Problems with Time Machine Buddy widget and with backups

Question

Problems with Time Machine Buddy widget and with backups

I started a discussion in another forum but have been referred here for definitive help.
Here is the link to that posting: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2450454&tstart=0

TM Buddy tells me I don't have the rights to use it.
My wife's backups are not occurring when scheduled.

Thanks,
Richard

MacBook Pro 15 inch, 2.53 GHz, Mac OS X (10.6.2), 4 GB memory

Posted on Jun 8, 2010 4:31 PM

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Answer 1

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Jun 8, 2010 4:38 PM in response to Richard Pitcairn

Start with Pondini's tips and FAQs at the top of this forum.

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Answer 2

Jun 9, 2010 6:06 PM in response to baltwo

I read the tips which was quite helpful and following that advice I was able to set administrator rights to my system logs and get TM Buddy working.

With my wife's computer, even though I did a fresh backup of her computer to Time Capsule (meaning that I deleted the sparsebundle and started freshly - ethernet connection, completed backup without errors) nonetheless, subsequent backups are constant (never stop) and TM buddy says that there is "deep transverse" going on. Reading the help files it appears it is slow because searching every file. So I am thinking I need to reformat her drive and install a fresh system (Snow Leopard) for her. What you think? The change from Leopard to S. Leopard was by updating, not a fresh install so there may be some carryover that is not good. At least my idea.

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Answer 3

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jun 9, 2010 8:16 PM in response to Richard Pitcairn

Richard Pitcairn wrote:
. . .
With my wife's computer, even though I did a fresh backup of her computer to Time Capsule (meaning that I deleted the sparsebundle and started freshly - ethernet connection, completed backup without errors) nonetheless, subsequent backups are constant (never stop) and TM buddy says that there is "deep transverse" going on.

You need to figure out why it's doing that "deep traversal," and why it's not completing it. Does it ever get to the point of starting to actually copy?

Is the TC still connected to her Mac via Ethernet? If not, try it that way, to rule out WIFI/interference problems.

It sounds a bit like either a corrupted file or folder. Repair her backups (and any other drives being backed-up) and verify her internal HD, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

I am thinking I need to reformat her drive and install a fresh system (Snow Leopard) for her. What you think? The change from Leopard to S. Leopard was by updating, not a fresh install so there may be some carryover that is not good. At least my idea.

That shouldn't be necessary, unless there are other problems with her system.

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Answer 4

Jun 10, 2010 10:21 AM in response to Pondini

Thanks for the advice. I had assumed no problem with the backup since I did an ethernet connection and fresh backup a couple of days ago. That backup completed.

Yesterday I saw the "deep traverse" message I mentioned. Here is the TM Buddy report for that run:
___________________________
Copied 368.0 MB of 5.7 GB, 41 of 1016 items
Copied 820.0 MB of 5.7 GB, 41 of 1016 items
Copied 1.2 GB of 5.7 GB, 72 of 1016 items
Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
Copied 1.6 GB of 5.7 GB, 79 of 1016 items
Copied 2.0 GB of 5.7 GB, 79 of 1016 items
Copied 2.5 GB of 5.7 GB, 80 of 1016 items
Error: (-8084) SrcErr:YES Copying /Library/Application Support/TechTool Protection/Susans HD/Volume Usage.plist to (null)
Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
Copied 2.8 GB of 5.7 GB, 3187 of 3187 items
Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
Copied 5637 files (2.9 GB) from volume Susans HD.
Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
Copied 2.9 GB of 5.7 GB, 28088 of 28088 items
Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
Copied 3.2 GB of 5.7 GB, 35132 of 35132 items
Copied 3.6 GB of 5.7 GB, 35132 of 35132 items
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException: * -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Error: (-36) SrcErr:NO Copying /Volumes/Susans Archive/TechTool Protection/Susans HD/Directory Backup 2010-06-08-15-34-00 to /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Susan's MacBook/2010-06-07-082918.inProgress/92B54B12-8FBD-4606-B5D5-1EDBBF581F96/Susan s Archive/TechTool Protection/Susans HD
Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!
Stopping backup.
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException: * -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Error: (-8062) SrcErr:NO Copying /Volumes/Susans Archive/TechTool Protection/Susans HD/Directory Backup 2010-06-08-15-34-00 to /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Susan's MacBook/2010-06-07-082918.inProgress/92B54B12-8FBD-4606-B5D5-1EDBBF581F96/Susan s Archive/TechTool Protection/Susans HD
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException: * -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException: * -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException: * -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Copied 35132 files (3.8 GB) from volume Susans Archive.
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException: * -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Copy stage failed with error:11
___________________________

