Time Machine Oldest/Latest backup field is blank "--"

Hello,
In Time Machine under the Oldest and Latest Backup fields all it says is "--". It is also the same in the quickmenu.
It used to work perfectly fine but it now it is blank, when I go into time machine all the dates/backups are there including the one it did today. All it says in the TM prefs and the quickmenu is "--". Any ideas how to fix this?

I was surprised today to find that the next usable backup according to Timemachine is from March.
Other dates show up in Timemachine but are not selectable. They are light-blue and only dark-blue dates are selectable.
The two most recent entries are "today" and "July 20" and the two most recent dark blue entries are "today" and "March 3".
I checked the Timemachine disk and it has a folder for July 20 and all the files are in there (using hard links, I think).
Why would Timemachine not recognise certain folder it had created? What would have happened if I had needed to restore from that point in time?
After leaving Timemachine do whatever it wanted over night, I notice that it has added a few hourly backups (as it should), but that those backups are still not accessible.
In fact the Finder windows behind the Now window are black. And the arrow button brings me back to March 2.
Timemachine showing Now window and unusable recent backups:
http://www.netneurotic.net/bin/Picture1.jpg
Timemachine showing last unusable and first usable backup (March 2):
http://www.netneurotic.net/bin/Picture2.jpg
When I enter Timemachine all the windows behind the Now window turn dark and I cannot select them. On the disk itself all the backups/files/folders seem to be in order.

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Time Machine Message: Latest Backup Delayed

I'm a TM newbie. Someone else set up my TM to backup automatically every hour. Today I decided not to wait for the first automatic backup, so I hit the Back Up Now button as soon as I turned on my MacBook. I then got the message:
Latest Backup: Delayed...
What does this mean, and how do I undo it?
P.S. - Is it possible that it had already begun doing the automatic backup, and when I hit "Backup Now," I somehow disrupted the automatic backup that was already in process?
Thanks!

I haven't run across Backup Delayed, but if the last backup failed (which would presumably be your manually ordered backup) you could open the Console application and in the search field at the top type backupd (that's the Time Machine process). That may show the messages relevant to your last, failed backup. If you can't find those, then order a new backup and, assuming it too fails, check what error messages you get. Of course if the new backup doesn't fail then the problem is probably fixed.
Time Machine is set to automatically backup every hour but that does not conflict in any way with you ordering more frequent manual backups.

Time Machine showing latest backup.

Time Machine is showing my latest backup (Today) in the TM Browser, but then no backups until May. I know I have backed up since then. Backup drive is on the Network and mounts. There are also to two sparsebundle files on the backup drive. Am wondering how to get backups made in August, July and June etc to display in the "Star Wars" window?
TIA.

Antony Platt wrote:
Ok! so the missing backups are indeed in the "other" sparsebundle which i was able to browse and mount in the TM Browser window.
Ah, great! Not sure how or why that happened. Time Machine should only make a new sparsebundle for a new Mac (or if the logic board is replaced).
Just to be sure which is which, when you go into TM normally, via Enter Time Machine, do you see recent backups? Or are recent backups in the one you have to use the Browse... option for?
I guess now the question is if i should try and "reconnecd" or merge them so evreything is referenced thru one sparsbundle?
No, that can't be done. Everything is linked together in an intricate structure that can't be altered from outside. See the tan box in How Time Machine works its Magic for an explanation.
If TM is now backing-up to the set you see when you Enter Time Machine, you can continue viewing the old set via the Browse... option, and restore via the Restore To... option (#16 in the FAQ). Once those are no longer needed, you can just delete the sparsebundle (TM won't delete backups from a sparse bundle it isn't backing up to).

Time Machine preferences "Next Backup" field always empty

I can force a backup, but Time Machine doesn't want to schedule one.
Thanks,
Ken

Thanks from me too Kenneth, plugged it in and wah lah, the next time is there.
Ralph
Niclet wrote:
Thanks Kenneth, it worked for me either. I can confirm that it's the same for a PowerBook: The "Next Backup" field shows a schedule only when the PB is plugged with the power supply. When it's battery powered, I must manually start the backup procedure.

