What is Time-Machine doing with all that space?!!!

When I installed Leopard, I had about 750 GB of data on internal hard drives.
I set up Time-Machine to back-up to a 1.5 TB external hard drive.
I was certain that this was enough space to keep the program happy for a very long time.
But now, only two days later, time machine has left only 50 GB remaining on that external drive, and that number is decreasing rapidly.
So where did all the space go?
(BTW... I have not been manipulating or deleting any massive files since I initiated T.M.)
(BTW Again... for anyone who cares, I strongly suggest you look for a QUIET external drive for time machine, since it runs CONSTANTLY!!)

Mac FixIt has some advice on this problem:
"Time Machine slowness, fix Extremely large or frequently updated files (or worse, files that fall into both categories) can cause Time Machine spike in processor usage, resulting in slowness for other applications or the system in general. The simple solution is to exclude these files from Time Machine's backup routine. You can do this by navigating to the "Time Machine" pane of System Preferences, then clicking the "Options" button. This will bring up a "Do not back up:' dialog box. You can then click the small "+" button and choose folders or files you don't want Time Machine Backup.
Common culprits include:
Virtual Machine hard drive files, including those generated by Parallels and VMWare Fusion. Exclude these immediately.
Databases that are persistently accessed by some applications. For instance, Microsoft Entourage keeps a huge database file for mailboxes that is updated frequently."
I would assume that this would also result in bigger backups.
Sounds like you have another problem if you Time Machine drive runs constantly as you say. It should only do that on initial backup.

Similar Messages

  • HT2693 Time Machine does not have enough space?

    I want to completely clean out all my back ups on Time Machine and start over?

    Open Disk Utility, Highlight the TM partition, Select: Erase.

  • Time machine does not have enough space

    Please tell me a simple, step by step way to fix this problem. 

    Look at C4 in the first link. Exactly what error message are you getting if it isn't C4?
    Time Machine Troubleshooting
    Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

  • Time Machine does not see original backup file on Time Capsuel after reset.

    I recently moved. I have a Time Capsule which is also my airport base station. I have about 7 months worth of back-ups on the drive for an iMac and a MacBook. The local cable company would only hook up the modem directly to my iMac and would not set up through the Time Capsule as it is not one of their routers. No problem. I did it once -- I could do it again. After discovering that it was not as simple as plugging the ethernet cable into the Time Capsule (after doing so, the Time Capsule recognized it had internet feed -- the iMac recognized the Time Capsule/Airport network -- but I could not get onto the net.) I discovered that I needed to do a hard reset. The instructions said the files would not be erased. They were not. I can still see the original back-ups for both computers in finder. But Time Machine does not recognize that either computer was ever backed up. There is no history and when I try a back-up it begins from scratch and creates a brand new back-up file.
    How do I get Time Machine to recognize the original back-up files? I tried "choosing disk" in Time Machine preferences but it only lets me choose the actual disk (the Time Capsule) and not an individual back-up file
    Thanks in advance to the collective brain trust.
    Robert

    I saw a post on another discussion about this subject, and one user found this workaround:
    2) Start the backup via wireless connection. Stop the backup. Unplug external HD and plug in via USB or FW (you want FW800). Time Machine appears smart enough to continue your backup in a manner that is useable by the AEBS.
    This only makes sense for the first backup (or if you have a lot of data for one particular incremental backup), as it removes the whole convenience factor of wireless.
    The post got this reply:
    Thx for your #2 tip on using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Base Station, then switching to a wired connection. Worked perfectly.
    Started the TimeMachine b/up wirelessly, allowed it to run for a couple minutes, then stopped it, unplugged the USB drive from the AEBS, plugged it into the computer directly via FW400, opened TimeMachine and it recognized the Disk. Ran TimeMachine via the wired connection, after it finished I ejected it, plugged it back into the AEBS, initiated the AirDisk in the finder, then opened TimeMachine and presto!!
    Awesome tip. Note: this works for first-time TimeMachine wireless backups only. Saved me over 40 hours of wireless waiting!!
    http://gizmodo.com/370017/how+to-use-time-machine-with-an-airport-extreme
    Can anyone confirm that this will work?

