Time Machine issue, TM didn't backup (save) files for a 7 days...

Hi all!
Yesterday I delete one DMG file from HDD, today I have needeed it suddenly, so I decide to take a look in TM, open TM and can't find this file however the file was in the system around at least 10 hours untill I deleted it. So, in no one backup, so actually in a 10 backups, this file just didn't exist. After that I decided to make experiment, just created a folder on a desktop, run TM and delete this file, so the result was that this folder also didn't save to backup. In i-net can't find any solution. I made Restore Disk Permissions and made reboot, now it's working as it has to be, but anyway the question is still open, what was a problem for this?!
But the way, MBP Mid 2010, 10.6.7, with all latest updates, TM using external drive WD Scorpio Blue 640GB.

Yesterday I delete one DMG file from HDD, today I have needeed it suddenly, so I decide to take a look in TM, open TM and can't find this file
Time Machine won't back up a disk image that's mounted.
After that I decided to make experiment, just created a folder on a desktop, run TM and delete this file, so the result was that this folder also didn't save to backup.
You may have been "bitten" by a long-standing bug in Snow Leopard. See #D5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting, especially the yellow box there.

Similar Messages

Time Machine issues (16030) sparsebundle" is already in use for Time Capsule backup

Time Machine issues (16030) sparsebundle” is already in use for Time Capsule backup process. Just started happeing been using it for over two years.

First, restart the computer and the Time Capsule. In most of the cases, this solve the problem.
If it doesn't work, see > http://pondini.org/TM/C12.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 Fails When Trying to Backup Certain Files

Time Machine is having problems with some files I have copied from a Windows computer. I am a web developer and I moved my client files from a Windows PC to my iMac. Most of the files backup properly but some don't. When Time Machine tries to backup those files, it fails.
I downloaded Time Machine Buddy and it has helped me identify files that can't be backed up. However, the only solution that works is to delete the files. *Since these are client files, that is not an acceptable solution.*
When I look at "Get Info", there are several listings for admin, system, staff, owner, and everyone. Each list shows the permissions to be "Custom." I have changed some to "Read and Write" and I have changed all of them to "Read and Write." Neither of these have fixed the problem. Time Machine still fails on the same files.
I really need some smart Mac person to tell me what I can do to fix this problem. Thanks.

Csound1 wrote:
Correct, at no time did I say that this was for everyone, it is in fact for anyone who wishes to spend his time working rather than restoring.
For most folks, a hard drive failure is not exactly common. If they are to you, something is seriously wrong.
Replacing a drive in a unibody MBP is a 5 minute operation! & they are cheap!
Yes, for those who are mechanically inclined and not afraid to open up a Mac. What percentage of users do you suppose that is?
As to your second point, I suggested specifically using a TM type backup in addition to the clone, I stated that my choice is a realtime service that stores my files (a) as files that I can access from anywhere (b) with versions (including deletions) going back as far as my storage limits allow.
And how would you use that to roll back to a previous version of your entire system?
I don't want to have to deal with TM permissions/user/network/extreme/forgetting to delete till it gets full blahblahblah
Huh? Now you're adding all sorts of other things.
Permissions? A user account is a user account, and Time Machine maintains the permissions.
Network? Your clone is on a network? How do you boot up from that?
Extreme? You use an Airport Extreme for your network clone?
Forgetting to delete until it's full? Yes, that's exactly what you mentioned above: "versions (including deletions) going back as far as my storage limits allow."
PleasePondini, do it your way and I'll do it mine
Obviously.

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

I bought a new mac and i migrate with time machine...but the backup was a little bit old and weren't save the latest modify i made in my website.. is it possible take the uploded site in iweb? sorry but i don't speak english very well.

I bought a new mac and i migrate with time machine...but the backup was a little bit old and weren't save the latest modify i made in my website.. is it possible take the uploded site in iweb? sorry but i don't speak english very well

But what can I cut and paste? the html code or image and text directly?
depend on which template you used.
if you use iweb photos page template then you need to search for my photos page solutions in this forum.
@ot: cut and paste from the online version
@rw: You can drag an image from the website to the Desktop
have your try your methods in iweb photos page?

HT201250 I accidentally didn't save a document on my desktop--a report. Can I go back with time machine and recover my desktop and save the file?

I accidentally didn't save a document on my desktop--a report. Can I go back with time machine and recover my desktop and save the file?

