Time Machine & Spotlight - Major Problem

I've read a smattering of reports about Spotlight indexing hanging TM backups. This appears to be fairly widespread yet I can see no resolution. It has rendered Leopard (Spotlight) and TC/TM totally useless.
I have excluded TC from Spotlight (via the Pref panel for Spotlight.) Only if I unmount the TC will Spotlight stop attempting to index. It will stay quiet until I mount TC and initiate a backup. That, in turn, causes Spotlight to start indexing, never to be completed. And TM hangs in "Preparing."
Any official acknowledgement of this problem. Not crazy about mucking around in Terminal as some have suggested.

I think I know part of the problem. I have 4 external hard drives that I do not typically mount unless needed. I mounted them all then excluded them in the Spotlight pref panel. Now Spotlight is able to extimate the time for indexing...60 hours! But at least it is estimating. Think I'll let'r go an attempt to get an up-to-date index, to see if that solves my TM problem.

Similar Messages

Crippling Time Machine/Spotlight conflicts

Like several people who have posted here I am having crippling conflicts between Time Machine and Spotlight. I began describing the problem in my response to another thread (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1752099&tstart=0). Since then I have done more research and diagnosis and am posting the results here. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Here is what happens: Time Machine will be cruising along just fine, making hourly backups one after another and then wham -- it hangs. First I get I/O disk error messages like these:
10/18/08 6:48:58 PM kernel jnl: disk0s2: flushing fs disk buffer returned 0x5
10/18/08 6:49:08 PM kernel disk0s2: I/O error.
10/18/08 6:49:08 PM kernel jnl: disk0s2: dojnlio: strategy err 0x5
10/18/08 6:49:08 PM kernel jnl: disk0s2: writejournalheader: error writing the journal header!
10/18/08 6:49:08 PM kernel disk0s2: I/O error.
They are quickly followed by errors involving Spotlight files:
10/18/08 6:51:20 PM mds[58] (/Volumes/Time Machine/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/A94308C8-042B-44C2-B8B0-3EF0DF80A20E)(E rror) IndexCI in ci_ftruncate:ftruncate(45 /Volumes/Time Machine/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/A94308C8-042B-44C2-B8B0-3EF0DF80A20E/li ve.0.indexPostings, 131072) error:22
10/18/08 6:51:20 PM mds[58] (/Volumes/Time Machine/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/A94308C8-042B-44C2-B8B0-3EF0DF80A20E)(E rror) IndexCI in initPayload:ftruncate err: 22
10/18/08 6:51:20 PM mds[58] (/Volumes/Time Machine/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/A94308C8-042B-44C2-B8B0-3EF0DF80A20E)(E rror) IndexGeneral in notify_lowspace:low space for device 234881026 (/Volumes/Time Machine/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/A94308C8-042B-44C2-B8B0-3EF0DF80A20E)
(The last message is especially puzzling since I am using a 500GB internal SATA drive for my Time Machine volume and it has plenty of free space.)
Several second later I get a barrage of these errors:
10/18/08 7:48:25 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[940] Volume at path /Volumes/Time Machine does not appear to be the correct backup volume for this computer. (Cookies do not match)
But it is the correct volume. (It has the hidden files at the top of the directory, .com.apple.timemachine.supported, and .001f5b398350, which is the correct MAC address for my computer.)
Once the hang-up occurs, I cannot access any files on the Time Machine disk: When I open it in a window, it is blank. When I reboot, the files reappear and Time Machine will work again for several hourly runs before hanging again.
I have verified that the Time Machine disk was formatted properly. And I have made certain to exclude the Time Machine disk from Spotlight indexing. I've also deselected and then reselected the disk in the Time Machine preference panel. Whatever I do, backups start working again for several hours and then Time Machine hangs with similar error messages.
I have tried wiping the backup disk and starting again but to no avail. The disk itself seems to be o.k.: I have tested it using backup programs other than Spotlight and it performs flawlessly. Apple Hardware Test reports no problems. I am stumped.

