Time Machine only enters the latest backup
I am using TM with two disks. Say the latest backup is to disk 2. When I enter TM it goes disk 2 without asking. If disk 2 is not available, but disk 1 is clearly mounted on the desktop, it says "backup disk not available". That's not because it cannot find disk 1, but because it keeps looking for disk 2.
The only way to tell it to look in disk 1 is to do a backup. After that, it can enter disk 1 fine as it becomes the latest. If I connect disk 2 again, it still enter disk 1.
My question is if this is the expected behavior. (I wouldn't be surprising since there is no option what disk to access.)
Now, one of my disks is a network drive (Western Digital MyBook Live). WD say it is fully compliant with the TM specs and so far it worked fine, aside from the behavior I mentioned.
Thanks in advance.
See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.
Similar Messages
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Time Machine only shows the current copy of the file I am trying to restore. There is none of the time machine backup histories shown. I am running OSX 10.7.5. I see the backup files on my external Time Machine hard drive in the Backups.backupdb folder.
Time Machine does show the history of my Macintosh HD, but when I try to navigate to the folder I wish to restore the backup history disappears. I've been searching for answers and I have not found one that works for me.Time Machine only shows the current copy of the file I am trying to restore. There is none of the time machine backup histories shown. I am running OSX 10.7.5. I see the backup files on my external Time Machine hard drive in the Backups.backupdb folder.
Time Machine does show the history of my Macintosh HD, but when I try to navigate to the folder I wish to restore the backup history disappears. I've been searching for answers and I have not found one that works for me. -
How to restore older backups? I can only access the latest backup but I need the one before that.
You would only have that backup if you saved it somewhere.
Itunes only keeps the latest one. -
Time Machine no longer displays "Latest Backup" time
I have been using Time Machine since 10.5 came out and it worked perfectly.
I recently purchased a Time Capsule and (in common with a lot of others it seems), I have faced various issues (very slow initial backup, very long "preparing..." messages etc.) but they all seem to have been resolved (albeit somewhat mysteriously).
However, one problem occurred recently that I haven't seen mentioned before: in the drop-down menu under the time-capsule icon in the menu bar, the "Latest Backup" time is always shown as "--" Time Machine preferences shows the same, both for the initial backup and the latest backup.
Time Machine runs hourly as it should, and a cursory examination of the files in the Time Machine interface seems to show that all is in order. The "sparsebundle" disk image also passes verification.
For what it's worth, my MacBook Pro (also 10.5.2) appears to be just fine and shows the Latest Backup time correctly.
I looked in the system log but couldn't see a message that I thought was relevant.
Does anyone have any ideas about what might be up and how to correct this? I have considered deleting the Time Machine sparsebundle for the Mac Pro and starting again (since I haven't had the Time Capsule long enough to be terribly concerned about the history on the drive - yet). But I'm hoping someone has an idea what might be up and how I can correct it first.
I must say Time Capsule isn't exactly filling me with confidence. My offsite SuperDuper backups are going to be updated very regularly until my faith in Time Machine has been restored.
This onlyThis may not pertain to your issue, but might be worth considering if you use virus software. Time machine has been hanging, not showing time-stamps, and not giving me access to backups since I installed Intego Virus software and Leopard 10.5.2. I finally tracked down the Intego problem yesterday browsing this forum for answers. When I added my Time Machine disk to Intego Virus software's trusted items, Time Machine began behaving normally again (and other problems cleared up-such as hang on shut-down). Good luck with your issue. David
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I have a 15" 2010 MBP C2D-2.53 in completely original form except it is running OSX 10.8. Applecare just ran out so that's not an option, FYI. Lately I went to fetch an old file from TM because the current file was corrupt and I noticed that TM was only backing up for the past couple of recent days. Oddly enough, it also displayed a couple of backups dated from 2010, even though the external HDD I'm using was purchased 2 months ago and the files displayed in the "2010" backup did not exist at that time so it's an impossibility. The backup disc is a toshiba canvio external 320gb USB.
I thought that was odd so I zeroed and reformatted that disc using disc utility. I made it the TM disc again, did the usual backup without error and waited a couple of days. Sure enough, when I checked it had continued the trend of displaying the impossible 2010-dated backup and was still only backing up the past couple of days' material correctly. I decided that this was all getting a bit silly, so I plugged an old external WD USB hard drive, formatted it and made it my second time machine backup disc. Waited a couple of days, accessed it, saw the same exact thing as with the other external drive.
