TimeMachine: Asks to Start New Backup Daily

[puercaeli]

Since few days ago, TimeMachine asks me to start NEW(ie restart) back up pretty much on daily basis. I obliged first few times but I am getting annoyed now.

I think this is as a result of recent TimeMachine update but could not find any people with similar symptoms on the net... I was going to repair the disk with disk utility but it seems like Apple does not recommend it...

Does anyone have answer to this issue?

 

[aiqw9182]

Time Machine does incremental backups every hour.

There are workarounds that you can find to change how often Time Machine does these backups.

I personally just do an backup every two weeks so I eject the drive from my Mac, power it off, then whenever the next time I want to backup again rolls around I turn the drive back on and OS X recognizes it and does a backup.

Also where did Apple recommend not using Disk Utility? Repairing Disk Permissions causes no harm and can only help.

 

[puercaeli]

No not incremental 'new' backup. Whole partition!

Time Machine does incremental backups every hour.

There are workarounds that you can find to change how often Time Machine does these backups.

I personally just do an backup every two weeks so I eject the drive from my Mac, power it off, then whenever the next time I want to backup again rolls around I turn the drive back on and OS X recognizes it and does a backup.

Also where did Apple recommend not using Disk Utility? Repairing Disk Permissions causes no harm and can only help.

What I meant was that Time Machine comes up with dialogue that asks me to initiate 'Total New BackUp'(like whole partition).

 

[dwright1974]

Over the last few weeks Time Machine keeps doing a similar thing to my Time Capsule.

Every time I bring my MacBookPro home it starts a new backup.

Nothing has changed on my MacBookPro and this is also now annoying me.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to why it has suddenly started doing this?

Up until this point, it's been reliable!

EDIT: Just checked the actual Time Machine drive and it showing all my backups since I got the Time Capsule (21 December 2009) so I think the backups it has is OK!

TIA

- D

 

[MacKeeperFanMod]

Since few days ago, TimeMachine asks me to start new back up pretty much on daily basis. I obliged first few times but I am getting annoyed now.

I think this is as a result of recent TimeMachine update but could not find any people with similar symptoms on the net... I was going to repair the disk with disk utility but it seems like Apple does not recommend it...

Does anyone have answer to this issue?

Try TimeMachineEditor - for fine tuning backup Time Machine.

It allows you to change the time interval start backup with one hour for any time period. For example, you can force Time Machine to backup every 12 hours, or program the system to do it every Tuesday at 10 am.

You can download it from the official site.
http://timesoftware.free.fr/timemachineeditor/

I hope this will solve

 

[puercaeli]

Update

Try TimeMachineEditor - for fine tuning backup Time Machine.

I hope this will solve

No.. I am not talking about back up interval. See the image in my second post. Basically time machine thinks my back up is corrupted only after backing up for single day and wants to start FRESH NEW BACK UP.


Anyways.. I have begun backing up directly to my USB and it is not throwing up similar message. I am now thinking this might be a network issue. or USB back up is simply not throwing up any message because it backs up only when I connect my USB HDD(which is max 2-3 times/day)

There is a possibility that my backup HDD connected to Airport is faulty but after disk utility did not come up with anything strange during disk repair etc...

 

[puercaeli]

Over the last few weeks Time Machine keeps doing a similar thing to my Time Capsule.

Every time I bring my MacBookPro home it starts a new backup.

Nothing has changed on my MacBookPro and this is also now annoying me.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to why it has suddenly started doing this?

Up until this point, it's been reliable!

EDIT: Just checked the actual Time Machine drive and it showing all my backups since I got the Time Capsule (21 December 2009) so I think the backups it has is OK!

TIA

- D

Do you get the dialogue that says 'Time machine back up is corrupted and must start new back up?' as well?

 

[dwright1974]

Do you get the dialogue that says 'Time machine back up is corrupted and must start new back up?' as well?

No nothing. Time Machine simply starts backing up all 131Gb of my hard drive.

I can go in to Time Machine and restore files from previous backups and I have verified the backups it has through TM.

Thanks for getting back to me.

- D

PS - Turned it on this morning and guess what TM is doing!?

 

[puercaeli]

No nothing. Time Machine simply starts backing up all 131Gb of my hard drive.

I can go in to Time Machine and restore files from previous backups and I have verified the backups it has through TM.

Thanks for getting back to me.

- D

PS - Turned it on this morning and guess what TM is doing!?

lol Sounds like same issue as me! Glad to know that I am not the only one...
I think Apple has made some error in algorithms for checking integrity of the back up making TM to think normal back up is abnormal...

Guess we will have to wait until the fix comes..

 

[1finite]

This happened to me a couple weeks ago, not sure what caused it

 

[dwright1974]

This happened to me a couple weeks ago, not sure what caused it

Apologies for the delay in replying.

Mine is still doing it now. The strange thing is though sometimes it just backs up as normal and then, seemingly at random it will start a new, full backup - like tonight.

I think I am going to back up to an external HDD and then wipe my Time Capsule and start again!

Hopefully it is something Apple can fix.

