Time machine new backup

I am getting this message now with my time machine backup to time capsule:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4076
I verified the disk and it's verified with no issue. How do I get rid of that message and make my time machine backs up automatically to time capsule as it used to? Every time I click backup now, that message appears.

Take a look at this page from Pondini's Time Machine - Troubleshooting information.

Similar Messages

  • I'd like Time Machine to backup my personal account's files separately from my guest account's files. Both have big files.  What's the best way to do this?  Should I connect 2 external HD to my new iMac, one for each account?

    I'd like Time Machine to backup my personal account's files separately from my guest account's files. Both have big files.  What's the best way to do this?  Should I connect 2 external HD to my new iMac, one for each account?

    NeuroBrain wrote:
    Since my new external hard drive is have a lot of space, I'm thinking of splitting it for Time Machine and external storage.
    This is a common mistake and I highly advise against it.
    1: TimeMachine saves states of changes and thus requires more room on the TM drive than the boot drive it's backing up.
    2: Something happens to the TM drive, loss, theft, dropped, power surge, etc., you lose both backups.
    3: The storage drive might become a portable need, with it being on the TM drive, now your increasing the risk to the TM backup that something could happen to it along with the storage drive, due to increased movement.
    Seriously, have a read,
    Most commonly used backup methods
    it's ASC User Tip that saves us regulars all the trouble of having to repeat ourselves over and over again in the posts, because we tend to forget things too, or not here sometimes etc.
    "Plan for the worst and the good will take care of itself" - Donald Trump

  • Can I use Time Machine to backup ONLY an external drive?

    I am having problems with the internal HD on my iMac and Disk Utility is telling me I need to reformat the drive and restore from backup. Only problem is that my 3TB Lacie Thunderbolt drive I was using for Time Machine recently failed (think it may have happened during an electrical storm brownout). Yep, I know, ***** to be me
    The issues with the internal HD are preventing the iMac from booting and I would prefer not to have to purchase various repair software to find one that really works such as Disk Warrior or similar ((despite it getting very good reviews). I suspect it make be HFS corruption but no way to really tell that I am aware of.
    I have setup an external drive with Yosemite and booted from that so now my old internal drive is seen as an "external drive".
    I am using Disk Utility to make an image copy to a new 3TB external drive I purchased. Writing the DMG is going to take some time.
    What I would like to do is to set up Time Machine to backup to a separate external 3TB hard drive (the second one I purchased) and have TM create a backup of ONLY the old internal drive - not the new system as well as the old internal unit.
    Is this possible and if so can anyone advise how to do this. Does not seem I can exclude the system drive I am now booted from so that it is not backed up. (This makes sense that TM would be designed this way given its primary purpose is to backup a system).
    If TM cannot be configured in this way, is there another option I can use?
    Thanks
    Andrew

    Thanks for that advice. I have heard of it but a friend who does IT support at a University nearby suggested using Disk Utility to save an image - hence this is currently underway at present. Once this is finished I will try Carbon Copy Cloner.
    I have another friend who has an older version of CCC - do you know if an old version will work ok or if only the latest supports Yosemite?
    Also once I have the clone completed from CCC, is the process then to reformat the old internal drive and then clone from the CCC external drive back to the internal and then reboot and trust all is well?
    Appreciate your help Csound1.
    Regards
    Andrew

