Time Machine wants to backup too much, can't find "ghost includes"

Hello,
I finally wanted to launch Time Machine, but it complains that I don't have enough backup space. My MacBook has a 160GB disk, and I have attached an external disk with a 300GB partition for backups (the rest of the external disk is formatted for Linux and not visible in the OS X Finder).
Now Time Machine claims that I have 414GB of data to back up, for which the backup medium is too small. I have no other drives attached.
I suspect it wants to back up the backup partition, too, but it is already in the list of excludes. I have no idea where to look next.
Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks!
Björn

MapplePerson wrote:
Hi,
the Linux partition never shows up, not even in includes - also it is onl 200GB, so it would not explain the 414GB.
I run FileVault, though - actually that is the reason I only try Time Machine now, because it used to have some complaint about FileVault. Maybe there is still a problem now. I think it said that it can't do incremental backups with FileVault. Still, a single (non-incremental) backup would be a start, so that I could upgrade to Snow Leopard
Yeah, FileVault and TM don't play well together. As you know, your entire home folder is encrypted, so there are, in a sense, two versions of it: one encrypted, one "in the clear."
Most likely, you've removed the exclusion for the "in the clear" version of your home folder; so TM is counting it twice. You need to put it back in the +Do not back up+ box, so TM will only back it up when you log out. But that doesn't fully explain where it gets 419 gb.
Just to be sure about the Linux partition, go to +Finder > Preferences > Sidebar+ and be sure the +External Disks+ box is checked, then try +TM Preferences > Options+ and the plus sign again.
Also, my internal disk is almost full, it is at 148GB.
I have no "Estimated size of full backup" message, only a "Total Included: 419GB".
Oh, yes, sorry, I keep forgetting that the wording changed in Snow Leopard.

Similar Messages

  • Time machine - on a new Mac, how can I find my old files?

    My iMac had to give way to the new baby, so I got myself an older MacBook Pro to replace it. I used the Migration Assistant to port all my music, photos etc. over, but the hard disk was smaller so had to forgo some bigger files - like my iMovie library.
    As a regular Time Machine/Capsule user, I figured getting a hold of everything would be feasible.
    However, now on the MacBook Pro, I can't connect to my old Time Machine volume for the iMac, and can't access any of the stuff I didn't port over. I'm certain the iMovie library is there, but I can't see past "Today" in Time Machine. Any help on how I can access my old files will be most appreciated.

    Go here and read the several User Tips at the top of the topics list. You should find an answer in one or more of them. Use these tips for all your TM questions.

  • Time Machine Snapshots are taking too much HDD space

    It has taken so far over 155 GB as you can see on this link.
    http://i1102.photobucket.com/albums/g445/comics_addict/ScreenShot2011-11-22at112 226PM.png
    It appears under "Other" due to me disabling the snapshots on the terminal but unlike I read it still hasn't erase the items from memory.
    Any help?
    Thanks for your time.

    Local snapshots are periodically condensed into daily or weekly snapshots to minimize the space used on your disk. If your disk is low on space, Time Machine stops creating new snapshots, and some or all existing snapshots may be removed to make space available for applications to use. If sufficient disk space becomes available again, Time Machine resumes creating local snapshots. This means your disk will have the same amount of available space as it would if Time Machine were not enabled.
    OS X Lion: About Time Machine's "local snapshots" on portable Macs
    Disk Space considerations:
    Local snapshots require space on your internal HD (and any other disk/partition that Time Machine is backing-up).  Time Machine will, however, delete some or all as necessary if it gets too full.  The exact criteria are not documented, but appears to vary depending on the size of the volume.  On a very small volume (under about 50 GB), it may be as little as 75%;  on larger volumes (1 TB or more) it may be as much as 90%.  This is doneindependently for each disk/partition.  Time Machine does not send any messages when it deletes snapshots.
    Pondini's excellent blog on Time Machine: 30: what are local snapshots?

  • Time Machine Back-up Taking Too much Space

    I have only been a Mac owner for a little over three months.
    I set up Time Machine with an external hard drive three months ago. My Mac hard drive has used 64.16 GB of space out of 249 GB. Ny external drive (300 GB) however was full and deleting on its own in just 10 weeks. Three days ago I erased everything on the external drive and started over. After the first full back up, 50.61 GB of space was taken. Now three days later it is up to 102.54 GB. What am I doing wrong, or what do I need to do to correct.
    This is a 'home use only' computer and daily changes are minimal.
    Thanks for any feedback.
    Roger

