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Time Machine Causing Open Apps to Choke?

Have been using Time Machine for over a year with minimal problems. More recently, however, I'm noticing that often my open applications aren't responding and sometimes must force-quit them ... almost always Time Machine is doing its thing when this occurs.

If I see that TM is active, I sometimes will use the pulldown menu to stop the process. Even if it says, for example, "Backing up 260K of 8.6Mb" it takes at least 5 go 6 minutes for the backup process to cease. There have been times when I've walked away from the computer and returned 20 minutes later to see that it's still "stopping back up."

Also having more diffulty with accessing anything on my wireless network (mail, internet, printer) when TM is engaged in its backup.

All of this makes me wonder if I'm seeing corrupt files or faulty hardware ....

Any ideas?

Mac Pro Xeon 64-bit Workstation, Mac OS X (10.6.6), 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Posted on Jan 3, 2012 12:12 PM

21 replies

Jan 12, 2012 1:41 AM in response to Pondini

So here's the report per the widget (personal info replaced by [username]:

Starting standard backup

Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[username]-Time-Capsule.local/[username]Cap

Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[username]-Time-Capsule.local/[username]Time%20Cap

Failed to attach to image: /Volumes/[username] Time Cap-1/[username] Pro.sparsebundle, DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35

Failed to mount disk image /Volumes/[username] Time Cap-1/[username] Pro.sparsebundle (DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35)

Mount failed... waiting 60 seconds and trying again.

Ejected Time Machine network volume.

Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[username]@[username]-Time-Capsule.local/[username]Time%20Cap

Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[username].local/[username]%20Time%20Cap

Failed to attach to image: /Volumes/[username] Time Cap-1/[username] Pro.sparsebundle, DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35

Failed to mount disk image /Volumes/[username] Time Cap-1/[username] Pro.sparsebundle (DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35)

Mount failed... waiting 60 seconds and trying again.

Ejected Time Machine network volume.

Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[username]@[username]-Time-Capsule.local/[username]%20Time%20Cap

Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[username]@[username]-Time-Capsule.local/[username]%20Time%20Cap

Failed to attach to image: /Volumes/[username] Time Cap-1/[username] Pro.sparsebundle, DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35

Failed to mount disk image /Volumes/[username] Time Cap-1/[username] Pro.sparsebundle (DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35)

Giving up after 3 retries.

Backup failed with error: 31

Ejected Time Machine network volume.

I was surprised to see all of this because the TM pull-down menu indicates that a successful backup was made "Yesterday at 4:02pm."

I went into TM and - sure enough - the last backup was yesterday at 4:02pm and seemed fine.

I wasn't able to copy+and+paste the widget report date/time but recall that it had said yesterday (Jan 11). (apparently one can't keep Dashboard open at the same time that one is using TextEdit.)

I took a look at the Widget screen again to check the date/time of the report, but it had changed already to:

So the date/time of the last report (text provided here) has now been lost.

Does this clear up or just add to the mystery?

Message was edited by: Katie \'OConnell APOLOGIES I just realized that the widget allows for paging back and forth between multiple reports. So here's a report on a SUCCESSFUL backup that also seems to contain an error: Successful Back up Finished January 11, 2011 at 4:08pm Starting standard backup Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[username]@[username]-Time-Capsule.local/[username]%20Time%20Cap Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[username]@[username]-Time-Capsule.local/[username]%20Time%20Cap QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN Disk image /Volumes/[username] Time Cap/[username] Pro.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb No pre-backup thinning needed: 3.30 GB requested (including padding), 1.17 TB available Error: (-8084) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist to (null) Copied 6661 files (354.3 MB) from volume Macintosh HD. Waiting for index to be ready (100) Copied 7836 files (427.5 MB) from volume [username]. Copied 8477 files (502.0 MB) from volume [username]. Waiting for index to be ready (100) Copied 8490 files (502.0 MB) from volume [username]. No pre-backup thinning needed: 2.67 GB requested (including padding), 1.17 TB available Copied 1684 files (12.8 MB) from volume Macintosh HD. Waiting for index to be ready (100) Copied 1699 files (12.8 MB) from volume [username]. Copied 1792 files (12.8 MB) from volume [username]. Copied 1805 files (12.8 MB) from volume [username]. Starting post-backup thinning Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/[username]/2012-01-08-213203: 1.17 TB now available Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/[username]/2012-01-08-202646: 1.17 TB now available Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/[username]/2012-01-08-192935: 1.17 TB now available Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/[username]/2012-01-08-123055: 1.17 TB now available Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/[username]/2012-01-08-113147: 1.17 TB now available Post-back up thinning complete: 5 expired backups removed Backup completed successfully. Ejected Time Machine disk image. Ejected Time Machine network volume.

