OS X :: Time Machine Backup Ignoring Excluded Items
Mar 11, 2010
I have a 10mth old MBP. I've been using time machine for just as long. However, I recently changed the external HD that I am using for my time machine backups. My MBP uses about 130GB of space. The folders that I am excluding take up about 50GB. This means I should only be backing up 80GB of info onto my external HD using Time Machine. Even under the Time Machine Preferences, the estimated space says ~80GB.
However, when I start the backup, initially it say 0MB of 69GB. And then when it reaches 69GB, the amount just increases. e.g. 72.3GB of 72.3GB. 79.25GB of 79.25GB. And it just keeps going till 80+ 90GB. For some reason, it is ignoring the excluded command. I've tried reformatting my external HD as well as disabling time machine and doing everything from scratch. But it still ignores my Excluded items.
The problem is that full Os backup should be about 155 GB, but it tries to backup whole disk 1 TB. It works fine for first full backup 155 GB (I have exclude list) after that it wants to backup whole disk no matter what. No such problem with 10.6.2 just with 10.6.3. Image so we are clear. I'm new to Mac OS X.
I've just started using time machine and actually surprised how well it works go apple. One question I want my time machine drive bootable just in case. Right now I am excluding the system library and user library cache folders from backup at the moment. Thats ok right? It doesn't affect boot ability or anything else serious right?
I'm having problems with Time Machine. First, I get the message that I need more space even though there is 1TB available on each and only 500GB on the boot disk being backed up. I've started fresh.Â
Second, both backup disks are shown on the "Exclude" list and are grayed out, so I can't take them off it. Nor can I add a disk I do want to exclude.Â
Info: Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), (early 2008), 22 GB RAM, 1 TB HD -- 500 GB free
I excluded for one TM backup a sparse bundle disk image that I have been backing up regularly. I then immediately removed the sparse bundle disk image from the TM exclusions list, and now TM wants to back up the entire sparse bundle disk image, which contains an iPhoto Library (80GB). It seems that TM does not "see" the previous disk image backups.
Info: iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), 21.5-inch, Late 2009
For some reason, my Macintosh HD has ended up on my list of items to exclude from backup (in the Options section of Time Machine preferences). I can't do the recommended thing of highlighting the HD and pressing the minus sign, because my HD is grayed out on the Exclude list and unable to be highlighted.
I?ve got a problem with my time machine. I recently upgraded to snow leopard and suddenly my mac pro has stopped backing up my aperture library through time machine. Do anyone know if their's a way to force time machine to backup a specific folder (in this case a library)? This is quit annoying problem in the meantime I've solved the problem through backing up my aperture library through vaults, but since this procedure is done manually and is painfully slow i really hope to get my time machine running as before...
I've been having a lot of trouble with Time Machine lately. I used to have a 300GB partition on a second drive dedicated to backups. Time machine is set up to backup just my user directory and the calculated backup size is 200gb. There are a couple of folders on my desktop that I also exclude. I've had it working this way for months now (before Snow Leopard came out). I started getting problems a few weeks ago. I formatted my Time Machine drive and got it to start a backup again, however, it kept running out of space without being able to complete the backup. I've been ignoring it since then because I knew I'd be getting some extra hard drives this week. After my new hard drive reshuffle, I now have a 500gb drive dedicated to Time Machine backups.
My backup size is still only 200gb but my initial backup would count up to 205gb/205gb or whatever it was and then keep going for hours with both the "done" and the "total amount" numbers gradually going up. It finally completed and I see that my 500gb drive only has about 30gb free or so. A bit of right clicking and get info clicking later and I soon find the root of the problem. The two large folders on my desktop that I've set to exclude have been backed up. I've tried killing the time machine settings file in the library and have rebuilt the exclusion list from scratch. I've also reformatted the backup drive several times. I've zeroed it once. Partitioned it into 16 partitions and wiped it again into one.
I did: "Enter Time Machine Preferences" ---->"Options"----->"Exclude These Items from Backups"----->"Excluded Folder FOO". Today I go into TM, and there is folder FOO, backed up! WTF? Why is TM not respecting my exclusion of FOO from the backups?
I am having issues buring CDs in Finder. Went to the Apple Store this past weekend as I have AppleCare. The genius there couldn't figure out the problem and only recommended I do a "Archive and install" of 10.6. Reluctantly, I did that today. Now I have lost most of my customizations to Finder, getting weird errors with some of my apps that load on login, and the problem still persists.
