geoff2
Level 1 (30 points)

Q: Time Machine claims not enough space, but there's plenty

Hello --

 

I'm having a problem with my Time Machine backup ever since upgrading to Yosemite. After the initial backup, I get these errors: "The backup disk needs 838.03 GB for the backup but only 712.05 GB are available. Select a larger backup disk or make the backup smaller by excluding files."


However, there is plenty of space. The initial backup took up about 898 GB of my 1.61 TB machine. Subsequent incremental backups should only take up a fraction — and I'm confident that I haven't added hundreds of gigabytes of new data to my disk. However, each time Time Machine tries to run its backup, I get the same error.


Time Machine is backing up both my small internal hard drive (128 GB) and the rest of the backup comes from an external drive. It worked fine under Mavericks, but under Yosemite it seems that Time Machine doesn't realize that the hundreds of gigabytes on the external drive has already been backed up before and doesn't all need to be backed up again.


Any thoughts? I had a backup that was several months old earlier; once I started getting this error, I wiped that backup thinking that a fresh backup might sole the error. No such luck.


I'm running Yosemite 10.10.0 on a mid-2011 MacBook Air, backing up to a Sinology NAS. (My wife who is still using Mavericks is continuing to successfully backup to the same drive.)


Thanks everyone!


- geoff

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2011), OS X Yosemite (10.10), 4 GB RAM, 128 GB HD

Posted on Nov 7, 2014 8:03 PM

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geoff2

Q: Time Machine claims not enough space, but there's plenty

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  • by Declan MacLeod,

    Declan MacLeod Declan MacLeod Feb 10, 2015 4:24 AM in response to niqu
    Level 4 (1,659 points)
    Feb 10, 2015 4:24 AM in response to niqu

    I'll chime in with another "me too". Using a mid-2012 MBP with Yosemite 10.10.2 and a 2TB Time Capsule.

     

    Console logs:

    system.log:Feb 10 07:06:20 MacBook-Pro.local com.apple.backupd[21303]: Backing up to /dev/disk6s2: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/Backups.backupdb

    system.log:Feb 10 07:08:30 MacBook-Pro.local com.apple.backupd[21303]: Will copy (216.7 MB) from Macintosh HD

    system.log:Feb 10 07:08:30 MacBook-Pro.local com.apple.backupd[21303]: Found 2277 files (276.1 MB) needing backup

    system.log:Feb 10 07:08:30 MacBook-Pro.local com.apple.backupd[21303]: 2.79 GB required (including padding), 1.57 TB available

     

    It needs 2.79 GB to back up 276.1 MB?

  • by niqu,

    niqu niqu Apr 30, 2015 5:59 AM in response to geoff2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 30, 2015 5:59 AM in response to geoff2

    Has anyone tried out 10.10.3 or even the beta of 10.10.4? Did it fix the issue?

  • by j'ski,

    j'ski j'ski May 9, 2015 3:48 AM in response to Dr. Daniel, M.D.
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Windows Software
    May 9, 2015 3:48 AM in response to Dr. Daniel, M.D.

    Agreed.  Mr Jobs didn't plan well enough for his departure.

     

    Maybe nobody does.

     

    Pity.

  • by niqu,

    niqu niqu May 13, 2015 1:03 PM in response to geoff2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 13, 2015 1:03 PM in response to geoff2

    I gave up on this now. Since my last solution with a backup via an old Macbook with 10.6.8 isn't available any more, I now switched to Carbon Copy Cloner for the backup of my external drive. Works just fine and is highly customizable which is very handy. It also has sort of a "backup history" in case you deleted something accidentally some time in the past (they call it Safety Net). And it works fine with my Time Capsule, they even have an article describing the use of a network volume such as a Time Capsule as the backup destination (https://bombich.com/kb/ccc4/i-want-back-up-my-whole-mac-time-capsule-nas-or-othe r-network-volume). So now I use Time Machine for my internal hard drive and CCC for the external one.

  • by Motagaly,

    Motagaly Motagaly Aug 20, 2015 4:53 AM in response to geoff2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 20, 2015 4:53 AM in response to geoff2

    I am having the same problem with the mounting and dismounting external drive which is backed also to the same TM drive, i am on 10.10.5 and it was there since the beginning of 10.10.

     

    Any solutions?

  • by wavestrake,

    wavestrake wavestrake Oct 9, 2015 7:49 PM in response to geoff2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 9, 2015 7:49 PM in response to geoff2

    I'm having the same problem.  I've been googling for the past hour.  Can't find a solution.  I also use CCC, but thought I'd use TM also.  Looks like I won't be using it unless Apple fixes this problem.   There's no excuse for leaving this hanging. 

  • by VincentG63,

    VincentG63 VincentG63 Aug 21, 2016 8:22 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 21, 2016 8:22 AM in response to Linc Davis

    Does not work for me unfortunately...

     

    When TM calculates the needed space ( when I choose the files to exclude) it says 341 GB needed), but when I run the back up it says 407 GB needed ( and only 399 GB available)...

     

    I must say I have partitionned by back up HD in two volumes 400+100, both GUID; is that the issue ?

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Aug 21, 2016 9:39 AM in response to VincentG63
    Level 9 (72,268 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 21, 2016 9:39 AM in response to VincentG63

    You need a backup drive 2 - 3 times the size of the amount of data you are trying to back up. 400 GB isn't a lot of space. See question 1.

     

    Time Machine FAQ

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