Time Capsule/ Endless Preparing - no backup

I am experiencing the same problem with my Time Capsule, with the same error messages being written to the console. I have tried the exact same things as you (with the exception of rolling back the Time Capsule's firmware). In addition to the steps you've taken above, I have also tried deleting and recreating the Spotlight index for my main HD, with no luck. I also pulled the HD out of the Time Capsule and connected it directly to my Mac via USB. Ran Disk Utility on the HD, and it's perfect.

This started happening after I installed 10.5.8. Seems to be a software issue, but I'm at my wits end trying to fix this one.

Yeah, I also have tried all of those, except rolling back time capsule's firmware, and still I haven't managed to make any backups after 10.5.8 install yesterday.

These are the errors that my MBP has on it's logs:

7.8.2009 22:07:28 mds[35] (/Volumes/Backup of MBP/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/B253FC25-BA8D-49D9-85B8-516B85618D02)(Error ) IndexCI in ContentIndexOpenBulk:No index

7.8.2009 22:07:28 mds[35] (/Volumes/Backup of MBP/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/B253FC25-BA8D-49D9-85B8-516B85618D02)(Error ) IndexCI in CIMetaInfoCreate:Tried to create index when index already existed /Volumes/Backup of MBP/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/B253FC25-BA8D-49D9-85B8-516B85618D02

But funny thing is that this only happens on my MacBook Pro, I also have Mac Mini, running 10.5.8, and it does make backups on the same time capsule.

EDIT: Also after 10.5.8 my EyeTV now complains that I have less than 250MB free on my external HDD and refuses to record anything. This external drive has over 140GBs free.

Message was edited by: Ocid

I think I have finally managed to get this working after 2 days of frustration. It won't be the answer for everyone because it involves opening up your Time Capsule, but this is what I did.

I noticed on this page ( http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20090806095905196) that people were having trouble with file permissions under 10.5.8. When I checked my Console logs during an attempted backup, I noticed chown "Operation not permitted" errors, so I began to suspect that Time Machine didn't have sufficient privileges to do the backup.

I couldn't find a way to run Disk Utility on the Time Capsule Disk, so I opened up the Time Capsule, removed the HD, put the HD into a USB enclosure and connected it to my Mac. When I ran Disk Utility "Verify" and "Repair" on the Time Capsule Disk partition, it returned the following:

-----8<------------------------------------
08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:34 PM Disk Utility[202] Verify and Repair volume “TimeCapsuleDisk”

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:34 PM Disk Utility[202] Starting repair tool:
08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:35 PM Disk Utility[202] Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:35 PM Disk Utility[202] Checking Extents Overflow file.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:35 PM Disk Utility[202] Checking Catalog file.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:35 PM Disk Utility[202] Checking multi-linked files.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:35 PM Disk Utility[202] Checking Catalog hierarchy.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:35 PM Disk Utility[202] Checking Extended Attributes file.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:35 PM Disk Utility[202] Incorrect number of Access Control Lists

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:35 PM Disk Utility[202] (It should be 0 instead of 39)

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:35 PM Disk Utility[202] Checking volume bitmap.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:36 PM Disk Utility[202] Checking volume information.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:36 PM Disk Utility[202] Volume Header needs minor repair

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:36 PM Disk Utility[202] Repairing volume.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:36 PM Disk Utility[202] Rechecking volume.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:36 PM Disk Utility[202] Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:36 PM Disk Utility[202] Checking Extents Overflow file.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:36 PM Disk Utility[202] Checking Catalog file.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:36 PM Disk Utility[202] Checking multi-linked files.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:36 PM Disk Utility[202] Checking Catalog hierarchy.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:36 PM Disk Utility[202] Checking Extended Attributes file.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:36 PM Disk Utility[202] Checking volume bitmap.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:36 PM Disk Utility[202] Checking volume information.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:36 PM Disk Utility[202] The volume TimeCapsuleDisk was repaired successfully.