If you saved it at least once, then time machine should have a copy of the document at the state you last saved it. I'm guessing tha's not the case however or the copy of the file would still be on your Desktop.
If you never saved it a single time, yet closed the window and dismissed the warnings about an unsaved document, then you are out of luck as far as I know.

I am having backup time machine issues with a Buffalo NAS LSVL

For some reason time machine did not finish the backup and the message is somethhing like the backup file is in use. Txs!

Should have been fixed with the new Portico Update. Did you update your phone yet?
If not go to settings > phone update

"....To Improve Reliability, Time Machine Must Create a New Backup for You"

I bought the new Apple 2 TB Time Capsule thinking it would be a great way to get a powerful wireless router and handle file backup for both me and my wife's iMacs. She is running an up-to-date version of Snow Leopard and I am on the most recent update of Mountain Lion. The Time Capsule was installed and running by the first of August and we had no problems until this monday (7 weeks later) when I got the message that "Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability Time Machinge must create a new backup" My wife's back up was still ok but I had to go though the 5-6 hour process of re-copying all my files(using an ethernet connection) to the device. All went smoothly for a few days until I got the same message again about creating a new backup. Also my wife cannot enter her time machine files even though the computer is still being backed up. We have a stable internet service and both computers recieve a strong signal from the router. Is it possible that the Time Capsule Drive is defective? Is there any sort of maintenance such as zpping the PRAM that would help? This is really frustrating as it looks like the timemachine backup is totally unreliable and not worth fooling with. Is there any way to use the storage capability of the time capsule without going through time machine?
Thanks,
Reid McCallister

hi
rest assured you are not alone. i have the same problem and i hate it with a passion. in fact, i am the victim of this message as of 20 minutes ago and doing a full backup as I am typing this. I am so overly ****** that I actually posted here and will be calling or emailing apple next because I cannot take this anymore. the problem lies in time machine and unfortunately, there is no fix for that. time machine is the best idea of apple with the worst implementation ever. you have no obligation to use time capsule to benefit from time machine as this would not be legal anyway. i will give you 2 temporary solutions and let you decide which one works best for you:
1) open time machine preferences and turn automatic backups off. create a new full backup from scratch and only backup manually whenever you remember, preferably every day. the automation process is the problem that lies within time machine. also make sure that your system does not go to standy or sleep whatever that may be called. Power nap, despite all claims, is not compatible with time machine. install CAFFEINE, an app that keeps your mac awake and prevents from going to sleep while back up is in progress. use it like this and pray it will all go fine for a long time. you may wish to duplicate the first full backup to save time in case this should happen again so you have a base to start on
2) install CCC (carbon copy cleaner) I have not used it myself yet, but probably will be installing it after finishing this post. it is claimed to be better, yet it is yet to be seen by me personally.
unless time machine can be trained without any addons to use a specific wifi only for backup, these issues will persist.

OS X Lion v10.7 Time machine won't do incremental backups.

Time machine under Snow Leopard used to do small incremental backups just fine. After upgrading to Lion though, every time I try to do a time machine backup, it attempts to perform a full backup (hundreds of gigabytes every time). Usually the first full backup completes fine but instead of doing subsequent small/incremental backups of the changed files, it starts over doing full backup but there isn't enough room on the backup drive for that so it fails.
I've found other people with the same issue here: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1745345
And attempted several suggested fixes/tests but none of them work just as in that thread. Am I alone in this issue? Any suggestions?
I have a 10.7.1 install on a mid 2010 15" MBP with two drives (one SSD, one HDD, no optical). As I mentioned before, time machine worked beautifullly under 10.6.x backing up to external 1TB FW 800 -> SATA bridges.
Thanks,
M

I have the same problem only full backups all the time I upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion and on Snow Leopard I had no issues with Time Machine. So what I have done:
Formated the Time Machine Backup Disk (it's an USB-drive) - didn't help
I deleted all the Time Machine Settings (plists) - didn't help
Used Disk Utility to verify user rights and drive - didn't help
Used TechTool Pro 6 to verify the drive - didn't help
I still only get full backups. If I exclude the a catalogue/folder, the backup will be smaller, but it still takes a full backup of the items selected ...
My system is the same as before the upgrade - no new hardware and so on. This is really strange

