Time Machine backup in real time?

I'm about to get a new Mac Mini for my girlfriend and thought about getting an additional external hard drive for Time Machine backups. I have never used Time Machine and the help topics/manuals seem to indicate you can only backup every hour. Can you set it to backup as new files are being created? Sometimes she imports files from her camera and saves them downsized for the web and forgets to "save as" so the originals get deleted. Actually, it's only happened once, but if TM was backing up everything as it was being copied over there would be no problems....I hope. If this isn't an option I might not even get an external. Thanks for any information.

Can you set it to backup as new files are being created?
No. The only way to do that would be via RAID 1 (mirroring), but that's not going to help either, because as soon as you delete (or overwrite) a file its going to get deleted (or overwritten) on the mirror, too.
Seriously, though, I think you'll find Time Machine more than handles what you want, even at the hourly invocation. You say it's only happened once before anyway, and you might be surprised at how much time passes between copying the files from the camera and accidentally overwriting the original so the chances are the files will be copied anyway.
Also think of it this way, even at an hour, there's a good chance that you will have a backup of the original. Without Time Machine (or some other automatic backup system) there is zero chance. Which would you prefer?

Similar Messages

I am trying to do a full Time Machine Backup to a new external disk. The backup starts, and it says "Time remaining about 4 days." That seems like a very long time, but the real problem is that the computer "logs off" after a few hours, and the b.u. stops

I am trying to do a full Time Machine Backup to a new external disk. The backup starts, and it says "Time remaining about 4 days." That seems like a very long time, but the real problem is that the computer "logs off" after a few hours, and the backup stops. The system preferences are set to "Never" for Computer sleep and Display sleep. The computer does not ordinarily log off automatically, but it has done this twice since I started the Time Machine backup.

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the search box.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

I want a new and more powerful (non-Apple) wireless router but I still want to use my existing Time Capsule to continue with my Time Machine backups and I still need the Time Capsule's Network Attached Storage (NAS) features and capabilities

