tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post5987344286602328099..comments2024-03-19T13:29:04.853-04:00Comments on David Alison's Blog: Fixing a simple Time Machine errorDavid Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comBlogger102125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-2158369660182460932017-07-04T13:56:30.573-04:002017-07-04T13:56:30.573-04:00@Murky's Mom
9 years from first post and this ...@Murky's Mom<br />9 years from first post and this still helps!<br />Running OS X 10.5.4 Server, and had the same error.<br />Ran a manual backup just fine.<br />This morning deleted the prefs, restarted, and Time Machine is happily doing automatic backups.<br />[Was glad I didn't have to go into Console. :-) ]<br />THANK YOU!Murky's Momhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16736591221244614443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-58979557306888857842013-09-09T17:26:43.652-04:002013-09-09T17:26:43.652-04:00@Hannah: If you can see the .inProgress file in yo...@Hannah: If you can see the .inProgress file in your finder, right click on it (or select it and press Command-I) and the information page will show. From there, copy the Where path for your file, right up to the /.inProgress.<br /><br />Open a terminal window and enter:<br /><br />cd (followed by a space)<br /><br />Then press Command-V to paste the path from the clipboard. Hit enter and that <b>should</b> take you into the folder where your .inProgress file is located. From there you should be able to do the:<br /><br />sudo rm .inProgress<br /><br />command to remove the file.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-5676511363609142272013-09-09T15:06:47.919-04:002013-09-09T15:06:47.919-04:00Yup, that's how my Terminal looks like. but i&...Yup, that's how my Terminal looks like. but i'm not sure how to type it out? to navigate to the specific folder? (i'm just making sure 'cause i don't wanna accidentally delete something else)Hannahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-63422618582989686292013-09-09T14:57:58.928-04:002013-09-09T14:57:58.928-04:00@Hannah: cd (short for Change Directory) allows yo...@Hannah: cd (short for Change Directory) allows you to navigate to a folder (directory) within Terminal. Once you open a terminal window you will likely be placed into your home folder - something like: <br /><br />(mac name):~ hannah$ <br /><br />will be your prompt. From their you can use the cd command to navigate to the folder where your time machine backups (and the .inProgress file) is stored.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-62098393637763693212013-09-09T14:15:49.348-04:002013-09-09T14:15:49.348-04:00Turning off TM and rebooting didn't work :(
w...Turning off TM and rebooting didn't work :( <br />will try the Terminal option! what's the CD command?Hannahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-84340628698321535302013-09-09T13:17:04.702-04:002013-09-09T13:17:04.702-04:00@Hannah: Turn off Time Machine, then restart your ...@Hannah: Turn off Time Machine, then restart your Mac (Apple / Restart...), then try again. That usually clears it. If not, you may need to drop into a Terminal window, navigate to the right folder using the CD command, then try running:<br /><br />sudo rm .inProgress<br /><br />It will prompt you for your administrative password.<br /><br />Hope this helps...David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-81058607707146310802013-09-09T13:12:03.951-04:002013-09-09T13:12:03.951-04:00When i try to delete the .inProgress file it says ...When i try to delete the .inProgress file it says it can’t be moved to the trash because it "can’t be deleted" :( i have no idea how my TM just suddenly became "read-only" one day. What do i do?Hannahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-68747444977026015562012-09-11T17:11:23.787-04:002012-09-11T17:11:23.787-04:00Once you have found out, through console, which fi...Once you have found out, through console, which file is causing the problem, you could consider excluding it from the TM back-up through the options but on TM: http://osxdaily.com/2012/01/27/exclude-folders-from-time-machine-backups/ Thanks, nagyd Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-80222936577068672092012-02-07T15:09:15.619-05:002012-02-07T15:09:15.619-05:00i am indeed the one who set everything up. So, i&...i am indeed the one who set everything up. So, i'm automatically logged in as admin? Your advice as to the fact that the permissions repair fixes don't seem to stay fixed then?<br /><br />Did a couple more experiments and it definitely does not like that one drive now, period. At least i'm getting back ups of everything else. Frankly, that's the best one to exclude anyhow.Tamelasknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-11678703543278865872012-02-07T14:50:35.995-05:002012-02-07T14:50:35.995-05:00@Tamelask - if you're the one that set up the ...@Tamelask - if you're the one that set up the machine originally, it's a good chance you're the admin.