Time Machine said it was backing up for months but was not!

Every day or two I plug my hard drive in via Firewire and let Time Machine run, then unmount the drive and remove the cable. I never get an error. But, with absolute stupidity, I never double-clicked on the drive's icon and looked inside Backups.backupdb or looked at the Date Modified, so I never noticed that the last reported date was in May. (It is now Sept 24th.)
So I blew it.
But...
How the heck did Time Machine not give me any error? *How did it keep reporting the last backup date properly when it was not backing up?* Or *if it was backing up, how come using the app from my Dock and also looking at the Backups.backupdb, only May is available?* This is complete failure of the feature (and yes, I needed the backup today and am out about 20 hours of work now).
I did notice a few times that when the backup was happening, there was a virtual disk on my desktop. I saw it a few times, but not lately.
Is there any chance the backup is really there? I'll be looking. I'd really appreciate hearing from you if you know more about this.
In case Apple is reading this, more history. I bought the original Airport Extreme when it went to N. I had this hard drive plugged into the AE via USB and used to do the Time Machine that way. After 1 week it gave me an error (drive full?) I could not resolve. I tried plugging the drive in directly via USB or Firewire to see if the error would resolve and backup would continue. It did not, so I deleted all the TM files and started all over again, plugged in directly. Since then there have been no errors.
Thanks,
Deb

Hi Glenn.
Without the virtual disk mounted, there are just 5 backups (windows into space in TM) all from May 12, 2008.
When TM is actively backing up so the virtual disk is mounted, control/right-clicking on the TM icon in the Dock & selecting "Browse Other Time Machine disks..." shows both the real disc and the virtual. [Thank you. I had not tried clicking there.]
I then did a Get Info on the virtual disk. It's 117 gigs.
Then I noticed the name that the "Browse other" & Virtual disk has. This is the spare image file that appears on the main level of my designated backup disk. For some reason, on May 16, 2008, TM stopped backing up to the folder "Backups.backupdb" & started to back up into a spare image. (I am sure that is when I stopped plugging the disk into the Airport Extreme, but I am not sure why it behaved this way.)
The thing is, the TM interface where you go back in time to retrieve files does not see the spare image.
I can delete the May backup, or better, wipe the entire drive (it's really a partition) & begin again. But that won't teach us anything. Or, would using the "Browse other" should I select the hard drive to direct backups there again? After deleting the May stuff that's in there. It'll soon run out of room there because this spare image is using so much space, so I'd then need to get rid of that in the future.
(I should note that I can now live without the stuff in the TM backup. I retrieved my damaged file yesterday. I also use SuperDuper onto another drive and know that's newer than these old May backups. They are not needed for sure.
-Deb

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My new Dell PC running Windows 8 does not recognize my iPad or iPhone. Worked OK for iPhone for months but would not work for new iPad. I removed /relaoded iTunes and now it won't recognize either iPad or iPhone.

My new Dell PC running Windows 8 does not recognize my iPad or iPhone. Worked OK for iPhone for months but would not work for new iPad. I removed /relaoded iTunes and now it won't recognize either iPad or iPhone. Got any suggestions?

Hi there Lizabethfromaz,
You may find the troubleshooting steps in the article below helpful.
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1538
-Griff W.

Time Machine: Repeated errors when backing up for the first time using a new external firewire drive

My Iomega 500GB firewire external drive failed on me last week and I have just replaced it with an identical model. I used to use the old drive with Time Machine on my MacBook Pro running 10.5.8 with no issues, until the drive had a hardware failure and stopped spinning up, hence the replacement.
Two days ago I tried using Time Machine for the first time with the replacement external drive. The backup failed and each subsequent backup attempt has failed since then with a different error each time. The drive cannot be ejected using Finder (Finder says disk is in use and cannot be ejected even when no processes are running except for Finder and Time Machine has been disabled), by dragging it to the dock (hangs computer which can only be fixed by a hard reboot), in Disk Utilities (drive cannot be unmounted) or in Terminal ("no such file or directory").
The first backup attempt failed after 3 hours of "preparing" with the message "The backup was not performed because an error occured while creating backup directory".
I tried repairing the disk in Disk Utilities and Disk Utilities said the drive was OK ("the volume Time Machine Backups appears to be OK"). I tried ejecting the drive (hard reboot of computer and disconnecting the drive), plugging it back in again and trying again.
This time it started backing up, then failed after a few minutes with the message "an error occured while copying files to the backup volume". I had a look at the troubleshooting suggested on http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/C3.html and followed instructions. It failed again, so I did a full reset as per http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/A4.html.
It failed again, so I tried reparing the drive again in Disk Utilities and again it said it was OK. I tried using different cables and ports (Firewire 400 instead of Firewire 800), and backups still fail.
I have turned off anti-virus scanning (Sophos). I have tried excluding it from Spotlight but this causes an error message from Spotlight. I have tried trashing the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist file and rebooting. I have tried selecting deselecting the drive as the back up in Time Machine preferences, selecting "None", then "Stop Backing Up" then quitting preferences, rebooting, disconnecting the drive, reconnecting the drive and selecting the drive again as the backup disk in Time Machine preferences. I have tried erasing the drive completely, rebooting, and trying to back up again.
None of these have worked. This is a brand new drive and I do not want to have to replace it again if I do not have to.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you.

