Time Machine-Must I start over?

Hi everyone,
I have a Mac Mini that has several HDDs hooked up to it. One of them is the Time Machine backup for my MacBook which has worked wirelessly without error for three months now. I recently rebuilt the OS on my Mac Mini by reinstalling the OS and all the apps. Anyhow, after I completed the re-installation I noticed that TM on my macbook couldn't find its backup drive anymore. After repointing TM to the same old drive with the sparse bundle its been using for 3 months, TM ignored the old bundle and wants to start over. Is there anyway I can trick Time Machine into just continuing on with the old bundle? I have a complete backup of the Mac Mini that I made before rebuilding its HDD. Is there a file on there (perhaps a plist file or something) that could use to trick TM on my Macbook into continuing on with the old sparse bundle. I really don't want to loose 3 months of backups. Besides, TM really should be able to continue an old sparse bundle. It just makes sense, but... well these are computers

cicakchanson wrote:
Sorry if I was unclear. The Macbook seems to be doing a full backup although the Macbook isn't the computer I reinstalled everything on. I rebuilt the system on the Mac mini which has the Macbook's backup volume connected to it. The Macbook connects wirelessly to the backup drive through the Mac mini. I did not do anything to the actual backup volume that is connected to the Mac mini.
Ah, yes, now I see it in your original post -- sorry, it was all kind of run together.
I guess it could be that nothing is wrong if a full backup is a normal procedure in this instance.
No, if that's all that happened, the MacBook shouldn't be trying to do a full backup. See if anything in #D3 of [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] explains it.
I'm just concerned that I'm going to loose all my previous backups and TM is indicating that my Macbook drive has never been backed up.
It sounds like TM has made a new sparse bundle. If so, try deleting the new one, and repairing the old one, per #A5 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html].

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Time Machine backup size almost 1T for two months worth of archives. How to minimise space consumed by Time Machine short of starting over?

I have an MBA mid-2012 wtih only 250GB of internal SSD space. I have run my back up since last year, but have subsequently removed my older back ups through Time Machine. I now have only two entries one day each for December of 2012 and January this year. The backup space consumed seems to have grown to 900GB. My external drive is 2TB large, but it seems that the Time Machine back up space has grown over large.
How can I trim it to size short of starting from scratch? I actually don't have problems starting my backup over, but if a more elegant solution is available then I am all ears (or eyes in case of the internet and my screen).

Thank you for the link. It helped immensely. Attached is a screenie of my disk usage. So I didn't realise earlier that my virtual machines (save for Boot Camp) could be eating up a sizeable chunk of the back up space. I think I'll do a complete redo of my Time Machine back up, I keep a copy of each VM I use as a pseudo snapshot anyway. I've added a number of exclusions too, since I only really use several folders in my home directory as temp (e.g. watching a movie I copy it to my Videos folder so I so I can disconnect my external HDD).

New Hard Drive installed - Time Machine wants to start over!?

Info: My MacBook Pro is the old version. Plus I have not upgraded to Snow Leopard.
I was running out of hard drive space so I took my MacBook to MacTown where I bought it on Monday night and they put in a 500GB hard drive for me. I asked if it would affect anything such as Time Machine, etc. They said it would not.
When I plugged it in Tue. night (after I picked it up) I got a message saying that it needed about 300GB for the backup and it only had 200GB available (I use a 500GB external drive for my Time Machine backups). I called yesterday and asked if it had to do with the new hard drive. The guy said no, I just had too much stuff on my backup and needed to delete some of it.
Well, last night I messed around with it and a)saw that Time Machine is supposed to delete old backups if it gets too full so this should not be the problem. b)I went into Time Machine and it does not show any old backups. It only has Feb. 1, 2010 as the last one. So, my conclusion: It does not recognize the old backup and wants to start over with my new hard drive.
I called back today and spoke with the guy who did the work. I told him this and he said I should just delete the old backups from my external drive and start over (if I am sure there is nothing I will ever want on it). He said to go to Disk Utility and re-format it.
My question: I am sure I don't need anything from the old backups, but am I not thinking of anything? Is there a chance they didn't copy something over, etc.?
Any advice would be appreciated. I am not impressed with the MacTown people right now.
Thanks,
Peace

