Time machine says "success," but no backups

I noticed today that none of the backups on my Time Machine disk have any data in them. Just a bunch of empty "Macintosh HD" folders going back several months. Yikes!
I've been through a tech support session plus a few hours of troubleshooting on my own. Their suggestion is to reinstall the OS and restore my data from a backup... which is kind of impossible* since I can't get Time Machine to back up. Here's what I know:
1) A new backup drive doesn't help
2) My hard drive is not excluded
3) I have plenty of space on my backup drive (2TB for a 500GB machine).
4) It's a system-wide problem that shows up in both Safe Mode and with a new user account.
Time Machine basically looks at my drive and says, "Nope, nothing new to back up here. Move along now, move along..."
Here's the log from console. It starts immediately after launching Time Machine using a blank backup drive.
4/15/14 4:36:12.660 PM UserEventAgent[838]: com.apple.TMHelperAgent.SetupOffer enabled
4/15/14 4:36:12.672 PM UserEventAgent[838]: com.apple.TMHelperAgent.SetupOffer disabled
4/15/14 4:36:12.726 PM UserEventAgent[11]: com.apple.backupd-auto launchd job enabled
4/15/14 4:36:13.153 PM WindowServer[798]: _CGXGetWindowOrderingGroup: Operation on a window 0x6f requiring rights 0x5 by caller System Preferences
4/15/14 4:36:17.983 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Starting manual backup
4/15/14 4:36:18.001 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Backing up to /dev/disk1s2: /Volumes/TIME MACHINE/Backups.backupdb
4/15/14 4:36:18.003 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
4/15/14 4:36:18.557 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Forcing deep traversal on source: "Macintosh HD" (device: /dev/disk0s2 mount: '/' fsUUID: 64CC60C4-5A82-3554-9FA2-EFBC82CBCDD6 eventDBUUID: A4A02834-E179-4900-BA13-17F10A47AA31)
4/15/14 4:36:19.338 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Total content size: 433.87 GB excluded items size: 2.2 MB for volume Macintosh HD
4/15/14 4:36:19.338 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Found 1793930 files (433.87 GB) needing backup
4/15/14 4:36:19.339 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: 455.35 GB required (including padding), 2 TB available
4/15/14 4:36:19.361 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
4/15/14 4:36:21.473 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Copied 1 items (Zero KB) from volume Macintosh HD. Linked 0.
4/15/14 4:36:22.042 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Created new backup: 2014-04-15-163622
4/15/14 4:36:22.000 PM kernel[0]: hfs: mounted Recovery HD on device disk0s3
4/15/14 4:36:22.410 PM mds[36]: (Normal) Volume: volume:0x7fe7a3210800 ********** Bootstrapped Creating a default store:0 SpotLoc:(null) SpotVerLoc:(null) occlude:0 /Volumes/Recovery HD
4/15/14 4:36:22.514 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Copying OS X Recovery set
4/15/14 4:36:22.525 PM fseventsd[47]: Logging disabled completely for device:1: /Volumes/Recovery HD
4/15/14 4:36:41.000 PM kernel[0]: hfs: unmount initiated on Recovery HD on device disk0s3
4/15/14 4:36:42.464 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Starting post-backup thinning
4/15/14 4:36:42.468 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: No post-backup thinning needed: no expired backups exist
4/15/14 4:36:42.495 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Backup completed successfully.
And here are the logs for a subsequent backup:
4/15/14 4:39:07.451 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Starting manual backup
4/15/14 4:39:07.457 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Backing up to /dev/disk1s2: /Volumes/TIME MACHINE/Backups.backupdb
4/15/14 4:39:08.061 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Will copy (Zero KB) from Macintosh HD
4/15/14 4:39:08.062 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Found 0 files (Zero KB) needing backup
4/15/14 4:39:08.063 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: 104.9 MB required (including padding), 2 TB available
4/15/14 4:39:08.100 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Copied 1 items (Zero KB) from volume Macintosh HD. Linked 0.
4/15/14 4:39:09.054 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Created new backup: 2014-04-15-163908
4/15/14 4:39:09.205 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Starting post-backup thinning
4/15/14 4:39:09.205 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: No post-backup thinning needed: no expired backups exist
4/15/14 4:39:09.210 PM com.apple.backupd[1017]: Backup completed successfully.
*Remember when I said I didn't have a backup? That's kind of a lie, since my Mac gets backed up to the server. But it's only the data files. I would really, really like to not have to reinstall all my applications and settings.
Does anyone have a suggestion about how to fix, or where to start looking? There must be a corrupt setting somewhere than can be fixed. If it comes down to it, yes, I can reinstall, but I kind of feel like giving this a shot.
Any thoughts? I have an iMac 3.06GHz i3 w/ 16GB RAM running 10.9.2.

