Time Machine to Time Capsule locking my Macbook - help?

I'm close to returning my new 1tb Time Capsule and buying a cheap router. Much frustration
My network consists of 3 Macs - 1 G5 iMac and 2 first gen Macbooks (10.6). One Timecapsule, with an Airport Express as an extender. A few other devices (couple of Tivo's, couple of iPhones, printer etc) too. They all work flawlessly.
The iMac has no Time Machine (10.4) - Wireless backups using "Backup" take forever, but do eventually work.
The Macbooks do - one is a lesser used machine with only 50gb or so on the drive - we did the first backup via ethernet and the rest is fine, and as expected. It gets affected when the AE drops internet (more below).
My Macbook is a different story - the initial backup is close to 200gb, and seems to lockup even over ethernet (everything freezes, system clock stops at a set time).
I did get one initial backup, but the incremental backups are still incredibly slow - I'm a photographer, so one photo shoot could be 2gb of files to backup over the WAN. It never seems to complete - usually Firefox or iTunes will crash (Not Responding), sometimes my local airport express may fail and drop internet connection (a soft reset from the Airport Util brings it back, assuming my Macbook is still up).
I'm getting very frustrated - my Macbook needs to be wireless, and Time Machine needs to just work. Local drives work fine, I've not had a problem with a local USB drive in the past few years - but I didn't drop $400 on a Time Capsule to keep a local drive just for the most used Macbook.
Everything is 802.11G (core duo Macbooks didn't have 802.11N). All non Mac devices work, even with the AE in a hung state.
If I don't use Time Machine on my machine, or if I do my backups to USB drives, everything on the other machines is fine. Why can't it handle the large backups (even if it's slow)? Why does it crash my local machine, and sometimes the AE?
If I can't get this working, I'll just stick with my local USB drive, exchange the Time Capsule for a regular router and save myself close to $300, and be very unhappy

Time Capsule cannot handle large (100gb_ updates over wifi (G), regardless of time left alone. Have had to buy a second external drive for my Macbook, and pushing everything else over the wire.

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Macbook backs up with time machine to time capsule, imac won't

I'm going nuts, and have spent hours trying to fix this. My family moved from PCs to macs a couple of years ago- we've got three Macs having varying success backing up with time capsule. 1. Our macbook backs up with time machine to time capsule- it even backed up today. 2. Recently attempted to back up the imac for the first time- it starts backing up (maybe 3%) but stops and I end up getting an error message-it has never backed up- 3. The macbook pro has backed up many times but recently has not backed up. It gets the same error message as the imac when time machine is used to back up to time capsule. As an added treat, i attempted to backup the imac with time machine to an external hard drive, it began backing up, stopped and I got the same error message: "time machine error unable to complete backup an error occurred while copying files." Little help!

dilagan wrote:
i attempted to backup the imac with time machine to an external hard drive, it began backing up, stopped and I got the same error message: "time machine error unable to complete backup an error occurred while copying files." Little help!
Yes, that message is not some of Apple's best work.
Most likely, there's a damaged/corrupted file that Time Machine is choking on. See #C3 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum).
If you're getting a different message from the Pro, see #C2.

My Time Machine Strategy for both iMac and MacBook...

1) Get 1TB external drive, format as HFS+ (including the Gizmodo hint about reformatting Fat32 drives properly by setting GUID Partition table)
2) Attach external drive to MacBook directly-run Time Machine overnight for initial full backup
3) Attach external drive to iMac directly-run Time Machine overnight for initial full backup
4) Attach external drive to my Mac Mini (running Leopard)-don't run Time Machine
5) Point the iMac and MacBook to the networked drive for future incremental Time Machine backups, by mounting the external drive permanently attached now to the Mac Mini as a shared drive.
This way, I get the tedious original backup thru direct connection-native Firewire speeds, then rely on the networked wired (iMac) and networked wireless (MacBook) connections for the incremental backups (which, given our usage, isn't that major on an hourly or daily basis)
Anyone tried something like this successfully?