Guitar Dude 7 wrote:
Info: My MacBook Pro is the old version. Plus I have not upgraded to Snow Leopard.
I was running out of hard drive space so I took my MacBook to MacTown where I bought it on Monday night and they put in a 500GB hard drive for me. I asked if it would affect anything such as Time Machine, etc. They said it would not.
Tell them about this Apple article: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1338
It does say may, not will, but it always does for me, and there are lots of similar posts in these forums. (This was supposed to be fixed in Snow Leopard, but it still does it.)
Well, last night I messed around with it and a)saw that Time Machine is supposed to delete old backups if it gets too full so this should not be the problem.
That depends. It won't delete the last remaining backup. To do a new full backup requires as much space as the data it's backing-up, plus 20% for workspace, etc., on the TM drive.
I went into Time Machine and it does not show any old backups. It only has Feb. 1, 2010 as the last one. So, my conclusion: It does not recognize the old backup and wants to start over with my new hard drive.
I called back today and spoke with the guy who did the work. I told him this and he said I should just delete the old backups from my external drive and start over (if I am sure there is nothing I will ever want on it). He said to go to Disk Utility and re-format it.
Correct. It is a new drive after all, and Time Machine's main role in life is to back-up anythng that's new or changed.
That's your only choice (although you can just erase it).
My question: I am sure I don't need anything from the old backups, but am I not thinking of anything? Is there a chance they didn't copy something over, etc.?
No, most likely, that's your only option.
Any advice would be appreciated. I am not impressed with the MacTown people right now.
Unfortunately, even the Geniuses at Apple Stores don't know a lot about Time Machine; in some cases, the AppleCare folks aren't a lot better.
You might want to review these:
Time Machine Tutorial
How to back up and restore your files
Time Machine Features
and perhaps browse the Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.

New MacBook Pro - continue with Time Machine backups or start over?

I'm unsure of how I should proceed here ...
My old (late 2008 aluminium unibody MacBook) died last month and I now have a shiny new MB Pro. I transferred my data from one of two backup drives I have using Migration Assistant but did not transfer the Pictures folder because the new MB Pro only has a 256GB PCIE drive whereas I had upgraded my old MacBook to a 750GB hard drive. The Pictures folder was 175GB - it obviously couldn't be transferred in its entirety so at this stage I haven't transferred anything at all from my Pictures folder.
Both backup drives I use are 1TB Lacie Rugged external hard drives. I have them partitioned as follows -
Time Machine Backup - 475 GB
SuperDuper Backup - 350 GB
Pictures - 175GB (I only have the iPhoto Library on the Pictures backup)
I was thinking that I could simply continue with the existing backups, however, I realise that will be impossible because the existing backups all include the Pictures folder as part of the 'normal' backup process.
So, should I wipe my backup drives and start all over from scratch with the new MB Pro? Obviously, I don't need such a large space for the Time Machine and SuperDuper backups now so I could re-partition the drives and allocate more space to the Pictures folder (which is the one that continues to grow).
Does anyone else have experience of using their iPhoto Library on an external drive with the smaller PCIE drives in the MB Pro?
I would be very grateful for any suggestions as to how I should proceed.
Tricia

Many thanks for your response Ingo2711. It seems as if we faced pretty much the identical situation.
I've never taken much notice of Time Machine - just let it do its own thing. However, when I go to System Preferences - Time Machine - Options - Exclude these items from Backups and then choose the Pictures folder it shows that the space saved is only 1.47GB (my Pictures folder on my old MacBook is about 175GB). I clicked on the Pictures folder in Finder and discovered that it had one folder in it which is the folder I use for Desktop and Screen Saver and that the size of that folder is, in fact, 1.47GB.
So, am I right in thinking that I can just allow Time Machine to do a full backup without excluding anything and it will see that the new system is different from the previous one or am I missing something? I really don't want to lose the previous backups in case I ever need to go back to something.
Cheers
Tricia
BTW, I'm going to download iPhoto Library Manager and see if I can put my photos in chronological order by year and then just keep the current year's photos on my new Mac and keep the rest on the Pictures partition of my backup drive (which is connected via USB 3) - I'm hoping that the access to the external drive won't be so slow over USB 3.

Time Machine won't start after migration to new MacBook Pro.

