Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.

Re my post above, the TC hadn't changed status 12 hours later, stuck on reporting a problem. I'm assuming SMART couldn't fix it given what the iphone was telling me separately.

The local Apple affiliate shop tell me the error message means I have a dead duck and my only options are to either put it in for service, which they say will take 14 days and will probably tell me I need to buy a new model, or buy a new model now and be done with it.

I think my plan B (which I will probably stick with until a new model comes out) is to plug in a new external drive and use that as a backup drive. The wireless works just fine.

The conversation I had with apple support yesterday, pretty much said that (a) the "problem" was caused by the fact that I was using the TC as additional storage and if I access any of these files, it may corrupt the backup. (Contrary to what was recommended at the Apple Store when I bought the thing).

After I accepted I was going to need to move extra storage off this drive to a wired external, the guy told me that to backup my nearly 500 GB of data, that it should only take 4 hours or so. This contradicts what many have said in this forum. I am at 16 hours now and it's about half done. Based on what the Support Guy told me, this means the drive may be pooched.

I will let this run it's course and see how it works with incremental backups, but if I end up with this problem again, I will trash the TC and go to a wired external drive.

This situation may highlight the problem of having a wifi router and drive in the same box. Looks sexy, but it's an expensive fix when it goes down, since it isn't really feasible to be without wifi.

This is my primary work computer and I will confess that I am not impressed with this problem, nor the solution, because at the end of it all, I don't feel that I am any closer to understanding why the ** failure, and more to the point, I also don't have confidence that it won't happen again.

I just got the same message on my iMac running El Capitan. I back up to a QNAP NAS and have had no problems up until now. In fact I even had to restore form a back up recently as my hard drive failed and had to be replaced. I would love to know what has prompted this message and what it really means. Since my hard drive failure I have begun backing up offset as well as via TM. I use Backblaze which was suggested to me by someone at an Apple store. The initial backup took close to 10 days but couldn't back up my NAS since that is also where TM runs and for some reason a volume that has TM backing up to it cannot be backed up by Backblaze. I do store my music on the NAS which fortunately is a RAID-1 set up so I have a mirror of everything so it isn't as critical. My photo library is on a separate external drive that Backblaze does back up.

I would love to know what has prompted this message and what it really means.

This message appears when Time Machine has determined that your backups are corrupted and Disk Utility on your Mac cannot repair them.

it means that Time Machine will delete your existing backup file and start a new complete back up of your Mac and move forward.

This issue has been appearing since Apple introduced Time Machine, but the occurrences seem to be increasing rapidly. For example, we see 8-10 posts on average, per day from users who are seeing this message. A few years ago, we saw a few per week.

Apple has always been....and continues to remain.....very silent as far as a solution.

More info.....which is somewhat dated......is here, if you are interested:

http://pondini.org/TM/C13.html

Allez, go back to page 2 of this thread where I posted with the same problem following a Hard Disc Drive replacement. The new HDD UUID is different to the old one and so Time Machine does not associate it with the backups that it has been making previously. There are a couple of Terminal commands that can be used to try and get Time Machine to 're-associate' the sparsebundle. Although I did not discover this before I allowed the new backup to be created, it would appear from threads that I found in searches that others were able to reassociate their backups to recover their history using these commands. Other more expert aficionados here may enlighten you more. Good luck. Speckled James

Ive now had this twice in the last two weeks - for an Apple Time Capsule.

First time I had accepted the create new backup option, but as its happened again Im starting to suspect the disk in the time capsule...

If there is a firmware/software error that is affecting the disk, then erasing the Time Capsule using the Zero Out Data option in AirPort Utility may help. This is a "complete" erase, not a "Quick Erase", so it may take 4-6 hours depending on the size of the disk in the Time Capsule.

If you still have issues after a Zero Out Data erase, then there is likely a physical defect on the Time Capsule disk, and that means replacing the hard drive in the Time Capsule.....if it is less than 3-4 years old.....or replacing the Time Capsule if it is 3-4 years or older.

