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

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TS1550 Time Machine worked fine w. new HD for 16 backups, but started giving this mssg: [TIME MACHINE COULDN'T COMPLETE THE BACKUP TO "TOSHIBA EXT" ...An error occurred while creating the backup folder]

Time Machine worked fine w. new HD for 16 backups, but started giving this mssg: [TIME MACHINE COULDN'T COMPLETE THE BACKUP TO "TOSHIBA EXT" ...An error occurred while creating the backup folder]

Make sure your hard drive is formatted properly for the operating system installed. Go to Apple menu -> About This Mac to determine what it is. You posted to the 10.5 forum, but your signature says you have 10.9. Here is the tip on what formatting supports what operating systems:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3003

Time machine does not recognise new imac

I backed up a new imac using time machine and a 1TB time capsule.
The imac died, and I have a second brand new imac.
Using the migration assistant/restore from time machine, I was able to restore my old system - note when this was completed, after 3 days, I had to create a new user, then go back and switch to the user that I recovered.
Now when I try to set up time machine, it does not recognise the current system, and wants to create a brand new back up of the entire system. I do not have enough room on my time capsule to do this, plus I don't want to lose my previous back ups.
I am currently using the computer as recovered from time machine, so don't understand why it wants to start from scratch and what I can do.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have part of the answer, but cannot -at least yet - find the rest of the answer in older discussions.
The name of you backup file is YourMachineName_YourMACaddress.sparsebundle. Time Machine is using the MAC address of your (1st) network adapter as a unique identifier. Your new machine has a new MAC address so Time Machine thinks it's a different machine. Which it is in one sort of way, but you want to treat it as the same machine and continue backups.
It's not as simple as renaming the sparse bundle changing the MAC address part of the name to the new MAC address.
If you look the contents of the TC disk you see a "hidden" file named '.YourMacAddress' which contains 16 bytes of data - some kind of token?
I know there was a discussion of this - in these forums I believe - and possible practical information on how to change things so they'd work like you wish, but so far I can't find it.
Note: YourMACaddress and YourNewMacAddress are the 12 hex digits of your machines MAC addresses in ASCII.

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

Brand new iMac want to install previous data from Time Machine back up, brand new iMac want to install previous data from Time Machine back up

I am waiting on a brand new iMac to repace my 2007 iMac. I have a Time Capsule and use Time Machine for auto back ups. What do I need to do transfer all data from my older iMac to my new one? I am not running Mavericks on the older iMac but have upgraded all along till the Mavericks free upgrade. Do I need to update the older Mac to Mavericks to make the restore easier.
Thanks for any guidance,
JTMav

PowerPC = PPC, this is the architechture of microproccors that Apple used prior to 2006 when they transitioned to Intel based microprocessors. Apple supported PPC based apps from 2006 to about 2012 when Lion (10.7.x) was first introduced. They gave users 6 years to upgrade all of their legacy apps to Intel based apps. Even after 6+ years some users still complained because their old apps would not run with new versions of OS X, that is technology though.
You might still have PPC based apps, if you do and you want to use them they need to be upgraded or replaced. I have noted a link to an article that will help walk you through to see if you have any PPC based apps. If you do then you can decide if you want to continue using them or upgrade.
http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/15/how-to-check-if-applications-are-incompatible-wit h-mac-os-x-lion/

Old Time Machine Back-Ups on new iMac

Hey Everyone..
So I got myself a new iMac today and I'm really pleased with it. I went for the 3.1GHz i5 in place of my old 2.8GHz i7.
Anyways - I restored the new machine from the most recent back up of my old iMac which has worked great and looks just like my previous computer. However..when I enter Time Machine it only goes back as far as today and when I try to do a back up it says there is not enough room. I would have hoped that my new iMac would recognise the back up as it's own and reinstate it as normal..but this doesn't seem to be the case.
If someone could give me some guidance on this I would appreciate it.
Many thanks..
Ricky