After restore backup from time machine, all thumbnails in photos are blank. How to fix ?

After restore backup from time machine, all thumbnails in photos are blank. How to fix ?
I'm using Yosemite 10.10.3 and Photos. i have tried repair database, but no success .

Try these for the first attempt:
First be sure to have a backup copy of the library if you already don't have one.
OT

Time Machine does not backup all of my files

Hi,
If I compare my Dropbox folder to what Time Machine backups there are differences which means that Time Machine does not backup all files:
diff <(cd "/Users/phil/Dropbox" && ls -R | sort) <(cd "/Volumes/TimeMachineBackup/Backups.backupdb/Computername/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/phil/Dropbox" && ls -R | sort)
There are also differences if I compare my user folder to the Time Machine Backup:
diff <(cd "/Users/phil/" && ls -R | sort) <(cd "/Volumes/TimeMachineBackup/Backups.backupdb/Computername/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/phil/" && ls -R | sort)
I did not exclude the folders affected from the Time Machine backup.
I have verified this behaviour on other computers as well.
Does anybody else have this kind of problem?
Philipp

These commands solved the problem for now:
1) Stop the Dropbox desktop application (if needed)
- Click on the Dropbox icon.
- Choose Quit/Stop/Exit
2) Open your Terminal app (Located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
3) Copy and paste the following lines into the Terminal, one at a time, and press RETURN after each one. PLEASE make sure you copy and paste these commands (don't type them by hand), as getting them wrong could cause some harm. You'll be prompted for your computer user's password (not your Dropbox password) after entering the first command. Keep in mind that the password field in the terminal will remain blank as you type your password. After you type it, just press ENTER.
sudo chflags -R nouchg ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox ~/.dropbox-master
sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"
sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox ~/.dropbox-master
sudo chmod -RN ~/.dropbox ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox-master
chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox ~/.dropbox-master

HT201250 Can I recover the backups from Time Machine, but the backups is deleted by the Time Machine!

Unfortunately, the Time Macchine deleted my oldest backups in my hard drive.
I have the important files in the backups.
So hope someone could help me to recover the backups.

Time Machine will remove old backups automatically. It tells you when it does, but of course by then it's too late.
There is no recovering deleted backups, since it was necessary to overwrite them with newer backups.
For further explanation read the following entries from Apple Support Communities contributor Pondini's Time Machine FAQ:
12. Should I delete old backups? If so, How?
20. Once my Mac is backed-up, can I delete some stuff to save space?
Time Machine is for backups. It is not an archiving utility. To archive files requires something like one of these:
Carbon Copy Cloner ($39.95) http://sites.fastspring.com/bombich/product/ccc
or
SuperDuper! ($27.95) http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

TimeMachine not backing up, as hard drive is full. Can the time machine clear old backups and replace them with new?

Time Macine not backing up.
As the harddrive is full, Can the time machine clear old backups, and override them with new backups. For example 5 - 6 days +++ old. Backups were proformed dayly
Any help much appreciated
Many thanks,

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

I have the new 2011 macbook pro, with lion preinstalled. I want to change the harddrive. I have backed up everything on time machine. when i put my new blank hard drive in will the lion screen startup.How do i get the lion dmg when i am already using lion

I have the new 2011 macbook pro, with lion preinstalled. I want to change the harddrive. I have backed up everything on time machine. when i put my new blank hard drive in will the lion screen startup.How do i get the lion dmg when i am already using lion

NicholasLiban -
When you use the Lion restore as described, it does a fresh install on the hard drive that you can select at the beginning of the process. This provides a complete install of the very latest version of Lion, including the recovery partition. The drive that you choose for the installation destination winds up like what you would have on a brand new computer from Apple.
- Randy

