Time machine won't back up like it used to.

After months of an almost flawless relationship with my computer & external drives, time machine has found a way to ruin things. I searched the internet wide but still can't find a solution that works for my situation.
The problem started when I purchased a new drive to store data on. My goal was to organize the drives - music/video, photos, and cpu. I have been using a 1tb lacie drive for backing up with time machine successfully, but adding an additional drive seems to have confused thing. I also changed the name of the old drive (not the back up drive - so I thought it wouldn't matter - but now I suspect it i did). The data hasn't really changed at all , it's just been moved to different locations.
Now when i try to back up
-my machine pin wheels (i hate that beach ball!). everything loads slowly. typing this is taking forever.
-running applications freeze without being able to force quit
-my computer won't shut down properly
-i had to unplug my drives several times just to regain control of my computer
- i have to use the power button to force my computer on & off.
and messages i've received about the process
-"preparing" for over 24 hours with no results
-"Event store UUIDs don't match for volume"
-"Node requires deep traversal" which it never seems to get through
-"No pre-backup thinning needed"
i tried to delete previous back ups in order to make more room on the drive. I deleted each back up - by date- in time machine , but the files remain on the drive. they don't appear to have really deleted and each date appears with the message "zero date not marked for delete" and listed as "partially deleted back up"
spotlight also used to hold up the process so i excluded all 3 of my external drives from indexing.
i have been having a particularly hard time with itunes. i moved the library to a larger external drives. At this point it won't start up or quit. Only when time machine is off will it work normally.
i would post the entire log(s) but there are so many and with each change they've been almost completely different. Overall the result has been the same - time machine is not doing it's job.
most recently i've received Error: (-36)
I am trying to avoid reformatting the drive just in case some of my files get lost in the confusion, or i need to restore from a back up.
any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

miss nono wrote:
The problem started when I purchased a new drive to store data on. My goal was to organize the drives - music/video, photos, and cpu. I have been using a 1tb lacie drive for backing up with time machine successfully, but adding an additional drive seems to have confused thing. I also changed the name of the old drive (not the back up drive - so I thought it wouldn't matter - but now I suspect it i did). The data hasn't really changed at all , it's just been moved to different locations.
Renaming a drive that's being backed-up means Time Machine thinks it's a new drive. On the next backup, it will back it up completely. That should cause one large, lengthy backup.
The symptoms you list all sound like something is corrupted on one or more of the drives, or is hanging your backups.
i tried to delete previous back ups in order to make more room on the drive.
Unfortunately, other than using special "deny everybody everything" permissions, Apple doesn't do a very good job of warning folks to *+never, ever, move, change, or delete anything in your Time Machine backups via the Finder+* as that can hopelessly corrupt them.
Normally, you shouldn't have to delete backups manually, as TM will delete your oldest backups automatically when it needs room for new ones, unless you have the +Warn when old backups are deleted+ box checked in TM Preferences > Options. But in some cases you may want to delete a particular backup, or all backups of selected items (like the previous backups of a drive you've renamed). Time Machine provides a way to do that. See #12 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
spotlight also used to hold up the process so i excluded all 3 of my external drives from indexing.
Yes, sometimes Spotlight and Time Machine backups conflict, so we do recommend excluding the TM drive from Spotlight at least temporarily when they occur, especially on an initial backup.
Your backups are likely corrupted. You can try a +*Repair Disk+* (not permissions) on them via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder), which will take quite a while and may not succeed; or you can reformat your TM drive completely and let TM start over.
You should also probably check all your drives/partitions via #C1 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum. If one or more are not set up properly, that can be a cause of trouble, too.
After all that, I'd suggest excluding all the externals from TM temporarily, via TM Preferences > Options, and running a backup of only your internal HD. If that works ok, then remove one exclusion and run another backup. Repeat until done, or the problems start again.
If they do start again, you'll know which drive is the problem and can address it.
By the way, what's the total size of the data on your internal HD and all the externals you want TM to back up? Note that to work well, TM usually needs 2-3 times that much space, although it may work with 1.5 or so, at least for a while.

Similar Messages

I moved files off my computer to an external hard drive now time machine won't back up like it used to. It says there is not enough room.

My hard drive was completely full (mostly with pictures) so I moved several years worth of photos from the hard drive to an external hard drive I regularly use with the laptop. (Basically my master copies of all my photos back to 1997) I have always had Time Machine set up to back up both the laptop AND that external drive. It's always worked seamlessly until I moved those files. Time Machine has been full for a while now and regularly gives me a message that the oldest files will be deleted. That's fine.
I don't understand why moving files from the laptop to the external hd would now cause the following message (not an exact quote): Time Capsule cannot complete backup. You need 233 gb to backup and time capsule only has 107 gb available. If time capsule was already set to backup up both the laptop and the external hd, why would moving those photos from one hd to the other cause a space issue? It should equal out. And now when I look at the files on the time capsule, it only shows me a recent backup and a partial incomplete backup. None of the older backups are visible anymore. I have not deleted anything directly from the time capsule so I'm thinking somehow the index got damaged. How can I fix this? The error message says to change the settings but I really don't know what settings to change. Help!!