08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:37 PM kernel jnl: disk1s3: journal start/end pointers reset! (jnl 0x72c4930; s 0x44ee00 e 0x44ee00)
08/07/09 Friday, August 7, 2009 2:47:37 PM Disk Utility[202] Repair tool completed:
-----8<------------------------------------

Following the repair, I opened Time Machine preferences, and set it to point to the Time Capsule Disk (which was still connected via the USB enclosure). The backup started working almost immediately. I cancelled the backup, put the HD back into the Time Capsule and rebooted everything.

After repointing Time Machine preferences back to the Time Capsule Disk (now safely back in the actual Time Capsule), I initiated a backup. The backup started working almost immediately (the most success I've had in 2 days) and has been backing up successfully for the past 1/2 hour. I won't be satisfied that I've solved the problem until it completes and I try a restore, but we'll see...

--
To be clear: this is a ridiculous "solution" to the problem. I must have formatted the Time Capsule Disk about 15 times using Airport Utility over the past 2 days, including an incredibly long "zero out" format. I have no idea why this wouldn't have correctly reset the disk with the correct settings. If anyone can figure out how to run Disk Utility on the drive without having to tear the Time Capsule apart, it would certainly be a much better solution.

Cheers, Ben.

By the way, I had already tried Disk Utility on the drive before (see my initial post). I'm not sure why it didn't work the first time. It may have been the fact that I actually initiated a Time Machine backup onto the drive on my second attempt that corrected the problem. At the end of the day, it's more Time Capsule black-magic than anything else.

I may have given you false hope. My backup crapped out mid way through. This is so incredibly frustrating!

I am seeing the same thing. It started just before the 10.5.8 upgrade after a network hang. I still don't have a solution. I am backing up now to an external HD. I really want to go back to the Time Capsule. The Time Capsule is backing up two other Macs successfully with no issues.

John

Looks like this defect is also affecting other networked drives. I tried to connect one of my external drives to my Mac Mini and to backup my MBP to it. Time Machine gives the same error messages as the Time Capsule.

Looks like I have to do the backup the hard way, remember to connect external USB drive and remembering to unmount it before sleep ;(

one thing is for sure: this is related to the 10.5.8 update! I would like to request Apple to improve immediately. I am really a Apple-Lover, but time machine and time capsule is too much frustrating to be recommendable!
Please help and correct 10.5.8 before the trouble is even with more people!!

PLEASE!

And this bug affects USB disks also, I'm able to backup few GBs and then time machine craps out again with errors like:

8.8.2009 15:26:00 mds[3453] (/Volumes/WD/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/798B28DC-6028-491B-B7B9-FADAD60FA4 BA)(Error) IndexCI in CIMetaInfoSync:sync err: 22

I have tried 3 different USB drives which all worked flawlessly on 10.5.7.

OT: 10.5.8 is causing problems on ChronoSync also

2009-08-08 12:45:43 +0300] * Error: File is exclusively open by another application.
[2009-08-08 12:45:43 +0300] Occurred while copying file:
[2009-08-08 12:45:43 +0300] /Users/pete/Virtual Machines/WMLI011047.vmwarevm/Applications/Backup Outlook.cmd — WMLI011047.app/Contents/Resources/document.icns

These never occured before 10.5.8

The easiest thing to try is to open your Time Machine Preferences and click the Change Disk... button. Choose your Time Machine drive and click OK, This has worked for me on several occasions.

I tried backing up to a freshly formated HD in a USB enclosure overnight last night. The backup completed with no errors. However, following the adage that "If you haven't tested your backup, you don't have a backup", I made some changes to my Documents folder, did another backup, and then tried to restore to the original version. Time Machine only ever shows me the most recent folder version i.e. I can't actually go "back in time" to retrieve any files. In other words, it's completely useless.

I tried to open up the .sparsebundle file, and received a "you don't have sufficient privileges" error message. I don't recall ever having that message before when opening up the .sparsebundle. I changed the owner/permissions on the .sparsebundle file to my user account. Now I receive the error "No mountable file systems".

For me at least, 10.5.8 has completely hosed Time Machine. I would love to roll back to 10.5.7, but I can't because 10.5.8 screwed up all of my backups!