Time Machine making full backups--not incremental

Hi,
I just installed Snow Leopard on my Mac Pro a couple of days ago, and have been using Time Machine to make backups (never used it before now). I have TimeMachineEditor installed, and have it set to make a backup daily at 3:30am. It backs up data from my 500GB main hard drive to another internal 500GB hard drive.
The first backup went without a hitch, and did a full backup as expected (everything). But the second, third, and fourth backups all were full backups as well....not incremental as they should've been. The fourth one was actually a manual backup I did to test it...I chose "Back Up Now" to see if it did full or incremental. It did a full backup.
So, after four backups, each a little over 100GB, I'm already running out of space Has anyone else run into this behaviour? Is this a consequence of TimeMachineEditor having screwed it up somehow? Even if it has, shouldn't a manual backup still do an incremental backup?
Very strange....

canadavenyc wrote:
V.K. wrote:
yes, well, if Toronto ever gets a team in any sport worth rooting for, I might stop posting on apple forums and start watching them.
lol...well, seeing as how you'll clearly be here a while then... ...perhaps I can prevail upon you to answer one last question that just occurred to me.
Let's say I have tons of TM snapshots on my backup drive, and at some point I want to delete a few to clear some space. I know TM automatically goes after the earliest ones when the drive fills up,
You should know that TM also constantly thins recent backups. It keeps hourly backups for 24 hours and then deletes all but one for every day; it keeps daily backups for 30 days and then deletes all but one for every week. it keeps all weekly backups till the TM drive gets full at which point it starts deleting the oldest ones.
but let's say I manually want to delete a few snapshots that contain, say, a massive cache file or something totally useless to keep around, which I could afford to delete and would gain me a lot more drive space.
When I go into the TM interface to do the removal, how can I figure out which snapshots to get rid of? How would you do it?
TM offers two options. you can delete an entire backup corresponding to a time point or it can delete all backups of a given file/folder. to do that enter TM and scroll back in time to some time point. select something and click on the "gears" action button in Finder toolbar. you'll see options "delete backup" (deletes the entire backup for that time point), and 'delete all backups of this item". deletes all backups of the selected item from all time points. I use the latter sometimes to get rid of backups of very large files.

Time Machine: "Partially Deleted Backup"

Last night, after Time Machine performed a backup and began its post-backup thinning, it got stalled on "Finishing backup... ." The system log showed that it was attempting to delete a previously partially deleted backup:
Starting standard backup
Starting post-backup thinning
Found partially deleted backup - trying again to delete: 2009-09-30-110803
The backup it was trying to delete was the last one on its list (i.e., the oldest one on that TM volume). And when I opened it up, it indeed appeared to be a partially deleted folder. So I let TM run. However, it never finished "Finishing backup... ," so after letting it run all night and all day, I simply told TM to stop. It did, and the system then added two more messages to the log, acknowledging my cancelation as well as TM's current success:
Starting standard backup
Starting post-backup thinning
Found partially deleted backup - trying again to delete: 2009-09-30-110803
Backup deletion was canceled by user
Backup completed successfully.
However, the next time TM ran, it began all over again:
Starting standard backup
Starting post-backup thinning
Found partially deleted backup - trying again to delete: 2009-09-30-110803
It's still sitting there in its "Finishing backup..." mode.
I was thinking about entering Time Machine, selecting that backup, and telling Time Machine to delete that backup—and only that backup. But I'm (a) not sure that will address the actual problem, and (b) wondering if deleting that particular backup (i.e., the oldest one on the list) is advisable.
Suggestions?