I'm perplexed, however based on these rudimentary tests I'm guessing the culprit lies with the machine rather than the external hard drives. These facts may be unrelated, but I also notice that when I go to eject the toshiba external drive, it says something like "there is more than one partition, would you like to eject one or all" and the machine also had some work done on it by Apple recently. Specifically, a new logic board, airport card and complete erase/install where I reinstalled data successfully through migration assistant. The work was done due to kernel panics at boot. Thankfully for now I've also got CCC cloning the drive, but I do require the long-term snapshots that TM takes.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, and I'm willing to do some digging to fix this issue.Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a test, not a solution. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Step 1
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is localized to your user account.
Enable guest logins* and log in as Guest. For instructions, launch the System Preferences application, select Help from the menu bar, and enter “Set up guest users” (without the quotes) in the search box. Don't use the Safari-only “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac.”
While logged in as Guest, you won’t have access to any of your personal files or settings. Applications will behave as if you were running them for the first time. Don’t be alarmed by this; it’s normal. If you need any passwords or other personal data in order to complete the test, memorize, print, or write them down before you begin.
Test while logged in as Guest. Same problem?
After testing, log out of the guest account and, in your own account, disable it if you wish. Any files you created in the guest account will be deleted automatically when you log out of it.
*Note: If you’ve activated “Find My Mac” or FileVault, then you can’t enable the Guest account. The “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac” is not the same. Create a new account in which to test, and delete it, including its home folder, after testing.
Step 2
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode* and log in to the account with the problem. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Shut down your computer, wait 30 seconds, and then hold down the shift key while pressing the power button.
When you see the gray Apple logo, release the shift key.
If you are prompted to log in, type your password, and then hold down the shift key again as you click Log in.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs. The next normal boot may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
*Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t boot in safe mode.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem?
After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of steps 1 and 2. -
Time Machine HD not showing latest backup, can't restore system
Please forgive the short story, but I'll give as many details as I can:
Last night I successfully installed XP on my MacBook Pro using Boot Camp. I decided to do the same to my iMac (21.5" 2010 Version). I used Boot Camp to initiate the partition process to create my Windows partition. It told me that I had files that couldn't be moved and I would have to:
1. Backup my startup disk (the main and only internal hard drive)
2. Reformat the hard drive I want to create the Windows partition on
3. Restore from the backup
4. Use Boot Camp to create the new partition
I completely understand why I have to do this. There's files spread physically all over the drive, and backing up and restoring is the free alternative to defragging. So I use Time Machine to back up my internal drive to an external drive. The total transfer was about 330 GB. I had to leave for about three hours and left it to do its thing. When I came back, the iMac had restarted and was waiting for my password to log on. I did so and looked in Time Machine and saw that the next back was scheduled for 10:37 pm. It was set to backup every hour. Simple math tells me the last backup - the one I had left for three hours - had finished at 9:37 pm. And that made perfect sense.
I then boot the iMac from the OSX disk and use Disk Utility to erase and reformat the main drive. I did this without any qualms since I was sure the backup worked. It wiped and reformatted my drive and I go to Time Machine to restore and.......
NO BACKUP FILES ARE FOUND
The external was spinning. I could hear it doing something. So I decided to try it manually in Disk Utility. In selecting the source of the restore Image, I navigate through the external and find, not a backup file, but a ".inProgress" file. I'm guessing that the initial backup +did not+ complete correctly and I've now just lost all of my data.
Can anyone please tell me that I'm wrong?weerez87 wrote:
When I came back, the iMac had restarted and was waiting for my password to log on.
Unless you have your Mac set to automatically log you off after a period of inactivity, your Mac should have been as you left it. It does not shut down, restart, or log you off after completing a backup.
Could there have been a power failure?
I'm guessing that the initial backup +did not+ complete
That seems likely.
and I've now just lost all of my data.
Maybe, maybe not.
Just to be sure, check the backup drive via the Finder. Be +*very careful+* using the Finder on your backups; if you accidentally move, change, or delete anything, they can be corrupted.
There should be a single Backups.backupdb folder at the top level, containing a single folder named for your Mac.
