Time Machine will not back up external photo drive

Time Machine will not back up external photo drive, slightly different format, one case sensitive the other not. How do I resolve. Bought new external drive same format as TM in the hope that I could copy the files from photo drive but that will not copy all files as it is saying file already there. Again the case sensitive issue...
Paranoid about losing 1Tb of photos all cataloged in LR5
Possible solutions I have looked at but not yet tried.
Use the new 2Tb drive to make a new TM backup then reformat the old 4Tb drive the same as Photo drive.
Then do a complete backup of all files and photodrive to TM.
A lot of work, USB 2, so if any one has a simpler answer I would love to hear.
Roger

crash888 wrote:
I reinstalled Snow Leopard on my Mac Mini after having some issues. After reinstallation, Time Machine would no longer backup to my External HD because it will not allow me to change permissions.
What message did you get? You should never change permissions (or anything else) on a Time Machine drive -- TM does that for you.
Start with #C2 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it.
If that doesn't help, post back with details, including all the messages, your setup (especially the destination for the backups), what you've done, and the results.

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Time machine will not back up to time capsule

Time machine will not back up to my Time Capsule on my MacPro running SnowLeopard. Error message says it cannot access the backup file. I have reset the TC, and erased the drive and I get the same error on initial backup. I can see the volume and drag files to it, so the disk appears OK. What's going on here?

Depending on exactly what message you get, you might need #C17 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting
If not, please post the message (a screenshot would be fine).

My time machine will not back up and i get this message: /Volumes/Data/Kathy P's MacBook.sparsebundle" is already in use

my time machine will not back up and i get this message: /Volumes/Data/Kathy P’s MacBook.sparsebundle” is already in use....i have tried multiple fixes but still unable to back up

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/

My time machine will not back up. It says backup failed each time i try to back up. I tried switching it off but still nothing. It says "already in use" Please help!

My time machine will not back up. It says backup failed each time i try to back up. I tried switching it off but still nothing. It says "already in use" Please help!

The late James Pond left us these wonderful illustrated guides, including this one:
Time Machine - Troubleshooting
C12. "The Backup disk image ... sparsebundle ... is already in use."

Time Machine does not start after external hard drive is connected

Time Machine does not start after external hard drive is connected

These are the iCloud storage options: http://www.apple.com/icloud/includes/lightbox-storage.html
Also bear in mind that:
1. restoring data over icloud takes time
2. iCloud is not designed as a replacement to Time Machine.

Time Machine will not back up to My Passport Edge for Mac. How do I delete the aliases to make room?

Time Machine after running for a few weeks says 'Time Machine couldn't back up 'My Passport Edge for Mac', also new. It needs 365.05 GB only 49.94 are available.
When I click on the My Passport Edge for Mac, I see that it has alias for each file. How do I delete the alias in order to backup my Time Machine???

You do not ever delete anything on the Time Machine drive using the Finder.
Those Alias files are essential to the internal operation of Time machine, and is what allows it to keep only one copy of a file that appears, unmodified, in multiple Backup Sets. If you modify them in any way, you risk Time Machine losing ALL your data.
I expect your backup drive is simply not large enough to do what you are trying to do.
To learn about Time machine, start on this page and keep clicking on the ( next page ) links for additional pages in the linked articles:
How Time machine works its magic
Your best short term solution may be to start a new backup, which will be smaller that the multiple backups on your existing drive. In the long run a Drive 2.5 to 3 times the size of what you want to backup is recommended.

Time Machine is not backing up my Boot Drive

Time Machine is configured to not exclude my boot drive, but when I look at Time Machine history, I see that it has not backed up my boot drive since 2014. I recently lost a years' worth of data files when my Boot Drive was wiped buy a local mac shop because they assumed that time machine had backed-up the boot drive. Any suggestions out there?
Mac Pro 3,1

The hatter wrote:
Regardless, I would strongly add a 2nd cloning backup of your system.
Carbon Copy Cloner - Bootable Backups - Bombich Software
Definitely. It's not a good idea to trust Time Machine exclusively.

