Backing up 87.6 MB of 87.6 MB' and never stops.

Question

Backing up 87.6 MB of 87.6 MB' and never stops.

My time machine keeps backing up 87.6 MB of 87.6 MB again and again and again.

I erased my time capsule drive ('0'ing out never did complete - seemed to hang at the very last stage - but a quick erase seemed to work perfectly) as I wanted to start fresh after putting a bigger HD into my Macbook Pro.

I have 'verified' my backup with no errors shown.

I have deleted the 'in progress' file (more than once).

Now the time machine says: 'Backing up 87.6 MB of 87.6 MB' and never stops.

If I delete the 'in progress' file within the sparsebundle it just prepares the files and gets back to this point again.

I usually backup over wifi but have bee trouble shooting over ethernet connection.

I just checked and it changed to 'backing up 130 MB of 130 MB' and now 'backing up 131.9 MB of 131.9 MB'. But it has been working continuously ever since I manually started the backup (again) this morning - without finishing or re-calculating anything.

Cant find any solution in the pondini FAQ.

system.log: (aaaaaaaa and xx@xxx substituted for the actual names)

Feb 7 12:10:32 aaaaaaaa com.apple.backupd[550]: Starting standard backup

Feb 7 12:10:32 aaaaaaaa com.apple.backupd[550]: Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://xxx@xxx-Time-Capsule.local/AirPort%20Disk

Feb 7 12:10:32 aaaaaaaa com.apple.backupd[550]: Mounted network destination using URL: afp://xxx@xxx-Time-Capsule.local/AirPort%20Disk

Feb 7 12:10:42 aaaaaaaa com.apple.backupd[550]: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN

Feb 7 12:10:45 aaaaaaaa com.apple.backupd[550]: Disk image /Volumes/AirPort Disk-1/aaaaaaaa.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups

Feb 7 12:10:45 aaaaaaaa com.apple.backupd[550]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb

Feb 7 12:16:52 aaaaaaaa com.apple.backupd[550]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 938.4 MB requested (including padding), 542.56 GB available

Any ideas? Thanks.

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,4

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 2.53 GHz

Number Of Processors: 1

Total Number Of Cores: 2

L2 Cache: 3 MB

Memory: 8 GB

Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

Boot ROM Version: MBP53.00AC.B03

SMC Version (system): 1.49f2

System Software Overview:

System Version: Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549)

Kernel Version: Darwin 10.8.0

Boot Volume: 1TBDrive

Boot Mode: Normal

Secure Virtual Memory: Enabled

64-bit Kernel and Extensions: Yes

Message was edited by: hangingbyathread

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Feb 7, 2013 12:47 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 7, 2013 2:04 PM in response to hangingbyathread

Feb 7 12:16:52 aaaaaaaa com.apple.backupd[550]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 938.4 MB requested (including padding), 542.56 GB available

Interesting the actually requested file space is near 1GB.. padding is around 20% but it is still much bigger than it is telling you..

Is this over wireless?

I would definitely run over ethernet if you are doing as much as it seems to be requiring.

And I would run a verify over the local disk.. just to make sure there isn't a corrupt file that will stop the backup in its tracks.

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Answer 2

Feb 7, 2013 2:36 PM in response to LaPastenague

This is over ethernet at the moment.

I usually backup over wifi but am hard wired at the moment.

After posting this I checked again and it had changed to 'backing up 130 MB of 130 MB' and then 'backing up 131.9 MB of 131.9 MB'.

But it has been working continuously ever since I manually started the backup (again) this morning.

Then it has started 'Preparing' again and the number is rising to well above 80,000 items - even though the only thing that has changed on my mac is a TextEdit file and perhaps an email or two.

Just ran disk utility - repair disk on the sparsebundle (as a guest user as it would not run when I was loggen in as myself) and it was OK.

I have 582GB used up on my 1000GB HD

I just verifed my local disk and 'The volume 1TBDrive appears to be OK.'

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Answer 3

Feb 7, 2013 4:11 PM in response to hangingbyathread

Do you still have wireless turned on.. plus ethernet.. I would try it with wireless off.

But I am not sure.. the problem pops up fairly often.. and it is generally a corruption or something.. often people just start over and it goes away.. but you have already done that.

The next step is to start excluding directories and see what happens.. you might need to use a series of logical steps.. exclude this half.. then exclude that half.. narrow which directory is the issue and then to the file.. the widget should show up some more info but you don't always see what is stuck..

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Answer 4

Feb 9, 2013 4:29 PM in response to LaPastenague

I have tried while not connected to my timecapsule over wifi (while my wifi was logged onto a completely different network). I assume this would have the same affect 'trying it with wirekess off'.

I am still trying endless test backups with various folders excluded.

Am I right thinking that a 'folder' and a 'directory' are the same thing - in this case?

I first tried excluding everything but my home folder - which made no difference.

Now Im trying excluding various folders within my home folder.

Still no luck (though it did once manage to actulally 'complete' a backup - about 36 hours ago). And although it still only claims to be backing no more than 200 mb at a time it mostly never actually finishes.

COULD this be something to do with 'drop box, or 'google drive' or some other kind of off site backup program running somewhere in the background Im wondering?

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Answer 5

mdb288

Level 1

42 points

Feb 9, 2013 6:38 PM in response to hangingbyathread

Any antivirus such as norton?