Like several people who have posted here I am having crippling conflicts between Time Machine and Spotlight. I began describing the problem in my response to another thread (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1752099&tstart=0). Since then I have done more research and diagnosis and am posting the results here. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Here is what happens: Time Machine will be cruising along just fine, making hourly backups one after another and then wham -- it hangs. First I get I/O disk error messages like these:
10/18/08 6:48:58 PM kernel jnl: disk0s2: flushing fs disk buffer returned 0x5
10/18/08 6:49:08 PM kernel disk0s2: I/O error.
10/18/08 6:49:08 PM kernel jnl: disk0s2: dojnlio: strategy err 0x5
10/18/08 6:49:08 PM kernel jnl: disk0s2: writejournalheader: error writing the journal header!
10/18/08 6:49:08 PM kernel disk0s2: I/O error.
They are quickly followed by errors involving Spotlight files:
10/18/08 6:51:20 PM mds[58] (/Volumes/Time Machine/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/A94308C8-042B-44C2-B8B0-3EF0DF80A20E)(E rror) IndexCI in ci_ftruncate:ftruncate(45 /Volumes/Time Machine/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/A94308C8-042B-44C2-B8B0-3EF0DF80A20E/li ve.0.indexPostings, 131072) error:22
10/18/08 6:51:20 PM mds[58] (/Volumes/Time Machine/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/A94308C8-042B-44C2-B8B0-3EF0DF80A20E)(E rror) IndexCI in initPayload:ftruncate err: 22
10/18/08 6:51:20 PM mds[58] (/Volumes/Time Machine/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/A94308C8-042B-44C2-B8B0-3EF0DF80A20E)(E rror) IndexGeneral in notify_lowspace:low space for device 234881026 (/Volumes/Time Machine/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/A94308C8-042B-44C2-B8B0-3EF0DF80A20E)
(The last message is especially puzzling since I am using a 500GB internal SATA drive for my Time Machine volume and it has plenty of free space.)
Several second later I get a barrage of these errors:
10/18/08 7:48:25 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[940] Volume at path /Volumes/Time Machine does not appear to be the correct backup volume for this computer. (Cookies do not match)
But it is the correct volume. (It has the hidden files at the top of the directory, .com.apple.timemachine.supported, and .001f5b398350, which is the correct MAC address for my computer.)
Once the hang-up occurs, I cannot access any files on the Time Machine disk: When I open it in a window, it is blank. When I reboot, the files reappear and Time Machine will work again for several hourly runs before hanging again.
I have verified that the Time Machine disk was formatted properly. And I have made certain to exclude the Time Machine disk from Spotlight indexing. I've also deselected and then reselected the disk in the Time Machine preference panel. Whatever I do, backups start working again for several hours and then Time Machine hangs with similar error messages.
I have tried wiping the backup disk and starting again but to no avail. The disk itself seems to be o.k.: I have tested it using backup programs other than Spotlight and it performs flawlessly. Apple Hardware Test reports no problems. I am stumped.