    Hi mahlquist,
    I have exactly the same problem on three macs running SL. Sometimes it simply wants to backup the whole drive instead of creating an incremental backup. The worst thing is that it deletes old backups first (when there is not enough space for an additional complete backup) without asking you if you want it to do that. So, the best solution is to deactivate the automatic backup in TM and start it manually only. Watch at the TM window, see what it is doing when the backup starts. When it starts to delete old backups, cancel the backup, restart your Mac and then try again. In most cases, TM then works again and creates incremental backups. Another bug is that sometimes it backups even folders that are in the list of excluded folders. I didn't manage to break TM of doing that. So I decided for a reinstall of SL on the machine that was affected.
    This is one of the most annoying bugs in SL. TM is nearly unusable in SL. I also tried a complete wipe and install of SL to make sure that it wasn't the upgrade from Leopard that causes the broken TM. But this didn't solve the problem. In general, there are lots of bugs in SL. In the meantime, I would say that SL is one of the most annoying versions of OS X that Apple has ever released. Lots of bugs in such a manner are really new to me as a Mac user for many years.

  • I have 2 iphoto libraries but one is lost, missing, cannot seem to find it... tried an apple care person - they were no help - we use Time Machine for external backup... but cannot find my older iPhoto library! I desperately need some help!

    I have recently had something really odd happen within iphoto.  My photos from May-Oct 2013 appeared to be missing from my primary Iphoto library.
    last night I was trying to find any additional Iphoto libraries on my Imac... I could not find them... but then somehow the May-Oct 2013 library showed up and now I cannot find the "current" primary Iphoto library.   I sought help from apple care today but no solutoin from them after 2 hours trying.  I have timemachine that backs up my Imac each day to an external hard drive.   When I open Iphoto while holding down the "option" key - it lets me choose which Iphoto library... but only (1) library comes up...  I can't figure out what happened - but it seems that I must have more than one Iphoto library because yesterday I was able to see all my photos except the "gap in dates" from May-Oct 2013.  Today - I can only open a Library called Iphoto2014... and it contains the photos from the gap in dates.  I can't "see" any other options to open photos... but just yesterday there appeared to be a different library available.
    Any advice or steps i should take to locate my missing photos - would be soooooo much appreciated.

    I have recently had something really odd happen within iphoto.  My photos from May-Oct 2013 appeared to be missing from my primary Iphoto library.
    last night I was trying to find any additional Iphoto libraries on my Imac... I could not find them... but then somehow the May-Oct 2013 library showed up and now I cannot find the "current" primary Iphoto library.   I sought help from apple care today but no solutoin from them after 2 hours trying.  I have timemachine that backs up my Imac each day to an external hard drive.   When I open Iphoto while holding down the "option" key - it lets me choose which Iphoto library... but only (1) library comes up...  I can't figure out what happened - but it seems that I must have more than one Iphoto library because yesterday I was able to see all my photos except the "gap in dates" from May-Oct 2013.  Today - I can only open a Library called Iphoto2014... and it contains the photos from the gap in dates.  I can't "see" any other options to open photos... but just yesterday there appeared to be a different library available.
    Any advice or steps i should take to locate my missing photos - would be soooooo much appreciated.

  • Time Machine wants to do complete backup after restore

    I had to restore my system from a Time Machine backup because of a recurring problem. Now Time machine wants to backup my entire drive as if I'm actually starting over. I've got 300GB left on my backup drive and this complete backup will use 133GB of it. I have had to do this in the past but I don't remember that Time Machine wanted to do a complete backup before. Is there something I can do to prevent it?
    Thanks,
    Frank

    See User Tips for Time Machine for help with TM problems. Also you can select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine" to locate articles on how to use TM. See also Mac 101- Time Machine.
    Might find something helpful in the above.

  • Configure Time Machine to only backup changes?

    After I setup an exernal drive on my network, I started using Time Machine. However, I did not know how slow my computer would become when it backs up and it backs up constantly. This is on my home computer, and there isn't that much irreplaceable data, I just want to backup documents and my photo library as they change. But it seems like Time Machine keeps backing up too much. I may not make any new documents or import any new files, and yet when time machine is backing up it says it's backing up several gigabytes; and it does so while slowing down my internet and computer processes.
    All I want to do is have it backup documents and photos/media. I know you can choose to exclude certain things, but is there a way to configure it so it only backs up the things that I choose?

    Try a program called:  SuperDuper!
    It is free, and there is a paid version with more features, but with SuperDuper! you can:
    Choose only what you want to back up, or like with Time Machine, back up everything.
    Unlike Time Machine, there are not any files to choose from by "going back in time" to grab a file that you did last week.
    However, it will give a "snapshot" of what is going on at the time of the SuperDuper! backup.  And, the backup is bootable   You can start your computer, or ANY computer with the SuperDuper! backup disk by holding down the alt/option key during the boot, and select the SuperDuper! drive.  You can boot from there and actually use it to do work.
    SuperDuper! - a great alternative backup solution you should check out.  It is made by "Shirt Pocket."  Here's a link to information about SuperDuper! and on that page is a download link:  http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
    By the way, I use both Time Machine AND SuperDuper!
    Good luck!

