Time Machine Not Auto Backing Up

Hey guys, I'm having some issues with my Time Machine. Its no longer auto backing up. It will backup fine if I manually start it but it won't do it on its own anymore, it hasn't for the past 2 days on 2 of my computers. I've tried repairing permissions and disable and re-enabling, **** even switch drives and then switch back. There are no error messages in console literally nothing happens. When it changes to the time its supposed to do a backup it will just jump ahead an hour without even preparing a backup without doing anything. One of my friends suggested I format the drive and start fresh and as much as that may work, it really defeats the purpose of having backups if I wipe them all out. I need them so can someone shed some light on this for me its driving me insane.
This all started to happen after the latest Time Machine update.

I think I might have solved it. When messing around in Terminal I noticed the permissions for the backups auto plist were different than the others. Repairing permissions with disk utility didn't do anything so I manually changed it with the Terminal command below. I'll post back later if I can confirm it worked. For anyone else with the same problem here are the commands you need to do in Terminal.
ls -la /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd*
Copy that entire line including the * at the end. That will give you the details on your backup plists, permissions and dates modified. They should all match, if they don't this next command will fix that.
sudo chown root:wheel /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto.plist
After you copy and paste that, it will ask for your password. From there I suggest you reboot for safe measure and you can double check by running the first Terminal command again to make sure the permissions were actually changed. This should fix it for anyone else experiencing the same problems as I was.

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Time machine not auto-powering on/off with Mac, also where is older back up

My new Mac Pro (10.5.7) and TM were working perfectly until I went away for 3 weeks and disconnected the drive. Now it doesn't power on and off automatically with the Mac, no blue activity lights are showing and it doesn't seem to have retained any of the back-ups that were done before I went away. ie it had to start the back-up of the whole Mac from scratch.
Can anybody help with these queries please?
Thanks.

dinglydell wrote:
Thanks, but... tried 'de-selecting, then re-selecting the Put the hard disk(s) to sleep ... option in System Preferences > Energy Saver', but it made no difference, still no blue activity light on the My Book drive and it still doesn't shut down when I shut down the Mac.
Regarding the TM having done a whole new back up and not kept the old one, you say 'Especially if you made a lot of changes during that three weeks, TM may have done a new, full backup'. But I did no work for that 3 weeks
Ahh, the plot thickens! I assumed you'd been gone, working with your Mac, away from the external HD.
and no, there's no old back-up on the backup drive I use (My Book). TM Buddy shows that it did do a back-up on 7 August just before I went away, but there is no back-up from then remaining!
Are you sure? Try holding down the Option key while selecting the TM icon in your Menubar (or control-clicking the TM icon in your Dock), and selecting the (badly named) +*Browse Other Time Machine Disks+* option. They may magically appear that way.
In fact TM Buddy says about the first backup I did when I got back 'no expired backups exist'.
What did it say about how much space was available -- the whole disk?
Also, My Book drive is now very noisy when it backs up. Hope you can help! Thanks.
That is never a good sign. How old is it?

Time machine not completely backing up certain folders

Has anyone run into a problem with their Time Machine continually neglecting to backup one or two of their folders? I know some people have problems with TM not backing up items on their desktop, but my desktop data is fine. There are just two folders (as far as I know) that TM refuses to back up (unless there are new items, then it will backup only those items). One is my 'documents' folder. And another folder I created called 'OS media'.
About my setup:
I recently set up Time Machine with my Macbook Pro (running Mavericks). TM is backing up the internal SSD along with an external hard drive that is always attached via USB. The drive they are being backed up onto is a Western Digital My Book Live via wifi--which I know is not advised as it is not officially approved by Apple, but I'm hoping that's not the cause of this particular problem. Because otherwise the MBL has been working pretty well.
More details:
Both of the problem folders happen to be from the external hard drive (not internal SSD), and in the first tier of folders. But the other folders on that tier (about five other folders) are fully entact in TM, so I don't think it's an issue with the external HD. And the missing files are not a certain file type, they are all the sub-folders and files under the problem folders.
I went into the Western Digital (Time Machine) drive itself via Finder and verified that the files are indeed missing, so it wasn't a lag issue. And I have nothing excluded from backups in TM preferences.
I noticed that within those two problem folders, if any file was modified or created within that folder since my initial TM full backup (about two weeks ago), even if it was just a modified .ds_store file, TM would begin to include that file in the backup. This make me guess the problem was something that happened during the initial TM backup. The folders were somehow missed, and subsequent TM incremental backups aren't able to detect that it's missing. So unless anyone has any other suggestions, I'm just going to try to redo a full backup. I'm reluctant though, because it's going to take about two days to complete, and I really have no idea if it's even going to help.
And I don't know if this is related, but when I'm in Time Machine and I do a search for any of my files, I always get zero results.
Important sidenote:
While browsing my folders in Time Machine (Star Wars view), I found that clicking on an alias to a folder would open up that folder, but it didn't show the contents of the folder as they were in that particular backup version; instead, it showed the contents of that folder as they appeared in my computer currently. In other words, it appeared that I was looking at an old backup version of the folder, but it was actually the present time folder. This could easily mislead someone into thinking that their current data is backed up, when it is not.