Time Machine will always treat a new computer's data as a completely new backup and start it from scratch. You can either get a larger backup drive or erase the current one.
About TM "Backup Drive is Full"
Alert TM only deletes older files if they have been deleted from the source and when TM needs space on the backup drive for a new incremental backup. Time Machine "thins" it's backups; hourly backups over 24 hours old, except the first of the day; those "daily" backups over 30 days old, except the first of the week. The weeklies are kept as long as there's room.
So, how long a backup file remains depends on how long it was on your Mac before being deleted, assuming you do at least one backup per day. If it was there for at least 24 hours, it will be kept for at least a month. If it was there for at least a week, it will be kept as long as there's room.
Note, that on a Time Capsule the sparsebundle grows in size as needed, but doesn't shrink. Thus, from the user's view of the TC it appears that no space has been freed, although there may be space in the sparsebundle.
Once TM has found it cannot free up enough space for a new backup it reports the disk is full. You can either erase the backup drive and start your backups anew or replace the drive with a larger drive.

Time to create a dissolve New iMac v Old G4

Hi all,
I have just got a new iMac have been testing it in iMovie HD (I don't like iMovie 9)
I created a 4 second dissolve, it took 40 seconds to render.
I did the same on my G4- it took 14 seconds to do the same dissolve, same project.
I thought my "new toy" would be a lot lot faster.
Can any one give me a reason for this please. ?

Hi Karsten & all, Thanks for all your help.
At the moment I feel a bit like Klaus, I could swear at 09.
I spent about two hours yesterday talking with an Apple Tech guy, who was very helpful but unfortunately none of his suggestions has worked.
As I said earlier, I connected my G4 to my new iMac with firewire and copied, or is it "migrated"? all my settings and apps over, including iMovie 6. I suggested to the Apple Tech guy, who I must say was very patient with an old geezer of 74 who is a bit-lot deaf, that this could be the problem, and should I do, (is it called a clean install? ) he said no. He talked me through quite a few things, changing things over etc. so many I can't honestly remember what.
I'm not sure how to erase iLife09 correctly, I have iLife6 which has iMHD6 on it.
How do I erase iLife09 please. I'm not that good at this technical stuff, thats why I want to continue using 06, I don't want to start learning a new method. I like iMovieHD6.
thanks again Jim (meresider)

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).

IMac 10.5.8 ... Time machine died. Bought new Time Capsule2TB. Ordered 10.6 ... Not recommended to install 10.6 w/o prebackup ... Current utility for airport won't do with the new Time Capsule. ... What to do?

iMac 10.5.8 ... Time machine died. Bought new Time Capsule2TB. Ordered 10.6 ... Not recommended to install 10.6 w/o prebackup ... Current utility for airport won't do with the new Time Capsule. ... What to do?

You are in the typical catch22.. you cannot use the TC without setting it up.. you cannot set it up without Lion.. so you can install the latest utility.
Do you have any reasonably current iOS devices.. they can run the iOS version of the utility.. that will allow you to set up the TC.
Or invite a friend with a laptop running at least Lion
Or take the TC back and get a plain USB hard drive and backup to that.

My Fantom backup drive is failing. I want to copy the time machine contents to a new backup drive and continue on as if nothing has happened. Can I do this and if so how? I have intel iMac running Mountain Lion. Fantom Drive via Firewire 800.

My Fantom backup drive is failing and I have to send it in for warranty repair. Before I do that I want to copy the time machine contents to a new drive and then use it for the backup, continuing on as if nothing had gone wrong with the first drive. Can I do this? Is it as simple as duplicating the first drive and replacing it with the second? New drive arrives Tuesday PM and both drives have dual firewire 800 ports.

I have used the Disk Utility to verify the contents of the backup drive so I don't think I have any corrupt files. The drive just takes a minute or so to spin up to speed. If I turn it off and then back on, it beeps at me for a few seconds and then starts it's slow process of trying to spin. I think it's a power problem not a data problem. I have my fingers crossed that it holds on until Tuesday PM when the new drive arrives. I'm thinking that my two options are to duplicate the bad drive or partition the new drive and put the old backups on one partition and start afresh on the second partition. Any input?
And thanks to both of you for the valuable information so far!

