    I've gotten this messsage a number of times:
    Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
    One Day
    Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!
    Another day
    1/7/12 10:44:20 AM
    mDNSResponder[18]
    PenaltyTimeForServer: PenaltyTime negative -112916, (server penaltyTime -1132397006, timenow -1132284090) resetting the penalty
    1/7/12 10:46:37 AM
    kernel
    ASP_TCP Disconnect: triggering reconnect by bumping reconnTrigger from curr value 0 on so 0x1106be94
    1/7/12 10:46:37 AM
    kernel
    AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect started /Volumes/TimeMachine prevTrigger 0 currTrigger 1
    Another Day
    1/6/12 8:03:22 AM
    Google Chrome[164]
    Cannot find function pointer CMPluginInFactory for factory 3487BB5A-3E66-11D5-A64E-003065B300BC in CFBundle/CFPlugIn 0x16f99e20 </Users/smarmer/Library/Contextual Menu Items/Google Notifier Quick Add CM Plugin.plugin> (not loaded)
    1/6/12 8:04:02 AM
    com.apple.backupd[193]
    Copied 7.5 GB of 67.0 GB, 8866 of 8866 items
    1/6/12 8:06:58 AM
    /System/Library/CoreServices/CCacheServer.app/Contents/MacOS/CCacheServer[1013]
    No valid tickets, timing out
    1/6/12 8:29:44 AM
    mDNSResponder[19]
    PenaltyTimeForServer: PenaltyTime negative -148702, (server penaltyTime 2056822773, timenow 2056971475) resetting the penalty
    1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
    kernel
    ASP_TCP Disconnect: triggering reconnect by bumping reconnTrigger from curr value 0 on so 0xa5ac380
    1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
    kernel
    AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect started /Volumes/TimeMachine prevTrigger 0 currTrigger 1
    1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
    kernel
    AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect:  doing reconnect on /Volumes/TimeMachine
    1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
    kernel
    AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect:  soft mounted and hidden volume so do not notify KEA for /Volumes/TimeMachine
    1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
    kernel
    AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect:  Max reconnect time: 30 secs, Connect timeout: 15 secs for /Volumes/TimeMachine
    1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
    kernel
    AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect:  connect to the server /Volumes/TimeMachine
    1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
    kernel
    ASP_TCP asp_SetTCPQoS:  sock_settclassopt got error 57
    Another day
    1/5/12 3:48:55 PM
    mdworker[2128]
    CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
    1/5/12 4:24:54 PM
    mDNSResponder[19]
    PenaltyTimeForServer: PenaltyTime negative -42698, (server penaltyTime 1148718961, timenow 1148761659) resetting the penalty
    1/5/12 4:29:58 PM
    com.apple.backupd[2074]
    Copied 586.4 MB of 67.0 GB, 9891 of 9891 items
    1/5/12 4:39:00 PM
    kernel
    ASP_TCP Disconnect: triggering reconnect by bumping reconnTrigger from curr value 0 on so 0xa1c0380

    bokon0n wrote:
    1/11/12 8:53:30 AM
    com.apple.backupd[1169]
    Warning: Destination /Volumes/TimeMachine does not support TM Lock Stealing
    1/11/12 8:53:30 AM
    com.apple.backupd[1169]
    Warning: Destination /Volumes/TimeMachine does not support Server Reply Cache
    Those indicate that your NAS is not fully compatible with Snow Leopard. 
    1/11/12 8:53:35 AM
    kernel
    jnl: disk2s2: replay_journal: from: 67182592 to: 78680064 (joffset 0xa7b8000)
    1/11/12 8:53:39 AM
    kernel
    jnl: disk2s2: examining extra transactions starting @ 78680064 / 0x4b09000
    1/11/12 8:53:39 AM
    kernel
    jnl: disk2s2: Extra txn replay stopped @ 79056896 / 0x4b65000
    1/11/12 8:53:49 AM
    kernel
    jnl: disk2s2: journal replay done.
    1/11/12 8:53:49 AM
    fseventsd[41]
    event logs in /Volumes/Time Machine/.fseventsd out of sync with volume.  destroying old logs. (253512 14 253512)
    1/11/12 8:53:50 AM
    kernel
    hfs: Removed 1 orphaned / unlinked files and 0 directories
    That looks like a problem was found with the file system (data) on the TM disk.  I don't know the details, but OSX tried to recover it from the journal, and found extra data on the drive.    Likely a result of the incompatibility mentioned above.
    1/11/12 9:47:40 AM
    com.apple.backupd[1169]
    Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
    That's a problem writing to the NAS drive.
    But the backup continued after all this.
    1/11/12 1:25:07 PM
    kernel
    ASP_TCP Disconnect: triggering reconnect by bumping reconnTrigger from curr value 0 on so 0x9d00b44
    Something caused a disconnect.  Can't tell from the log what it was.
    I doubt it's a problem with something in OSX being damaged or corrupted, but reinstalling OSX isn't a major hassle, so might be worth a try.
    To be incompatible with Snow Leopard, this NAS must be at least a couple of years old.  It may be beginning to fail.
    Contact the maker.  See if there's an update to make it compatible with Snow Leopard.  If so, that might fix it.
    If not, or if that doesn't fix it, see if they have any diagnostics that will shed any light.

