Time Machine Error Refuses to Write Over Old Backups

Joined
Apr 21, 2012
Messages
86
Reaction score
0
I've had a 2TB external HD as my back up drive for two years. Time Machine suddenly says the following:

"The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly. Time Machine will try to make more space available by removing expired backups during the next scheduled backup."

I tried another backup manually and I received the same message. I click ok allowing it to overwrite old backups and it runs for 5 minutes and stops again with the same error message.

My Time Machine is set to delete oldest backups and it was never an issue before.
 
Joined
Nov 26, 2010
Messages
3,558
Reaction score
52
Eject the drive.
Turn the drive off.
Unplug the drive from Power and Mac and leave it off for 5+ minutes.
Restart the Mac
Power up the drive and replug into the Mac
try again.
 
Joined
Apr 21, 2012
Messages
86
Reaction score
0
Kaveman, thanks for the suggestion. I followed your instructions and unfortunately the problem persists.

TM says for example: 18.5 GB available. Backing up 1.27 GB of 14.19 GB. I don't know if this is normal but as the backup continues the "of" part (14.19) becomes a bigger number. Again when I open TM prefs it says, "The oldest backups are deleted when your disc becomes full." But it gives me an error message instead.

I also tried to delete older backups manually in order to create more free space and that didn't help either.
 

Spawn_Dooley

Moderator
Joined
Jun 13, 2007
Messages
2,870
Reaction score
94
What OS X version are you on? Have you recently upgraded your OS? Are there any non-TM files stored on the same partition?

In System Preferences ~> Time Machine ~> Options, what does it say as the "Estimated size of full backup"?

Is the Time Machine drive listed in the "Exclude these items from backups" list?
 
Last edited:
Joined
Apr 21, 2012
Messages
86
Reaction score
0
Thanks for helping Spawn. I was able to resolve the issue last night. I did several things:

(1) Trashed the TM plist file and restarted the computer.
(2) Ran verify and repair permissions on the external and internal drive.
(3) Trashed the last incomplete TM backup folder.

I realized after multiple error messages it appeared TM wanted to complete the last unfinished backup which is where it was hitting a wall. So on a hunch I thought maybe the last backup was corrupted. I think out of the three steps I took that was the answer.

TM is working as it should again.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top