  • Airport and Time Machine new user questions

    Background: Switched my business from PC to Mac June 07--and loving it! Upgraded to Leopard over the holidays and bought a 500Mb wireless backup drive. Setup was easy (thanks forum) and I backed up both MacBookPro's with this drive. Buffalo popped last week and Mac bias now runs deep and the local AppleStore had the the 1 TB model in stock.
    My connection is: Cable modem (T-W Roadrunner service)-->Time Capsule-->Linksys/Vonage modem. (USB connection from TC to HP 6210 computer). All computers are .n wireless access.
    I have had things happen in my environment that I don't understand and can't figure out how to address:
    1.) Download/Upload speed according to Speakeasy is 7,000 kbpd down and 700 plus up. Very happy with this and this is an improvement over my old Linksys router.
    2.)However my Vonage was set on medium bandwidth and calls are now garbled whereas the old router they were clear. I changed the Vonage bandwidth to high and the calls are OK.
    3.) Software updater called for an update download and the forecasted download time was 8 hours!!!! Web browsing seems to work fine and if anything faster.
    4.) When I send e-mail about~80% of the time the e-mail fails "on the selected server". I can try again or choose my .mac account or another account and it goes. sometimes I choose the same account and it goes.
    I don't understand and have played with manual configuration only to mess things up so nothing works at all. My server is a Pop server. Any ideas?
    Time Machine:
    -Initial backup was extremely fast and at least 2x faster then the initial B/U on the Buffalo. Incrementals are un-noticeable now.
    -Our second MacBook required the preferences file to be wiped out (corrupted) and the Genius told me all I had to do was repoint Time Machine back to Time Capsule. It currently see's her old backups but does not generate new backups. I don't understand this. If it can see the drive and restore works (we restored mailboxes after renewing preferences) why won't it backup? If I do repoint to TC do I lose the previous backups?
    Everything is working but just not as seamless as I would have expected and re-sending e-mail and slow downloads makes no sense to me. Help me if you can.
    Thanks;
    Boomerang

    Boomerang,
    Your email issue could have something to do with DNS settings not being in the TC...
    Repointing your MacBook to the TC should not have any impact on the previous backups... i.e. it will not delete them.
    I am an Apple Consultant in Austin, TX (member of the Apple Consultants Network). Visit my site and keep my info around if you ever need anything. www.mymacplus.com

  • Using Time Machine to backup a iMac G5 and restore to an intel iMac

    Is it possible to use Time Machine to backup my iMac G5 and restore my backup to a new intel iMac?
    The reason being is that I my mother-in-law's company bought her a new intel Mac and she wants to trade with me since she only uses her Mac for e-mail, photos and accounting software.
    I was thinking of making sure her data is preserved by using the migration assistant to transfer her data to my iMac G5 and then using my time machine backup to restore to her intel iMac. I have concerns about this method after reading about the intel/powerpc issues with time machine. I also have concerns that perhaps the version of MacOS 10.5 installed to my iMac G5 will not be optimized for intel.

    Well, not entirely. You cannot install or restore a PPC version of OS X to an Intel Mac because the PPC system will not work on an Intel Mac. You can copy your personal files, most preference files, and third-party applications (although it would be preferable to update all PPC-only apps to universal binaries which perform better on Intel machines.
    Another possible concern is if your mother's company is transferring the ownership to her or simply purchasing the unit for her to use. In the latter case the computer belongs to the company, not your mother. She cannot then give it to you because it isn't hers. This problem should be resolved beforehand because the company may one day want the computer back.
    Folders You Can Move to Your new Mac
    From the Home folder copy the contents of Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Sites.
    In your /Home/Library/ folder:
    /Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder)
    /Home/Library/Application Support/iCal (copy the whole folder)
    Also in /Home/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need including folders for any third-party applications)
    /Home/Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder)
    /Home/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder)
    /Home/Library/Preferences/ (copy the whole folder)
    /Home /Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder)
    /Home /Library/Safari (copy the whole folder)
    If you want cookies:
    /Home/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist
    /Home/Library/Application Support/WebFoundation/HTTPCookies.plist
    For Entourage users:
    Entourage is in /Home/Documents/Microsoft User Data
    Also in /Home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft
    For FireFox:
    /Home/Library/Applications Support/FireFox
    /Home/Library/Preferences/org.mozilla.firefox.plist
    Credit goes to another forum user for this information.

  • Can I use a 2tb external drive with Time Machine to backup my Mac Mini (256gbSSD + 2tbHDD)?