Pondini wrote:
Maxwell’s Demon wrote:
I'm aware of the multilink nature of TM's backups. What I don't understand is how you immediately concluded that the backups were corrupted.
TM finding partially deleted backups, trying repeatedly to deleted them, and failing to.
(And yes, I though you meant that you'd tried to delete the backup yourself.)
It took forever. I ran TechTool Pro, and it "choked" (i.e., ran out of memory) trying to rebuild the directory. When I asked Disk Warrior to graph the directory, it revealed that it was more than 40% fragmented!
I'm not sure fragmentation is a problem, or even applies, given the structure of TM backups.
So I ran Disk Warrior. It ran without incident. When I then looked inside the TM drive, I discovered that along with rebuilding the directory—which is what I understood its job to be—DW apparently removed/deleted the offending (partially deleted) backup. The next time Time Machine ran, everything went smoothly. It's been running fine ever since.
Great! And yes, there are times it can repair/rebuild TM backups that nothing else can (I guess that's why it costs $100!).
I'm obviously quite pleased with the results: Not only did DW perform an incredible directory rebuild (fragmentation went from more than 40% to less than 1% !!) but it cleared out the partially deleted backup that was causing TM to stumble. But I remain awfully curious: Had I simply gone into Time Machine and deleted the partially deleted backup myself, wouldn't that have fixed the problem? (Granted, DW not only got TM back on track, but it also rebuilt its directory, which is a definite plus in my mind...I'm just trying to understand.)
It's possible you couldn't have deleted it completely, any more than TM was able to. Remember, a single backup folder has hard links to hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of other items. Just one of those being screwy can have a ripple effect through the whole structure.
And if you could have, it might well have left some of the actual backup files "abandoned" -- some or all of the hard links to them deleted, but still somewhere in the disk directory, so still taking up space.
I got the idea from
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20090515063602219
which provided a link to the "solution" when partial backups remain that result in TM "error: 11" failures:
http://www.bytebot.net/blog/archives/2008/08/13/fixing-time-machine-backup-faile d-with-error-11
Admittedly, mine wasn't an "error: 11" problem, but it sure seemed similar. My hesitation/concern was due to the fact that the partially deleted backup was the last one (i.e., the "oldest") in my TM volume: I wasn't sure if deleting it would screw up all of the links used by the remaining backups. However, since DW removed it without causing any problems, it seems like I may have been able to accomplish the same result by removing it "manually" from within TM. If that is the case, then it suggests that there may not have been any actual "corruption."
Again, I am very happy with the result, and likely will resort to DW again the next time I have similar problems. The only reason I'm harping on it is simply to try to gain a deeper understanding of how to determine when such problems are indeed due to corruption as opposed to simply an errant file that causes TM to stumble. (Had TM indicated that it stumbled and was unable to successfully perform the backup, then I would have little doubt that there was actual corruption.)

Time Machine won't backup up to external firewire drive

MacBook Pro - Time Machine won't backup to firewire external drive. Has worked well in past few weeks..........any ideas?

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the page that opens.
Select "system.log" from the file list. Enter "backupd" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. Post the messages from the last backup, beginning with "Starting standard backup."
Post the log text, please, not a screenshot. If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Do not post many repetitions of the same message.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — edit that out, too, but don’t remove the context.

Time machine will not backup but does restore

My Time machine will not backup, but will restore from prior backups - the last made three months ago (end of January). Can anyone help? When trying to run a backup the screen shows:
Select Disc (which I have already done)
704 GB of 1 TB available
Oldest backup: none
A continuosly revolving progress bar
"Preparing Backup"
Note that when I run Time Machine in order to restore, all backups prior to Jan 30th are there.
I am running OSX Mountain LIon Version 10.8.3

Mickmannock wrote:
I followed the proceedure described to delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist. However I note that there are very many versions of this file in other locations.
There shouldn't be. Delete any others.
Make sure the one you deleted was in your top-level /Library folder (not the Library folder inside your home folder). If you got the right one, when you went back to the Time Machine Preferences window, it should not have shown your TM drive or anything else.
I am running Parallels 8 and windows 7 in a Virtual machine, but these do not appear to have created problems in the past - over two years now.
You probably should exclude the VM files from Time Machine backups. That shouldn't be the cause of much of this problem, but may be a problem in the future. The reason is, to OSX, a VM file is one huge file -- if anything at all is changed, TM considers the whole thing changed, and will back it up again, taking time and lots of space on your backup disk.
Have you Verified your internal HD, and Repaired any other disks being backed-up, and your backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting?
What are you backing-up to (external HD, Time Capsule, etc.)?