I upgraded to a new MacBook Pro. Both machines are running OS X 10 (10.7.5 on old, 10.8.2 on new). I used an ethernet cable for the data migration.
I'm trying to use the Time Capsule we've been using all along for Time Machine, but Time Machine won't start because there's only 5.1GB free on the device and it wants to run a full backup. "The backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 252.33 GB but only 5.07 GB are available."
What are my options? I'd hate to lose prior versions of all the data I've moved to the new machine, but if I have to, then I have to. But then I'm not sure how to access the Time Capsulre base as a non-backup drive and delete what's there.
Thanks for yor help.
Vince

Windows in VM is going to know it's on a different machine, so you'll still have to hop through Microsoft's hoops or you won't get updates.
Just an FYI: when moving a Fusion virtual machine, the first time you run the virtual machine, you are prompted if you "moved it" or "copied it". Selecting "moved it" will retain the UUID and prevent Windows from prompting for reactivation. (However, if it is a copy of the virtual machine and you wanted to run both copies simultaneously on the same network, you must select "copied it" otherwise the copies can't run at the same time.)
If one did select "copied it" accidentally, then just follow the reactivation prompts. As long as you're not reactivating a lot then it usually will work the normal way over the internet. Even if you're forced to call, just tell the support rep that you're reinstalling Windows and type in the really long code that they say. The few times I've had to call, it was less than 15 minutes. Again, as long as you're not reactivating a lot (so looking suspiciously like a pirate,) reactivation is a pain, but relatively quick.

HT1175 Time Machine wants to start with a new, full backup instead of using the existing one

Hi, my Time Machine wants to start a new, full backup, instead of continuing with the existing one on the time Capsule.
Looking a the Troubleshooting guide, I've found the following piece of info, which is, as 99% of the times with the troubleshooting guides, totally useless to resolve my problem...
Message: Time Machine starts a new, full backup instead of a smaller incremental backup
There are three reasons why this may occur:
You performed a full restore.
Your Computer Name (in Sharing preferences) was changed--when this happens, Time Machine will perform a full backup on its next scheduled backup time.
If you have had a hardware repair recently, contact the Apple Authorized Service Provider or Apple Retail Store that performed your repair. In the meantime, you can still browse and recover previous backups by right-clicking or Control-clicking the Time Machine Dock icon, and choosing "Browse Other Time Machine disks" from the contextual menu.
It should be noted (hence the uselessness of the guide) that:
-I haven't performed ANY full restore
- I havent changed my computer name
- My computer has not had ANY repair, much less a hardware repair. Neither recently, nor in the 9 months I've owned it.
Which puts me back to square one, with the marginal improvement that now I have a way of browsing my old backups.
In the event I decide to start all over again, will there be a way for me to "sew" the two backup files?
Or will I always have to go the silly way around?
Anybody has any idea?
Thank you for your time (machine/capsule, your choice;-)

Hi John,
no, that doesn't have anything to do with my problem.
Just look at the image below.
Time Machine thinks that the disk I've always used to do my backups has none of them.
If I open the disk with Finder, obviously they are where they should be.
It is even possible to navigate them as per the instruction reported above, but even following Pondini's advice #s B5 and B6 (which are more applicable to my problem) didn't solve the problem.
Actually, not being a coder, I'm always scared of doing more damage than good when I have a Terminal window open.
My question is: how is it possible that Apple hasn't thought of some kind of user command to tell the idiotic Time Machine software that a hard disk backup is a hard disk backup, no matter what?
Estremely frustrating and annoying: I'm wasting HOURS in trying to find a solution to a problem that should not have arisen in the first place...
Have a nice weekend
Antonio

Time Machine nuking backups, starting from scratch!

ok, i just received this warning:
and now i't doing a backup that is slated to take more than "several hours."
is this common? how often can i expect this?