Hello, some possible clues...
Should you click “Start New Backup”? Not yet! If you see the dialog above, your existing Time Machine backup is corrupt, and you might not be able to recover data from it. But you can save a copy of the corrupt bundle and, perhaps, extract some data from it if needed.
Ask yourself if Time Machine has saved data you might need before deciding what to do next:
If you are sure you won’t need anything backed up before today, click “Start New Backup” and let Time Machine do its thing.
Otherwise, click “Back Up Later” and save a copy before letting Time Machine start a new backup. Just look for a file called “computername.sparsebundle” (for network backups) or “Backups.backupdb” (for local ones) and create a copy with a different name. You can open sparsebundle files with DiskImageMounter and browse them like any other disk. More information is available here.
There you go. If you click “Start New Backup” when you see this dialog box, Time Machine will erase all of your old backup data and start a new bundle. It won’t be corrupt, but it will be empty.
Note that you can manually initiate a Time Machine backup integrity check by option-clicking the “Time Machine” icon in the menu bar and selecting “Verify Backups.”
http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/08/11/time-machine-completed-verification-backups- improve-reliability-time-machine-create-backup/
According to This Time Machine resource “This appears only on Snow Leopard, and started with the Time Capsule Backup Update 1.0 in mid-May of 2010. It also seems to have been included in the 10.6.3 v1.1 update and 10.6.4.”
So, what can you do about it? Grin and bear it, it seems, until Apple fixes it.
One thing you can do to make the backup take less time is to connect your machine to your Time Capsule or other backup drive via Ethernet for the duration of the initial backup.
http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/the-dreaded-time-machine-has-completed-a-verifi cation-of-your-backups-to-improve-reliability-time-machine-must-create-a-new-ba c kup-for-you-message-and-why-you-are-seeing-it/
Time Machine: About "Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you."...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4076
Or a different/better solution in my experiences...
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Or SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
Or the most expensive one & my favorite, Tri-Backup...
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/products/tribackup.html

Email was fine for months, but now not...

Hi
Email was working fine for months for a client who has their web site hosted at Business Catalyst, but their email is hosted externally with 1&1.
However, on Saturday morning at 7am GMT, the emails stopped working.
To my knowledge, no settings have been changed in the BC Admin Panel for DNS.
Here are the DNS entries as of today...
$ host -v swifthire.co.uk
Trying "swifthire.co.uk"
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 41921
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;swifthire.co.uk.        IN    A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
swifthire.co.uk.    10800    IN    A    192.150.8.140
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;swifthire.co.uk.        IN    AAAA
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
swifthire.co.uk.    3600    IN    SOA    ns1.worldsecuresystems.com. admin.swifthire.co.uk. 1337130486 10800 3600 777600 7200
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;swifthire.co.uk.        IN    MX
;; ANSWER SECTION:
swifthire.co.uk.    10800    IN    MX    10 mx00.1and1.co.uk.
swifthire.co.uk.    10800    IN    MX    10 mx01.1and1.co.uk.
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
mx01.1and1.co.uk.    1095    IN    A    212.227.15.150
mx00.1and1.co.uk.    2690    IN    A    212.227.15.134
mx00.1and1.co.uk.    2690    IN    A    212.227.15.150
mx00.1and1.co.uk.    2690    IN    A    212.227.15.169
mx00.1and1.co.uk.    2690    IN    A    212.227.15.186
mx01.1and1.co.uk.    1095    IN    A    212.227.15.186
mx01.1and1.co.uk.    1095    IN    A    212.227.15.134
mx01.1and1.co.uk.    1095    IN    A    212.227.15.169
...and yet emails are not being received at the 1&1 mail servers.
I have logged a ticket with 1&1 Technical Support, but in the meantime...
Any ideas?
Thank you for your help.
Regards
Paully