oregonjoe wrote:
Am I to understand people should not post questions that involve any 3rd party products that are not officially supported by Apple?
No, but you must understand that Time Machine does not support the configuration you are using.
The exhaustive list of devices supported by Time Machine amounts to the following:
AirPort Time Capsule's built-in hard disk (any model)
External USB hard disk drive connected to a Time Capsule (any model)
External USB hard disk drive connected to an AirPort Extreme (current model only)
A hard disk drive directly connected either to the source Mac, or a Mac on your local network.
That is all.
Use whatever backup device you want, but you should be aware that this site is full of reports of misery from hapless individuals who had been using third party NAS devices for Time Machine backups, only to find that they were incomplete, corrupted, or useless in the dire circumstances in which they were required. Apple won't care if you lose your data while using a Time Machine configuration specifically excluded from their technical support documents.

Time machine not automatically backing up to sparsebundle

Used TimeTamer to create sparsebundle.
Manual backups work fine.
Receive message that "time machine destination not resolvable" when automatic backups are tried.
Is this issue correctable?
Thank you

jjs01 wrote:
I am backing up to a 1st generation Drobo.
All I know about Drobos is what I read on their site and some threads here.
How is it connected? Network (Ethernet or WIFI) or direct (USB, Firewire, eSATA)?
The reason for doing so is to limit the amount of space my Time Machine backups will take up.
Depending on how you're connected, there may be a better way. Are you still running 10.6.8? Note that on some models, Drobo says not to use that with Leopard or Snow Leopard (http://support.drobo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/610/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xMzI 2NzcyMDg3L3NpZC9NZFN1TWtPaw%3D%3D).
According to this page: http://support.drobo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/609/~/how-do-i-make-time-machin e-work-with-drobo%3F, some models of Drobo allow you to create partitions. If yours will, that's the way to go.
Then let Time Machine create a Backups.backupdb folder at the top level of the volume if you're connected directly, or it's own sparse bundle if you're connected via network.
If not, and if you're connected via network, you may be able to let Time Machine create the sparse bundle, then limit the maximum size via #A8 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
hdiutil create -size 8192g -fs HFS+J -volname "TM-backup-of-****-*****-mac-pro" /Volumes/Drobo/****-*****-mac-pro_001f5b32e8e4.sparsebundle
Some possible problems with that (I can't tell since you substituted ***s):
Check the names (of all odd things) of your Mac, network, and Drobo per #C9 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting. The names may be a problem even if you let Time Machine create the sparse bundle.
As I read the man page for hdiutil, that command will not create a sparse bundle disk image with a maximum size of 8 TB; it will create a fixed-size disk image of 8 TB.
Since 10.6.0, Time Machine no longer includes the source Mac's MAC address in the name of the sparse bundle. I don't know if having it there is a problem in your setup.
Have you used any other 3rd-party apps (such as Time Machine Editor, or Time Machine Scheduler) to alter Time Machine's default behavior?