Inside that should be a folder for each backup, named with the date and time; plus a "latest" alias, plus the in.Progress file (it's actually a "package").
If there are any named, dated folders, those are completed backups; you can restore your entire system from them. See #14 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).
If not, select the "in.Progress" file and see how large it is, via +Get Info.+ That may take a while; the larger it is, the more of your data is there. If it's over about 6 GB (your system folders), right-click it and select +Show Package Contents.+ It should contain the same folder structure as your internal HD; go all the way to the bottom and see how much is actually there (some of the items toward the end may be empty).
If it looks like most everything is there, you may be able to recover most of it, by drag and drop.
If not, +*stop using your internal HD.+* Unless you did a +Secure Erase,+ your stuff is still on the internal disk, and most should be recoverable, but it won't be quick or easy. See [Data Recovery|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Recover.html].
Keep us posted. -
Time machine only mounts the drive to Finder. The Program doesn't open. What is missing here?
Selecting <Time Machine> <enter time machine> on my Mac Air brings up a dialogue <connecting to backup disk>. The disk appears <mounted> on the desktop as a icon and shows as a connected drive in Finder. It doesnt open into the Time Machine interface that I expect and which used to work. Is there a simple fix here?
Sorry, you have lost me.
If you open AirPort Utility and click the Disks tab, what do you see there?
Next to Partitions, you should see "Data" which is the default name of the Time Capsule drive.....or.....if you have renamed "Data", you will see the name that you have assigned to the drive. In the example below, I have renamed "Data" to read "Backups".
Are you saying that you made previous backups at one time to the drive, then changed the name of the drive? -
Time machine does not show latest backups
My Time Machine backup to an external NAS (WD Mybook World Edition) runs without any error on the GUI, but when I look into the Time Machine finder history I can only see backups which are 13 days old (June 1st).
here is the log of the successful (?) run:
13.06.12 07:49:17,673 com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup
13.06.12 07:49:37,736 com.apple.backupd: Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://[email protected]/WD_Backup
13.06.12 07:50:09,976 com.apple.backupd: Mounted network destination at mountpoint: /Volumes/WD_Backup using URL: afp://[email protected]/WD_Backup
13.06.12 07:50:31,443 com.apple.backupd: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
13.06.12 07:50:35,076 com.apple.backupd: Disk image /Volumes/WD_Backup/silverstar.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine-Backups
13.06.12 07:50:35,091 com.apple.backupd: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine-Backups/Backups.backupdb
13.06.12 07:50:42,703 com.apple.backupd: Deep event scan at path:/Users/florian/Pictures/Aperture Trial Library.aplibrary/Database/apdb reason:must scan subdirs|missed reservation|
13.06.12 07:50:43,331 com.apple.backupd: Finished scan
13.06.12 07:51:11,996 com.apple.backupd: 1.33 GB required (including padding), 763.52 GB available
13.06.12 07:51:11,998 com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (101)
13.06.12 07:56:03,871 com.apple.backupd: Copied 1766 files (739.0 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
13.06.12 07:56:15,835 com.apple.backupd: 1.34 GB required (including padding), 763.52 GB available
13.06.12 07:58:16,546 com.apple.backupd: Copied 1323 files (313.4 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
13.06.12 07:58:45,338 com.apple.backupd: Starting post-backup thinning
13.06.12 07:58:45,338 com.apple.backupd: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
13.06.12 07:58:45,592 com.apple.backupd: Backup completed successfully.
13.06.12 07:58:49,102 com.apple.backupd: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
13.06.12 07:58:49,661 com.apple.backupd: Ejected Time Machine network volume.
13.06.12 07:59:41,572 com.apple.backupd: Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://[email protected]/WD_Backup
13.06.12 08:00:09,835 com.apple.backupd: Mounted network destination at mountpoint: /Volumes/WD_Backup using URL: afp://[email protected]/WD_Backup
13.06.12 08:00:30,871 com.apple.backupd: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
13.06.12 08:00:33,932 com.apple.backupd: Disk image /Volumes/WD_Backup/silverstar.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine-Backups
Configuration:
Mac OS X 10.7.4
WD MyBook World Edition 2TB 01.02.12 with MioNet
Any idea what's wrong?My Time Machine backup to an external NAS (WD Mybook World Edition) runs without any error on the GUI, but when I look into the Time Machine finder history I can only see backups which are 13 days old (June 1st).
