Time Machine Stops Backing Up A Little While After It Starts

Hello I also have a problem. I have a 2 Tb Toshiba hard driver that stops backing up early on in the back up proccess. I tried it 2 computers and it would not back up for neither. This is what I got from using the time machine buddy.
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/RECO EXTENDED/Backups.backupdb
145.28 GB required (including padding), 1.80 TB available
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Error (256): fetching properties: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=256 "The file “IC_AppleTV.png” couldn’t be opened." UserInfo=0x7fc8c98521f0 {NSURL=file://localhost/Volumes/RECO%20EXTENDED/Backups.backupdb/Reco%E2%80%99s %20iMac/2011-12-08-024910.inProgress/D5BE534C-33B4-442D-A913-4D54DC5DC22D/Macin t osh%20HD/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/iTunes.help/Contents/Resour c es/ru.lproj/Art/IC_AppleTV.png, NSFilePath=/Volumes/RECO EXTENDED/Backups.backupdb/Reco’s iMac/2011-12-08-024910.inProgress/D5BE534C-33B4-442D-A913-4D54DC5DC22D/Macintos h HD/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/iTunes.help/Contents/Resources/ru .lproj/Art/IC_AppleTV.png, NSUnderlyingError=0x7fc8c9852540 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Input/output error"}
Stopping backup.
Error: (-43) SrcErr:NO Copying /Applications/iWork '09/Keynote.app/Contents/Resources/pt.lproj/BGNonCancelableProgressPanel.nib/ke yedobjects.nib to /Volumes/RECO EXTENDED/Backups.backupdb/Reco’s iMac/2011-12-08-024910.inProgress/18DE9A24-0DED-425C-ACAC-13211C677E31/Macintos h HD/Applications/iWork '09/Keynote.app/Contents/Resources/pt.lproj/BGNonCancelableProgressPanel.nib
Copied 132688 files (14 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Copy stage failed with error:11

A quick search for Toshiba finds several with problems of one sort or another. Hard to tell if it's really a pattern, but if the other drive works fine . . .
How old is this drive? You might want to check with Toshiba or the vendor.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16881781#16881781
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15946467#15946467
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16903380#16903380
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16755523#16755523
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16230622#16230622
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15466136#15466136
https://discussions.apple.com/message/10245199#10245199

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Time Machine stopped backing up certain files

Hi, I am running OS X Server 10.5.4. (Yes, upgrade is planned)
Time Machine has been running fine, backing up everything, etc.
However, at some point, Time Machine stopped backing up certain files regularly. The affected files are all Frontier databases (frontierkernel.org). They are 'open' files, and I wonder if this is the cause. However, I know that they used to be backed up regularly, without problems. So, maybe Time Machine was updated in 10.5.4 to change this behavior?
If I quit Frontier and then reopen it, Time Machine will back up the files. So, this tells me that TM can back up open files... sometimes. But, if I let the machine run for days, TM often skips these files, even though they have been updated on disk.
I've checked and these files are not set to be excluded from TM.
Any ideas? Thanks.

Bill Dennen wrote:
Waiting for index to be ready (-911 < 0)
Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.</div>
These aren't the cause, but might indicate a problem with, or communicating with, your TM drive. Try the things in #D2 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
Everything else looks normal (assuming the files in question are on the 06-0834 drive).
Since the same files are backed-up sometimes but not others, it's probably also not something corrupted (usually, corruption will cause the backup to fail, but rarely a whole folder won't get backed-up).
So we're back to your original suspicion that they weren't backed-up because they were open. Normally, an open file will be backed-up. In the case of large databases, that's often a problem, as the entire database is backed-up if only a single small change is made, often taking up a lot of time and disk space. There are a many threads here about that.
There does appear to be an extended attribute that will prevent TM from backing up a file. XCODE seems to set that on it's "build" folders, for example. Perhaps the Frontier package sets it while the files are open, and removes it when they're closed? If so, maybe there's an option somewhere to disable that?
Can you check with the Sourceforge folks about that?
Otherwise, sorry, but I'm out of ideas.

Time Machine stopped backing up files 2 years ago!

So... I recently tried to restore my Macbook to an earlier time and discovered that Time Machine stopped backing up my files (documents, music, photos, etc) years ago! When I select a time period (say Sept 24, 2013) the actually files included in the backup are from no later than 2010. Why did this happen? I thought Time Machine backed up everything. I did not exclude anything and it certainly backed them up at one point. I'm not sure if there is some way that I am missing to retrieve information that was "backed up" a week ago.