  • Time Machine won't backup... because there's too much free space??

    Hi all,
    I'm getting a strange error from Time Machine:
    "*Time Machine Error*
    This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 147.8 MB but only 506.8 MB are available.
    To select a larger volume, or make the backup smaller by excluding files, open System Preferences and choose Time Machine."
    I should probably also note that, according to Finder, my Time Machine volume has only 27.5 MB available out of 182.89 GB.
    I'm confused!
    Thanks in advance,
    Mike

    Hi all,
    Update: The same Time Machine Error message has just popped up again, only this time it says, "The backup requires 173.2 MB but only 823.1 MB are available."
    Now I'm even more confused!
    Thanks in advance (again),
    Mike

  • Before downloading lion, i want to backup my computer with time machine and a G-DRIVE Slim.  But how can i use time machine to only backup my system once?

    Just wondering, how can i use time machine to only backup my system once? Just this once and not on a weekly basis?

    Upgrade. My three year old Mac Pro and year old MacBook Pro have no problem. Both seem faster.
    And there's your problem reading entirely subjective views on forums, from people that might or might not have decently maintained systems, good operating practices, or whatever.... 
    Strangely, when most companies issue new software, it is because they believe (and believe they have checked) that it is better than the previous version.

  • HT1175 Time Machine wants to start with a new, full backup instead of using the existing one

    Hi, my Time Machine wants to start a new, full backup, instead of continuing with the existing one on the time Capsule.
    Looking a the Troubleshooting guide, I've found the following piece of info, which is, as 99% of the times with the troubleshooting guides, totally useless to resolve my problem...
    Message: Time Machine starts a new, full backup instead of a smaller incremental backup
    There are three reasons why this may occur:
    You performed a full restore.
    Your Computer Name (in Sharing preferences) was changed--when this happens, Time Machine will perform a full backup on its next scheduled backup time.
    If you have had a hardware repair recently, contact the Apple Authorized Service Provider or Apple Retail Store that performed your repair. In the meantime, you can still browse and recover previous backups by right-clicking or Control-clicking the Time Machine Dock icon, and choosing "Browse Other Time Machine disks" from the contextual menu.
    It should be noted (hence the uselessness of the guide) that:
    -I haven't performed ANY full restore
    - I havent changed my computer name
    - My computer has not had ANY repair, much less a hardware repair. Neither recently, nor in the 9 months I've owned it.
    Which puts me back to square one, with the marginal improvement that now I have a way of browsing my old backups.
    In the event I decide to start all over again, will there be a way for me to "sew" the two backup files?
    Or will I always have to go the silly way around?
    Anybody has any idea?
    Thank you for your time (machine/capsule, your choice;-)

    Hi John,
    no, that doesn't have anything to do with my problem.
    Just look at the image below.
    Time Machine thinks that the disk I've always used to do my backups has none of them.
    If I open the disk with Finder, obviously they are where they should be.
    It is even possible to navigate them as per the instruction reported above, but even following Pondini's advice #s B5 and B6 (which are more applicable to my problem) didn't solve the problem.
    Actually, not being a coder, I'm always scared of doing more damage than good when I have a Terminal window open.
    My question is: how is it possible that Apple hasn't thought of some kind of user command to tell the idiotic Time Machine software that a hard disk backup is a hard disk backup, no matter what?
    Estremely frustrating and annoying: I'm wasting HOURS in trying to find a solution to a problem that should not have arisen in the first place...
    Have a nice weekend
    Antonio

  • Time machine won't backup, yet plenty of space & not much used on Mac HD

    Well, this is yet another "Time machine won't backup becuase there is not enough space" thread. I have searched Google and threads here but it's still a mystery why this error is occurring and it seems there is no clear solution. I also looked at the Apple Time Machine errors FAQ as well.
    Here are my specs and what I have tried so far.
    2010 Mac Pro Quad Core with 1 TB hard drive with 12 GB RAM. (137 GB used so far on internal Mac hard drive disk, so about 863 GB free space).
    - New external 1 TB hard drive initialized as Time Machine backup disk when inserted for the first time.
    The exact error I am getting is this: "This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 1.80 TB but only 999.20 GB are available."
    I have tried deleting the Time Machine system preference, reinitializing the external disk, clearing the system caches with Cocktail, restarting and letting Time machine ask me all over again if I wanted to use the external drive for Time Machine. Still the same error.
    My question is how on earth can 1.80 TB be required for the backup when I only have 137 GB of used space?

    danomatic12 wrote:
    My question is how on earth can 1.80 TB be required for the backup when I only have 137 GB of used space?
    Two possibilities:
    There's another disk (or disks) connected to your Mac. If they're formatted HFS+, Time Machine is trying to back it/them up as well. You can exclude them per #10 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). The 1.8 TB includes 20% for temporary workspace on the TM drive, so TM is estimating the backup at about 1.5 TB.
    Something on your internal HD is corrupted, causing an incorrect calculation. Verify your internal HD, per #6 in [Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/DU.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Using Snow Leopard+ forum).