The only minor problem I see in that setup is that both MX records have the same priority level, which is set to 10 - http://www.dnswatch.info/dns/dnslookup?la=en&host=swifthire.co.uk&type=MX&submit=Resolve
But that means that the mail may be sent to sometimes to mx01.1and1.co.uk and somatimes to mx00.1and1.co.uk.
1to1 recomendation is to set mx01.1and1.co.uk to 20 as per http://faq.1and1.com/domains/domain_admin/dns_settings/5.html
But this should not stop the mail from being delivered.
So, whatever the issue is it's certainly not at the DNS level and anyone who knows anything about DNS from 1to1 should be able to tell that by a simple DNS lookup.
Cheers,
-mario

Time Machine says it is backing up my Drobo, but changes are not being backed up.

I have a Time Capsule hooked to a mac mini and a 4 TB Drobo RAID connected as an external hard Drive connected to the Mac Mini as well.
My Drobo went insane and I had to re-setup the Drobo with it's partitions etc...
I Renamed the partitions exactly as I had before the issue and Time machine performed a full backup of the Drobo and afterward it will say it is backeing up, but any changes made are not showing on the time machine backup file.
I looked at the Console Activity file and it shows the "Production" drive it is supposed to be backing up as "Production 2"
HELP ME!!!

You might have to wipe and start over.. TM is extremely sensitive to name changes on hard disks.. because they are used to identify the backup .. not the drive share name you are looking at but a UUID set when you reformatted..
It is important you understand how Time Machine works.. See http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html the first couple of articles..
Then in troubleshooting http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html try B6 on reconnecting to your backups..
My experience is.. if you want reliable backups.. wipe and start over.
And use a cloner.. eg Carbon Copy Cloner.. it simply does a better job of things like external drives.

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: Can I target specific folders for back up

As a default time machine backs up your entire drive.
Along with my mac I want to back up a +specific folder+ on my Drobo: an external drive. (it's where I keep my large working files) I don't want to, don't need to and can't back up the entire Drobo.
Currently I am excluding everything on the drobo except the several folders I am working on. I would love to have the option to add folders as well as exclude folders.
Is there a work around I haven't thought of?

well.... lets see here....
I suggest using SuperDuper or another backup program to auto backup these files to your Drobo. Drobo is RAID so you would not need to back the Drobo up.
Also, I don't prefer the idea of using Drobo for a Time Machine Backup. I know people do it, but it's much better to buy a separate external drive for Time Machine, and use Drobo with SuperDuper. You should feel safe letting your large work files reside on the Drobo. If you want these files to reside on the internal, let SuperDuper run a backup. Good Luck.

My backup hard drive does not have enough space for time machine to perform a back up even after erasing entire contents of bu hard drive

My backup hard drive does not have enough space for time machine to perform a back up even after erasing entire contents of bu hard drive. The hard drive has been in service for almost two years performing this function with no sign of failure. How do I adjust time machine perameters?

The only way to limit the size of the backup is to exclude data from the backup, which you can do in Time Machine preferences.
If you use multiple browsers, have you tried clearing your browser caches? However, that's just a stop gap if it works. You either need to limit what you backup or get another drive.

I just bought and backed up my computer and time machine with a "Seagate BackUp Plus for Mac". Now my time machine is empty. Panicked. can anyone help?

I just bought and backed up my computer and time machine with a "Seagate BackUp Plus for Mac". Now my time machine is empty. Panicked. can anyone help?

Lets start over...
Please restart the network.. shut down everything..
Restart in order.. modem.. router.. if different to TC.. or TC.. client devices.. wait 2min between each startup.
If the TC does not show up on the computer, in finder.. then we need more info.. what OS are you running?
Does the TC show up in Airport utility? Are you running wireless or ethernet?
If you still have issues.. plug the TC directly into the computer by ethernet.
Do a full factory reset of the TC.. and see if it now shows up.
Please tell us exactly what model TC it is and how old.. the A1xxx model number from the base will help if you don't know.
You take a screen shot of the TC opened in finder.
eg..
My TC is named Tardis4.. click on it.. and then open the data folder.. on this one called Tardisdata.
Then take a screen shot of it so we can see what the problem is.. screenshot.. with area selection.. control + shift + 4 .. the picture goes into the desktop.. and then you click the picture icon in the posting web page controls and select the picture.

