The Time Machine at the new backup displayed a message about insufficient memory and quit.

Initially Time Machine was one of the great OS functions of all times, now it is nearly useless except for rudimentary file backup. You can not rely on Time Machine for system backups, for that you need cloning software.

You would be better off hand synching your backup drives or using a software program other than time machine.

At the high end are cloning programs like Super Duper or Carbon Copy. That is overkill unless you see the point of cloning the main drive in your computers (see warning about Time Machine) in case of drive failure (that could never happen, right?). I will just say I work on two OSX machines and clone the internal drive of both periodically.

More to what you need are free utilities, Syncback comes to mind but there are others, that can be set to do incremental backups to make sure whatever was changed on main drive A is changed on backup drive B. This works only for data and is analagous to RAID but not the same.

It seems that the Time Machine (TM) was not recognizing the drive or its content. However, I have compared the contents of the source and destination drives and they look the same (file names and their sizes).

I have erased the destination drive using Dusk Utility command Erase and in a process of creating a new TM for the sourse drive. The action in Progress with “About an hour remaining”

Why it happened?

Would it happened again?

I have called to Apple support, connected them to my computer screen and performed TM. The result was very quick - not enough memory on the destination drive. even each HD only half full.

After that I have decided to erase and repeat the TM backup.

I have checked the cloning software reviews. By reviews Carbon Copy Clone looks to be the simplest and most popular. I have downloaded a 30 days trial version.

Thank you for the advice.

bmoag said:

Initially Time Machine was one of the great OS functions of all times, now it is nearly useless except for rudimentary file backup. You can not rely on Time Machine for system backups, for that you need cloning software.

Click to expand...

Really? What did TM back then that it doesn't do anymore?

Leka said:

Hi,

Need help......

I have a desktop iMac and a MacBook Air. All my photos are on an external drive with the Lightroom Catalog are taking of 480GB of the drive 1TB.

Click to expand...

So, you are sharing a LR catalogue (on this external drive) between the two computers?

Leka said:

I have backed up this external drive on another external drive (also 1TB) using my desktop iMac as Administrator. After adding many photos to the external photo drive I have repeated its backup with the Time as Machine, however this time using my MacBook not as Administrator but as user.

Click to expand...

Are you trying to use the same TM backup destination drive to to a TM backup from two different computers?

from what you've written, I understand you have run Time Machine from two different computers. Therein would lie your problem. Time Machine will be trying to create a complete second backup of the external disk.

This and MacOS's memory management are your constant refrain, though I've yet to see a reasoned argument from you on either topic.

Leka said:

Hi,

Need help......

I have a desktop iMac and a MacBook Air. All my photos are on an external drive with the Lightroom Catalog are taking of 480GB of the drive 1TB.

I have backed up this external drive on another external drive (also 1TB) using my desktop iMac as Administrator. After adding many photos to the external photo drive I have repeated its backup with the Time as Machine, however this time using my MacBook not as Administrator but as user. Today was the time to repeat backup. I used my MacBook. The Time Machine has displayed a message that the there is not enough memory on the backup drive.

Verified the selected backup drive, excluded HD drive (internal system HD) started TM and received the same message "not enough memory".

Move the drive with photos and the drive with Time Machine to my iMac. Logged In as Administrator and clicked Back Up now. There was no message about insufficient memory, however back up has not been performed.

Logged of from Administrator and logged in as a user. Repeated the same Time Machine steps. This time the Time Machine has issued a message about insufficient memory.

The Finder “Get Info” shows that each external drive has about 500GB available memory. Added photos total size is no more than 5GB

My Questions:

1) What could I do wrong, that caused the described backup Time Machine problem?

2) Is my only option to reformat (erase) the Time Machine backup and create a new backup copy?

Thank you!

Leo

Click to expand...

Trying to use a 500 GB external drive to backup a 480 GB Lightroom catalog (plus another 5 GB that you added) doesn't seem like a good idea. I'm sure most anyone here would suggest you switch to a 750 GB (absolute minimum) or 1 TB drive for the Time Machine backup.

johnbandry said:

from what you've written, I understand you have run Time Machine from two different computers. Therein would lie your problem. Time Machine will be trying to create a complete second backup of the external disk.

