Time Machine locked up

My Time Machine (Western Digital external disc) snapped shut with a padlock once when I tried to change my permissions privileges from Custom to Read-Write in order to copy some old applications into a new installation. Couldn't use it for a while. It remained securely locked against any use at all. My final solution was to erase it completely, whereupon I regained read-write privileges almost magically. After a year or so of use, I have found that troubles with TM can often be resolved by erasing with the marvellous Disk Utility occasionally - wouldn't be without it!! An occasional cleanout works wonders.

reveldor wrote:
My Time Machine (Western Digital external disc) snapped shut with a padlock once when I tried to change my permissions privileges from Custom to Read-Write in order to copy some old applications into a new installation.
Never try to change the permissions on Time Machine backups.
You should have been able to restore the items to an "alternate location" (the new installation), via Time Machine. See #16 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).
Or, use +Setup Assistant+ to copy everything from an old Mac, or it's backups, to a new one. See #19 there.

Similar Messages

External hard drive not recognized after time machine locked up

I was backing up to an external hard drive (300GB Western Digital) and time machine locked up. I had to shut down the computer and restart. Now the external hard drive does not show up on the desktop?
I can see it in disk utility but I am not able to mount or unmount the disk, I keep getting an error that the disk is in use. I tried to erase/reformat the disk and no luck.
Any suggestions?
Thanks for the help

KTM450rider wrote:
Do I need to boot from the install DVD?
this is often the easiest and eliminates any "busy drive" problems. what's wrong with booting from the install DVD? takes a couple of minutes.
My main hard drive is OK... the drive that I am having problems with is an external hard drive that I was using to back up my lap top. I just want to get the external drive reformatted, but disk utility will not erase it. I get an error that disk utility shut down, "please check the drive and make sure that the drive is not in use or programs are still running"
Is their a way to do a hard or forced reformatting of an external hard drive, I don't care about the information on the drive
I also tried disk warrior to recover the info on the disk and all it does is crash my mac pro????
Thanks again for the help

Time Machine Locked after MacBook Air reformatted. My MacBook Air was overfull due to an Address book issue (duplication) so after many attempts to clear space, I ended up wiping out the system and reloading Lion.

Time Machine Locked after MacBook Air reformatted. My MacBook Air was overfull due to an Address book issue (duplication) so after many attempts to clear space, I ended up wiping out the system and reloading Lion. This resulted in the Time Machine thinking that it was now connected to a different computer. Apparently this diables the existing information.
Now I can see that the back-ups exist (back to Sept 2012) but they are greyed out, therefore unavailale to restore. Again, this seems like an issue that shouldn't be happening. The whole point of the Time Machine is to enable reinstatement of data after catastrophic failure. What if my computer actually had to be replaced due to a hardware issue? How would I beableto restore anything?
The path already (unsuccessfully) taken;
Open Library on the computer, Open Time Machine, Select Correct date, drill down to correct data you wish to restore, click "Restore".
This did not work because the correct date was greyed out. Restore key was greyed out.

Time Machine Locked after MacBook Air reformatted. My MacBook Air was overfull due to an Address book issue (duplication) so after many attempts to clear space, I ended up wiping out the system and reloading Lion. This resulted in the Time Machine thinking that it was now connected to a different computer. Apparently this diables the existing information.
Now I can see that the back-ups exist (back to Sept 2012) but they are greyed out, therefore unavailale to restore. Again, this seems like an issue that shouldn't be happening. The whole point of the Time Machine is to enable reinstatement of data after catastrophic failure. What if my computer actually had to be replaced due to a hardware issue? How would I beableto restore anything?
The path already (unsuccessfully) taken;
Open Library on the computer, Open Time Machine, Select Correct date, drill down to correct data you wish to restore, click "Restore".
This did not work because the correct date was greyed out. Restore key was greyed out.

Time Machine locked disk

Connected a WD My Book pro to my G5 PM running OS 10.5.1. After a few minutes into the first backup it failed the backup with the message: Time Machine Error - Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup directory.
Tried deleting the "in-progress" file, but the disk is locked and will not unlock. Cannot unmount, repair or erase with DU, and cannot unlock.
Tried disconnecting and reconnecting power to the backup disk, now the computer hangs trying to connect to the backup disk.
Appreciate any suggestions

Try shutting down and resetting the PRAM.
Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
See if you can now unlock the disk. If you can, reformat the drive using the directions in this article. People with PPC Macs should substitute Apple Partition Map for GUID when following the directions.

