time machine: "no backups for x days"

Another thing that's puzzling: When you say the first backup date is now listed as March 29, what year is that? I ask because TM is telling you it hasn't backed up for 27 days, and since it's now April 13, 27 days ago was before March 29, 2014.

Has anyone actually entered Time Machine and confirmed any new files are there? That might be a better way to check the clicking on the icon.

Donna I can't see your last two messages here but anyway - yes you are right I did change external hds in March. I will look at this further but just had a mini-meltdown here when TM and then Finder and then System Preferences seized up and I had to shut down. Timewise am ahead of you here in Europe (if you are in US) and it is late, so will have another look tomorrow. Thanks for your help! Sharon

I think we may be onto something now! Are you running OS X 10.8 or above? If so, you can have TM set to back up to more than one disk at a time.

A few questions: Are both your old and new disks listed in Time Machine Preferences? Do the old and new disks have different names? (TM identifies disks by ID #, but if the disks have the same name, you might not know which one the pop-up message is referring to.) When you get the message saying TM hasn't backed up in X days, which disk is it referring to? When the date of the first backup seemed to change from March 16 to 29, were both of those dates for your new backup disk?

Also, yes, I'm in the U.S. -- are you in England?

Yes Eric, there are later files showing in Time Machine. Am beginning to think it might have something to do with having previously used a different ext backup drive, as Donna suggests, and am going check this out. Thanks!

Hi Donna. Yes I am running Mavericks on my iMac. I must have done my first backup on 16 March 2014, using an LG 500 GB ext HD previously used on my Windows pc but reformatted for the Mac. It didn't work, and I think the message was "backup unsuccessful". I did ask then for help in the Support Community but didn't solve the problem.

Then I wondered if the disk was too small and so I bought a Toshiba 1 TB. I only ejected the old LG disk from the Mac (didn't realise it would have to be actually removed from TM). I then tried to backup with the new Toshiba disk - I guess it must have been on the 29 March, so it all fits.

I removed the old LG disk from TM this morning, which, in retrospect I should not have done because I should have waited to check when the popup appeared if it was referring to the LG. Anyway no popup has yet appeared since the removal of the LG disk!

TM does seem to be backing up ok - when I opened the Toshiba disk it does indeed show backups.backupdb, created on 29 March and last modified yesterday. TM does seem to have been backing up regularly since 29 March as there recent files there.

Will now wait and see if the popup returns - I will let you know! Thanks so much for your help on this - fingers are crossed!

Sharon

PS am Brit living in France (for 24 years!)

PPS on TM preferences, alongside the Toshiba there is another disk called System, "-- of -- available, waiting to complete first back up" Should I do something with this?

Hi Sharon,

I think we have our answer! Re your PPS: I think the disk that's waiting to complete its first backup is the LG disk, and that it's referred to as "System" because you removed it from TM Preferences. It's waiting to complete its first backup because the LG's first backup was unsuccessful.

If you restart your computer, I think the listing of the "System" disk in TM Preferences should go away. Please let us know if it does....

Also, I don't know if your LG disk is really too small; it's possible the initial backup failed for some other reason. Since it's better to have 2 backup disks in case something goes wrong with one of them (and you don't want to find that out when you need it), it would be great if you could still use your LG disk as well.

So ... how much space is used on your internal HD? (You can find out by highlighting your hard drive icon in the Finder, then choosing "Get Info" in the File menu and seeing how many GB are used.)

Hi Donna - i do hope the problem is solved. But I should have told you that the "System" disk was there all along with the LG disk - I removed the LG disk but left the System disk. I am feeling like a dope because I should have said all these things at the beginning - doh. I have restarted the computer and System is still there. In TM preferences the System disk gives me the option to remove it or back up now. Wonder if I should try the latter?Though I do have a feeling I may have tried that before and it didn't go through. You know, when you have fiddled about with a problem long enough you can't remember what you have and haven't done! Presumably also I would have to plug the old LG back in, which rather frightens me as things seem to be running ok at the moment.

Yes I appreciate now that the LG was not too small - I have only used about 31 GB of the internal hard disk. And I can reuse the LG disk again I suppose, once I can be sure the existing problem is solved.

Also am now trying to find the right button here to press to say that "this helped me" and hopefully I can soon add "this solved my question" !!!

Hi Sharon,

I am feeling like a dope because I should have said all these things at the beginning

No problem, often people don't know what's relevant to include and what isn't.

Re the "System" disk: I would not back it up; I would remove it from TM Preferences.

