I've been backing up my harddrive with Time machine for a few years now, but all of a sudden it won't back up. The errorr reads something like: "files cannot be changed." any ideas? I haven't switched external hard drives or anything like that. I also can't just drag the harddrive to the external one and back it up that way.
thanks,
Jeff
MacBook (13-inch Aluminum Late 2008), Mac OS X (10.5.8)
Sorry, but "something like" isn't enough. We need the actual message.
Use the widget in #A1 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting to display the backup messages from your logs. Locate the backup in question, then copy and post all the messages here.
Hi! Its been a few months but I went ahead and used the Console and got the messages:
Nov 15 11:02:44 jeffrey-zduneks-macbook-3 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[359]: Backup requested due to disk attach
Nov 15 11:02:44 jeffrey-zduneks-macbook-3 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[359]: Starting standard backup
Nov 15 11:02:45 jeffrey-zduneks-macbook-3 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[359]: Backing up to: /Volumes/FreeAgent GoFlex Drive 1/Backups.backupdb
Nov 15 11:02:46 jeffrey-zduneks-macbook-3 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[359]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Nov 15 11:02:46 jeffrey-zduneks-macbook-3 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[359]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 143.54 GB requested (including padding), 1.55 TB available
Nov 15 11:02:46 jeffrey-zduneks-macbook-3 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[359]: Waiting for index to be ready (906 > 0)
Nov 15 11:04:49 jeffrey-zduneks-macbook-3 com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.backupd-wake[285]): Exited with exit code: 1
Thanks!
Jeff
Zdunek1 wrote:
. . .
/System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[359]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
That just means that something happened after the last backup that requires Time Machine to take a closer look at what needs to be backed-up. It could be an abnormal powerdown, system crash, long time since the previous backup, etc.
Nov 15 11:02:46 jeffrey-zduneks-macbook-3 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[359]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 143.54 GB requested (including padding), 1.55 TB available
It did determine how much needs to be backed-up (probably about 120 GB, since it adds about 20% for workspace.)
Nov 15 11:02:46 jeffrey-zduneks-macbook-3 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[359]: Waiting for index to be ready (906 > 0)
The backups need to be indexed. Also not unusual, especially if the previous backup failed.
Nov 15 11:04:49 jeffrey-zduneks-macbook-3 com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.backupd-wake[285]): Exited with exit code: 1
That's not the actual backup, but the process that determines whether a backup is needed after your Mac wakes up.
Is the backup still running? It should be in the process of copying files. You should see an indication of that on the Time Machine Preferences window. With a lot to back up, it will probably take a while, of course.
While it's running, there won't be any messages in the log until it finishes the first "pass" of copying.
Time Machine will not back up. Error reads: some files cannot be changed. anyone?