Time Machine locked all my song files...any way to "mass unlock"?

Awhile back I installed a wonderfully speedy SSD in my mid-2009 MBP. I used Time Machine to "restore" my stuff. I thought it odd that after that, song files would come up as "locked"...after awhile I realized that EVERY song file in the iTunes Library was now "locked". The FOLDERS are NOT locked, but all the mp3 files within each folder ARE locked.
I know, of course, that "command-i" and uncheck the locked box works on each individual file, but how do I do this on the entire library? Is that even possible? The tedium of opening every single folder and unlocking every file individually would be insane. Is there any way to select the iTunes Music folder and have all the files in all subfolders "unlocked" at once?

Thanks, I tried that and it didn't work. The song files themselves were still locked. However, a friend emailed me with a solution that seems to have done the trick. It involved going through Finder and doing a search for "Music" files, selecting all, and then doing "get info". That showed a "dash" in the "locked" checkbox. First check it, wait until it has processed, then uncheck it, and that did it.
Also, I see posts talking about "turning off autolocking" in Time Machine, but I have never ever seen that as an option in the Time Machine prefs pane of the System Prefs in Mtn. Lion. Is that within "Time Machine" itself, and only available when it is active?

Time Machine Lock a "restore point".

Time Machine is circular: when disk is full it destroys oldest backup to add the latest one. I would like to "lock" an older backup of known integrity and have it never overwritten. Is this possible and if so, how?

arizidon wrote:
My rational is the desire to have prestine sync points... for example performance can degrage over time or a new app added that has detrimental effects. I would like to be able to revert to known good points in time when my machine is running very well. Prevents me from have to do a re-install...
To do that, you would need to clone each "sync point" to a partition large enough to hold everything on the startup volume at that moment in time. Obviously, this will take a huge amount of HD space if you want to save many of these points, which is why it isn't very practical.
Besides, like Pondini said reinstalling the system isn't hard, & beyond that you would have to locate all the document files that had changed or been added after that "sync point" & copy them back to the drive.

Time machine locked out - how do unlock it?

I seem to have gotten into a situation where my control of Time Machine has been locked out.
Is there a way to manage this setting via a terminal command?

I ran an experiment. I forced TM to execute a backup with the ON/OFF switch in the Off position. My conclusion is that affects only the automatic backups. (it still should operate)
Do the 'Select disk..." and the 'Options...' work?
I'm grasping at straws, but Update you OS to 10.6.8.. Lets see if that is the cure?
Ciao.

Time machine locks up when browsing backups.

I have just started using time machine. It did a full back up 3 days ago and is ow doing hourly backups. My problem is browsing the backups, the TM window opens full screen and the time line on the right animates, I can click on a date which then comes to the front but if I click on anything, TM locks upand wont respond, None of the buttons work,no spinning 'wait' icon and the only way out is to force quit. I did see another thread suggesting that virus barrier could be the problem, but I uninstalled virus barrier some time ago after the trial subscription ran out.
Any suggestions?
Many thanks
Ian

Diana1138 wrote:
I've tried repairing permissions on both externals drives and Disk Utility always says nothing needs to be repaired.
You can't repair permissions on a non-OSX volume. It sounds like something on one of them, probably the iTunes drive, is corrupted. +*Repair Disk+* instead.
When I try to stop the backup, it won't stop and I'm forced to shutdown my mac using the power button because nothing else seems to work
See #D6 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). If it's locking up that badly, have the Activity Monitor window visible and ready before starting a backup.
I'm a bit nervous that my 500 GB drive is failing.
Quite possible.
All of my media is there and I'm concerned I'll lose it all. Could it be anything else though?
Sure. If +*Repair Disk+* says it "appears to be ok," and the problem persists, exclude it from backups temporarily, per #10 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).
If the problem stops, you know it's something to do with that drive.
If not, Verify your internal HD and, while you're at it, Repair the Time Machine drive, too.
If it does appear to be the iTunes drive, check all the connections; try different port(s) and cables, and combinations of the two (a plug that works fine in one port may not make good contact in another).
Also check the power connections, if the drive has it's own power supply. And be sure it's plugged-in to a known good outlet: better, a good-quality surge protector; best, the same U.P.S. system that your iMac is on.

