Time Machine suddenly no longer backs up

After backing up with the the time machine for over a week successful (on two computers using a common time machine), the time machine keeps failing when attempting a back up - I get the error message "unable to complete backup; an error occurred while creating the backup directory." Any ideas?

Thanks for the comment, I also have an external drive but it is connected through a firewire port. I'll try disconnecting the external drive, but I suspect your situation going through the TC was different.
I erased the TC and started all over with an ethernet cable to do the initial backup, then switched back to wireless backups. It backed up for a day or so and then quit. When I hit "back up now" it starts up and begins "preparing" and then just hangs - never starts the actual backup. It will hang all night with no error messages.
I also take the laptop to work so I manually stop and start the TC - this may be contributing to my problem but I don't think it should.

Similar Messages

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

I have suddenly become unable to access photo library iPhoto (vers 9.5) on my external drive. And time Machine will no longer back up to the same external (LaCie) drive. Appreciate all suggestions. The drive does show up on my desktop....

I have suddenly become unable to access photo library (iPhoto vers 9.5) on my external hard drive. Also time machine isnt backing up to same external hard drive (LaCie). The drive does show up on the desk top, but when i open iPhoto the library isnt listed, so I cant option click.

First, one should not try to run an iPhoto library from the same volume/drive that is being used by Time Machine for backups. TM will continue to fill up the drive thus squeezing out iPhoto from being able to be opened and used. Also that doesn't allow you to let TM backup your library as it does with other files on your boot drive.
If you partition the EHD into two separate partitions you can run the library from it but that won't let TM backup the library which is important.
Are you able to see the library on the EHD via the Finder? If so copy it back to your boot drive and open it there. You may have to do some fixing on it.
Solution is to either run the library from the boot drive or get a second EHD to run the library from and let TM back it up along with your boot drive.
OT

Time machine is no longer backing up to time capsule

Time Machine has stopped backing up to my time capsule. I think that it started sometime around when I upgraded to Mavericks. Whenever I try to backup my computer is says backup failed. I am still able to access all of my data including backups, pictures, videos etc through finder so the only issue seems to be time machine. I am also having the same problems with my macbook air which is running Mountain Lion.
I have tried reselecting the time capsule and even restored it to factory settings and set it up from scratch but I am still having the same issues.
Could someone please help. I am not sure what else to try.

Are you using wireless?
Can you take a screenshot of the actual error message and post it..
Have you tried some of the pondini solutions.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
A1 load the widget so you get actual data on errors from the TM log.
A4 do a reset of TM
I would not be surprised that Mavericks has made it go bad.
Have you used SMB compatible names, ie short, no spaces and pure alphanumeric? Use that for everything, ie TC name and wireless name/s
What Mac is this.. and what model TC??

HT201250 Time Machine can no longer back up files

I was using Time Machine to back up files to a WD Elements hard drive. Lately I started to get error messages the back-up failed. Previously Finder would list back-up files for that drive, but now it only shows empty folders. Get Info still shows 60 GB of used space on the external drive. Can I retrieve those files, or is all lost and I must reformat the hard drive?

I would connect the Time Machine HDD to your Mac and open Disk Utility and select First Aid, Verify the disk and run a Repair if necessary. If that does not solve the problem, I suspect that the HDD is failing. Then I suggest transferring the backup data to another HDD, or perhaps just start from square one with a new HDD and back up the entire internal HDD.
Ciao.

My time Machine is no longer backing up my HD.

2 Days ago I installed a new wireless Canon MX 892 multifunction printer, with help from a Canon tech. Wireless printing works fine, I have access to the internet, and emails are coming and going. But my Time Capsule will not auto back up now, and I can't connect to the backup volume. What do I need to do?

Just restart the TC..ie pull out the power cord.. count to 10.. plug in the power cord.
If that isn't enough restart modem.. TC.. computer in that order with 2min gap.
It is just stupid bugs in OS and TC firmware.

My time machine is no longer backing up. Says that it is in use by "[our] MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" What the **** does that mean? I am sick of all the jargon that makes your product useless to me when something goes wrong. Might as well buy a PC.

THIS IS USELESS "SERVICE."

Do you want help.......or do you want to complain?
If you want help......and don't mind a somewhat technical exercise......
Pull the power cord from the back of the Time Capsule
Count to ten
Plug the power cord back into the back of the Time Capsule
Wait a few minutes, then try another backup.
If you want to complain......complain to Apple, as we are all users here.....just like you.
Apple - Time Capsule - Feedback

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.