TIme Machine will not back up to External Hard Drive

I reinstalled Snow Leopard on my Mac Mini after having some issues. After reinstallation, Time Machine would no longer backup to my External HD because it will not allow me to change permissions. I right click on my "Backup" drive and change the permissions to Read + Write but it just sets it back to "Custom". I'm guessing that the reinstallation changed my account information but I'm not sure how to fix this. My External HD shows in Disk Utility that it is still almost full of Time Machine backups but I have no way to access them or to continue to use Time Machine for future backups. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

crash888 wrote:
I reinstalled Snow Leopard on my Mac Mini after having some issues. After reinstallation, Time Machine would no longer backup to my External HD because it will not allow me to change permissions.
What message did you get? You should never change permissions (or anything else) on a Time Machine drive -- TM does that for you.
Start with #C2 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it.
If that doesn't help, post back with details, including all the messages, your setup (especially the destination for the backups), what you've done, and the results.

Time Machine will not back up next day.!!!

I have been having huge problems with Time Machine backups.
I have a G-TECH, G-DRIVE external HD. 500GB. I got it to replace a LaCie d2 Quadra which started malfunctioning.
I have formatted it using disc utility ( GUID partitioning and erasing etc. Mac OS Extended (journaled). Made 2 partitions, erased them, then back to one, erased that etc. I have done a repair on the disc and it says there is nothing wrong with the disc. So I have basically got Time Machine up and running. It behaves fine, backing up every hour. I can put the iMac to sleep when needed during the day, and on waking it up Time Machine still does what it is supposed to do. THEN, if I put it to sleep when I go to bed (11pm), when I wake it up in the morning......The first backup it tries to do, fails. Then the G-DRIVE will not unmount ( it says it is still in use, try quitting applications and try again. There are no applications running). When I eventually get it to unmount by diconnecting the drive and going through the reformatting process all over again, and creating another complete backup, which takes about three hours or so. Same thing happens, it behaves normally until I wake it up the next morning and the first backup fails again. I have reindexed spotlight.( at least I think I did it correctly) I followed some instructions found on another forum).. When I look in console...All Messages....it says
21/01/2008 04:26:33 kernel disk1s2: I/O error.
21/01/2008 04:26:33 mds[22] (/Volumes/Gdrive/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/C81D9AD9-C97C-4560-8D40-2FB0DF F595E6)(Error) IndexCI in CIMetaInfoSync:sync err: 22
21/01/2008 04:26:33 mds[22] (/Volumes/Gdrive/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/C81D9AD9-C97C-4560-8D40-2FB0DF F595E6)(Error) IndexCI in indexShadowFiles:open err: 22, 0.shadowIndexHead
21/01/2008 04:26:33 mds[22] (/Volumes/Gdrive/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/C81D9AD9-C97C-4560-8D40-2FB0DF F595E6)(Error) IndexGeneral in notify_lowspace:low space for device 234881029 (/Volumes/Gdrive/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/C81D9AD9-C97C-4560-8D40-2FB0DF F595E6)
21/01/2008 04:26:33 mds[22] (Error) Volume: LOW DISK SPACE device:234881029
21/01/2008 04:26:33 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[560] MDBackupBegin() returned result (915) > 0, waiting
21/01/2008 04:26:33 mds[22] (/Volumes/Gdrive/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/6DAC2E7C-FB74-48DC-B604-5DF832 275975)(Error) IndexCI in ci_ftruncate:ftruncate(75 /Volumes/Gdrive/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/6DAC2E7C-FB74-48DC-B604-5DF8322 75975/live.0.indexPostings, 4096) error:22
and so on.
I don't undestand why it is possible to put it all to sleep during the day for an hour or so then it still works fine...But not on waking it up the following day ???
Any help would be gratefully received as I am slowly going mad here.
Thank you.

I had a problem where it would not backup any more. Some of the diagnostics that they had me do were:
1. Repair Disk on the TM drive
2. Try backing up by clicking/holding the TM Icon and choose Backup Now
If failed:
3. Reboot Leopard
4. Try step 2 again
If Failed:
5. Disk Utility repair permissions
6. Try step 2 again
If Failed:
7. Log out and login as administrator
8. Launch Console from the Utilities Folder
9. In the System Log Search for "Time Machine"
10. Use that to help figure out problems and call Apple Care

Time machine will not back up home folder

I have been using time machine and an external HD to back up my Macbook Pro for about two years, and yesterday I needed to recover an older version of a file in my Documents folder. I went into TM to find that it hasn't backed up my home folder in over a year. I have read other threads with similar problems and tried those fixes. Specifically:
1) There is nothing on the exclusion list in TM options
2) I have reset TM (by deleting the plist file in the library and restarting) several times, with no success
3) I created a test account and verified that its home folder is being backed up normally
4) I reformatted the TM external hard drive
5) My home folder is not called "home"
All other folders are being backed up normally as far as I can tell. Any ideas for how to fix this would be much appreciated.

