Time Machine:The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly. .....

Hi,
I upgraded to Mountain Lion when it was released and yesterday I began getting this notice from Time Machine:
"The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly. Time Machine will try to make more space available by removing expired backups during the next scheduled backup."
I have a one terra external hard drive with exclusively Time Machine. It says it has 3.4 gigabytes available, but isn't deleting old backups and making room for new, like before. I tried the "encrypting" solution, but it still keeps on giving me this message. Should I erase and format? If so, what option should I chose to format?
My Hard Drive has 240 gigabytes, so 1Tb should be more than enough.
Thank you!
Gloria

SuperDuper and Time Machine are two completely different backup utilities. If you want something like what SuperDuper does then don't use Time Machine. You have many other options that won't use up all the space on your backup drive:
Backup Software Recommendations
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
SuperDuper!
Synk Pro
Tri-Backup
Others may be found at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Do the following to erase your drive:
Erase a Drive
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 Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

Similar Messages

Time Machine problem: backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly

Hi all,
I'm having trouble with Time Machine. Each time it tries to do a backup, it errors out.
Here is the most recent log from TM Buddy:
Starting manual backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backup/Backups.backupdb
Using file event preflight for Macintosh HD
Will copy (740.5 MB) from Macintosh HD
Found 1702 files (741 MB) needing backup
2.43 GB required (including padding), 57.43 GB available
Stopping backup.
Error: (-34) SrcErr:NO Copying /Users/Alan/Pictures/iPhoto Library (original)/Masters/2013/02/25/20130225-174952/IMG_1601.MOV to /Volumes/Time Machine Backup/Backups.backupdb/Alan’s iMac/2013-07-27-024450.inProgress/FE0FAB85-8482-43AF-B2D2-CB4804D0B0E9/Macintos h HD/Users/Alan/Pictures/iPhoto Library (original)/Masters/2013/02/25/20130225-174952
Copied 111323 files (57.29 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Copy stage failed with error:28
Backup failed with error: 28
It usually errors out in the middle of trying to backup the very large "iPhoto Library (original)" file, so I went digging into this file back in time. About a month ago, I emptied the trash in iPhoto for the first time, and the size of the iPhoto Library file shrank from 87 GB down to just 1 GB. That seems rather extreme, and according to iPhoto, I still should have approximately 62 GB of photos remaining. The last completed backup that Time Machine was able to make had the library file at 800 MB. Even more strange, the current iPhoto Library file on my iMac is 83 GB. So I think this is the reason why TM is trying to make another complete backup of this file.
I'm guessing that if TM is able to completely backup the iPhoto Library file, the errors will go away. Does this seem like a reasonable hypothesis?
If so, then I'll need to delete files on the TM volume to make more room. At one point last year, I had tried splitting my monolithic iPhoto Library into 3 smaller libraries, and later merged them again under the current name "iPhoto Library (original)". These changes/instances of the libraries were all captured on TM. If I delete the original monolithic iPhoto Library file (named "iPhoto Library") on the TM volume, will I also lose my current iPhoto library (named "iPhoto Library (original)"? In other words, how does TM distinguish one file from another? By the file name? Or some other more permanent identifier?

The backup volume was full. That shouldn't happen, because TM is supposed to manage disk space by deleting snapshots as needed to make room for a new one, up to the last complete snapshot, which is never removed automatically. Normally, a snapshot won't be started if there isn't enough space for it.
First, I strongly suggest that you make a new backup (not necessarily with Time Machine) on another external drive. A single backup isn't enough to be safe.
One possibility is that you were writing other data to the volume during the backup. Apple recommends that no other data be stored on a backup volume.
If you've moved any files to the Trash on the backup volume, empty the Trash.
Sometimes a reboot will clear the error.
Otherwise, turn Time Machine OFF temporarily in its preference pane. Launch Disk Utility, select the backup volume, and run Repair Disk. That operation may take a few hours. If the volume is repaired successfully, or if no problems are found, try another backup.
If TM still isn't working right, boot into Recovery (command-R at startup) and repair the startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) Reboot as usual and try TM again.
As a last resort, put the backup drive aside and don't use it until you're sure you'll no longer need the data. Then erase it and start over. Do this only if you have at least one other backup device.

Time Machine Error: The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly.

