Time machine won't do a full back up

I have tried everything to get Time machine to do a Full Backup including editing the plist file and deleting the EXLUDE section of this file, saving then rebooting the machine. But still Time Machine does only my Home Folder as a backup. No other directries Like Applications, Library, System etc. Just Users.
Can someone please help me to get a full backup before I lose everything.

If that happened to me, here's what I would do:
Locate your backup disk using Finder. The top folder is generally called "Data" - I think - it is in my case, but I use a Time Capsule to receive the backup. Anyway, under that "Data" folder are folders listing the names of the machines I back up to this device using Time Machine.
It seems to me if you rename the file that corresponds to your computer's name, the next time Time Machine runs, it will sense this is a "first" backup and back up everything.

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I bought a new external hard drive for backups, but time machine won't do a full back up. I think it is remembering backing up onto previous external hard drives, which I don't own anymore. How do I do a new full backup?

I bought a new external hard drive for backups, but time machine won't do a full back up.
I think it is remembering backing up onto previous external hard drives, which I don't own anymore. How do I do a new full backup?
When I bought the new (used) iMac, I also bought an external hard drive for backups. It worked fine, but my husband stole it.
Then I bought a new external hard drive (Seagate) and it worked fine for three weeks, then died.
So I just got a new external hard drive, which was put together from an internal hard drive and a hard drive enclosure.
Time machine did the first backup today, and it should have taken 9 hours like it did on the previous first time full back up. Instead, it took 30 minutes. That can't be right. I want to start over and do a full backup to make sure everything gets onto my new external hard drive, but I can't figure out how to do that. Please help.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
tmutil compare -E
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the 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. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
The command will take at least a few minutes to run. Eventually some lines of output will appear below what you entered.
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.
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.

I recently did a full reinstall from my time machine and now my MacBook pro won't back up to the time machine. It starts a full backup ignoring the original back up, can anyone help?

I recently did a full reinstall from my time machine and now my MacBook pro won't back up to the time machine. It starts a full backup ignoring the original back up, can anyone help?

Did you follow the instructions on the page linked below?
OS X Yosemite: Recover your entire system

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 properly.

Greetings everyone,
I am running into some problems with Time Machine. For one reason or another, it won't conduct a full back up of my system to external hardrives. I have tried to back up my MBP with one old and one brand new Seagate External Hard Drive (with more than enough storage space available) yet I continue to run into the same problem. The backup stalls with roughly 50GBs or so of data remaining. I have made sure that all the necessary drive settings are correct and that my MBP HD is verified etc. Could someone advise of any issues that may be affecting this?

Trying Pondini's Time Machine Buddy. Getting this messagE- can anyone interpret these hieroglyphs?
I tried erasing and reformatting an external HD to Pondini's instructions but the initial TM back-up always fails.
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb
Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Backup content size: 104.8 GB excluded items size: 7.9 MB for volume Macintosh HD
No pre-backup thinning needed: 125.75 GB requested (including padding), 465.29 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (909 > 0)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/iWidgets.framework/Versions/A/Resour ces/HUD-DctrlRight-N.tiff to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/iWidgets.framework/Versions/A/Resour ces/HUD-DctrlUp-H.tiff to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/iWidgets.framework/Versions/A/Resour ces/HUD-DctrlUp-P.tiff to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/SFArchiving.framework/Versions/A/Res ources/fi.lproj/Localizable.strings to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/SFControls.framework/Versions/A/Reso urces/rotate_knob_select-b.tiff to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/SFControls.framework/Versions/A/Reso urces/SFCDisclosureArrowDown.tiff to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/SFDrawables.framework/Versions/A/Res ources/French.lproj/Localizable.strings to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/SFDrawables.framework/Versions/A/Res ources/French.lproj/SFDMotionPathToolHUD.nib/keyedobjects.nib to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/SFDrawables.framework/Versions/A/Res ources/Rotate4.tiff to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/SFDrawables.framework/Versions/A/Res ources/Rotate5.tiff to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/SFDrawables.framework/Versions/A/Res ources/Spanish.lproj/Localizable.strings to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/SFDrawables.framework/Versions/A/Res ources/Spanish.lproj/SFDAutoMaskHUD.nib/keyedobjects.nib to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/SFInspectors.framework/Versions/A/Re sources/English.lproj/SFIMetricsInspector.nib/keyedobjects.nib to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/SFInspectors.framework/Versions/A/Re sources/English.lproj/SFIMovieInspector.nib/info.nib to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/SFInspectors.framework/Versions/A/Re sources/hud-icon_exposure-min.tiff to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/SFInspectors.framework/Versions/A/Re sources/hud-icon_sharpen-min.tiff to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/SFInspectors.framework/Versions/A/Re sources/Japanese.lproj/SFITextListSubInspector.nib/keyedobjects.nib to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/SFInspectors.framework/Versions/A/Re sources/zh_CN.lproj/SFIFillSubInspector.nib/keyedobjects.nib to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/SFLicense.framework/Versions/A/Resou rces/da.lproj/SACountry.strings to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/SFLicense.framework/Versions/A/Resou rces/English.lproj/License.rtf to (null)
Stopping backup.
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Applications/iWeb.app/Contents/Frameworks/SFProofReader.framework/Versions/A/R esources/Portuguese.lproj/Hyphenation.dat to (null)
Copied 89 files (2.0 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Copy stage failed with error:11
Backup failed with error: 11

Replacement macpro, time machine won't back up bcs file is too large

In June I purchased a replacement macpro as the other one died. (allergic to water) When I set up the new macpro from my TC everything worked great and haven't had any issues since. However I just realized that I never turned Time Machine back on so I don't have any backups since June. I turned time machine on and it wants to back up the entire drive of the new macpro but there isn't enough room on the TC drive.
I would like to keep all the old backups on the TC but I don't know how or if I can do that. If not how can I go about clearing the TC so my macpro can get backed up?
(Full disclosure - I have only been a mac user for a few years so I am not too savy in figuring out what to do and more importantly what NOT to do!)