    Can I use a 2tb external drive with Time Machine to backup what I have on my Mac Mini?
    My Mac Mini has one 256 SSD and one 2tb HDD. I want to use Time Machine to do a backup of everything.
    Would an external 2tb My Passport Drive by Western Digital work for the backup?
    It seems like it would not work because the total storage on the Mac Mini is 2304 gigabytes (SSD + HDD).
    And the external Western Digital drive is only 2048 in gigabytes versus 2304 gigabytes the Mac Mini has.

    No. A Time Machine backup drive should have at least twice the capacity of the drive it backs up. You would need at least a 4 TB backup drive for Time Machine.
    Might I suggest as an alternative that you not use Time Machine but a third-party backup utility that simply overwrites older files with new ones such that the backup drive can be the same capacity as the drive backed up.
    Suggested Backup Software
      1. Carbon Copy Cloner
      2. Get Backup
      3. Deja Vu
      4. SuperDuper!
      5. Synk Pro
      6. Tri-Backup
    Others may be found at MacUpdate.
    Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore.  Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.

  • Time Machine:The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly. .....

    Hi,
    I upgraded to Mountain Lion when it was released and yesterday I began getting this notice from Time Machine:
    "The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly. Time Machine will try to make more space available by removing expired backups during the next scheduled backup."
    I have a one terra external hard drive with exclusively Time Machine.  It says it has 3.4 gigabytes available, but isn't deleting old backups and making room for new, like before.  I tried the "encrypting" solution, but it still keeps on giving me this message.  Should I erase and format?  If so, what option should I chose to format?
    My Hard Drive has 240 gigabytes, so 1Tb should be more than enough.
    Thank you!
    Gloria

    SuperDuper and Time Machine are two completely different backup utilities. If you want something like what SuperDuper does then don't use Time Machine. You have many other options that won't use up all the space on your backup drive:
    Backup Software Recommendations
    Carbon Copy Cloner
    Data Backup
    Deja Vu
    SuperDuper!
    Synk Pro
    Tri-Backup
    Others may be found at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
    Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore.  Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
    Do the following to erase your drive:
    Erase a Drive
    1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
    2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

  • Time Machine thinks backup disk is full but its not

    I just purchased a new 1 Terabyte hard drive for backup. In the past I backed up both my internal Mac harddrive (250 Gb with 8gb free) and an external iOmega archive drive (DRIVE H 320Gb with 41Gb free) to a 500Gb Lacie drive. I purchased an iOmega 1 Terabyte drive (DRIVE G) because the Lacie drive was full. I went into Time Machine and changed the backup drive to the G one terabyte drive and did a full backup of my internal hard drive. When I did this I did not have the external H archive drive attached so Time Machine didn't back that up. I did it that way because I wanted to first backup the internal drive then do some work and then go backup the external archive drive over night. I plugged the H archive drive in, so it show up in the finder and then told Time Machine to Backup Now. It started the back up but right after doing the initial computations when it actually started backing up I got the standard error message that "the backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly..."  I've double checked that the backup disk is set correctly in Time Machine to the 1Tb G drive and when I do a Get Info on the G drive it shows Capacity: 1TB, Available: 713.54 GB.
    Is it possible something is wrong with the new drive? Can I test that?

    Its funny how sometimes asking a question can prompt  your thinking. As soon as I finished posting this I thought "of course Disk Utility".  I ran a check disk and got the following error message:
    Unused node is not erased (node = 107)
    I did a restore which corrected the error. Turned Time Machine back on and its backing up the rest of my data now.

  • Trouble getting time machine to backup latest numbers file.

    I'm able to use Time Machine to backup my macbook wirelessly to an external hard drive attached to my iMac. However, I recently noticed that I am failing to back up the latest version of a numbers file.
    Has anyone noticed any incomplete or outdated files - that shouldn't be - in their number file back ups?