THE SHORTER STORY
My goal is to successfully use my existing Time Capsule (TC) with a new and more powerful wireless router. I need a new and more powerful wireless router in order to reach a distant Denon a/v receiver that is physically located in a master bedroom some 50 feet away from my modem. I need to provide this Denon a/v receiver with an Internet connection so that it can obtain its firmware updates and I need to connect this Denon a/v receiver to my network in order to use its AirPlay feature. I believe l still need the TC's Network Attached Storage (NAS) features because I am not sure if the new wireless router will provide me with the NAS like features / capabilities I need to share files between my two Apple laptops with OS X 10.8.2. And I know that I absolutely need my TC's seamless integration with Apple's Time Machine (TM) application in order to continue to make effortless backups of my two Apple laptops. To my knowledge nothing works with TM like Apple's TC. I also need the hard disk storage space built into the TC.
I cannot use a long wired Ethernet cable connection in this apartment and I cannot use power-line adapters. I have read that wireless range extenders and repeaters are difficult to successfully set-up and that they will reduce data speeds, especially so when incorrectly set-up. I cannot relocate my modem and/or primary base station wireless router.
In short, I want to use my TC with my new and more powerful wireless router. I need to stop using the TC to connect to the modem. However, I still need the TC for seamless TM backups. I also need to use the TC's built in hard drive for storage. And I may still need the TC's NAS capabilities to share files wirelessly between laptops because I am assuming the new wireless router will not provide NAS capabilities for OS X 10.8.2 (products like this/non-Apple products rarely seem to work with OS X 10.8.2/Macs to provide NAS features and capabilities). Finally, I want to continue to use my Apple laptop and AirPlay to wirelessly access and play my iTunes music collection stored on the TC's hard drive. I also want to continue to use my Apple laptop, AirPlay and Apple TV to wirelessly watch movies and TV shows stored on the additional external hard drive connected to the TC via USB. Can someone please advise on how to set-up my new Asus wireless router with my existing TC in such a way to accomplish all of this?
What is the best configuration or set-up to accomplish my above goals?
Thank you in advance for your assistance!!!
THE FULL STORY
I live in an apartment building where my existing Time Capsule (TC) is located in my living room and serves many purposes. Specially, my TC is at least all of the following:
(1) Wi-Fi router connected to Comcast Internet service via Motorola SB6121 cable modem - currently the TC is the Wi-Fi base station that connects to the modem and has the gateway address to the Internet. The TC now provides the DHCP service for the Wi-Fi network.
(2) Wireless router providing Internet and Wi-Fi network access to several Wi-Fi clients - two Apple laptop computers, an iPod touch, an iPad and an iPhone all connect wirelessly to the Internet via the TC.
(3) Wired Ethernet router providing Internet and Wi-Fi network access to three different devices - a Panasonic TV, LG Blu-Ray player and an Apple TV each use one of the three LAN ports on the back of the TC to gain access to the Internet.
(4) Primary base station in my attempt to extend my wireless network to a distant (located far away) Denon a/v receiver requiring a wired Ethernet connection - In addition to the TC, which is my primary base station, I am also using a second extended Wi-Fi base station (a Netgear branded product) to wirelessly extend my WiFi network to a Denon receiver located in the master bedroom and requiring a wired Ethernet connection. I cannot use a wired Ethernet connection to continuously travel from the living room to the master bedroom. The distance is too great as I cannot effectively hide the Ethernet cable in this apartment.
(5) Time Machine (TM) backup facilitator - I use my TC to wirelessly back-up two Apple laptops using Apple's Time Machine (TM) application. However, I ran out of storage space on my TC and therefore added external storage to it. Specifically, I added an external hard drive to my TC via the USB port on the back of the TC. I now use this added external hard drive connected to the TC via USB as the destination storage drive for my TM back-ups. I have partitioned the added external hard drive, and each of the several partitions all have enough storage space (e.g., each of the two partitions used by TM are sized at three times the hard drive space of each laptop, etc.). Everything works flawlessly.
(6) Network Attached Storage (NAS) - In addition to using the TC's Network Attached Storage (NAS) capabilities to wirelessly back-up two Apple laptops via TM, I also store other additional files on both (A) the hard drive built into the TC and (B) the additional external hard drive connected to the TC via USB (there are additional separate partitions on this drive for these other additional and non-TM backup files).
I use the TC's NAS feature with my Apple laptop and AirPlay to wirelessly access and play my iTunes music collection stored on the TC's hard drive. I also use my Apple laptop, AirPlay and Apple TV to wirelessly watch movies and TV shows stored on the additional external hard drive connected to the TC via USB. Again, everything works wirelessly and flawlessly. (Note: the Apple TV is connected to the network via Ethernet and a LAN port on the back of the TC).
