Time Machine pops up a dialog window that the disk ran out of space unexpectedly.

This happens hourly, it seems.  Should not be a problem if TM deletes the oldest backup (which it says it will do), so I don't care!  VERY ANNOYING.  How do I stop that message from popping up?
OS 10.8.4
TM drive is connected via USB.

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 all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the search box.
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.

Similar Messages

  • Time Machine:The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly. .....

    Hi,
    I upgraded to Mountain Lion when it was released and yesterday I began getting this notice from Time Machine:
    "The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly. Time Machine will try to make more space available by removing expired backups during the next scheduled backup."
    I have a one terra external hard drive with exclusively Time Machine.  It says it has 3.4 gigabytes available, but isn't deleting old backups and making room for new, like before.  I tried the "encrypting" solution, but it still keeps on giving me this message.  Should I erase and format?  If so, what option should I chose to format?
    My Hard Drive has 240 gigabytes, so 1Tb should be more than enough.
    Thank you!
    Gloria

    SuperDuper and Time Machine are two completely different backup utilities. If you want something like what SuperDuper does then don't use Time Machine. You have many other options that won't use up all the space on your backup drive:
    Backup Software Recommendations
    Carbon Copy Cloner
    Data Backup
    Deja Vu
    SuperDuper!
    Synk Pro
    Tri-Backup
    Others may be found at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
    Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore.  Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
    Do the following to erase your drive:
    Erase a Drive
    1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
    2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

  • Time Machine Error: The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly.

    I keep getting the following message when I try to back up my MacBook using Time Machine: "The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly. Time Machine will try to make more space available by removing expired backups during the next scheduled backup."
    However, I have deleted everything from the external harddrive, which holds 500 GB. I have only used 38.9 GB of space on my computer. The errors being recorded are as follows:
    Starting standard backup
    Backing up to: /Volumes/Iomega_HDD/Backups.backupdb
    Error parsing SystemMigration.log to determine source volume of system migration.
    Backup content size: 36.5 GB excluded items size: 5.0 GB for volume Macintosh HD
    No pre-backup thinning needed: 38.19 GB requested (including padding), 437.50 GB available
    Waiting for index to be ready (101)
    Stopping backup.
    Error: (-34) SrcErr:NO Copying /Applications/.DS_Store to /Volumes/Iomega_HDD/Backups.backupdb/Jennifer Kwapisz’s MacBook/2011-08-06-113458.inProgress/9273E0A6-8BD8-4282-ACEC-E1E410605A89/Macin tosh HD/Applications
    Copied 0 files (36 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    Copy stage failed with error:28
    Backup failed with error: 28
    Any idea what's going on and what I need to do to fix it?

    Please read this:
    http://pondini.org/TM/C18.html
    Ciao.

  • Time Machine problem: backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly

    Hi all,
    I'm having trouble with Time Machine.  Each time it tries to do a backup, it errors out.
    Here is the most recent log from TM Buddy:
    Starting manual backup
    Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backup/Backups.backupdb
    Using file event preflight for Macintosh HD
    Will copy (740.5 MB) from Macintosh HD
    Found 1702 files (741 MB) needing backup
    2.43 GB required (including padding), 57.43 GB available
    Stopping backup.
    Error: (-34) SrcErr:NO Copying /Users/Alan/Pictures/iPhoto Library (original)/Masters/2013/02/25/20130225-174952/IMG_1601.MOV to /Volumes/Time Machine Backup/Backups.backupdb/Alan’s iMac/2013-07-27-024450.inProgress/FE0FAB85-8482-43AF-B2D2-CB4804D0B0E9/Macintos h HD/Users/Alan/Pictures/iPhoto Library (original)/Masters/2013/02/25/20130225-174952
    Copied 111323 files (57.29 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    Copy stage failed with error:28
    Backup failed with error: 28
    It usually errors out in the middle of trying to backup the very large "iPhoto Library (original)" file, so I went digging into this file back in time.  About a month ago, I emptied the trash in iPhoto for the first time, and the size of the iPhoto Library file shrank from 87 GB down to just 1 GB.  That seems rather extreme, and according to iPhoto, I still should have approximately 62 GB of photos remaining.  The last completed backup that Time Machine was able to make had the library file at 800 MB.  Even more strange, the current iPhoto Library file on my iMac is 83 GB.  So I think this is the reason why TM is trying to make another complete backup of this file.
    I'm guessing that if TM is able to completely backup the iPhoto Library file, the errors will go away.  Does this seem like a reasonable hypothesis?
    If so, then I'll need to delete files on the TM volume to make more room.  At one point last year, I had tried splitting my monolithic iPhoto Library into 3 smaller libraries, and later merged them again under the current name "iPhoto Library (original)".  These changes/instances of the libraries were all captured on TM.  If I delete the original monolithic iPhoto Library file (named "iPhoto Library") on the TM volume, will I also lose my current iPhoto library (named "iPhoto Library (original)"?  In other words, how does TM distinguish one file from another?  By the file name?  Or some other more permanent identifier?