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-21832860310758751542012-02-06T17:34:50.123-05:002012-02-06T17:34:50.123-05:00an addendum- i've tried to back up just a sing...an addendum- i've tried to back up just a single folder (any one) on that drive (my 4th, and does not have my OS on it) and it balks. When i exclude the entire drive it's fine. I guess i'll leave that drive to be a manual back up drive for other stuff... but so frustrating, seeing as how it backed up just fine before the switch from 10.5 to 10.6. Not worth taking everything off reformatting and copying back over to me. Not even sure that would work. The drive is a-ok, according to disk utility, too. Not very old, either- same type and age as #3, which has been fine. sigh.Tamelasknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-43482864855018414912012-02-06T11:49:20.633-05:002012-02-06T11:49:20.633-05:00Dave- yes, the target drive was OS extended. I ze...Dave- yes, the target drive was OS extended. I zeroed the thing out the other night, just to be extra safe. Then ck'd it again and it still said it was good. So, i ran time machine again and excluded the one whole drive that it last referenced as having the gibberish file i couldn't find on it that caused the error and i got a backup last night, finally It has also backed up successfully every hour since. yay! I guess i will add a folder at a time back on from that drive- way tedious, but i don't know how else to proceed. Any other ideas are more than welcome!! <br /><br />The drive that is showing lots of fixed permissions is my OS drive. i do think it has issues. However, it backed up just fine. I read a tip elsewhere that someone booted off the OS cd, ran permissions repair, repaired the disk, and then ran permissions repair again and it got rid of all the 'sticky' fixes. Unfortunately that didn't work for me- its still goes through all of them. Worth a shot, though. I'm not positive i'm logged in as admin, truthfully. When i set up the mac, since i'm the main/only user, i set it up as one user. Doe sit automatically have an admin set up? Sorry i'm don't have as high a level of knowledge in tech stuff as many of your posters. Thanks so much for your help!!Tamelasknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-45851311194974960002012-02-05T10:21:46.068-05:002012-02-05T10:21:46.068-05:00@Tamelask: Are you formatting the drive as Mac OS ...@Tamelask: Are you formatting the drive as Mac OS Extended? If not, reformat it for that.<br /><br />When you run Repair Disk on your OS drives you mentioned that it always has a ton of permissions that it has to fix - is that every time? If you tell it to repair permissions, then you fire it back up, do you get the same errors it needs to fix? If so, check to ensure you are logged in as an admin on the machine.<br /><br />This doesn't sound so much as a Time Machine error as something wrong w/ either your drive or permissions. Hope this helps...David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-38745842437779777412012-02-04T22:04:11.588-05:002012-02-04T22:04:11.588-05:00ok, i've read thru the whole thread, though so...ok, i've read thru the whole thread, though some of it is hard to understand for a non techie. I have a 1 TB backup drive that was working perfectly until i upgraded to snow leopard before christmas '11- then this error started popping up. I shut down the drive, and I just finally have had time to dig into it. I tried reformatting the drive, changing the name, all of that stuff- nada- still getting the same error. Looking through the console and all i can find for the latest failure (after i threw out the in progress file from that drive earlier) is nonsense letters. When i search for that file it can't be found. It does tell me it's error -11. Not sure what else to try. I'm on 10.6.8, and i did just do the second security patch released today. I ran repair disk on all 4 of my internals yesterday from the dvd but nothing is showing up as being amiss. When i repair permissions on my OS drive, it always has a ton, but fixes them. I really need to get this backup going again, esp since i reluctantly deleted the old one when i reformatted it. I work on this computer as a retoucher and have a bunch of files that desperately need backed up. Oh, and there's enough room on the backup drive... though i do need to get a larger one so that i don't have to exclude so many things. Any advice/thoughts?Tamelasknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-13744415697459800252012-01-06T07:52:12.733-05:002012-01-06T07:52:12.733-05:00Perfect! Thanks!Perfect! Thanks!johanhttp://www.bixue.senoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-21175708060628675452011-12-01T08:34:50.954-05:002011-12-01T08:34:50.954-05:00@KAMcGee: Thanks - I have a feeling this has disap...@KAMcGee: Thanks - I have a feeling this has disappeared in Lion. For what it's worth, the switch to Lion is fairly bumpy; as a Spaces fan I find myself rather frustrated with the new model - that's the hardest long term adjustment. The scrolling / gestures were a little tough to begin with but are now embedded in my muscle memory and the only time I struggle is when I have to use a Windows machine (or pre-Lion Mac).David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-63438149089546776382011-11-30T23:58:30.595-05:002011-11-30T23:58:30.595-05:00I'm on 10.6.8. Also was running Growl, which ...I'm on 10.6.8. Also was running Growl, which I really don't use so I deinstalled it after reading your comments. Haven't had the nerve to upgrade to Lion yet. I like the Snow Leopard interface just fine.KAMcGeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05617888521769081652noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-892640694729459552011-11-29T07:34:21.527-05:002011-11-29T07:34:21.527-05:00@KAMcGee: Glad it helped. Since I've been runn...