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jan 12, 2012 9:27 AM in response to KatieOConnell

Katie \'OConnell wrote:

(personal info replaced by [username]:

That may be where the problem is located, oddly enough. There are some restrictions on the names of some things. Some of yours look like they may be too long (and of course I can't tell if there are odd characters in them). What's even more strange, it can be intermittent!

Check and change them if necessary, per #C9 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Failed to attach to image: /Volumes/[username] Time Cap-1/[username] Pro.sparsebundle, DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35

It just can't connect, for some reason. If this continues after changing the name(s), try re-selecting your TC in Time Machine Preferences.

If that doesn't do it, try a "full reset" of Time Machine per #A4 in the above article.

If still no help, try resetting the TC itself, per http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3728

This doesn't look like a WIFI problem, since the second backup seems to have connected and run ok. Do you recall if that backup was run while your Mac was in the same place as the failed ones? If in doubt, connect via Ethernet cable; if the problems stop, you have some sort of WIFI interference or signal quality problem.

Error: (-8084) SrcErr:YES Copying /Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist to (null)

That didn't stop the backup; we see those occasionally. That's the file that contains all the info about your setup of Apple Mail -- accounts, passwords, mailbox behaviors, etc. If this continues, there may be a problem.

Jan 12, 2012 10:09 AM in response to Pondini

Pondini wrote:

There are some restrictions on the names of some things. Some of yours look like they may be too long (and of course I can't tell if there are odd characters in them).

I will try to rename my machine (I don't remember naming it in the first place ... I think it just uses my log-in name which includes an apostrophe) and see if that makes a difference.

Will try some of these other things and report back, though it may not be for a few days.

Question: Aside from everything else, why would TM proceed with auto backups when its prefs clearly indicate that they are OFF?

Of course, I'd prefer to have the security of hourly backups but only if they are performed silently and unobstrusively in the background. 😉

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jan 12, 2012 11:01 AM in response to KatieOConnell

Katie \'OConnell wrote:

. . .

I will try to rename my machine (I don't remember naming it in the first place ... I think it just uses my log-in name which includes an apostrophe) and see if that makes a difference.

Yes, that's the default name OSX uses! That seems to be a problem only on earlier versions of OSX, but it won't hurt to shrink the names and skip punctuation.

Question: Aside from everything else, why would TM proceed with auto backups when its prefs clearly indicate that they are OFF?

When you turn it off, that won't stop a backup that's already running, but no more should start. If they do, there are three possiblities:

The preferences file where the various settings are kept may be damaged. Try a "full reset" per #A4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Did you ever use a 3rd-party app, or follow instructions to edit some other plists, to alter Time Machine's default schedule? If so, that can cause it.

Something corrupted in your installation of OSX. Installing a fresh copy (that won't disturb anything else) would fix it. See Installing the ''combo'' update and/or Reinstalling OSX.

Jan 24, 2012 5:57 PM in response to Pondini

Checking in to report that I attempted to download the "combo" update - it's over 1 gigabyte in size - and the download window said it would take 4 hours to download.

About 2/3 of the way through, the download aborted on its own and I haven't yet found the time to try to download it again, much less install it.

I see that a "CORRECT ANSWER" has been marked but I truthfully cannot say that this will, in fact, fix the issue.

Just for everyone's information ...

Jan 30, 2012 2:32 PM in response to Pondini

Update:

Renaming the machine and installing the Combo update did not resolve the problem of apps choking while Time Machine was doing backups.

Just reset the TM today and - so far - the backups seems to be quietly working in the background, as they should be.

It would seem that the reset has been the solution to the problems.

Time Machine Causing Open Apps to Choke?