How best to use Time Machine

When I use Time Machine I can never figure out what I want to back up and what I want to exclude. I really only want to back up my Documents, iPhoto Library and iTunes Library.

To answer the question in the subject, plug in an external drive and turn on Time Machine. That's the way you should use it.
If you want to just back up the items you listed, it would be easier to use another backup utility.
Otherwise, go into options and exclude your Library. It should ask if you want to exclude all system files--click yes. Then exclude all the other items in your Home folder except the ones you want to back up. For the iPhoto Library, you'll have to just leave the Pictures folder unexcluded--same for iTunes/Music folder. I have no idea if that will exclude everything else. That's my best guess.

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HT1338 Purchased a used macbook pro with Mountain Lion. My old Mac runs Snow Leopard is backed up to Time machine. How do I register the operating system to me and how do I use Time Machine to move my files to the new used computer?

Purchased a used macbook pro with Mountain Lion. My old Mac runs Snow Leopard is backed up to Time machine. How do I register the operating system to me and how do I use Time Machine to move my files to the new used computer?

If you look at the User Tips tab, you will find a write up on just this subject:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4053
The subject of buying/selling a Mac is quite complicated. Here is a guide to the steps involved. It is from the Seller's point of view, but easily read the other way too:
SELLING A MAC A
Internet Recovery, and Transferability of OS & iLife Apps
Selling an Old Mac:
• When selling an old Mac, the only OS that is legally transferable is the one that came preinstalled when the Mac was new. Selling a Mac with an upgraded OS isn't doing the new owner any favors. Attempting to do so will only result in headaches since the upgraded OS can't be registered by the new owner. If a clean install becomes necessary, they won't be able to do so and will be forced to install the original OS via Internet Recovery. Best to simply erase the drive and revert back to the original OS prior to selling any Mac.
• Additionally, upgrading the OS on a Mac you intend to sell means that you are leaving personally identifiable information on the Mac since the only way to upgrade the OS involves using your own AppleID to download the upgrade from the App Store. So there will be traces of your info and user account left behind. Again, best to erase the drive and revert to the original OS via Internet Recovery.
Internet Recovery:
• In the event that the OS has been upgraded to a newer version (i.e. Lion to Mountain Lion), Internet Recovery will offer the version of the OS that originally came with the Mac. So while booting to the Recovery Disk will show Mountain Lion as available for reinstall since that is the current version running, Internet Recovery, on the other hand, will only show Lion available since that was the OS shipped with that particular Mac.
• Though the Mac came with a particular version of Mac OS X, it appears that, when Internet Recovery is invoked, the most recent update of that version may be applied. (i.e. if the Mac originally came with 10.7.3, Internet Recovery may install a more recent update like 10.7.5)
iLife Apps:
• When the App Store is launched for the first time it will report that the iLife apps are available for the user to Accept under the Purchases section. The user will be required to enter their AppleID during the Acceptance process. From that point on the iLife apps will be tied to the AppleID used to Accept them. The user will be allowed to download the apps to other Macs they own if they wish using the same AppleID used to Accept them.
• Once Accepted on the new Mac, the iLife apps can not be transferred to any future owner when the Mac is sold. Attempting to use an AppleID after the apps have already been accepted using a different AppleID will result in the App Store reporting "These apps were already assigned to another Apple ID".
• It appears, however, that the iLife Apps do not automatically go to the first owner of the Mac. It's quite possible that the original owner, either by choice or neglect, never Accepted the iLife apps in the App Store. As a result, a future owner of the Mac may be able to successfully Accept the apps and retain them for themselves using their own AppleID. Bottom Line: Whoever Accepts the iLife apps first gets to keep them.
SELLING A MAC B
Follow these instructions step by step to prepare a Mac for sale:
Step One - Back up your data:
A. If you have any Virtual PCs shut them down. They cannot be in their "fast saved" state. They must be shut down from inside Windows.
B. Clone to an external drive using using Carbon Copy Cloner.
1. Open Carbon Copy Cloner.
2. Select the Source volume from the Select a source drop down menu on the left side.
3. Select the Destination volume from the Select a destination drop down menu on the right
side.
4. Click on the Clone button. If you are prompted about creating a clone of the Recovery HD be
sure to opt for that.
Destination means a freshly erased external backup drive. Source means the internal
startup drive.
Step Two - Prepare the machine for the new buyer:
1. De-authorize the computer in iTunes! De-authorize both iTunes and Audible accounts.
2, Remove any Open Firmware passwords or Firmware passwords.
3. Turn the brightness full up and volume nearly so.
4. Turn off File Vault, if enabled.
5. Disable iCloud, if enabled: See.What to do with iCloud before selling your computer
Step Three - Install a fresh OS:
A. Snow Leopard and earlier versions of OS X
1. Insert the original OS X install CD/DVD that came with your computer.
2. Restart the computer while holding down the C key to boot from the CD/DVD.
3. Select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu; repartition and reformat the internal hard drive.
Optionally, click on the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass.
4. Install OS X.
5. Upon completion DO NOT restart the computer.
6. Shutdown the computer.
B. Lion and Mountain Lion (if pre-installed on the computer at purchase*)
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because
it is three times faster than wireless.
1. Restart the computer while holding down the COMMAND and R keys until the Mac OS X
Utilities window appears.
2. Select Disk Utility from the Mac OS X Utilities window and click on the Continue button.
3. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the left side list. Click
on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
4. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on the Security button
and set the Zero Data option to one-pass.
5. Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
6. Quit DU and return to the Mac OS X Utilities window.
7. Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
8. Upon completion shutdown the computer.
*If your computer came with Lion or Mountain Lion pre-installed then you are entitled to transfer your license once. If you purchased Lion or Mountain Lion from the App Store then you cannot transfer your license to another party. In the case of the latter you should install the original version of OS X that came with your computer. You need to repartition the hard drive as well as reformat it; this will assure that the Recovery HD partition is removed. See Step Three above. You may verify these requirements by reviewing your OS X Software License.