Instead of wasting hours on end getting the system up-to-date and trying to figure out all the errors Im getting, I decided to restore using Time Machine. I was about to restore a backup from yesterday (most up-to-date), but hesitated as I have never done a "Full" restore from TM before. So I decided to do a bit of research. From what I have been reading, the destination volume will be wiped clean and replaced by the backup. Normally this would be ok, but I remembered I excluded some folders from my Time Machine backup to cut down on space (Applications folder and VMs for example). I'm worried that if I restore using the "Restore from Backup" utility, I will lose the content in those folders.
Can anyone confirm what exactly will happen if I do a "Full Restore"? Will I lose those "excluded" folders? If so, is there any way I can restore only the System Folder for my backup (that's really the only thing I need to restore). I am slightly panicked and ready to go back to the Apple Store and rip that Genius a new one.
(Yes I know he couldn't have know about my specific backup setup, but he said that a "Archive and Install" would fix the problem. He also said that I wouldn't run into any issues afterwards, which was also false. Also, I know I am over-reacting but I have a valid reason to be peeved ATM)
I have looked into this a lot already. It is to much that Time Machine backs up every single hour! It would be nice to set it to something like 3 or 5 hours. I have tried a 3rd party app to do this, but... If my computer was off or asleep when it was supposed to back up, it would get an error. It would not just do the backup when i turned it on or when it came out of sleep like stock Time Machine does. I have also seen a way to change the time incraments in the Terminal.(I am very good with it, not a noob) I have tried this and it screws up time machine completely. Maybe it does not work with the newest OS X. By the way... I have a 2010 MacBook Pro, got it 2 months ago.
Does anyone know a solid 3rd party app, that will work seamlessly. Or has anyone changed the time in Terminal and are currently using something different than 1 hour. There is a lot of examples online, but I would like the codeing that you literally used.
I am getting the following error from Time Machine when doing my first backup. The startup disk being backed up, and the TM disk are both the same size.
Macintosh HD: 465.44 (total); 393.99 (free); 71.45 (free) Time Machine: 465.44 (total); 465.29 (free)
The Time Machine error is: Quote:
"This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 472.7 GB but only 465.3 GB are available." why would this be? Other disks are excluded from the backup, and Time Machine is telling me that it needs more space than it actually needs. What should I do?
If I use Time Capsule as my backup hard drive for Time Machine, can I still use the rest of the storage to share items over my wireless network? In other words, by using Time Capsule with Time Machine, do I lose the ability to use Time Capsule as a shared network drive? Also, if I CAN use it as a shared network drive, can I set permissions for who on the network can access certain files and folders?
I was a PC user who recently moved to mac. I have a macbook (intel 2.2GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD). When I was using PC, I backed up all my data to a network storage device (Buffalo LinkStation 250 GB connected to a 802.11g netgear router which is supplied by Sky) using a program called SmartSync Pro, which worked very well. Although I can connect to and mount the Share folder on this drive when the macbook is connected to the network, Time Machine will not back up to it. It wouldnt even recognise the disk on the network.
So I went onto the trusty internet, and found that you can get time machine to recognise the Share folder. (This was obtained from: http://blog.imulus.com/george/software/using-leopard-time-machine-to-backup-of-a-network/)See my comment on their page at the bottom, number 66.
It recommended entering the following in to the Terminal: defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1
Before attempting backup I have to go into "Network" and select the Share folder by double clicking on it. This seems to mount the volume. After this, it can be seen in Time Machine as a potential backup destination.
However, this method does not work for me. Time Machine "prepares" for a while, then gives the following message: Time Machine error. The backup disk image could not be created.
More internet searching took me to macosxhints which suggests creating something called a sparsebundle image on my local system. (http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080420211034137) Have not tried this yet as I thought it would be prudent to seek some help first.
Apple have deliberately disabled the ability for Time Machine to back up to network attached storage, (except of course to their proprietory Time Capsule):
Is this because time machine requires a network faster than 802.11g?
Is this because a time machine backup to a network attached storage device is unreliable and the data is corrupted?
I dont want to shell out more cash for a time capsule. I would prefer not to have to hardwire to an external drive (which I will also have to go out and buy). Any thoughts?