It does not immediately delete the files that are missing.. it merely tries to backup the new files it has discovered on the external drive. Since you moved the files there, the backup at least for a while will contain both copies.. and that is why it doesn't have enough space to backup.
Fixing the problem.. hmm pondini is the expert.. you should be able to delete the backup of the photos in existing backup.. there are instructions to do it.. but it is a very poor way to do things.
Much better. .archive off the existing backup.. this is long and slow but worth it. you need a usb drive of the same size as the TC drive. Then erase the TC and start a fresh set of backups.
The alternative is to use the USB drive as a new target.. but it is much slower than the TC internal drive.
http://pondini.org/TM/12.html

Time MAchine won't back up due to not enough space, but there is

TIme Machine won't back up. Displays this:
Actual capacity of the external backup drive is 999.68 GB and available is 135 gb .
The imac internal HD capacity is 999.01GB and used space is 636.321 GB.
This problem has occured periodically in the last 12 months or so, so prior to OS version10.8 install in Jul 2012.
I previously called AppleCare, as I have a contract, and tech said I just need to reformat the external drive and start over.
I did that the last time this happened a few months ago, but I don't like that option, as it eliminates all the prior backups,
What if I needed to try to recover something I deleted 3 weeks ago, for example. I couldn't do so as all backups would have been deleted, of course, by me having refomatted the drive and basically starting over. Also, I noted in another post about a person having a problem due to using a partitioned drive. Mine is not partition, as far as I can tell. See this:
Any ideas? Thanks

The solution is essentially "simple." You need a larger hard drive for these backups or you need to use a different backup solution. By this I mean using backup software that does not preserve an archive of old copies of a file, but simply erases old copies in order to replace them with the new copies. By replacing your backup drive can always accommodate the drive it backs up if it is large enough - say the same size. I can suggest:
Backup Software Recommendations
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
SuperDuper!
Synk Pro
Tri-Backup
Others may be found at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
All of the above are capable of being scheduled. Synk Pro makes immediate backups of any changed file on the hard drive. You may configure it to archive changes (like Time Machine) or to delete prior copies.

My Time machine won't back up. Recently updated to OS x 10.7.5. Error message is as follows: "The backup disk image "/Volumes/Time Machine Backup/Scott's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use." What is wrong and how do I fix it? Thanks.

My Time machine won't back up. Recently updated to OS x 10.7.5. Error message is as follows: "The backup disk image “/Volumes/Time Machine Backup/Scott’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” is already in use." What is wrong and how do I fix it? Thanks.

Have you tried restarting the computer? Also, see Time Machine Error from this pages sidebar under More Like This.

After installing Mountain Lion, my Time Machine won't back up ... says the sparsebundle is in use

After installing Mountain Lion, my Time Machine won't back up ... says the sparsebundle is in use

Standard problem in ML.. apple do not seem to want to recognise.
Reboot the TC .. if that fails restart the whole network in correct order.. modem.. router/TC... clients.. with 2min gap.
There are other suggestions like changing the password.. all they do is the same as reboot.
Read C12.. most quoted Q in pondini website history. This is asked 10 times a day.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
Here is another way to get a useful utility in ML.. rather than toyland version.
How to load 5.6 into ML.
1. Download 5.6 for Lion.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
Click to open the dmg but do not attempt to install the pkg.. it won't work anyway.
2. Download and install unpkg.
http://www.timdoug.com/unpkg/
Run unpkg on the desktop.. it is very simple.. drag the AirPortUtility56.pkg file over to unpkg.. and it will create a new directory of the same name on the desktop.. drill down.. applications utilities .. there lo and behold is Airport utility 5.6 .. drag it to your main utilities directory or just run it from current location.
You cannot uninstall 6.1 so don't try.. and you cannot or should not run them both at the same time.. so just ignore the toyland version.. the plastic hammer.. and start using 5.6.. a real tool.

