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Hello, I am using an iMac, late 2007, with OS10.8. Every few days I get an alert that Time Machine can not complete the backup, and the icon on the menu bar has the little "trouble" sign in it. For the rest of the day there will be no backup. When I start the Mac the next morning I can hit the manual backup command and it works fine; and seems to be ok with a regular backup routine all day, for several days. Then, the situation hits again. A mystery ! Any ideas? Thanks Dave

There can be several different reasons for that particular error message.....

In order to better understand your situation, we will need a bit more info.

How does your iMac connect to the designated Time Machine backup disk? Are you directly connected by USB or Firewire cable to a dedicated external drive, or are you connected over WiFi (or ethernet) to a Networked drive?

How large is the capacity of your backup drive.....and how much of that capacity remains available?

What make/model drive are you using for your backup?

How are your Energy Saver Preferences set for the iMac? Does it sleep after a period of time, or does the display only shut off while the computer remains set to "Never Sleep"?

Does your external drive end up going to sleep during the backup process? (and thus interrupt the backup)

I seem to recall having seen a discussion on the Apple Support forums recently where the Energy Saver Preferences had to be reset in order to regain dependable Time Machine backups in Mountain Lion......

Let us know.

1, Mac is connected to TM backup with Firewire
2, Backup is to a laCie, 1 tb - lots of free space-
3, Energy saver is set to 15 Minutes and also set to put hard drives to sleep when possible. This may be the problem! Dave

While I don't have an answer to your inquiry, I do have a similar hardware set-up for my use of TM. I have a LaCie 1TB FW drive (with 3 partitions - 1 for TM - so, about 330 GB for that partition) direct connected via FW 800 port.

My Energy Saver pref, for Power Adapter, is set for - Computer Sleep: 2 hours; Put hard disks to sleep when possible: 1hr 45m

[Battery pref setting is for much lower times, but I have TM set for no b/u's during Battery use.]

My TM works fast with this direct connected FW drive; my most recent TM b/u, after installing 10.8.1, took minutes. (I didn't time it, but it was reasonably fast.) My TM partition has about 330 GB with currently, around 93 GB space available.

Note: I have a 2d FW drive connected to a 2d computer by FW 800 port & mounted a 2d TM partition on my MBP, via File Sharing, for a 2d TM b/u of my MBP. While this works well, it is glacially slow (the difference between direct FW and networked drive) compared to my direct connected FW drive.

My 1TB FW drive power switch is set with Auto On - so, when my computer does go to Sleep, the drive goes into Auto Off -- "On" light actually goes Off (& goes back to Auto "On" when computer comes out of Sleep). During extended periods of computer work, the FW drive spins down shortly after completing a TM b/u, but remains in Auto On standby.

I've been using this TM b/u strategy just since beginning of July. I'm very pleased with the efficiency and effectiveness of these TM backups.

I've been doing Superduper cloning - and continue them - on these FW drives for several years. I'm finding this overall backup strategy to be good, as well as integrated, since I experienced a situation several months ago where I got locked-out of my User account, on my MBP, and found the issue on all 3 clones, although I could mount those clones and see the data. - I just could not boot to any of the clones. - I ultimately had to do a clean install on my MBP to resolve the issue. I did not use TM at that time; now, I do. So, I feel I'm covered with multiple means of restoring.

To prevent exactly this from happening without you realizing it, SD has the option to boot to the clone once cloning is complete.

Yes, I was aware, but frankly had never done a precautionary test immediate after cloning. Also, I'd gotten lax about testing clones since I'd not experienced any obvious issues with my internal drive.

The issue, to which I previously alluded, was not brought on until a certain, shared disk dismount (incorrect, as it turns out) sequence occurred that manifested, after a subsequent Log Out of my User account with no available option for User account log-in -- only as a Guest, which had not previously been enabled and I could not do so upon trying.

When I attempted booting to my 3 clones (all of which were about a week old - so, before the issue occurred on my internal drive), I inexplicably got the very same log-in issue - no User account log-in available at the start-up screen.

Apple Care attempted assisting in a reset of my Admin password (they thought this might reset my User log-in), via Terminal in Mac OS X Utilities from the Recovery partition, but to no joy. ...This is when Apple Care (I was working with senior tech, as I'd been escalated) confirmed my fear that a clean install would be required. ...If I'd only had a TM option from the Recovery Partition selection, I might have been able to roll back to a working log-in situation.

Fortunately as I was able to mount my clones on my 2d & networked-shared computer, I was able to copy work files / folders to my clean install from a clone, which I'd completed that same morning - so, just hours old. As result, my reinstall was not as painful as it could have been.

Anyway, I rethought my backup strategy from being reliant solely on clones, on different FW drives, to a strategy incorporating TM and cloning on 2 separate, FW drives with 1 TM backup + 1 clone on each respective, FW drive.

My Energy Saver preference is set to "Put Hard Drives to Sleep" and that does not affect my Time Machine backups. Also, my setup is the same as yours, except for brand of the hard drive.

You can find out a LOT more about a "failed" Time Machine backup by…

1. launching Console (in /Applications/Utilities),
2. selecting "All messages"
3. then typing backupd in the string matching window.

Alternatively you can download the LogViewer for time machine app from the App Store and use it. LogViewer for time machine has the advantage of showing the logs for each Time Machine session individually which can be helpful for the uninitiated.

While many (most?) of the items normally found in the various Console log files are comprehensible only to developers, backupd entries are generally pretty easy to understand. However, if you have questions, post the log entries here and someone will help you decipher their meaning.

Thanks to all for the comments and advice; I have changed the Energy saver settings and the problem seems cured. I will know better in a few days. Dave

Give it a few days for confirmation, then check back to let us know the results......I'm thinking that there may be a slight difference in the Energy Saver preferences with 10.8 that contributed to your issue.

It has been several days; Time Machine seems very happy, consistent on the hour. It seems that the changes made in energy saver settings did the job. Thanks again. Dave