    Well, Time Machine unfortunately is bugged beyond use for some people. It is nearly impossible to tell if TM will work every single time until Apple will take a look at their programming and fix the darn thing.
    Anyways, back to the point. The problem with updated files is that TM will look for new things that are indexed as new, and by indexed as new as in the Spotlight regards the file as updated since last backup. I don't really know if this would work, but you could give it a try.
    Try this:
    1) Duplicate the file into the same folder with a different name
    ex. filename.doc, and make a new file called filename_1.doc
    2) Make sure that this file is in the same folder as the other file.
    3) Back up
    I think that would make Spotlight tell TM to backup the updated documents.

  • Time Machine wont backup

    I bought an external hard drive and put files from my old computer on it before I bought my iMac. Now I want to use it for backing up my iMac but Time Machine wont backup to it without erasing the contents. Is there a way around this? Or will I have to buy a new EHD? Or is there a way to backup to cyberspace?
    Thanks

    jmhoskin wrote:
    I bought an external hard drive and put files from my old computer on it before I bought my iMac. Now I want to use it for backing up my iMac but Time Machine wont backup to it without erasing the contents. Is there a way around this? Or will I have to buy a new EHD? Or is there a way to backup to cyberspace?
    The drive is probably set up with the MBR (Master Boot Record) partition map, that Windoze uses. To use it for TM you must completely reformat it, which will erase it. If you have enough space (or can borrow another external temporarily), you can copy the data off, reformat it, then copy the data back.
    TM works best with it's own, exclusive space, so you should partition the drive anyway. If you're going to use the other data with a PC, make the other partition MS-DOS (FAT).
    For formatting instructions, see item #5 of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
    Also see #1 of the FAQ Tip for size considerations.

  • Time machine and backup

    I have a quick question.  I'm pretty new to macbooks.  I just recently bought a macbook pro 13" and hooked it up to an external harddrive.  I used Time Machine to backup the entire system.  I take a lot of pictures so I've used up about half my hard drive capacity.  My question is....can I use the same external hard drive just to store pics and also as Time Machine?  Or...do I have to buy another external hard drive to just store pics?

    Time Machine works best if it has its own, exclusive space.  If you want to put other things on the same drive, partition it.  See #3 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
    But before you do that, how are you going to back up those pictures?  If they're in the same partition as your backups, Time Machine cannot back them up.  If they're in a separate partition of the same drive, when you tell Time Machine to back it up, it will send you a message reminding you that it's not a good idea to have your originals and backups on the same physical HD.  When (not if) it fails, you risk losing both copies.
    If your pictures are valuable, yes, get another drive for them.  Format it for a Mac, per #1 in Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks.  External HDs are excluded from Time Machine by default, so go to Time Machine prefs > Options, select the new drive, and click the minus sign at the bottom to remove it from the exclusions box.  Then Time Machine will back it up along with your internal HD.

  • Time Machine vs Backup

    I plan on reformatting my computer and would love to know if I should use Time Machine or Backup. I want to keep some of the programs and data from the computer, but not all of it. Which one will allow me to select data to "bring back"?
    Thanks for your help!

    Hi, and welcome to the forums.
    You do not want to use Backup for large amounts of data. It's fine for it's original purpose: to get relatively-small amounts of data off-site to iDisk, automatically, but don't use it for anything more.
    Time Machine will back-up your entire system by default. The first backup is, of course, lengthy, but thereafter it will back-up only new and changed items hourly. This gives you an excellent chance to recover things that were deleted or changed in error, or somehow corrupted. But whether you use Time Machine or some other app, use something or you can lose some or all of your data in an instant.
    But the question here is, are you doing this only to get rid of some apps and files? If so, that's not the best approach. Unlike Windoze, a periodic reload is usually not needed on Macs.
    Unless your internal HD is over 85% full, your best bet may be to get an external drive thats at least twice the size of the data on your Mac and let TM do a full backup. Then start identifying and deleting the things you don't want. If you delete something you shouldn't, you can easily get it back from Time Machine (for a while).
    Most applications on Macs can just be deleted. Some need uninstallers. Apps will be where you put them, hopefully in your Applications folder. Most data will be in +<your home folder>/Library/Application Support,+ usually in a file or folder containing the name of the app or maker.
    Unless you're very tight on space, you could make a folder named +Apps to be Deleted+ or something similar, at the top level of your home folder, and move them and their data files there, rather than delete them immediately. You could even create a sub-folder for those apps that have data files, and put both the apps and files inside them. Once you're sure they're not needed, delete them.
    Doing it the other way is much riskier; if you omit things you actually need, all sorts of things may go wrong, unpredictably.
    For info on Time Machine, you might want to review this Time Machine Tutorial
    and this: Time Machine Features
    and perhaps the Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions post at the top of the Time Machine forum.