Time Machine NOT automatically backing up - Help

Running 10.5.2 on my MBP and MB. Have a TC 500 installed yesterday. Did the initial backup on both. Seems that Time Machine will not backup to TC unless I click on TC in my finder (to mount). If I restart or sleep the computer or switch networks (and come back to TC) TM doesn't backup. Been 3 hours since I've been back on the TC. Is there something I need to set up to get the computer to automatically back up without me having to tell the computer the TM designated disk is available. Thanks.
Sean

I hope this helps you...I just spent 3 hours on the phone with Apple Care and finally got the problem fixed. The problem was the NAME OF THE time capsule. I had used "Tony Ry*****'s Time Capsule" (I used xxxxx because I prefer not to use my whole last name on here). In any event, the name was too long! I changed it to "TimeCapsule" in Airport Utility. To do this, launch Airport Utility, click on "Manual Setup". Under the "Disks" section, you will see the name of your time capsule listed under "Time Capsule Disk" . Click on that, and to the right a white dialogue box will appear where you can change the name. Change it to something short with no spaces, or " ' " . After doing that you will need to go into the time machine preferences and select a new backup disk (since you changed the name). This worked perfect for me. Hope it helps you!

Disk utility or time machine not discovering back up drives

Hi I'm new to Mac and before getting lost in all the benefits am looking to set up automatic back ups using my LaCie network space drives I previously used from my P/C. I have managed to discover the drive and copy required files in Finder. Next step was to re-format to Mac but Disk Utility does not discover the drive. Am using the same connection route as Finder. Have also tried finding via Time Machine without any luck. Your assistance appreciated

If I am correct on this, and I think I am, Disk Utility and Time Machine are all configured in OSX to find and communicate over only USB and Firewire, NOT ethernet. I talked to Apple Support once about employing a Buffalo Technology NAS over ethernet to backup my iMac using Time Machine and i was politely informed that this was NOT supported by Apple and likely not doable. So, we may not like it, but apparently those are the rules we must play by. As for Finder, it too primarily finds connections to devices using USB or Firewire. The exception to this is that you can connect using Finder over Wi-Fi or Ethernet to another computer, but this ability presumably involves Finder locating a device that has an IP address.
You just may be at the point where you need to consider obtaining a USB and/or Firewire based external drive. Keep us informed.
Hope this helps
Message was edited by: Radiation Mac

Time Machine not automaticaly backing up

I have googled and googled, and cannot find ANYTHING about this. My time machine is a 1TB HD from Costco. Was working wonderful. But now it won't back up on its own. I have to manually do it. I didn't realize this for a while, and went 2 weeks without a single back up.
I would just like my Time Machine to back up on its own. Thank you for your time.
-Matt

Try turning off TM in TM preferences, then re-enable it and re-select your backup drive.
BTW, since you purchased this drive at CostCo it may have been pre-formatted for Windows. Did you re-prep the drive for use with OS X? If not, then you need to do the following:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
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. Set the number of partitions from the drop down menu one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

Time Machine - not "fully" backing up?

OK, I know that I should know this, but...
I'm a bit confused as how Time Machine is working right now. Tonight I updated my version of OS X to the latest developer release, updated Xcode, etc. Should have been about an 8.5GB 'change' to my internal drive - which it was when I backed up two of my internal drive clones. However, my hourly TM backups (I have two) don't seem to be recognizing the changes to the OS X or Xcode files as they only backed up about 380MB each.
I know that I should know the answer to this - and I've scoured Pondoni's site looking for an answer, but I can't seem to find one.
Can anyone shed some light on this for me? I know that I'm just stupid...
Thanks,
Clinton

Do you see the folders "Applications" and "System" at the top level of your snapshots?

Time MAchine won't back up due to not enough space, but there is

TIme Machine won't back up. Displays this:
Actual capacity of the external backup drive is 999.68 GB and available is 135 gb .
The imac internal HD capacity is 999.01GB and used space is 636.321 GB.
This problem has occured periodically in the last 12 months or so, so prior to OS version10.8 install in Jul 2012.
I previously called AppleCare, as I have a contract, and tech said I just need to reformat the external drive and start over.
I did that the last time this happened a few months ago, but I don't like that option, as it eliminates all the prior backups,
What if I needed to try to recover something I deleted 3 weeks ago, for example. I couldn't do so as all backups would have been deleted, of course, by me having refomatted the drive and basically starting over. Also, I noted in another post about a person having a problem due to using a partitioned drive. Mine is not partition, as far as I can tell. See this:
Any ideas? Thanks