here is the log of the successful (?) run:
13.06.12 07:49:17,673 com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup
13.06.12 07:49:37,736 com.apple.backupd: Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://[email protected]/WD_Backup
13.06.12 07:50:09,976 com.apple.backupd: Mounted network destination at mountpoint: /Volumes/WD_Backup using URL: afp://[email protected]/WD_Backup
13.06.12 07:50:31,443 com.apple.backupd: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
13.06.12 07:50:35,076 com.apple.backupd: Disk image /Volumes/WD_Backup/silverstar.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine-Backups
13.06.12 07:50:35,091 com.apple.backupd: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine-Backups/Backups.backupdb
13.06.12 07:50:42,703 com.apple.backupd: Deep event scan at path:/Users/florian/Pictures/Aperture Trial Library.aplibrary/Database/apdb reason:must scan subdirs|missed reservation|
13.06.12 07:50:43,331 com.apple.backupd: Finished scan
13.06.12 07:51:11,996 com.apple.backupd: 1.33 GB required (including padding), 763.52 GB available
13.06.12 07:51:11,998 com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (101)
13.06.12 07:56:03,871 com.apple.backupd: Copied 1766 files (739.0 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
13.06.12 07:56:15,835 com.apple.backupd: 1.34 GB required (including padding), 763.52 GB available
13.06.12 07:58:16,546 com.apple.backupd: Copied 1323 files (313.4 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
13.06.12 07:58:45,338 com.apple.backupd: Starting post-backup thinning
13.06.12 07:58:45,338 com.apple.backupd: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
13.06.12 07:58:45,592 com.apple.backupd: Backup completed successfully.
13.06.12 07:58:49,102 com.apple.backupd: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
13.06.12 07:58:49,661 com.apple.backupd: Ejected Time Machine network volume.
13.06.12 07:59:41,572 com.apple.backupd: Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://[email protected]/WD_Backup
13.06.12 08:00:09,835 com.apple.backupd: Mounted network destination at mountpoint: /Volumes/WD_Backup using URL: afp://[email protected]/WD_Backup
13.06.12 08:00:30,871 com.apple.backupd: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
13.06.12 08:00:33,932 com.apple.backupd: Disk image /Volumes/WD_Backup/silverstar.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine-Backups
Configuration:
Mac OS X 10.7.4
WD MyBook World Edition 2TB 01.02.12 with MioNet
Any idea what's wrong? -
I have a new Macbook Pro. All data from prior Mac was migrated to the new Mac. I want to continue Time Machine on the new Mac and retain the history. An option is to "inherit" the old Time Machine. I want to make sure this does not errase the current data, but creates a current backup.
Please visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
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Time machine restores a really old backup!
Time machine makes regular backups of my system. Last night, I had to restore my system and used the installation discs to do this (and selected restore from Time machine, and selected the latest backup).
When the installation was complete, a number of files and applications were missing, though I can still see them on the Time machine drive under the latest backup. When I looked through the backups, the latest backup (23 June 09) says that the date modified was 2007! This 2007 date matches up with the applications I got upon installation.
Any ideas on what happened? The plan is to start from a fresh installation and grab the applications I need from the lastest backup, but I would really like to know what happened so I can avoid it in the future! How can I restore my system from the latest backup?Hello again:
That would be the only way to see if a corrupt preference file causes your problem.
FWIW, I have not seen any other post with a problem like the one you describe. Something in your system is causing the issue - what, I do not know.
There are other things that could be attempted, but they would take quite a bit of your time.
Barry -
Due to NAS issues, when I started a new time machine backup it did not have the old backups available. My question is do I need to delete them or will time machine automatically reclaim the space? There is only one sparse bundle but when I enter time machine I don't see my historic backups. I use a synology DS212 for my time machine. Started a new backup which is 218gb but it says 618 gb is occupied therefore it looks like 2 or 3 backups are still on the disk. Before my NAS issues the last backup was in 2014. As you can see there is a second sparse bundle from 2012. Not sure what that is.
This is an old message now, but what happened to me similarly was:
I had a major computer crash and through complicated pathways ended up reinstalling (Mavericks) as a new user (long story).
At least I had good Time Machine backups on an NAS drive (Synology DS212j), or so I thought - when I started Time Machine up again, the old backup file was gone, replaced by a new one using my "new computer" name. The old file was gone both by directly mounting the NAS drive and by clicking "Enter Time Machine".