  • HT203177 I had to get a new hard drive in my 27 in IMac. I used time machine to get everything back on my computer. I just turn on time machine and its says it's preparing over 800,000 items to back-up, it never back-up, it stop and starts the process ove

    I had to get a new hard drive in my 27 in IMac. I used time machine to get everything back on my computer. I just turn on time machine and its says it's preparing over 800,000 items to back-up, it never back-up, it stop and starts the process over again.

    Could be many things, we should start with this...
    "Try Disk Utility
    1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
    2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
    *Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
    3. Click the First Aid tab.
    4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
    5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
    Then repair the backup/TM drive.

  • Time Machine won't recognize back up after I move external drive to Airport

    I have a new 640GB exteranl drive that I bought to back up my Mac using TIme Machine. I plugged in the drive via USB (USB powered drive), then set up Time Machine and did the first back up successfully. I then plugged my exteranl drive into Airport Extreme so I could back up wireless in the future. Airport recognies the drive, and I can see the back up folders on the drive. However, Time Machine doesn't recognize those back up folders as my Mac.
    I went into Time Machine SEttings, and repointed it to the same disk, and it tries to back up everything again, wirelessly. Any ideas how to get Time Machine to recognize the back up files made while I was "hard wired" to the Mac?

    Adam1076 wrote:
    I have a new 640GB exteranl drive that I bought to back up my Mac using TIme Machine. I plugged in the drive via USB (USB powered drive), then set up Time Machine and did the first back up successfully. I then plugged my exteranl drive into Airport Extreme so I could back up wireless in the future. Airport recognies the drive, and I can see the back up folders on the drive. However, Time Machine doesn't recognize those back up folders as my Mac.
    I went into Time Machine SEttings, and repointed it to the same disk, and it tries to back up everything again, wirelessly. Any ideas how to get Time Machine to recognize the back up files made while I was "hard wired" to the Mac?
    that's not possible. remote backups are stored differently. directly attached backups are stored directly in a folder on the drive. remote ones are stored inside a sparse bundle. you'll have to start a new backup sequence if you want to do remote backups.

  • TM Gets hung up while backing up

    Hi.
    My TM keeps getting hung up while backing up. It's been more than a week and sometimes I get to 11KB and sometimes I get to 6.6MB. But every time it gets hung up and won't finish. I try stopping the back-up but that won't work. I have to eject the backup disk to get it to stop. TM pref pane says Failed. I ran disk utility on the disk, but it's fine with no errors. I checked the COnsole to look for error messages but there are none pertaining to TM.
    What do I do?

    Landon737 wrote:
    It's a FireWire LaCie Porsche 250 GB external HD, which I think is a very decent disk. In fact, I've had no problems with it whatsoever until this past week.
    Maybe, but they're all mechanical contraptions . . .
    Now, something else I've seen is that when I turn off TM and then turn it back on (the actual switch in the pref pane) I am asked to choose a disk to use for backup. When I select "Macbook Pro Backup" it asks me if I want to back on the same disk that my original data is on. That seems weird to me. In fact in my list of disks, I have the external HD (2 partitions) and my Windows partition HD but no "Macintosh HD" start-up disk.
    That sounds like the message you get when you want to back-up to a different partition on the same drive. It will let you do that, but warns you first that it may not be a great idea.
    And you should only get the "Choose a disk" prompt if there isn't one already selected.
    TM should list any volume with TM backups on it (from any Mac) in the excluded list, but in gray, so you can't remove it.
    It's a long shot, but it might be worth a try to do a complete reset:
    Stop TM, de-select your TM drive (select "none"), note your exclusions, then quit System Preferences.
    Delete the top-level (not in your home folder) file: /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
    Re-select your TM drive, re-enter any exclusions, try a +Back Up Now+.

