sparsebundle is already in use

I found the simplest solution of all. I did try rebooting the Time Machine, but that didn't seem to work. However, while I was reading these posts, a backup started and completed all by itself. Y'all scared my machine into working.

This worked me as well. Unplug for 10 seconds. Plug back in. Back to work!

I got the sparsebundle message too, and came to this forum. After reading the first few "complicated" methods of fixing the situation, (posted a couple of years ago) I thought to myself, "Normally Apple has great user interface, and there should be no need for these "very technical" manipulations...

I went to my Airport Utility Application, and found my Time Capsule. it had a red circle next to it with an "!" So I clicked on that, and it said that there was a firmware update available. So I clicked on "update" in the little box next to the disk, and voilà ! It downloaded and then updated the firmware for my time capsule, and now it is merrily humming away, after not having updated for a few days. I was simply too afraid to take such a drastic measure as to rename my HD, etc!! Things like that may have ulterior consequences!!

With Apple, there is USUALLY a fairly simple method of fixing things, although I do realize that some of you "geeks" out there like to use Terminal or do other things, which is fun too! This time I just didn't feel like messing around with all that stuff and taking a chance, so I did it the simple way! (I'm just up in the morning with a cup of coffee!

Hope this helps!

What you might find is this fixed the problem because it forced a reboot of the TC after the firmware update.. if it happens again which is highly likely.. simply power down the TC.. count to 10 and then power up the TC again..

Or see C12 here for some less windows boot in the backside type solution.

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

It is ridiculous that they haven't fixed it.. after 3 major revisions of the OS.. since it basically arrived with Lion and is now worse in ML and worse again in Mavericks.

Time Machine never appeared in my Finder. Time Capsule DID, and I dismounted it by clicking on its up-arrow. Nothing worked. It still is saying The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Martha Luehrmann's computer (3).sparsebundle" is already in use. Sigh. Please help, someone.

Start from C12 here.

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

No luck..

what OS are you running??

Power down the whole network.. and all the clients.. everything..

Reboot in order..

Modem.. wait 2min

TC.. wait 2min

Clients..

Now see if the problem has been fixed.. if not you are going to need to do something major.

Redo the setup.. esp. important for mavericks.. start with reset the TC to factory.

Universal Factory Reset.. any model TC or AE.

Unplug your TC/AE from power or turn off at the power point.

Hold in reset. and power the TC/AE back on.. all without releasing reset and keep holding in for about 10sec. (this is often difficult without a 2nd person or a 3rd arm).

Release it when the status light flashes rapidly. If it doesn’t flash rapidly you have missed it and try again.

Note..

Be Gentle! Feel the switch click on. It has a positive feel.. add no more pressure after that.

TC/AE will reboot after a couple of minutes with default factory settings and will wipe out previous configurations of the router.

No files are deleted on the hard disk in a TC.. No reset of the TC deletes files.. to do that you use erase from the airport utility.

Redo the setup but this time use SMB naming..

Short, less than 10 characters is great.. less than 20 as max.

No spaces.

Pure alphanumeric.

Reset TM.. see A4 here.

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

Point it to the newly renamed TC..

If it still fails..

I recommend you rename your computer and delete the existing backup if you don't have enough space.. but if you simply rename the computer it should start a new backup, although you might be able to inherit the old one.. see B6 in pondini.

Change the computer name.. see C9 for why this is important. You change under sharing in Preferences.. again make the name short, no spaces and pure alphanumeric.

The File Sharing on/off solution worked like a charm.

Thanks

my timecapsule had a firmware update available. updated which re-started the time capsule...problem solved. could have been the re-start, but knocked out two birds with one stone.

Oops. I followed the advice of Pumbah40 and I wiped out all of my previous back ups. Have just turned Time Machine off at the plug and turned on again after 10 seconds and it seems to be backing up again. However, it is starting from fresh and will take about 13 days (it claims) to do a full back up.

I tried to register a support call with Apple but the website doesn't seem to recognise the serial number from my time Capsule (it is a legitimate one) which is really frustrating. Furthermore, the genius bar appointments are all fully booked so I cannot speak with Apple at all. Not impressed.

Am hoping that starting again will work.

Updating to the latest firmware version for the time capsule solves this problem. Before the firmware was released, power cycling the Time Capsule was the fix.

Thanks for this tip. Switching off the Time Machine and then switching back on again worked fine.

The problem was probably caused by an older Mac on the same network attempting a back-up, then hanging up.

Are you able to rename the disk back to its original name after the issue is fixed? Or will the problem just start happening again?

Thanks!

-Alan