Time Machine gets stuck on cleaning up

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Time Machine gets stuck on cleaning up

Hi, I can't complete a back up successfully with Time Machine. I get stuck on the 'cleaning up' phase and then it stays there forever. I actually went to work and when I came home it was still in the same state. Then I can't stop the back-up cleanly. I have to go in to Activity Monitor to force quit.

Following the advice on pondini.org I have installed the Buddy widget. It tells me that....

Starting standard backup

Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Data

Failed to attach to image: /Volumes/Data/gemzap_001f5bed6067.sparsebundle, DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35

Disk image /Volumes/Data/gemzap_001f5bed6067.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of gemzap

Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of gemzap/Backups.backupdb

Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD

Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|

Node requires deep traversal:/Users/gemzap/Pictures/iPhoto Library reason:contains changes|must scan subdirs|found in deep scan|missed reservation|

Following advice on here, I have also done a verify/repair disk on both my macbook and the time capsule external drive. Both reported to be ok.

Any ideas? Any help would be much appreciated!

Many thanks

gemzap

MacBook (13-inch Early 2008), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jul 29, 2014 1:51 PM

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Answer 1

notcloudy

Level 4

1,258 points

Jul 29, 2014 2:11 PM in response to gemzap

Have been running time machine with snow leopard for over 2 years -- if there appears to be an issue with it - opening the time machine folder on the desk top seemed to clear it up - almost as though the drive was taking a nap 😕

On a reconnect Time machine will do a full scan to see which files need to be backed up - if you shut off time machine, dismount the drive, or just kill the power without doing an orderly shutdown - that may get past it and correct the problem.

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Answer 2

gemzap Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 29, 2014 2:20 PM in response to notcloudy

Thanks notcoudy - I'll give that a try.

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Answer 3

gemzap Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 29, 2014 11:17 PM in response to notcloudy

No luck I'm afraid.... I dismounted (then completely unplugged) the time capsule. Then reconnected, clicked in to the timecapsule drive to make sure it wasn't napping, and tried again. The messages on the time machine read as follows..

22:25 Making back up disk available

Calculating changes

22:27 Scanning 800,713 items

Preparing xxx items

22:58 Cleaning up - for 8 hours.

So at 7am this morning I clicked stop back up. But again that hasn't don't anything, so have just done a force quit in Activity Monitor.

Time Machine buddy says...

Starting standard backup

Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Gemma%20Zapata@Gemma-Zapatas-Time-Capsule.local/Data

Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Gemma%20Zapata@Gemma-Zapatas-Time-Capsule.local/Data

QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN

Disk image /Volumes/Data-1/gemzap_001f5bed6067.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of gemzap

Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of gemzap/Backups.backupdb

Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD

Node requires deep traversal:/Users/gemzap/Pictures/iPhoto Library reason:must scan subdirs|missed reservation|

Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|

I'm at a loss.

Should I try deleting the gemzap_001f5bed6067.sparsebundle file? Could that help?

Many thanks

gemzap

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Answer 4

seventy one

Level 7

27,460 points

Jul 30, 2014 12:32 AM in response to gemzap

For all problems with Time machine, Pondini's columns will most likely provide the answer.

Edit in process. back in a minute

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

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Answer 5

seventy one

Level 7

27,460 points

Jul 30, 2014 1:11 AM in response to seventy one

The Pondini link has now been edited and should link for you.

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Answer 6

notcloudy

Level 4

1,258 points

Jul 30, 2014 5:50 AM in response to gemzap

How full is your time machine drive? As I understood it - the initial backup is a full backup, then its incremental what has changed - then, at some point in a backup - it the hourly updates from yesterday are turned into last time that file changed for that day - once a week days - same and once a month.

Files are only deleted when the drive is full & its oldest version - so wondering if the cleanup is fitting getting rid of oldest files - and time depends on connection.

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Answer 7

notcloudy

Level 4

1,258 points

Jul 31, 2014 3:40 PM in response to gemzap

While Time Machine was running clean up - I had the folder opened to the individual backups. On hourly backups its 24 hours ago not 1 day - so during clean up I did see some hourly folders disappear - some stayed until next backup.

Apple Time Machine Support says its not a good idea to interrupt the cleanup as it will just keep taking longer -- but does not say what will happen when the drive is full or close to full - but thinking it has to consolidate into a full backup at that point in time.

It may work if you turn off Time Machine Hourly backups - and then Select Backup now - and let it run -- watching what folders it is consolidating.

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Answer 8

Eric Root

Level 10

685,245 points

Aug 1, 2014 8:55 AM in response to gemzap

See A4.

Time Machine Troubleshooting

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