Time Machine problem

[Soundhound]

Time Machine was saying there was no room on the external drive, though there was plenty of room (1.21 gigs available on 2 gig drive). I had had this same problem a while ago and Apple Help told me a way to reset time machine, but I couldn't remember how to do it. I thought it involved turning Time Machine off and trashing the plist (prefs) file for time machine and restarting. I did that, and it fixed the problem. It ran for a few minutes and completed the backup as awlays. But now the backup only goes to yesterday, when the problem arose with TIme Machine.

Anybody know if those older backups still exist, and if there's a way to have Time Machine see that?

thanks.

 

[Bruno09]

Hi,

try this : in Finder, do : Cmd + Shift + c, then enter Time Machine : do you see the previous backups ?

 

[Weaselboy]

Time Machine was saying there was no room on the external drive, though there was plenty of room (1.21 gigs available on 2 gig drive). I had had this same problem a while ago and Apple Help told me a way to reset time machine, but I couldn't remember how to do it. I thought it involved turning Time Machine off and trashing the plist (prefs) file for time machine and restarting. I did that, and it fixed the problem. It ran for a few minutes and completed the backup as awlays. But now the backup only goes to yesterday, when the problem arose with TIme Machine.

Anybody know if those older backups still exist, and if there's a way to have Time Machine see that?

thanks.

Sounds like you are after this process to reset Time Machine.

 

[Soundhound]

Thanks, what's Maj?

Hi,

try this : in Finder, do : Cmd + Maj + c, then enter Time Machine : do you see the previous backups ?

 

[Bruno09]

Sorry, "Shift" : Cmd + Shift + c

 

[Soundhound]

Thanks! Yup that's exactly the page I followed, but the full backup history isn't there in time machine. It only goes back to the time when it started having trouble yesterday. I'm thinking it's still on the external drive, but time machine isn't seeing it for some reason.

Sounds like you are after this process to reset Time Machine.

 

[Bruno09]

Try this :

"You can also browse the original backup drive for past backups by using "Browse other Time Machine Disks"--to see this choice, hold the Option key then click the Time Machine menu in the Finder (to see the menu, "Show Time Machine status in the menu bar" must be selected in Time Machine preferences."

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427?viewlocale=en_US

 

[Soundhound]

Ah okay. That brings up a search window. Are you saying search on the external drive??

Hi,

try this : in Finder, do : Cmd + Shift + c, then enter Time Machine : do you see the previous backups ?

 

[Bruno09]

No.

Do Cmd + Shift + c, then Enter Time Machine.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks! Yup that's exactly the page I followed, but the full backup history isn't there in time machine. It only goes back to the time when it started having trouble yesterday. I'm thinking it's still on the external drive, but time machine isn't seeing it for some reason.

Try this. Open Finder and in Devices on the left select your machine then double click Macintosh HD to get to my screenshot.

Now open the Time Machine interface and see if you can navigate further back.

 

[Soundhound]

Sorry not following. Open the time machine interface?? In the Finder? Do you mean open the drive that has the time machine backup file folder on it maybe?


Edit: did you mean open time machine itself, with that window open. If so, yes I did that and it only goes back to yesterday afternoon.

Try this. Open Finder and in Devices on the left select your machine then double click Macintosh HD to get to my screenshot.

Image

Now open the Time Machine interface and see if you can navigate further back.

 

[Weaselboy]

Sorry not following. Open the time machine interface?? In the Finder? Do you mean open the drive that has the time machine backup file folder on it maybe?


Edit: did you mean open time machine itself, with that window open. If so, yes I did that and it only goes back to yesterday afternoon.

I mean after getting in that Finder folder open the time Machine Star field interface. Sounds like that did not work though.

 

[Soundhound]

What is the 'time machine star field interface'??


Edit: just realized what you mean. Right I open time machine but can only go back to yesterday.

I mean after getting in that Finder folder open the time Machine Star field interface. Sounds like that did not work though.

 

[Weaselboy]

What is the 'time machine star field interface'??


Edit: just realized what you mean. Right I open time machine but can only go back to yesterday.

I just thought of something. You say last time this happened you went through that plist delete and Time Machine reset and it fixed it yes?

You are on Mavericks now and were not before I suspect? Read this.

Mavericks now caches plist files, so if you change or delete a plist the change does not take because the cached plist replaces the modified one. So in your case you need to turn off Time Machine and go through that reset process involving deleting the plist. Then reboot to flush out the plist cache. Then after that turn Time Machine back on to create the new plist.