Install new hard drive, restore from Time Machine, File Vault Problems

Hello all,
I spent way too much time on this seemingly simple task, so I thought I would share my experience with others so they can avoid some pitfalls when upgrading a hard drive in a system that uses File Vault 2 encryption. The basic goal here is to replace a drive in a system that has only one drive, and the OS is Mavericks, and then have the new drive encrypted as before.
The problem is that a Time Machine restore onto a new drive will leave that without a Recovery Partition, which is required for File Vault 2 and some other important things. So we need to build a recovery partition. There are possibly several ways to do this.
Here's what worked for me (this is compiled from many sources that I found and already closed the tabs in my browser so I can't list all my sources):
1) Make a full backup to an external hard drive using Time Machine.
2) Go into the App Store and download OS X Mavericks but dont install it (close the window when it pops up asking to continue the install). Do this even if you already have Mavericks. At this point, there will be a folder in your Applications folder called Install OS X Mavericks (or similar).
3) Insert a USB drive that is at least 8 GB and format it using Disk Utility, naming it the default "Untitled".
4) Open a terminal and type
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --nointeraction
5) Wait for this to finish (took me about 30 min). Eject the USB drive and power down.
6) Remove the old hard drive and set it aside. Keep it for a few weeks until you know the new drive is working as expected.
7) Install the new hard drive and insert the USB drive. Hold the option key and press the power button. Choose to boot from the USB installer.
8) Use the disk utility to erase whatever partition shipped with the new drive, replacing it with a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) system. Verify that GUID is the partition type (in Advanced options).
9) Close the disk utility and install Mavericks. This can take a long time. My new drive is an SSD, and it sat at the "1 second remaining" part for about 20 min. Let it reboot (maybe it was 2 times?) and go through the setup until it finishes the install.
10) Boot into the freshly installed OS and open a terminal and type:
diskutil list
11) If there is a partition listed as Apple_Boot Recovery HD (mine was 650 MB), then you now have a recovery partition. If not, then go into the App store and download Mavericks, but don't use the USB this time, choose to do a regular install (or reinstall to be more correct).
12) Now there will be a recovery partition on the new drive and Time Machine will not overwrite it when restoring. Power down the system.
13) Plug in the Time Machine backup drive used in step 1. Press the option key and power on. Choose to boot from the recovery partiton (Mavericks).
14) Choose to restore from Time Machine backup. Wait until it finishes and log into the old familiar account.
15) Start a terminal and verify the recovery partition is still there (type diskutil list and see that the Apple_Boot Recovery HD is there). If it's missing, choose to download Mavericks from the App Store again and run the installation from this one.
16) Once there is a Mavericks recovery partition on the restored data you can simply turn on File Vault from the System Preferences Security section. It will require a reboot and then you login and wait for it to finish.
What a major pain to go through all of this for the sake of upgrading a hard drive. This should not be anywhere near as complicated. I hope this helps others avoid the very time consuming trial and error I went through in developing this procedure.

Talked with Apple last night. Everything we did to restore lost images failed to fix the issue. I did have the images still on my camera's SD card so I was not breaking out in a cold sweat.
All Time Machine backups showed the same issue. HOWEVER, I suddenly remembered I also had a SuperDuper backup and voila. The images were there.
Moral of the story: you can't ever be too rich or have too many backups (I also have an offsite backup).

Yosemite time machine file restore problem

I'm trying to restore some files (iPhone backups) in OS X Yosemite, but am encountering a problem.
I can locate the files I need in Time Machine. When I hit restore the 'Star Wars' UI exits as I would expect, and the 'preparing to copy files' dialogue box appears.
At this point, it goes no further. I also get the following message in the console:
15/11/2014 6:00:30.406 am Finder[236]: setting error: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=3840 "The data couldn’t be read because it isn’t in the correct format." (Unexpected character at line 1) UserInfo=0x60800067d7c0 {NSDebugDescription=Unexpected character at line 1, kCFPropertyListOldStyleParsingError=The data couldn’t be read because it isn’t in the correct format.}
Any advice on how to address this will be greatly appreciated. I'm currently verifying the backup in Time Machine, but other than that I'm out of ideas.

Jimbo, have you looked in the system’s Trash? Just see if it needs to be emptied to free up space. As Eric mentioned, I’ve only done a complete restore by wiping the disk, reinstalling the OS, etc. so I’m just guessing in your situation something is still lying around.
You could also look in Spotlight for a folder (whose full name I can’t recall now) that begins with the name “Previous System” or something like that in your boot drive; it is created to archive your previous system in case you want to revery to an earlier version. If your system is fine now, it is safe to delete that folder - just remember to empty the Trash.