Time Machine won't back up onto Time Capsule

I upgraded to Mountain Lion last week, and Time Machine won't back up to my Time Capsule. When it fails, I get the message:
Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to "Tom's Time Capsule".
The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/TomsMac.sparsebundle" could not be created (error 60)
I sometimes get the same message, but with "error 17"
I also get the following error message popup (even though the disk is the one in my Time Capsule):
The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer.
The popup offers three choices: Initialize, Ignore, Eject.
My local Apple Store Genius concluded that the problem must be with the Time Capsule, so I bought a new one. That didn't fix the problem.
Time Machine Buddy messages:
Starting manual backup
Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://Tom%[email protected]/Data
Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Data using URL: afp://Tom%[email protected]/Data
Creating disk image /Volumes/Data/TomsMac.sparsebundle
Error 60 creating backup disk image
Failed to create disk image /Volumes/Data/TomsMac.sparsebundle, status: 60
Backup failed with error: 20
Failed to eject volume /Volumes/Data (FSVolumeRefNum: -108; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
I did Repair Disk Permissions and Verify Disk and everything's OK.
I erased the Time Capsule using AirPort Utility and did a hard reset on the Time Capsule.
I did a re-install of Mountain Lion and that didn't fix anything.
My MacBook Pro is accessing the Time Capsule wirelessly, as it always has.
Help!

Just to be sure, we're talking about a Time Capsule -- not an AirPort Extreme connected to an external hard drive. Right?
If so, proceed as follows.
Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode* and log in to the account with the problem. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
*Note: If FileVault is enabled under OS X 10.7 or later, or if a firmware password is set, you can’t boot in safe mode.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem(s)?
After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

Time Machine won't back up after system restore

I just restored my system after a failure, and now Time Machine won't back up my hard drive. It gets about 40 out of 90 Gigabytes done, and then gives me an error message that just says that there was an error while backing up, and doesn't give any other information. I ran a Verify Disk with Disk Utility, and there is nothing wrong with the backup drive, and there is more than 200 Gigabytes of space left on that drive.
Thank You.

zhoffmanster wrote:
Ok, so here's the thing: I tried backing up again today, and it worked just fine. Before, what would happen is a message would pop saying "an error has occurred during backup" (or something close to that). The point is, the message didn't give any detail.
No, the point is, you seem to have ignored this:
See the Time Machine - Troubleshooting post at the top of this forum.

Time Machine won't back up external drive to Time Capsule

I recently got a Time Capsule, and successfully set it up to back up my iMac's primary drive, but for some reason Time Machine won't back up my external drive to the Time Capsule.
I removed the external drive from the exclusion list in System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, and from what I've read this should be sufficient to make Time Machine back up the drive.
The external drive is connected to my iMac via Thunderbolt > Thunderbolt-to-Firewire adaptor > Firewire 800 input, and the Time Capsule is connected via Ethernet to my LAN.
Since I'm using Ethernet, I've disabled Wi-Fi on the Time Capusule by going to AirPort Utility > My Time Capsule > Edit > Wireless > Network Mode > Off.
The reason I believe the external drive is not being backed up is because when I click the Time Machine icon in the upper-right status bar and choose "Enter Time Machine", none of the folders on external drive show any older versions.
Furthermore, when I click Finder > Time Machine Backups > Backups.backupdb, I can see only one sub-folder which has the name of my iMac's primary drive. I can't see any equivalent folder for my external drive.
Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

I don't see anything you have done wrong.. perhaps it does backup in a different way.
Load the widget.. A1 here... http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
That will allow you to track the log of TM to see what it is doing.
I would also try rebooting the computer.. exclude the drive again.. reboot.. and remove the exclusion.
You should be able to check the actual settings of TM in plist file.
And you can do a full reset of TM as well.. See A4. Check what is in the file. Pondini lists the location for you.
Nothing surprises me with Mountain Lion ...!!

Time Machine won't back-up. Why?

Time Machine won't back-up to LaCie external drive (OS 10.7.4) after I disconnected and reconnected for a road trip.
Why? How can I correct?

What is the error message?

Time Machine Won't Back up Completely

When I insert an external drive, Time Machine does not back up my whole computer. It only backs up around 4 GBs. Any solutions/tips on why that is the case? It is a brand new hard drive

jcwong15 wrote:
Actually, the issue is my "Untitled" hard drive is on the excluded list.
I somehow thought it was normal to have the hard drive there, and anything else that isn't there should be deleted. I can't remove my hard drive from the excluded list though.
What happens when you try to remove it?
If it's listed in gray, and you can't remove it, that means it's not formatted for a Mac (any variant of Mac OS Extended) and Time Machine can't back it up.
If so, you must have an SSD with OSX on it (since OSX won't install or run on a drive like that).
Even so, the system folders (Applications, Library, and System) alone on your OSX drive should add-up to at least 14 GBs.
Let's see just what's what. Start the Disk Utility app (Applications/Utilities) and screenprint the display. For each partition (indented) with a gray icon, select it and screen print that, too. Then post them all here.

Time Machine won't back up to drive. Five days backing up so far

A week ago I got a message saying that Time Machine could not back up to my external hard drive but that I could access my old backups. I pointed Time Machine to another hard drive and it has been backing up there for five days so far - all the time stating Time remaining 5 seconds. It is now in a cleanup mode. I have been reading about various bugs concerning Time Machine and wonder if there is a fix I can carry out so that I can use the original external hard drive again.

