Time Machine; The back up disk is not available

Hello,
I have a time machine that has failed to sync since April. I am problem solving now. I deleted the backup disk in order to begin fresh and followed some threads on how to do so. I restarted the back up, now it is telling me the disk is unavialable. Any ideas?

Best to erase the Time Capsule drive correctly and then start over. (This will wipe the drive clean, so be sure to move any other data that you might have on the Time Capsule drive to another location)
Open Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility
Click on the Time Capsule icon, then click Edit in the next box
Click the Disks icon at the top of the next window
Click Erase
Choose the Quick Erase option....will only take a minute or two
Click Erase Disk
Then, set the path again for backups as above in the previous post and give it a go

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When trying to back up to a WD My Passport I get a message that says the back up disk is not available. Any ideas?

When trying to back up to a WD My Passport I get a message that says the back up disk is not available. Any ideas?

Find and run the Disk Utility program. In the list on the left side of the program window you should see two hard drives - the internal Mac drive and one labeled with Western Digital's name. (Not exactly sure how the WD drives appear.) Under each of those drives there will be another indented drive name. See picture below.
If you don't see two drives there's your problem - for some reason the Mac doesn't recognize that there's an external drive plugged in. Check cables, etc.
More than likely though you will see the two drives. See how in the picture I've selected the indented drive icon? Do the same for your WD drive. Now look at the bottom where it says Format. To use TimeMachine your format needs to be Mac OS Extended (journaled) and I'm betting it doesn't. After you've done that TM will be able to use the drive.

Time machine error - the back up disk is not available. Time machine no longer backs up.

My time machine quit backing up 2 weeks ago. How can I fix it?

Did you try the simple stuff?? Reboot the TC.. next.. reboot the whole network restarting in correct order?? ie modem.. TC.. client computers.. with 2min gap.
No luck we need to know more..
What modem.. is it a router?
What TC.. what firmware.. how is it connected?
What OS on the computer?

AFP error for new hard drive for time machine The network backup disk does not support the required AFP features.

Purchased Seagate network drive, ethernet attached to wireless router, set up went well but attempts at backup with Time Machine failed. "Do I need to erase disk and reformat or is this error message "The network backup disk does not support the required AFP features" indicating some other error?

That means the NAS drive's OS isn't compatible with the version of OSX you're running. See if the maker has an update.
See #C16 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

I can't connect to Time Capsule- error message: Backup disk is not available. Was working fine before.

I can't connect to Time Capsule- error message: Backup disk is not available. Was working fine before.

Restart it.. Does this all the time with Lion and even worse ML.
Restart the whole network if that doesn't work.. do it in correct order.. from off.. modem.. TC.. clients 2min gap.

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 backups present on disk but not seen

Hi. I just notice that on my macbookpro time machine is keeping creating the hourly backups, but I cannot see them anymore from the time machine interface.
All backup files seem to be on the disk, but whenever I enter the time machine I can only see the last one, as if I started the time machine for the first time.
Any idea why this is happening? And, more important, any idea on how to fix it?
I'm on a macbook pro with OS X 10.8.5; the time machine files are stored in an external USB disk.
Thank you for your support.

shuusaku wrote:
Hi. I just notice that on my macbookpro time machine is keeping creating the hourly backups, but I cannot see them anymore from the time machine interface.
All backup files seem to be on the disk, but whenever I enter the time machine I can only see the last one, as if I started the time machine for the first time.
Any idea why this is happening? And, more important, any idea on how to fix it?
I'm on a macbook pro with OS X 10.8.5; the time machine files are stored in an external USB disk.
Thank you for your support.
My TM did this after the upgrade to 10.9
When I first set it up, I just clicked to use the same drive I had been using, even though I'd just formatted it.
Apparently that causes the backups not to appear in the app.
So, here's what finally resolved it. I:
1. Opened Time Machine Preferences.
2. Turned Time Machine off.
3. Clicked "Select Disk...".
4. DELETED the TM disk I had previously selected.
5. Reformatted the TM disk once again.
6. Reopened Time Machine Preferences.
7. Reselected the newly formatted disk from the list.
8. Turned Time Machine back on, and let it begin backing up.
When I opened it the next morning, I had seven backups in the app to choose from.

Time machine says back up disk doesn't have enough room?

use to work no problem, now this... any help is appreciated.
macbook pro (late 2011, mavericks, 500gb HDD)
back up drive lacie and 500gb

I have had this problem with time machine on OS X Lion also.
About your only options are to Erase that drive then make a new TM backup or buy a new larger external drive.
Time machine is supposed to delete older backups to make room for new ones but in my experience that doesn't happen with the Lion TM system. Eraing the drive was what I had to do.