Time Machine after migration to new Mac

So, I just got a new Mac, and used the option to copy settings and files from a Time Machine volume to the new machine. Now that everything's run, though, I can't use Time Machine to backup the new Mac -- it says "Volume not found". I've Googled a bit, but most of the troubleshooting seems to assume that the drive is missing or won't mount -- the drive is there, but the Time Machine software won't use it.
What are my options here?

Hi VK
A supplementray question:
I have one i-mac happily backing up with Time Machine to an external hard drive.
I have just bought a second i-mac (stops the fighting!) and propose to use migration assistant to move my [admin] account from the old to the new i-mac leaving two other accounts on the old one. I see from your posts that it seems as if Time Machine will start a new back up series for the new i-mac's back ups. But what about the old i-mac? Will that continue to extend the existing Time Machine back up files, albeit without my transferred account and its files? If so, should I partition the external drive and start the new back ups from the new i-mac on this new partition. I'd like to end up with the old i-mac continuing to build its Time Machine back ups (less my account and its files) and have a new back up series from the new i-mac building to a separate partition on the external drive.
Does this make sense? I can't see an answer in the forum to what must be a reasonably common issue in this expandin mac world.
MVBW
Mervyn

Time Machine after reinstall and new user acct

3 TB eSATA drive used for months as TM back up. Drive had 300GB or so free space available after last B/U before having to format my boot drive.
Following reinstall of OS 10.9.2,I was not able to transfer user files using TM after several trials - it simply locked up with no error message. So, I skipped using B/U and created a new uswer account with same name as previous user account but with a new password. I then used the last B/U to manually restore user files and selected Apps.
In System Preferences/Time Machine, I selected the same 3 TB TM drive I had been using and left the excluded items unchanged. The B/U calcualted size was 2.72 TB, the same as before my set up with new user account. Prior to starting a new B'U I checked TM and found B/Us going back for quite a few weeks.
The next B/U for lack of space, with the mnessage that I only had 1.12 TB of space and the B/U needed 1.26 TB. I recalled that I had added some items to one of the included external drives prior to the restore and after the last B/U, so I excluded those new additions. The next B/U also failed and now the required space for the B/U was listed as greater than the first attempt. More disturbing, the ONY remaining B/U on the 3 TB drive now, after several mnore effrots to exclude as much as possible, is the last B/U I did before the format and restore process.
In Finder, the TM disk shows 1.12 TB free. It lists 2 B/Us - the last successful one and one fron this mornign listed as inprogress.
I changed my user account password to be the same as previously and logged out then bac in, then tried rebotting and after both times, the same failure occurred. I used Sstem OPreferences to unselct the 3 TB drive and select another one, then reselected the 3 TB again - still no joy.
It appears that TM is unable to add to the exsiting B/U and is trying to create a new one, or that it doesn't see existing files in the old B/U as the same as the new ones and is trying to create lots of duplicates.

Hi VK
A supplementray question:
I have one i-mac happily backing up with Time Machine to an external hard drive.
I have just bought a second i-mac (stops the fighting!) and propose to use migration assistant to move my [admin] account from the old to the new i-mac leaving two other accounts on the old one. I see from your posts that it seems as if Time Machine will start a new back up series for the new i-mac's back ups. But what about the old i-mac? Will that continue to extend the existing Time Machine back up files, albeit without my transferred account and its files? If so, should I partition the external drive and start the new back ups from the new i-mac on this new partition. I'd like to end up with the old i-mac continuing to build its Time Machine back ups (less my account and its files) and have a new back up series from the new i-mac building to a separate partition on the external drive.
Does this make sense? I can't see an answer in the forum to what must be a reasonably common issue in this expandin mac world.
MVBW
Mervyn

My Time Machine (TM) is taking way longer "Cleaning up old backups" if i haven't even backed my computer up for that long.