Fixed! I deleted the hidden file, /.Spotlight-V100, then rebooted my Mac. After that, Time Machine backups started working.

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My Time Machine says there is no backup disk available. I've never had any problems with my time machine. I'm not technologically savvy, so if anyone can help, I'd appreciate it!

My Time Machine says there is no backup disk available. I've never had any problems with my time machine completing backups. I was away from house with my laptop for about 9 days so I'm wondering if there is something I need to do now that I'm home to get it working again. I'm not technologically savvy, so if anyone can help, I'd appreciate it!
Thanks,
Jana

You can lose your ability to backup through TM for any number of reasons, but the most common is what happens after a update. If your drive still works, your best approach is to read this:
http://www.chriscolotti.us/technology/how-to-fix-osx-mountain-lion-time-machine/
The attached link contains helpful graphics, so don't worry if you're not tech savvy.

I bought a new mac and i migrate with time machine...but the backup was a little bit old and weren't save the latest modify i made in my website.. is it possible take the uploded site in iweb? sorry but i don't speak english very well.

I bought a new mac and i migrate with time machine...but the backup was a little bit old and weren't save the latest modify i made in my website.. is it possible take the uploded site in iweb? sorry but i don't speak english very well

But what can I cut and paste? the html code or image and text directly?
depend on which template you used.
if you use iweb photos page template then you need to search for my photos page solutions in this forum.
@ot: cut and paste from the online version
@rw: You can drag an image from the website to the Desktop
have your try your methods in iweb photos page?

Time machine lost all but one backup

I ran apple software update yesterday. Today Time Machine says disk is too full to run backup and shows only one backup. I used the finder to look and sure enough, only one backup is there.

I don't think there's any need to "re-establish" your TM drive.
In a stupid interface move, even if you check "Warn when old backups are deleted" in TM options, it doesn't always do that - it usually tells you after the fact, when it's too late to get rid of some big files, or certain backup dates, etc; whether you get the warning or not has to do with the size of the last backup, the space left, and whether TM thinks it can squeeze in another backup, but it seems to make that decision based on the size of your last backup; if the current backup is unexpectedly large, it just erases old backups without telling you.
You may be backing up space-hogging items that you don't really need to back up: the Trash for instance; the legendary giants Entourage and PC-emulators on an IntelMac; the Downloads folder (which gets piled up with stuff that you don't need to keep, or you have copies elsewhere, or it's a movie you already watched...); maybe you don't need a System backup, but just your User folder/Documents assiduously copied...
There's lots of ways to trim what's being backed up so you can use a smallish drive to back up the most important things from your main drive.

HT3275 what do I do when time machine says: Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder?

I am trying to back up my imac using an external storage: My passport Studio 1TB. Each time it trys to back up Time machine says: Unable to complete back up. An error occurred while creating the backup folder. Does anyone know how I can fix this problem? Thanks

Plowie,
Do a search in Discussions, "An error occurred while creating the backup folder."
Many of us are having this problem and no fix has been offered, that I could find.
Unless you call "eject the external HDD; turn off; turn back on" a fix. That's what I have to do every 2 or 3 days; I even have to "force eject", with the concomitant warning message that you could lose data, etc.