HT203177 My time machine wont back up - it comes up with 'the back up disk is unavailable' - can you please tell me how to resolve this?

I have just bought mac OSX 10.8.4 macbook air -
My time machine is saying 'the back up disk is not available' - I do not have a disk... how can I sort this problem so I am backed up..??

You cannot back up unless you have an external hard drive to back up to!

The time machine stopped backing up, the green light is on but it says it can't find the disc

The time machine was working perfectly but all of a sudden it stopped backing up. The green light on the time machine is on and it seems to be functioning correctly (I can access past backups). It is connected using wi fi. The message says that the back up disc is not available. My printer and the internet are also connected wirelessly and they are working OK.

I had the same problem a couple of days ago.
You'll have to Repair disk from Disk Utility on your T/M. But do this over Ethernet not Wifi. Then you 'll have to repair permissions. Once these steps are completed you should restart your Mac.

Does Time Machine make back-ups when nobody is logged on?

Hello,
Does Time Machine make back-ups when nobody is logged on and does it continue to back-up when I log off?
I'm using an directly connected external hard drive to back-up my data with Time Machine, the back-ups are encrypted.
Thanks in advance.

I had the same problem with Time Machine and solved it by enabling "Enable Power Nap" in Energy Saver:
System Preferences...
Energy Saver
Restore Defaults
Check "Enable Power Nap: While sleeping, your Mac can back up using Time Machine and periodically check for new email, calendar, and other iCloud updates."
2013 21.5 iMac
OSX Mavericks
Seagate 1 TB slim USB 3.0 (power is drawn from USB port), formatted to Mac Journaling File System

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

After installing lion, time machine does not always back up. The back up disk is occasionally not recognized.

after installing lion, time machine does not always back up. The back up disk is occasionally not recognized. Help!

This is easy one.. for most.. just restart the TC.. ie pull out the power.. count to 10.. plug in the power.
If the simple doesn't work you can see more info here.
C12 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

My external hard drive is not recognized by Time Machine; "The backup disk is not available" according to Disk Utility

I'm not completely tech savvy, but I'm having troubles with my external memory & time machine. I'm a student, and thus its very important to me to be able to back up my computer.
I wanted to back up my Time Machine the other day. I clicked the icon at the top of the page (beside the battery icon, etc.) and the message "The backup disk is not available". I have a 500GB Seagate passport (ie: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Seagate---FreeAgent-GoFlex-500GB-External-USB-2.0-Po rtable-Hard-Drive---Silver/9929098.p?id=1218196478444&skuId=9929098)
My macbook pro is version 10.7.5 Mac OS X Lion. My external memory is only about a year old. It hasn't been dropped or anything; it permanently sits secured to my desk.
What appears when I click "Repair Disk":
Verify and Repair volume “Time Machine Backups”
Checking file systemChecking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Detected a case-sensitive volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Incorrect block count for file shutdown_time
(It should be 1 instead of 0)
Invalid node structure
Rebuilding catalog B-tree.
The volume Time Machine Backups could not be repaired.
Volume repair complete.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
After clicking "Repair Disk" this message pops up: "Disk Utility Stopped Repairing 'Time Machine Backups' Disk utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many as your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files."
I don't want to wipe my memory on my external disk just in case the disk doesn't restore (as I do not have another disk to back up my computer on to).
What is going on? Why is this happening out of the blue? How can I fix this?

Sounds like it either has, or is about to die.
If you don't need anything off the old drive, then yes, replace it immediately with something a little more reolaable. I use WD Caviar Black personally. But anything that has a known low failure rate.

I would like to use time Machine to back up to a network SMB drive. I can see the drive on my desktop but it will not show in the time machine window to be able to select it

I currently have a mini server (OSX10.8.5, server 2.2.2) that I am using Time Machine to back up 4 external drives that are connected to the server via firewire 800. I would like to use Time Machine to back up to a windows network SMB drive. I can see the drive on my desktop but it will not show in the time machine window to be able to select it for use.
Can this be done
Thanks for any and all help

The supported targets for Time Machine backups are local (direct-connected) disks, and network targets include Time Capsule, a disk hanging off the current-generation AirPort (though not earlier AirPort devices), and OS X Server systems.
The Time Machine storage is based on the HFS+ file system, so I would not expect TM to work with SMB file services.
While there are hacks to allow Time Machine to access network drives, I would not consider those to be reliable. Skim the forum and the 'net for related details, and for previous discussions of setting this up and the related issues that can arise.
Remember to test the recovery with whatever you decide to use; whole point of backups is the ability to restore the data, after all.
If you want to learn more about Time Machine, Pondini is an excellent resource.

Time Machine; The back up disk is not available

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