Time Maching

J

Jalf1

Registered
Awhile back Time Machine quit automatic backup, but I lived with this by using Backup Now whenever I was ready to quit for the day. About 10 days ago I noticed that these daily backups were not appearing in the records for their respective dates. Every day after the final backup, that material was correctly shown on the "Now" display but was never recorded for later use. The next time I used "Backup Now" the previous display was replaced by a current version, but this never got recorded Time Machine past history.

Specifically, when I choose "Now" from the date list at the right side of the Time Machine screen after using "Backup Now", the first thing that shows up is a correct representation of what was on the screen before backing up. When I click on the big arrow at the mid bottom of the screen, the next thing that shows up is a version of this file about 2 weeks old. The next click on this arrow moves the screen display rapidly past a multitude of displays and finally stops at a version of this file about 2 weeks old. The result, of course, is that I can't find out what happened to this spreadsheet over the past 2 weeks.

I sure would like to know what can be done to getting the non-saving problem corrected and automatic backing up working again.
 
Gee, that no one even tried to help you is embarrassing.

Think back - did you get any errors that you dismissed thinking it was temporary?

Check your System Preferences>Time Machine pane. Is it still on?
Is the drive you are using for Time Machine close to full? Time Machine may have given you an alert that the drive was full and there was no room for additional backups. Click twice on the Time Machine drive and look at the very bottom of the window. It will show how many items and how much space is still available.

Are you backing up the entire hard drive or just your important folders?

You can delete the oldest back up files to make room on the drive.
 
No, I didn't get any error messages, and Time Machine is on. Also, I don't believe that the external disk I'm using for backups is full. Time Machine Preferences says that my external disk, "Time Machine Backups", has 418.26 GB of 499.76 GB available. You say to click twice on the Time Machine drive, but I don't know where to find that and guess that I may have found what you suggest I look for.

As far as I know, I am backing up my entire hard drive. I don't know how to deal with only "important folders", and it doesn't look to me that I have a space problem. Also, I think that i've seen somewhere that Time Machine automatically deletes the oldest files when space becomes a problem.

One thing I've just noticed is that when I click on the Options box in the Time Machine Preferences window, I get a window entitled, "Exclude these items from backups:" and below that, "Time Machine Backups 81.5 GB". I have never knowingly directed that anything be excluded from backups and would like to stop that if I ever get Time Machine back to working right again.

A couple other things I want to mention are that the Time Machine Preferences window says that Automatic backups are off, and I would like to find out how to turn them back on. Also, on 11/15/10 I installed Mac OS X Update 10.6.5.

Thanks very much for your efforts on my behalf

John
 
John,

Your answer gave the clue. Time Machine’s preferences have gone goofy.
First, go to System Preferences>Time Machine and turn it off.

Now go to hard drive>Library>Preferences. Your internal hard drive.
Locate and trash com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
Empty the trash
Back to System Preferences>Time Machine.
Turn it on
Click on Select Disk and click on the drive that you had previously had selected.
Now it will start the process, check for any changes and the back ups should start to work like they should.
 
I have tried to follow your very explicit and seemingly easy-to-follow instructions as to how to correct my Time Machine problem without success. The problem I had following your instructions was in turning off Time Machine. I assume that Time Machine should not be functional when it is turned off. However, regardless of whether the on/off box in Time Machine Preferences is either in the on position or the off position, Time Machine still operates in its same improper manner. I have gone through your instructions both with it in the on position and in the off position, and in neither way is the functioning of Time Machine corrected or different. The only difference is in the Preference window, where when Time Machine is said to be off, Automatic backups are said to be off and when Time Machine is said to be on, Next Backup shows a time.

I sure do appreciate your efforts and thank you very much.

John
 
When Time Machine is off, it should correctly show no back up time. When it is on and the next back up time is showing, do you see it working at the time indicated?

To check, open the window to the external drive that is your backup for Time Machine.
That drive should show on your desktop with a clock on it.
You will see a folder labeled Backups.backup. Open that folder.
Now you will see another folder with your computer user/log in name. Open that.
Now you should see several folders. Those are your backups. The most recent ones should be with a date modified in the last few hours. The latest ones should be weekly dates and/or monthly dates.
What is the latest date that shows in that last window?
 
Cheryl

I certainly want to compliment you on the way you have handled my Time Machine problem. It was superb, and I believe the problem is almost totally cleared up now. i say, almost, because a small puzzle remains--too minor to be called a problem. When I use one of the big arrows at the middle bottom of the screen to move back in time, the display moves back one at a time until it gets to November 13. The next press of the arrow initiates a rapid movement thru non-displayed backups till it stops and displays October 17. This, of course, is the kind of action that initiated my question in the first place, except that formerly it was random in the time when it occurred and how many displays would be skipped. It has now settled into a consistent pattern. I have found that the skipped backups still exist and, while they can't be seen by using the big arrow, they can be accessed by clicking dates in the list along the right side of the screen. The puzzle is why does this anomaly still persist. I guess that the reason things got better is that, inadvertently, I actually trashed com.apple.TimeMachine.plist in accordance with your instructions. I was playing it safe and doing it from both the Off and an the On positions while believing that neither was going to work.

I don't know if there is some kind of formal procedure for registering thanks, but I want you and anyone else who may read this to know that I feel you did a good job and I thank you very much.

John

John
 
John,

The dates are there because it is part of the calendar, but it skips because there were no back ups done on those dates.

Now if you let the back ups continue as they should, in one month’s time, you should be able to go back in time to today’s date and any day in between.

That plist file is the preferences that just may have gotten corrupt or messed up. Now that there is a new preference file Time Machine should act normally.

As for thanking me, just click on the Thanks button at the bottom of this post.
You are welcome :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top