The issue I am having is when I try to listen to music via Apple's AirPlay in the master bedroom. This master bedroom is located at a distance of two rooms away from the TC's current location in the living room, which is a distance of about 50 feet. This apartment has a long rectangular floor plan where each room is connected to the next in a straight line. In order to use AirPlay in the master bedroom I am using a second extended Wi-Fi base station (a Netgear branded product) to wirelessly extend my WiFi network to a Denon receiver located in the master bedroom and requiring a wired Ethernet connection. This additional base station connects wirelessly to the WiFi network provided by my TC and then gives my Denon receiver the wired Ethernet connection it needs to use AirPlay. I have tried moving my iTunes music directly onto my laptop's hard drive, and then I used AirPlay on this same laptop to connect to the Denon receiver. I always get a successful connection and the song plays, but the problem is that the connection inevitably drops.
I live in an apartment building and all of the many wireless routers in this building create a great deal of WiFi interference on both the 2.4 GHz and 5GHz bands. I have tried connecting the Netgear product to each the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, but neither band can successfully maintain a wireless connection between the TC and the Netgear product. I also attempted to maintain a wireless connection to an iPod touch using the 2.4 GHz band and AirPlay on this iPod touch to play music on the Denon receiver. Again, I was able to establish a connection and successfully play music, but after a few minutes the connection dropped and the music stopped playing. I therefore have concluded that I have a poor wireless connection in the master bedroom. I can establish a connection, but it is intermittent with frequent drops. I have verified this with both laptops by working in the master bedroom for an entire day on both laptops. The Internet connection in this master bedroom proved to drop out frequently - about once an hour with the laptops. The wireless connection and the frequency of its dropout are far worse with the iPod touch and an iPhone.
I cannot relocate the TC. Also, this is an apartment and I therefore cannot extend the range of my network with Ethernet cable (I cannot drill through walls/ceilings, etc.). It is an old building with antiquated wiring and power-line adapters are not likely to function properly, nor can I spare the direct power outlet required with a power-line adapter. I simply need every outlet I can get and cannot afford to block any direct outlet.
My solution is to use a more powerful wireless router. I found the ASUS RT-AC66U Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router which will likely provide a better connection to my wireless Internet in the master bedroom than the TC. The 802.11ac band of this Asus wireless router is totally useless to me, but based on what I have read I believe this router will provide a stronger connection at greater distances then my TC. And I will be ready for 802.11ac when it becomes more widely available.
However, I still need to maintain the TC's ability to work seamlessly with TM to backup my two laptops. Also, I doubt the new Asus router will provide OS X 10.8.2 with NAS like features and capabilities. Therefore, I still would like to use the TC's NAS capabilities to share files on my network wirelessly assuming the Asus wireless router fails to provide this feature. I need a new and more powerful wireless router, but I need to maintain the TC's NAS features and seamless integration with TM. Finally, I want to continue to use my Apple laptop and AirPlay to wirelessly access and play my iTunes music collection stored on the TC's hard drive. I also want to continue to use my Apple laptop, AirPlay and Apple TV to wirelessly watch movies and TV shows stored on the additional external hard drive connected to the TC via USB. Can someone advise on how to set-up my existing TC with this new Asus wireless router in such a way to accomplish all of this?
Modem
Motorola SB6121 SURFboard DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem
Existing Wireless Router and Primary Wi-Fi Base Station - Apple Time Capsule
Apple Time Capsule MC343LL/A 1TB Sim DualBand (purchased June 2010, likely the Winter 2009 Model)
Desired New Wireless Router and Primary Wi-Fi Base Station - Non-Apple Asus
ASUS RT-AC66U Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router
Extended Wi-Fi Base Station - Provides an Ethernet Connection to a Denon A/V Receiver Two Rooms Away from the Modem
Netgear Universal Dual Band Wireless Internet Adapter for TV & Blu-Ray (WNCE3001)
Addition External Hard Drive Attached to the Existing Apple Time Capsule via USB
WD My Book Studio 4TB Mac External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0
Existing Laptops on the Wireless Network Requiring Time Machine Backups
MacBook Air (11-inch, Mid 2012) OS X 10.8.2
MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2010) OS X 10.8.2
Other Existing Apple Products (Clients) on the Wireless Network
iPod Touch (second generation) is model A1288.
iPad (1st generation)
Apple TV (3rd generation) - Quantity two (2)

