Time Machine tries to back up although not attached to an external drive...

I keep getting this error message when my Macbook Pro is not attached to an external drive:
Starting standard backup
Error -35 while resolving alias to backup target
Backup failed with error: 19
(this is from timemachine widget)
I've even reinstalled the system software...
What can I do to stop getting that regular annoying message?
Message was edited by: cohsrains

cohsrains wrote:
I don't use any 3rd party apps for time machine. As for 3rd party apps in general, I have a variety of them, from VLC to caffeine.
No, sorry, I meant 3rd-party apps specifically to alter Time Machine's behavior. Other, unrelated ones, shouldn't be involved.
Try this, with the TM drive ejected and disconnected:
From a Finder window's menubar, select +Go > Go to Folder+ and type /Volumes at the prompt.
That will show an alias for every connected volume. If it also shows your Time Machine volume, or anything else that isn't connected, see what it is.
Sometimes, in some sort of obscure circumstances, if OSX loses contact with a drive in just the wrong way, a process may not realize it, and instead of writing to a volume via that alias, it will instead create a folder and write to that. Your symptoms don't sound like that, but it's worth a look.

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I am getting this error when time machine tries to back up to a time capsule. "The backup disk image "/Volumes/JUDY ARCENEAUX's Time Capsu-1/JUDY ARCENEAUX's MacBook Air.sparsebundle" is already in use." Same time capsule has worked in the past.

I am getting this error when time machine tries to back up to a time capsule. "The backup disk image “/Volumes/JUDY ARCENEAUX's Time Capsu-1/JUDY ARCENEAUX’s MacBook Air.sparsebundle” is already in use." Same time capsule has worked in the past.

First, restart the computer and the Time Capsule. In most of the cases, this should solve the problem.
If it doesn't work, see > http://pondini.org/TM/C12.html

I want to upgrade from OS X 10.5.8 to Snow Leopard. When trying to back-up to a WD 1 TB external drive, the back-up process stalls at about 4 GB. Grateful for any clues to assist with the backup issue please.

I want to upgrade from OS X 10.5.8 to Snow Leopard, then to Lion. When trying to back-up to a WD 1 TB external drive, the back-up process stalls at about 4 GB download. I would be very grateful for any clues to assist with the back-up process please.

That disk is very probably formated as FAT 32, the normal format for PCs. FAT 32 cannot support files larger than 4 GB; also, it corrupts some types of Mac OS files. If you want to securely backup your mac files, you must have a disk prepared for Mac OS.
Therefore, open Disk Utility, choose again 1 partition for your external disk and, under Options, GUID partition map (it may also be a boot disk for an intel mac), then format it as Mac OS Extended Journaled. Y0u are done.
If you want to exchange data with PCs, you should chose Master Boot REcord and NTFS format, for this you must use a additional utility like NTFS-3G. But note that mac files may also get corrupt in NTFS format.

TIME MACHINE UNABLE TO BACK UP AS NOT ENOUGH SPACE

I keep trying to back up my Macbook Pro (I have a Buffalo hard drive) but on time machine is says that there is not enough space to complete the back up

What is your question?

Time Capsule loses connection when Time Machine tries to back up

Hi,
I am trying to do my first back up using Time Machine but seems there is a problem.
I connect to the internet using cable, which I connect to the Time Capsule. I use it as my router as well and configure my wireless network just fine. When Time Machine tries to connect and do a back up it disconnects everything and I have to umplug everything, reset the Time Capsule sometimes to be able to get the iMac to find it again (netwerk stops working as well)
Please let me know if you need more info to be able to help me out.
Thanks

I have experienced that myself and I've not found a reason or solution to it yet.
I also read somewhere that the Time Machine software can continue with the backup after an interruption. If that's the case, this may be a minor inconvenience.
Regards

When Time Machine tries to back up to my Seagate HD before the HD is fully on, it fails. Then Time machine thinks it needs to back up the entire drive and there's not enough room. It won't just do the backup of new info now. Any thoughts?

When I try to do a Time Machine backup with my Seagate HD, and if I accidentally have Time Machine automatically on, it will fail if the HD is not fully on and recognized by the computer yet. But the problem is that when this has happened (twice now), it seems it loses all knowledge that it has backed up using Time Machine before and it will only try to back up the entire Mac HD to the Seagate. The Seagate already has 147 GB of data from prior Time Machine backups and I only need to backup the latest stuff since my last backup, but it won't let me do that. It tries to do the whole drive and it says it can't because there is only 135 GB of space left and it needs to backup 147 GB. Anyone know how to fix this and get it to start backing up again without erasing the drive and starting over? That's what I did last time. I erased the Seagate and then reset it as my Time Machine drive and it started working fine again until it failed and reverted to the problem. Thanks

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the 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 that corresponds to an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showing, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. 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 to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
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 won't back up as not enough space but there is? HELP!

