El Capitan time machine problems

What is the backup device? Do you have more than one, and if so, are they all the same?

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select

SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages

from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

View ▹ Show Log List

from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes.) You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard."

Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Note the timestamp of the last "Starting" message that corresponds to the beginning of an abnormal backup. Now

CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD

so that all messages are showing, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.

If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.

The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.

Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.

Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

When you post the log extract, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.

The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.

Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem.

Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.

Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.

The login screen appears even if you usually login automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.

Test while in safe mode. Same problem?

After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

I suggest you start a new backup on another drive. It sounds like the one you have isn't working. It should be connected directly to a built-in port on the computer, not to a hub.

Mr. Davis, I spent 3 hrs. with a Level 2 tier at Apple support. I have both a Seagate and WD Passport, neither will load. Case # 992568441 if you have access you can see all the things we did with no prevail. After searching the net this morning I found no less then 10 discussion board (with some very bright and not so bright persons) with many other people with the prevailing problem. All had no problem with Time Machine and Backups until they upgrade to El Capitan. Thank you in advance....

I wanted to chime in and report that I am having similar problems with time machine since upgrading to el capitan The latest version, 10.11.1 did not fix the problem. Basically, time machine , after about two weeks of backups, gives an error that "backup failed" and reports that there is not enough space. (There's a large file, a virtual machine disk file of about 55 gig that I backup quickly uses up space on the time machine external disk. It seems that el capitan won't prune older versions of this file to make room for the newest backup version. Past versions of OS X had no problem with this situation.

I have reformatted the time machine backup hard disk and restarted backups. After a few weeks, I run into the same problem.

The same problem is occurring on a second iMac I own- exact same scenario, different mac, different external time machine disk.

There clearly is a bug in Time Machine with El Capitan. I've been surprised there aren't more complaints on this forum. Speaking of time machine bugs, the time machine Finder icon is generic yellow, not the correct blue time machine specific icon.

I just ordered a new WD Passport for Mac. I am going to try again with you Tier 2 tech support. Any suggestions before we try again?