    The backup volume was full. That shouldn't happen, because TM is supposed to manage disk space by deleting snapshots as needed to make room for a new one, up to the last complete snapshot, which is never removed automatically. Normally, a snapshot won't be started if there isn't enough space for it.
    First, I strongly suggest that you make a new backup (not necessarily with Time Machine) on another external drive. A single backup isn't enough to be safe.
    One possibility is that you were writing other data to the volume during the backup. Apple recommends that no other data be stored on a backup volume.
    If you've moved any files to the Trash on the backup volume, empty the Trash.
    Sometimes a reboot will clear the error.
    Otherwise, turn Time Machine OFF temporarily in its preference pane. Launch Disk Utility, select the backup volume, and run Repair Disk. That operation may take a few hours. If the volume is repaired successfully, or if no problems are found, try another backup.
    If TM still isn't working right, boot into Recovery (command-R at startup) and repair the startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) Reboot as usual and try TM again.
    As a last resort, put the backup drive aside and don't use it until you're sure you'll no longer need the data. Then erase it and start over. Do this only if you have at least one other backup device.

  • HT3275 My "i" message reads that the disc ran out of space.

    I have a 500Gb WD external disk, which the Computor says is full ( only 20Gb remaining).
    My question is why does Time machine not delete old backups to make space for new ones?
    It's not serious at the moment, just annoying and I would like to fix it.
    It also says that my full backup is 112Gb.
    Chris Edwards

    If you upgraded the computer from one OS to another, TM cannot correctly delete the old backups. So it gets stuck.. there are other issues that cause the problem as well.. although the idea of deleting old backups is supposed to work it often doesn't.
    If you want to keep the existing backups.. then buy a new drive and start over. Or if it is really just a backup.. erase it and start afresh.. a new clean backup is well worth it after a lot of incrementals get built up.

  • Time Machine failure: Disk run out of space unexpectedly

    Hi
    I'm having serious problems in the last few days with Time Machine backups.
    I have an iMac '27 (late 2009) running Mountain Lion 10.8.2. The internal disk is 1 TB, and I use an external FW HD LaCie d2 Quadra 1 TB for my TM backups. After 3 years the disk is always full, but old backups were regularly removed. All the possible source of large variable files were excluded long time ago (VM disks, temporary directories, large download files).
    TM used to work quite smoothly, but now, since 10 days, the backup fails with the message
    "The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly. Time Machine will try to make more space available by removing expired backups during the next scheduled backup."
    I've checked previous messages in the forum about such an error, but the various cases do not seem to match my specific problem (or I was not able to find the message with working answer).
    It seems that the "unexpected" problem is related to the fact that Time Machine is trying to backup again a large part of my filesystem, and it determines this fact only after the backup starts (so there is no pre-cleaning): when it happens I can see that the target size of the backup increases over time, while more and more data are written on the disk, until the disk is full.
    I'll try to summarize my situations with an itemized list:
    The current backup fails because it runs out of space, leaving an .inprogress file behind
    The latest backup did not fail: the log report a successful backup (checked with Time Machine Buddy)
    Examining the content of the latest backup, the one that did not fails, shows that some system directories, /Applications, /usr, and /bin are missing
    So, possibly, the "unexpected" error happens because the system is backing up a lot of stuff (like 60GB), and TM discover this only after it starts writing the files
    I've verified with Disk Utility both the TM disk and the internal HD, and they both report no problem.
    After some digging around, I was able to make TM work again removing the .inprogress file (using the Pondini instructions), removing (using the "Star Wars" interface) the latest backup, the one with the incomplete content, and removing a few older backups to create some more free space.
    The first time I thought it was a transient problem, but it happened again after a few days.
    So the real issue is, why the latest successful backup is actually incomplete, with a large number of directories missing, but there is no hint of this in the logs?
    I've read that old LaCie HDs might have problems with Mountain Lion, and with its power saving settings. May this be the cause? I did already turn off the power saving setting (put HD to sleep when possible) before the latest failure, but nothing changed.
    I've also tried to update the d2 Quadra firmware, as indicated by other messages and on LaCie website, but the update fails and the provided instructions are less than useful (I'll try to contact LaCie on this issue).
    My doubt is that this does not seem a power save issue... the failed backups happen while I'm actually using the machine (so no wake up/disk spin issue seems to happen), and the backups starts with no problem: they just finish abruptly with no apparent reason but with a success message.
    Does anyone have problems similar to mine (successful but incomplete TM snapshots)? Is the problem triggered by the HD firmware, or there are other possible causes?
    I plan to repair the TM one more time, and then keep it turned off to run only manual backups, but I'm aware that there is no guarantee that also a controlled manually started backup is not going to fail in a similar way.
    Thanks for any suggestion.
    Maurizio

