Time machine will not complete backup.

Time Machine will not complete back-up - 3TB back-up is full and time machine will not automatically delete oldest back-up.

This happens from time to time. You will need to step in and decide what to do.. Delete manually.. a very slow and fraught process.. or you have to take more severe action.. eg archive off the old backups and start again. You will need a 3TB USB drive to do it.. but IMHO is well worth it. Assuming you need all that history. You can then simply do a quick erase from Airport Utility which takes a minute or two and do a fresh backup.
Try to eliminate files that are not necessary to backup.. eg the worst is any virtual disk for parallels or bootcamp.. where the slightest change to the smallest file will result in a full backup of the whole virtual disk. You must backup windows etc from inside the OS and not from TM in Mac OS.
Have you upgraded the computer btw?? I get the feeling that when you upgrade a computer.. say Snow Leopard to Lion to Mountain Lion.. TM has real issues handling the old backups. It is much better to start over.
Read up from our most productive expert.. Pondini..
http://pondini.org/TM/C4.html

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Time Machine will not complete backup with WD My Passport for Mac

I am on 10.10.3 and am trying to backup up this particular machine for the first time. I had a 1TB WD My Passport for Mac that worked fine on my older Macbook Pro (which has not been updated to 10.10.3) and have been slow in getting around to backing up this new machine. I tried the 1TB after clearing space and it wasn't working. Figured it must be something with that drive, so I bought a new one (needed more space anyway) and just received a new 2TB WD My Passport for Mac. Tried the update again via Time Machine and it went through the entire process only to tell me it couldn't complete. The drive has something on it now because it doesn't have the full 2TB free and in finder the file says "in progress" at the end of the file name under backup. Please help. I need to backup this machine and now think it is Apple related and not drive related.

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 and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Initially the words "String Matching" are shown in that box. Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes.) You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard."
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Note the timestamp of the last "Starting" message that corresponds to the beginning of 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.
☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Time Machine WIll not Complete Backup Since Latest Update

Yesterday morning I ran software update which included an update to Mac OS 10.6.6, Remote Desktop Client 3.4 and iWork 9.0.5. After the update I restarted the system and from that point forward I keep getting an error message that Time Machine backup failed. I ran Disk Utility on the backup disk and it doesn't find any problem.
Has anyone else had this problem or have any other suggestions how to remedy the issue?
Thank you,
DC

Without a hint of a glimmer of a clue about what the failure message was, we can't give you any specifics in return.
Start with #C2 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* 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.

My time machine will not complete the back up. It say that my sparsebundle is already in use. What do I do and how do I fix it?

My time machine will not complete the back up. It tells me that my sparsebundle is alreay in use. I currently have imac ungraded my sofeware to the latest. What do I do to correct this?

Try here...
The Backup disk image ... sparsebundle ... is already in use.
From Pondini’s excellent Information Here...
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.htm

HT201250 My Time Machine is not backing up and gives me this error report, 'The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Valarie'siMac.sparsbundle" is already in use. Time machine could not complete backup. Can anyone help me?

My Time Machine is not backing up and gives me this error report:
The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Valarie'siMac.sparsbundle" is already in use
Time Machine could not complete backup
Can anyone help me?

Look at the discussion on the following forum:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3882138?start=0&tstart=0
The responses given there may help.

WEIRD "Time Machine could not complete Backup" error

So this started back in Leopard 10.5.
I used Time machine once and didn't like it so I turned it off and unhooked the external drive.
Ever since that time, I get a Time Machine could not complete Backup error window that pops up every 2 hours or so it seems.
I updated to Snow Leopard and still got this problem all the way up to 10.6.8.
I have now updated to Lion and I STILL get this stupid annoying error.
My TM is OFF and there are no drives selected anywhere.
What should I do ?

Very true, I didn't even tink about that... but.....
I did have TimeMachineEditor but it was already set to OFF.
I also had another program (Time Machine Scheduler) that was also set to off.
****, I would have loved it to be that !!!

HT3275 time machine could not complete backup because it says a (filename).sparsebundle is already in use. Anyone know what that is?? and who could be already using my file?

Do you understand this error message? Time machine could not complete backup because it says a (filename).sparesbundle is already is in use.
What is the sparsebundle extension?

See here...
The Backup disk image ... sparsebundle ... is already in use.
From Pondini’s excellent Information Here...
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.htm

Time Machine will not properly backup to new 8TB glyph drive.

Time Machine will not properly backup to new 8TB glyph drive. Folder reads ".inProgress". Can't see any files.
How can I set it up to do proper, regular backups?

8TB? holy cow.
It's likely overwhelmed and doesn't know what it's looking at.
Try using Carbon Copy Cloner instead, at least it will be bootable to use the computer.
Most commonly used backup methods

HT3275 Have OS 10.7.5. Computer off three days and now message comes that Time Machine could not complete backup because the "/volumes/PH's timecapsulPro.sparsebundle" is already in use. Whats that about?