The solution is essentially "simple." You need a larger hard drive for these backups or you need to use a different backup solution. By this I mean using backup software that does not preserve an archive of old copies of a file, but simply erases old copies in order to replace them with the new copies. By replacing your backup drive can always accommodate the drive it backs up if it is large enough - say the same size. I can suggest:
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.
All of the above are capable of being scheduled. Synk Pro makes immediate backups of any changed file on the hard drive. You may configure it to archive changes (like Time Machine) or to delete prior copies.

Time machine not backing up, no error message,plenty space in external disk

Hello,
Every time the Time Machine starts a back up, it stops 2 seconds later, it records that the back up has been made, but no file gets updated. It gives no error messages. For it, the back up has been made, when in reality it has not. There is plenty of space in the external disk (twice as much as the space used in the Mac HD). Do you know what may be going on?
Thanks
Message was edited by: F A

See #D5 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).

Time Machine not backing up /home

I understand that Leopard did a silly thing with the /home directory, and I've fixed it so that /home is visible. However, it doesn't look like Time Machine will acknowledge that it exists. I have files under /home that correspond to a production web server that has its web documents under /home (I'm duplicating the path on my local machine). These are the files that change most often. We do use version control but if Time Machine won't back these up then I don't have any use for it.
How do you force TM to back up a directory that it isn't currently backing up? There aren't any exclusion rules in the TM preferences; the /home directory just isn't there. I've also looked with Terminal, and no good there either.
Is this a case where Apple insists that it knows better, and there's no reason for me to be using /home, and I should just change the way I work? Because that's bollocks.

Do you use a symbolic link? Only local directories are backed up and it probably assumes that this is a client-server environment, and all backups are centrally managed.
Leopard did make changing the /home path from NetInfo Manager into the Account control panel, which I like and I've always used a separate physical drive for /home.
You are right, TM is not for everyone, nor is it even perfect when it does probably.

Time Machine not backing up music added to iTunes since the original backup

My girlfriend has a Macbook and I decided it was time for her to back up. I used Time Machine with my Lacie external HD. The original back up got all the music, documents, etc.
This morning was the first time I had hooked up the external HD since the original back up. I manually ran it and wanted to check if it added the new music and documents. My resume, which I updated last night, was there. But when I looked in the iTunes folder the new music I had added was missing.
Will the daily or weekly back up get the new music files? Is there something I did wrong with set up? Of course I could start over but I'd rather fix the issue and make sure everything is being backed up.
Your suggestions or comments are appreciated.

Erik Griffin wrote:
My girlfriend has a Macbook and I decided it was time for her to back up. I used Time Machine with my Lacie external HD. The original back up got all the music, documents, etc.
How long ago was this?
This morning was the first time I had hooked up the external HD since the original back up. I manually ran it and wanted to check if it added the new music and documents. My resume, which I updated last night, was there. But when I looked in the iTunes folder the new music I had added was missing.
How are you verifying whether they were backed-up? Use +Enter Time Machine,+ not the Finder.
Will the daily or weekly back up get the new music files?
The labels of hourly, daily, and weekly backups are just labels. The process is the same with each. The only thing that's different is how long TM will keep them. A TM backup is a TM Backup.
Is there something I did wrong with set up? Of course I could start over but I'd rather fix the issue and make sure everything is being backed up.
First, check TM Preferences > Options. Be sure nothing is listed there that would prevent any iTunes data from being backed-up.
If you still don't see them, download the TimeTracker app, from www.charlessoft.com.
It shows most of the files saved by TM for each backup (excluding some hidden/system files, etc.). That should show what was actually backed-up.

Time Machine not backing up. Very slow, essentially hanging. I have 10.7.5 Mac OS X Lion (11G63). I have put in all updates. I tried to put my folders into "private" in the Spotlight (b/c I read that might be the problem). Still not working.

Time Machine not backing up. Very slow, essentially hanging. I have 10.7.5 Mac OS X Lion (11G63). I have put in all updates. I tried to put my folders into "private" in the Spotlight (b/c I read that might be the problem). Still not working.
Thanks in advance for any help!

