"....To Improve Reliability, Time Machine Must Create a New Backup for You"

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Level 1

4 points

"....To Improve Reliability, Time Machine Must Create a New Backup for You"

I bought the new Apple 2 TB Time Capsule thinking it would be a great way to get a powerful wireless router and handle file backup for both me and my wife's iMacs. She is running an up-to-date version of Snow Leopard and I am on the most recent update of Mountain Lion. The Time Capsule was installed and running by the first of August and we had no problems until this monday (7 weeks later) when I got the message that "Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability Time Machinge must create a new backup" My wife's back up was still ok but I had to go though the 5-6 hour process of re-copying all my files(using an ethernet connection) to the device. All went smoothly for a few days until I got the same message again about creating a new backup. Also my wife cannot enter her time machine files even though the computer is still being backed up. We have a stable internet service and both computers recieve a strong signal from the router. Is it possible that the Time Capsule Drive is defective? Is there any sort of maintenance such as zpping the PRAM that would help? This is really frustrating as it looks like the timemachine backup is totally unreliable and not worth fooling with. Is there any way to use the storage capability of the time capsule without going through time machine?

Thanks,

Reid McCallister

Posted on Sep 28, 2013 9:29 AM

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Answer 1

Joe Bailey

Level 6

12,227 points

Sep 28, 2013 10:23 AM in response to ReidMac

Time Machine and Time Capsule drives are normally very stable. I have had to rebuild my TM backup once in over three years and that was after a severe power surge. After that happened I invested in a small inexpensive Uninterruptable Power Supply for the Time Capsule and there have been absolutely zero problems since.

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Sep 28, 2013 10:38 AM in response to ReidMac

See C13 in the first article.

Time Machine Troubleshooting

Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

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Answer 3

ReidMac Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 28, 2013 11:06 AM in response to Joe Bailey

Joe, thanks. Can you tell me what Power Supply you bought and about how much?

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Answer 4

ReidMac Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 28, 2013 11:09 AM in response to Eric Root

Eric,

Thanks for the link to the troubleshooting article. Looks like a lot of good info there which should answer many of my questions.

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Answer 5

Joe Bailey

Level 6

12,227 points

Sep 28, 2013 12:02 PM in response to ReidMac

ReidMac wrote:

Joe, thanks. Can you tell me what Power Supply you bought and about how much?

Actually I used an old Tripp-Lite I happened to have lying around. All I did was replace the batteries. However, Tripp-Lite, American Power Conversion, and Belkin all have good units in the 350 VA range which is adequate for the purpose and costs less that $50. I run the cable modem and Time Capsulre off of off this UPS. This offers the added advantage of keeping my WiFi network up and running during a power outage. All of our computers are UPS protected. Not because we have a lot of power glitches but they contribute to excellent data integrity and reliability.

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Answer 6

BadApp

Level 1

14 points

Oct 23, 2013 4:59 AM in response to Eric Root

Thanks for that info. I haven't had a problem yet since owning a mac that we bought about a year ago. But I backup directly to an external USB drive each time. I'd rather do it wirelessly, but not sure I can trust that.

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Answer 7

Joe Bailey

Level 6

12,227 points

Oct 23, 2013 7:21 AM in response to BadApp

BadApp wrote:

I'd rather do it wirelessly, but not sure I can trust that.

Both wired and wireless communications, file transfers, etc. are protected by the same protocols to ensure accuracy and reliability. So one is exactly as trustworthy as the other.

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Answer 8

BadApp

Level 1

14 points

Oct 23, 2013 8:06 AM in response to Joe Bailey

Sorry, referring to having corrupt backups causing time machine to do a full backup again.

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Answer 9

ReidMac Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 6, 2014 9:43 AM in response to Joe Bailey

I had problems with Time Machine "needing to create new backups for relability", and bought an APS power supply to assure uninteruppted power to my cable modem and Time Capsule. This solution worked fine for the past 5 months until this morning when I got another message that my wife's files needed to be backed up. Very frustrating. Apple is so good at providing easy, stable solutions--why is it that the Time Machine back up is so prone to failure? I don't need hourly back ups of files but would like a solution that does not delete the entire archive when it can't parse a file for some reason. Can someone reccomend a thrird party backup software that is more reliable? Thanks

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Answer 10

Apr 6, 2014 10:31 AM in response to ReidMac

hi

rest assured you are not alone. i have the same problem and i hate it with a passion. in fact, i am the victim of this message as of 20 minutes ago and doing a full backup as I am typing this. I am so overly ****** that I actually posted here and will be calling or emailing apple next because I cannot take this anymore. the problem lies in time machine and unfortunately, there is no fix for that. time machine is the best idea of apple with the worst implementation ever. you have no obligation to use time capsule to benefit from time machine as this would not be legal anyway. i will give you 2 temporary solutions and let you decide which one works best for you:

1) open time machine preferences and turn automatic backups off. create a new full backup from scratch and only backup manually whenever you remember, preferably every day. the automation process is the problem that lies within time machine. also make sure that your system does not go to standy or sleep whatever that may be called. Power nap, despite all claims, is not compatible with time machine. install CAFFEINE, an app that keeps your mac awake and prevents from going to sleep while back up is in progress. use it like this and pray it will all go fine for a long time. you may wish to duplicate the first full backup to save time in case this should happen again so you have a base to start on

2) install CCC (carbon copy cleaner) I have not used it myself yet, but probably will be installing it after finishing this post. it is claimed to be better, yet it is yet to be seen by me personally.

unless time machine can be trained without any addons to use a specific wifi only for backup, these issues will persist.

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Answer 11

ReidMac Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 6, 2014 12:39 PM in response to Can Ertekin

Thanks for the reply. I bought Time Capsule thinking it would offer a stable wireless backup solution for our computers--Wish that were the case. It is surprising that Apple has not worked out the bugs and a glaring failure.

I'm trying to decide now whether to use Time Machine writng to hard-wired external Hard Drives or test Carbon Copy Cleaner software using Time Capsule. Is Time Machine stable when writing to a hardwired backup drive? Perhaps the tech knowledable out there could advise on whether it is realistic to rely on a wireless back up system at all?

Thanks

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Answer 12

Apr 6, 2014 12:43 PM in response to ReidMac

I have heard that it is better plugged in but have not tested it like that so i don't know.

you can try both at the same time that is technically possible on os x and see which one works better over time i think...

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