My time machine was backing up fine and with everything being backed up was filling to about 360gb I backed it up last 5 days ago before it went in for a repair at the apple store (spotlight was not working properly) now I have the machine back and have just put some new photos on so plugged back in the time machine to carry on with backups but it won't back up as it saying it needs 380GB of space and I only have available 144 GB.
The only thing I can see different is that the store has put a macintosh HD icon on my desktop, I am wondering if perhaps it is also trying to back up the time machine, as in theory I have only added another 1-2GB data since my backup before going into the store.
Can anyone help me I can' seem to find anything that says I am backing up the G-Drive Slim (Time machine) as well or can I delete the whole contents of the Time Machine and start again?

If your MacBook is brand new please update your User Profile to reflect your current devices/OS.
Disks you can use with Time Machine
Time Machine Server Requirements
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/TimeCapsule_SetupGuide.pdf
Pondini's Time Machine FAQ
You aren't using Time Machine correctly if you are trying to send it to your dektop.

After 10.5.6, Time Machine tries to back up away from home

i have a macbook pro. before i upgraded to 10.5.6, it only tried to back up when i was on my home network. now it's trying to back up here at work (and failing, as the backup drive is at home) - something it's never done before.
is there any way to ensure that it only attempts a backup when on a particular network?

Tim Erickson wrote:
A blogger named James has a well-written solution to at least a similar problem:
http://programminggems.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/mac-10-5-6/
Actually removing the file is not the proper solution.
The file on my machine reads
-r-------- 1 root wheel 16 Nov 22 2007 .001b63933178
and the backups work properly.
The blogger's file had "staff" instead of "wheel" and that might be the problem.
The important file is the main directory which should read
drwxr-xr-x+ 4 root nero 136 Nov 22 15:52 Backups.backupdb
where "nero" is the user of the computer.

How do I restore data from my hard drive from time before time machine tried to back up on it

I used to have a WIndows PC, than I finally joined Apple Family and Iam pretty happy.
But today I tried to get some data from an old WD Passport Hard Drive and Time Machine immidately tried to backup itself on it.
Before I understood time machine startet to backup on my hard drive and everything I had on it before was gone.
What to do?
How can I get my data back?
Thanks

In order for Time Machine to back up to a HDD, it must be formatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in Disk Utility. Formatting will erase all user data on that HDD. Time Machine will only delete TM data on a HDD that may have other data on it (non TM data).
If you formatted that WD HDD for use with Time Machine, all data that was on it is gone. If you put data on the WD HDD after formatting, it still should be there.
Ciao.

Time machine: I am backing up 130 gigs but on the External HD it shows 13

The initial backup with time machine says I am backing up 130 gigs but then it stops at 13 gigs and thinks its done. Is it just really compressed? The volume of the mac hard drive doesnt match the backup volume. Any suggestions?

Yes I'd recommend going to the Time Machine forum and first reading TM FAQ's and TM Troubleshooting. You can find those at:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1342
Because TM is part of OS X you need to look in the Snow Leopard forums. Not that intuitive I know but it's the best way to keep it organized.
Roger

What do I fix so time machine will recognize the backup file it created on my external drive?

I use a 1TB Toshiba external HDD (MacOS extended, journaled format) for Time Machine and have had no problems for a year or so. Shortly before my video circuit died and I had to have the logic board replaced, TM stopped backing up with the "backup volume could not be found" error or the "insufficient disc space" error. When I open TM it shows no backup files available. I don't recall making any changes around the time this cropped up, but who knows? Any suggestions on reconecting TM with its old "Backups.backupdb" ?

Thank you for the pointer. I somehow didn't find all the links to begin with, so mea culpa for troubling folks before doing enough homework. For those bumbling around like me with older MBPs that get new logic boards late in life, the problem is nigh insoluble since the new board looks to TM as a new computer, which it is. Best to borrow another disk to copy the old backup if needed and then to start clean with a new TM backup.

