"Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to..."

Yes, that's not exactly Apple's most helpful message. 😟

See #C3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Please go back to #C3 and do what it says after getting the messages -- look for one similar to the samples shown in red there. Then keep reading; it will tell you what to do.

jamespeabo wrote:
It turned out I had and Error (-36). A FileSync for: iDisksparsebundle.

So I excluded this file and I was able to backup with Time Machine; but I do not know why it was a problem.

That's the local copy of your iDisk. I don't keep a local copy, since I don't use the Sync feature, but that's what it contains.

I don't know how or why it would be corrupted. I'd guess you could turn Sync off, and back on again, to re-create it, but you might want to check in the +MobileMe > Sync+ forum, hiding in the +Digital Life+ section, at: http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=116

Hi,

Im getting a similar problem, but for my SafeBrowsing.db file? I tried following the troubleshooting but still can't fix it. Tried excluding it and deleting the file, but it came back.

When I excluded/deleted it, the code changed from:

(36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Previous Systems.localized/2010-09-07_1127/private/var/folders/Aw/AwKhbHXwG6ejptMGZnOq9E +TI/-Caches-/com.apple.Safari/SafeBrowsing.db

to

Error: (-8062) SrcErr:NO Copying /Previous Systems.localized/2010-09-07_1127/private/var/folders/Aw/AwKhbHXwG6ejptMGZnOq9E +TI/-Caches-/com.apple.Safari/SafeBrowsing.db

My new disk is a Seagate, seems to copy files manually pretty well, just gets snagged on this Safari file that doesnt seem to have much use.

Any help would be great.

Thanks!

Message was edited by: Eric Angelillo

The problem is bigger than that -- those files are in a +Previous System+ folder, left over from an +Archive and Install+ on the 7th. They're caches that Time Machine excludes automatically from the "real" version of OSX.

If you no longer need it, delete it. (It will take a very long time to empty the trash; the last time I deleted one, I did it one sub-folder at a time, then emptied the trash, so it wouldn't tie up my system for so long.)

If you want to keep it, exclude it from Time Machine, per #10 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Seems to be working now. Weird though, since i had deleted it before and it came back and still didnt work. I might have messed it up by downloading an update for Safari.

In any case, it worked. Hopefully the next backups will work well as well.

Thank you!

Deleted what? The cache files or the whole Previous System folder? That entire folder is useless -- nothing in it gets accessed for any reason. It's just kept in case something goes wrong in the +Archive & Install,+ and some things don't get moved/copied properly, which I've never heard of actually happening.