Time machine failing to backup as sparsebundle is already in use

Question

I have an airport extreme with a drive connected, and use it for backing up snow leopard macs. I have an occasional problem with one of them that says "the backup disk image ... is already in use" and it fails to backup.

Any ideas?

Solution 1

What worked for me in the end was to "disconnect all users" from the Airport Utility - and then unplug/plugin the drive again (remount it) - it was then able to backup successfully.

Solution 2

There isn't an .InProgress file still on the drive is there? That can cause problems. Just delete it to get the backup working again.

Solution 3

The disconnect, power off/on works, but only temporarily. I think for me it hoses up if I close my macbook pro lid while its trying to backup.

Comments

[Alex]

This is a pretty good suggestion; upvoted.

[mpaw]

FWIW - this seems to be solved now, post a few updates to OS-X

[Enrico Susatyo]

does not seem to be fixed in 10.7.1

[Enrico Susatyo]

I think it's just a temporary solution as I still have the error message from time to time :(

[Hannah]

disconnect all users isn't available in the latest version (6), but you can download 5.6 from apple - support.apple.com/kb/DL1482

[mac]

more info on this procedure at pondini.org/TM/C12.html