Time Machine/Drobo backup problem

I've been looking around on these forums for a clear answer but haven't found one so I figured I would just post my exact problem and see what answers people might have.
I had been using my Drobo S as a time machine backup for about almost a year with incident. At the beginning of November I received a message that "The backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk. The problem may be temporary. Try again later to backup." As trying again later never worked, I started a dialogue with Drobo support to see if it could be something with the machine. After a lot of troubleshooting it became clear that it wasn't the Drobo - furthermore, it seems that other people who have had similar issues have had them because of something with time machine. I was hoping someone might be able to start me on the course towards figuring this all out. Thanks.

zacn wrote:
Yes, I have tried all of the suggestions in the troubleshoot. No, not all of the files are from FCP or Adobe although the vast majority of the problem files are from my Library.
If you've tried everything in the pink box in #C3, it's possible there's a problem with your installation of Snow Leopard. I'd suggest downloading and installing the 10.6.6 "combo" update. That's the cleverly-named combination of all the updates to Snow Leopard since it was first released, so installing it should fix anything that's gone wrong since then, such as with one of the normal "point" updates. Info and download available at: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1349 Be sure to do a +Repair Permissions+ via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) afterwards.
If that doesn't help, reinstall OSX from your Snow Leopard Install disc (that won't affect anything else), then apply the "combo" again.
How are you connected to the Drobo?
If all else fails, then it must be a problem with the Drobo, the connection to it, or perhaps it's not compatible with the version of OSX you're on.
As for my question about support, I'm just wondering if your computer is out of it's apple care support period, do they provide any additional support to resolve issues if it turns out to be a problem with the time machine and not the drobo? If it is drobo, I am still under warranty with them.
If there's a general hardware problem, Apple will extend coverage, but rarely beyond 3 years. Sometimes an Apple Store or AppleCare will replace hardware after that period, but it's on a case-by-case basis, and appears to be fairly unusual. And this doesn't look like an Apple hardware problem (but of course, you never know).

Potential Solution to Time Machine Back-up Problems

I, like many of you, went out and bought Leopard as soon as it came out and love many of the new features. I was very disappointed that time machine did not work. I seem to have the same problem as many of you in the the preparing time was very long, the back-up was very slow to start and then it would stop without any reason. I would also get the following error message from time to time:
"Time Machine Error - Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume"
I contacted Apple support and after hours of trying one thing and another with senior engineers, it was obvious that this was a problem and they did not have a fix yet. (No disrespect to Apple support, they did the best they could!).
Since my backup would stop after about 10Gb I decided to exclude the majority of my files so that the backup was less than 10Gb and it finally worked. When I included all my files again, I had the same problem. I thought that it must be one particular file or a number of them that was causing the issue.
Using the scientific method of trial and error!!!, I finally established that the file causing the problem on my computer was the iPhoto folder which can be found at:
Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/iPhoto
If I exclude this folder from my time machine backup it works great!!!
I have more than 300Gb backup up without issue now.
I hope that this works for you to and I would love to hear from anyone who has tried it.
Good luck!!

Please visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.

Time machine backup restoring problem

i recently restored my mac. i saved everything through time machine on a hd. i want to restore some notes from the inbuilt notes app from mac. i know the folder is hidden and sandboxed and all and i followed the procedure, but MY PROBLEM IS that i dont have a containers folder in the backup folder. i typed in search box and everything but dint come. now the peculiar part is that when i typed com.apple.notes there was a folder. but when i opened it it dint have the data-library-core data folders. the other thing is that when i looked for the folder on my mac, it was there but the end instruction said that there should be a p18.notesexternalrecord thing in the 0 folder, which wasnt there either. somebody plz help because my very important documents are there and my job may be at stake. please help.

Quit Notes and temporarily disable iCloud synchronization, if applicable.
Triple-click the line below to select it:
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Reveal
from the contextual menu. A Finder window should open with an item selected. Enter Time Machine and restore the selected item.

