Time Machine only seems to back up when I'm logged on

Recently, I've noticed that Time Machine seems to be performing backups only when I'm logged onto the computer. It used to take them every hour, more or less, but now that's not the case. When I log in, I can see the TM icon in the tray become active almost immediately. Plus, if I've been away from the machine for a few hours, when I check the TM preferences the last backup has not happened in the last hour. Any ideas? Thanks!

If the computer is Off, obviously, or in Sleep mode I do not believe that Time Machine will back up your files. The computer must be Awake.
Hope this helps

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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.

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

Time machine only backs up one internal drive

I have a Mac Pro Early 2008 running 10.8.5 with 3 internal drives. Time machine sucessfully backs up the 600GB boot drive but has stopped working with the all important 3TB Data drive (half full). The remaining 4TB drive is for Time machine backups. Only the boot drive now sucessfully gets backed up with Time machine backups but not the Data drive.
I have tried everything I can to try to get it to work again and here are some of my steps taken:
- Checked to see if the Data drive has not bee excluded from Time machine backup options. No it hasn't been excluded.
- Check Smart Status on all drives - all good.
- Use Disk Util to verify all my drives - all good, no errors.
- Stop Time machine, formatted the Time machine backup drive and restarted Time machine. Still not backing up my data drive.
- Reset Time machine by following http://pondini.org/TM/A4.html - Still no change.
- Remove the Data drive from Spotlight indexing with Spotlight - privacy settings and then re-add it to Spotlight indexing - Now it does a full backup, but no more incremental backups are created when files on the Data drive are changed. And the full backup of the Data drive disappears from the Time Machine backup a few days later!
The Time machine logs just shows - "Will copy (Zero KB) from Data".
I have tried to follow the troubleshooting hints on http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html but can't seem to find any other clues to help me with my problem.
Does anyone else see this before and have any suggestions?

I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, they may not work as described.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
{ diskutil list; echo; diskutil cs list; } | open -ef
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal 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 Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. If the command produced no output, the window will be empty. Post the contents of the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.

My Time Machine will no longer back up to my external disk for unknown reasons. It would not accept my password and said the disk is read-only and damaged. How can I copy my files to my Mac so I can repair it?

My Time Machine will no longer back up to my external drive for unknown reasons. It began after a series of power outages (my equipment is protected by a surge protector with battery backup), and was shut down correctly. Then it began by not recognizing my disk and my Time Machine password, although I am positive it was correct. I tried NUMEROUS times to get into it. It says the disk is damaged and needs to be erased and started over. How can I back up my files on my Mac so I can do that? I have no other disk to back up to. I found the files in a folder called "Backups.backupdb", and tried to copy them into a folder, but get the message "The volume has the wrong case sensitivity for a backup." The "lost+found" folder did copy for me. Will I just have to lose 4 years of backups?

Hi there,
I have the same issue. Usually hangs after 10K od sometimes after 18MB of backup file.
Config: iTunes 10.4., Win 7 64bit, iPhone 4 with iOS 4.3.3
I tried all of these without success:
- deleted backups via iTunes / Preferences
- deleted backups from sync folder
- created a new admin user and tried to sync
- reinstalled iTunes
- ran all Windows updates, restarted, reinstalled iTunes
- ran iTunes / Diagnostics (says everything okay, only info which is strange: diag says I am not a admin user, which is not correct)
Nothing helped. Who can help. I hope someone from Apple can take care, as I seem not to be the only one. Actually iTunes is the worst part about iPhone. Hope with iOS 5 and Cloud sync to get rid of iTunes.
Any hints welcome,
Cheers,
Miguel-KA

Time machine backup seems to only have a Sparsebundle folder

I have had my MacBook for a couple of years and have only just got round to backing it up. I set off Time Machine lat night for a 200Gb backup. This morning I checked it and the Time machine backup seems to only have a Sparsebundle folder of 1000s of small files but apparently no iTunes or photos??
Any ideas????

Thanks Mike,
I'm a bit new to Macs really and thought that once backed up, on my NAS system I would be able to view the photos etc. but I presume this isn't the case and I should not back up the photos as part of the Time Machine backup and back these up seperately in order to view them remotely etc?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

I dropped my iPhone and i tried to turn it on but it only comes on at curtain times. And it turns back off when I drop it just a little bit. Sometimes it takes like three days to turn back on. How do I get it to work regularly again?? Please help!!!