I just purchased a Seagate 3 TB USB 2.0/3.0 external drive to use as my time machine backup drive. I have a MacBook Pro that was purchased about 3-4 years ago. The MacBook Pro has a 120 GB hard drive and is currently running MAC OSx 10.6.8. I also have another WD 1 TB FireWire external drive that I use to store all of my media files. Â
After I followed the instructions for installing the new Seagate drive for use with the MAC OSx, I initiated a time machine backup. It very quickly determined that it needed to back up almost 900,000 files totaling just about 400 GB. It started the backup process at a rate of about 1 GB per minute. In a little less than an hour it reach 53 GB and remained there for an additional two hours before I decided to stop the backup. Â
Once I got the backup stopped, I deleted the backup and decided to look at my energy saving settings. I noticed that the "Put drives to sleep whenever possible" check box was checked, so I unchecked that option and restarted the MAC. I then initiated the time machine backup again. Like the first time it quickly determined that it needed to backup the same amount of data as before and started the backup process at a rate of about 1 GB per minute. Before going to bed at around 11 PM last night it was at about 60 GB so I thought I was out of the woods (having gotten further than the 53 GB earlier). When I woke up this morning at 5:30 AM it was sitting at 69 GB.Â
I am really frustrated at this point and don't know why the time machine back up would be failing on a brand new hard drive. PS - I was previously using a Seagate 1.5 TB USB drive as my time machine backup and never had any issues with it. I decided to use the 1.5 TB drive for a different purpose, which is why I have the new 3 TB drive to use as a backup. And I still have the full backup on the 1.5 TB drive just in case anything were to go awry.
I have a external HD which has always worked fine under snow leopard. Since upgrading to lion I keep getting the following message The identity of the backup disk has changed since the previous backup.The disk may have been replaced or erased, or someone may be trying to trick your computer into backing up to the wrong disk. And after this the drive disappears from the desktop appearing agian only after restart. What can I do do rectify this? Delete and re-intialise the drive?
Just wanted to check if he problem was unique to my MBA (Rev B, HDD) or you notice it too ;
My Time Machine backup takes up to 6 hours to do a backup of about 30GB. And each backup size is 31.5GB everytime !!
I have the following Config - 80 GB for OSX (53GB Free) and 40 GB (10GB Free) for Win 7 on Bootcamp. Sometimes I wonder if TM making a backup of Win 7 also everytime. (Does it mean - In a way its good, that means I should be able to restore the entire hard disk from TM including Applications, Win 7 , bootcamp and all the programmes installed in Win 7 in case I have a problem ?)
But the speed should still be fast... 6 hours to do a 32GB backup is torturous specially because then I have to leave the machine alone and cannot use it.
Is there a way to make a backup of your Time Machine backup on a 2nd hard drive? I want to be doubly sure that my data is backed up!Right now I get an error saying that the second hard drive isn't authorized to copy my Time Machine data from the original hard drive I have set up as my Time Machine.
I just replaced my HD on my 15"MBP. The install went well until restoring my data from Time Machine. The apps came over fine but none of my data did. Yes, I checked all the boxes on the "restore from backup" menu.
Of course now when I start up time machine the backup isn't there. How do I get Time Machine to recognize the backup? I have it on two places - a time capsule and a separate external HD.
I just replaced the stock 160GB HD in my unibody macbook with a WD Blue Scorpio 640GB HD. I used Super Duper to clone the old drive to the new one, approximately 115 GB.
Now Time Machine wants to backup the full 115GB to my Time Capsule, which kinda sucks because it's going to be a redundent backup that's gonna take up over a 10th of my TC's space. Is there any way to avoid this and still use Time Machine?
I have a 1tb external for time machine back up and have about 750 gb of stuff to back up. I was under the impression that when time machine backs up my stuff it will automatically delete the oldest backup to create room for the newer backup.
My problem is that i did a back up a couple weeks ago and then today i go to back up and it tells me back up failed only 718gb available for 740gb of stuff to back up
Well TM is acting up. I get an error that reads: "This backup is too large for the backup volume."
Both the internal boot disk and the external baclup drive are 1TB. The internal one has a two partitions, the OSX one that is 900GBs and a 32GB NTFS one for Boot Camp. The external drive is a single OSX Extended part. that is 932GBs.
Both the Time Machine disk, and the Boot Camp disk are excluded from the backup along with a "Crap" folder for temporary large files.
Time Machine says it needs 938GBs to backup only the OSX disk, which has 806GBs in use with the rest free. WTFFF?
This happened after moving a large folder (128GB in total) from the root of the OSX disk over to my Home Folder.
I have reformated the Time Machine drive and have no backups at all of my data and it refuses to backup!!