If you are really not going to use the old TM backups.. but just want to keep them as historical record.. plug in a suitable sized USB hard drive and use the archive utility in the TC to backup everything there. You can then disconnect that drive and store it somewhere safe suitably labelled.
Then proceed to wipe the existing tc drive and start the backups again.
Note there are million variations on this.
With what hard disks cost at the moment due to short supply it is cheaper sometimes to buy a new TC.. and store the old one. Also depends on how old the original TC is and the size of its hard disk, if it wouldn't be better to make the backup as described above.. ebay the old TC and get a new one.
Read the details in Pondini's excellent knowledgebase.
Particularly about moving or storing old backups.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
Time Machine has some strange behaviour it what it keeps and what it wipes itself.. so it is well worth being aware of what it does and doesn't do.
Being a Mac user myself for a very short time.. and consider myself less than expert in even the most narrow field.. except that I repair TC's and have done a lot of them. So much so that I find it hard to trust them. Always have another backup.. a clone of the disk as it is right now.. backed up somewhere safe.. using a cloner software which are available even free, using a firewire drive hanging off your mac pro.. or even with all the extra space you have inside it.. shove the disk inside and do an internal backup.. but exclude it from TM so it isn't backing up the backup.

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.

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.

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. 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 backup. Says disk is full ( stand alone disk). Souldn't it delete enough to create new backup. Last backup was 7/20/11. When I click "enter time machine' it goes to mail screen and nowhere else.

Time machine won't backup. Says disk doesn't have enough room. Shouldn't it delete old info to make space for new.
When I click on "enter time machine" it takes me to the last backup 7/22/11 and doesn't allow me to go further back.

No idea's?
I'm starting to think I just need to delete the sparsebundle file altogether and start over again...

Time Machine won't automatically back up

A little while ago I had a problem with my audio plug ins preventing some of my music programs functioning properly. I couldn't trace the exact file in the library so decided to overwrite my library with a previous version from my time machine disk. This proved to be a big mistake. All that actually happened was that it deleted my library and then would not replace it with my old library.
Anyway, with a bit of playing about I managed to reinstate my library and re-installed any programs that were still causing a problem.
Everything now seems to be ok except time machine. This will not automatically backup any more. I've tried a few things - my computer name had been lost so I renamed that, re-formatted my time machine disc, renamed time machine disk etc. It will back up the internal drive if I manually do it (although seems to be a lot smaller backup than the size of my internal drive used space?) but ignores all scheduled backups. It also will not backup my other external drive which worked fine before. This is not in the exclude list.
Any ideas?

alanhess wrote:
Everything now seems to be ok except time machine. This will not automatically backup any more. I've tried a few things - my computer name had been lost so I renamed that, re-formatted my time machine disc, renamed time machine disk etc. It will back up the internal drive if I manually do it (although seems to be a lot smaller backup than the size of my internal drive used space?) but ignores all scheduled backups. It also will not backup my other external drive which worked fine before. This is not in the exclude list.
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
The first backup after erasing the TM disk should be smaller than the data on your internal HD ), because Time Machine omits some items that aren't needed to restore your system. These include most caches, system workfiles, and trash. Usually the difference is very small, but can be fairly large.
As for not backing-up your external disk, and perhaps not doing automatic backups as well, it sounds like the preferences file may be corrupted.
Go to TM Preferences > Change Disk and de-select your TM drive (select "none"), note any exclusions you want in Options, then quit System Preferences.
Delete the file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist (in your top-level Library folder, not your home folder.)
Go back to TM Preferences, re-select your TM disk, re-enter any exclusions you want, and try again.

Time Machine Won't Continue Old Backup

My computer was being repaired at Apple for a few weeks and I just got it back. No hard drive data was modified during the repair; the optical drive needed work. Anyway, I plugged in my external hard drive a few moments ago and it's backing up the whole system and won't let me return to the previous backups that I already have. I'm trying to recall a few files and Time Machine won't let me find them even though they're on the external drive. I did, however, accidentally rename the external hard drive when I was using it without Time Machine a few days ago.
Is there a way for me to continue where I left off with my old Time Machine backups? I'd hate to lose them all and I don't want to re-install the entire system from a previous one from a month or so ago; I just need to look at a few old files. Thanks for any help!
Greg

So, here's what happened.
Time Machine uses the xattr system to assign specific folders hidden attributes. Time Machine sets each folder up in its hierarchy with a xattr tag for the Ethernet MAC address of the machine it is backing up. This is all done invisibly. So, when I got a logic board, and a new MAC address, it wouldn't treat the old archive as concomitant with the new machine. So, here's how you fix this:
- remove the ACLs from the Time Machine DB
- use the xattr command at Terminal to put your new MAC address on the folder.
Full details are available here:
http://www.tombridge.com/rta/2008/01/after-the-apple.html

Time machine won't do a full back up

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