Stop the backup. Boot in safe mode and log in. Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including Wi-Fi on certain iMacs. The next normal boot may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin. Test while in safe mode. Same problem? After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

I upgraded to Mavericks and now Time Machine won't back up to my external hard drive.

I upgraded to OS 10.9 on my iMac and now I get messages that Time Machine will not back up to my G-Force external hard drive. What do I do to restore back up capability?

Check the More Like This section at the right particularly i upgraded my imac hard drive to a 2tb drive. how do i use time machine to get my computer back to normal?

Time Machine won't back up OWC external drive

Mac Mini running 10.8.5. Time Machine will not back up brand new OWC MiniStack external HD. I've trashed TM prefs, reformatted the TM drive, verified that there are no exclusions, but it won't back up the external HD which contains only data files -- no system, no applications. TM does back up the internal HD.

PROBLEM SOLVED.
Recap: Time Machine would not back up an external data drive despite being correctly formatted and settings correctly applied.
Problem was either: a) the Mac, b) the external data drive, c) the Time Machine drive, or d) the data.
I replaced both the external data drive (cloned) and the Time Machine drive, but Time Machine would back up that external drive either.
Finally, instead of CLONING (SuperDuper) the external data drive, I COPIED the data to a new HD -- root folder-by-folder. Now Time Machine again backs up my external hard drive.
SOLUTION: Problem was not hard drives or Mac, but within the data itself. Cloning the data simply passed on the problem to the new hard drive. For this problem, the solution was copying the data rather than cloning.
Thanks all.

Time machine won't back up

I just got a new MacBook Air with Lion. On my old Mac, I thought I remembered that Time Machine would only backup files that have changed since the last time I backed up my drive. I used Time Machine to transfer my old desktop to my new Air. Today when I tried to use TIme Machine to back it up, it said I did not have enough space.
I'm not clear if it's trying to back up the whole drive or just things that have changed since the install (which is all I need).
What should I do to make more room for my current back up or to instruct Time Machine only to back up items that have changed since the last backup?
Thanks.

FWIW I had this sort of problem which generally #$%^& me off. I had a brainstorm and tried somebody's MBP and it worked just as expected. So I reinstalled Leopard after erasing and formating the drive and using time machine off my external LaCie.
That didn't work worth a #$%^&
So I once again, reformatted the drive and reinstalled leopard FROM THE DVD and then used time machine as part of the migration assistant, and everything worked perfectly, and I can now use TC with my Mac Pro octo.
So something MIGHT be hosed on your system, and if you feel that you have a solid back up, reinstall off the DVD and then migrate with time machine.
Hope this helps. I spent about 2 days getting this straightened out.

Time Machine won't back up incrementally

Hi there,
Here's my situation. Using a Mac Pro, Snow Leopard 10.6.8. (still SL because I have a solid FCP7 set up and don't want to mess with it at the moment).
I've used Time machine successfully with one large 6TB backup external hard drive. But recently, since I don't have enough space on that one drive to back up all my other drives, I decided to try to use a second backup that I would dedicate to backing up just one large drive with lots of large media files. So I backed up eveything else on original backup1 except that drive....then connected the other backup2...chose that as my backup disc in TM, excluded all other drives (including my system hard drive) and let it fly. It seemed to work, but now when I try to use backup2 to incrementally backup it wants to backup that WHOLE drive again and says "there's not enough space on the backup drive", so it won't proceed. When I look on the backup2, I do see the backup folders, and the files are in there...I just hope to do an easy incremental backup of this drive from time to time.
I tried some recommend troubleshooting and deleted the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist file...but after restarting, rechoosing that drive as the backup drive, excluding the others, it still won't incrementally back up the drive that I needed to be backed up. Still says, "Not enough space".
Now, I'm not sure if switching between drives is even possible..seems like it should be. You'd think many people would have this problem of their backup drive not being big enough to handle everything and want to split it up ( i understand Mavericks makes this easier). But I really can't update the OS at the moment and am looking for solutions or ideas as to how to work this out. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, even a third party backup recommendation if necessary.
scott

Time Machine, especially the version on Snow Leopard, isn't made for splitting backup duties across volumes. Even on Mountain Lion, where you can use multiple target drives, they each back up the entire group of source drives. I haven't tried Mavericks yet, but I understand it is similar to Mountain Lion in this respect.
You could use Time Machine to back up everything but your large media file drive into the 6TB drive and use another utility to back up the large media drive onto another external volume. Carbon Copy Cloner, for example, has an incremental backup mode.

Time machine won't back up like it used to.

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