Why would it need 938GBs of space to backup if the disk has "only" 806 GBs in use??? Is there anyway to reset Time Machine completely???
my TM wil not back up! It states that this backup is too large for the backup disk. The back up disk requires 573.50 GB but only 225.23 GB are available. The TM needs work space on the backup disk, in addition to the space required to store backups. Upen TM perferences to select a LARGER backup disk or make the backup smaller by excluding file.Â
Okay I;m sorry but obvioulsy I dont get this. I've never called Apple for help! I have every product they sell practically including Protection Plans I never used and no one will help me with this. My MAC is starting to have black or white screens and i can hear it running but it will not do anything so i have to reboot it, it screws up Enturage and then I have to rebuild that ( 5 times this year) anyway... I would like to back everything up- can I delete everything on the Time Capsule or Time Machine; god I dont even know what it is called Im so MAD... help if you can please. I'm going to have to take this to the genius people at the store and probably buy another computer but like before they will not save my files.
A: an old macbook (the white one) B: a modern macbook pro (retina) C: another modern macbook pro (TBD)Â
I am giving away B now; I expect to get C in 2 months time; I keep A with me all the time.
The goal is to migrate all of the data from B to C. I have Time Machine backups of B.
Since the transition is a long time (2 months), I need to keep working on my data during this period. For this I will use A. This will generate new files, modify old ones, ...
Since A's HDD is much smaller than B's backup, I can move only part of them.
By the way, I have totally erased A and used migration assistant to restore part of my old data from B. So, when I use A now, I do it with my same account as in B (and the same I will use in C).
How do I manage my backups in such a way that, when I will get C, I can safely move all of the data I had in B plus all of the changes and modifications that I have done during the 2 month transition?
Can I just continue to use Time Machine (on A) to update the old backups? I am afraid that some mess could be created because the computers are different (before the backups were taken on B, while now on A), even the present data are different (because now A only contains a subset of the original B data, which I do NOT want to lose), the good point is that the user is the same.
How can I show invisble items on //Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb? I've backed //Lion/ Users/User/ Library , but when i checked the backed folder, i could not find it.
I have an external 500gb drive plugged into my brand new Time Capsule. The 500gb drive basically stores my entire library of music and my iTunes points to this external drive.
Is it possible to have time machine backup all information on the 500gb drive to the time capsule, so encase the external drive takes a dump, I don't loose my entire music library? Maybe time machine is already doing this, I am not sure.
I have a MacBook Air and a Time Capsule - both from november 2011.Using Time Machine is givning me som problems.It works fine for some days, an is backing up as planned.But at least 5 times since I got the Time Capsule, Time Machine is asking to make a full Backup, and when I look in Time Machine, it says that there is no "old backup". It has been runing since november 2011.When I start a new backup, as it ask for, it takes at least 24 hours to finish - some times even longer.Is this normal? If not, what do I do?
MacBook Pro mid-2012, 8GB RAM, 750GB hard drive, Mac OS X 10.8.5
One Time Capsule at home
One Time Capsule in vacation homeÂ
MBP backs up everything on internal hard drive to Time Capsule at home, where we live during summer and spring. When moving to vacation home in fall and winter, MBP backs up everything to Time Capsule in vacation home.Â
During the 6 months at each residence, the backups work great to the Time Capsule at that particular house. However, after some time (maybe a week?), Time Machine displays an error in Notification Center: "Time Machine can't complete backup to Home Time Capsule" (when in vacation home) or "Time Machine can't complete backup to Vacation Time Capsule" (when at home).Â
It's obvious that this occurs because Time Machine was set to back up to 2 Time Capsules and expects both of them to be reachable. Is there a way to suppress these Time Machine errors for the time that we're away from one of the Time Capsules?
So I bought a brand new WD 1TB Elements (USB) to use with Time Machine. I've never used a Time Machine before. I have a MBP13 with a 250GB disk, using the latest Snow Leopard, all updates installed. Formatted the drive to Mac OS Journaled (extended) and set it to use with Time Machine. Works until about 15-17GBs is copied over, than it fails:
1. If I start over it fails very soon after, no matter how many times I retry 2. No matter how many times I reformat it, it always fails 3. I tried one trick I googled - deleting the "inprogress" file - does NOT help 4. SMART status is verified 5. There are no problems if I verify/repair the disk.
Can someone tell me how to configure Time Machine so it doesn't do a complete backup every time?I seem to get constant errors because my disk space fills up quickly. For some reason I don't think it did this when I first started using it. I use SuperDuper also, but have a drive connected to my iMac all the time for Time Machine.
