I am unable to backup- "QuickBooks was unable to back up your company file. QuickBooks could not create a disk image."

ottowear · ‎December 10, 2018

I am trying to backup. I have 3 company files and until just recently all have worked great. The largest file now gets this message-"QuickBooks was unable to back up your company file. QuickBooks could not create a disk image." I verified. Next step is to rebuild... But needs to backup first. Help

IntuitBrooks · ‎December 10, 2018

Right - you can cancel the backup and rebuild will continue. However it is a good idea to make the backup.

Usually when this happens the problem is that the backup location is no longer accessible. For instance if you are backing up to a USB stick it may be that the USB stick isn't writeable for some reason. Or if it is a hard drive the drive may no longer be accessible.

Usually it is enough to unmount the drive and remount it. Sometimes rebooting the computer is necessary.

The other thing that comes to mind is you may be using a disk (or USB key) that has been formatted using a very old disk format. Typically this happens with a USB key formatted for MS-DOS (a lot of them ship with MS-DOS formatting as its kind of a least common denominator). Unfortunately MS-DOS format is too old for the data QuickBooks stores. You should use HFS+ formatting on drives and USB sticks.

You can reformat either using Apple's Disk Utilities program. But of course anything currently on the drive will be destroyed.

View solution in original post

IntuitBrooks · ‎December 10, 2018

Right - you can cancel the backup and rebuild will continue. However it is a good idea to make the backup.

Usually when this happens the problem is that the backup location is no longer accessible. For instance if you are backing up to a USB stick it may be that the USB stick isn't writeable for some reason. Or if it is a hard drive the drive may no longer be accessible.

Usually it is enough to unmount the drive and remount it. Sometimes rebooting the computer is necessary.

The other thing that comes to mind is you may be using a disk (or USB key) that has been formatted using a very old disk format. Typically this happens with a USB key formatted for MS-DOS (a lot of them ship with MS-DOS formatting as its kind of a least common denominator). Unfortunately MS-DOS format is too old for the data QuickBooks stores. You should use HFS+ formatting on drives and USB sticks.

You can reformat either using Apple's Disk Utilities program. But of course anything currently on the drive will be destroyed.

wpherman · ‎December 10, 2018

I am using QuickBooks for Mac 2013, and I have 2 companies. One company just started this "unable to back up your company file." The other company is still backing up just fine. All back ups are made on the iMac's internal hard drive (copies are burned on CD for secure storage). I have attempted to move the back up to other folder locations with no success. I have "Verified Data" which returns "No problems have been detected in your data." I'm at a loss for what to do next. I do burn a copy of the ".qb2013" company file everyday to ensure I don't loose anything. Any suggestions? Thanks.

IntuitBrooks · ‎December 10, 2018

The problem appears to be due to an error in Apple's routines that create a disk image. QuickBooks is telling it to make a backup that is big enough to hold the company file and any attachments (if you have that option on). However sometimes the disk image isn't made large enough. We have a possible fix for this but haven't released it yet. Contact me (my email address is next to my name above) and we'll try to get you a build to try to see if it corrects it.

wpherman · ‎December 10, 2018

I found another entry that suggested I "rebuild data." I did this and now backups are being created again. Thank you.

IntuitBrooks · ‎December 10, 2018

Ok - thanks.

jenkins007 · ‎December 10, 2018

I have rebuilt and verify data. Both work fine. But backup's do not. Using QB 2014 for Mac. My QB file is about 9MB.

IntuitBrooks · ‎December 10, 2018

There is a bug in Apple's disk image routines where it sometimes creates the disk image too small to hold the content. I know this is fixed in 2015 (we set the disk image size now instead of letting Apple's routines determine it). I don't know if that fix has made it back to 2014 yet. If it hasn't it will soon. In the mean time you can make a backup just by copying or duplicating the company file

SkinnyRaven · ‎December 10, 2018

The backup failed as well prior to rebuild? Cancel the backup at the prompt and see if QB will proceed with the rebuild.

poolmanrob · ‎December 10, 2018

QB will proceed with the rebuild if you cancel the backup. But, it still did not solve the problem.

marcdelia · ‎December 10, 2018

Hi,

I am having the same problem with the following error.

QuickBooks was unable to back up your company file. QuickBooks could not create a disk image.

I am using a Mac and Quickbooks 2013. Is there a fix for this?

Qb-Support · ‎December 10, 2018

change the backup location, if that dose not help then run a verify & repair

IntuitBrooks · ‎December 10, 2018

There is a bug in Apple's disk image creation software. We have a fix for that issue. We will move the fix back to the 2013 version when able. Hopefully that will fix the issue you are experiencing. In the meantime, you can make a backup by duplicating your company file and dragging it to wherever you wish to store it. To find the location of your company file hit command-1 while in QuickBooks the click on the folder "track" that appears on the bottom to open the enclosing folder.

marcdelia · ‎December 10, 2018

I created the duplicated like you suggested. Is there a way to duplicate the attachments library as well?

IntuitBrooks · ‎December 10, 2018

Yes. Select the attachment library and choose File->Duplicate in the Finder (cmd-D I think will do it, too). Or you can drag it to another disk (like a backup disk).

karensalk · ‎December 10, 2018

I am having this same issue with QB for Mac 2014 version. Any ideas? Thanks

IntuitBrooks · ‎December 10, 2018

Its an Apple bug with their OS where the creation of the disk image is supposed to create it at the correct size but actually makes it too small. We fixed it in 2015 and will roll out a fix to 2014 soon.

wjwoodford · ‎December 10, 2018

I am having the same issue. I see it was 4 months ago. Have you fixed the 2014 version yet? I see it was 4 months ago.

IntuitBrooks · ‎December 10, 2018

It is fixed but the version with the fix has not yet shipped. Should be a couple more weeks while we test it.

ez1 · ‎December 10, 2018

I am having the exact same issue

IntuitBrooks · ‎December 10, 2018

That fix didn't go out when I thought it would but it is nearly there. We had some other issues that took time to track down.

integrityNO2 · ‎December 10, 2018

My QB 2013 Backed up fine until tonight. Will the fix for 2013 be out soon? How will I get it? By using update?

integrityNO2 · ‎December 10, 2018

If I upgrde to the QB for Mac 2015 will that fix the issue? Will data migrate automatically or will I need a backup copy?

IntuitBrooks · ‎December 10, 2018

2015 has the fix and data will migrate automatically. However I'm hoping the 2013 update will have it as well (I know 2014 will - there were some issues with the merge of this back to 2013 that we are working on). You'll get alerted when the update is available or try the QuickBooks->Check For Updates menu.

tom16 · ‎December 10, 2018

Where is the fix mentioned in the first (a year ago) and seven subsequent posts?

Topics

Training

Community

Resources

I am unable to backup- "QuickBooks was unable to back up your company file. QuickBooks could not create a disk image."