"Time Machine is unable to complete backup" error message

I've tried to run Time Machine 3 times since last night and each time it gets through about 85 GB with about 150 GB remaining. Then a message comes up that says "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume." I checked the Support Troubleshooting section before the last attempt, and reformatted the disk as it suggested. (The disk is a new Western Digital 500 GB). Based on the response to a similar discussion posted recently, I went into my Console and copied the below. Obviously this is all Greek to me, so if anyone has any insight on how I can get Time Machine to work as it's intended, I'd sure appreciate it!
Emilie
5/11/08 12:40:23 PM Disk Utility[51268]
5/11/08 12:40:53 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 12:41:30 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 12:43:03 PM DYMO Label[51342] * -[NSConcreteTextStorage useTypingAttributesFontSize]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x167410
5/11/08 12:43:03 PM DYMO Label[51342] <NSATSTypesetter: 0x16ab30>: Exception * -[NSConcreteTextStorage useTypingAttributesFontSize]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x167410 raised during typesetting layout manager <NSLayoutManager: 0x169eb0>
1 containers, text backing has 0 characters
selected character range {0, 0} affinity: upstream granularity: character
marked character range {0, 0}
Currently holding 0 glyphs.
Glyph tree contents: 0 characters, 0 glyphs, 1 nodes, 32 node bytes, 0 storage bytes, 32 total bytes, 0.00 bytes per character, 0.00 bytes per glyph
Layout tree contents: 0 characters, 0 glyphs, 0 laid glyphs, 0 laid line fragments, 1 nodes, 32 node bytes, 0 storage bytes, 32 total bytes, 0.00 bytes per character, 0.00 bytes per glyph, 0.00 laid glyphs per laid line fragment, 0.00 bytes per laid line fragment
, glyph range {0 0}. Ignoring...
5/11/08 12:53:26 PM SpamSieve[51227] * -[NSCFNumber count]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x313be0
5/11/08 12:53:26 PM SpamSieve[51227] Exception raised during posting of notification. Ignored. exception: '* -[NSCFNumber count]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x313be0' invoked observer method: '* -[ABAddressBook databaseChangedExternally:]' observer: 0x4f75430 notification name: 'ABDatabaseChangedNotificationPriv'
5/11/08 12:53:58 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 12:55:11 PM com.apple.launchd[213] ([0x0-0x6c66c6].com.apple.finder[40722]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
5/11/08 12:55:19 PM com.apple.launchd[213] ([0x0-0x719719].com.apple.finder[51524]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
5/11/08 12:55:27 PM com.apple.launchd[213] ([0x0-0x71a71a].com.apple.finder[51527]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
5/11/08 12:55:35 PM com.apple.launchd[213] ([0x0-0x71b71b].com.apple.finder[51531]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
5/11/08 12:55:43 PM com.apple.launchd[213] ([0x0-0x71c71c].com.apple.finder[51533]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
5/11/08 12:55:51 PM com.apple.launchd[213] ([0x0-0x71d71d].com.apple.finder[51537]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
5/11/08 12:55:59 PM com.apple.launchd[213] ([0x0-0x71e71e].com.apple.finder[51539]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
5/11/08 12:56:07 PM com.apple.launchd[213] ([0x0-0x71f71f].com.apple.finder[51543]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
5/11/08 12:56:15 PM com.apple.launchd[213] ([0x0-0x720720].com.apple.finder[51546]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
5/11/08 12:56:23 PM com.apple.launchd[213] ([0x0-0x721721].com.apple.finder[51549]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
5/11/08 12:56:32 PM com.apple.launchd[213] ([0x0-0x722722].com.apple.finder[51553]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
5/11/08 12:56:41 PM com.apple.launchd[213] ([0x0-0x723723].com.apple.finder[51557]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
5/11/08 12:56:49 PM com.apple.launchd[213] ([0x0-0x724724].com.apple.finder[51559]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
5/11/08 12:56:58 PM com.apple.launchd[213] ([0x0-0x725725].com.apple.finder[51563]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
5/11/08 12:57:08 PM com.apple.launchd[213] ([0x0-0x726726].com.apple.finder[51566]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
5/11/08 12:57:16 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 12:57:52 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 1:04:21 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 1:18:34 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 1:26:28 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 1:27:58 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (0x10a5a0.mdworker[51425]) Exited abnormally: Segmentation fault
5/11/08 1:28:07 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (0x10a5a0.mdworker[52109]) Exited abnormally: Segmentation fault
5/11/08 1:29:04 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (0x10a5a0.mdworker[52113]) Exited abnormally: Segmentation fault
5/11/08 1:29:11 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (0x10a5a0.mdworker[52128]) Exited abnormally: Segmentation fault
5/11/08 1:51:17 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 2:08:20 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 2:29:00 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 4:08:42 PM mdworker[51312] Cannot find function pointer MetadataImporterPluginFactory for factory 1674F1EB-76AA-4CAB-A44F-789AB49B4980 in CFBundle/CFPlugIn 0x1434d0 </Applications/RealPlayer.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/RealMedia Metadata Importer.mdimporter> (bundle, loaded)
5/11/08 4:38:38 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 5:03:35 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 5:11:30 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 5:12:54 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (0x10a5a0.mdworker[54826]) Exited abnormally: Segmentation fault
5/11/08 5:13:03 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (0x10a5a0.mdworker[55455]) Exited abnormally: Segmentation fault
5/11/08 5:13:52 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (0x10a5a0.mdworker[55457]) Exited abnormally: Segmentation fault
5/11/08 5:14:00 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (0x10a5a0.mdworker[55470]) Exited abnormally: Segmentation fault
5/11/08 5:26:11 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 5:33:57 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 6:53:34 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 7:02:55 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 7:03:27 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 7:03:41 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
5/11/08 8:10:45 PM mdworker[51312] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.