There are error messages and perhaps you know what they mean.

In the meantime, today, I read about repairing the backup as you suggested and now have the MB connected by ethernet to TC and running the repair. I was a little confused by this advice:
___________________________
•To Repair the sparse bundle on a Time Capsule, connect via an Ethernet cable if you can; it will be much faster. Then mount the sparse bundle by opening the TC in the Finder and double-clicking on the sparse bundle. Drag the sparse bundle into the lower part of Disk Utility's sidebar and select it. (When repairing a sparse bundle, the messages won't appear in the center area of the screen; so click the Log icon in the toolbar, or select Window > Show Log from the Menubar to display them.)
___________________________

Because I dragged the sparsebundle to Disk Utility with no problem. The instructions (shown above) say to double-click on the sparse bundle but when I did that nothing special happened that I could see. So I dragged it over to Disk Utility manually. I am thinking it is a typo and should read "double-click on the TM backup folder" — what you think?

The other thing is that advice says that the messages won't appear on the center of the screen but they do for me. I also opened the log which is saying the same thing.

So hope I am doing it right.

Any advice on the TM Buddy error messages appreciated.

Richard

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Answer 5

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jun 10, 2010 10:54 AM in response to Richard Pitcairn

Richard Pitcairn wrote:
.
Copied 368.0 MB of 5.7 GB, 41 of 1016 items
Copied 820.0 MB of 5.7 GB, 41 of 1016 items
Copied 1.2 GB of 5.7 GB, 72 of 1016 items

That's terribly slow. I'm assuming it's now backing-up via WIFI?

Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.

That's a problem with, or communicating with, the TC. For both these, see the green box in #D2 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Error: (-8084) SrcErr:YES Copying /Library/Application Support/TechTool Protection/Susans HD/Volume Usage.plist to (null)

That one isn't a real problem, as it didn't cause the backup to fail.

Error: (-36) SrcErr:NO Copying /Volumes/Susans Archive/TechTool Protection/Susans HD/Directory Backup 2010-06-08-15-34-00 to /Volumes/Time Machine

But that one did. Also covered in #D2, the 4th bullet point at the beginning.

Because I dragged the sparsebundle to Disk Utility with no problem. The instructions (shown above) say to double-click on the sparse bundle but when I did that nothing special happened that I could see.

That should have mounted it. You may not need to do that, but if it's badly damaged, OSX won't be able to mount it, and you'll get the spinning "beach ball" followed by an error message.

The other thing is that advice says that the messages won't appear on the center of the screen but they do for me. I

That's odd. They've never shown up for me on a network drive, and several folks have posted that they couldn't tell whether the repair worked or not, because there weren't any messages they could see.

The things in #D2, especially the +Tech Tool+ exclusions, will probably fix this. If not, post back with new messages.

One thing that's not clear is why TM did a "deep traversal" in the first place. #A6 in Troubleshooting lists some reasons; it's possible that a large volume of changes (number of items more than total size of files) was the cause.

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Answer 6

Jun 10, 2010 11:47 AM in response to Pondini

I ran the repair of the backup file via Disk Utility. Repair was completed and it reported everything was fine.
So I started another backup (via ethernet). Started, mounted disk, began to backup. But then, as my wife reports EVERY OTHER FUNCTION is terribly slow with a spinning rainbow ball most of the time. I tried waiting it out and finally checked force quit and System prefs not responding, also Finder (only 2 open). Relaunched Finder, but could not start it again. Got an error message it was not available. Force quit S. Prefs, restarted. That is where I am now. Will try a backup again.