Time machine "Exclude these items from backups" keeps re-adding my external drive

I have several external hard drives that contain data I wish to backup. With Lion I had them removed from the "Exclude these items from backups" list and all was well.
Since upgrading to Mountain Lion I have been not so lucky. I was able to keep one out of the list by turning off Time Machine, removing the disk from the list of items to exclude from backup, then turning Time Machine back on. I have one external drive, however, that will not remove. The steps I'md oing are:
Open Options under Time Machine
Select "FreeAgent" and click on the minus sign and it dissapears from the list.
Click Save
Open Options again and "FreeAgent" is back in the list.
If I turn off Time Machine and do these steps it still goes back in.
Anyone else having this problem?
Thanks

Time Machine usually won't show a drive that's not conneted in that list.
Can you remove it from the list while it's connected?
If so, but it still comes back, the preferences file (where that's kept) may be damaged. Try a "full reset" of Time Machine, per #A4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Time machine wont continue backing up after restore

hey all,
i had to do a restore after boot camp crashed on me and i lost my 10 Gig of space which i chose to partition. more to the point, i migrated from a time Machine backup to get my mac running the same way it was before i restored only one problem remains... when time machine tries to backup it does not carry on backing up from before i restored, instead it chooses to try and backup everything that is currently on my macs hard-drive (300 Gig) i just want it to backup changed files... just like before.
Other wise everything else is fine, time machine even works and i can go into the time machine interface and restore old files which i have deleted. This is such a nuisance can anyone help?
Thanks.

I'm interpreting what you are saying as a reinstall of the system software followed by a migration of your user data from the Time Machine backup. The better procedure is to restore the whole system from the Time Machine backup (done by accessing the restore option from the menu on the install disk). I believe then you wouldn't have had this issue. The essence of the problem is that Time Machine thinks you have migrated user data to a new system and so is backing up the whole new system. I don't know what you can do about that. It is possible that the fact the system looks physically different (ie you don't have the partitioned hard drive you used to have) is a deal breaker for Time Machine.
But it's certainly worth checking the computer name. You find that by opening System Preferences and clicking the Sharing icon. At the top of the page is a box labelled Computer Name. That needs to be the same as the name when the backups were made. You can confirm the name when the backups were made by going into the backup volume via Finder. There will be a folder called Backups.backupd. Double click that and there is a folder with the Computer Name at the time of the backups. As I say, these have got to be the same for Time Machine to continue to use the same backup directory.

Time Machine wants to back up everything again

Hi. I use Time Machine and my Time Machine drive currently has almost 300GB free (the drive is 500GB total). Time Machine has been working fine and its last backup session was last night.
However, today I noticed Time Machine was taking longer than usual (I could hear the external drive). I clicked on the Time Machine icon in my menubar and saw that it was "Cleaning Up Old Backups," which seemed strange to me because, as I said, I have almost 300GB free on my Time Machine drive. Time Machine continued to clean up old backups for over two hours.
I started writing this message as it was continuing to clean up old backups. But finally, it stopped. However, it then proceeded to start backing up the entire contents of my hard drive to the Time Machine drive — 220GB. I then clicked "Skip this Backup" to make it stop.
I don't know what happened — Time Machine worked fine last night and backed up incremental changes as usual — but now it wants to back up my entire drive.
In the Finder, I looked at the contents of the Time Machine drive and the drive appears fine; I see all the previous backups.
I just clicked on "Back Up Now" in the menubar to see if Time Machine still wants to back up my entire drive and it does.
I think the only thing I can do is erase my Time Machine drive and then let Time Machine back up my entire drive. If I let it back up my entire drive without erasing the Time Machine drive first then the drive will have very little empty space afterwards.
But does anyone know why Time Machine got confused and want to back up my entire drive instead of backing up incrementally?
Thanks!

The Pondini site is a wealth of information on how Time Machine works. If you check out the faq page I linked, and also his troubleshooting page, you will see that there are several reasons why Time Machine cleared the space. He also has instructions on how to do a "full reset" and how to safely delete files from Time Machine.
Have a nice day.

I am running 10.7.5. Time Machine has stopped backing up to my external drive

I am unable to get my time machine to do a backup. When I plug my external drive into the macbook, there is no message to ask me if I want to backup my laptop. The external drive mounts, but nothing happens. I have done a "repair disk" and a "verify" disk and found no problems.

Has that drive already been setup (and/or used) as a Time Machine target for this computer? If so, you can click on the Time Machine icon on the top menu bar, and click on the "Backup Now" option. If, for whatever reason, the drive cannot be used, it'll at least give some kind of error message to help in troubleshooting.
Another thing to try is to go to the Time Machine preferences and "re-select" the external drive that you're using as a target.

Time Machine tries to back up although not attached to an external drive...

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