If you have tried the fixes in Pondini's Time Machine Troublshooting, specifically #C12 and nothing helps, then it is time to let one of the genius types at an Apple Store take a look.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
If you cannot take the Time Capsule to an Apple Store, contact Apple Support directly.
http://www.apple.com/support/contact/

Why is BU via Time Machine to Time Capsule so slow?

I just purchased a Time Capsule and have it set up with Time Machine for my Mac mini and MacBook Pro. However for the past three house it has only backed up 2Gb of 131Gb. At this rate it could take a week to perform a full back up. Any suggestions?

How is the TC connected to the network?? If you have join wireless network, that is hopelessly slow.
Even straight wireless is slow although it should be better than 2GB in 3 hours..
Use ethernet direct to the TC for the first backup even if the TC has to be removed from the network and plugged directly into the mini.

Time Machine and Time Capsule don't seem to work well together?

Reposted.
I get the feeling there are some serious problems with the combination of Time Machine and Time Capsule.
This is extremely disappointing, as the idea of a centralized backup device on the network (instead of disks attached to each and every computer we have running Leopard) seemed like such a good idea and a good way to supplement our tape-based backup that takes place with Retrospect.
In reality, it's a disaster on both Intel and PowerPC systems. All systems and the Time Capsule are fully up to date with software updates from Apple. I have two 1TB Time Capsule units. It goes something like this:
1. I have a few systems (mainly Intel) that work perfectly with the Time Capsule. There are no complaints and no issues at all. These systems just quietly run their backups as they should. They are the definite minority--maybe one or two have worked properly.
2. I have some systems that complain from time to time (mainly PowerPC) but will back up with a little encouragement. These too are the minority.
3. And finally, I have systems that are nothing but pain. These are both Intel and PowerPC systems. They are also the majority of the systems I have. The most common problem is sudden loss of the credentials needed to access the Time Capsule hardware--a user will be going along about their business when the Mac OS asks for the Time Capsule user name and password--after it's already been supplied and backups have been running. This should simply never ever happen.
Another charming behavior I've seen is corruption of the sparse disk image file that each computer creates on the Time Capsule. Time Machine will complain that it can't perform the backup, and examining the disk image file with Disk Utility shows it to be severely damaged. Turning off Time Machine, deleting the corrupted sparse image file, and starting over fixes it. For a while.
Finally, there are the machines (again, both Intel and PowerPC) that just can't seem to actually get through the first backup run. They either go so far and can't continue, or never actually manage to get started. I've checked the disks in these computers and found no problem with the hardware or file system. The installations are fresh and fully up to date.
Meanwhile, I have computers running Leopard with directly attached disks configured for use with Time Machine. One is a QuickSilver that isn't even officially supported by Leopard, with a Firewire attached disk. It doesn't skip a beat. The other is an Intel Mac mini being used with Mac OS X Server 10.5.4 and a USB external hard drive. These machines just do their thing, and I never have to babysit them.
These problems with the Time Capsule have been so severe that I've just given up on most of the computers and shut off Time Machine entirely. We have tape backups that run over the week, so it's not a huge loss. But that's not what really made me throw up my hands and say "enough"...no, that was the speed. Even with just one computer backing up to it, the Time Capsule seemed terribly slow. Watching the progress indicator was just painful.
I put in a word about all of this to my independent Apple dealer, and they say I'm definitely not the first to complain about some or all of these problems. In fact, they told me they were going to set up a test lab in their shop to see if they could duplicate these findings. I have no doubt that they can.
There are a total of seven computers backing up to one Time Capsule. They all store maybe ~40GB worth of data including the OS. There are about six computers on the other. Because of the way the network is laid out, the Time Capsule is connected to a Gigabit switch (and that is the only thing it's connected to). It cannot be used as the router, although I know Apple suggests this. The Airport section is disabled--I have no need or desire to use it. Some computers link up at 100 megabits, others at 1 gigabit. There are no network problems--we have no problems moving large amounts of data across the same network to our tape backup machine.
Is anyone else seeing these kinds of problems? Am I doing something wrong or expecting too much from Time Capsule?