Time Machine doesn't backup iPhoto Library (if iPhoto is open)

I just wanted to alert other people to the fact that Time Machine DOES NOT backup your iPhoto Library (that is, any of your photos), if iPhoto is open when Time Machine performs the backup (which in my case, is all of the time).
I've just posted this information to my blog: http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com/2010/01/timemachine-is-not-backing-up-your.htm l
But the basics are that although Time Machine promises to perform automatic backups in the background, it will skip your photos if iPhoto is open. Unfortunately, it won't tell you it hasn't done the backup and you'll be lulled into a very false sense of security, broken only when you have a problem and there's no backup to be found.
So, be sure to close iPhoto when Time Machine is doing backups and check your backed up files to make sure all your photos are there.
Please spread the word. I hate to think people are losing their photos because of this.
best,
Liz
http://www.lizcastro.com/iphotobookthemes
http://www.elizabethcastro.com

OK, ran a test with iPhoto open and got this from Time Machine Buddy:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Node requires deep traversal:/Users/lizx/Pictures/Big iPhoto Library/iPhoto 7 Library current reason:kFSEDBEventFlagContainsChanges|kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEven tFlagReasonFSEvent|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonMissedReservation|
No pre-backup thinning needed: 3.91 GB requested (including padding), 60.52 GB available
Copied 12483 files (50.9 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.06 GB requested (including padding), 60.47 GB available
Copied 1088 files (16.6 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Starting post-backup thinning
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/lizxp/2010-01-14-145941: 60.54 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/lizxp/2010-01-14-095812: 60.57 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/lizxp/2010-01-14-085710: 60.60 GB now available
Post-back up thinning complete: 3 expired backups removed
Backup completed successfully.
Also, when I look on my external drive, the latest backup says it was opened on January 14, but of course, I had iPhoto open when I ran the backup (that is, it was last opened TODAY).
Now, I closed iPhoto and ran Time Machine again. I got a pretty similar message from Time Machine Buddy:
-------Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Node requires deep traversal:/Users/lizx/Pictures/Big iPhoto Library/iPhoto 7 Library current reason:kFSEDBEventFlagContainsChanges|kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEven tFlagReasonFSEvent|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonMissedReservation|
No pre-backup thinning needed: 3.90 GB requested (including padding), 60.60 GB available
Copied 10309 files (2.4 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.06 GB requested (including padding), 58.19 GB available
Copied 2935 files (16.7 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Starting post-backup thinning
No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Backup completed successfully.
If there's a significant difference there, I can't see it.
On the other hand, when I go look at the backed up file, although it still won't tell me how big it is (or I'm too impatient to wait), it does say the (backed up) iPhoto Library was last opened today. Much better.
What do you think?
best,
Liz

Time machine won't backup, yet plenty of space & not much used on Mac HD

Well, this is yet another "Time machine won't backup becuase there is not enough space" thread. I have searched Google and threads here but it's still a mystery why this error is occurring and it seems there is no clear solution. I also looked at the Apple Time Machine errors FAQ as well.
Here are my specs and what I have tried so far.
2010 Mac Pro Quad Core with 1 TB hard drive with 12 GB RAM. (137 GB used so far on internal Mac hard drive disk, so about 863 GB free space).
- New external 1 TB hard drive initialized as Time Machine backup disk when inserted for the first time.
The exact error I am getting is this: "This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 1.80 TB but only 999.20 GB are available."
I have tried deleting the Time Machine system preference, reinitializing the external disk, clearing the system caches with Cocktail, restarting and letting Time machine ask me all over again if I wanted to use the external drive for Time Machine. Still the same error.
My question is how on earth can 1.80 TB be required for the backup when I only have 137 GB of used space?

danomatic12 wrote:
My question is how on earth can 1.80 TB be required for the backup when I only have 137 GB of used space?
Two possibilities:
There's another disk (or disks) connected to your Mac. If they're formatted HFS+, Time Machine is trying to back it/them up as well. You can exclude them per #10 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). The 1.8 TB includes 20% for temporary workspace on the TM drive, so TM is estimating the backup at about 1.5 TB.
Something on your internal HD is corrupted, causing an incorrect calculation. Verify your internal HD, per #6 in [Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/DU.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Using Snow Leopard+ forum).

Time Machine Oldest/Latest backup field is blank "--"

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