Time Machine Not backing up home Folder

Time machine is not backing up any of my Home Folder files for ONE of my users.
I have two users, one of them gets backed up, the other does not.
I have a Mac Pro with all latest updates from Software Update.
The machine has 4 HDD's, Mac HD, Home, Data and Time Machine Drive
Mac HD is where the system lives
Home is where the Users Home folders are. Copied across when first installed and location changed in System Accounts/Advanced/ Home Directory.
Data drive is where I first import all data (music/photos etc)
Time Drive....well obvious I think
From a clear desktop, If I click on Mac H, a finder window pops up, then click on the Home Icon folder and get 6 folder within the Home folder (Desktop/Docs/Downloads etc).
I click on the TM Icon in the Dock, TM does its thing and the front Finder Window alters its appearance changing to the Top level in the Devices in the sidebar.
If I move to the Home HDD, it show the User folder for one user but not the other.
I thought maybe it was because you could not see logged in User files, but not the case. Even if I log in as the other user, the particular user Folder is not backed up.
I have checked the TM options, and the only items excluded are the Data HDD and the TM HDD

Well it is working....properly....not sure.
What with all the mucking around with different users etc, and 3 or 4 restores from TM backups it has all got very confused.
Have deleted all TM Backups, iPhoto Libraries, iTunes libraries the lot and starting with a clean install from Disk again. Third time lucky
I tried a restore from the first TM backup, but then I am back to the wrong user name scenario again....So it is time to bin it all and learn from mistakes over the last week
This is the first Mac I have had, so trying out loads of new software, lots of installs, and removals etc as I find apps to replace my old windows ones.
I knew there was going to be a lot to learn switching Gatesware and the odd Ubuntu machine over to Mac, but I had thought it was going to just be learning to find my way round the new OS.
Had really hoped all this sort of OS agro was in the Windows past....ah well...was obviously just a case of 'The Grass is greener on the other side' syndrom.
Well the new instal is now underway...at least I kept all the Software Update downloads
Thanks for the help
NP

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Time Machine not backing up iTunes folder

Hi.
I am having an issue with Time Machine on my MBP running 10.5.5. I currently have 2 TM backups on a 400gb external hard drive. Each backup is roughly 45gb. However, both times, my iTunes folder not been backed up. I checked the Time Machine options and nothing is being excluded.
Is there a way to make sure this folder is backed up?
Thanks,
markzegarelli

Sorry for the lack of clarity. I mean that Time Machine has backed up 2 times to this drive.
To expand a bit further, when I browse the disk in Finder, and navigate to where the back up of the music folder should be, (eg. backups.backupdb/<computer name>/2008-10-27-030029/<hd name>/Users/<user>/Music) all I see is an alias. Clicking the alias presents an error which says "The alias 'Music' could not be opened because the original item can not be found."
Thanks again.

Time Machine not backing up Applications folder

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I've noticed that when I wanted to restore an application from a previous Time Machine backup that the Apps folder in TM was greyed out. No applications were found for the full history of the backup. I thought it might be an issue with the backup so I deleted it and set TM to backup again (with encryption switched on). On the new backup I also see that the Apps folder is empty. I have checked the TM options and nothing has been excluded so everything should be backed up. I also have an iMac which seems to be able to backup fine.
I'm backing up to an external HD attached to my Mac book pro using Mountain Lion. I have searched online but haven't found any articles on this issue. Can someone offer any help or a recommendation to fix this weird issue?
Regards,
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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.
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Time Machine not backing up user folder

After a Mavericks update to version 10.9.3 i have noticed that Time Machine is not displying the folder in T.M disc image, therfore unable to drag specific files out without going in to the T.M app, is there a way to make this folder visible,

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Time Machine not backing up iTunes folder Proper

I was browsing TM latest backup of my system and noticed that there was one file of iTunes it wasn't backing up "iTunes Music Library.XML" file wasn't included in the backups, anyone know why?