Time Machine locks up Finder

I just had my MacBook Pro in to be fixed (keyboard/trackpad stopped working for the second time), and the logic board and top case were replaced. When I got it back yesterday and plugged in Time Machine, I realized that I can't get it to work - as soon as Finder reads the drive, it immediately crashes, and my desktop icons and sometimes the menu bar disappear. Finder keeps trying to reload and crashes each time, whether TM is set to on or off. I've run disk utility for the main HD and the backup. Other computers will read the drive - I used it when on a MacBook when my MBP was being fixed.
Is it possible I may have gotten a bad firewire port when they replaced the top case, or is this a software issue? I'm reluctant to mess too much with reinstalling the OS, for fear of losing my data and then having an unreadable backup. Thanks for any suggestions!

I have had more finder lockups due to external drives that you can imagine, over many years. (I'm a photographer with many terabytes of photos.) I have traced almost all of them to external drives that attempt to outsmart the automatic drive power-down of the Mac. The reason for this is that Windows does a lousy job of powering down external drives. External drive manufacturers don't want to keep their drives spinning constantly as it's noisy, power-consuming, and will wear out the bearings of the spinning disk. So they put in power-down algorithms that are compatible with Windows. However, whatever it is that the Mac sends to awaken such a sleeping drive is inadequate and the finder locks up waiting for the drives response. You'll have the Pinwheel of Death forever. You can try to force quit finder, but all it will do is remove all icons from the desktop and close some finder windows. Sometimes, you can simply disconnect the offending drive and the finder will recover, but most of the time you'll have to force a restart of the Mac by holding down the power button. THE SOLUTION IS to only use external drives that are specifically intended for use on a mac. And even then, some of them still have this problem. it's a shame that Apple is incompatible with all of these intended-for-PC external drives, but it just is. The only workaround is to only use external drives specifically advertised as being mac compatible, and, if one of them causes a finder lockup, give it away to someone with a PC and try some other brand or model of mac-compatible drive until you have ones that don't lock up the finder. I am currently using only drives with Thunderbolt connections. I just purchased a $99 1 TB Passport drive advertised for Mac, but it caused the finder lockup. It's getting wiped on a PC and then returned to where I purchased it.

Time Machine locking up machine before finishing

Hi all. I've recently upgraded to Mountain Lion and have not been able to get Time Machine working since then. (Worked fine before on Lion.) At some point during the Time Machine run my mac starts to go haywire. Mousing over the Time Machine preference pane results in the spinning beach ball. One or two clicks or key presses anywhere else locks up the Finder. The mouse still responds to movement, but that's about it. You have to reboot by holding down the power button. There's nothing in the Console log that looks suspicious.
I have tried the following, all with the same results - machine locks up somewhere in the middle of a Time Machine run:
Backing up to a newly formatted external disk directly attached via USB
Backing up to a network drive via ethernet
Backing up to a network drive via wifi
Turning off: screensaver, put disks to sleep when possible, putting computer to sleep when on wall power, putting screen to sleep when on wall power
Only backing up /Users
Only backing up everything *except* /Users
Holding down option key, booting into the recovery drive, running Disk Utility on the normal boot drive and running Repair (which didn't find any errors)
Booting into single user mode (option-s) and running "fsck -fy". Again, no errors.
One other thing worth mentioning - I recently replaced the internal drive with an SSD. Breathed new life into this machine, which is working great except for this Time Machine problem. Can't think of anything else to try. Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks a lot,
Russ

Hi all. I've recently upgraded to Mountain Lion and have not been able to get Time Machine working since then. (Worked fine before on Lion.) At some point during the Time Machine run my mac starts to go haywire. Mousing over the Time Machine preference pane results in the spinning beach ball. One or two clicks or key presses anywhere else locks up the Finder. The mouse still responds to movement, but that's about it. You have to reboot by holding down the power button. There's nothing in the Console log that looks suspicious.
I have tried the following, all with the same results - machine locks up somewhere in the middle of a Time Machine run:
Backing up to a newly formatted external disk directly attached via USB
Backing up to a network drive via ethernet
Backing up to a network drive via wifi
Turning off: screensaver, put disks to sleep when possible, putting computer to sleep when on wall power, putting screen to sleep when on wall power
Only backing up /Users
Only backing up everything *except* /Users
Holding down option key, booting into the recovery drive, running Disk Utility on the normal boot drive and running Repair (which didn't find any errors)
Booting into single user mode (option-s) and running "fsck -fy". Again, no errors.
One other thing worth mentioning - I recently replaced the internal drive with an SSD. Breathed new life into this machine, which is working great except for this Time Machine problem. Can't think of anything else to try. Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks a lot,
Russ