How do I use time machine to backup to an external hard drive plugged into my airport extreme

How do I use time machine to backup to an external hard drive plugged into my airport extreme? I used to be able to but now time machine will not recognize my hard drive to select as a backup when plugged into my airport extreme. I'm not sure what happened or changed. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

First thing to do is go to the Pondini tips page, then follow the link to his full TM site for all the details.

I upgraded my imac hard drive to a 2tb drive. how do i use time machine to get my computer back to normal?

i upgraded my imac hard drive to a 2tb drive. how do i use time machine to get my computer back to normal?

Thank you. I followed the faq#14 (using setup wizard from the osx install disk). Everything went just as planned until I woke up this morning and noticed there was no progress on the "transferring documents" meter. It stopped about 1/4 of the way. I can hear the computer working and the bar is somewhat animated like it is advancing but it's not.
Should I cancel and restart or should I wait it out? It already been about 13 hours since I started the process. Do you think it is my time machine or my iMac? Maybe the time machine file is corrupt or something.
Anyway, any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Getting a new macbook to replace old one...how do i use time machine to res

my current mac book is acting strange
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9527774#9527774
i bought a new one i should get tomorrow
how do i use time machine to restore my email, safari book marks etc?
thx

ironknee wrote:
caroly do you ever sleep?
I thought i clicked on the link... this link no??
vk yes i bought a white macbook just like my old one with more stuff
i'm just a designer... i have no idea wht u are talking about
there are two ways to restore your data from a TM backup.
the first is the one I described. you don't need to do anything, just follow the instructions during the setup assistant when you first turn the computer on. it will ask you if you want to import your data from a TM backup. say yes and follow the instructions. this method only restores your user data and applications but does not touch any system files.
the second method is different and it was suggested by the other posters. it wipes the hard drive and restores the entire computer including system files and everything to the exact state it was in at the backup time. this should only be used when restoring on the same computer or on the same EXACT hardware model. the fact that your new computer is also a macbook is not enough. the processor and the graphics card may have been upgraded since you bought your old computer. this happens all the time. if they did then the old install will lack necessary drivers for the new hardware and it will not work if you restore the entire system from the old computer to the new one.
Bottom line is, unless you are absolutely sure that your new computer has exact same specs and exact same hardware as the old one, use method one outlined above.

Before downloading lion, i want to backup my computer with time machine and a G-DRIVE Slim. But how can i use time machine to only backup my system once?