Click to expand...

To expand on this, if you have the same file on two computers and you let TM create a backup of each 'computer', you'll end up with two TM backups that each contain this file. And when this file is on an external drive that is connected to the computer in question at the time of backup, TM considers it as a file on this 'computer' (as long as the external drive is not excluded from the TM backup).

Therefore, a simple solution would be to exclude the external drive in the TM settings on one of the computers. But of course, maybe we misunderstood what you were doing.

My photo images go back many years and although my Oct 16 iMac i5 only has the 1TB Fusion drive I have a Freecom 3TB USB3 drive for Time Machine. Shouldn't say this but it is faultless and has saved me twice this year owing to Parallels Desktop/Windows 10 Pro problems. Time Machine 2 is on a 2TB USB drive which is my belt and braces backup, in case but as yet, never needed. When they fill they just delete the oldest backup - simples.

I also have Carbon Copy Cloner, registered, but don't have it running.

johnbandry said:

from what you've written, I understand you have run Time Machine from two different computers. Therein would lie your problem. Time Machine will be trying to create a complete second backup of the external disk.

--
John Bandry
“Reason is poor propaganda when opposed by the yammering, unceasing lies of ... self-serving men” - Robert A. Heinlein

Click to expand...

Hi johnbandry,

I have backed up the same external 1TB drive with my photos (source) to the same destination external TM drive. My rational was that the TM would compare the difference of the TM created backup (destination) with external source drive and then add to the destination drive only the new latest files. I thought and still think that computer should not matter, as I have backed up one external drive into another external drive with two different drive names. The MacBook and the iMac have the same version of OS Sierra.

noirdesir said:

Leka said:

Hi,

Need help......

I have a desktop iMac and a MacBook Air. All my photos are on an external drive with the Lightroom Catalog are taking of 480GB of the drive 1TB.

Click to expand...

So, you are sharing a LR catalogue (on this external drive) between the two computers?

noirdesir said:

I have backed up this external drive on another external drive (also 1TB) using my desktop iMac as Administrator. After adding many photos to the external photo drive I have repeated its backup with the Time as Machine, however this time using my MacBook not as Administrator but as user.

Click to expand...

Are you trying to use the same TM backup destination drive to to a TM backup from two different computers?

Click to expand...

This was my fist backup update after the initial creation of the TM backup.

During the backup update, I have backed up one external drive into another external drive. These two drives have different drive names. The MacBook and the desk top have the same version of OS Sierra

Does computer matter? If it does, then the TM does not make much sense, as I may travel with only a MacBook and two drives to continue backing up the source. Otherwise I have to travel with iMac :-(

Jim in Hudson said:

Leka said:

Hi,

Need help......

I have a desktop iMac and a MacBook Air. All my photos are on an external drive with the Lightroom Catalog are taking of 480GB of the drive 1TB.

I have backed up this external drive on another external drive (also 1TB) using my desktop iMac as Administrator. After adding many photos to the external photo drive I have repeated its backup with the Time as Machine, however this time using my MacBook not as Administrator but as user. Today was the time to repeat backup. I used my MacBook. The Time Machine has displayed a message that the there is not enough memory on the backup drive.

Verified the selected backup drive, excluded HD drive (internal system HD) started TM and received the same message "not enough memory".

Move the drive with photos and the drive with Time Machine to my iMac. Logged In as Administrator and clicked Back Up now. There was no message about insufficient memory, however back up has not been performed.

Logged of from Administrator and logged in as a user. Repeated the same Time Machine steps. This time the Time Machine has issued a message about insufficient memory.

The Finder “Get Info” shows that each external drive has about 500GB available memory. Added photos total size is no more than 5GB

My Questions:

1) What could I do wrong, that caused the described backup Time Machine problem?

2) Is my only option to reformat (erase) the Time Machine backup and create a new backup copy?