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

My brand new back up drive is connected but now time machine has disappeared after working perfectly for a week. - no icon, not appearing as an option to save to - have rebooted everything a few times.

My brand new back up drive is connected but now time machine has disappeared after working perfectly for a week. - no icon, not appearing as an option to save to - have rebooted everything a few times.

It's not clear whether you were able to do any backups to this drive at all. If not, it's probably not formatted properly. See #5 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions for instructions.
If you did get any successful backups, there may be a problem with the drive, or the backups may be corrupted. Try to repair the backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Time Machine spends hours partially backing up and then fails with "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup due to a network problem." Tried suggestions I've seen on the forum.

Time Machine spends hours partially backing up and then fails with "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup due to a network problem." I've tried various suggestions I've seen on the forum but nothing has worked. TIme Machine worked fine for the last two years and just suddenly started having this problem every time. The only thing that was a little different is that the computer was off for a week while on vacation and then I added a large amount (20 GB) of photos. Now the requested backup size is 82GB, which is large, and process proceeds very slowly for 2-3 hours before failing with the message mentioned. I have more than enough available backup storage space for it. Before failing, Time Machine has backed up no more than 12GB or so of the backup. It fails during different files each time.
I've turned off the computer sleep feature, and I've checked that the NAS is set to never automatically power down. I normally backup over Wi-Fi, but I've also tried connecting to Ethernet and it still has the same problem. It's odd because I also have a MacBook Pro that is still backing up fine to the same NAS using the MacBook's Time Machine.
I am using an iMac with OS X 10.6.8 and an Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 NAS.
I have system logs that I can share if helpful. The logged messages vary a bit from run to run, but here are some messages that I've been seeing:
I always get this message near the beginning of the backup:
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
I've gotten this messsage a number of times:
Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
One Day
Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!
Another day
1/7/12 10:44:20 AM
mDNSResponder[18]
PenaltyTimeForServer: PenaltyTime negative -112916, (server penaltyTime -1132397006, timenow -1132284090) resetting the penalty
1/7/12 10:46:37 AM
kernel
ASP_TCP Disconnect: triggering reconnect by bumping reconnTrigger from curr value 0 on so 0x1106be94
1/7/12 10:46:37 AM
kernel
AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect started /Volumes/TimeMachine prevTrigger 0 currTrigger 1
Another Day
1/6/12 8:03:22 AM
Google Chrome[164]
Cannot find function pointer CMPluginInFactory for factory 3487BB5A-3E66-11D5-A64E-003065B300BC in CFBundle/CFPlugIn 0x16f99e20 </Users/smarmer/Library/Contextual Menu Items/Google Notifier Quick Add CM Plugin.plugin> (not loaded)
1/6/12 8:04:02 AM
com.apple.backupd[193]
Copied 7.5 GB of 67.0 GB, 8866 of 8866 items
1/6/12 8:06:58 AM
/System/Library/CoreServices/CCacheServer.app/Contents/MacOS/CCacheServer[1013]
No valid tickets, timing out
1/6/12 8:29:44 AM
mDNSResponder[19]
PenaltyTimeForServer: PenaltyTime negative -148702, (server penaltyTime 2056822773, timenow 2056971475) resetting the penalty
1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
kernel
ASP_TCP Disconnect: triggering reconnect by bumping reconnTrigger from curr value 0 on so 0xa5ac380
1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
kernel
AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect started /Volumes/TimeMachine prevTrigger 0 currTrigger 1
1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
kernel
AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: doing reconnect on /Volumes/TimeMachine
1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
kernel
AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: soft mounted and hidden volume so do not notify KEA for /Volumes/TimeMachine
1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
kernel
AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: Max reconnect time: 30 secs, Connect timeout: 15 secs for /Volumes/TimeMachine
1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
kernel
AFP_VFS afpfs_DoReconnect: connect to the server /Volumes/TimeMachine
1/6/12 8:59:22 AM
kernel
ASP_TCP asp_SetTCPQoS: sock_settclassopt got error 57
Another day
1/5/12 3:48:55 PM
mdworker[2128]
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
1/5/12 4:24:54 PM
mDNSResponder[19]
PenaltyTimeForServer: PenaltyTime negative -42698, (server penaltyTime 1148718961, timenow 1148761659) resetting the penalty
1/5/12 4:29:58 PM
com.apple.backupd[2074]
Copied 586.4 MB of 67.0 GB, 9891 of 9891 items
1/5/12 4:39:00 PM
kernel
ASP_TCP Disconnect: triggering reconnect by bumping reconnTrigger from curr value 0 on so 0xa1c0380