  • Time Machine same backup size every time

    Anyone have any idea why Time Machine would backup the same amount every time? Every hour mine backs up 1.8 GB, unless I've added more than that to my hd.
    I only back up the internal drive on my macbook to a 500 GB Time Capsule via wifi (802.11n only, 5GHz). Not that I figured it would make a difference, but it still does it if backed up via ethernet.
    I've also noticed that as soon as it completes the backup, it will backup all over again - and not because an hour has passed. I'm not sure if it does this every time (but I think i does), or if it does it more than twice when it happens.
    Thanks in advance!

    See if the following might give you some ideas as to why...
    *_Incremental Backups Seem Too Large!_*
    Open the Time Machine Prefs on the Mac in question. How much space does it report you have "Available"? When a backup is initiated how much space does it report you need?
    Now, consider the following, it might give you some ideas:
    Time Machine performs backups at the file level. If a single bit in a large file is changed, the WHOLE file is backed up again. This is a problem for programs that save data to monolithic virtual disk files that are modified frequently. These include Parallels, VMware Fusion, Aperture vaults, or the databases that Entourage and Thunderbird create. These should be excluded from backup using the Time Machine Preference Exclusion list. You will, however, need to backup these files manually to another external disk.
    If you do a lot of movie editing, unless these files are excluded, expect Time Machine to treat revised versions of a single movie as entirely new files.
    If you frequently download software or video files that you only expect to keep for a short time, consider excluding the folder these are stored in from Time Machine backups.
    If you have recently created a new disk image or burned a DVD, Time Machine will target these files for backup unless they are deleted or excluded from backup.
    *Events-Based Backups*
    Time Machine does not compare file-for-file to see if changes have been made. If it had to rescan every file on your drive before each backup, it would not be able to perform backups as often as it does. Rather, it relies on a process called FSEvents. This is a system log that records changes that occur with all the directories on your Mac. Moving / copying / deleting / & saving files and folders creates events that are recorded in this log. At the beginning of each backup, Time Machine simply looks at this log to determine what has changed since the last backup. [http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/14]
    Installing new software, upgrading existing software, or updating Mac OS X system software can create major changes in the structure of your directories. Every one of these changes is recorded by the OS as an event. Time Machine will backup every file that has an event associated with it since the installation.
    Files or folders that are simply moved or renamed are counted as NEW files or folders. If you rename any file or folder, Time Machine will back up the ENTIRE file or folder again no matter how big or small it is.
    George Schreyer describes this behavior: “If you should want to do some massive rearrangement of your disk, Time Machine will interpret the rearranged files as new files and back them up again in their new locations. Just renaming a folder will cause this to happen. This is OK if you've got lots of room on your backup disk. Eventually, Time Machine will thin those backups and the space consumed will be recovered. However, if you really want recover the space in the backup volume immediately, you can. To do this, bring a Finder window to the front and then click the Time Machine icon on the dock. This will activate the Time Machine user interface. Navigate back in time to where the old stuff exists and select it. Then pull down the "action" menu (the gear thing) and select "delete all backups" and the older stuff vanishes.” (http://www.girr.org/mac_stuff/backups.html)
    *TechTool Pro Directory Protection*
    This disk utility feature creates backup copies of your system directories. Obviously these directories are changing all the time. So, depending on how it is configured, these backup files will be changing as well which is interpreted by Time Machine as new data to backup. Excluding the folder these backups are stored in will eliminate this effect.
    *Backups WAY Too Large*
    If an initial full backup or a subsequent incremental backup is tens or hundreds of Gigs larger than expected, check to see that all unwanted external hard disks are still excluded from Time Machine backups. Time Machine will attempt to backup any hard disk attached to your Mac, including secondary internal drives, that have not been added to Time Machines Exclusion list.
    This includes the Time Machine backup drive ITSELF. Normally, Time Machine is set to exclude its’ own backup disk by default. But on rare occasions it can forget. When your backup begins, Time Machine mounts the backup on your desktop. (For Time Capsule/AirDisk users it appears as a white drive icon labeled something like “Backup of (your computer)”.) If, while it is mounted, it does not show up in the Time Machine Preferences “Do not back up” list, then Time Machine will attempt to back ITSELF up. If it is not listed while the drive is mounted, then you need to add it to the list.
    *Recovering Backup Space*
    If you have discovered that large unwanted files have been backed up, you can use the Time Machine “time travel” interface to recovered some of that space.
    Launch Time Machine from the Dock icon.
    Initially, you are presented with a window that represents “Today (Now)”. DO NOT make changes to file while you see “Today (Now)” at the bottom of the screen.
    Click on the window just behind “Today (Now)”. This represents the last successful backup and should display the date and time of this backup at the bottom of the screen.
    Now, navigate to where the unwanted file resides.
    Highlight the file and click the Actions menu (Gear icon) from the toolbar.
    Select “Delete all backups of <this file>”.
    *FileVault / Boot Camp / iDisk Syncing*
    Note: Leopard has changed the way it deals with FileVault disk images, so it is not necessary to exclude your Home folder if you have FileVault activated. Additionally, Time Machine ignores Boot Camp partitions as the manner in which they are formatted is incompatible. Finally, if you have your iDisk Synced to your desktop, it is not necessary to exclude the disk image file it creates as that has been changed to a sparsebundle as well in Leopard.
    Let us know if this resolved your issue.
    Cheers!