I will add that yesterday I started up in an e-volume, ran TechTool Pro and everything checked out just fine. No errors at all.

Her complaint is that when TM running she basically cannot use the computer because it runs so slow. Well, OK, she does use it but complains constantly. It is backing wirelessly but has a good connection, full bars, and runs same speed as mine (internet, mail) as mine in another part of the house. My MB Pro backs up hourly, only a few minutes at a time, maybe 10. No spinning ball.
We are both running OS 10.6.3.
On her computer I have excluded Movies, Pictures, Apps, System so there is not that much to back up compared to mine which runs so much faster (TM).

I checked that Techtool pro not doing directory protection of the TM volume. It appears not, at least it is not listed.

Not sure what else to do. Wonder if it has to do with her drive name which has a space in it. I will try changing that. I read C9 about that possibly being an issue.

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Answer 7

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jun 10, 2010 11:54 AM in response to Richard Pitcairn

Richard Pitcairn wrote:
I ran the repair of the backup file via Disk Utility. Repair was completed and it reported everything was fine.

Did you verify her internal HD?

Have you tried the things in the green box of #D2?

Not sure what else to do. Wonder if it has to do with her drive name which has a space in it. I will try changing that. I read C9 about that possibly being an issue.

Do you mean her internal HD? Doubtful, but you never know. Computer Name, maybe.

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Answer 8

Jun 10, 2010 12:10 PM in response to Pondini

As regards "verify her internal HD" I ran TechTool Pro – is that good enough?

As for the green box, #D2 which says:
___________________________
•All backup destinations:

1.Exclude your backup location from any anti-virus scanning.
2.Exclude it, at least temporarily, from Spotlight (System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy).
3.Repair your backups, per item #A5.

•If backing-up to a Time Capsule or External Disk via a network:

4. Check and/or change your Computer, etc. names per item #C9.
5. Try connecting via Ethernet, or moving your Mac closer to the TC, Airport, or router.
6. Look for interference with another wireless device. Turn anything else off, or move it farther away.
___________________________
There is no virus scanning.
I did exclude spotlight yet.
Item #A5, I did that with the TM backup sparsebundle.
I am close to the TM of course because using ethernet now.
I don't think there is any new interference. We don't have any new items, phones, whatever, in the last few months. So doubt there is new interference.

I just changed the name as described in the Help file. There was a comma and space in the name that showed in the Sharing prefs panel. Changed to be without either of these.
Also went into Airport Utility and changed the TC name to be without a space.

Running backup again.

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Answer 9

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jun 10, 2010 1:02 PM in response to Richard Pitcairn

Richard Pitcairn wrote:
As regards "verify her internal HD" I ran TechTool Pro – is that good enough?

I'm not familiar with it, but probably. +*Verify Disk+* via Disk Utility is what I meant.

I just changed the name as described in the Help file. There was a comma and space in the name that showed in the Sharing prefs panel. Changed to be without either of these.
Also went into Airport Utility and changed the TC name to be without a space.

Cool. Why those are sometimes a problem, and sometimes intermittently, makes no sense to me, but it does happen.

Good luck!

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Answer 10

Jun 10, 2010 1:25 PM in response to Pondini

No, I didn't run verify via Disk Utility. Can do that next. Usually TT Pro very good at catching things.

To bring you up to date, after changing names, I started a fresh backup via ethernet. Started OK. Said it wanted to back up 3.84 GB and started, progress bar. BUT...an hour later had transferred only 500 MB. Was tying up the internet (Time Capsule) so I stopped it and will try running it over night. Extraordinarily slow but maybe it is because doing a lot of checking?

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Answer 11

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jun 10, 2010 1:41 PM in response to Richard Pitcairn

Richard Pitcairn wrote:
. . .
To bring you up to date, after changing names, I started a fresh backup via ethernet. Started OK. Said it wanted to back up 3.84 GB and started, progress bar. BUT...an hour later had transferred only 500 MB. Was tying up the internet (Time Capsule) so I stopped it and will try running it over night. Extraordinarily slow but maybe it is because doing a lot of checking?

