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User profile for user: SeattleMacUser
SeattleMacUser Author
User level: Level 1
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Time Machine Not Backing Up New Files

Time Machine is NOT backing up my recent files.


I recently noticed that Time Machine was backing up really quickly instead of taking several minutes as usual. I checked previous backups and discovered that NONE of my recent files were backed up.


I have a very basic setup. An external usb 1 tb drive formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) being used as the time machine backup drive. A new i5 mac mini with OS X 10.8.4. About 200 gigs of data with one user on the internal drive.


I have followed all of the Pondini troubleshooting steps. I have restarted into safe mode to force a deep traversal. I have repaired permissions and verified all disks with Disk Utility. I have deleted time machine preferences and followed instructions as per Pondini #A4. The backup seems to run but then finishes quickly but DOES NOT BACK UP any recent files.


I have run TMUTIL COMPARE, it showed that many files needed to be backed up.


I have run TMUTIL ISEXCLUDED on some of the files that were not being backed up. It showed that they were not flagged for exclusion.


I have run a manual backup after starting up in Safe Mode, which forced a deep event scan, but then exhibited the same behaviour..


I have acquired a new external hard drive, backed up the complete main drive (using Time Machine which appeared to be successful on the first time full backup), then run a manual backup on that new drive after adding new files and had THE SAME PROBLEM.


Here's the latest console output, which is typical since I have noticed this issue. There appear to be many megabytes of new files to be backed up, but then the operation completes within seconds and no files are backed up at all.


6/23/13 7:15:16.422 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Starting manual backup

6/23/13 7:15:16.966 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Omnius/Backups.backupdb

6/23/13 7:15:17.916 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Using file event preflight for Olympus

6/23/13 7:15:20.277 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Will copy (375.1 MB) from Olympus

6/23/13 7:15:20.298 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Found 845 files (375.1 MB) needing backup

6/23/13 7:15:20.311 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: 1.91 GB required (including padding), 747.18 GB available

6/23/13 7:15:29.264 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Copied 400 files (1.4 MB) from volume Olympus.

6/23/13 7:15:29.298 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Using file event preflight for Olympus

6/23/13 7:15:29.299 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Will copy (Zero KB) from Olympus

6/23/13 7:15:29.300 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Found 5 files (Zero KB) needing backup

6/23/13 7:15:29.301 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: 1.46 GB required (including padding), 747.17 GB available

6/23/13 7:15:30.439 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Copied 140 files (33 bytes) from volume Olympus.

6/23/13 7:15:30.511 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Created new backup: 2013-06-23-071530

6/23/13 7:15:30.608 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Starting post-backup thinning

6/23/13 7:15:30.608 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist

6/23/13 7:15:30.689 AM com.apple.backupd[643]: Backup completed successfully.


Please help. Time Machine is currently useless as a backup solution.

Mac mini (Mid 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Jun 23, 2013 7:31 AM

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104 replies
User profile for user: Linc Davis
Linc Davis
User level: Level 10
209,547 points

Jun 23, 2013 8:27 AM in response to SeattleMacUser

I have acquired a new external hard drive, backed up the complete main drive (using Time Machine which appeared to be successful on the first time full backup), then run a manual backup on that new drive after adding new files and had THE SAME PROBLEM.


To clarify, you backed up to a new drive. Let's say you had a file named "A" in a certain folder. A was included in the initial backup. You then created a file named "B" in the same folder as A. B was not backed up in the next snapshot. Is that correct?

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User profile for user: SeattleMacUser
SeattleMacUser Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Jun 23, 2013 10:19 AM in response to Linc Davis

Non-backed-up files are everywhere on my drive. For example:


file://localhost/Users/USERNAME/Gamma/Photos%20-%20Raw/iPhone%20Raw%202013/06:22 :13/IMG_2900.JPG


file://localhost/Users/USERNAME/Alpha/Misc%20Stuff/%20Misc.%20Seattle/9079268389 _3d1f1825de_o.jpg


file://localhost/Users/USERNAME/Delta/Album%20Art%20&%20Design/CD%20Design%20&%2 0Artwork/NEW%20Font%20Options/combo%20-%20plantin.jpg


To clarify: there are files in similar locations which HAVE successfully been backed up, as well.


ALL of these files were successfully backed up for months and months from the same locations until I upgraded to OS X 10.8 about two weeks ago.