Just wondering, how can i use time machine to only backup my system once? Just this once and not on a weekly basis?

Upgrade. My three year old Mac Pro and year old MacBook Pro have no problem. Both seem faster.
And there's your problem reading entirely subjective views on forums, from people that might or might not have decently maintained systems, good operating practices, or whatever....
Strangely, when most companies issue new software, it is because they believe (and believe they have checked) that it is better than the previous version.

How To Properly Use Time Machine...Please Assist

Hi,
I am new to Time Machine and am trying to figure out the best way to use it. I understand that Time Machine is a back up solution and not an archive solution. However, when the drive gets full am I able to control which files it begins to erase?
If the answer to this is no, then I need to find another place to store these files ie; dvd, tape back up for a long term archive.
Am I right to say that the best way to use Time Machine is as a redundant copy of your data so I can restore it any time and if I want to remove stuff off my hard drive that I want to keep I need to find another place to put it.
I am just confused as the way it was marketed was if you accidentally delete something, than you can go back in time to restore, but what if time machine decides to erase it arbitrarily?
Any assistance would be grateful
Thanks,

Elli Raynai1 wrote:
I am new to Time Machine and am trying to figure out the best way to use it. I understand that Time Machine is a back up solution and not an archive solution. However, when the drive gets full am I able to control which files it begins to erase?
No, it deletes the oldest monthly back ups first. It will warn you before it starts deleting anything. You have a choice at that time to use a different location to start a new Time Machine thus preserving all your old Time Machine Files.
If the answer to this is no, then I need to find another place to store these files ie; dvd, tape back up for a long term archive.
I think this is prudent. I make a disk image of my system the day I start a new time machine.
Am I right to say that the best way to use Time Machine is as a redundant copy of your data so I can restore it any time and if I want to remove stuff off my hard drive that I want to keep I need to find another place to put it.
This is what I do. I have one hard drive marked storage just for this purpose.
I am just confused as the way it was marketed was if you accidentally delete something, than you can go back in time to restore, but what if time machine decides to erase it arbitrarily?
For me it works as marketed. It does not atbitraingly delete stuff. It deletes the oldest monthly back up first and asks for permission before it does that. As long as you understand how it works you should not have a problem. I have never relied on one back up of anything even before time machine.
The bigger your Time Machine drive the longer back in time you can go.

How to recover using time machine

how do i recover my settings from a back up using time machine?

The best resource for using Time Machine is:
Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
What settings are you trying to recover?

How do you use Time Machine with more then one mac

I just bought a new external hard drive and want to back up my iMac & MacBook Pro using Time Machine. But I do not want to use my airport network.
I will keep the hard drive connected to the iMac, but want to, as needed, plug my MacBook Pro into the Hard drive to back up.
Is this possible? Do I have first partition the new backup hard drive?
Any help is appreciated... Jim

Ok... I am back again.
I decided to plug my backup drive into the USB port on the Airport extreme.
On my Macbook Pro, which I connect wirelessly, I was able to start Time Machine... Time Machine saw the backup drive and did a backup.. Yes it took a long time Anyway all is cool with that.
My iMac is connected to the Airport Extreme by Ethernet. On the iMac when I started Time Machine, it does not see the backup hard drive. I can see and share the hard drive... works fine. But no luck with TM seeing the hard drive on the iMac.
Questions is will Time Machine work with a computer that is connected to airport extreme by ethernet. If yes how o you set it up and what might be wrong??
I might mention that the reason I have the iMac connected with an ethernet cable and not wirelessly is because the iMac does not stay connected well to the internet and when it is connected has a very slow connection. My MacBook Pro is all the way across the house and has a great connection.
I have guessed the slow connection was because the Airport Extreme sits right next to the iMac and maybe there is some kind of interference.
Thanks.... any help is appreciated.

How do I use Time Machine on my Mac to back up files stored on an AirDisk?

I have a Macbook Pro 17-inch, Mid 2009, with a 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. I use an external HDD connected directly to my Mac via FireWire 800 for Time Machine backups. I have an external HDD connected to my Airport Extreme (Gigabit) router that I use for file storage. My iTunes library and iPhoto library are both stored on this AirDisk. Can I use Time Machine on my Mac to back up the files that I store on my AirDisk? If so, then please describe how to do so. Thank you for your assistance.