I dropped my iPhone and i tried to turn it on but it only comes on at curtain times. And it turns back off when I drop it just a little bit. Sometimes it takes like three days to turn back on. How do I get it to work regularly again?? Please help!!!

Seems like there is some physical damage causing an intermittent issue of the iPhone being unable to power on.
You could try a reset:
- hold the home button and sleep/wake button down at the same time
- the iphone will turn off(keep holding) then when the Apple logo appears release both buttons
If the reset fails I would suggest next time it powers on to try and back it up to either iTunes/iCloud then you can try a restore to factory settings or just back up and book an appointment at an Apple Store to have the iPhone evaluated.
All the best

When I try to set up Time Machine, there are no back up disks displayed. Therefore, I cannot turn on Time Machine. How can I fix this?

When I try to set up Time Machine, there are no back up disks displayed. Therefore, I cannot turn on Time Machine. How can I fix this?

Thanks - let it finish, but zero out data is unnecessary. That option is intended to thoroughly erase previously recorded data so that it cannot be recovered without sophisticated data recovery techniques.
Case sensitive is OK but I suggest you simply select Mac OS X Extended since "case sensitive" may complicate things for you in the future, should it be necessary to restore files to a case-ignorant volume.
Once it finishes, make sure it appears as a selectable option in Time Machine. If it does your problems are solved, but consider using Disk Utility and reformatting it. This time don't worry about zeroing unused space, and select Mac OS X Extended (Journaled). It will only take a few seconds this time.
For a more thorough description read Apple Support Communites contributor Pondini's FAQ: http://pondini.org/TM/5.html Read the pink box regarding the subject of case sensitivity.
Also: Mac Basics: Time Machine

When backing up on time machine is get " The back up disk image'/volume/data/eric balnchard's Macbook.sparbundle"could not be accessed (error-1). what does it mean? it's a new time machine

when backing up on time machine is get " The back up disk image'/volume/data/eric balnchard's Macbook.sparbundle"could not be accessed (error-1). what does it mean? it's a new time machine

Expect to see this error again due to a bug in Lion (and Mountain Lion).
See # C17 in Pondini's excellent support document below, or look over to the right of this web page under the heading of More Like This
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Does Time Machine make back-ups when nobody is logged on?

Hello,
Does Time Machine make back-ups when nobody is logged on and does it continue to back-up when I log off?
I'm using an directly connected external hard drive to back-up my data with Time Machine, the back-ups are encrypted.
Thanks in advance.

I had the same problem with Time Machine and solved it by enabling "Enable Power Nap" in Energy Saver:
System Preferences...
Energy Saver
Restore Defaults
Check "Enable Power Nap: While sleeping, your Mac can back up using Time Machine and periodically check for new email, calendar, and other iCloud updates."
2013 21.5 iMac
OSX Mavericks
Seagate 1 TB slim USB 3.0 (power is drawn from USB port), formatted to Mac Journaling File System

Backing up to a thumb drive - time machine doesn't delete older backups when it's full. I will have to erase and re-do the drive. Why?

Backing up to a thumb drive - time machine doesn't delete older backups when it's full. I will have to erase and re-do the drive. Why?

You are both right.
Time Machine can backup FROM:
It cannot back up a USB thumb drive.
Time Machine can backup TO:
•A USB thumb drive (but most aren't large enough, and are very, very slow)

I recently took my imac in for a recall on the hard drive, they replaced my hard drive, i used time machine to restore all my files. Now when I turn time machine on it says back up failed not enough space, it is not overwriting old back ups.

I recently took my imac in for a recall on the hard drive, they replaced my hard drive, i used time machine to restore all my files. Now when I turn time machine on it says back up failed not enough space, it is not overwriting old back ups. Why? Please help

http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

Time Machine Backups Seem to take a long time

I'm running OS X 10.5.8 on a G5 iMac, and I've noticed some strange behavior recently when Time Machine does it's back ups. I back up to a LaCie external drive with a capacity of 465 GB and it currently has 65GB available. When Time Machine does it back ups, it seems to take a very long time, eventhough not much has changed. It might go for 30min to an hour. Sometimes the back up fails. I've tried to stop the back up, but that doesn't stop Time Machine, and also System Preferences becomes unresponsive. I can't quit or force quit System Preferences. I have to turn off the iMac to quit System Preferences by holding in the power button. I'm not sure if this is a Time Machine issue, or an issue with the external HD. I know the iMac is a bit dated, and due to be replaced. The HD is also at least 3-4 years old, and has only been used as my Time Machine back up. Any ideas on how I might fix this? Thanks!!