Well now I've got a whole new, much bigger problem. I did the renaming and then went through the indexing procedure for the 3 partitions of my main drive. So after that I did a restart. However, after the restart, there were (and are) no icons on my desktop. Nothing for my drives, files, etc. The only thing that shows is the dock at the bottom. If I open an application from the dock, it opens fine and then I've got the menu bar at the top. But the finder won't open. When this first happened, and I checked the Spotlight icon top right, it said was 'estimating index time" for both of my external hard drives (which I did not select when I was in the Privacy tab, etc.). One of those has my iPhoto library of 5,000+ photos and one is the empty back-up drive for Time Machine. Those "estimating indexing time" messages stayed for some time but have now gone away (without ever indicating that indexing was taking place), but still no change. I've restarted again and it's the same. Help!

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HT3275 what do I do when time machine says: Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder?

I am trying to back up my imac using an external storage: My passport Studio 1TB. Each time it trys to back up Time machine says: Unable to complete back up. An error occurred while creating the backup folder. Does anyone know how I can fix this problem? Thanks

Plowie,
Do a search in Discussions, "An error occurred while creating the backup folder."
Many of us are having this problem and no fix has been offered, that I could find.
Unless you call "eject the external HDD; turn off; turn back on" a fix. That's what I have to do every 2 or 3 days; I even have to "force eject", with the concomitant warning message that you could lose data, etc.

HT3275 The error message I get with Time Machine is 'Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder.' Any idea how I solve this problem?

I am a little perplexed. The Time Machine does seem to be backing up my data but I continually get the following message displayed on my screen 'Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder.' I am using a WD My Passport for Mac portable hard disk drive.

Hi Peter,
http://pondini.org/TM/C10.html

Time Machine Issue-Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder.

Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder.

As usual, backups worked for a few days. Failed again on wakeup this morning...
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/TM Backup/Backups.backupdb
Error: (22) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.ModelID path:/Volumes/TM Backup/Backups.backupdb/David’s Mac Mini size:10
Error: (-50) Creating directory 2012-02-25-074454.inProgress
Failed to make snapshot container.
Error: (22) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.ModelID path:/Volumes/TM Backup/Backups.backupdb/David's Mac Mini size:10
Backup failed with error: 2
I've searched Discussions and have seen the exact same error messages with all kinds of Macs and ext HDs, both USB and FW. I can't believe it's a 'failing HD' since it works for a few days; and that it's been going on for months now. Seems like the ext HD would have actually failed by now if that was the case.
I wish I could figure out why three different errors are reported: (-50), (22), and :2