Also, I am not using FileVault.

Time Machine will not back up after updating from 10.2 to 10.3

This just started yesterday so it has to be due to the update.
The following error message is given in the Time Machine settings:
The backup disk needs 257.55 GB for the backup but only 234.84 GB are available. Select a larger backup disk or make the backup smaller by excluding files.
250 free gigs on my backup disk but it can't make the backup? What? I currently have 900GB filled on my regular hard drive but I don't back up all of it. I exclude about 150GB from backup, so the machine estimates the total backup size to be 759GB. The backup drive already has 764GB filled, so I'm not sure where all this extra info is coming from. Haven't downloaded anything besides the new update.
Any ideas on what to do?

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It makes no changes to your data.
Please triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
tmutil compare | open -ef
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the built-in Terminal 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 and start typing the name.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.
The command may take several minutes to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear below what you entered.
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. Don't post all the output; just read it yourself. Each line that begins with a plus sign (“+”) represents a file that has been added to the source volume since the last snapshot was taken. These files have not been backed up yet.
Each line that begins with an exclamation point (“!”) represents a file that has changed on the source volume. These files have been backed up, but not in their present state.
Each line that begins with a minus sign (“-“) represents a file that has been removed from the source volume.
Files that you’ve excluded from backup, or that are excluded automatically, are ignored.
At the end of the output, you’ll get some lines like the following:
Added:
Removed:
Changed:
These lines show the total amount of data added, removed, or changed on the source(s) since the last snapshot.
Caution: Under some conditions, tmutil may falsely flag files as not having been backed up when in fact they have been. It can be confused by multi-linked files, or by files with a modification date earlier than the one in the snapshot. This will not be an issue for most users. If the results of the above procedure surprise you, inspect your snapshots directly.

My time machine will not back up. It says the backup disk image "/Volume/Data/Eunice.sparsebundle" is already in use

What does that mean and how do I correct it so it will back up?

Restart your MacBook and your Time Capsule (or disconnect your Time Machine external drive). Finally, you will be able to make backups of your files again.
If you have got a Time Capsule, Apple released a firmware update that fixes this issue. Open AirPort Utility (in /Applications/Utilities) and follow the steps. See > http://pondini.org/TM/C12.html

My Time Machine will not back up.

I think because the Hard Drive is full but isn't Time Machine supposed to delete the oldest backup to make room? Should I delete the oldest back up?
I have just upgraded to a new iMac and want to upload some old files from the old back up.

OSX 10.9.2. It is a 27 inch Imac with a 4.3GHZ Intel Core i5

Time capsule/Time machine will not back up.

I have just installed a new 1TB 'Time Capsule' for wireless backup. I've managed to set it up with a new Airport Express 802.11 The green light is always on and I can open the 'Time Machine' setup box. When I try to backup for the first time I get a 'Time Machine Error' message 'The backup disk image could not be created'
Does anybody have an answer for this as I've already wasted a day trying to get it to work.
Many Thanks.

This seems to be a common error, see if this thread helps:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1427969&tstart=0

Time Machine - will it back-up to multiple drives?

After a horrible experience with my back-up drive failing and then the same day my internal drive crashing, I am wondering if you can have Time Machine back up to two different drives (at the same time or non-concurrently). If not, is there a drive back-up software that works with Leopard so I can use a back-up drive to back up another drive so I can back-up the Time Machine drive? Not sure that made sense, but let's see if anyone can figure it out!

As posted, TM won't do dual backups in the way you want.
And backing-up a backup isn't a particularly good idea, either: if there's a problem on the primary backup, it will be transferred to the secondary.
One excellent strategy is to have a pair of portable external HDs. Use one with TM for a week or so, then take it to your safe deposit box, workplace, relative's house, etc., and swap with the other. That way you have two independent backups, one up to date, the other never more than a week old.
And you're protected against fire, flood, theft, or direct lightning strike on your power lines.
You do have to tell TM when you swap drives (TM Preferences > Options), and you shouldn't go more than about 10 days between swaps, as TM may do a full backup instead of an incremental.
Even better would be, if those drives have enough room, put another partition on each for a "clone" (CarbonCopyCloner, SuperDuper, or the like) and have it updated automatically, at least weekly (I have mine update daily, while I'm snoozing). That gives you all the benefits of a clone without losing the benefits of TM.

Time Machine will not back up external photo drive

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