too little, too late

not enough and not soon enough to make a difference:

• Her efforts to improve her grade were too little, too late.
• We tried to reinvigorate the company's earnings by branching into electronic publishing, but it was too little, too late, and we ended up going out of business a few months later.

 

If you describe a situation as too little too late, you are blaming someone for not doing enough to prevent a problem and for taking action only after the problem had become very bad:

• They think this is too little too late.
• The government finally started sending trucks with supplies to the city, but it was too little, too late for the thousands of families affected by the storm.