I may be on to something. The Time Capsules I have live in a telephone equipment room that is indoors but not directly air conditioned or heated. It doesn't ever get too hot to be comfortable in there--the highest I've ever seen the temperature was 80 degrees (F). Most of the time the temperature is between 60-78 degrees.
I happened to touch one of them the other day while it was in use, and I noticed that the casing was hot to the touch...not dangerously so I suppose, but much hotter than I would have expected.
So I turned a small fan on both Time Capsules and have left it running. And I've noticed that not only do backups seem to complete more quickly, the reliability is also better. I am going to try some of my most troublesome computers once again just to see what happens.
I know there is a fan pointed at the hard drive in the Time Capsule, but I can't see how it does much in the way of cooling things down. In my opinion, it's just surrounded by too many heat producing devices to do much good...after all, not only is there a 7200 RPM hard disk in there, but also a 500MHz Marvell processor and radio set.

Time Machine says Time Capsule Disk unavailable

     I have the exclamation point in the menubar icon and Time Machine says Time Capsule Disk unavailable even though I have backed up to it many times before. I tried unpluging/plugging in the TC, but this did not solve the problem. Any ideas?

      However, I did have a problem periodically with computers not recognizing the TC disk before I had unclicked the "Enable file sharing" box, so I might still end up using your advice if this happens in the future.
There is a bug or several of them.. losing the disk is one thing the new 7.6.4 firmware is supposed to fix.. my deeply held suspicion is that Apple are using all of us as beta testers.. as lots of people are having trouble. But who knows it may finally fix this bug.. we are awaiting confirmation. ie people saying it is now fixed.. rather than since loading 7.6.4 my TC is now dead.. or disappeared .. or broken.. or no longer has wireless output.
Lets say maybe they fixed a bug.. and added some more.
     The reason I had unchecked the "Enable file sharing" box is because I have Mountain Lion Server and wanted to use port mapping on the TC to point to my computer as a File Server. To do this I went into Airport Utility and in Network pane tried to add File Sharing to the Port Settings. However, this conflicted with the "Enable file sharing" box from the Disks pane. Do you know of a way to have time machine backups to TC but also run a File Server from a computer networked with the TC using port mapping? Thank you for any guidance.
You only need the ports forwarded to the server to get outside access.. ie remote wan access.. Did you have wan access to the TC checked.. that will cause a conflict with AFP .. since it cannot be forwarded to multiple destinations at once.
If you do not have WAN access checked then you should be able to check "enable file sharing" since that is local lan..
Try it and tell me what happens.. I have never tried the combo you are using.
I would try simply using a different method to access if that doesn't work.. eg BTMM should work fine to the Server without needing ports forwarded in the TC.. as long as the TC is the main router.. and this whole issue is only because the TC is the main router.
You can also do it with vpn.. which is more robust and more business/pro method to access a server remotely than AFP.

Time machine and time capsule

I recently upgraded to Snow Leopard and installed Time Capsule. I connected a Maxtor external drive to Time Capsule to enable me to access my photography library wirelessly. I have a 2nd external drive that direct connects to my Mac Book Pro. I have found the following problems:
1. Time machine shows backup files for the external drive that connects to my mac, however they are old files no longer on the drive. It does not backup the current drive but does indicate backup was successful. I would also like time machine to backup the external drive connected to time capsule.
2. I tried to delete the folder containing the old files and received a message saying I did not have permission.
3. I am experiencing problems entering Time Machine. It takes a long time to connect (including when I am connected via an ethernet cable) and after a few minutes I receive a message asking if I still want to enter time machine. Once I do have access, I typically only see mail and am not able to access folders.
Help is appreciated! Thank you.