Hello,
Should you click “Start New Backup”? Not yet! If you see the dialog above, your existing Time Machine backup is corrupt, and you might not be able to recover data from it. But you can save a copy of the corrupt bundle and, perhaps, extract some data from it if needed.
Ask yourself if Time Machine has saved data you might need before deciding what to do next:
If you are sure you won’t need anything backed up before today, click “Start New Backup” and let Time Machine do its thing.
Otherwise, click “Back Up Later” and save a copy before letting Time Machine start a new backup. Just look for a file called “computername.sparsebundle” (for network backups) or “Backups.backupdb” (for local ones) and create a copy with a different name. You can open sparsebundle files with DiskImageMounter and browse them like any other disk. More information is available here.
There you go. If you click “Start New Backup” when you see this dialog box, Time Machine will erase all of your old backup data and start a new bundle. It won’t be corrupt, but it will be empty.
Note that you can manually initiate a Time Machine backup integrity check by option-clicking the “Time Machine” icon in the menu bar and selecting “Verify Backups.”
http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/08/11/time-machine-completed-verification-backups- improve-reliability-time-machine-create-backup/
According to This Time Machine resource “This appears only on Snow Leopard, and started with the Time Capsule Backup Update 1.0 in mid-May of 2010. It also seems to have been included in the 10.6.3 v1.1 update and 10.6.4.”
So, what can you do about it? Grin and bear it, it seems, until Apple fixes it.
One thing you can do to make the backup take less time is to connect your machine to your Time Capsule or other backup drive via Ethernet for the duration of the initial backup.
http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/the-dreaded-time-machine-has-completed-a-verifi cation-of-your-backups-to-improve-reliability-time-machine-must-create-a-new-bac kup-for-you-message-and-why-you-are-seeing-it/
Time Machine: About "Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you."...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4076

Time Machine does not start after external hard drive is connected

Time Machine does not start after external hard drive is connected

These are the iCloud storage options: http://www.apple.com/icloud/includes/lightbox-storage.html
Also bear in mind that:
1. restoring data over icloud takes time
2. iCloud is not designed as a replacement to Time Machine.

I got the message: Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you. I got the message: Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Ma

I got the message:
Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.
Here's what the text of the system.log says when I filter for backupd:
Jan 9 11:37:14 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2618]: Starting standard backup
Jan 9 11:37:14 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2618]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/TimeMachine
Jan 9 11:37:33 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2618]: Recovery backup declined by user.
Jan 9 11:37:33 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2618]: Backup canceled.
Jan 9 11:48:20 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2859]: Starting standard backup
Jan 9 11:48:20 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2859]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/TimeMachine
Jan 9 11:48:42 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2859]: Recovery backup declined by user.
Jan 9 11:48:43 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2859]: Backup canceled.
Jan 9 11:51:07 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2917]: Starting standard backup
Jan 9 11:51:07 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2917]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/TimeMachine
Jan 9 11:51:34 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2917]: Recovery backup declined by user.
Jan 9 11:51:34 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2917]: Backup canceled.
Jan 9 11:53:50 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2987]: Starting standard backup
Jan 9 11:53:50 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2987]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/TimeMachine
Jan 9 11:54:07 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2987]: Recovery backup declined by user.
Jan 9 11:54:07 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2987]: Backup canceled

Since this is a MacBook Pro hardware community, you might get better results by asking your question at the Time Machine forum, located within the Lion discussion group.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.7_lion

I recently did a full reinstall from my time machine and now my MacBook pro won't back up to the time machine. It starts a full backup ignoring the original back up, can anyone help?

I recently did a full reinstall from my time machine and now my MacBook pro won't back up to the time machine. It starts a full backup ignoring the original back up, can anyone help?

Did you follow the instructions on the page linked below?
OS X Yosemite: Recover your entire system

Time Machine must create a new backup for you

getting this error message Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you. don't want to lose the history off my backups how can i fix this without losing any backups.

You really can't.
That's not one of Apple's clearest messages; it means your backups are damaged beyond OSX's ability to repair them. See #C13 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for details.

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.)

Why do I get this message every time I travel with my laptop and then return home: To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.

Why do I get this message every time I travel with my laptop and then return home: "To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you."
I get this on my new MacBook Air, but never got it on my old MacBook Pro.
Thanks!

See #C13 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

HT4927 I have tried to restore my iPhoto library from Time Machine. It starts then I get an No permissions error. What do I do?

I have tried to restore my iPhoto library from Time Machine. It starts then I get an 'No permissions' error. What do I do?

See #E9 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Can the time machine be accessed remotely over the internet?

Hi, I am thinking about purchasing the time machine. Can the hard drive on the time machine be accessed remotely over the internet?

Do you realize that if you store some of your Mac's data (photos, music, etc.) ONLY on the external Time Capsule, AND also store your "Time Machine" app "system backups" on the Time Capsule,then if the Time Capsule hard drive ever fails you will have lost the " original" and the "backup" copies of all that data (photos, music, etc.)? They will be gone forever. NOT recommended!

Time Machine-Must I start over?

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