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Time Machine backups keep failing

Since installing Snow Leopard my time Machine keeps running backups, but every time it does I get a message at the end saying the backup failed. It suggests that I repair my backup drive using Disk Utility. I did that (twice) as well as repaired permissions on my HD. Still the same results, backup failed.
Anyone else have this experience or have any idea of how to fix it?

iMac 24" Late '06, 2G RAM

Posted on Sep 1, 2009 12:16 PM

Reply
30 replies

Sep 1, 2009 1:50 PM in response to Lyssa

Thanks for the response Lyssa,

The Disk Utility did say it was repaired successfully and the second times it also found no problems to fix.

When I looked at the console info I found only these two messages from yesterday, but none from today. I think these were from before I went into TM and re-selected the backup drive, thinking that might help.

8/31/09 4:23:53 PM [0x0-0x29029].backupd-helper[321] Not starting Time Machine backup after wake - failed to resolve alias to backup volume
8/31/09 5:32:43 PM com.apple.backupd-auto[641] Not starting scheduled Time Machine backup - time machine destination not resolvable.

The message after TM runs reads "The backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk.

Sep 1, 2009 1:54 PM in response to LindaRB21

Hmm. That suggest TM can't find the disk.

In System Preferences>Time Machine, . Make note of any exclusions you have, and de-select the TM drive.

In Macintosh HD>Library>Preferences find this file:
com.apple.TimeMachine.plist

and delete it.

Go back to System Preferences>Time Machine, re-select the backup drive, re-add any exclusions, and try the backup again.

~Lyssa

Sep 1, 2009 5:56 PM in response to Lyssa

Lyssa wrote:
Hmm. I'm not sure what else to try. There's a widget that will gather logs (Time Machine Buddy), but there's not a Snow Leopard version yet. You could try installing it & running a backup to see if the widget has any better info.


Hi, Lyssa. No, the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget is not yet compatible with Snow Leopard (I learned after steering several folks to it -- it locks up the dashboard!). See item #2 here: http://www.bluedog.com.au/default/TimeMachineBuddy.html

Hope they fix it soon!

Sep 1, 2009 6:19 PM in response to Lyssa

Lyssa wrote:
Thanks for the info, Pondini. I certainly expected as much! I'll bookmark the link.

Do you have any more advice for this gal? I'm fresh out of ideas 😟

~Lyssa


It could be something screwy (pardon the technical term) with those particular controlling .plists. You can't just delete them, as they won't be recreated automatically.

What happens if you turn Time Machine off, then use +Back Up Now+ from the TM icon in the menubar, or by control-clicking the TM icon in the dock?

Sep 1, 2009 9:22 PM in response to Pondini

Well I downloaded Time Machine Buddy before I read the updates to this post. Luckily it didn't seem to be problematic in dashboard - but I'll wait for and update before trying it again. It did give me the following information:
Error: (2) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.SnapshotVolumeUUID path:/Volumes/TM:Backups/Backups.backupdb/Linda Banning’s Computer/2009-08-31-112356.inProgress/2F22EBCE-47F8-48EB-A9B8-147A07C097BA/Phot o/ Storage size:37
Stopping backup.
Copied 0 files (15 KB) from volume Photo/ Storage.
Copy stage failed with error:11
Backup failed with error: 11

I've tried a Google search for error 11, but I only found threads with other users having problems with it, but no definitions.

Anyone know what it means?

Sep 2, 2009 7:35 AM in response to LindaRB21

LindaRB21 wrote:
. . .
Error: (2) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.SnapshotVolumeUUID path:/Volumes/TM:Backups/Backups.backupdb/Linda Banning’s Computer/2009-08-31-112356.inProgress/2F22EBCE-47F8-48EB-A9B8-147A07C097BA/Phot o/ Storage size:37


That's a new one. It seems to be having a problem recovering from a previous failed backup.

FIrst, have you tried turning TM off, and doing a +*Back Up Now?+* If so, is this what you got? If not, please give it a shot and tell us what happens.

Second, have you ever changed TM's backup intervals, either via on of the 3rd-party tools such as +Time Machine Editor+ or by editing the launch daemon plists? It looks like one or more of them may be corrupted.

Until a new version of the widget is out, note the time one of these backups starts, then use the Console app (in your Applications/Utilities folder) to see if there are other messages indicating a conflict with your backups.

When it starts, click +Show Log List+ in the toolbar, then navigate in the sidebar that opens up to your system.log and select it. Navigate to the +Starting standard backup+ message at the time you noted above, then see what follows that might indicate some sort of *error, failure, throttling respawn, termination, exit,* etc. (many of the messages there are info for developers, etc.). If in doubt post (a reasonable amount of) the log here.

Sep 2, 2009 11:20 AM in response to Pondini

Tried turning off and backup now with same results. In response to second question, I have never altered TM via any 3rd party software. Here is what the console said after my last attempt yesterday:

Sep 1 17:58:35 Linda-Bannings-Computer com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[115] (com.apple.pbs): Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds

Thanks,
Linda

Time Machine backups keep failing

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