rgoodman wrote:
1. Time machine shows backup files for the external drive that connects to my mac, however they are old files no longer on the drive.
Where does it show the old files, on recent backups in the "Star Wars" display?
It does not backup the current drive but does indicate backup was successful.
Are you sure it's not backing-up the new drive? Try the procedure in item #E3 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip.* It's for a slightly-different situation, but should confirm which disks were backed-up on each backup.
If you're sure the new external is not being backed-up, and is not on the +Do not back up+ list, do a "full reset" of Time Machine per item #B3 of the Troubleshooting Tip.
I would also like time machine to backup the external drive connected to time capsule.
Sorry, it won't. TM will only back-up internal or directly-attached FireWire or USB drives.
You might want to review these:
Time Machine Tutorial
Time Machine 101
How to back up and restore your files
Time Machine Features
Apple - Support - Mac OSX v10.5 Leopard Time Machine
and perhaps browse the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip.*

When I enter time machine (on Time Capsule) i see the stack of screen shots and the time line. However, when I roll over the mouse pointer, the time line does not activate. The cancel button does not get me out of the app: have to alt cmd esc. Ideas?

When I enter time machine (on Time Capsule) i see the stack of screen shots and the time line. However, when I roll over the mouse pointer, the time line does not activate. The cancel button does not get me out of the app: have to alt+cmd+esc. Ideas?

I have never seen it but then I run SL which is much more reliable than Lion..
See
http://pondini.org/TM/E4.html
Check the master guru of all TM problems.

Time Machine back up onto a different MacBook

So, I have a Time Machine back up of my old MacBook (running Snow Leopard). But the old MacBook is starting to fade so a friend has given me his MacBook Pro that he got last summer as he's upgraded to an Air.
How can I transfer my old contents to the new machine? I can find out how to do it if it was a new machine but as it's already run the initial set-up I can't see how to do it.
Any tips would be great

If you have dragged and dropped your entire Backup Folder onto your Mac, that will never be any good to you unless you are truly desperate. You may have to delete that blob to make room, unless you installed a Much larger drive.
This article will show you step-by-illustrated-step how to get all your files restored and in the right places. If you have Mac OS X already in place, you have the equivalent of a "New Computer"
Setting-up a new Mac from an old one, its Backups, or a PC

HT3275 Using time machine first time and the estimated time says 25 days. Wow! Am I able to use my Mac when Machine is doing its first backup?

Using time machine first time and the estimated backup time says 25 days. Wow!
Am I able to use my MacBook Pro when Machine is doing its first backup?
I can't be without my computer that long. I would have withdrawal symptoms (very painful).

Something WAS radically wrong, but I don't know what it was. However, using Apple's disk utility, I decided to totally erase the Seagate, which was "pre-formatted" for Mac and PC.
I first saved the Seagate software to my hard drive just in case I needed it later (which I don't),
By the way, the first time I tried Time Machine it stalled after about 3 GB. The second time I got the message saying 25 days backup time. I stopped that backup after receiving your response.
After reformatting (extended - journaled) I made my third attempt. Success!!! It took about 8 hours, but went through without a hitch..
I bought the SeagateI because a momentary power failure messed up my 1 TB LaCie external, which was divided into 2 partitions. The power glitch completely fouled one partiton and it will not reformat no matter what I try. I did not do a full reformat because I did not want to lose the backup on the good partition. Now that I have a good backup I plan to do a full 1 TB reformat (without partitions) on the LaCie.
Thank you for your response, which really did help me.

I recently deleted imovie 9 .and i don't have a cd and i have not made backup from time machine ..i want it back.plz help me..

i recently deleted imovie 9 .and i don't have a cd and i have not made backup from time machine ..i want it back.plz help me..

It depends how you installed it.
If you installed from your iLife 11 DVD, then you can insert the DVD and install it again.
If you purchased it from the Mac App Store, you can open the Mac App Store, go to the Purchases tab, and reinstall from there.

I just bought and backed up my computer and time machine with a "Seagate BackUp Plus for Mac". Now my time machine is empty. Panicked. can anyone help?

I just bought and backed up my computer and time machine with a "Seagate BackUp Plus for Mac". Now my time machine is empty. Panicked. can anyone help?