Time Machine says, Unable to Complete Backup

There seem to be a lot of variants of my problem on this forum, but each one is different. After several months working well, about 3 weeks ago the Time Machine on my iMac quit doing its backups to my Time Capsule. I get the message, "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup directory."
Repairing permissions, restarting the computer, and unplugging/replugging the Time Capsule did not help. Manually requesting a backup doesn't work either.
My computer knowledge is rather rudimentary, so if you reply, please please use step-by-step explanations, define any acronyms, etc.
Another question: is there a way to connect the Time Capsule to my computer by cable, and use it as effectively just an external drive. e.g. backing up by manual copying?
Here is the system log from a failed backup:
Jan 4 13:55:09 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Backup requested by user
Jan 4 13:55:09 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Starting standard backup
Jan 4 13:55:09 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Backup destination alias resolved to path: /Volumes/Time Capsule
Jan 4 13:55:10 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule/iMac_000d936fb4dc.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of iMac
Jan 4 13:55:10 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of iMac/Backups.backupdb
Jan 4 13:55:13 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Failed to create progress log file at path:/Volumes/Backup of iMac/Backups.backupdb/iMac/2008-12-15-175337.inProgress/.Backup.252798913.05373 3.log.
Jan 4 13:55:13 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: HARD DRIVE
Jan 4 13:55:13 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Error: (-36) Creating directory 6C565DE2-06A5-419E-8CE8-4C56AEA21C5B
Jan 4 13:55:13 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Failed to make snapshot.
Jan 4 13:55:18 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Backup failed with error: 2
Jan 4 13:55:27 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
Jan 4 13:55:28 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Ejected Time Machine network volume.
Jan 4 13:59:57 iMac sudo[8483]: alexander : TTY=ttys000 ; PWD=/Users/alexander ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/grep backupd /var/log/system.log

Ken,
This thread may be of interest if you have not already read it.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8354256&#8354256
Did you interrupt a backup at some stage or did you not eject the Time Capsule at the conclusion of a previous backup before shutting down your Mac?
Is there sufficient free space on Time Capsule to cater for your backups? The backup volume needs to be about 3 times the size of your Mac HD used space.
Chris

Time machine is unable to complete backup

Three days ago my time machine stopped backing up my files with the error message, "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume."
Apple support took me through a partion of the the backup hard drive. I then used Utilities to make sure there was no problem with my harddrive, it's files and even the back up hard drive. Once again I received the failed message. I've done the partion process three times with no success in backing up my hard drive.
I've notice on line several people having time machine problems within last 5 days, this cluster raises an interesting red flag with time machine program.
What do I do now? Is there any way to reload the time machine program. My suspicion is the program has a flaw since every other fix has been tried.
HELP!!!

You may have to re-install the system to re-install time machine.
This error generally represents a problem communicating with the backup device ie. bad usb/firewire/wirelessconnection to the device. Do you have another external device you could try it with? sometimes the external device is at fault.

Unable to complete backup error message

Im getting this message while trying to backup my portable USB drive
"Time Machine Error Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while linking files on the backup volume"
any ideas how i can fix this?
Ive been backing it up fine for about a month and a half but its started doing this today..
cheers

The suggestions here are great. I did this before I read the posts here. First I deleted the backups on TM. Than reformatted the TM external FW drive. The next backup went but stopped. I found that the external drive for IPhoto was backed up but my primary HD was not. I than repaired permissions on the main drive. At this point I deleted the log on TM and tried the back up again. After several attempts it has begun to work again. So far so good. Hope this is of some use to you.

My time machine says unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume

It won't give me any more details, how do i find out where the problem is?

I've been doing more research on this, i downloaded the time machine buddy and this is what i got.
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
I'm not seeing info on this error anywhere.

Time machine says unable to complete backup as file is too large

I have a 500 GB Time capsule and it says when carrying out a back up that it can't be completed as the file size is too large, back up requires 233.01 GB and only 211.95 GB are avaliable. Does this mean i need to buy a bigger Time capsule/external hard drive?

Thanks for the help.
From what I can work out I think as I don't have my computer on all the time long enough to carry out a back up it now wants to do another full back up and I don't have the space on the Time capsule to do that. I will go into a Apple store to check I am right but it looks like I will need to buy a bigger externel hard drive.
Thanks again

How can I force Time Machine to make a complete backup of my Hard Drive. I just installed a new external drive for Backup since my previous one failed. Now when I back up, Time Machine only backs up my data folder and the Users folder.

How can I force Time Machine to make a complete backup of my Hard Drive. I just installed a new external drive for Backup since my previous one failed. Now when I back up, Time Machine only backs up my data folder and the Users folder.
When I start a backup. Time Machine says "Oldest Backup: None; Latest Backup: None", so it seems like it should do a complete backup, but it only does a partial.

Hi I'd like to jump in here. Your app showed me this:
Time Machine:
          Skip System Files: NO
          Mobile backups: OFF
          Auto backup: YES
          Volumes being backed up:
                    Macintosh HD: Disk size: 749.3 GB Disk used: 453.81 GB
          Destinations:
                    Plastic Wrapper [Local] (Last used)
                    Total size: 999.86 GB
                    Total number of backups: 64
                    Oldest backup: 2013-07-24 23:25:11 +0000
                    Last backup: 2013-11-17 01:40:47 +0000
                    Size of backup disk: Too small
                              Backup size 999.86 GB < (Disk used 453.81 GB X 3)
          Time Machine details may not be accurate.
          All volumes being backed up may not be listed.
          /sbin excluded from backup!
          /usr excluded from backup!
          /System excluded from backup!
          /bin excluded from backup!
          /private excluded from backup!
          /Library excluded from backup!
          /Applications excluded from backup!
Aside from the size of my backup drive, which I will increase at some point, I'd really like to have time machine backing up all system folders, especially Applications. How to I reset this hidden exclusions?
Thanks,
Darcy

Time machine is unable to auto-backup....