  • HT201250 After Time Machine has backed up my files, can I delete my originals from my Mac and do something in Time Machine to ensure it will never automatically delete them from the backup in the future?

    I'm new to using Time Machine - I'm making my first backup right now - and I have a few concerns.
    So let's say my precious photos are taking up most of my Mac's hard drive space. I back them up with Time Machine on an external hard drive. After that, I want to delete my photos from my Mac because I want more space and my photos are now stored in the external hard drive. I have a few questions about that.
    First, does Time Machine's backup system follow the same concept as having extra storage (so would this be a reasonable decision to make)?
    Second, if it does, then could I access/open these photos from Time Machine's backup anytime I want?
    Third, would I need to use the restore backup function of Time Machine every time I want to open my photos are there alternative ways of accessing my photos, like through opening directory paths to the photos?
    Lastly, when the external hard drive becomes full and Time Machine wants to delete my oldest backup files, what can I do to ensure that these photos will never get deleted unless I manually do it? Like, is there a way to lock and secure these files? Or, is it like if these photos are the only copies saved in the backup, I can rest assure that Time Machine will never delete them?
    Thanks

    NeuroBrain wrote:
    Since my new external hard drive is have a lot of space, I'm thinking of splitting it for Time Machine and external storage.
    This is a common mistake and I highly advise against it.
    1: TimeMachine saves states of changes and thus requires more room on the TM drive than the boot drive it's backing up.
    2: Something happens to the TM drive, loss, theft, dropped, power surge, etc., you lose both backups.
    3: The storage drive might become a portable need, with it being on the TM drive, now your increasing the risk to the TM backup that something could happen to it along with the storage drive, due to increased movement.
    Seriously, have a read,
    Most commonly used backup methods
    it's ASC User Tip that saves us regulars all the trouble of having to repeat ourselves over and over again in the posts, because we tend to forget things too, or not here sometimes etc.
    "Plan for the worst and the good will take care of itself" - Donald Trump

  • HT201250 Can I recover the backups from Time Machine, but the backups is deleted by the Time Machine!

    Unfortunately, the Time Macchine deleted my oldest backups in my hard drive.
    I have the important files in the backups.
    So hope someone could help me to recover the backups.

    Time Machine will remove old backups automatically. It tells you when it does, but of course by then it's too late.
    There is no recovering deleted backups, since it was necessary to overwrite them with newer backups.
    For further explanation read the following entries from Apple Support Communities contributor Pondini's Time Machine FAQ:
    12. Should I delete old backups?  If so, How?
    20. Once my Mac is backed-up, can I delete some stuff to save space?
    Time Machine is for backups. It is not an archiving utility. To archive files requires something like one of these:
    Carbon Copy Cloner ($39.95) http://sites.fastspring.com/bombich/product/ccc
    or
    SuperDuper! ($27.95) http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

  • TimeMachine not backing up, as hard drive is full. Can the time machine clear old backups and replace them with new?

    Time Macine not backing up.
    As the harddrive is full, Can the time machine clear old backups, and override them with new backups. For example 5 - 6 days +++ old. Backups were proformed dayly
    Any help much appreciated
    Many thanks,

    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 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.

  • How to uninstall Mcafee anti-virus from my machine because of machine bootup is taking too much of time for usage?

    Hi,
    How to uninstall Mcafee anti-virus from my machine because of machine bootup is taking too much of time for usage? so that i moved all mcafee related file to trash but while machine boot up mcafee showing and asking Authentication so any one give me better suggestion on this.
    Thanks in advance,
    Suresh Balakrishnan

    Hi All,
    i uninstalled AV successfully using as below mentioned links:
    Moved to VirusScan Other where hopefully an expert can help you.
    Until they do I Googled 'How to uninstall VirusScan 8.6 for MAC' and got this as one of the many choices:  https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB54975
    There are also uninstall instructions in the User Guide: https://kc.mcafee.com/resources/sites/MCAFEE/content/live/PRODUCT_DOCUMENTATION/ 22000/PD22134/en_US/VirusScan%20for%20Mac%208.6.1%20User%20Guide%20Addendum.pdf
    By condemning files to the bin you may have scotched any automated method of removal but I will defer to the experts on that.
    Thanks lot,
    Suresh Balakrishann

Maybe you are looking for