Have OS 10.7.5. Computer off three days and now message comes that Time Machine could not complete backup because the "/volumes/PH's timecapsulPro.sparsebundle" is already in use. Whats that about?

Two Solutions for "sparse bundle already in use" Error
Simple solution (from Bob Timmons):
1. Make sure that no other Macs are backing up the Time Capsule at the time
2. Pull the power cord from the back of the Time Capsule
3. Count to ten
4. Plug the power cord back into the back of the Time Capsule
If Simple doesn't work:
The Backup disk image ... sparsebundle ... is already in use.

My Time Capsule is full of backups from Time Machine. Time Machine will not complete its backup. Any ideas?

My Time Machine does not complete its backup. It is using my 500 gig Time Capsule, which is full. Does anyone have a suggestion?

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 that corresponds to an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showning, 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 (command-V) into a reply to this message.
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.

HT3275 Time Machine could not complete backup

Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk image “/Volumes/Gary Curtis's Time Capsule/Mac Pro (2).sparsebundle” is already in use.
What does that mean?

Aloha again LaPastenague:
I too continue to have problems with my TC. I can always get it back on line, using your receip. In fact it's pasted on to my monitor. The problem is it only lasts for awhile, 3 or 4 days, and I have to do it all over again.
Do you know if Apple is working this problem?
Dan Page

Time Machine Could Not Complete Backup due to sparse bundle already in use?

Please help……my time machine says…..Time machine could not complete back up……The back up disc image "/Volumes/Data/(our name) iMac.sparsebundle" is already in use Do I need to reset the TC? Thank you for any help

Make sure that no other Macs are backing up at the time
Pull the power cord from the back of the TC
Count to ten
Plug the power back into the back of the TC
Wait a few minutes, then try a backup

Time Machine does not complete backup to Time Capsule

Within the past few days my iMac will not complete a backup to my Time Capsule. The two other computers connected to the Time Capsule appear to be backing up but they size of the backup is smaller. The Time Machine starts but then stops after 10 or so minutes. Also, the size of the to backup is ver large, and I have not added that much to my files since the last complete backup.
Here is what I tried:
1. Deleting the com/apple/Timecapsule.plist file and restarting the Time Capsule.
2. turning off WIFI and connecting to an ethernet cable
3. Verifying the disk (when connected to with the ethernet cable)
Nothing worked although Deleting the com/apple/Timecapsule.plist file and restarting the Time Capsule it got about 50% through before crapping out.
Appreciate any ideas.
Thanks

What OS is the computer running? Expect issues with Yosemite.. it is just not that reliable.
How much space does it require and how much is available on the TC?
What speed is the backup doing? If it is super slow it can trip out.
You did the right things, using ethernet and verifying the old backup.. But if you upgraded to Yosemite (upgraded??) then I strongly recommend you start a completely new backup.
Did you load the widget so you can actually check the log info.. to find out why TM stopped??
A1 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
It is hard to fix issues when you don't even know what the issue is.

Time Machine will not delete backups

I am running 10.8.2 and have a recurring message every couple of weeks from Time Machine that says the backup disk is full and the backup could not be completed. I am attempting to have about 750G backed up onto a 1000G Gsafe external drive.
I do notice that everytime my Backup drive is mounted, there are what appears to be 3 old backups in my trash that will not delete when I empty the trash. The system asks me if I want to remove all items or only unlocked items. I select "all items", and the files remain in the trash. I am sure this has something to do with the Time Machine error.
Any ideas?

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.
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.
Otherwise, I suggest you clear possibly corrupt data from the TM preference file. Open the Time Machine pane in System Preferences. Click the padlock icon in the lower left corner, if necessary, to unlock it. Scroll to the bottom of the list of backup drives and click Add or Remove Backup Disk. Remove the problem disk, then add it back. Quit System Preferences. Test.

Time machine will not begin backup -- uuid's don't match

I'm trying to use time machine for the first time to backup my macbook pro, but whenever time machine appears to begin, it will only say that it is backing up however many files, but there is no progress on the progress bar and it shows that 0kb of 53.8 gb have been backed up. It remains this way even after leaving my external hard drive connected overnight for +9 hours. What do I need to do so that time machine will work properly?
Here is what the computer is telling me:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Iomega/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Backup content size: 53.8 GB excluded items size: 7.9 MB for volume Macintosh HD
No pre-backup thinning needed: 64.54 GB requested (including padding), 266.83 GB available

Start with item #C1 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting post at the top of this forum.
As it says, the most common cause of an initial backup failing is an improperly formatted TM drive/partition.
After using it's instructions to verify the setup, if you're sure it's correct, then do all the things recommended in item #D2.

Time machine will not complete backup.

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