It's like I had {OldShareName}.sparsebundle and then it was replaced by {NewShareName}.sparsebundle, all of the old info vanished.
(I have spent a week finding old files elsewhere and have completed a satisfactory self-restore. It pays to "archive" [my own variation of] as well as "back-up".)
My belief is that if this were a wired-netword-drive, e.g. plugged right into my iMac with a USB cable, then the old file would have remained.
But this is an NAS drive, connected directly to my Airport wireless router, and I don't know the significance of the fact that it stores its Time Machine backups as "sparsebundle" files rather than simply as plain(er) files.
As usual when things get complicated with computers (not just Apple computers) there was never a warning message. Something like "YOU'RE ABOUT TO DELETE A TIME MACHINE BACK-UP FILE!!!" would have made my life a lot simpler.
BTW, I did try a "restore from Time Machine" option the first thing I had my "new computer" (old hardware, 2009 iMac) up and running, using Migration Assistant, and it ran for many hours and then failed in the wee hours - what that has to do with anything I'm not sure.
I'm not sure that I have a question about this other than "why do these things happen to me?", but it's a warning. Apart from that I've been very happy with the stability and reliability (but not the cost or set-up complexity) of NAS vs. directly-cabled external drives.
Charles -
I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down menu with the gear box symbol to eliminate
I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
You are probably using Time Machine to backup your MacBook Pro, right? Then the additional 300 GB could be local Time Machine snapshots. Time Machine will write the hourly backups to the free space on your hard disk, if the backup drive is temporarily not connected. You do not see these local backups in the Finder, and MacOS will delete them, when you make a regular backup to Time Machine, or when you need the space for other data.
See Pondini's page for more explanation: What are Local Snapshots? http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
You have tested the library on the external drive, and so your photos are save there.
The local TimeMachine snapshot probably now contains a backup of the moved library. Try, if connecting your Time Machine drive will reduce the size of your local Time Machine snapshots. -
Time machine has deleted all old backups
Hi, I'm desperate! time machine has all the old backups deleted on my time capsule, only today's early still a backup available. It was still 1TB space on the hard disk. What did I do wrong? There was no warning!
Time Machine will not delete your old backups unless it starts to run out of space on the hard drive......or.....your backups have become corrupted and Time Machine cannot repair them.
In the latter case, a message like this will appear on your screen:
Do you recall seeing this message recently? -
Every time I try to back up my Macbook Pro with an external hard drive using Time Machine, I receive the error of "the disk does not have enough space". I have a 500GB external hard drive and only 120GB Macbook. It worked fine before the latest Maverick's update. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
My guess would be it has created an entirely new backup of your drive when you upgraded to Mavericks.
See Here: http://pondini.org/TM/1.html
And here: http://pondini.org/TM/9.html
Peruse the whole site. There is a lot of information there. -
How can I force Time Machine to make a complete backup of my Hard Drive. I just installed a new external drive for Backup since my previous one failed. Now when I back up, Time Machine only backs up my data folder and the Users folder.
When I start a backup. Time Machine says "Oldest Backup: None; Latest Backup: None", so it seems like it should do a complete backup, but it only does a partial.Hi I'd like to jump in here. Your app showed me this:
Time Machine:
Skip System Files: NO
Mobile backups: OFF
Auto backup: YES
Volumes being backed up:
Macintosh HD: Disk size: 749.3 GB Disk used: 453.81 GB
Destinations:
Plastic Wrapper [Local] (Last used)
Total size: 999.86 GB
Total number of backups: 64
Oldest backup: 2013-07-24 23:25:11 +0000
Last backup: 2013-11-17 01:40:47 +0000
Size of backup disk: Too small
Backup size 999.86 GB < (Disk used 453.81 GB X 3)
Time Machine details may not be accurate.
All volumes being backed up may not be listed.
/sbin excluded from backup!
/usr excluded from backup!
/System excluded from backup!
/bin excluded from backup!
/private excluded from backup!
/Library excluded from backup!
/Applications excluded from backup!
Aside from the size of my backup drive, which I will increase at some point, I'd really like to have time machine backing up all system folders, especially Applications. How to I reset this hidden exclusions?
Thanks,
Darcy
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