  • My Time Machine will no longer back up to my external disk for unknown reasons.  It would not accept my password and said the disk is read-only and damaged.  How can I copy my files to my Mac so I can repair it?

    My Time Machine will no longer back up to my external drive for unknown reasons.  It began after a series of power outages (my equipment is protected by a surge protector with battery backup), and was shut down correctly.  Then it began by not recognizing my disk and my Time Machine password, although I am positive it was correct. I tried NUMEROUS times to get into it. It says the disk is damaged and needs to be erased and started over.  How can I back up my files on my Mac so I can do that? I have no other disk to back up to.  I found the files in a folder called "Backups.backupdb", and tried to copy them into a folder, but get the message "The volume has the wrong case sensitivity for a backup."  The "lost+found" folder did copy for me. Will I just have to lose 4 years of backups?

    Hi there,
    I have the same issue. Usually hangs after 10K od sometimes after 18MB of backup file.
    Config: iTunes 10.4., Win 7 64bit, iPhone 4 with iOS 4.3.3
    I tried all of these without success:
    - deleted backups via iTunes / Preferences
    - deleted backups from sync folder
    - created a new admin user and tried to sync
    - reinstalled iTunes
    - ran all Windows updates, restarted, reinstalled iTunes
    - ran iTunes / Diagnostics (says everything okay, only info which is strange: diag says I am not a admin user, which is not correct)
    Nothing helped. Who can help. I hope someone from Apple can take care, as I seem not to be the only one. Actually iTunes is the worst part about iPhone. Hope with iOS 5 and Cloud sync to get rid of iTunes.
    Any hints welcome,
    Cheers,
    Miguel-KA

  • When backing up on time machine is get " The back up disk image'/volume/data/eric balnchard's Macbook.sparbundle"could not be accessed (error-1). what does it mean? it's a new time machine

    when backing up on time machine is get " The back up disk image'/volume/data/eric balnchard's Macbook.sparbundle"could not be accessed (error-1). what does it mean? it's a new time machine

    Expect to see this error again due to a bug in Lion (and Mountain Lion).
    See # C17 in Pondini's excellent support document below, or look over to the right of this web page under the heading of More Like This
    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

  • I'm not sure if my iPhoto library is being backed up by Time Machine. I am backing up to a LaCie external hard drive. I can open photos that are in folders but not those that are in iPhoto.

    I'm not sure if my iPhoto library is being backed up by Time Machine. I am backing up to a LaCie external hard drive. I can open photos ont the hard drive that are in folders but not those that are in iPhoto.

    Do a restore from Time Machine. That will tell you.

  • My time machine cannot complete my back up saying the "sparse bundle could not be accessed" error -1  Help please

    My time machine cannot complete my back up.  The message I receive says the "sparse bundle cannot be accessed.  (error -1)  Help please.

    GG,
    Please read over Pondini's Time Machine Troubleshooting guide, specifically C17.

  • HT201250 Does Time Machine delete files in back-ups that are deleted on my Mac?

    Does Time Machine delete files in back-ups that are deleted on my Mac?  IOW....if I need to restore a whole back-up, I don't want to restore previously deleted files.

    Does Time Machine delete files in back-ups that are deleted on my Mac?
    Not immediately. When space starts to get tight, Time Machine will start to delete the oldest file(s) to make more room, but this won't occur for some time.
    if I need to restore a whole back-up, I don't want to restore previously deleted files.
    You won't if you choose to restore from a backup that occurred after the date that you deleted the file.
    If you absolutely do not want to keep the file in your Time Machine backups at all, you do have the option to go into Time Machine, find the file, and manually delete all versions of the file from past dates.