Lets start over...
Please restart the network.. shut down everything..
Restart in order.. modem.. router.. if different to TC.. or TC.. client devices.. wait 2min between each startup.
If the TC does not show up on the computer, in finder.. then we need more info.. what OS are you running?
Does the TC show up in Airport utility? Are you running wireless or ethernet?
If you still have issues.. plug the TC directly into the computer by ethernet.
Do a full factory reset of the TC.. and see if it now shows up.
Please tell us exactly what model TC it is and how old.. the A1xxx model number from the base will help if you don't know.
You take a screen shot of the TC opened in finder.
eg..
My TC is named Tardis4.. click on it.. and then open the data folder.. on this one called Tardisdata.
Then take a screen shot of it so we can see what the problem is.. screenshot.. with area selection.. control + shift + 4 .. the picture goes into the desktop.. and then you click the picture icon in the posting web page controls and select the picture.

I have bought a Seagate Backup Plus 1TB drive, first time I have selected Mac Windows option which excludes Time Machine to work on it, but now I want to go back and select Only Mac option to activate my Time Machine application. I request you to help me

I have bought a Seagate Backup Plus 1TB drive, first time during plug-in, I have selected Mac Windows option which excludes Time Machine to work on it, but now I want to go back and select Only Mac option to activate my Time Machine application.
I request you to help me with the procedure of the same?

IMPORTANT - This will reformat your Seagate drive and hence wipe it. If there is anything on your Seagate drive you want to keep, save it somewhere else FIRST.
Plug the drive in.
In Finder select Applications > Utilities > Disc Utilities.
Select the external drive, select Partition option, give it a name (I call mine Mac Backup), select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the Format and under the drop down menu "Partition Layout" select the number of partitions you want (so if you want the drive to just be for Time Machine, select 1 Partition, if you want part of the drive to be for Time Machine and the rest for something else, select 2 partitions and so on). Click apply and the Disc Utility will partition and reformat your drive ready to use.
When this is complete, open Time Machine in System Preferences. Use Select Disc to select the drive (or if you have multiple partitions, the partition of the drive) you want and you are good to go.
This may be a long way round, but it gives you the option to partition your disc which you may want.

Macbook Pro sleep Problems with Time Machine and Time Capsule

I recently installed a time capsule as a Router and a Time Machine backup device for 2 macs in the house.
Unfortunately, I found that my 2011 macbook pro 15' updates the time machine backups even when the lid is closed and in sleep.
When I wake the macbook pro, it hangs and I have to reset the mac to restart.
This did not happen when I was using a firewire hard drive with the time machine.
My question is:
Is there a way to prevent the time machine to backup when the macbook pro is in sleep mode?
My mac is not equiped with power nap so it is not suppose to be doing this.
Thanks
Other info: OS Mountain Lion, regular hard drive, 8 Gig Memory

Edwin,
I assume that since the repair of the sparsebundle failed you still cannot open the sparsebundle in Finder and get the message:
The following backups could not be opened:
Imac of E.sparsebundle because there are no activatible filesystems
If the sparsebundle cannot be opened in Finder, then the chances that Time Machine can open them are nil in my opinion. Time Machine, in effect is just going to open the sparsebundle as Finder is attempting to dot, then it gives you a fnacy display, but the underlying issue with the sparesbundle is the same for both methods of access.
Do you, by chance hav a bootable backuo of your Snow Leopard system?
If so can you access the TM backups with it??
You didn't change the Time Capsules Network Password did you?? see this.
I looked to see if I could find anythng about the error codes you mentioned in your original post and so far can;t find anything about them.
Steve

L'image disque de sauvegarde « /Volumes/Data/MacBook de David.sparsebundle » est déjà utilisée. voici le message que je reçois lors d'un essai de sauvegarde de mon macbook en utilisant time machine vers time capsule. quelqu'un peu m'aider,merci.

L’image disque de sauvegarde « /Volumes/Data/MacBook de David.sparsebundle » est déjà utilisée.
Voici le message que je reçois venant de time machine quand j'essaie de sauvegarder sur time capsule.
Quelqu'un peu m'aider?
Merci

Time Machine to Time Capsule locking my Macbook - help?

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