Time Machine says, Unable to Complete Backup

There seem to be a lot of variants of my problem on this forum, but each one is different. After several months working well, about 3 weeks ago the Time Machine on my iMac quit doing its backups to my Time Capsule. I get the message, "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup directory."
Repairing permissions, restarting the computer, and unplugging/replugging the Time Capsule did not help. Manually requesting a backup doesn't work either.
My computer knowledge is rather rudimentary, so if you reply, please please use step-by-step explanations, define any acronyms, etc.
Another question: is there a way to connect the Time Capsule to my computer by cable, and use it as effectively just an external drive. e.g. backing up by manual copying?
Here is the system log from a failed backup:
Jan 4 13:55:09 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Backup requested by user
Jan 4 13:55:09 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Starting standard backup
Jan 4 13:55:09 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Backup destination alias resolved to path: /Volumes/Time Capsule
Jan 4 13:55:10 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule/iMac_000d936fb4dc.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of iMac
Jan 4 13:55:10 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of iMac/Backups.backupdb
Jan 4 13:55:13 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Failed to create progress log file at path:/Volumes/Backup of iMac/Backups.backupdb/iMac/2008-12-15-175337.inProgress/.Backup.252798913.05373 3.log.
Jan 4 13:55:13 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: HARD DRIVE
Jan 4 13:55:13 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Error: (-36) Creating directory 6C565DE2-06A5-419E-8CE8-4C56AEA21C5B
Jan 4 13:55:13 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Failed to make snapshot.
Jan 4 13:55:18 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Backup failed with error: 2
Jan 4 13:55:27 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
Jan 4 13:55:28 iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[8456]: Ejected Time Machine network volume.
Jan 4 13:59:57 iMac sudo[8483]: alexander : TTY=ttys000 ; PWD=/Users/alexander ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/grep backupd /var/log/system.log

Ken,
This thread may be of interest if you have not already read it.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8354256&#8354256
Did you interrupt a backup at some stage or did you not eject the Time Capsule at the conclusion of a previous backup before shutting down your Mac?
Is there sufficient free space on Time Capsule to cater for your backups? The backup volume needs to be about 3 times the size of your Mac HD used space.
Chris

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It won't give me any more details, how do i find out where the problem is?

I've been doing more research on this, i downloaded the time machine buddy and this is what i got.
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
I'm not seeing info on this error anywhere.

Time machine says unable to complete backup as file is too large

I have a 500 GB Time capsule and it says when carrying out a back up that it can't be completed as the file size is too large, back up requires 233.01 GB and only 211.95 GB are avaliable. Does this mean i need to buy a bigger Time capsule/external hard drive?

Thanks for the help.
From what I can work out I think as I don't have my computer on all the time long enough to carry out a back up it now wants to do another full back up and I don't have the space on the Time capsule to do that. I will go into a Apple store to check I am right but it looks like I will need to buy a bigger externel hard drive.
Thanks again

When I tried to back up my computer, Time Machine says 'an error occurred while creating the backup folder.' When I check the side of the partition where I manually saved old files, the folders are there, but NONE of the files are.

I haven't backed up my computer in over a year. When I tried to back it up today, Time Machine says 'an error occurred while creating the backup folder.' When I check the side of the partition where I manually saved old photos and documents (including all the pictures from the year I studied abroad/traveled a bunch), the folders are there, but NONE of the files are.
Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be, or how I could fix it? I really don't want to lose all those photos

So you were doing a time machine backup to another partition on the same hard drive? Just trying to gather some information so i can provide a helpful response.

Time Machine says the backup is too large but it is not

Time Machine says the backup is too large but it is not.
While it is true my hard drive is very full (150 Gb used of the available 160Gb), this is way less than 42 Pb!!!!
I have tried numerous time to reset it and still the same issue.
Here is the reoccurring message:
Advice?

PB.. what the heck is a PB.. I kind of thought TB are still in fairly low digits.
Do a disk verify.. something is seriously stupidly wrong.. Otherwise ring Apple support and give them an earful about nonsense popups.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html A5

Reset my Timecapsule, my old backups are still there but Time Machine says last backup was never

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Pondini,
Thanks for your response. I selected the tc via select disk in the preferences window. It did a countdown of two minuites. After that a window popped up and said thus.
Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.
Click Start New Backup to create a new backup. This will remove your existing backup history. This could take several hours.
And gives me two options Back up later - Start new backup
Is there anyway to keep my old backups. (naming the drive differently, anything?)
Help is always appreciated.
Thanks,

Time machine says the backup file is too big but...