HT5988 I downloaded Mavericks and now my WD Smartware that I use for Time Machine is no longer compatible with this OSX version? How do I make that unit compatible? olefromca

I downloaded Mavericks and now my WD Smartware that I use for Time Machine is no longer compatible with this OSX version? How do I make that unit compatible? olefromca

I agree entirely, been messing with this since the upgrade to Mavericks but I didn't find it quite as easy as uninstalling the WD smartware as it still operates when you plug the drive back in - I think it gets loaded onto the drive and runs from within (?). The advice from WD was that time machine was faulty and I should contact Apple...thanks guys!
Anyway, for the OP's benefit, this is what I found:
1. My problem was that time machine couldn't see any further back than before the Mavericks install, but if I opened up and interrogated the WD drive, the old backups were still there.
2. When TM started doing new backups, it overwrote the ones that it could see, not the oldest ones on the drive. This indicated to
me that the WD software had somehow partitioned off the old backups and excluded that part of the drive from being overwritten. Of course, as the drive was practically full, it meant that any new backups wouldn't fit in the available space.....
3. The only way I could find to resolve this was to use the disc utility to erase and repartition the external drive. This will obviously remove all of the old files and backups, but I was more concerned about keeping a current profile as backup rather than a load of stuff from months ago.
4. Anyway, what happens after the eraseure has completed is that you get the WD icon on the desktop, and you're invited to install the software - this means the software has now been deleted. Juts don't reinstall it, just let TM do it's backup and all is well.
Usual disclaimers and warnings about keeping another copy of your system etc. obviously apply, and I know this is a radical move to delete all your old data but it worked for me. I guess I didn't appreciate that you could use the external drive without the software that came with it and just followed the screen guide.
I'm also aware that if you don't want to use TM to do a complete restore and only want to find one old version of a document, this is difficult. However, you can then install the WD software and find the file but you'll then have to do this all again.....

After having the logic board replaced, Time Machine will no longer backup my computer to the same backup files as before.

After having the logic board replaced due to bad NVidia chip, my Time Machine will no longer backup my computer to the current backup. Is there a way to reset something to get Time Machine to continue to use the same backup files as before for this laptop?

As far as TM is concerned you have a new computer, so it will make a new backup. If you don't have the space for both backups then erase your backup drive before backing up the computer.

Time Machine allows you to back up everything, but if you are using Mavericks (10.9) does it still allow you to restore everything?

More and more files are now hidden in OS 10.9 (Mavericks). Many users here have already expressed their frustrations with iCloud (see for example <https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5460803?start=2835&tstart=0>). This relates to Time Machine because that is where we are used to backing up our data if it gets deleted, either because of a user mistake or because of a software problem. If files on Time Machine are no longer easily accessible, then arguably it's not worth using.
This may be a problem with a lot of ramifications, but I want to ask a specific question: how can you use Time Machine to restore Contacts and Calendar files? (Please don't suggest using iCloud instead, I want to know how to do it with Time Machine.) Thanks for any ideas.

The answer is (of course) yes.
Calendars and Contacts, whether in iCloud or not are on your computer, TM will back up and restore them.

Why is time machine indexing so long?

why is time machine indexing so long?

ismail2000 wrote:
my brand new Time Capsule.
You never reported back that you read the link I posted. You are under warranty. Call Apple tech support.

Time machine takes very long time

Time machine takes very long time to write the back up.
For writing 2,33 GB (from 26,33GB) it takes abou14 hours and I don't know, why it is so very slow. I work with USB 3.0 2 TB external hard disk drive.

Try Here > http://pondini.org/TM/D2.html
From Here > http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Time Machine HD no longer recognized

The hard drive I've been using for Time Machine is no longer being recognized by the OS or Time Machine. I've tested the drive, and it 100% works. I've also tested the USB ports and they work too! I tried plugging it into another Mac and it also ignores the drive. I feel like Time Machine messed up something and now the drive is being ignored. The drive sometimes shows up in the disk utility but never with the drive name so I can't verify the disk or anything.

what do you mean the drive 100% works? if it doesn't show up in disk utility and doesn't mount that is clearly not the case. if you can't repair the drive and it doesn't mount you have to reformat it. this will wipe the drive of course.

When backing up on time machine is get " The back up disk image'/volume/data/eric balnchard's Macbook.sparbundle"could not be accessed (error-1). what does it mean? it's a new time machine

when backing up on time machine is get " The back up disk image'/volume/data/eric balnchard's Macbook.sparbundle"could not be accessed (error-1). what does it mean? it's a new time machine

Expect to see this error again due to a bug in Lion (and Mountain Lion).
See # C17 in Pondini's excellent support document below, or look over to the right of this web page under the heading of More Like This
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Time Machine suddenly no longer backs up

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