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Time Machine not backing up new folder created in Bridge

Again, as has happened in the past, I create a folder under Adobe Bridge (photo raws and edits) that doesn't get backed up in TM.
Since I've been burned in the past, I go checking into the TM backup ("Latest") after a backup to be sure the backup occurred and there is no sign of the new folder or files.
Anyone else have non-backups under TM?
(Yes: I checked, the folder in question is not in the TM exclude list);
Anything I'm missing?

Anyone else have non-backups under TM?
Don't use TM myself, instead I use Synchronize Pro, so can't check my self. But in general. creating a new folder in Bridge it appears on your system and then TM should be able to read it. Can you give some more details.
Did you use spaces or other characters like hyphens, commas and slashes (',/)
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And you double checked the folder is not locked and you do have read and write permission to it (select the folder and choose get info, at the bottom shows the permissions for the user)

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

Why is my Time Machine not backing up my documents, folders and files.
I have a Mac oss 10.5.4. 2 GHz Intel Core Duo, 1.5 GB. I have been trying to remove files as I'm running all my programs slow. I recently installed the recent ILife upgrade.
Often I would go in and turn off the hourly time machine backup because as I was working on memory intensive programs such as Photoshop I found it may have been linked to crashes. This is particularly concerning as the backups aren't accessible anyway.
Okay, this is the stupid part - on my part - I included my (House) folder in the files not to back up. I was mistaken as to this being a way not to have redundant back ups.
However; the only file now that is in the do not back up is the (time machine backups) and still nothing is saving - particularly concerning? iphoto file. see below.
Now this is concerning! I restored all photos from "March 13, 2008" - it's september. to IPHOTO from Time Machine. I don't know what changed since then(?) I thought it would add these folders into my i photo cache. This of course has involved a software upgrade since to iphoto. I was prompted for upgrade to the restore. So I said yes, to assure the photos added? where in a compatible format. However; instead it has erased all my photos SINCE. Are my photos irretrievably lost?
Why won't my files back-up for retrieval? Can I restore my settings from March 13, 2008 when my Time Machine back-up worked?
I find it horribly confusing that I no longer can access the photo cache, instead having the 'iphoto cache' icon.
This feels like PC headache. I am about to give up!

One thing you can check (using disk utility info button) is that the disk used for backing up must be in the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format, and must have Access Control Lists enabled. Permissions must be set so that you are allowed to use the disk, and the disk can’t be read-only. There must also be sufficient room on external disk for the entire TM backup. Since apple recommends just using TM on the disk, one thing to contemplate if having problems you can't resolve is to reformat as the above and start from scratch.

Time machine not backing up user home directories

Hi All,
I set up my users to have their home directories on a seperate partition: /Volumes/Data/homes/<name>.
I confogured time machine to back up to an external USB hard drive. The exclude list is empty, exept for the backup disk, of course.
When i do an initial backup with TM, i notice that /Volumes/Data/homes is skipped, whereas /Volumes/Data/kits is backed up.
I also see a console message:
8/15/13 3:21:29 PM
com.apple.backupd[621]
Backup content size: 119.8 GB excluded items size: 113.6 GB for volume Data
Why is this? How can i force TM to backup all files?
Thanks for your help,
Heinrich

HeinrichFromBremen wrote:
Of course not. But there is a difference between lack of perfection and deliberately building bugs into the software.
It's not really deliberate. The number of folks who do what you are is very, very limited.
How can i know that homeis the only omitted directory?
It isn't. As noted in the other thread, dev and net are also omitted. Many other things, are, too - see the tan box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #11 for details.
With this behaviour, i simply cannot trust TM backups.
A bit of an overreaction, I think, but your choice.
What would be the alternatives? tar? ditto? dump does not seem to exist.
See #27 in the FAQ link above. As far as I know, they all omit some things.

Time Machine not backing up 2nd external drive, remove option grayed out

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I am having a similar problem. I initially set it up 3 days ago and had it back up just the iMac to Time Capsule (about 120 GB) which it did no problem (I initially had my LaCie drive excluded). I then un-excluded my other drive, where all my photos and music reside (about 130 GB). Since then, it keeps trying to back up about 102 GB each time. Looking at the list of backups it does not appear that it has ever successfully backed up the LaCie. I am not aware of any error messages, but I have not been home much. I normally shut down the computer at night but I have been leaving it on trying to let Time Machine do its thing. All I can say is that every time I am at the computer TM is running and it always looks like it is in the middle of backing up 102 GB (usually seems to be near the beginning, never seem to see it more than halfway done). Looking at the TM panel it says the latest backup was 2 days ago. I'd appreciate any advice!