Time Machine Disk Space Problem

I have approximately 1TB of data (as confirmed by Time Machine) and I purchased a 1.5TB external backup disk to dedicate exclusively to Time Machine backups. However, Time Machine will not backup because according to Time Machine there is not enough space (not even for an initial backup). I have read discussions that suggest Time Machine uses 20% more space than the backup data (https://discussions.apple.com/message/17944550#17944550). If that is true, I should have more than enough space. Does anyone have any idea what the problem is? Why is 50% of extra space not enough? Thanks for your help.

Did you partition and format the drive before using it?
Drive Partition and Format
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 Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

Time Machine/disk full problem

Time Machine, which has worked perfectly since i bought my Mac back in 07, has stopped backing up. The disk that I have been using for backups has become full. For a short period it was removing old backups in order to do a new backup but has now stopped doing that and my last one was January 11. What is the best course of action? Manually deleting old backups?
Edit: It looks like it is trying to delete old backups, but deletes one which isn't enough.

Thanks, I followed the advice to uninstall the incomplete backup file and that seemed to be working nicely. However, while I was watching the backup progress - Backing up X of Y - as X got close to Y, Y started getting bigger. So as a result it is running out of disc space. I verified by hard disk and it passed without a problem. I suppose I could just go ahead and delete some to make more space so that when the backup starts getting bigger than expected it still has enough space.

Time Machine Disk Permissions Problem

I had a malware infection which resulted in hundreds of "users" sharing my iMac. I immediately changed my password just in case. I could not get rid of the issue so I decided to restore my hard drive from a Time Machine backup disk. Now when I try to use the Time Machine it indicates that I don't have the proper permissions to access the disk. I have tried to repair the disk with Disk Utility but it doesn't find any problems with permissions.
I have tried to change the permission settings using the "Get Info" but it indicates that all read/write permissions are "custom". I try to change them but nothing is accepted. So, I can't access my old Time Machine backups at all.
I don't know how to resolve this problem. Any ideas?

Update - The backup to the new Time Machine - that I named 'Time Machine 2' - share was around 91GB worked fine.
Some additional info was that when I was having problems with Time Machine backup my macbook was connected to the network over a Toshiba Dynadock U3.0 docking station that periodically freezes. I've stopped using it and connect wirelessly until I can afford a more expensive solution like getting a Thunderbolt display to use for 'docking'.

Time machine disk recognition problem

Having upgraded from Snow leopard to Mountain Lion, time machine could no longer access my time machine backup disk and the finder gave the message that the disk was unrepairable. The files were still visible however. I copied the last Backup Folder to a fresh Hard Drive and selected this as my Time Machine backup. Time machine recognises the new drive but does not acknowledge the copied backup folder
Any suggestions?

Thanks, I followed the advice to uninstall the incomplete backup file and that seemed to be working nicely. However, while I was watching the backup progress - Backing up X of Y - as X got close to Y, Y started getting bigger. So as a result it is running out of disc space. I verified by hard disk and it passed without a problem. I suppose I could just go ahead and delete some to make more space so that when the backup starts getting bigger than expected it still has enough space.

Time Machine and Permissions Problem?

I recently bought another iBook as I ran my old one into the ground. Using Migration Assistant I had Time Machine restore my old files. The back up was on an external MyBook drive. All went well until I tried to drag-and-drop files to the external drive. The computer gave me the message that the drive could not be modified. It then gave me the option to authenticate which I did and then the files were written. This happens every time. Will anyone please tell me what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks
o

Niel
This solved most of my problems. One lingering is the constant refusal of Stuffit to expand items on to the external drive, saying it's write-protected. I have saved to the drive from Safari and Speed Download so I know that isn't true. Only when I used Stuffit does this happen. This didn't occur on my old Mac; only when I used the Migration Assistant combined with Time Machine. I'm going to delete Stuffit's .plist and see if this helps.