Erase your backups from Time Machine, use zero out data as that will find any issues. You may find if you have an iPhone/iPad that then looking at the drive from there it will tell you the problem more easily than airport utility on the Mac.

If there is a problem with the hard disc then unless it is under guarantee get a new one. I'm told that the machines are so fiddly to fix that if under guarantee you are likely to get a straight swap

I was seeing this error weekly, but I have not seen it in well over a week since I changed the Time Capsule IP address back to fixed (I had configured it as fixed earlier but it somehow switched itself to DHCP).

HI,

I'm having this error message problem as well . Is there an idiots guide to changing the Time Capsule's IP address to fixed? The Time capsule is the router for all my devices so not sure if I need to fix the IP address of the internal disk or the TC itself.

Many thanks,

Adam

I have set mine to Static twice, and it has switched itself from Static back to DHCP both times. I discovered the second switch-back yesterday, when the backup failed again due to this error. So I don't know the answer to your question but if the Static address setting won't stick then it won't solve the problem.

I went for a number of weeks this time before seeing the failure again. I am going to try setting an address reservation in the router. How you do that or whether you even can do it depends on your router.

Same problem here. I have created a new backup every time and it happens approximately every 7-9 days. I am using Apple's very own 3 tb Time Capsule. Nothing you can do but hope Apple will fix it soon. I am running Mac OS Sierra. I have three machines backing up to it and only one produces this error.

So I got the same message 3 times in three weeks - and i assumed that i had a disk issue. After adding an external seagate 5TB drive (they are pretty cheap now) to the Time Capsule I did the first backup - and 2 days later the "Time machine must create a new backup for you..." has popped up !!

So now I think it must be the capsule itself - I'll see if after another first backup (and turning disk sharing off) whether it re-occurs.

Let us know. My TC's hard drive failed so I started backing up to an external drive plugged in to the TC (wifi side works just fine) but now I'm getting the same error message, despite the backup being on a different drive now.

It must either be the TC or something within Sierra.

David, I too have had problems but from advice on this discussion and from others, I have since been running my backup without further notifications or apparent errors. You can see my thread in earlier pages for 2 incidents one in 2012 and the second in 2014. I mistakenly allowed the creation of a new backup in the first instant, where new hard drive UUID was the issue. I did not allow new backup on the second occasion but I removed non-apple software and that seemed to allow Time Machine to backup correctly to the Time Capsule which I originally bought in 2010. I got this message again around September this year (2016) and again this time I persisted to make it work. After a discussion and I now cannot find which discussion site I had this and with whom, but one of the more expert Apple aficionados told me to get rid of any non-Apple software, any anti-virus, antimalware and software such as CCleaner, even though I had taken most if not all of these apps from the App store ages ago but they were no longer app store promoted. I was reliably informed that such software which is non-Apple is really not needed to keep the iMac sweet. After I cleared all of this type of software and apps from my iMac the Time Machine, which had been stuck on 'preparing backup' for ages, miraculously kicked back into action and created the next backup. Unfortunately I cannot tell you which of the Apps was the cause of the issue. I haven't replaced them, I obviously didn't need any of them, oh and the iMac runs quicker. At the same time as I was having problems, I attached an old PC, but Mac OS Extended (Journaled) formatted, 1 TB Hitachi hard drive through an IcyDock USB connection direct to iMac and directed Time Machine to make a fresh backup on it. Once the original TC started to accept backups again Time Machine started to alternate backups hourly to both drives, so now I have my original TC backup set from 2014 and a spare set of backups started in Sep 2016. The more experienced Apple aficionados on here may enlighten you more about this. I now think that watching all the comments about both Time Capsule and NAS and other drives being used for backups, that other software is interfering with the Time Machine process and making it hang or report verification errors. Hope this gives all some thought and help. Those with computer science knowledge of OSX maybe could confirm or refute. The 2010 iMac and Time Capsule are nearly as sweet as the day I bought them in July 2010 although it is nearly time to treat myself to the latest variants. Good luck. Speckled James