Q: mountain lion breaks time machine

Try disconnecting/powering-off everything on the network but the MacBook and Time Capsule, to be sure there's not some sort of interference.

DONE

Try a "full reset" of Time Machine on the MacBook, per #A4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

DONE

If that doesn't help, try a "hard reset" of the Time Capsule, per Resetting an AirPort Base Station or Time Capsule FAQ.

DONE

If still no help, it sounds like there's a serious problem with that sparse bundle.  You might want to try repairing it, per the green box in #A5 of the Troubleshooting link.

stevenfromhighgate wrote:

. . .

If still no help, it sounds like there's a serious problem with that sparse bundle.  You might want to try repairing it, per the green box in #A5 of the Troubleshooting link.

 

 

Sorry, not sure what the means. 

no joy unfortunately.

Currently deleting the sparsebundle file to see whether I can start a brand new back-up

Not sure why the problems arose; new TM purchased in June, working fine until recently.

New HD in September for my MacBook, so perhaps the back-up was confused by that??

Thanks for your help,

stevenfromhighgate wrote:

. . .

Not sure why the problems arose; new TM purchased in June, working fine until recently.

Hard to tell.  Several things can do it -- a bad WIFI connection and/or interference, intermittent power problems, etc.

New HD in September for my MacBook, so perhaps the back-up was confused by that??

It shouldn't, especially if any backups completed successfully afterwards.

If not, it might depend on why you replaced the HD and/or how you put your data back.  If there was a problem with the HD, it's unlikely, but possible, that corrupted something(s) in OSX, and that garbled one or more backups done thereafter. 

Anyhow, good luck and keep us posted.

I replaced the original HD with a SSD (& increased RAM) to speed things up, but (as far as I know) there is nothing wrong with the original drive.

Final question....is there a quick, easy way to delete the sparsebundle (when it's 250GB)?

Thanks again

stevenfromhighgate wrote:

 

I replaced the original HD with a SSD (& increased RAM) to speed things up, but (as far as I know) there is nothing wrong with the original drive.

Ah, then that shouldn't have caused a problem (but you never know).

Final question....is there a quick, easy way to delete the sparsebundle (when it's 250GB)?

Only by erasing the whole TC (per the green box in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule).

Otherwise, it will take a while.   Connect by Ethernet cable if at all possible -- it will still take a while, but be 2-3 times faster than via WIFI.

It might be a bit faster if you use the procedure in the blue box of #Q5 of the same link.

His type is LARGE because he found the culprit and solved the problem.. THANK YOU SIR!!!!

You nailed it! Thanks.

I need to Disable "Put hard disks to sleep when possible", as advised....but where do I find "Energy Saver system preference"? 

Click the System Preferences icon in your Dock, or sleect it from the Apple icon at the left of your menubar:

You may see some different items on the Energy Saver panel, depending on what type of Mac you have, whether it's on a UPS system, etc:

Note that some external HDs respond to that setting, some don't.

Thank you.  I'm a senior citizen who surfs heavily; photography is a hobby, so my iPhoto storage is large. I have an iMac desktop with OS X 10.6.8.  Never downloaded Mountain Lion, but things are not working as usual with Time Machine.

I use Time Machine with a La Cie 500GB external HD...about 3 yrs old. 

Time Machine has been giving me this message over and over for weeks now:  "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder."

Time Machine hasn't been able to do a complete backup since end of Sept!

Today, I turned off the La Cie HD using the toggle switch on back.  I then checked AirPort and turned it from OFF to ON (don't even know if it needs to be ON, since I have no wireless devices...only a La Cie HD and a plugged-in printer/scanner).

Then, I opened Time Machine Preferences again.  It now says:

Oldest Backup: - -   (instead of the Sept date)

Latest Backup:  Failed

Next Backup:  Today, 2:22pm

I'm a newbie when it comes to doing things 'under the hood.'  Hopefully I haven't lost anything during this little process and it will now back up completely this time.  Ugh.

Rivergull wrote:

 

Thank you.  I'm a senior citizen who surfs heavily; photography is a hobby, so my iPhoto storage is large. I have an iMac desktop with OS X 10.6.8.  Never downloaded Mountain Lion, but things are not working as usual with Time Machine.

Note that this is the Mountain Lion forum.;  I assume you got here via Google or a similar search.

There are some differences with Time Machine on Snow Leopard vs. Mountain Lion, but this probably isn't one of them. 

I use Time Machine with a La Cie 500GB external HD...about 3 yrs old.

 

Time Machine has been giving me this message over and over for weeks now:  "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder."

Changing the setting in Energy Saver preferences won't help.  See #C10 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Today, I turned off the La Cie HD using the toggle switch on back.  I then checked AirPort and turned it from OFF to ON (don't even know if it needs to be ON, since I have no wireless devices...only a La Cie HD and a plugged-in printer/scanner).

Is the LaCie is connected directly to your Mac?  If so, I'm not sure why you're looking at Airport.  Or is it connected to an Airport Extreme or other Mac on your network? 

Then, I opened Time Machine Preferences again.  It now says:

Oldest Backup: - -   (instead of the Sept date)

Latest Backup:  Failed

Next Backup:  Today, 2:22pm

 

I'm a newbie when it comes to doing things 'under the hood.'  Hopefully I haven't lost anything during this little process and it will now back up completely this time.  Ugh.

Once the backup drive gets disconnected, Time Machine forgets about the existing backups, and displays a couple of dashes (on Lion and earlier -- on Mountain Lion, unfortunately, it shows "None.")

That does not necessarily mean your backups are lost;  just that the dates on the Preferences window haven't been updated.

Sorry about 'hopping onto' the Mountain Lion forum.  My problem has resolved itself.  The backup was completed this time, with no 'error' notice.  YAY!   Maybe it's time to buy a new (or another) La Cie HD.  Thank you for the kind advice, even though I'm just a Leopard.  ;o)

Rivergull wrote:

 

Sorry about 'hopping onto' the Mountain Lion forum. 

Not a problem;  just wanted to warn you that some things are different.

My problem has resolved itself.  The backup was completed this time, with no 'error' notice.  YAY! 

Great!

Maybe it's time to buy a new (or another) La Cie HD.

It's always prudent to keep secondary backups -- the old "don't keep all your eggs in one basket" saying.  See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question  #27 for details and some suggestions.

I'm having the same TM problems since moving to Mt. Lion, and am in the process of trying several of the great suggestions from this thread, but I'm seeing something odd not mentioned here yet. My regularly scheduled automatic backups fail (obviously, that's why we're here). When I click +Backup Now+ from the TM menu bar, it immediately displays the fail dialog pop-up. However, when I click +Backup Now+ from the contextual menu in TM Preferences, it works every time. I have done this quite a bit, and it's always the same. By the way, the power saver, not putting disks to sleep thing didn't work for me.

But why would the two +Backup Now+ options work any differently?

- Thanks in advance for any assistance.