Like you, I have also noticed that subsequent backups take about as long as the initial even though only a few files have changed...not what I expected,,,

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Answer 6

Feb 9, 2013 7:02 PM in response to hangingbyathread

Am I right thinking that a 'folder' and a 'directory' are the same thing - in this case?

I first tried excluding everything but my home folder - which made no difference.

Now Im trying excluding various folders within my home folder.

Folder or directory .. I am still swapping OS.. so I use directory on PC and folder on Mac.. I think we are referring to the same thing.. my bad if the terminology is wrong.

If you excluded the whole home folder and that didn't fix it, excluding sub-folders won't help.. try other folders.

Dropbox yes.. that can be a problem..

http://pondini.org/TM/D8.html

Did you check through the section D for various software or other things that can go wrong.

TM is a complex piece of software..

It can be worth doing a backup to external drive and see if that fixes it..

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Answer 7

Feb 9, 2013 7:17 PM in response to LaPastenague

It was all but the home folder i tried first.

Now Im excluding folders within my home folder . . .

i will check out your lead (thanks):

LaPastenague wrote:

Dropbox yes.. that can be a problem..

http://pondini.org/TM/D8.html

Did you check through the section D for various software or other things that can go wrong.

looks like i might have overlooked that . .

but . . I did make a seperate full time machine backup to a firewire drive - with no issues at all. Though I did not do any subsequent backups to that drive which are causing me all the bother now.

Thanks agoin for all your input!

Ill post if/when I solve this.

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Answer 8

Feb 9, 2013 7:17 PM in response to mdb288

No antivirus software.

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Answer 9

Feb 13, 2013 11:07 PM in response to LaPastenague

Despite having little faith in getting a resolution I thought I'd post my latest update (in case anyone else is suffering the same fate).

I guess I will take everything down to an Apple store and see if they can help.

I was having issues getting the Time Machine Buddy widget to load and realized that the 'Dash board' was not working at all so I deleted my dashboard preferences.

Once I got Time Machine Buddy working l looked up and saw that my time machine has given me the error message: " . . . Time Machine must create a new backup for you." !!!

I don't know/doubt that this was related to my backup issues but have now just finished a complete new backup after erasing my entire backup drive (once again).

I have excluded my drop box and google drive folders- just in case.

It seemed to be working OK (hardwired over ethernet).

BUT now Im back where I started.

I did notice that sometimes the number of MB being 'backed up' was continually, but slowly, growing yesterday. It went through numerous 'attempts' Eventually it got to 'cleaning up'. And did for well over an hour……. (I went to bed)

I tried again this evening and it once again made a number of backups.

My time machine says that the oldest backup is 4pm yesterday (even though, yesterday it had an older backup from the night before) and my most recent was yesterday at 11:49pm - and it ran all night!!!!!

Here's the last of many, many, many 'buddy' logs(which backup I just cancelled):

Starting standard backup

Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://xxxx@xxxxxxx._afpovertcp._tcp.local/AirPort%20Disk

Mounted network destination using URL: afp://xxxx@xxxxxxx._afpovertcp._tcp.local/AirPort%20Disk

QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN

Disk image /Volumes/AirPort Disk/yyyyyyyyyyyyy.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups

Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb

No pre-backup thinning needed: 1.54 GB requested (including padding), 548.52 GB available

Copied 86.5 MB of 576.9 MB, 20331 of 69709 items

Copied 288.5 MB of 576.9 MB, 348008 of 348008 items

Copied 348426 files (663.1 MB) from volume 1TBDrive.

No pre-backup thinning needed: 933.6 MB requested (including padding), 548.52 GB available

Copied 83.6 MB of 83.6 MB, 1954 of 41494 items

Copied 2896 files (83.6 MB) from volume 1TBDrive.

Backup canceled.

Ejected Time Machine disk image.

Ejected Time Machine network volume.

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Answer 10

sauble

Level 1

51 points

Feb 16, 2013 11:17 PM in response to hangingbyathread

I am having the exact same problem. TM never stops. It gets to 'cleaning up', then starts again. At the moment, no 'latest backup' date/time is evident (although 30 minutes ago the latest backup was given as 11:45 yesterday) and TM is currently "calculating changes".

Following the advice on another related thread, I repaired permissions, but that didn't help.

I'm afraid that I don't understand much of what has been written here, but am wondering if, in the end, after all of the suggestions/troubleshooting tips that have been offered here, the only thing left to do is take Time Capsule in for repair. Is that right?

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Answer 11

Feb 17, 2013 3:23 AM in response to sauble

They are not repaired.. Apple will replace in warranty.. outside warranty it is a sealed unit without parts or any help.

How old is your TC?

Some of these things are difficult issues to fix.. that is for sure..

All the brains is in the computer and TM.. remember the TC is a dumb as a board hard disk in a router.. zero brains.. no smarts .. nothing. It simply offers AFP file protocol over network.

So I recommend you do two things.

1. Verify your local disk..

2. Run TM backup to an external drive plugged into your local computer. Allow this to continue doing backups for a few days and if no issues come up then finger is squarely pointed at something outside the computer.

So, if that works.. then it is likely your network is the point of failure.. that could include the TC itself or whatever controls the network,, it can be wireless or wired connections..

There are a heap of things to try.

But if your TC is more than 3years old.. I would say consider seriously replacement. They become unreliable.

If the computer is upgrade installed OS.. seriously consider a full wipe and clean install of the OS.. having done a format of the hard drive.

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