Cannot find time machine backup after upgrade to Mountain Lion

Question

Cannot find time machine backup after upgrade to Mountain Lion

Upgraded to ML this afternoon and now I am having issues with backing up via Time Machine.

This is the same external backup disk as I've used for the last couple of years, plenty of space available.

First issue is that it seems to be unable to find the backup disk despite recognizing it as a time machine backup.
Once it does finally recognize (after a good while) it simply says "Error, time machine could not complete the backup" and quits.

Thoughts?

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Jul 25, 2012 10:33 PM

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Answer 1

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jul 26, 2012 11:31 AM in response to Christopher Sant

Christopher Sant wrote:

. . .

Once it does finally recognize (after a good while) it simply says "Error, time machine could not complete the backup"

There should be more to that message. See #C2 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting. It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it. If that doesn't help, post back with details, including all the messages, your setup, what you've done, and the results.

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Answer 2

gavin66

Level 1

10 points

Jul 27, 2012 7:49 AM in response to Christopher Sant

Hi Christopher,

Same problem here in Holland, yesterday updated 2 mac's. Both can't make a timemachine backup.

I have selected a timemachine, but it won't.

The strange thing is, when want to restore something from timemachine it works?????

To pondini: there are no other massages

Please somebody help.

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Answer 3

user1724

Level 3

535 points

Jul 27, 2012 7:54 AM in response to Christopher Sant

I have upgraded two Macs. They both had Time Machine issues, could not find the prior backups.

For one I was able to get it to work right by turning TM off and on several times in preferences.

The second I had to give up and start new backups. If you have to do that you can still save the old backups and navagate to something you need to retreive manully on the drive. Not great, but I needed to get TM going again.

Clearly a bug here for Apple to address in the next update.

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Answer 4

Jul 27, 2012 3:15 PM in response to user1724

Switching it off and on again multiple times seems to have kicked it loose. Thanks for the tip.

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Answer 5

DR Pro

Level 1

0 points

Sep 15, 2012 3:28 PM in response to Christopher Sant

Hey all,

the only thing I have ever found which seems to work every time for me is to ENTER TIME MACHINE, scroll to the oldest backup, close it back down, and retry backup through Time Machine. I too have struggled with this ridiculous issue for some time; it is maddening. This seems to work however. Good luck.

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