For all things Time Machine see Pondini's excellent information here...
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
Start at Troubleshooting.

Time Machine not backing up iPhoto "Last Import"

I had a computer failure and had to restore from Time Machine. Everything was perfect except some iPhoto photos (everything from "Last Import") were not restored. Saw from many other posts here that I am not alone.
After seeking advice in the iPhoto forum, and trying many different ways of trying to repair the iPhoto library (you can read the saga: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2765769), it became clear that Time Machine just never backed up those photos, so there was nothing to restore. (Album/event data was intact, so I see the album/event info, and sometimes the thumbnails, I just can't access any originals - I get the dreaded question mark icon).
I've done more testing on my machine (Macbook Pro 10.6.6 with iPhoto '09) - the directory with the last import photos within Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/ just never gets backed up by Time Machine until it is no longer the last import. Strangely, on an older Macbook we have (10.5 with iPhoto '08), the last imported directory is backed up by Time Machine immediately when the next backup occurs.
Is there a setting I can change somewhere? Or any other explanation of why this is happening? I lost 159 photos as a result, and this doesn't appear to be a fluke, others have this exact same problem. I realize there are other threads with this issue (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10705622&#10705622), but all the ones I have found are locked from replies, and none have really shed any light on my particular situation.
Any help is much appreciated! Trying to avoid repeating the lost photos if I ever need to restore from Time Machine again.
Thanks,
Jon

I'm sorry I missed your question, I've had my head down in work and not checking.
        By Apple Backup I mean the application that Apple has had for yonks, with the Umbrella icon, it does seperate incremental backups to where ever you wish - iDisk, DVD/CD or HD - I have a FW drive that I use for Backup backups, and each week I back THOSE up to a DROBO 4 Tbs Mirror RAID (might sound paranoid but I have twice rebuilt one of my iPhoto libraries from these backups) using SilverKeeper from LaCie. This is with my main and biggest work MacPro - where all the most precious work lives.
        The startup drive is backed up weekly by Superduper. Each application has qualities that I use for those specific events.
         The reason I've been doing iPhoto this way is because some years ago there was an issue with how much of the library was backed up in a clone or incremental backup - I can't remember the specifics of it, but I used to use Carbon Copy Cloner and before that Rendezvous - Rendezvous went through a bad period and CCC kept giving me errors, reported errors, that might not have been important but I felt uncomfortable with it, hence the Backup scenario - I have found Backup really reliable for the past couple of years and same with SuperDuper. I'm sorry I am not helping you with your current issue though.
With our two Internet/Accounting Macs I use BOTH TM and Superduper.

Time Machine not backing up iPhoto changes (Events, pictures, etc..)

So I finally decided to buy a external hard drive (WD) and backup some of my data to it using Time Machine. The initial backup went well with no problems but what I noticed is as I added events and pictures they were not appearing in Time Machine.
I could open time machine and view that my iPhoto had the current events when the date selected was "Today (now)", but as I went back in time the events that SHOULD of been there were not.
Browsing the folders on the backups showed the iPhoto database to be 13.5gb when actually the new size on my iMac was 19.5gb.
So why does Time Machine not detect these changes? For my backups I have excluded all folders except for the Users folder which contains the iPhoto library. Time Machine is not detecting the changes and backing it up. How can I fix this?

Yeah. At first I thought it was:
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/D5.html
Because I was doing that earlier. But then realized I did repair permissions, not disk. But anyways decided to reboot (because I haven't up to this point).
Once it came back up I tried doing another backup. Didn't see it. Opened iPhoto again and exited it (checked Force Quit to make sure it wasn't open). Told it to do a BACKUP NOW. This time it saw a difference of like 7mb.
After it was done, went to iPhoto -> File -> Browse Backups. Went back a couple minutes when I did the backup and my event now has a place holder within the Events but it is pure black. I double clicked the event and it opened up and saw there were 3 files in there. They had default icons and were not showing as pictures like they were. (even though they display fine in iPhoto).
Time Machine seems very flakey to me. My machine is fully updated also.

Time Machine Not Auto Backing Up

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