Unmount and physcially disconnect the TimeMachine drive and reboot the computer without it being connected.
Reboot the comptuer with the disk inside the machine holding the option or c key down, select the disk to boot from.
Second screen in is the installer, under the Ulitites menu is Disk Utility.
Use Disk Utility to Erase with Security option Zero all Data if your planning to wipe the drive and install 10.6
Don't do the above if your simply reinstalling only OS X 10.6 to cure a problem with it.
How to reinstall just OS X or erase/install OS X
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6

How can I use time machine to recover my iWeb09 files?

I read that iWeb stores one's website pages in the domain folder which can be located at ~/Library/Application Support/iWeb. Can I use time machine to recover my iWeb09 files? If so, how? -I tried. I entered my Time Machine back up, and went back in time and brought the domain file forward but it opened only my current site pages, not the ones I am trying to recover. And it says the Domain file was last modified in October 2007 which is crazy because I've been using iWeb a lot and have published many pages. It seems like the uncorrupted pages, which I am trying to recover, existed somewhere on my computer at one point in time and space, less than a week ago, becuse I just published my site to a new hosting service since Apple will soon stop web hosting. So why can I not find them using time machine?

I continued searching and read another person's advise to down load an app named "Find File," then search for .sites. She said spotlight doesn't always find all files. So I did and sure enough, when I searched for .sites I found another Domain package, which I have no idea how it was created but which, it ends up, was the one actually being used by iWeb. So I went to that package then did the time machine and went back to before my web pages became corrupted. I had to delete corrupt blog pages out of my website menu to get iWeb to upload the other page changes even to a local folder.
So I went to that newly found Domain, went back in time, then brought that forward and as you pointed out the domain package had the parts of the pages, the files and jpegs, but not the structure/layout of the pages. So, I guess I gave up on finding the old pages.
Those pages still exist on the Apple hosting server but iWeb doesn't not reverse publication. Cyberduck would bring back the files and bits and peices but again not the pages as a total entity. I'm preparing for the end of Apple website hosting (next month?) and am republishing my old site. I decided to use a new domain name. So my entire original site is still totally intact on the web under the original domain name, on my mobile me site, I guess it will be there till sometime in June?
My problems started when I tried to publish my website to the new server. It just would not publish the whole website in one session. So I decided to do it a few pages at a time. Some pages went up, but as I added more, for some unknown reason the, blog pages, (about 70 subpages), which had aleardy uploaded just fine to the new server, became corrupt and locked up iWeb. Of course once I deleted the corrupt pages I didn't want to continue publishing the site to the host until I found and reinserted uncorrupted pages, knowing publishing changes would delete the already published pages.
At first I thought it was the hosting server's fault, but when I discovered that it wouldn't publish even to a local fold I was able to locate the cause within iWeb, deleted those pages then tested by publishing to a local folder. iWeb worked locally, so I knew I had found the problem pages. Well this is way more than you wanted to know. Thanks for your advise but I'll just start the blogging pages over.

HOW CAN I USE TIME MACHINE TO BACKUP ONLY PART OF MY FILES ON EXTERNAL D?

Hi, I am using time machine to back up all my files at the moment. but I want to get rid of video and photo material from my laptop and keep it on the external hard drive to which the time machine backs up my stuff.
how can i do this without losing the video and photo files permamnently?
thank a lot!

nefsi wrote:
doesn't time machine back up my files on the External hard disk?
By default, Time Machine backs-up almost everything on your internal HD to your External HD. It can also back up things on an external HD, if you want it to.
What I would like is, to find a way so that I could back up everything, but not have all the videos and photos I do not use often, on my laptop. instead I want to put them on the external hard drive and have time machine update all the other files.
Yes, you can do that, but there are two considerations:
You should partition the external HD so the TM backups are in one partition, and the other files are in the other partition. A partition (also called a volume), is treated like a separate disk for most purposes. See #3 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
You should find another way to back-up the videos and photos in that other partition, such as archiving them to CDs/DVDs.
In other words, can Time machine back up only some of my files?
Yes. You can exclude things from Time Machine. See #10 in the FAQ Tip. If you partition your TM drive, the other partition on it should be excluded automatically; but if it isn't, you can easily add it to the +Do not back up+ list in TM Preferences > Options.
For detailed instructions on making another partition on your external HD, see #6 in the FAQ Tip. It shows how to add a TM partition to a drive that already has other data on it, but the procedure is the same.