I keep getting the following message when I try to back up my MacBook using Time Machine: "The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly. Time Machine will try to make more space available by removing expired backups during the next scheduled backup."
However, I have deleted everything from the external harddrive, which holds 500 GB. I have only used 38.9 GB of space on my computer. The errors being recorded are as follows:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Iomega_HDD/Backups.backupdb
Error parsing SystemMigration.log to determine source volume of system migration.
Backup content size: 36.5 GB excluded items size: 5.0 GB for volume Macintosh HD
No pre-backup thinning needed: 38.19 GB requested (including padding), 437.50 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Stopping backup.
Error: (-34) SrcErr:NO Copying /Applications/.DS_Store to /Volumes/Iomega_HDD/Backups.backupdb/Jennifer Kwapisz’s MacBook/2011-08-06-113458.inProgress/9273E0A6-8BD8-4282-ACEC-E1E410605A89/Macin tosh HD/Applications
Copied 0 files (36 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Copy stage failed with error:28
Backup failed with error: 28
Any idea what's going on and what I need to do to fix it?

Please read this:
http://pondini.org/TM/C18.html
Ciao.

The backup volume ran out of space unexpectedly!?!?

I have been backing up all my data to a 100GB HD for 9 months with absolutely no problem, until today it popped up and say
"The backup volume ran out of space unexpectedly. Time Machine will try to make more space available by removing expired backups during the next scheduled backup."
I still have 2.6 GB space available and the backup went on as usual, except after "preparing", the xxMB out of xxMB change together. I rebooted my macbook and same thing happened again.
Is there anything I can do? I thought TM would delete my old back ups in order to make some space for my latest ones.
Many thanks!

Yes, usually it does. The "unexpected" part is not usual.
First, is there other data on the TM disk? If so, is it in the same partition?
Second, it sounds like TM may be trying to do a full backup (everything on your system). Have you had any of the following: Hardware repairs (if so, what?); done a full restore; gone more than a few days without a successful backup?
Third, how old is your oldest backup?
And there may be better messages in your logs. 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. If you see something there that seems suspicious, copy and post the messages here (be sure to get them all, as sometimes they overflow the small window).

Time machine The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Freedom Book.sparsebundle" is already in use.

I am getting the following error message from Time Machine (backing up to my 3 TB Time Capsule):
The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Freedom Book.sparsebundle” is already in use.
I have no idea why this would be in use, because only one MBP has the name "Freedom Book". Any advice on how to resolve? Running Mountaiin Lion 10.8.1.

I had the same error. I unplugged my TimeCapsule for 5 min from power. Plugged it back in to power then waited 10 min for everything to comunicate again. Clicked on backup now and it worked. Must have froze up or something.

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.

Time Machine - The backup disk image.. .could not be created (error 60)

Using an external 2 TB disk for Time Machine for iMac and MacBook Pro, both running 10.8.2. One month ago, upgraded MacBook from 10.5 to 10.8. Three weeks later, Macbook backups started failing. Ran TechTool on backup disk, found much corruption, reformatted it. iMac has always backed up to this disk just fine, but MacBook backups keep failing. LONG "Preparing to Backup" time, then suddenly "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer - Initialize, Ignore or Retry" followed immediately by "The backup disk image "Volumes/Backup2TB-1/MacBookPro.sparsebundle" could not be created (error 60). When I check the TMP file on the backup disk, it's gotten to about 17.9 Mb before quitting.
What could be getting in the way?
Thanks.

Launch the Keychain Access 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 Keychain Access in the page that opens.
Select the System keychain in the list of keychains in the sidebar of the window. If you don't see the list, click the down-arrow icon below the sidebar. Then select Passwords in the Category list at lower left. Click the Kind heading in the list of keychain items to arrange it by Kind. Locate the AirPort Disk Password with the name of your Time Capsule. Double-click the item and check the box marked Show Password in the inspector window that opens. You'll be prompted for the administrator login password. Make a note of the AirPort password, then close the inspector window and delete the item. Also delete all other AirPort DIsk Password items for that same Time Capsule, which may have had a different name in the past. Quit Keychain Access and try to back up again.