A backup was listed for a week ago, it's just that when I went into the files looking for what was missing (music, for example) there is nothing new since 2010. That's years worth of new files missing all the while thinking that Time Machine was backing them up. My external hard drive was connected and Time Machine was performing that backups as usual without any indication that something was going wrong. There are dozens of backup slots over that time frame that are missing the new files.

Time Machine stopped backing up my user directory

After many successful back-ups Time Machine stopped backing up my user directory. After reading many blogs I delted everything (it took days!) and started with an empty externel HD. To my suprise the new back up has the same problem. HELP!

I have the SAME problem with my imac 7,1 (2007) running os 10.8.5. What is the fix?
i checked and i do NOT have FileVault enabled. so, why is TMachine NOT backing up? this is a rather horrifying discovery. i only learned
about it when i tried to restore some downloaded files. Thanks for any help.

Time Machine stopped backing up to Time Capsule

Three weeks ago, my Time Machine stopped backing up to My Time Capsule. I get a Time Machine Error that says the backup disk is not available. When I go into Time Machine on my Systems Preferences and click Select Disk, I get None. If I then go to Set Up Time Capsule, Airport Utility finds my Time Capsule.
I click through where it asks whether I want to change some settings for this Time Capsule. I click all the way through, changing nothing. And of course, I haven't resolved the problem. I don't want to go back to factory settings because I have archived a lot of old home movies on the Time Capsule and am afraid I'll lose them.
The only changes I've made recently that may affect this have to do with a mobileme account. I've been using one mobileme account for work for several years. Three weeks before I started having problems with the Time Capsule, I started a MobileMe account for the family. Now, when I sync all of our machines, the system looks for a new local host, which I have created. About the time I started syncing my computers is about the time the Time Machine stopped backing up.
Can switching between the two local hosts be the source of my problem?
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Turns out my Hard Drive went down. Not sure why.

Time machine stopped backing up due to not enough space. What to do?

On my MacBook time machine stopped backing up and the message said not enough space . What can I do?

Broadly speaking you can supply more space.. or delete the old backups to regain existing space.
You have posted in the TIme Capsule area.. but I am not sure if that is what you are using as people mix up Time Capsule (TC) and Time Machine (TM) on a regular basis. TC is hardware router with a disk in it for backups to be stored.. TM is the software on the Mac that does backups.
So TC is not exactly flexible.. but you can add a USB hard disk to it.
This is not always a great idea.. but can work for people using wireless which is slower even than USB.
The internal disk of the TC can be upgraded.. only do this if you accept the risk and most likely it is no longer under warranty.
You can buy a TC with a bigger hard disk and sell off the old one.. except you might already have 3TB one in which case you will need to run two.
You can use a local drive instead of a network drive.
So buy a USB drive and plug it into your computer.. this is a good solution for desktops.. less great for laptops which are carried around as you forget to backup.
OR
Wipe the current backups and start anew.. You can also archive the old backups wipe the existing disk and start over.
Tell us which you prefer and if it is more difficult than go and buy a new disk and plug it in tell us.

Time Machine stopped backing up. What do I do???

Time Machine stopped backing up 3 days ago. Even though the desktop Icon periodically revolves to show a backup is occurring, when I go into Time Machine I see the last time it backed up was 3 days ago. I have it backing up to a 1 Terrabyte drive and there are still close to 300 GB available. It has been working fine up until 3 days ago.
One suspicion I have: I installed a demo version of MacScan which erased all my cookies. I may have done this on the day Time Machine stopped working correctly. Does Time Machine depend on any cookies?
Help

shrink1 wrote:
Time Machine stopped backing up 3 days ago. Even though the desktop Icon periodically revolves to show a backup is occurring, when I go into Time Machine I see the last time it backed up was 3 days ago. I have it backing up to a 1 Terrabyte drive and there are still close to 300 GB available. It has been working fine up until 3 days ago.
One suspicion I have: I installed a demo version of MacScan which erased all my cookies. I may have done this on the day Time Machine stopped working correctly. Does Time Machine depend on any cookies?
Help!!!
Is it possible that MacScan went into your TM backup and corrupted it by removing files (cookies, etc.)? If you modify the contents of the TM backup improperly, you can totally hose the entire backup. In general only TM should be allowed to modify it's own contents via the TM app.