  • Time Machine does not see back-up file on Time Capsule

    I recently moved. I have a Time Capsule which is also my airport base station. I have about 7 months worth of back-ups on the drive for an iMac and a MacBook. The local cable company would only hook up the modem directly to my iMac and would not set up through the Time Capsule as it is not one of their routers. No problem. I did it once -- I could do it again. After discovering that it was not as simple as plugging the ethernet cable into the Time Capsule (after doing so, the Time Capsule recognized it had internet feed -- the iMac recognized the Time Capsule/Airport network -- but I could not get onto the net.) I discovered that I needed to do a hard reset. The instructions said the files would not be erased. They were not. I can still see the original back-ups for both computers in finder. But Time Machine does not recognize that either computer was ever backed up. There is no history and when I try a back-up it begins from scratch and creates a brand new back-up file.
    How do I get Time Machine to recognize the original back-up files? I tried "choosing disk" in Time Machine preferences but it only lets me choose the actual disk (the Time Capsule) and not an individual back-up file
    Thanks in advance to the collective brain trust.
    Robert

    I recently moved. I have a Time Capsule which is also my airport base station. I have about 7 months worth of back-ups on the drive for an iMac and a MacBook. The local cable company would only hook up the modem directly to my iMac and would not set up through the Time Capsule as it is not one of their routers. No problem. I did it once -- I could do it again. After discovering that it was not as simple as plugging the ethernet cable into the Time Capsule (after doing so, the Time Capsule recognized it had internet feed -- the iMac recognized the Time Capsule/Airport network -- but I could not get onto the net.) I discovered that I needed to do a hard reset. The instructions said the files would not be erased. They were not. I can still see the original back-ups for both computers in finder. But Time Machine does not recognize that either computer was ever backed up. There is no history and when I try a back-up it begins from scratch and creates a brand new back-up file.
    How do I get Time Machine to recognize the original back-up files? I tried "choosing disk" in Time Machine preferences but it only lets me choose the actual disk (the Time Capsule) and not an individual back-up file
    Thanks in advance to the collective brain trust.
    Robert

  • I have an iMac with Microsoft Office and an HD - Time Machine. I'm buying a MacBook Pro and I want to know that if I use the Time Machine to transfer all my stuff the Microsof Office will work or if I need to reinstall it with another licence ?

    I have an iMac with Microsoft Office (and several other licenced softs) and an HD - Time Machine that backup all the stuff. I'm buying a MacBook Pro and I would to know that if I use the Time Machine to transfer all my stuff, the Microsof Office will work normally or if I need to reinstall it with another licence?

    You do not need a new license. The license file will be found in /Library/Preferences/ and is named, com.microsoft.office.licensing.plist. Be sure it gets transferred and you will be fine. I see no reason why the file would not be in your Time Machine backup nor any reason why it would be restored.
    Please visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine. You may need help figuring out how to restore your current backup to a new machine.