bokon0n wrote:
1/11/12 8:53:30 AM
com.apple.backupd[1169]
Warning: Destination /Volumes/TimeMachine does not support TM Lock Stealing
1/11/12 8:53:30 AM
com.apple.backupd[1169]
Warning: Destination /Volumes/TimeMachine does not support Server Reply Cache
Those indicate that your NAS is not fully compatible with Snow Leopard.
1/11/12 8:53:35 AM
kernel
jnl: disk2s2: replay_journal: from: 67182592 to: 78680064 (joffset 0xa7b8000)
1/11/12 8:53:39 AM
kernel
jnl: disk2s2: examining extra transactions starting @ 78680064 / 0x4b09000
1/11/12 8:53:39 AM
kernel
jnl: disk2s2: Extra txn replay stopped @ 79056896 / 0x4b65000
1/11/12 8:53:49 AM
kernel
jnl: disk2s2: journal replay done.
1/11/12 8:53:49 AM
fseventsd[41]
event logs in /Volumes/Time Machine/.fseventsd out of sync with volume. destroying old logs. (253512 14 253512)
1/11/12 8:53:50 AM
kernel
hfs: Removed 1 orphaned / unlinked files and 0 directories
That looks like a problem was found with the file system (data) on the TM disk. I don't know the details, but OSX tried to recover it from the journal, and found extra data on the drive. Likely a result of the incompatibility mentioned above.
1/11/12 9:47:40 AM
com.apple.backupd[1169]
Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
That's a problem writing to the NAS drive.
But the backup continued after all this.
1/11/12 1:25:07 PM
kernel
ASP_TCP Disconnect: triggering reconnect by bumping reconnTrigger from curr value 0 on so 0x9d00b44
Something caused a disconnect. Can't tell from the log what it was.
I doubt it's a problem with something in OSX being damaged or corrupted, but reinstalling OSX isn't a major hassle, so might be worth a try.
To be incompatible with Snow Leopard, this NAS must be at least a couple of years old. It may be beginning to fail.
Contact the maker. See if there's an update to make it compatible with Snow Leopard. If so, that might fix it.
If not, or if that doesn't fix it, see if they have any diagnostics that will shed any light.

Time Machine (OSX) doesn't back up files in Mount Point or Disk Image File

Hi all,
I have two disk images which are scripted to be mounted on login. These two disk images are always mounted to the same location. These two disk images are encrypted TrueCrypt volumes.
Time Machine (TM) will only back up the disk images the first time they are mounted, but not after that. As I modify documents within the volumes throughout the day, the modified timestamps are adjusted properly. However, TM does not back them up. TM never backs up the mount points which are two folders within my home directory.
Any ideas as to why neither the mount point or the image files are backed up? Do the image files have to be closed (unmounted) after being modified for TM to back them up?
Now if TM won't back up the image files because they are locked/open, then why does it back them up the first time even though they are mounted? Also, from what I've read, TM should back up any HFS+ drive which is mounted. Both these drives are HFS+, so it should back up the mount points? I can verify this by doing a 'mount' in the terminal, the following is echo'd back:
/dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled) (Main System Drive)
/dev/disk1 on /Users/username/Folder1 (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners, mounted by username) (First TrueCrypt volume)
/dev/disk2 on /Users/username/Folder2 (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners, mounted by username)(Second TrueCrypt volume)
Any ideas will help!
Thanks,
Chris
Message was edited by: sleagle328

Here is the resolution:
Apparently time machine checks the parent folder's timestamp before moving into that folder to look for modified files.
So as I was modifying files, the timestamps on the volumes were changing but not the containing directory. Because of this, TimeMachine saw the parent directory had not changed, so did not look for the changed volumes inside.
So to resolve this, I wrote a simple touch script which touches the parent directory to match the modified volumes timestamp (if there is a modified volume).
Thanks,
Chris
Message was edited by: sleagle328

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 said it was backing up for months but was not!

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