How do I use Time Machine to restore applications to a new computer?

Hello again
I just upgraded to a newer computer (not brand new, though: 20" imac with intel core 2 duo).
I traded in the older one and the files from it were transferred over, but not the applications.
Now, a year ago I took my tech friend's advice and used TM to back up the whole hard-drive .... so last night i used TM and navigated through Finder to see that all the applications are there in the Application folder. Tech friend said that i could just restore the Application Folder .... but this isn't an actual install .... so what other folders will i need to restore?
Or should I just restore the whole hard drive? .. if i do this, will it copy over Snow Leopard too? cause the imac only came with leopard and i just had to install snow and then it took all night to get the upgrades and install them !
Thanks for any advice and help.
Elizabeth

I would recommend you just reinstall the applications from their original distribution discs. Some applications require files that are not installed in the Applications folder alone. You would need to know what specific ones to look for. Reinstalling a whole system or major folder from an old TM backup will surely render a malfunctioning system unless the system you would be restoring is known to work on that computer. For more on using Time Machine see:
A whole lot about Time Machine for help with TM problems. Also you can select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine" to locate articles on how to use TM. See also Mac 101- Time Machine.

How do I use Time Machine w/ Imac/MacBook and AirportExtreme w/ Ext.HD?

I have an iMac and a Macbook w a LaCie 1TB HD and Airport Extreme Base Station. I want to use Time Machine to back up both computers. I was told I should connect the HD to each one separately w USB first to speed up the initial copy and then plug it into Airport and it should automatically continue to back up each computer. Is this the best/fastest way to do it? Do I need to install any software for the ext. HD on each computer first?

N8 Curry wrote:
I have an iMac and a Macbook w a LaCie 1TB HD and Airport Extreme Base Station. I want to use Time Machine to back up both computers. I was told I should connect the HD to each one separately w USB first to speed up the initial copy and then plug it into Airport and it should automatically continue to back up each computer.
no, this won't work actually, because directly attached backups are stored differently. you should START the backups when the drive is attached to EABS. once it's started you can interrupt the backup by control-clicking on TM in the dock->stop backup. THEN move the drive to be directly attached and resume the backup. this way it will continue the backup started remotely. once the first backup is finished you can move the drive back to AEBS.
repeat for the second computer.
Is this the best/fastest way to do it? Do I need to install any software for the ext. HD on each computer first?
no, no extra software is needed. but you do need to make sure that you have installed all the updates for AEBS.

How do I use Time Machine to downgrade from Snow back to Leopard?

I have a MBA and optical drive, and I use Time Machine to backup.
I'd like to revert back to pre-Snow, and pre 10.6.1. Where/how do I do this with time machine? Do I go to a previous date that had the old OS, and just select the System folder and then restore?

If you want to go back to Leo, then you have two options at this point (ignoring what's above): erase and install (A&I) and archive and install (A&I). I am assuming that you know how to go back with an E&I, but probably don't want to do so now. Post back if you need help with this method. Note that you will need your original Leo install DVD to do either type of install.
A&I is a good play, under your current circumstances, given that you are not ready, if ever, to do an E&I. Note that Apple doesn't recommend going backwards this far (i.e., going back beyond the current major version, say, 10.6.2.x back to 10.6.1.x) via A&I. But, regardless it is a way to get back to Leo and to pave the way for an restoring with your TM or doing an E&I of Leo in the future assuming your E&I fails to produce an acceptable installation.
Note that if you go backwards, then you will not be able to preserve user and network settings--which may be a good thing. Fortunately, there is a way to extract anything needed from a prior user home folder. [Here is the explanation|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2196].
Even though you don't want Sno any more, it would be nice to have a bootable clone of your Sno installation on an external for safety purposes--as mentioned above. On the other hand, your TM backup takes much of the need to have a clone away. Also, I would repair disk and permissions before archiving and installing and unplug all peripherals during installation, but not your Ethernet connection if you have one.

How best to use Time Machine

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