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 Recently Saved Files

I frequently work form home and need to access files that have been saved on my Time Machine Backup. The problem that I am having is that although I backup just before I leave the office, when I get home and open the file from the latest backup, it is out of date.
I have only noticed this problem with Quark files (I'm running Quark 8.162), but that might just be because this is the program that I am working in 95% of the time, so it may not just be these files.
This is a huge problem for me for this reason. Imagine I am working on a brochure in Quark at the office, I have just finished making a few last minute amends to the file before it goes to print and send off a pdf to the client for final approval. I then need to leave for the day so I do a quick Time Machine backup and go home. When I get home, I receive approval from the client to go to print so I open the most recent file on my backup and export a high resolution pdf to send to the printer. Now imagine that although the backup ran fine, the most recent Quark file on my Backup is out of date by a few hours! That is what is happening to me, and this could basically bankrupt me if I send a file to print for half a million copies and the amends that the client approved are not on the file I've used from my backup.
Please Help!

guffmuffin wrote:
I frequently work form home and need to access files that have been saved on my Time Machine Backup. The problem that I am having is that although I backup just before I leave the office, when I get home and open the file from the latest backup, it is out of date.
I have only noticed this problem with Quark files (I'm running Quark 8.162), but that might just be because this is the program that I am working in 95% of the time, so it may not just be these files.
As Thomas says, that might be some sort of quirk with the app you're using. And, if the file in question hadn't been saved to disk, it cannot be backed-up.
See #D5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum) for some other possibilities.
. . . so I open the most recent file on my backup and export a high resolution pdf to send to the printer.
I think Thomas is assuming you're doing that either via the Finder or the app in question. If so, he's correct that it's not the recommended way to use your backups.
Time Machine uses a complex structure, and special permissions, on the backups. Some kinds of files can be browsed via the "Star Wars" display, but to view other types of files, or actually use anything in your backups, they must be restored somewhere.
The problem with the Finder is, it's quite easy to accidentally move, change, or delete something that way, and that can corrupt your backups.
If you try to use a 3rd-party app with files on your backups, it probably can't open them, but if it can, it may alter something there, which can also cause corruption.
|
It sounds like you have one computer at work, a different one at home, and are carrying a portable external drive containing your backups between the two.
If so, restore the file you need to your home computer, then make the PDF from it.
Or, make a second partition on the backup drive. Before leaving work, copy the file in question from your work computer to the other partition. Then use that version to make and export the PDF.

Time Machine Not Backing Up New Files

Time Machine is NOT backing up my recent files.
I recently noticed that Time Machine was backing up really quickly instead of taking several minutes as usual. I checked previous backups and discovered that NONE of my recent files were backed up.
I have a very basic setup. An external usb 1 tb drive formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) being used as the time machine backup drive. A new i5 mac mini with OS X 10.8.4. About 200 gigs of data with one user on the internal drive.
I have followed all of the Pondini troubleshooting steps. I have restarted into safe mode to force a deep traversal. I have repaired permissions and verified all disks with Disk Utility. I have deleted time machine preferences and followed instructions as per Pondini #A4. The backup seems to run but then finishes quickly but DOES NOT BACK UP any recent files.
I have run TMUTIL COMPARE, it showed that many files needed to be backed up.
I have run TMUTIL ISEXCLUDED on some of the files that were not being backed up. It showed that they were not flagged for exclusion.
I have run a manual backup after starting up in Safe Mode, which forced a deep event scan, but then exhibited the same behaviour..
I have acquired a new external hard drive, backed up the complete main drive (using Time Machine which appeared to be successful on the first time full backup), then run a manual backup on that new drive after adding new files and had THE SAME PROBLEM.
Here's the latest console output, which is typical since I have noticed this issue. There appear to be many megabytes of new files to be backed up, but then the operation completes within seconds and no files are backed up at all.
6/23/13 7:15:16.422 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Starting manual backup
6/23/13 7:15:16.966 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Omnius/Backups.backupdb
6/23/13 7:15:17.916 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Using file event preflight for Olympus
6/23/13 7:15:20.277 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Will copy (375.1 MB) from Olympus
6/23/13 7:15:20.298 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Found 845 files (375.1 MB) needing backup
6/23/13 7:15:20.311 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: 1.91 GB required (including padding), 747.18 GB available
6/23/13 7:15:29.264 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Copied 400 files (1.4 MB) from volume Olympus.
6/23/13 7:15:29.298 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Using file event preflight for Olympus
6/23/13 7:15:29.299 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Will copy (Zero KB) from Olympus
6/23/13 7:15:29.300 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Found 5 files (Zero KB) needing backup
6/23/13 7:15:29.301 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: 1.46 GB required (including padding), 747.17 GB available
6/23/13 7:15:30.439 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Copied 140 files (33 bytes) from volume Olympus.
6/23/13 7:15:30.511 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Created new backup: 2013-06-23-071530
6/23/13 7:15:30.608 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Starting post-backup thinning
6/23/13 7:15:30.608 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
6/23/13 7:15:30.689 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Backup completed successfully.
Please help. Time Machine is currently useless as a backup solution.