ELFritzen wrote:
I had problems verifiying and repairing the LaCie HD. At first the the computer would hang on "verifying" the HD. I finally got the HD verified by switching the on/off/auto switch on the HD from auto to on. At this point verification went quickly.
That doesn't sound good.
Try different port(s), cables, and combinations of the two (a plug that works fine in one port may not make good contact in another).
Do you have (or can you borrow) another HD you can try?
Or another Mac you can try with that drive?
As an extra measure, I tried to repair the HD, but again the program hung up and I had to reboot.
Just for future reference, there's no point to verifying an external HD -- just run Repair. They both do all the same checks. Starting with Verify on your startup drive makes sense, since, if there's a problem, you have to start from another source to repair it.

Time Machine has simply stopped backing up any new files. No items set to be excluded, No error messages.

I have a Macbook with OS X 10.6.8 and a 500GB external hard drive, which still has 208.5GB available. For some reason, Time Machine has simply stopped backing up any new files (documents, music, movies--anything). No items are set to be excluded from backups in Time Machine options except for the external hard drive itself. Also, no error messages appear, Time Machine seems to run just fine, but when I enter Time Machine, or look through the files on the hard drive, new files just aren't there. I am not very tech savvy, so I was not able to understand some of the answers people gave to similar questions on here. I did go to Pondini's website and followed as many troubleshooting instructions as I could understand (for example I did manage to do a full reset of Time Machine) but nothing changed. Do I just need to erase the entire backup drive and sart all over? If so, what will prevent this from happening again later on? Please help.

Your TM drive liekly stopped backing up because it hit a series of bad sectors on the drive, to eliminate this all new drives should be Disk Utility > Zero Erased (one step below 7x in Lion) before use.
Reducing bad sectors effect on hard drives
Diversify your backups with bootable clones and archives on DVD's etc so your prepared for anything, including using a PC.
only if you have too of course, but it happens, people just can't afford a Mac anymore.
Most commonly used backup methods explained
So make other backups, then Zero Erase teh TM drive and set it back up again and your problem should be resolved.
If not, then it's data corruption on your boot drive!
You'll know if it's data corruption on your boot drive, when you go to make the clone, it will hang too.

Time Machine Backup seems to run constantly

My Time Machine backup seems to run constantly. When it happens, performance is also affected. Although a system restart will seems to get everything back to normal, the problem comes back. Any thoughts on what I am doing to cause the problem?

Thanks Mike,
I'm a bit new to Macs really and thought that once backed up, on my NAS system I would be able to view the photos etc. but I presume this isn't the case and I should not back up the photos as part of the Time Machine backup and back these up seperately in order to view them remotely etc?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

Time Machine only shows Finder, I can't see how to get a view of yesterdays Outlook

HI have a MacbookPro 2.53GHz INtel Core 2 Duo with 4GB RAM 1067MHz DDR3 and am running Office for Mac 2011.
There is a Time MAchine installed and it backs up automatically. In the past I have been able to retrieve emails or documents from Time Machine with no problem. HOwever yesterday I accidentally deleted an email and its not even showing in trash. I wanted to go onto Time Machine and look for it but when I enter it only gives me the Finder window and I can't see how to make it show me Outlook. Does anyone know how to get into the application I want?

This is harder than it looks.. you will need to restore the library.
Do a search.. here is first post I found.
Where is the outlook pst file on OSX?
You actually need to recover the files and then see if you can reload it.. but it is likely to mess up your current file.. so you might find this is really messy.
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macoffice2011-macoutlook/restore-ou tlook-messages-from-time-machine/24e12473-c6dd-4234-8cd7-b3f4b05c22b9
http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/mac-outlook-help/about-the-office-database-HA1 02928338.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HA102928254
I have given up on computer email.. gmail serves very nicely.. and it is no where near as buggy. Albeit they machine read your mails for ads.. not a big deal to me.

Time Machine only seems to back up when I'm logged on

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