  • Time Machine does not cope well with nearly-full disk

    Although Time Machine is supposed to delete old backups when the disk fills up, under some circumstances it does not cope well with a disk-full condition.
    Hardware: iMac (mid 2007)
    OS: Mac OS X version 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard)
    Processor: 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
    Memory: 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
    The other day I noticed that I had not had a successful Time Machine backup in over a day. Backups were taking a long time to run (4 hours or more), during which time the backup disk was chattering constantly and the disk showed "Estimating index time" in the Spotlight menu (even though I had excluded the disk from Spotlight indexing). When the disk finally stopped chattering, the backup finished with no visible errors but Time Machine continued to state that the last successful backup was yesterday. The backup disk was nearly full, but I had assumed that Time Machine was designed to cope with this situation by deleting old backups.
    A complete annotated log file of the incident and my observations can be found here: http://bentopress.com/backup.log.zip
    Here are some of the interesting entries from the system.log file:
    Sep  7 16:22:14 Bento-iMac com.apple.backupd[56515]: Starting standard backup
    Sep  7 16:22:14 Bento-iMac com.apple.backupd[56515]: Backing up to: /Volumes/My Backup Disk/Backups.backupdb
    Sep  7 16:23:07 Bento-iMac com.apple.backupd[56515]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 100.0 MB requested (including padding), 137.2 MB available
    Sep  7 16:25:49 Bento-iMac com.apple.backupd[56515]: Copied 32984 files (23.7 MB) from volume iMac HD.
    Sep  7 16:25:53 Bento-iMac com.apple.backupd[56515]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 100.0 MB requested (including padding), 108.4 MB available
    Sep  7 16:25:57 Bento-iMac KernelEventAgent[47]: tid 00000000 type 'hfs', mounted on '/Volumes/My Backup Disk', from '/dev/disk1s3', low disk, very low disk
    Sep  7 16:25:58 Bento-iMac mds[45]: (Normal) DiskStore: Rebuilding index for /Volumes/My Backup Disk/Backups.backupdb
    Sep  7 16:25:58 Bento-iMac KernelEventAgent[47]: tid 00000000 type 'hfs', mounted on '/Volumes/My Backup Disk', from '/dev/disk1s3', low disk
    Sep  7 16:25:59 Bento-iMac mds[45]: (Normal) DiskStore: Creating index for /Volumes/My Backup Disk/Backups.backupdb
    Sep  7 16:26:00 Bento-iMac KernelEventAgent[47]: tid 00000000 type 'hfs', mounted on '/Volumes/My Backup Disk', from '/dev/disk1s3', low disk, very low disk
    Sep  7 16:26:00 Bento-iMac mds[45]: (Warning) Volume: Indexing reset and suspended on backup volume "/Volumes/My Backup Disk" because it is low on disk space.
    Sep  7 16:26:02 Bento-iMac mds[45]: (Normal) DiskStore: Reindexing /Volumes/My Backup Disk/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/35367D91-8096-4D43-802B-A8658DBAB581 because no basetime was found.
    Sep  7 16:26:02 Bento-iMac mds[45]: (Normal) DiskStore: Rebuilding index for /Volumes/My Backup Disk/Backups.backupdb
    Sep  7 16:26:04 Bento-iMac mds[45]: (Normal) DiskStore: Creating index for /Volumes/My Backup Disk/Backups.backupdb
    Sep  7 16:26:14 Bento-iMac com.apple.backupd[56515]: Error: Flushing index to disk returned an error: 0
    Sep  7 16:26:14 Bento-iMac com.apple.backupd[56515]: Copied 776 files (17.3 MB) from volume iMac HD.
    Sep  7 16:26:15 Bento-iMac com.apple.backupd[56515]: Backup canceled.
    Note the "error: 0". Error code zero normally indicates success.
    There were also many, many, many copies of the following message, which occurred while Spotlight was trying to index the backup disk:
    Sep  7 17:28:40 Bento-iMac com.apple.backupd[58064]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    Here's what I think is happening: at the very end of the backup, after the files have been copied to the backup disk, mds resets indexing because the disk is now full. backupd's attempt to flush the index to disk then fails because indexing is suspended (error zero), so the backup is canceled. I suspect that this may occur when the new backup and the old one(s) being deleted are both small enough that the disk "packs" tightly, leaving no room for the index. If a large (>500MB) old backup had been deleted to make room for a small (<100MB) new one, the problem would not have occurred.
    I worked around the problem by switching Time Machine from the full disk to my Time Capsule. (I did not have this system backing up to the Time Capsule originally because I purchased the Time Capsule later for a different system.) The downside of this is that I lost access to older backups (though they are still accessible by right-clicking on Time Machine in the dock and selecting "Browse other Time Machine disks..."—however, I have not actually tried this). I'm also not completely happy having both my main systems backing up to the same hardware, but everything seems to be working well at this point and I do have a secondary backup system, using SuperDuper to clone the systems' disks to an external HD, which I do about once a month.
    Although I have worked around the problem, I am posting this in the hope that it will be useful to someone else, in the hope that someone at Apple will notice and perhaps improve the performance of Time Machine in this situation, and also in the hope that someone can suggest a solution that does not involve throwing a bigger disk at the problem. Is there any way to free up space on Time Machine's backup disk, for example by manually pruning older backups, either through Time Machine itself or via the Finder or command line?