Since you're running a newer version of the OS, you can have Time Machine set to back up to more than one disk -- no issue there. I'd recommend:

1. Eject your current (Toshiba) backup disk and disconnect it in preparation for step 2...

2. Is there anything you want on your LG disk? If not, then connect it and erase/reformat it. This will obviously erase it, so don't do this if you have anything you want on it!

I recommend erasing/reformatting because you want to make sure the old backups are removed, since the first backup was unsuccessful, and because I don't know whether its failing was related to how it was formatted. For instructions on formatting, see: http://pondini.org/TM/5.html

The first backup should not be interrupted, so don't let your computer go to sleep during that first backup. (Another reason to remove the previous backups from the LG disk.)

Please let me know how it goes!

After you've erased the LG disk, you'd obviously want to reconnect the Toshiba disk. You can have both disks connected at all times, and TM will switch backing up to each one: Toshiba one hour, LG the next.

I appreciate your wanting to say "this helped me" or "this solved my question," but I don't know if you can since you're not the original poster....

Hi Donna and thanks for your last message. All seems to be running ok with TM - I have had no further popups to say that it isn't! I have removed System from TM preferences. I will be doing what you suggest with the LG disk but I will take my time about it and let the present setup run for a few days before doing anything, just to be entirely sure. I will let you know when I do this. You have been so helpful, I really am grateful for the time you have spent with me on this. Not everyone is as patient, as you may well know. Very best wishes,

Sharon

Thank you, Sharon. :-)

I'm glad we were able to figure out what the issue was. Backups should be a source of peace of mind, but it's hard to have peace of mind when you think they're not working properly!

Again, please keep me posted on what happens,

Donna

Hi Donna, yes it's me again! Yesterday I tried connecting up the LG hd following your and Pondini's instructions. The erasing and formatting went fine but things went downhill all the way after that (surprise surprise!). To cut a long story short it didn't work so I removed the LG disk and went back to the Toshiba. This morning I tried again and the LG disk finally ran a successful back up. When I then reconnected the Toshiba I got the message that the LG back up had failed, so TM was not automatically switching between the 2 disks I guess. The only way I could get TM to work in the end was to remove the LG disk - but it wouldn't be removed at first. However, finally, after several attempts just the Toshiba was showing up in preferences, but now I had two images of it, one case sensitive and one not. TM seems to be encouraging me to remove the non-case sensitive one and use the c-s one because when I highlight the non c-s icon it asks whether I want to remove it, and when I highlight the c-s one it asks if I want to select it. As I have no idea which to choose I am stuck! Should I leave well alone? Anyhow, I have put the LG hd back in the drawer and it is staying there!

Best wishes, Sharon

Hi Sharon!

I'm looking at a Mac running OS X 10.8, not Mavericks, so things may be slightly different.

But in Time Machine Preferences, I have Backup Disks and Available Disks. Backup Disks will show whichever disks you've chosen to use, whether or not they're currently connected. Available Disks will show only the currently connected disks, whether or not you've chosen to use them to back up.

Is your Toshiba disk actually listed in Backup Disks twice? At some point did you erase/reformat your Toshiba disk? (That's fine if you did -- just trying to figure this out.) Which disks are currently listed under Backup Disks?

Time Machine should definitely work (on OS X 10.8 and above) using 2 disks simultaneously, so if you want to keep trying, we can. It's always good to have 2 backups, just in case something goes wrong with one of them.

Hi Donna, yes I have Backup disks and Available disks in TM preferences - the non-case sensitive Toshiba disk is in Backup disk (as it was before) and the c-s version of this disk suddenly appeared in the Available section following my efforts to use both Toshiba and LG disks. I definitely have not erased or reformatted the Toshiba disk, (well not to my knowledge!). Basically, I got the LG disk to backup successfully, reconnected the Toshiba one, left everything alone to see if it would back up on alternate disks, and then some while later I received the message that that LG backup was UNsuccessful. When I finally ejected and then removed the LG disk (resisting the urge to throw it out of the window) and ran a backup with the Toshiba, the backups gradually came back. By the way, also under Available disks is "Time capsule - set up a time capsule not listed here" but probably this is standard.

Looking now on "Help", I see that one can switch timelines if using multiple disks, by pressing "Options" "and Browse other backup disks", which I didn't do of course!!! I also read that TM will accept either case-sensitive or non-case sensitive disks - so it seems I don't need to worry.

Sharon

Hi Sharon!

It's good that the Toshiba disk is only listed once under Backup Disks. Also, non-case-sensitive is the way your Mac probably is, and Pondini recommends non-case-sensitive unless you need it (which you probably don't, since your Mac itself probably isn't case-sensitive -- more at http://pondini.org/TM/5.html).