Time Machine Back Up Problem

Time Machine continually tells me that it needs over 500 GB of space to do a back up when I only have 125GB used on my iMac disk and that is if it takes everything. I can't seem to figure out what it's pulling and from where to limit it.

Jason Vasquez wrote:
Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist isn't listed in that folder.
If Time Machine is set up, yes it is. You won't see it via a Finder search, unless you include System Files. It's usually easiest to just navigate to it.
Also the only drive that are on my desktop are the Mac HD and the LaCie external I'm trying to back it up to.
See what's shown for +Estimated size of full backup+ under the +Do not back up+ box in TM Preferences > Options.
Also, Click here to download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window. Copy and post the messages from one of these problem backups here. There's probably a clue lurking there.

Time Machine Permissions Changed Problem

Greetings-
I'm experiencing problems restoring to built-from-scratch Lion OS installation on a new disk. Before starting the process I ensured everything was backed-up everything using Time Machine, which was backing-up regularly, then did a fresh install on a new disk drive in my machine. I began restoring files (not users) from Time Machine, which began okay, but when I went to restore some folders that were under Pictures on the orginal disk, I got the failure error message that I've seen posted about not having permission to write those files back to my new disk. I've used the same username and also checked that my UID was as before (501).
I read a few posting, and tried to change the permissions on the Time Machine external backup disk to my current user, and after modifying that backup disk, I discovered that my Time Machine backups only go back in time to when I changed the disk permissions! So now even if I look down through the Time Machine volume directory structure, the orginal folders are missing. Time machine made at least one backup, but now I need advice and trying to recover those old directories and backups.
Any advice is appreciated. I've tried some recovery software, but loosing the old structure makes life fairly difficult and heartbreaking. Thanks!

Two weeks after upgrading my system to Lion and transferring to a new hard drive -- I could find the files I wanted to restore from the day before on my external-drive Time Machine but couldn't restore because I didn't have "access to the GlobalNav.lbi."
I did not solve the problem, but while trying various things with Apple tech I stumbled onto the fact that I could access the Time Machine from my partition, on which I have 10.6.8.
Tech was at a loss because my 10.7 Recovery Drive is missing. I'm making a Lion install USB stick (from MacWorld article instructions) and will try to reinstall the system and Recovery Drive. I believe my Recovery Drive was damaged before moving my system to the new hard drive, perhaps by the hard drive that is being replaced by the manufacturer.

Time machine or drive problem? Either way I need a solution

I've been backing up my Mac onto an external drive successfully for quite some time now with Time Machine. The one day the drive icon quit showing up on my desktop and eventually I got a message from Time Machine that it hadn't done any backups in 10 days.
I ran Disk Utility of the backup drive and after an hour or two it reported that the disk was repaired successfully. Subsequent runs also report that the disk appears to be OK. But I can't mount the disk!
Disk utility tells me it can't mount the disk and that I should run Disk Repair... which obviously isn't solving the problem.
What now? I suppose I could try to reformat the drive, but I'd hate to have lost all those Time machine backups that I might need one day.
Suggestions?

Well, I do have a copy of Drive Genius 2 which I also ran. As with Disk Utility, after the two hour process, it says that the volume is OK... but it still wouldn't mount.
I was sceptical about the Time Machine "full reset", because no matter what is on my external drive I should be able to mount it and have a look.
So, instead I got ahold of a copy of Disk Warrior as suggested and put that to work. Sure enough, it was able to rebuild my disk directory... although it took 10-12 hours!!! There was an amazingly long list of everything that was corrupted and had to be fixed.
Keep in mind that all of that corruption must have been caused by Time Machine, since that's the only app that accesses that external drive. I never even open it with the Finder, since there's no need.
Time Machine is still running, now that the drive is operational again, so I won't declare this solved until I've watched it's performance for a while.
Anyway, thanks Pondini. It appears that Disk Warrior has an edge over its competitors.

Time Machine & Spotlight - Major Problem

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