Thank you!

Leo

Click to expand...

Trying to use a 500 GB external drive to backup a 480 GB Lightroom catalog (plus another 5 GB that you added) doesn't seem like a good idea. I'm sure most anyone here would suggest you switch to a 750 GB (absolute minimum) or 1 TB drive for the Time Machine backup.

Click to expand...

The external drives (source and TM destination) are 1TB drives. The used memory on each drive was about half of drive capacity or 500GB of the total 1TB. Each drive had available about 500GB. I am sorry, if was not clear about it.

noirdesir said:

bmoag said:

Initially Time Machine was one of the great OS functions of all times, now it is nearly useless except for rudimentary file backup. You can not rely on Time Machine for system backups, for that you need cloning software.

Click to expand...

Really? What did TM back then that it doesn't do anymore?

Click to expand...

I am new to TM ....

noirdesir said:

johnbandry said:

from what you've written, I understand you have run Time Machine from two different computers. Therein would lie your problem. Time Machine will be trying to create a complete second backup of the external disk.

Click to expand...

To expand on this, if you have the same file on two computers and you let TM create a backup of each 'computer', you'll end up with two TM backups that each contain this file. And when this file is on an external drive that is connected to the computer in question at the time of backup, TM considers it as a file on this 'computer' (as long as the external drive is not excluded from the TM backup).

Therefore, a simple solution would be to exclude the external drive in the TM settings on one of the computers. But of course, maybe we misunderstood what you were doing.

Click to expand...

noirdesir,

I had two 1TB external drives. The source 1TB external drive has been previously backed up with TM on the destination 1TB external drive. I have added more photos to the source drive and was backing it up on the destination 1TB drive.

Only these two drives were connected to the computer (MacBook/iMac). The destination drive has been selected as a backup drive. In Options this drive was excluded by default and in addition I have excluded the MacBook/iMac main internal HD.

I could not update TM backup on the MacBook and the same then on iMac. In both cases I have got the same message - not enough memory. The source and the destination drives were only half full (plenty of room for the added several GBs of photos).

Leka said:

During the backup update, I have backed up one external drive into another external drive.

Click to expand...

No, you have backed up a computer to an external drive. Where 'computer' means the boot drive you are currently booted from and all additional the drives the computer sees*, internal or external, minus of course any drives on the Exclude list in the TM preferences. Part of the OS is a background program that keeps monitoring any changes to files, it stores a list of files (somewhere in the System folder on the boot drive) that have already been backed up and new files or modified files that need to be backed up.

Leka said:

These two drives have different drive names. The MacBook and the desk top have the same version of OS Sierra

Does computer matter? If it does, then the TM does not make much sense, as I may travel with only a MacBook and two drives to continue backing up the source. Otherwise I have to travel with iMac :-(

Click to expand...

When you run TM on your iMac, it creates a list of all files to be backed up, with the list being stored on the boot drive of your iMac. It then creates a folder with the name of your iMac on the drive used as the destination for the TM backup and within that a folder for each TM snapshot. Then within each snapshot folder, it creates a folder for each drive backed up TM on your iMac.

When you run TM on your MacBook, it also creates a list of all files to be backed up, with the list being stored on the boot drive of your MacBook. And so on, meaning you end up with the following folder structure on your backup drive:

iMac-name
...... > Snapshot-date
...........> iMac-boot-drive
...........> Drive-with-LR-library

MacBook-name
...... > Snapshot-date
...........> MacBook-boot-drive
...........> Drive-with-LR-library

The two TM processes, each run at separate times on each computer, don't talk to each other. Each is only concerned with 'their' computer and 'their' TM backup folder (iMac-name and MacBook-name).

* Directly-connected connected drives, ie, not any network drives.

EDIT: I've seen in another post of yours that you have excluded the boot drives, meaning, in the folder structure example above, the boot drive folders won't be there.

Thank you for all for a very thoughtful support!

I decided to simplify the backup process by purchasing Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) after trying it several days. The process could not be simpler: Source, Destination, Clone.

L.