Time Machine isn't backing up my Downloads folder

I went to restore a file from my "Downloads" folder, while connected to my Time Machine external drive and when I browse for the file every file or folder in my "Downloads" folder is greyed out and don't even look like files.
Downloads is not listed in the section of excluded files.
Anybody got any insight? Here's a picture:

I'm not having any problems with any other folders that I'm aware of. Just poked around some other folders in backups, both internal backups and on the external and they are fine.
Downloads shows "0 files" at the bottom of the window in any of the backups, both externals and internals.
Moved a copy of Mountain Lion from the desktop to the Downloads folder, then did a manual backup. Here is the output I got from the backup buddy in my dashboard:
Starting manual backupBackup failed with error: 19Starting manual backupBacking up to: /Volumes/The Monopoly Guy/Backups.backupdbUsing file event preflight for SpeedyWill copy (1.7 MB) from SpeedyFound 150 files (4.76 GB) needing backup6.61 GB required (including padding), 84.92 GB availableCopied 2579 files (38.7 MB) from volume Speedy.Using file event preflight for SpeedyWill copy (Zero KB) from SpeedyFound 20 files (Zero KB) needing backup902.1 MB required (including padding), 84.88 GB availableCopied 1391 files (677 bytes) from volume Speedy.Created new backup: 2012-12-14-161604Starting post-backup thinningNo post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups existBackup completed successfully.
And going back into time machine, that file is not available for restoring.

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Time Machine isn't backing up to Time Capsule

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See here...
The Backup disk image ... sparsebundle ... is already in use.
From Pondini’s excellent Information Here...
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.htm

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Hi VincentMboyko,
Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
The troubleshooting steps in this article can help if your Time Machine isn't backing up:
Time Machine: Troubleshooting backup issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3275
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Time Machine isn't backing up VMWare Fusion

Hello,
I understand Time Machine is supposed to backup Fusion Virtual Machines. It doesn't seem to happen for me. I was running Fusion 1.1.3 and my father inadvertently selected "Revert to Previous Snapshot" and lost all my latest files. I assumed I could just restore from yesterday's Time Machine backup--but it's not there. When I launch Time Machine, the 'virtual machines' folder is empty. I upgraded to Fusion 2.0 and it still doesn't seem to backup ('virtual machines' folder is still empty in TM). Anyone have an answer? How does Time Machine store these files?

This from VMWares' web site:
+"VMware Fusion 1.1.2 and Mac OS X Leopard Time Machine Issue Resolved
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Alternatively, others have not excluded anything in the TM Prefs Pane, yet certain files/folders were not being backed up. They cleared this up by deleting the following .plist.
*Delete Time Machine Preference .plist*
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Drag the .plist file labeled,
com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
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Perform a backup and see if the missing file now appears in the last backup.
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I've been using Time Machine successfully for some time now. Recently I decided to move my iTunes music to an external drive (my internal drive was nearly full.) So I moved 150+ GB of iTunes library to the external drive successfully, but Time Machine seems to completely ignore the external (FireWire) drive. It's formatted as Mac OS Extended (that's HFS+, right?) so I don't understand what the problem might be.
Also, if I can get Time Machine to start backing up both drives correctly, should I erase the backup drive and start over? Otherwise, I assume that I'm going to be wasting a lot of (backup) drive space, since the 150GB iTunes library will be backed up from its original location on my internal drive, as well as from its new location on the external drive… what's the best way to deal with that?
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Dave Troup wrote:
If V.K.s suggestion doesn't work, try excluding the drive, quitting System Preferences, then removing the exclusion.
Also, if I can get Time Machine to start backing up both drives correctly, should I erase the backup drive and start over? Otherwise, I assume that I'm going to be wasting a lot of (backup) drive space, since the 150GB iTunes library will be backed up from its original location on my internal drive, as well as from its new location on the external drive… what's the best way to deal with that?
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Then make some change to the folder, or something within it, so TM will consider it changed and back-up the new (smaller) version.

After Mavericks upgrade Time Machine isn't Backing up anything

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Update!
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Just reboot the whole network.. restart modem .. router/TC.. clients with 2min gap.
This is the most common problem reported here with Mountain Lion.. although you didn't fill in the profile. ML??
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Apple made a dog's breakfast of it.

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Help

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Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Time Machine does not back up reliably, if at all, to most network drives, except Time Capsules or a shared drive on another Mac running Leopard or Snow Leopard on the same local network.
Here's the criteria they must meet: Disks that can be used with Time Machine. And be careful here: just because some 3rd-party hardware claims to support Time Machine doesn't necessarily mean that Apple supports it, or that it will work in all circumstances.
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with error message saying the backup file cannot mount or something like that.
The exact message might help.
Time Machine says its configuring
Is the word "configuring" or is it "Calculating changes"? "Configuring" sounds more like a message from WD, or perhaps your router, than one coming from Time Machine.
Click here to download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window. Navigate to the backup in question, then copy and post all the messages for that run here.
You might also try to Repair the backups. I don't know exactly how you'd get to them on a NAS, but try the procedure for a Time Capsule in #A5 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

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Should I just wait for an update to Time Machine and Mac OS X?
EDIT: Are you guys just calculating your speed by eye?
Message was edited by: Gilbere

I know this does not really help, but I upgraded from Tiger to Leopard and had all sorts of weird and wonderful problems with time machine doing the exact same thing as you.
As I could not be bothered trying to fix it all, I manually backed up my home drive and apps folder and re-installed Leopard using the customize option and deleting the contents of my drive.
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Obviously this is not a fix but I am a happy camper now!

My Time machine has stopped backing up saying there are some read only files.

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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.)
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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.
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 a message.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — edit that out, too, but don’t remove the context.

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Ever since I upgraded to Lion my iMac freezes or nearly freezes for 5 - 10 minutes every hour while Time Machine updates the back up. What to do?
I have tried everything I can think of but its only improved from total freeze while Time Machine backs up to freeze with an occasional few seconds of activity.
I am really fed up with this.

When I first updated to Lion everything was a mess with freezes happenng constantly like every two or three minutes. Then when looking at the app store I noticed in purchased items that Lion was showing install instead of installed so I downloaded and installed again.
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I am using Imation external drives and I don't believe the problem is drive specific.

After installing Mountain Lion, my Time Machine won't back up ... says the sparsebundle is in use

After installing Mountain Lion, my Time Machine won't back up ... says the sparsebundle is in use

Standard problem in ML.. apple do not seem to want to recognise.
Reboot the TC .. if that fails restart the whole network in correct order.. modem.. router/TC... clients.. with 2min gap.
There are other suggestions like changing the password.. all they do is the same as reboot.
Read C12.. most quoted Q in pondini website history. This is asked 10 times a day.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
Here is another way to get a useful utility in ML.. rather than toyland version.
How to load 5.6 into ML.
1. Download 5.6 for Lion.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
Click to open the dmg but do not attempt to install the pkg.. it won't work anyway.
2. Download and install unpkg.
http://www.timdoug.com/unpkg/
Run unpkg on the desktop.. it is very simple.. drag the AirPortUtility56.pkg file over to unpkg.. and it will create a new directory of the same name on the desktop.. drill down.. applications utilities .. there lo and behold is Airport utility 5.6 .. drag it to your main utilities directory or just run it from current location.
You cannot uninstall 6.1 so don't try.. and you cannot or should not run them both at the same time.. so just ignore the toyland version.. the plastic hammer.. and start using 5.6.. a real tool.

Time Machine isn't backing up my Downloads folder

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