Lost ability for Time Machine to automatically back up my iMac (Mountain Lion 10.8.5) to an external 500GB Western Digital Passport. It had been working for 6 months but now it automatically shows up in Time Machine as 'Exclude these items from backup'.

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Level 1

8 points

Lost ability for Time Machine to automatically back up my iMac (Mountain Lion 10.8.5) to an external 500GB Western Digital Passport. It had been working for 6 months but now it automatically shows up in Time Machine as 'Exclude these items from backup'.

I can't remove it from the 'Exclude from back-up' as it is non-selectable. The external drive is working fine. I did a complete erase & started over as instructed. Thought I had solved the problem but the "new Passport" automatically ended up in the "Exclude these items from backup" too. I need this to work ASAP as I have 2,000 songs & 7,500 photos to protect.

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Oct 11, 2013 7:51 PM

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Answer 1

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BDAqua

Level 10

239,177 points

Oct 11, 2013 9:22 PM in response to tommyd215

Whew, recentlly our resident, the absolutely guru for TM/TC has passed away, hopefully his site is still available. 😟

Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?

http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

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

Can't imagine something not being covered there.

That being said, I personally would be proud if I could come up with a more cantankerous backup method.. I refuse to use it.

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Answer 2

tommyd215 Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 12, 2013 11:12 AM in response to BDAqua

After several hours of reading, I found the answer at pondini.org, Time Machine - Troubleshooting, Answer: A4.- Full Reset of Time Machine. Thank you for your interest in solving my problem. Is this something that will happen again, & again or did I do something I didn't know I did?

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

239,177 points

Oct 12, 2013 11:42 AM in response to tommyd215

Great news, good work, thanks for the tip it was. 🙂

It doesn't happen all that often, but could happen again.

PS. You may want to copy all of Pondini's help, as no telling if the site will be available, or for how long.

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