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User profile for user: Linc Davis
Linc Davis
User level: Level 10
209,547 points

Jun 23, 2013 10:24 AM in response to SeattleMacUser

Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:

ls -@Oen "/V*/*/Backups.*/*/*/*/U*/*/Alpha/Misc Stuff/ Misc. Seattle/9079268389_3d1f1825de_o.jpg" | open -f -a TextEdit

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).


Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:


☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)


☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.


☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.


Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).


The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.


A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. Post the contents of that window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.

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User profile for user: Linc Davis
Linc Davis
User level: Level 10
209,547 points

Jun 23, 2013 11:13 AM in response to SeattleMacUser

Triple-click the line of text below to select it:

com_apple_backup_excludeItem=com.apple.backupd

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).

In the Finder, press the key combination command-F to open a search window, or select

File ▹ Find

from the menu bar. In the search window, select

Search: This Mac

from the row of tokens below the toolbar. Below that is a popup menu initially showing Kind. From that menu, select Other...

A sheet will drop down. In that sheet, select Raw Query and click OK or press return.

Now there will be a text box to the right of popup menu. Click in that box and paste (command-V).

The search window will show all files and folders on mounted volumes that Time Machine excludes from backup, not including the ones excluded in the preference pane. Are the problem files shown?

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User profile for user: Linc Davis
Linc Davis
User level: Level 10
209,547 points

Jun 23, 2013 11:37 AM in response to SeattleMacUser

If you have more than one user account, you must be logged in as an administrator to carry out these instructions.


Please enter the following shell command in the same way as before (no typing) and post the output:

sudo cat /V*/*/B*/*/L*/.ex*.plist | open -f -a TextEdit


You'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. Confirm. You don't need to post the warning.

If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator. Log in as one and start over.

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User profile for user: SeattleMacUser
SeattleMacUser Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Jun 23, 2013 11:42 AM in response to Linc Davis

Results (username obfuscated in exclusionpaths):


-=-=-=-=-=--


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>sourcePaths</key>

<array>

<string>/</string>

</array>

<key>standardExclusionPaths</key>

<array>

<string>/.MobileBackups</string>

<string>/MobileBackups.trash</string>

<string>/.MobileBackups.trash</string>

<string>/.Spotlight-V100</string>

<string>/.TemporaryItems</string>

<string>/.Trashes</string>

<string>/.com.apple.backupd.mvlist.plist</string>

<string>/.fseventsd</string>

<string>/.hotfiles.btree</string>

<string>/Backups.backupdb</string>

<string>/Desktop DB</string>

<string>/Desktop DF</string>

<string>/Network/Servers</string>

<string>/Library/Updates</string>

<string>/Previous Systems</string>

<string>/Users/Shared/SC Info</string>

<string>/Users/Guest</string>

<string>/dev</string>

<string>/home</string>

<string>/net</string>

<string>/private/var/db/com.apple.backupd.backupVerification</string>

<string>/private/var/db/efw_cache</string>

<string>/private/var/db/Spotlight</string>

<string>/private/var/db/Spotlight-V100</string>

<string>/private/var/lib/postfix/greylist.db</string>

<string>/Volumes</string>

<string>/Network</string>

<string>/automount</string>

<string>/.vol</string>

<string>/tmp</string>

<string>/cores</string>

<string>/private/tmp</string>

<string>/private/Network</string>

<string>/private/tftpboot</string>

<string>/private/var/automount</string>

<string>/private/var/folders</string>

<string>/private/var/run</string>

<string>/private/var/tmp</string>

<string>/private/var/vm</string>

<string>/private/var/db/dhcpclient</string>

<string>/private/var/db/fseventsd</string>

<string>/Library/Caches</string>

<string>/Library/Logs</string>

<string>/System/Library/Caches</string>

<string>/System/Library/Extensions/Caches</string>

<string>/private/var/log</string>

<string>/private/var/spool/cups</string>

<string>/private/var/spool/fax</string>

<string>/private/var/spool/uucp</string>

</array>

<key>systemFilesExcluded</key>

<false/>

<key>userExclusionPaths</key>

<array>

<string>/Users/USERNAME/Pictures/cam_in</string>

<string>/Users/USERNAME/Epsilon</string>

<string>/Users/USERNAME/Desktop</string>

<string>/Users/USERNAME/Pictures/cam_out</string>

</array>

</dict>

</plist>

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Time Machine Not Backing Up New Files

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