  • Time machine email backup showing incorrect emails

    I have been using time machine to backup my emails. The great thing about time machine is that I could always go back in time and restore yesterdays emails after I had just deleted them by accident. Since I upgraded to Yosemite I notice that in time machine my yesterdays inbox not only contains yesterdays emails, but many more emails that I have moved or deleted already. My mailboxes are imap mailboxes, but all emails are also stored on my macbook air. Does anyone know how to get the old behaviour back, as before Yosemite? Or is this a confirmed bug? Any info will be much appreciated.

    Inside the V2 folder are subfolders representing your Mail accounts. The names refer to the email addresses you use.
    From the Mail menu bar, select
    File ▹ Import Mailboxes...
    Import from the mailboxes in the restored folder. The imported messages will appear in a new mailbox. Move the ones you want to keep wherever you like and delete the rest.

  • Time machine error - backup fails due to sparsebundle already in use

    Since upgrading, Time machine reports backup error:
    TIme Machine Error
    The backup disk image ...sparsebundle is already in use.
    Any thoughts?

    Thanks russ. After the initial upgrade to Mt Lion, no backups have been made. Every attempt reports the sparsebundle error. I recently updated to 10.8.1 and a whole new set of problems have shown up which is having me question the wisdom of continuing to invest in Apple product.
    I have decided to pack it in with regard to the timecapsule product, as it is just too unreliable, and certainly not worth the continued time and effort it has been taking to try and get it to work. I have instead gone with an online backup service, Crashplan. I have the backup service I am seeing and I am no longer frittering away valuable time on something that ought to just work.
    Problem solved.

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