  • Time Machine (OSX) doesn't back up files in Mount Point or Disk Image File

    Hi all,
    I have two disk images which are scripted to be mounted on login. These two disk images are always mounted to the same location. These two disk images are encrypted TrueCrypt volumes.
    Time Machine (TM) will only back up the disk images the first time they are mounted, but not after that. As I modify documents within the volumes throughout the day, the modified timestamps are adjusted properly. However, TM does not back them up. TM never backs up the mount points which are two folders within my home directory.
    Any ideas as to why neither the mount point or the image files are backed up? Do the image files have to be closed (unmounted) after being modified for TM to back them up?
    Now if TM won't back up the image files because they are locked/open, then why does it back them up the first time even though they are mounted? Also, from what I've read, TM should back up any HFS+ drive which is mounted. Both these drives are HFS+, so it should back up the mount points? I can verify this by doing a 'mount' in the terminal, the following is echo'd back:
    /dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled) (Main System Drive)
    /dev/disk1 on /Users/username/Folder1 (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners, mounted by username) (First TrueCrypt volume)
    /dev/disk2 on /Users/username/Folder2 (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners, mounted by username)(Second TrueCrypt volume)
    Any ideas will help!
    Thanks,
    Chris
    Message was edited by: sleagle328

    Here is the resolution:
    Apparently time machine checks the parent folder's timestamp before moving into that folder to look for modified files.
    So as I was modifying files, the timestamps on the volumes were changing but not the containing directory. Because of this, TimeMachine saw the parent directory had not changed, so did not look for the changed volumes inside.
    So to resolve this, I wrote a simple touch script which touches the parent directory to match the modified volumes timestamp (if there is a modified volume).
    Thanks,
    Chris
    Message was edited by: sleagle328

  • When I try to set up Time Machine, there are no back up disks displayed.  Therefore, I cannot turn on Time Machine.  How can I fix this?

    When I try to set up Time Machine, there are no back up disks displayed.  Therefore, I cannot turn on Time Machine.  How can I fix this?

    Thanks - let it finish, but zero out data is unnecessary. That option is intended to thoroughly erase previously recorded data so that it cannot be recovered without sophisticated data recovery techniques.
    Case sensitive is OK but I suggest you simply select Mac OS X Extended since "case sensitive" may complicate things for you in the future, should it be necessary to restore files to a case-ignorant volume.
    Once it finishes, make sure it appears as a selectable option in Time Machine. If it does your problems are solved, but consider using Disk Utility and reformatting it. This time don't worry about zeroing unused space, and select Mac OS X Extended (Journaled). It will only take a few seconds this time.
    For a more thorough description read Apple Support Communites contributor Pondini's FAQ: http://pondini.org/TM/5.html Read the pink box regarding the subject of case sensitivity.
    Also: Mac Basics: Time Machine

  • Time Machine has simply stopped backing up any new files. No items set to be excluded, No error messages.

    I have a Macbook with OS X 10.6.8 and a 500GB external hard drive, which still has 208.5GB available. For some reason, Time Machine has simply stopped backing up any new files (documents, music, movies--anything). No items are set to be excluded from backups in Time Machine options except for the external hard drive itself. Also, no error messages appear, Time Machine seems to run just fine, but when I enter Time Machine, or look through the files on the hard drive, new files just aren't there. I am not very tech savvy, so I was not able to understand some of the answers people gave to similar questions on here. I did go to Pondini's website and followed as many troubleshooting instructions as I could understand (for example I did manage to do a full reset of Time Machine) but nothing changed. Do I just need to erase the entire backup drive and sart all over? If so, what will prevent this from happening again later on? Please help.

    Your TM drive liekly stopped backing up because it hit a series of bad sectors on the drive, to eliminate this all new drives should be Disk Utility > Zero Erased (one step below 7x in Lion) before use.
    Reducing bad sectors effect on hard drives
    Diversify your backups with bootable clones and archives on DVD's etc so your prepared for anything, including using a PC.
    only if you have too of course, but it happens, people just can't afford a Mac anymore.
    Most commonly used backup methods explained
    So make other backups, then Zero Erase teh TM drive and set it back up again and your problem should be resolved.
    If not, then it's data corruption on your boot drive!
    You'll know if it's data corruption on your boot drive, when you go to make the clone, it will hang too.

  • My backup hard drive does not have enough space for time machine to perform a back up even after erasing entire contents of bu hard drive

    My backup hard drive does not have enough space for time machine to perform a back up even after erasing entire contents of bu hard drive.  The hard drive has been in service for almost two years performing this function with no sign of failure.  How do I adjust time machine perameters?

    The only way to limit the size of the backup is to exclude data from the backup, which you can do in Time Machine preferences.
    If you use multiple browsers, have you tried clearing your browser caches? However, that's just a stop gap if it works. You either need to limit what you backup or get another drive.

Maybe you are looking for