Time Machine Locked out of Backup Disk after Install of 7.6.3 Airport Utility

Yesterday the system advised that Software update was available for Airport Utility. I updated (7.6.3) since I was having trouble getting AirPlay to work. Following the update the system wanted to update the firmware on the Time Capsule and also the Airport Base Stations. I did this as well. Now the new Airport Utility can't find my Airport Base Stations with any reliability. Also, Time Machine can not run because the Backup Disk on the Time Capsule is "in use". The Airport Base Stations are working just fine even though the utility doesn't always see them. I am most concerned with the backup situation.
Do I need to undo this faulty software/firmware upgrade to resolve this? If so, how?
I would appreciate some guidance on this very much.
Thanks in advance.
Cyclone
PS the iMac is at 10.8.2. Can't seem to be able to change it on the profile.

First, restart the Time Capsule by disconnecting the power adapter and reconnecting it. If other devices on the network can see it, you can skip this step.
From the menu bar, select
 ▹ System Preferences ▹ Network
Click the lock icon in the lower left corner of the window and authenticate to unlock the settings, if necessary. Click the Advanced button, then select the TCP/IP tab in the sheet that drops down. Click Renew DHCP lease.
Try again to back up.

Time Machine Lock in Preferences window doesn't remain locked after a system reboot

I am not sure if this problem occurred in Lion or not, but in Mountain Lion, I'm noticing the lock in the lower left corner of the Time Machine preferences page doesn't remain locked after a reboot of the computer. Has anyone else noticed this issue? Is there a fix or is it a glitch that Apple will need to correct?

From the menu bar, select  ▹ System Preferences ▹ Security & Privacy ▹ General ▹ Advanced... ▹ Require an administrator password to access locked preferences: On.

Time Machine locks up computer

I just finished installing 10.5 and am trying to use Time Machine for the first time and I repeatedly have the computer freeze and have to restart the computer for it to work

I found that as well, but it really is not a lock up as such in my case, I think. It is TM trying to do its thing by taking a snap shot of the moment in time, but I'm trying to do other things as well.If I wait for a minute or two, all is well again, especially after the first backup, which is the basis for future "what changed" versions.

Time Machine locks up on "finishing"

Although originally working properly, my Time Machine has been locking up at the end of backups and never "finishes" even when left on overnight. I have Parallels 4.0 installed and the Time Machine worked fine with this initially. After reading posts on the Parallels website I excluded the Parallels folders from the backup and even closed Parallels during backup - neither of these maneuvers worked. Any suggestions?

Same here.
How do I "exclude the Parallels folders from the backup"?
Do I simply include the Parallels App in the files to exclude?
I back up to Time Capsule, but wired.
Also, My issues started after I downloaded VirusBarrier.
I believe I completely removed every trace of the program, but All I can do now is the initial back up. (which took 24 hours)
After that minor back ups lock up my machine and are unsuccessful.
Some threads I've read mention monitoring the system log.
I have done that, and it throws up errors every couple of minutes.
This monitoring has proven that the machine is not locked up, just lacks preformance.
Apple Care Techs just keep having me reformat my time capsule and the same thing happens over and over.
Short of reformatting my iMac, I just don't know what to do.

Time Machine Lock Up

I just started having this problem. Prepares backup, starts backing up then stops at around 42 MB of 51 GB. I've ran disk utility on both externals and ran it on my system. It won't back up to any external. I even tried trashing the backup and now I can't even empty the trash.

Success! I logged out of my normal user account. Logged into administrator account. I didn't open any applications or documents to be on the safe side. Time Machine backed up without a problem whereas in my user account it locked up repeatedly just a few minutes before.
Looks like another Leopard related permissions problem again IMHO.

Time Machine locked up

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for