Results (username obfuscated in exclusionpaths):
   -=-=-=-=-=--
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
          <key>sourcePaths</key>
          <array>
                    <string>/</string>
          </array>
          <key>standardExclusionPaths</key>
          <array>
                    <string>/.MobileBackups</string>
                    <string>/MobileBackups.trash</string>
                    <string>/.MobileBackups.trash</string>
                    <string>/.Spotlight-V100</string>
                    <string>/.TemporaryItems</string>
                    <string>/.Trashes</string>
                    <string>/.com.apple.backupd.mvlist.plist</string>
                    <string>/.fseventsd</string>
                    <string>/.hotfiles.btree</string>
                    <string>/Backups.backupdb</string>
                    <string>/Desktop DB</string>
                    <string>/Desktop DF</string>
                    <string>/Network/Servers</string>
                    <string>/Library/Updates</string>
                    <string>/Previous Systems</string>
                    <string>/Users/Shared/SC Info</string>
                    <string>/Users/Guest</string>
                    <string>/dev</string>
                    <string>/home</string>
                    <string>/net</string>
                    <string>/private/var/db/com.apple.backupd.backupVerification</string>
                    <string>/private/var/db/efw_cache</string>
                    <string>/private/var/db/Spotlight</string>
                    <string>/private/var/db/Spotlight-V100</string>
                    <string>/private/var/lib/postfix/greylist.db</string>
                    <string>/Volumes</string>
                    <string>/Network</string>
                    <string>/automount</string>
                    <string>/.vol</string>
                    <string>/tmp</string>
                    <string>/cores</string>
                    <string>/private/tmp</string>
                    <string>/private/Network</string>
                    <string>/private/tftpboot</string>
                    <string>/private/var/automount</string>
                    <string>/private/var/folders</string>
                    <string>/private/var/run</string>
                    <string>/private/var/tmp</string>
                    <string>/private/var/vm</string>
                    <string>/private/var/db/dhcpclient</string>
                    <string>/private/var/db/fseventsd</string>
                    <string>/Library/Caches</string>
                    <string>/Library/Logs</string>
                    <string>/System/Library/Caches</string>
                    <string>/System/Library/Extensions/Caches</string>
                    <string>/private/var/log</string>
                    <string>/private/var/spool/cups</string>
                    <string>/private/var/spool/fax</string>
                    <string>/private/var/spool/uucp</string>
          </array>
          <key>systemFilesExcluded</key>
          <false/>
          <key>userExclusionPaths</key>
          <array>
                    <string>/Users/USERNAME/Pictures/cam_in</string>
                    <string>/Users/USERNAME/Epsilon</string>
                    <string>/Users/USERNAME/Desktop</string>
                    <string>/Users/USERNAME/Pictures/cam_out</string>
          </array>
</dict>
</plist>

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 backing up home Folder

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