Time Machine stopped backing up but doesn't give warning/error

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Level 1

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Time Machine stopped backing up but doesn't give warning/error

Hi,

by chance I noticed, that Time Machine doesn't backup up any more, but still doesn't give errors. In Console I see the following for a now typical run:

21.04.15 09:58:11,493 com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup 21.04.15 09:58:12,043 com.apple.backupd: Backing up to: /Volumes/drosera-backup-02/Backups.backupdb 21.04.15 09:58:41,729 com.apple.backupd: 5.18 GB required (including padding), 96.84 GB available 21.04.15 09:58:55,149 com.apple.backupd: Copied 23 files (93 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD. 21.04.15 09:59:04,385 com.apple.backupd: Copied 36 files (93 bytes) from volume DATA. 21.04.15 09:59:06,100 mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume 21.04.15 09:59:06,102 com.apple.backupd: Starting post-backup thinning 21.04.15 09:59:07,668 com.apple.backupd: Deleted /Volumes/drosera-backup-02/Backups.backupdb/drosera/2015-04-20-183344 (24.0 KB) 21.04.15 09:59:07,668 com.apple.backupd: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed 21.04.15 09:59:07,762 com.apple.backupd: Backup completed successfully.

The 5.18 GB are never backed up. The backup drive (drosera-backup-02) is attached by FireWire. I have checked the disk with First Aid, I have disconnected and reconnected it. I removed the backup disk from Time Machine, stopped TM and reconfigured. I stopped mds, ran backups and reenabled mds. All to no avail.

I am at a complete loss and I'd appreciate to get this running w/o having to remove all existing backups. Any ideas or pointers?

I'm running Mac OS X 10.7.5 on a Mac mini

Cheers

Frank

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Apr 21, 2015 1:45 AM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

140,964 points

Apr 22, 2015 7:30 AM in response to sunnetau

Since it is mds related and as such, not strictly related to Time Machine, try rebuilding the Spotlight index. I do not know if that will fix it but it won't harm anything.

It could be a Permissions problem: mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume. If you suspect that to be the case, repair permissions. Same comment applies.

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Answer 2

sunnetau Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 23, 2015 2:59 AM in response to John Galt

Thx. I had already tried the hints from mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume to no avail. Your tip to rebuild the Spotlight index would probably helped, too. But just before getting yout comment and after reading http://pondini.org/TM/Works.html and http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/69054/force-time-machine-to-perform-a-d eep-traversal I had simply removed /.fseventsd and reran a backup. That seems to have fixed the problem (at least for the time being).

Interesting side note: During the non-backup phase I created a new account on the Mac and ran TM. This triggered a one-time working backup of the whole system, but all subsequent backups again failed silently. Additionally the externally attached FireWire harddrive was always backed up correctly, only backups of the local drive failed.

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Answer 3

sunnetau Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 23, 2015 9:16 AM in response to sunnetau

And btw: The error

mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume

is still there but backups work. Meaning: TM completely silently failed doing backups. There was absolutely no message regarding any problem related to to the non-working 😠

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Answer 4

John Galt

Level 10

140,964 points

Apr 23, 2015 11:08 AM in response to sunnetau

Removing the file system events database will indeed result in a deep traversal and complete backup. The reason subsequent incremental backups fail remains a mystery though. I assume you repaired your Home folder permissions and ACLs? Read http://pondini.org/OSX/Password.html (don't change your password though).

I don't have any additional suggestions, other than perhaps reinstalling OS X. Since the cause remains unknown it amounts to little more than voodoo, but it is nondestructive and fairly easy to do.

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