My Time capsule/time machine stopped backing up and states no disk found-now I can't even get connected to time capsule

My Time capsule/time machine stopped backing up and states no disk found-now I can't even get connected to time capsule. When I go into sys pref and time machine nothing comes up and it just keeps stating rescan

Go to to your Users/Home/Library/Application Support/iWeb folder in the Finder and then enter Time Machine. Go back to the last backup that has the domain file, select it and use the Restore button.
OT

Why time machine stopped backing up my application folder?

Help! About a month ago time machine stopped backing up the application, library, private and system folders and only back up the users folder. what happened? I cant seem to make machine back up everything anymore.

Since a few days I have exactly the same problem.
"Time Machine stopped backing up the application, library, private and system folders and only back up the users folder."
I did all the checks without success. Thereafter I deleted the backup disk and started a new copy on a new formatted disk.
Same result.

HT201250 Time Machine stopped backing up system folders

A couple of months ago, Time Machine stopped backing up my System folder and my Library folder. What is going on?

ttimshell wrote:
i'm sorry, i don't understand. i went to "time machine preferences" and "options." under options are all my external hard drives, and that's it. you said, "if THEY'RE shown there, select them . . ." what is the "THEY" that you're talking about?
Your system folders. Some people don't want them (and/or other things) to be backed-up.
i don't see any option to change what time machine backs up and what it doesn't back up.
That's where you can tell it not to back up certain things, or to back up external HDs. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #10.
I don't recall seeing those folders not being backed-up unless they were specifically excluded. Is your Applications folder getting backed-up?
Perhaps the preferences file has been damaged. Try a "full reset" of Time Machine, per #A4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
EDIT: Note that when TM does back them up for the first time, it will be a fairly large backup, and seem pretty slow. That's because those folders contain many thousands of mostly small files.
Message was edited by: Pondini

Time Machine stops backing up external disk

I have 907 GB of backups on my WD 1 TB backup disk. Further backups blocked. Tried unsuccessfully to erase disk with utility. Support item MAC OS X 10.5 ("Time Machine stops backing up on external disk") gave instructions for partitioning the back up disk: "Partition failed could not unmount disk" Ran disk utility again. Verified and ran repair to backup disk. Response is that partition is okay. Have heard that Mountain Lion can cause backup problems. Anybody help please?

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 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.

Time Machine stopped backing up but doesn't give warning/error

Hi,
by chance I noticed, that Time Machine doesn't backup up any more, but still doesn't give errors. In Console I see the following for a now typical run:
21.04.15 09:58:11,493 com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup
21.04.15 09:58:12,043 com.apple.backupd: Backing up to: /Volumes/drosera-backup-02/Backups.backupdb
21.04.15 09:58:41,729 com.apple.backupd: 5.18 GB required (including padding), 96.84 GB available
21.04.15 09:58:55,149 com.apple.backupd: Copied 23 files (93 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
21.04.15 09:59:04,385 com.apple.backupd: Copied 36 files (93 bytes) from volume DATA.
21.04.15 09:59:06,100 mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
21.04.15 09:59:06,102 com.apple.backupd: Starting post-backup thinning
21.04.15 09:59:07,668 com.apple.backupd: Deleted /Volumes/drosera-backup-02/Backups.backupdb/drosera/2015-04-20-183344 (24.0 KB)
21.04.15 09:59:07,668 com.apple.backupd: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
21.04.15 09:59:07,762 com.apple.backupd: Backup completed successfully.
The 5.18 GB are never backed up. The backup drive (drosera-backup-02) is attached by FireWire. I have checked the disk with First Aid, I have disconnected and reconnected it. I removed the backup disk from Time Machine, stopped TM and reconfigured. I stopped mds, ran backups and reenabled mds. All to no avail.
I am at a complete loss and I'd appreciate to get this running w/o having to remove all existing backups. Any ideas or pointers?
I'm running Mac OS X 10.7.5 on a Mac mini
Cheers
Frank

Thx. I had already tried the hints from mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume to no avail. Your tip to rebuild the Spotlight index would probably helped, too. But just before getting yout comment and after reading http://pondini.org/TM/Works.html and http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/69054/force-time-machine-to-perform-a-d eep-traversal I had simply removed /.fseventsd and reran a backup. That seems to have fixed the problem (at least for the time being).
Interesting side note: During the non-backup phase I created a new account on the Mac and ran TM. This triggered a one-time working backup of the whole system, but all subsequent backups again failed silently. Additionally the externally attached FireWire harddrive was always backed up correctly, only backups of the local drive failed.