Quite possibly. If I understand the sequence, you haven't had a successful backup of that Mac in quite a while. If so, there's a partial backup on the TC; Time Machine should recover it properly, and convert it into a new, completed backup, but sometimes that can take a while, with little indication of progress. Apparently this is because it's sort of re-processing the partial backup, rather than re-copying everything, so the "Copied . . ." messages are a bit (or a lot) misleading.

With any luck, letting it run will clear up the leftovers, and it will behave properly.

Keep us posted.

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Answer 12

Jun 10, 2010 1:50 PM in response to Pondini

Actually I do have a successful backup on the TC. This attempt at fixing things started with seeing errors, then my removing (deleting) the sparsebundle, and doing a new ethernet backup. This went successfully (June 6) and fairly quickly. I thought it was solved, gave the computer back to me wife and the samo samo started again. Brought the computer back to me, I checked TM Buddy and saw the messages I posted to you. You know what has happened since.

I am thinking now, when I do a backup this night, might erase the sparsebundle again start over because I changed the name for my wifes access and it is likely now different than the one for the sparsebundle. Make sense?

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Answer 13

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jun 10, 2010 2:34 PM in response to Richard Pitcairn

Richard Pitcairn wrote:
Actually I do have a successful backup on the TC. This attempt at fixing things started with seeing errors, then my removing (deleting) the sparsebundle, and doing a new ethernet backup. This went successfully (June 6) and fairly quickly. I thought it was solved, gave the computer back to me wife and the samo samo started again. Brought the computer back to me, I checked TM Buddy and saw the messages I posted to you. You know what has happened since.

I was under the impression you hadn't gotten a successful backup of your wife's Mac.

I am thinking now, when I do a backup this night, might erase the sparsebundle again start over because I changed the name for my wifes access and it is likely now different than the one for the sparsebundle. Make sense?

It shouldn't matter, but won't hurt. Then it would just be a normal initial backup.

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Answer 14

Jun 10, 2010 4:18 PM in response to Pondini

Well, it took care of itself. I had to go out and when I came back was backing up again. Guess I will let it finish tonight as it is and see how it goes. Thanks for responding. I hope to relay good news tomorrow.

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Answer 15

Jun 12, 2010 9:34 AM in response to Richard Pitcairn

Here is the update. I ran TM overnight, took several hours (ethernet) but did complete successfully without any error messages or deep traverse. So gave it back to her and changed back to wireless BU. Since then it ran next with this error message:
___________________________
Starting standard backup
Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Susan%20P.@DrPitcairnTC.local/drpitcairn's%20Time%20Capsule
NetAuthConnectToServerSync failed with error: 64 for url: afp://Susan%20P.@DrPitcairnTC.local/drpitcairn's%20Time%20Capsule
Backup failed with error: 19
___________________________

Later, this AM it started again (set for hourly) and is running and this is the message so far:

___________________________
Starting standard backup
Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Susan%20P.@DrPitcairnTC.local/drpitcairn's%20Time%20Capsule
Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Susan%20P.@DrPitcairnTC.local/drpitcairn's%20Time%20Capsule
QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
Disk image /Volumes/drpitcairn's Time Capsule/Susan's MacBook.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
2010-06-11 22:36:53.833 FindSystemFiles[11017:907] Looking for system packages
2010-06-11 22:37:06.166 FindSystemFiles[11017:907] Using system path cache.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 4.31 GB requested (including padding), 259.01 GB available
Copied 326.0 MB of 3.4 GB, 28 of 217 items
Copied 396.0 MB of 3.4 GB, 28 of 217 items
Copied 774.0 MB of 3.4 GB, 28 of 217 items
___________________________

So I am confused by this. First I don't know what the earlier error was about and then this last backup is attempting to do over 3 GB. How could there be so much to BU when we did a complete backup just recently? She has not added any pictures or movies or anything large. Maybe altered some documents.

I am wondering if it could be the Mail program. She saves many of her messages, likely thousands by now. Does TM back up Mail incrementally? Or could it be starting over each time new messages come in?

Anyone know?

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