    I am not running out of space, but I do have the same problem.  Every so often TM does a backup which is about 60 GB bigger than expected.   The  extra is always a new backup of /System /Applications /usr etc. - that is the 'system files'.
    The key thing is, as you have noticed:
    Examining the content of the latest backup, the one that did not fail, shows that some system directories, /Applications, /usr, and /bin are missing
    As a consequence the next backup is, in my case, 60 GB bigger because it includes all the system files.
    It is as if 'systemFilesExcluded' was turned on for the previous backup (the one that 'did not fail').  But I have looked in the .exclusions.plist for this backup and it is exactly the same as for other backups and does include:
            <key>systemFilesExcluded</key>
            <false/>
    It seems that TM is treating this as if <true/>.
    Like you, I have done a disk verify and it finds no errors.
    I think this must be a bug.  I have had this on four occassions since upgrading to Mountain Lion.  And it is doing a large one right now - I have caught it in the act!

  • Since I upgrade to Mavericks, I am unable to back to Time Machine.  I receive this error message -The disk image "computer name.sparsebundle" is in use. Try ejecting the disk image

    anyone have any suggestions how to fix this.  I have looked around but do not see this specific error message on any of the discussions.  Also, very little information regarding mavericks

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  • Time Machine Backups external drive developed problem which the disk repair utility cannot fix, so suggested reformat. I can't reformat because the "Resource Busy". How can I reformat this drive?

    My Western Digital external hard drive which I use as a Time Machine Backup stopped working. I tried repairing the disk using the Disk Utility program,but got the message that the utility can't repair the disk and to erase and reformat the disk. When I try that, I get the message the operation can't be completed because "Resource Busy", even though Time Machine is turned off. Any suggestions for repairing the drive/disk?
    Thank you.

    See Pondini's TM FAQs for starters.

  • How to use airport time capsule on a dell portable pc with windows 7 taking in consideration that Time machine doesn't run with Windows ?

    how to use airport time capsule on a dell portable pc with windows 7 taking in consideration that time machine doesn't run with Windows ?

    TM does not work like that.
    If you want files to use later.. do not use TM.
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    Read some details of how TM works so you understand what it will do.
    http://pondini.org/TM/Works.html
    Use a clone or different software for a permanent backup.
    http://pondini.org/TM/Clones.html
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    This is helpful.. particularly Q3.
    Why you don't want to use TM.
    Q20 here. http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

  • I want to set up the Time Machine and I would love to use the Time  Capsule but since I already have a wireless router I need suggestions on  what other external disks Apple could recommend to use with the Time Machine and  how to configure that disk

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    Does anyone know how to access Time Machine´s hidden files in Windows? I tried using MacDrive v7... but in its help files... it says that the app itself (MacDrive) will not show files on a Mac-formatted drive, partion, volume, etc. if MAC OS X itself intentionally hides certain files. Confused?
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