Time Machine stopped backing up now

Time machine was working well ( i think!) but now takes up an enormous amount of space 180gb. My external drives are too small at 160gb and I feel time machine has multiplied the amount of space it needs as my hard drive only contains 75gb of data.
Help! I have tried removing files and some applications from the back up volume, but it still wants more space than the apparent volume to back up.
Do I need a bigger external hard drive or will it keep multiplying as I suspect it will.
Thanks

Rob,
This might give you some ideas as to why it's filling up so fast.
*_Incremental Backups Seem Too Large!_*
Open the Time Machine Prefs on the Mac in question. How much space does it report you have "Available"? When a backup is initiated how much space does it report you need?
Now, consider the following, it might give you some ideas:
Time Machine performs backups at the file level. If a single bit in a large file is changed, the WHOLE file is backed up again. This is a problem for programs that save data to monolithic virtual disk files that are modified frequently. These include Parallels, VMware Fusion, Aperture vaults, or the databases that Entourage and Thunderbird create. These should be excluded from backup using the Time Machine Preference Exclusion list. You will, however, need to backup these files manually to another external disk.
If you do a lot of movie editing, unless these files are excluded, expect Time Machine to treat revised versions of a single movie as entirely new files.
If you frequently download software or video files that you only expect to keep for a short time, consider excluding the folder these are stored in from Time Machine backups.
If you have recently created a new disk image or burned a DVD, Time Machine will target these files for backup unless they are deleted or excluded from backup.
*Events-Based Backups*
Time Machine does not compare file-for-file to see if changes have been made. If it had to rescan every file on your drive before each backup, it would not be able to perform backups as often as it does. Rather, it relies on a process called FSEvents. This is a system log that records changes that occur with all the directories on your Mac. Moving / copying / deleting / & saving files and folders creates events that are recorded in this log. At the beginning of each backup, Time Machine simply looks at this log to determine what has changed since the last backup. [http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/14]
Installing new software, upgrading existing software, or updating Mac OS X system software can create major changes in the structure of your directories. Every one of these changes is recorded by the OS as an event. Time Machine will backup every file that has an event associated with it since the installation.
Files or folders that are simply moved or renamed are counted as NEW files or folders. If you rename any file or folder, Time Machine will back up the ENTIRE file or folder again no matter how big or small it is.
George Schreyer describes this behavior: “If you should want to do some massive rearrangement of your disk, Time Machine will interpret the rearranged files as new files and back them up again in their new locations. Just renaming a folder will cause this to happen. This is OK if you've got lots of room on your backup disk. Eventually, Time Machine will thin those backups and the space consumed will be recovered. However, if you really want recover the space in the backup volume immediately, you can. To do this, bring a Finder window to the front and then click the Time Machine icon on the dock. This will activate the Time Machine user interface. Navigate back in time to where the old stuff exists and select it. Then pull down the "action" menu (the gear thing) and select "delete all backups" and the older stuff vanishes.” (http://www.girr.org/mac_stuff/backups.html)
*TechTool Pro Directory Protection*
This disk utility feature creates backup copies of your system directories. Obviously these directories are changing all the time. So, depending on how it is configured, these backup files will be changing as well which is interpreted by Time Machine as new data to backup. Excluding the folder these backups are stored in will eliminate this effect.
*Backups WAY Too Large*
If an initial full backup or a subsequent incremental backup is tens or hundreds of Gigs larger than expected, check to see that all unwanted external hard disks are still excluded from Time Machine backups. Time Machine will attempt to backup any hard disk attached to your Mac, including secondary internal drives, that have not been added to Time Machines Exclusion list.
This includes the Time Machine backup drive ITSELF. Normally, Time Machine is set to exclude its’ own backup disk by default. But on rare occasions it can forget. When your backup begins, Time Machine mounts the backup on your desktop. (For Time Capsule/AirDisk users it appears as a white drive icon labeled something like “Backup of (your computer)”.) If, while it is mounted, it does not show up in the Time Machine Preferences “Do not back up” list, then Time Machine will attempt to back ITSELF up. If it is not listed while the drive is mounted, then you need to add it to the list.
*Recovering Backup Space*
If you have discovered that large unwanted files have been backed up, you can use the Time Machine “time travel” interface to recovered some of that space.
Launch Time Machine from the Dock icon.
Initially, you are presented with a window that represents “Today (Now)”. DO NOT make changes to file while you see “Today (Now)” at the bottom of the screen.
Click on the window just behind “Today (Now)”. This represents the last successful backup and should display the date and time of this backup at the bottom of the screen.
Now, navigate to where the unwanted file resides.
Highlight the file and click the Actions menu (Gear icon) from the toolbar.
Select “Delete all backups of <this file>”.
*FileVault / Boot Camp / iDisk Syncing*
Note: Leopard has changed the way it deals with FileVault disk images, so it is not necessary to exclude your Home folder if you have FileVault activated. Additionally, Time Machine ignores Boot Camp partitions as the manner in which they are formatted is incompatible. Finally, if you have your iDisk Synced to your desktop, it is not necessary to exclude the disk image file it creates as that has been changed to a sparsebundle as well in Leopard.
If none of the above seem to apply to your case, then you may need to attempt to compress the disk image in question. We'll consider that if the above fails to explain your circumstance.
Let us know if this was helpful.
Cheers!