Time Machine doesn't recognize past backups anymore

My Macbook pro just came back from being repaired (issue with the video display).
I think they had to replace the logic board or graphics card or both - but I'm not sure.
Everything works fine now... except for Time Machine.
Before the Macbook Pro was shipped off I would backup regularly to an external hard drive.
While my Macbook was gone I had to use some of the backup files from within the Backups.backupdb file system. So on my Powerbook G4 with Tiger I had to go in manually and copy files over. No big deal... or so I thought.
Now Time Machine does not recognize the past backups from before I shipped the MacbookPro.
It just wants to start an entirely new backup again.
Is there a way I can get Time Machine to recognize my old backup again?
I'd hate to have to go in manually from now on. It's not exactly convenient.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

OK, I didn't explain that well...
So here is what I'm typing in and what I'm getting back (the name of my computer being "Jason Argo's Computer":
Last login: Thu Jul 17 22:22:16 on ttys000
Macintosh:~ Jason$ cd /Volumes/Chubs/Backups.backupdb
Macintosh:Backups.backupdb Jason$ xattr -p com.apple.backupd.BackupMachineAddress Jason Taylor's Computer
I don't know why but I'm getting nothing back now. Before I was getting errors saying no such directory exists. I've typed in ls as well and get nothing.
Any ideas?

What to do when time machine seems stuck on "Preparing Backup"

This issue is happenning on my macbook pro, mid 2010. My drive setup is that I have a partition which I dedicated to time machine backups. The total size of my drive is 500GB, and I partitioned about 100GB for time machine. The reason for that is I only needed a few space since I setup time machine to include only the system and the apps, and NONE of the libraries such as itunes or photos. This means that the only backup will be for the system, profiles, and the app. I have been running this for a few months andhas been doing OK until up to now.
My problem is that my time machine seems to get stuck on "Preparing Backup". The latest backup was done last Nov 8, 2011, whcih is about 11 days from now. I am also aware that the time machine drive has only about 200 mb space left, but I am not worried at all because I've always TM to delete the oldest backup to free up space. My oldest backup was still Sept 8, and I'm ok if that will be deleted.
So I'd like to find out why it still stuck on "Preparing backup" ,and I am wondering if deleting a backup can solve it. Can it? what do I do to solve this?
Also, I use my computer alot , so it is basically running for about 18 hours a day, but still time machine didn't quite work well. I have tried reparing the disk using disk utility, but that didn't help.

Comments inline below.
Pondini wrote:
joshua raphael wrote:
This issue is happenning on my macbook pro, mid 2010. My drive setup is that I have a partition which I dedicated to time machine backups. The total size of my drive is 500GB, and I partitioned about 100GB for time machine. The reason for that is I only needed a few space since I setup time machine to include only the system and the apps, and NONE of the libraries such as itunes or photos.
You may want to revisit that strategy:
A backup on the same drive isn't very secure -- when (not if) the HD fails, you risk losing everything.
In most cases, if there's a problem with OSX the best way to fix it is to just install a fresh version. But you can't do that from that backup.
Indeed!
Backing-up apps that way will also be useless in some cases. 3rd-party apps that came with their own installers put other files in other places (and sometimes "helper" apps as well). Unless you know what and where they all are, and restore them, too, the restored app won't work properly, if at all.
I think you're confusing each other with terminology. iTunes music and iPhoto pictures are NOT "Libraries", which has a specific meaning when it comes to OS X. "Libraries", in OS X normally refers to /Libraries and ~/Libraries folders. This is not where iTunes music and iPhoto pictures are stored. iTunes music and iPhoto pictures are stored within ~/Music and ~/Pictures, respectively.
I have tried reparing the disk using disk utility, but that didn't help.
Disk Utility changed a bit in Lion. When you select an entire disk, it only repairs the partition map, not all the volumes. You must repair each one separately.
Wow, good to know. (What a stupid change to make, for backwards compatibility, if for no other reason!)
See #D1 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting to figure out why the backups are hanging.
Whew. This editor makes it so hard to make comments inline. The key thing when time machine seems stuck is patience. Sometimes it needs to be left to run overnight. Unfortunately, it doesn't log or report it's progress very well.
Opening Time Machine settings in Preferences plus a command like this left running in Terminal.app is how I monitor progress. And even so, there is very little logging indicating progress.
sudo tail -f /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/My\ Computer/2012-07-11-133352.inProgress/.Backup.363731632.496216.log
The parts in italics will need to be adjusted. Tab completion makes this easy, e.g type
sudo tail -f /Volumes/
and hit tab, type the first few letters of the relevant volume name, hit tab...
Also, I have a hypothesis which needs testing.
I know that Time Machine gets confused if one deletes large files from a backup - specifically, Time Machine doesn't recognize that the size of the backup has changed.
I know because this made restoring a thinned out time machine backup ("thinned out" by deleting files from within the GUI while inside the Time Machine) to a small SSD harder than it should have been. I had to restore to a big disk and then clone that volume to the SSD - even though the SSD had enough space, Time Machine didn't think so; it didn't "understand" that it had been thinned.
My hypothesis is that Time Machine also gets confused if the Time Machine partition is resized. I shrunk a Time Machine partition (no it wasn't on my main disk!) and about that time, Time Machine stopped working. After thinning the volume, it started working again.