Time machine - "the backup disk image could not be mounted"

SInce a few days, I am unable to backup via Time Machine.
I always get the message:
TIME MACHINE ERROR
The backup disk image could not be mounted
I use an Apple Time Capsule and still have more than enough free space on it.
Use OS X 10.5.5
Help.....
Tks

Rosy,
*_"The Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Mounted" (Console - “Failed to mount disk image”)_*
First, it is important to distinguish this error message from another, similar Time Machine error that states “The backup volume could not be mounted”. This is important as the causes and cures for these two errors can be very different.
Consider each topic below separately. When one option does not resolve your issue, then move on the next one.
*Unmount the Backup Disk Image* (TC)
If, for some reason, you have manually mounted the Time Machine backup disk image (sparsebundle), or Time Machine failed to eject it after the previous backup, subsequent backups may fail. (Console - “Failed to mount disk image”… “Backup failed with error: 21”)
Eject the backup disk image (white drive icon) by either clicking the little Eject icon to the right of the disk image in the Finders’ Sidebar, or Ctrl-Click the drive icon on the desktop and select “Eject” from the contextual menu. Now try backing up again or launching Time Machine to view previous backups.
*“Disconnect All Users…”:*
If your Time Machine backup drive (“Backup of Users Computer”) is mounted on your desktop or in the Sidebar of the Finder window. then Time Machine may think the drive is already in use. Alternatively, if the Time Capsule hard disk has been recently accessed by a Windows machine, it may not have fully relinquished control. Do the following:
Open Airport Utility and select the Time Capsule on the left.
Click “Manual Setup”.
Select “Disks” at top of window.
Click “Disconnect All Users…” at bottom of window.
Close the Airport Utility.
Now try Backing up again.
“I got it resolved. Apparently it had to do with one of the files being open on the disk from the drive. I had browsed the disk with one of my windows boxes here and it must have left one of the folders "open". Anyway, I rebooted the TC and we are good to go now.”
*Proper Computer Name* #
Make sure your computer has a proper name. Go to System Preferences --> Sharing. Time Machine needs to differentiate your computer from others on your network (i.e. "Bills MacBook" or "Office iMac"). If the "Computer Name" field is blank, create a name. Realize that if this step is necessary, you will likely have to start the Time Machine backup process over again and do another full initial backup.
According to this article, [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1760], Time Machine may experience problems if your computer name includes certain characters. Make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from the following set.
(0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ)
Once a change in the computer name occurs, you should stop and restart Sharing on the affected computer. Uncheck and then recheck Sharing in the Services list on the left.
Let us know if any of the suggestions above resolves your issue.
Cheers!

Time Machine pops up a dialog window that the disk ran out of space unexpectedly.

This happens hourly, it seems. Should not be a problem if TM deletes the oldest backup (which it says it will do), so I don't care! VERY ANNOYING. How do I stop that message from popping up?
OS 10.8.4
TM drive is connected via USB.

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 all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the search box.
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 failure: Disk run out of space unexpectedly

Hi
I'm having serious problems in the last few days with Time Machine backups.
I have an iMac '27 (late 2009) running Mountain Lion 10.8.2. The internal disk is 1 TB, and I use an external FW HD LaCie d2 Quadra 1 TB for my TM backups. After 3 years the disk is always full, but old backups were regularly removed. All the possible source of large variable files were excluded long time ago (VM disks, temporary directories, large download files).
TM used to work quite smoothly, but now, since 10 days, the backup fails with the message
"The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly. Time Machine will try to make more space available by removing expired backups during the next scheduled backup."
I've checked previous messages in the forum about such an error, but the various cases do not seem to match my specific problem (or I was not able to find the message with working answer).
It seems that the "unexpected" problem is related to the fact that Time Machine is trying to backup again a large part of my filesystem, and it determines this fact only after the backup starts (so there is no pre-cleaning): when it happens I can see that the target size of the backup increases over time, while more and more data are written on the disk, until the disk is full.
I'll try to summarize my situations with an itemized list:
The current backup fails because it runs out of space, leaving an .inprogress file behind
The latest backup did not fail: the log report a successful backup (checked with Time Machine Buddy)
Examining the content of the latest backup, the one that did not fails, shows that some system directories, /Applications, /usr, and /bin are missing
So, possibly, the "unexpected" error happens because the system is backing up a lot of stuff (like 60GB), and TM discover this only after it starts writing the files
I've verified with Disk Utility both the TM disk and the internal HD, and they both report no problem.
After some digging around, I was able to make TM work again removing the .inprogress file (using the Pondini instructions), removing (using the "Star Wars" interface) the latest backup, the one with the incomplete content, and removing a few older backups to create some more free space.
The first time I thought it was a transient problem, but it happened again after a few days.
So the real issue is, why the latest successful backup is actually incomplete, with a large number of directories missing, but there is no hint of this in the logs?
I've read that old LaCie HDs might have problems with Mountain Lion, and with its power saving settings. May this be the cause? I did already turn off the power saving setting (put HD to sleep when possible) before the latest failure, but nothing changed.
I've also tried to update the d2 Quadra firmware, as indicated by other messages and on LaCie website, but the update fails and the provided instructions are less than useful (I'll try to contact LaCie on this issue).
My doubt is that this does not seem a power save issue... the failed backups happen while I'm actually using the machine (so no wake up/disk spin issue seems to happen), and the backups starts with no problem: they just finish abruptly with no apparent reason but with a success message.
Does anyone have problems similar to mine (successful but incomplete TM snapshots)? Is the problem triggered by the HD firmware, or there are other possible causes?
I plan to repair the TM one more time, and then keep it turned off to run only manual backups, but I'm aware that there is no guarantee that also a controlled manually started backup is not going to fail in a similar way.
Thanks for any suggestion.
Maurizio