Time Machine stops backing up in the middle of preparing items

Note: As it may soon become clear, I'm not all that computer literate (i.e. many of the solutions I've read here for problems similar to mine tend to leave my head spinning), so please be as patient & as simple as possible in answering.
My Intel MacBook from 2006 runs OS X 10.6.8. I've always backed up via Time Machine to a Protronix external HD, and for a while, it worked just fine. Sometime in April, I disconnected the external from my MacBook in order to travel with it, and I just hadn't bothered reconnecting it until a few days ago (these days, I don't use my computer nearly as often as I used to). The external is still recognized just fine, and I can even browse through my older backups in Time Machine. However, whenever it attempts to backup now, either on schedule or if I click to do so manually, it successfully scans some 700K or so items, then it starts preparing them, and then it just stops after preparing 21K or so items. No error message, nothing. If I watch the progress bar closely, I can sometimes see the status change to "cleaning up" for maybe half a second, but then it still stops entirely, as if it had somehow finished (though no message says so). I've tried dozens of times now, and I have rebooted the MacBook &/or disconnected the external drive several times, yet after every backup attempt it always says my latest backup is from April.

Select "Back Up Now" from the Time Machine icon, and wait for it to complete. From what you describe that won't take long.
Then:
Find the Console app - it is in your Utilities folder and looks like this
You can find it by selecting Utilities from the Finder's Go menu.
Open Console.
If the log list column on the left is not already displayed, show the log list by selecting Show Log List from Console's View menu.
Locate system.log in the list and select it. Many date and time-stamped entries will appear, hundreds of them, and you must find the entries relevant to your Mac's problem.
To do that type the words backupd in the Filter field at the upper right of the Console window. That will cause all log entries to be hidden, except for the entries containing those words.
Copy and paste those log entries in a reply. If hundreds of the same repetitive messages appear, please edit them before posting.
Most of the entries will be cryptic but will contain information you might consider personal such as your Mac's name. If you do not want that information to appear, delete or obscure it when posting your reply. Leave enough information so that the entries can be deciphered.

Time Machine stopped backing upto to Time Capsule

Hi, my machine has been happily backup to my time capsule using Time Machine for a long time (years) but yesterday just stopped at '15k' and wont go any further. Below is a report from Time Machine buddy which doesn't see to make a lot of sense to me.
Starting standard backup
Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/spectrum's%20Time%20Capsule
Backup destination mounted at path: /Volumes/spectrum's Time Capsule-1
Disk image /Volumes/spectrum's Time Capsule-1/Mac 7_001f5bf5f861.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of Mac 7
Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of Mac 7/Backups.backupdb
2010-09-22 13:03:20.982 FindSystemFiles21281:713 Querying receipt database for system packages
2010-09-22 13:03:21.442 FindSystemFiles21281:713 Using system path cache.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 3.04 GB requested (including padding), 3.50 GB available
I think I may have been downloading from iTunes when this problem started.
I have another machine backing up to same time capsule which is still working fine.
Can anyone tell me what to do.
Thanks

Ok. What you're seeing is the +disk image+ inside the +sparse bundle.+
Double-click the Time Capsule in a Finder window's sidebar. In Column view, it should look something like this:
|
|
Except that in the 3rd column there should be a +sparse bundle+ named +*<your computer name>.<12 numbers & letters>.sparsebundle.+*
If there's nothing else on the Time Capsule, it's easiest to just erase it entirely, via +*Airport Utility.+* Select +*Base Station > Manual Set-Up+* from the Menubar, then Disks in the tool Bar, then Erase.
If there is other data there, then delete the sparse bundle and empty the trash (that may take a while).
Then let Time Machine start over, with a new, full backup.

Time Machine Stops Backing Up A Little While After It Starts

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