- D

 

[puercaeli]

I think I am going to back up to an external HDD and then wipe my Time Capsule and start again!

Hopefully it is something Apple can fix.

- D

I would recommend against restarting the back up...
I have done that about 5 times using different methods to erase & format Timachine disk but nothing changed and eventually sign came back.

I have just reinstalled SLeopard(restored everything except settings & application) and finished backing up via Ethernet... I hope it does not happen again this time(otherwise it appears that I will have to recreate the user account and really start from the scratch)

 

[dwright1974]

I would recommend against restarting the back up...
I have done that about 5 times using different methods to erase & format Timachine disk but nothing changed and eventually sign came back.

I have just reinstalled SLeopard(restored everything except settings & application) and finished backing up via Ethernet... I hope it does not happen again this time(otherwise it appears that I will have to recreate the user account and really start from the scratch)

I am loathed to do it. I don't have AppleCare so can't call them without paying. I don't live near an Apple Store so can't pop in to see a Genius!

Just keep living with it. At least I have a backup!

- D

 

[puercaeli]

reinstall did not work...

I have reinstalled SLeopard as mentioned above...
same message again after two days. Will have to try backing up from new account and see how it goes...

 

[jlborger]

Same here

Just this morning I got the same message as the image that puercaeli posted. I'm a bit confused by it too. If all the backups are in good working order, why does TM want to start a new backup? I chose "Back Up Later" so we'll see how that ends up.

 

[livenlaugh]

I just received a time capsule and new computer yesterday and did my backups yesterday. Today I got this error sign telling me to start a new backup. I ignored it for now but is there any news on a fix from Apple for this?

 

[puercaeli]

Pseudo-solution

Only after I have reinstalled everything totally from new account, this issue went away(the issue came back once when I turned off MBP in the middle of back up..)

So unless forthcoming 6.5 fixes this issue, I am afraid only solution may be to reinstall, create new account and manually restore.

Locations of some important files.


Restoration Insturction==

Move to folder /USER/Library/


iPhone and iPod Back Up files

Application Support/Mobile Sync

iCal

Copy from 'Preferences' file starting with com.apple.iCal…
Copy 'Calendars' folder

Mail

Copy from 'Preferences' file starting with com.apple.Mail…
Copy 'Mail' and 'Mail Downloads' folder

Address Book

Copy from 'Preferences' file starting with com.apple.Addresbook…
Copy 'Assress Book' folder in 'Application Support' folder

Stickies

Stickies database is within library.


Others

Do a general sweep in Library folder to restore any application settings.
Also do a general sweep of 'Preference' folder to restore preferences for application

Also:
*Dictionary
*Widgets
*Fonts

(All in Library folder in exception of Dictionary)

 

[Jakeblu]

I also have this problem been getting the same message for the last 4 days and have just noticed this morning that my time machine has not backed up for 4 days so it looks like a total backup is inevitable. Interested to know whats going on though

 

[puercaeli]

Same issues

For some weird reason, I am seeing 'Please start new back up' message again in last few days as well. I am quite annoyed how this issue is still lingering on in Lion. I am about to start my second back up now and I am not happy.

Also I have random hdd spin even when the computer is idle slowing down the computer significantly. It appears to be related to indexing hdd...

 

[SufferingIdiots]

Did anyone ever find a solution to this problem? My rMBP asks nearly every day to start a new backup then proceeds to transfer 130GB of data starting in the morning and usually not ending till late evening. This can't be good for the compute or my external HD.

 

[switon]

RE: Failing TM backup drive...?

Did anyone ever find a solution to this problem? My rMBP asks nearly every day to start a new backup then proceeds to transfer 130GB of data starting in the morning and usually not ending till late evening. This can't be good for the compute or my external HD.

Hi SufferingIdiots,

TM checks its backup (directory or sparsebundle on your external drive) and when it finds an error it then asks to start a new backup. If this is happening to you everyday, then TM must be finding errors with the previous day's backup, each and every day.

I believe you have two choices:

(1) Erase the entire backup volume including all free space (to mark bad blocks on the drive). Then reformat the drive, test it for errors and, if clean, then restart your TM backups. This may allow TM to produce error-free backups for awhile, but if your drive is having cascading problems then TM will eventually fail on this drive --> on to number (2)...

(2) Your TM backup drive is failing and should be replaced.

Good luck,
Switon

P.S. I'm assuming that the TM volume is formatted correctly? It should be formatted with a GUID Partition Table as Mac OS Extended (journaled), unless you are using TM to backup a Case-sensitive volume, then the TM volume also needs to be formatted as a Case-sensitive volume. This could also cause your troubles --> if you are trying to backup a case-sensitive volume onto a case-insensitive TM backup volume.

 

[MacTribe]

Starting to lose faith in TM.. Considering how important backups are, time machine is really painful at times and getting messages like most of the users do on this forum, its bloody frightening..

If you're using Time Machine - make sure you also have CrashPlan, or Carbon Copy Cloner, or pay for an online backup service etc. Minimum of two backups, just encase..