Time machine is unable to auto-backup as it is unable to detect time capsule disk. However it will do a backup once the disk is manually located using 'select disk' option. This problem started when our house network was upgraded to fibre optic network. Earlier it was working prefectly fine on cable network. Would appreciate if someone can advise the solution to the problem.

Looks like a mounting issue perhaps? Often solved by power-cycling.

"Time machine unable to complete backup, Error while copying files"

MacBook Pro, 10.5.5, 500Gb Time Capsule. Backups have stopped working, I get an error message " Time Machine Error, Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume." Nothing I am aware of has changed with my system, updated to 10.5.5 a few days after it was out, backups just stopped working a few days ago.
The backups stop after a different amount of time/data transfer, never completes, always get the same error message. I am able to copy my entire Home folder to the Time Capsule drive (not the Time Machine sparse bundle) successfully.
Steps I've taken: Latest Time Capsule firmware. Repaired permissions. Tried to backup by ethernet and wireless. Deleted "In progress" backup file and started again. Erased entire drive and started fresh. Made a Genius Bar appt today and they gave me a brand new Time Capsule, no go.
What can I do?
Thank you for any help

does this happen on every backup? if so check the console log at the backup time. filter for messages involving backupd. it should give more extensive info on what the error is. sometimes TM chokes on a particular file. excluding it from TM or deleting it altogether might solve the problem.

Time Machine Failure - Unable to create backup directory

I've been using time machine for months with no problems. It seems like since I went to the 10.5.2 update I started having problems.
Time machine fails and says a problem occurred creating a backup directory. I'm running an external drive formated to the MAC Extended Journeled. I also set my computer share name with no punctuation and no spaces.
Today I got the failure and I ran repair disc in disk utility and it could not repair the disk. So I erased it, rebooted and reconfigured time machine.
Started running the backup and about 30 minutes into it stopped with the same error.
Any thing I can try?

Seems I have same problem, I came here for the answer, only to find there appears to be none!
I started off with a new 250Gb internal drive, 50 "Real" Gb to Boot Camp, rest to Mac. Re-installed from original Apple install disks to TIGER, then upgraded to LEOPARD with the Apple upgrade disk that came with the machine as an uninstalled upgrade. All firmware and software updates up to date.
First tried a Maxtor 4+ ext 750Gb Firewire drive for Time machine, 400Gb to Time Machine, other partition for other stuff. Every backup failed with Time Machine, same as the unfortunate gentleman in the pages above. Super-Duper backup to that same drive/partition worked perfectly.
So I bought a 250Gb 2.5" Western Digital drive, put it in a USB/Firewire case and tried that, but every time same problem. It would stall once 123.85Gb of 143.8Gb completed, and get no further. After a few days a reboot or forcequit was needed to stop the process, and on attempting to restart time machine later would only get to about 32kb and fail stating there was not enough space on the drive. (123Gb already backed up, only 19Gb to go, and 106Gb free on the backup drive)
I have re-formatted (Standard Mac extended/journalled format) the drive several times now, and always same result. I have checked the drive, repaired it, and written it over with Zeroes after formatting even, still same resuly, exactly 123.85Gb into the backup it stops and goes no further. I have tried with both the firewire, and the USB plugged into the drive, same result. Time Machine does not even have the courtesy to report which file it got stuck on, so that I could manually delete it if that was the problem. Anyone found the answer to this yet?

Time machine says unable to complete back up an eror occurred while creating back up folder

Time machine shows error message "unable to complete back up an error occurred while creating back up folder" No error code is diplayed but if I turn the whole system off and restart it time machine backs up just the once

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 icon grid.
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. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message that corresponds to a failed backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showning, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

Getting Time Machine to do a complete backup

I performed an initial backup on one hard drive and than decided to switch to using a different hardddrive. I performed a backup on the 2nd drive but it was only partial. How do I inform Time Machine that I wish to do a full backup on this 2nd drive?
Thanks, Bruce

Joe: I know that the backup to the 2nd disk was partial by checking the amount of memory consumed. I did not select Change Disk and that might be where I went wrong. If I did select Change Disk how would Time Machine know that I wanted a complete backup and not that I just needed more storage space?
Thanks for responding to my question.
Bruce

"Time Machine is unable to complete backup" error message

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