Time Machine stopped working - known issue?

[macleoda]

Hi,

Bought Diskstation 710+ as seemed to be best option for compatibility on a LAN with both PC and Mac to be backed up.

It was working fine, then just recently stopped. Note that it stopped BEFORE I upgraded to the latest DSM (3.2-1955) although I am unsure if it was coincident with the Mac automatically upgrading to the latest version of Lion.

> The problem device is a Macbook Pro running Lion vers 10.7.2.

> I did not use the DS pre-Lion but did use it with earlier versions of Lion.

> It had been working generally OK. The only issue I had was that it periodically decided, for no apparent reason (no changes by me to hardware, software or network environment) that the Time Machine backup was "no longer reliable" and it needed to do a full new backup. A pain, and removes the point of Time Machine, but ok, it wasn't every day.

Then, one day for no apparent reason, Time Machine just stopped backing up. It starts the process... the revolving icon revolves... the status is announced as "preparing" (which FOLLOWS checking for backup disk, so basic connectivity at least exists). However we never get past "preparing" and I note from the TM widget that in the background there is a message which recurs ad infinitum: "Waiting for index to be ready (101)".

Also worth noting that (i) I have tried deleting the Time Machine "share" on the DS, creating a new one with a new name, reconnecting the Mac and starting the whole thing - no change, (ii) the DS is accessible in all apparent respects i.e. I can see it in Finder both for the normal share drive and for the Time Machine share, I can access the public shares, and Time Machine software can 'see' it and apparently believes it is a valid drive for TM. I have, however, been told that Synology use 'Netatalk' which is considered flaky - although I guess everyone uses it as there is probably no choice.

Please help if you can. Classic multivendor problem - Apple will tell me the can't help with Synology related issues and why not buy an Apple Time Capsule, similarly no doubt Synology will tell me this is probably Apple-related. AAARRRGGGHHH!!! Why is EVERYTHING with Apple SUCH a wind-up????

Thanks in advance

Alastair

[garryk]

Same...

Also have a DS710+, currently running DSM3.2-1944. Time machine backups stopped in the same way you describe spontaneously, just before Christmas!

Am going to upgrade to DSM3.2-1955 shortly but aren't convinced this will solve it. Of course, it "might" (?!?) actually be a Lion issue (this issue is occurring on a MacBook Air recently updated to Lion), but who knows? Maybe we should report it to both vendors?

[macleoda]

OK well thanks - that's a great data point at least. BTW I was on the 1944 firmware when it happened (same as you), upgraded to current vers 1955 made no difference.

Not sure who exactly to report to, not sure anyone is going to engage with this...

[macleoda]

** UPDATE **

I have made some progress although not there yet. First I tried reindexing Spotlight, no change. Then I went through the famous TM diagnostic instructions, and ended up running disk repair on the sparse bundle on the NAS.

Very strange. The share for the Mac on the NAS was new and empty (per my earlier post), and what little there was of a sparse bundle was presumably newly created on the first (failed) attempt to backup thereafter.

HOWEVER

The sparse bundle was corrupt and reported several errors. Since the repair, it is now working of sorts... I have a different problem... it appears not to be backing everything up, only around 1% of what it should be! However, we have progressed beyond "preparing".

LOOKS LIKE (to the non expert) that somehow between latest Lion and latest DS, an incompatibility has set in and the files being created on the DS were not compatible. Looks like doing a repair has moved us forward but doesn't exactly fill one with confidence...