@KAMcGee: Glad it helped. Since I've been running Lion on my Mac Pro I haven't had this error happen. This post continues to get a LOT of Google traffic so I'm curious—if you happen to come here and the above post solves your problem please let me know which version of OS X you are running. Thanks!David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-75365172012311375172011-11-29T01:43:34.824-05:002011-11-29T01:43:34.824-05:00BIG thanks for this post David - I'm not wise ...BIG thanks for this post David - I'm not wise in the ways of disk troubleshooting and had tried a bunch of other google'd advice to no avail. I found the .inProgress file, moved to Trash and Voila! Brilliant - thanks again.KAMcGeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05617888521769081652noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-62439709388079328742011-10-07T22:48:06.272-04:002011-10-07T22:48:06.272-04:00Many thanks for the sharing. I did what you mentio...Many thanks for the sharing. I did what you mentioned, but still got error. So I also erased the previous backup, and it works. No more error happened. CheersGInoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-28195145129196550822011-08-18T08:43:36.345-04:002011-08-18T08:43:36.345-04:00@Peter: Thanks for posting that follow up comment....@Peter: Thanks for posting that follow up comment. I don't believe Apple has an issue with an apostrophe in drive names. Ironically I never put apostrophes in drive or file names because of my old Windows habits. The far more likely culprit was one of your Growl based applications. They may have a file opened or attempt to open it while Time Machine is doing its thing.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-77061445848553755912011-08-18T06:57:07.901-04:002011-08-18T06:57:07.901-04:00Forgot to mention that I also disabled some of the...Forgot to mention that I also disabled some of the applications in the growl list. But in the Console there was an error about the backup disk volume having an 'invalid argument' so I figured that the was the name of the disk and changed it. Forgot to try and backup with the growl changes only. Oh well.Peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05822192195185755890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-30369758061264626652011-08-18T06:51:54.707-04:002011-08-18T06:51:54.707-04:00I got the error message. For me I think the proble...I got the error message. For me I think the problem was that I had named my backup drive with a name that had punctuation in the name. I used a ' in the name of the drive, as in "peter's drive". I think that Apple doesn't like this, so I tried to rename the backup drive. It didn't let me so I restarted and then it did let me remove the ' character. I restarted once more and then tried to use TM. The back up was now successful.Peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05822192195185755890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-87517087034798924732011-06-23T20:08:15.986-04:002011-06-23T20:08:15.986-04:00Dave,
I beleive I have the answer. After looking ...Dave,<br /><br />I beleive I have the answer. After looking at the console messages again I noticed error messages for files that make up Photoshop plugins. These files are from a product from On One software.<br /><br />Long story short, I visited the On One support page and they are aware of this problem For now they suggest excluding their files from the backup until they figure out the problem. I will try this tomorrow.<br /><br />FWIW here is a link to their support page with more info: http://www.ononesoftware.com/support/<br /><br />Thanks again for your help.<br />HectorHector Carosellinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-16052500052316944242011-06-22T22:58:30.226-04:002011-06-22T22:58:30.226-04:00@Hector: If it's failing you should be seeing ...@Hector: If it's failing you should be seeing something in the Console view of your logs. Keep in mind that the entries will be listed under backupd-auto for Time Machine activity. You can filter the logs for "backupd" and it should show you where the problem is.<br /><br />If that still doesn't give you an indication, you're probably best off reformatting that drive partition and starting from scratch. Given the low cost of multi-TB drives you may want to go out and get a Firewire 800 or USB 2+ external HD that you can use as a rotating spare.<br /><br />I personally have two drives for backup within my Mac Pro and rotate them occasionally, then an external drive that I pull out of a fireproof safe every couple of months and copy all of my key data over to it; between 10 years of digital photos and video, I don't want to lose it.<br /><br />Hope this helps...David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.com