I am not running out of space, but I do have the same problem. Every so often TM does a backup which is about 60 GB bigger than expected.   The extra is always a new backup of /System /Applications /usr etc. - that is the 'system files'.
The key thing is, as you have noticed:
Examining the content of the latest backup, the one that did not fail, shows that some system directories, /Applications, /usr, and /bin are missing
As a consequence the next backup is, in my case, 60 GB bigger because it includes all the system files.
It is as if 'systemFilesExcluded' was turned on for the previous backup (the one that 'did not fail'). But I have looked in the .exclusions.plist for this backup and it is exactly the same as for other backups and does include:
        <key>systemFilesExcluded</key>
        <false/>
It seems that TM is treating this as if <true/>.
Like you, I have done a disk verify and it finds no errors.
I think this must be a bug. I have had this on four occassions since upgrading to Mountain Lion. And it is doing a large one right now - I have caught it in the act!

Time Machine thinks backup disk is full but its not

I just purchased a new 1 Terabyte hard drive for backup. In the past I backed up both my internal Mac harddrive (250 Gb with 8gb free) and an external iOmega archive drive (DRIVE H 320Gb with 41Gb free) to a 500Gb Lacie drive. I purchased an iOmega 1 Terabyte drive (DRIVE G) because the Lacie drive was full. I went into Time Machine and changed the backup drive to the G one terabyte drive and did a full backup of my internal hard drive. When I did this I did not have the external H archive drive attached so Time Machine didn't back that up. I did it that way because I wanted to first backup the internal drive then do some work and then go backup the external archive drive over night. I plugged the H archive drive in, so it show up in the finder and then told Time Machine to Backup Now. It started the back up but right after doing the initial computations when it actually started backing up I got the standard error message that "the backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly..." I've double checked that the backup disk is set correctly in Time Machine to the 1Tb G drive and when I do a Get Info on the G drive it shows Capacity: 1TB, Available: 713.54 GB.
Is it possible something is wrong with the new drive? Can I test that?

Its funny how sometimes asking a question can prompt your thinking. As soon as I finished posting this I thought "of course Disk Utility". I ran a check disk and got the following error message:
Unused node is not erased (node = 107)
I did a restore which corrected the error. Turned Time Machine back on and its backing up the rest of my data now.

HT3275 I received this message and I'm unsure how to fix it "Time Machine couldn't complete backup to Time Capsule the backup disk image"/Volumes/The Vision Board/Alex Parry.sparsebundle" is already in use

I received this message and I'm unsure how to fix it "Time Machine couldn't complete backup to Time Capsule the backup disk image“/Volumes/The Vision Board/Alex Parry.sparsebundle” is already in use

Look at the more like this on the right column of the web page.
This is the most common error here.. we answer it 5-10times every day.
Simple method.. pull out the TC power cord .. count to 10.. plug in the TC power cord.
Look at the other references for more info.

Time machine couldn't complete the backup to johns airport time capsule. the backup disk is not available

time machine couldn't complete the backup to johns airport time capsule. the backup disk is not available

You may find answers at Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things related to Time Machine.

Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to time capsule-the backup disk is not available

Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup to time capsule-the backup disk is not available

Reboot the network in correct order.. modem.. router/TC.. clients.. 2min gap.
This is just standard windows.. woops, Mac OS networking now.

Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to "Time Capsule".The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data-1/Macintosh.sparsebundle" is already in use.

When I back up my macbook pro to time capsule 3TB, this appears:
"Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup to “Time Capsule”.The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data-1/Macintosh.sparsebundle” is already in use."
and I'm not able to back up. What do I do?

As noted in the link I posted, that's fine if you're the only user logged-on to the only Mac using the TC's disks (internal and/or USB externals). If not, that may corrupt other data being written, especially other backups.

Time Machine:The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly. .....

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