Time Capsule 2 GB - a fatal flaw?

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Level 1

19 points

Time Capsule 2 GB - a fatal flaw?

Yosemite 10.2.2. on MacBookPro 15" 11,3 Time Capsule 2GB 6 months old, >1.5 TB free Airport Utility 6.3.4

Out of the blue, I got this horrifying message:

If you read it carefully, it says that I must destroy all Time Capsule data (“remove your existing backup history”) and start over with a new backup.

So much for having any older versions of any files, for any purpose!

Doesn’t this mean we can never trust Apple’s Time machine? I can trust clones. I have found NO diagnostics for the Time Machine or the Airport Utility, e.g. to test the drive on my 6 month old 2 TB Time Capsule; and I haven’t found reasons for this message in the console logs.

DU on my MackBook Pro internal SSD showed and fixed “minor” problems. Do internal drive problems cause “verification” issues? So that a disk error can cause the loss of all backups on the Time Machine, just when it is most needed?

Why aren't all backups preserved until the disk is full, as stated?

Thanks!

2.4 GHz 17" MP, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on May 6, 2015 11:52 AM

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Answer 1

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

May 6, 2015 11:54 AM in response to William Hole

The Mysteries of Time Machine.

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Answer 2

May 6, 2015 11:59 AM in response to William Hole

Time Machine----A Fatal Flaw

It is for users who see this message appear, since Time Machine detected that the backups were corrupted, and could not repair them. More info below.

" . . . Time Machine must create a new backup for you.

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Answer 3

William Hole Author

Level 1

19 points

May 14, 2015 9:36 AM in response to Bob Timmons

Thanks, all. Quite helpful replies.

I will now manually Verify Backups often, unless someone can tell me where that is scheduled so I can automate it? I also do clones...

I appreciate the info and the cleverness and efficiency of Time Machine.

I lost Mail Account settings on my internal drive and then all Time Machine backups at the same. So remain with the question: Why did I end up with all backups gone ("unreliable") at the same time as a Mail crash? Does "reliability" checking compare Time Machine to the original files, so that their corruption means the backups are declared "unreliable?"

I did see a new Time Machine software update a few days ago, I hope that helps reliability?

Much appreciated!

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Answer 4

May 14, 2015 12:03 PM in response to William Hole

I will now manually Verify Backups often,

There is really no need to do this, since Verify Backups will tell you everything is fine right up until the instant that it suddenly stops backing up and sends that dreaded message that you see above.

In other words, Verify Backups does not provide any type of advance notification to help head off a problem in advance.

Does "reliability" checking compare Time Machine to the original files

Apple will not tell us exactly what is going on, so we really don't know for sure. We imagine that the hard drive is being checked for surface errors, read/write errors and file permissions are likely checked as well.

Why did I end up with all backups gone ("unreliable") at the same time as a Mail crash?

Sorry, I don't have an answer for that one.

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