    If you suspect that the disk being full is the problem, have you tried deleting some of the old backup data on the TM disk?
    When in TM, go back to the past a long way, right click on a file/directory and select "delete backup". Do this on some big files you have (so that you get more space per removal) that you change all the time (so you'll still have recent backups).

  • I have a 2013 macpro I upgraded to yosemite.  Now I find time machine does not work, nor my old back up using a click free wireless back up.  What is the status of time machine and yosemite?

    What is the status of time machine not working with yosemite?
    I upgraded mu mac pro to yosemite and since have found time machine does not work.
    Also, my old backup via a clikfree wireless backup does not work any longer.
    Is anyone working on this issue?
    Is there anyway I can backup my information today and until time machine &
    yosemite get fixed?

    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 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.

  • Can anyone tell me what this Time Machine error means? The network backup disk does not support the required AFP features?

    Can anyone tell me what this Time Machine error means? The network backup disk does not support the required AFP features?

    AFP - Apple Filing Protocol
    The Network Attached Storage (NAS) that you are pointing Time Machine at does not have the features needed by Time Machine in order to do its Thing.  Time Machine needs some specific features that are not typically available on generic networked storage devices.
    There are manufactures that support the Mac OS X HFS+ file system formats and implement all the needed AFP protocol packets necessary so that they can be used with Time Machine, but apparently yours does not.
    If you are not using a networked mounted volume for Time Machine, then more information will be needed about your Time Machine setup.

  • Time Machine does not backup all files

    I recently did a clean install and to my horror i can see that Time Machine does NOT back up all my files.
    It seems to be worst in my music library which fortunately is pretty easy to rebuild do to itunes index.
    But is there any way to make sure that Time Machine does in fact back up all files?
    Or is it just broken and should be avoided?
    I have 1,5 year old Macbook Pro Retina 15 inches 500 GB SSD

    If you use the third-party application "Dropbox," you may see files in the Finder that are not present locally, but are actually on a network server. Those files won't be backed up and won't appear in Time Machine, even though they show in a Finder window. If the files in question are in a Dropbox folder, disable the software or refer to its developer for support.
    Continue only if you've ruled out Dropbox or any similar product as a possible cause of the issue.
    Open the Time Machine preference pane and unlock the settings, if necessary. Click the Options button. If there is one particular folder with items that are not being backed up reliably, add it to the list of excluded items. If there are many such folders, add your home folder to the list, or add a whole volume (i.e., what Apple calls a "disk.") Save the changes.
    Start a backup, or wait for one to happen automatically. When it's done, open the preference pane again and remove the exclusion(s) you made earlier. Back up again and see whether there's a change.

  • Does time machine back up all settings too?

    I have a problem with my imac and the internet- after having it looked at at the genius bar it was found that I have transferred all of my prior systems settings into this one (uncovered some from 2003) It was suggested that I do a complete system restore to get all of these older settings out.
    The question I have is will time machine automatically copy all the current settings?- if so it won't help. or is there a way to prevent it from doing this?
    Thanks

    magneto10 wrote:
    I have a problem with my imac and the internet- after having it looked at at the genius bar it was found that I have transferred all of my prior systems settings into this one (uncovered some from 2003) It was suggested that I do a complete system restore to get all of these older settings out.
    That sound like enormous overkill. Why not just delete/revise whatever's wrong?
    The question I have is will time machine automatically copy all the current settings?- if so it won't help. or is there a way to prevent it from doing this?
    Correct. You could erase your internal HD, install OSX, then use +Setup Assistant+ to transfer everything from your backups, but omit the network settings. See [Using Setup Assistant|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/SetupAsst.html] for details. But again, why not just fix whatever's wrong?

  • Does Time Machine Ever Delete All Traces of a File?