Hi. My time machine back up stopped working. It tells me that the back up file is too large. I have a WD external 500GB Mybook. I am trying to back up my 500GB MacBook. "Get Info" on the MacBook indicates that there is 153GB on disk. "Get Info" on the Mybook indicates that there is 278.8 GB available. However, when I attempt to run backup in Time Machine I get the following message: "This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 378.4 GB but only 278.8 GB are avalable..."
Why is Time Machine telling me that the backup file is 378.4GB when my MacBook shows that I only have 153GB on disk? If I only have 153GB on disk, 278.8GB of free space in the backup volume should be sufficient for me to back up right? What am I missing here?

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Time Machine deletes all but latest two backups

Hello,
Today I was backing up my macbook, with about 38 GB of space left on my harddrive, and Time Machine deletes everything but the latest two backups (from Feb 2012 to May 2012).... I had things on there from 2009. TM preferences now says I have 27 GB of free space, after the latest backup. I didn't have anything big enough on my computer to be backed up that justified deleting years of data, over 200 GB, in order to compensate for the new data that had to be backed up. Is there any way to recover the files that were erased off of my external hard-drive that were deleted during Time Machine's semi-routine back up?
Thank you

Sebastian Kuhn wrote:
Is there no way to set up Time Machine such that it will ASK before destroying a (potentially valuable) "old" backup
That's how it worked at first, on Leopard. But many users either didn't understand it, or never got around to doing anything, so had no backups at all when disaster struck. It was fairly common, so Apple changed it with Snow Leopard.
Why does Apple assume that it is always the OLDEST backup (which will be hardest to retrieve) that people would be willing to loose?
That's usually correct. Time Machine is not a traditional archive-type app; if you need archives, make archives.
If you frequently need things from your backups, you may have a deeper problem. But most likely, you just need a larger backup drive.
That all applies to the vast majority of users -- they have a single internal HD with less than 1 TB of data, so a 2 TB backup drive is ok, 3 TB large enough for most everybody.
If that's not enough for your setup, you probably need a different strategy anyway. You may have some data that changes frequently and should be backed-up hourly by Time Machine, plus something like a large media drive that's best backed-up only once a day or so by a different app, such as one of the "cloning" products.
there should be the option to exclude different items when backing up to different disks. Is there?
No. Apparently Apple wants to keep it as simple as possible, with few options that may confuse some folks, so instead of making a decision, they do nothing (that's not just Time Machine, either). Remember, most of the folks using Time Machine have never used any backup app at all.
Apple's resisted all suggestions (and there have been many) for things like the ability to limit the size or age of backups, reduce the 10-day warning when no backup has been done, etc. Like it or not, that's Apple's approach to pretty much everything -- streamlined, simple, easy to use. Very successful for the majority.
Is there any workaround other than the cumbersome procedure of turning Time Machine off, and under "options" re-select the correct set of folders to exclude every time I move from one disk to another? Not exactly what I would call a user-friendly interface...
Best of course, is get a larger disk. Is your data worth the price of a 2 TB disk?
There are some elaborate workarounds involving automatically swapping destinations and exclusions, but they're very "iffy" as they do things that TM (and OSX) don't anticipate so don't react well to.
Effective with Lion, however, there's a new tmutil command that in theory would allow you to write an AppleScript to set a destination, add or remove exclusions and run a backup. Many things could go wrong, of course, but I know of no way to detect which destination is available.
Much safer, easier, and more reliable to get a larger drive (or better strategy).

I have downloaded Mountain Lion and Time Machine says that my Free Agent Goflex (Seagate) external 2gb drive cannot be used as it is read only. I tried disc utility to repair permissions but that block is greyed out. The disc verifies as being OKI

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Ok, I solved this problem! I ejected the drive and then disconnected it both from the power supply and the USB connector. I then reconnected everything and powered it up again and Then went into TM preferences and chose the drive as the backup. TM did a new backup (well over an hour) and now works as advertised.

HT3275 Why does my Time Machine say No Latest Backup even though I ran a backup?

I have backed up my MacBook Pro several times to an external drive by following all the directions. But, the Time Machine says "Oldest Backup: None" Latest Backup: None, Next Backup: Today 11:19 AM. I have selected the drive and turned it on. Has it backed up? Shouldn't it say there was a latest backup?

Enter Time Machine, via the application, to see if it has backed up. If not try C2/A4 in the first linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

Time machine says "success," but no backups

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