Time Machine couldn't complete the backup due to a network problem

Firstly apologies for the long post, I've been bottling these problems up and could now use some expert advice.
I have a MacPro (10.6.3) with four internal drives (320GB system/apps. + 3x 750GB data, images etc) and a MacBook Pro (10.6.6) with a 320GB internal. With so much accumulated data (Mac user since SE FDHD) I wanted a reliable means to backup all my projects, books, papers, research, images etc. I had several bad experiences using Iomega drives (Ultramax and Storcentre) which were not very Mac compatible and shifted over to a 10TB LaCie 5Big Network 2 which is promoted as Time Machine compatible. Set up Time Machine (with a few hiccups) in Sept 2010 and it ran perfectly, backing up both main computers until March 2011. I have now experienced a string of problems backing up the MacPro, some of which have been resolved speaking to people, some by checking forums and some by using my own noddle to figure it out. The latest error message I am getting is "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup due to a network problem. Make sure your computer and the backup disc are on the same network, and that the backup disc is turned on. Then try again to back up."
The circumstances of this are as follows: TM seems to be trying to completely back up everything already backed up from previous months so I am using the "exclude" option to do this in manageable chunks (5.54TB of 7.99TB is available so there is a lot of stuff on there, hence my reticence to erase and start again). I started a backup last night which said it was 242GB and when I came back hours later (I estimate 30GB and hour or 500MB a minute) it has failed with the error message above. I asked it to back up again and it said it now had 191GB to backup, at the next failure it was 142GB, dropping by approx 50GB a time (if there a maximum it can manage in one go?), the next time it was starting again with 242GB.
I checked the disc it was backing up to, discovered it was now selecting Public-1, re-selected Public which houses the macpro.sparsebundle, dropped the backup size (Options) to 73GB and set it off again and it is backing up as I write. I am hoping it will complete and permit another chunk to be backup but the fact it looses network connection (seemingly) or has a maximum backup in one go, is annoying because it means you cannot leave it overnight and trust it to do the backups.
The other problem seems to be a shut down by LaCie 5Big because several times (and once this morning) I have had this message "The file server "LaCie 5Big" has closed down, followed by a complete Lacie shut down and auto-reboot with all lights and whistles. Lacie think this could be a power supply problem and say they are sending me another power brick. They also say they do not support Time Machine (they should check their own literature) and suggest I use LaCie 5Big for 'drag and drop' backup. If I wanted to do that I could pick up a cheap and nasty HD from PCWorld, not this high end 10TB drive which cost over £1,000 !
For a while y'day I could not even find the Lacie on the network but after changing the ethernet cable from Lacie to router (Linksys) it miraculously re-appeared so that problem may have been the original Lacie blue ethernet cable had developed a fault. Checking cables is an oft-overlooked option.
A catalogue of errors, some solved, others still all pervading, so any words from the wise would be gratefully accepted.

I verified the macpro.sparsebundle and Time Machine backups in Disk Utility and it said both appeared to be Okay in green type. So that did not solve the issue. I did a Disk Utility repair a day or so again (despite Verify saying everything was fine) and said there was nothing to repair. I suspect two problems, the power brick may be faulty producing intermittent power and maybe causing the drive to close down (hopefully Lacie will send me a replacement to try) and second, I am thinking the network connection is getting dropped causing crashed backups without the Lacie shutdown/reboot sequence. The 73GB back up failed, I started it again at 54GB and it failed again, just started it again at 45GB - this is no way to progress!
Perhaps the relatively new (last year) Linksys router is the problem, I find my MBP says AirPort is active but it fails to appear in Go>Server unless I switch it off and on again and perhaps a similar problem drops the connnection to the Lacie.

"Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk is not availab

I have a Seagate 750 MB external disk connected to the USB port of my Airport Extreme Base Station. It worked fine with Time Machine under Leopard but it's not working the way it was under OS X 10.6.2. I'm hopeful someone can help me solve the problem.
Let's say the name of my Airport Extreme Base Station is "Airport." If I remember correctly, under Leopard time machine would start a wireless backup not long after I turned on the Seagate drive. That no longer happens.
I've erased and re-formatted the Seagate drive with 2 GUID partitions, one for my 24" iMac and one for my 17" MacBook Pro. Both computers are about 3 years old. In order to do the re-partitioning, I had to unplug the Seagate drive from the base station and plug it into one of the iMac's USB ports. If I didn't do this, nothing other than the iMac's drive appears in the left pane of Disk Utility, although the name of my base station, i.e, "Airport" does appear in the Finder and PathFinder (a replacement for Finder that I use).
In fact, Time Machine works under 10.6.2. as long as the Seagate drive is plugged into the iMac's USB port. As soon as I plug the Seagate drive into the USB port of the base station, Time Machine no longer works. The backup is "delayed." When I click on "Back Up Now" a few seconds go by and I get the following dialog box: "Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk is not available."
In my Airport Extreme Base Station setup (Airport Utility version 5.4.2), the "Disks" pane sees both partitions on the Seagate drive. File sharing is enabled on the "File sharing" pane and "Secure Shared Disks:" is set to "With a disk password." "Airport Disks Guest Access:" is not allowed, nor is "Share disks over WAN."
When the Seagate drive is plugged into the base station and I click on "Airport" in the Finder or PathFinder, I'm prompted for the password I mentioned above because the shared disks are secured with a password. Once the password is typed, both partitions on the Seagate drive appear in Finder and PathFinder. When I try a Time Machine backup at this point, I get the same error I described above, i.e., "Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk is not available."
One last thing, I did an "Archive and Install" when I upgraded to Snow Leopard since I thought the changes were relatively minor as compared with past OS X upgrades. Normally, I do a clean install but didn't feel like it this time. I also tried deleting the file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist to no avail and restarted my iMac to no avail.
At this point I'm completely stumped. As I said, Time Machine works as long as the Seagate drive is plugged directly into one of the iMac's USB ports as opposed to the base station's USB port. But doesn't this defeat the purpose of having wireless backup? Once again, the wireless backup worked fine under 10.5.8.
I hope my message is clear and a solution would be most welcome.
Thank you,
Richard

I'm having the same problem. If my TimeMachine drive is not connected, I'll get the "Time machine could not complete the backup" "The backup disk is not available" warning a couple times a day. This is extremely problematic if I'm giving a presentation. I have tried changing my TimeMachine drive, removing that drive, repairing permissions, and have not been able to solve the problem.
Please help!

"TIme Machine could not complete the backup"

My Time Machine has started giving this message. It says it needs 69 GB and only 60 GB are available -- but it is a 500GB drive. I thought it was supposed to delete old backups when it did not have space? That is what it has always done before. What do I need to do?
Thanks
Bob

I kept getting that error message, too. And it was with Leopard 10.5, since my Superdrive failed to mount the SL DVD that was under warranty. Apple repair facility sent me a defective disk, so that didn´t help, either.
Finally after foregoing backups for 3 months, I got the Superdrive replaced by a 3rd-party rapir facility and then installed SL. As I also had a new hard drive installed and the Apple repair facility threw away the old hard drive, I WAS REQUIRED TO USE MY 3-MONTH OLD BACKUP.
This worked, so I now have a 640GB WD drive on my 2.6GHz MBP with SL 10.6. I Formatted a Western Digital MyBook in HFS+ and the GUID or whatever, according to Apple instructions for an external backupdrive.
THis drive was working perfectly as a backup drive when connected via USB directly to my MBP.
When connected via USB to my Airport Extreme 500GB Time Capsule, it also worked fine... ONLY THE FIRST TWO DAYS!
Suddenly and for no apparent reason, I am suddenly getting the following error message when Time Machine ties to do a backup to the WD drive connected to the TC:
Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk image "/Volumes/drive/baackupname.sparsebundle" could not be created (error 22).
I have tried connecting both wirelessly and via ethernet from my MBP, but neither of these mattered. I access the internet just fine, and I can see the Time Capsule disk just fine. I also see other network share. Why does Apple seem to be so difficult once you peel the shiny facade away?

Time Machine issue, TM didn't backup (save) files for a 7 days...

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for