    I have a question.  I have read up on Time Machine on various articles, posts, and documents across the web and I am having a hard time understanding exactly how time machine deletes files.
    When a disk is full, does Time Machine ever make the decision to delete the last copy or version of a file, therefore completely erasing it off the disk forever?  I know that Time Machine deletes older versions of files, but will it ever completely delete the last, final backup of a file to make space?  If so, I can't imagine using Time Machine as a true piece of backup software.  It seems like it would be useful in restoring your computer in an emergency, but as far as backing up files, it seems that it would be catastrophic, because it may choose to delete the last remaing version of a file to make space and you end up losing that file for ever.
    Here is an example:
    I create a file X.doc
    Time Machine backs it up.
    I modify X.doc
    Time Machine backs up the copy, keeping both the original and the new copy on the backup drive.
    I modify X.doc yet again.
    Time Machine drive runs out of space. Time Machine deletes the oldest version of X.doc and backs up the new copy.
    I create 10 more files unrelated to X.doc
    Will Time Macine remove all remaining versions of X.doc to make space for the 10 new files???
    I hope I am making sense.

    Derek Doublin1 wrote:
    Will Time Macine remove all remaining versions of X.doc to make space for the 10 new files???
    The worst TM can do is delete all your older copies of files, not the most recent version.
    If the drive is full, then it can't accept any more files period.
    If you had a full 100GB boot drive and a 100GB TM drive, the TM drive would be a copy of the boot drive with no room for saved states.
    If you changed a file on the full boot drive, then TM updates that file on it's full drive, there will be no copy of the previous version of that file.
    TimeMachine makes for a poor pernament backup system, because lets say you do a major files addition to your boot drive, TM backs that up and can go ahead and delete files you realized you accidentially deleted just a few short days ago.
    It's better than nothing and works ok for newbies, but more seasoned types use many backup methods in addition to TM, because corruption creep is possible with TM as well as malware as it's hooked up so often, in a lot of cases all the time.
    Most commonly used backup methods

  • Restore from time machine does not list all my backups.  I know they exist but there dates are not present on the restore list.  Any help appreciated.

    Restore from time machine does not list all my backups.  I know they exist but their dates are not present on the restore list.  Any help appreciated.  If I must use one of these older dates to restore, how do I then get the more current data off time machine?

    Ok, so am i correct in saying that the steps to fix are as follows.
    That's one option, but not what I meant by restoring in the time-travel view. The latter is what you get when you enter Time Machine.
    is the fresh install not going to be able to "see" the time machine backups that I have at the moment.
    It should, but sometimes people report that it fails. I'm not sure why that happens.

  • Time machine does not appear to backup an external HD.  how do I get that included in the backup?

    time machine does not appear to backup an external HD.  how do I get that included in the backup?

    In the Finder, press the key combination shift-command-C, or select
    Go ▹ Computer
    from the menu bar. A window will open showing all mounted volumes. Select the one in question and open the Info window. What is shown as the Format in the General section? If it's not "Mac OS Extended," Time Machine can't back up the volume.

  • Time Machine does not backup all of my files

    Hi,
    If I compare my Dropbox folder to what Time Machine backups there are differences which means that Time Machine does not backup all files:
    diff <(cd "/Users/phil/Dropbox" && ls -R | sort) <(cd "/Volumes/TimeMachineBackup/Backups.backupdb/Computername/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/phil/Dropbox" && ls -R | sort)
    There are also differences if I compare my user folder to the Time Machine Backup:
    diff <(cd "/Users/phil/" && ls -R | sort) <(cd "/Volumes/TimeMachineBackup/Backups.backupdb/Computername/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/phil/" && ls -R | sort)
    I did not exclude the folders affected from the Time Machine backup.
    I have verified this behaviour on other computers as well.
    Does anybody else have this kind of problem?
    Philipp

    These commands solved the problem for now:
    1) Stop the Dropbox desktop application (if needed)
    - Click on the Dropbox icon.
    - Choose Quit/Stop/Exit
    2) Open your Terminal app (Located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
    3) Copy and paste the following lines into the Terminal, one at a time, and press RETURN after each one. PLEASE make sure you copy and paste these commands (don't type them by hand), as getting them wrong could cause some harm. You'll be prompted for your computer user's password (not your Dropbox password) after entering the first command. Keep in mind that the password field in the terminal will remain blank as you type your password. After you type it, just press ENTER.
    sudo chflags -R nouchg ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox ~/.dropbox-master
    sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"
    sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox ~/.dropbox-master
    sudo chmod -RN ~/.dropbox ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox-master
    chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox ~/.dropbox-master

Maybe you are looking for