I havent backed up my computer in almost 2 years due to a complication with the Time Machine (TM)
But now it is fixed and it spends hours on "Cleaning old backups"
And when it comes to backing up computers I am always scared to fix it blindly because our Time Machine backs up 3 other computers.
Is there something I'm doing wrong or do I just need more patiences?
HELP!!!

Cancel the backup.....unless you want to wait a few more days to see if it might work.
Erase the Time Capsule drive using AirPort Utility
Start over again with a new backup
Ethernet will be 4-5 times faster than wireless for the first backup

Getting this error: Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.

I keep getting this error on my new Macbook Pro w/ Retina.
"Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you."
Connected to a wifi network and QNAP storage system. There are 5 computers on this network, and each backs up just fine. The issue is isolated to this one machine.
This error shows up every week or so.

A third-party NAS is unsuitable for use with Time Machine, especially if it's your only backup. I know this isn't the answer you want. I know Time Machine accepts the NAS as a backup destination. I know that the manufacturer says the device will work with Time Machine, and I also know that it usually seems to work. Except when you try to restore, and find that you can't.
Apple has published a specification for network devices that work with Time Machine. None of the third-party NAS vendors, as far as I know, meets that specification. They all use the incomplete, obsolete Netatalk implementation of Apple Filing Protocol.
If you want network backup, use as the destination either an Apple Time Capsule or an external storage device connected to another Mac or to an 802.11ac AirPort base station. Only the 802.11ac base stations support Time Machine, not any older model.
Otherwise, don't use Time Machine at all. There are other ways to back up, though none of them is anywhere near as efficient or as well integrated with OS X. I don't have a specific recommendation.
If you're determined to keep using the NAS with Time Machine, your only recourse for any problems that result is to the manufacturer (which will blame Apple, or you, or anyone but itself.)

Time Machine issues with OS 10.6.8

Hi all,
after updating to 10.6.8 I noticed a Time Machine issue.
Backup takes very long but only a few MB were backed up.
And after it was finished, Finder crashed and I had to do a hard reset.
There´s also a "in progress" file on my USB Backup HDD after finishing.
Checking my HDD´s and repairing it wasn´t the problem.
Today I tried a new USB HDD to make a fresh Backup via Time Machine.
After a few hours it was finished, but only 7,8MB were backed up and still there is an "in progress" file on my new Backup HDD.
Here´s a troubleshoot:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/My Book/Backups.backupdb
Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
Backup content size: 368.5 GB excluded items size: 75.7 GB for volume Macintosh HD
No pre-backup thinning needed: 351.34 GB requested (including padding), 930.54 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
CarbonCore.framework: coreservicesd process died; attempting to reconnect but future use may result in erroneous behavior.
Copied 7.2 MB of 292.8 GB, 5 of 1058420 items
Copied 11 files (27.1 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 100.0 MB requested (including padding), 930.52 GB available
Copied 165 bytes of 0 bytes, 4 of 0 items
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying / to (null)
Copied 7 files (236 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
Error -50 deleting backup: /Volumes/My Book/Backups.backupdb/Computer/2011-07-19-180247.inProgress
Starting post-backup thinning
No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Backup completed successfully.
Can anyone help me?

A whole lot about Time Machine for help with TM problems. Also you can select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine" to locate articles on how to use TM. See also Mac 101- Time Machine.
There are two important errors noted in the backup:
I-O error -36 « fuzzybrain|daisychain|blogdrain
The following comes from the LaCie web site but is applicable to any other external drives whether home brew or commercial.
Getting error -50 when copying data in OS X.
Some LaCie drives ship out formatted FAT32 so they will be ready to use on either a Mac or a PC. If you are getting error -50 when copying to a LaCie drive, or any drive formatted for PC, it is because of the following:
Certain characters that can be used in a Mac OS X filename are not allowed in MS-DOS filenames. This can prevent the file from being copied, and can occur when a filename contains non-printing ASCII characters, or any of these characters: ? / \ < > " | > *.
Either copy the data off of the drive and use Apple's Disk Utility to erase the drive in Mac OS Extended format, or change the filenames of the documents that cannot be copied.

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

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