Thanks Bob Timmons.
In regards to a Plan B, I hear ya brother. I am already on what feels like Plan Z. Getting WiFi to a far off room in an apartment building crowded with WiFi routers is a major pain.
I am basing my thoughts on the potential of a new and more powerful router reaching the far off master bedroom based on positive reviews on cnet.com, pcmag.com and pcworld.com. All 3 of these web sites have reviewed the Asus RT-AC66U 802.11AC wireless router as well as its virtual twin cousin 802.11n router. What impressed me is that all 3 sites rated this router #1 overall in terms of both range and speed (in both the 802.11n and 802.11AC flavors). They tested the router in real world scenarios where the router needed to compete with a lot of other wireless routers. One of the sites even buried this Asus router in a media room with thick walls and inside a media cabinet. This Asus router should be able to serve my 2.4 GHz band wireless clients (iPod Touch and iPhone 4) with a 2.4GHz Wireless-N band offering some 50 feet of dependable range and a 60 Mbps throughput at that range. I am hoping that works, but it's borderline for my master bedroom. My 5 GHz wireless clients (laptops) will enjoy a 5GHz Wireless-N band offering 150 feet of range and a 200 Mbps throughput at that range. I have no idea what most of that stuff means, but I did also read that Asus could reach 300 feet and I got really excited. My mileage may vary of course and I'm sure I'm making some mistakes in my interpretation of their data. However, my Winter 2009 Time Capsule was rated by cnet.com to deliver real world performance of less than that, and 802.11AC may or may not be useful to me someday. But when this Asus arrives and provides anything other than an excellent and consistent wireless signal without drops in the master bedroom it's going right back!
Your solution sounds great, but I have some questions. I'm using OS X 10.8.2 and Airport Utility (version 6.1 610.31) and on its third tab labeled "Wireless" the top option enables you to set "Network Mode" to either:
Create a wireless network
Extend a wireless network
Off
Given your advice to "Turn off the wireless on the TC," should I set Network Mode to Off? Sorry, I'm clueless in regards to how to turn off the wireless on the TC any other way. Can you provide specific steps on how to turn off the wireless on the TC? If what I wrote is correct then what should the rest of this Wireless tab look like, or perhaps it is irrelevant when wireless is off?
Next, what do you mean by "Configure the TC in Bridge Mode?" Under Airports Utility's fourth tab labeled "Network" the top option "Router Mode" allows for either:
DHCP and Nat
DHCP Only
Off (Bridge Mode)
Is your advice to Configure the TC in Bridge Mode as simple as setting Router Mode to Off (Bridge Mode)? If yes, then what should the rest of this "Network" tab look like? Anything else involved in configuring the TC in Bridge Mode or is it really as simple as setting the Router Mode to "Off (Bridge Mode)"?
How about the other tabs in Airport Utility, can they all stay as is assuming I use the same network name and password for the new Asus wireless router? Or do I need to make any other changes to the TC via Airport Utility?
Finally, in regards to your Plan B suggestion. I agree. But do you have a Plan B for me? I would greatly appreciate any alternative you could provide. Specifically, if you needed a TC's Internet connection to reach a far off corner of your home how would you do it? In the master bedroom I need both a wired Ethernet connection for the Denon a/v receiver and wireless Internet connection for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Power-Line Adapters - High Cost, Blocks at Least One Wall Outlet and Does Not Solve the Wireless Need
I actually like exactly one power-line adapter, which is the D-Link DHP-540 PowerLine AV 500 4-Port Gigabit Switch. This D-Link power-line adapter plugs into your wall outlet with a normal sized plug (regular standard power cord much like any other electronic device) instead of all of the other recommended power-line adapters that not only use at least one wall outlet but also often block the second outlet. You cannot use a power strip with a power-line adapter which is very impractical for me. And everything about my home is strange and upside down. The wiring here is a disaster and I don't have faith in its ability to carry Internet access from the living room to the master bedroom. And this D-Link power-line adapter costs $90 each and I need at least two to make the connection to the Denon A/V receiver. So, $180 on this solution and I still don't have a dependable drop free wireless connection in the master bedroom. The Denon might get its Ethernet Internet connection from the power-line adapter, but if I want to use an iPhone 4 or iPod Touch to stream AirPlay music to the Denon wirelessly (Pandora/iTunes, etc.) from the master bedroom the wireless connection will not be stable in there and I've already spent $190 on just the two power-line adapters needed.
Extenders / Repeaters / Wirelessly Extending the Wireless Network
I have also read great things about the Amped Wireless High Power Wireless-N 600mW Gigabit Dual Band Range Extender (Repeater) SR20000G and the My Net Wi-Fi Range Extender. The former is very powerful and the latter is easier to install. Both cost about $150 ish so similar to a new Asus router. However, everything I read about Range Extenders points to them not being very effective for a far off corner of your house wherein it's apparently hard to place the range extender in the sweet spot where it both gets a strong enough signal to actually effectively extend the wireless signal and otherwise does not reduce network throughput speeds to unacceptable speeds.
Creating a Roaming Network By Hard Wiring with Ethernet Cable - Wife Would Say, "**** No!"
Even Apple seems to warn against wirelessly extending your network (see: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4145#) and otherwise strongly recommends a roaming network where Ethernet cable is used to connect two wireless base stations. However, I am in an apartment where stringing together two wireless base stations with Ethernet cable would have an extremely low wife acceptance factor (WAF). I cannot (both contractually and from a skill prospective) hide Ethernet wire in the walls or ceiling. And having visible Ethernet cable running from room-to-room would be unacceptable, especially to the wife.
So what is left? Do you have a Plan B for me? Thanks in advance for your help!

Can I exclude places.sqlite from time machine backup?

Hi,
Just looking at the time machine backup and raised a question about the repeated backup of places.sqlite in "~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/xxxxxxxx.default/", I am wondering if I can exclude this file from my backup or even exclude Profiles from my backup?
What would this affect my backup? Are these all essentials?
I have looked into this page and understand what places.sqlite does. However, what don't know is if this file is missing, does Firefox produce one automatically?
Or say, if each of my places.sqlite in the prevoius backups was like 90MB, how much size would them really take in the storage?

Alvyn wrote:
Thus, I am thinking if this "places.sqlite" thing is there every hour putting around 100MB to my time capsule, quickly my time capsule will be depleted.
No, that's very small.
Is there any way to do something like trimming time points from time capsule?
Under normal circumstances, you shouldn't have to. TM automatically "thins" (deletes) backups every time it does a new backup, on the following schedule:
"Hourly" backups after 24 hours (except the first of the day, which is a "Daily" backup).
"Daily" backups after a month (except the first of each week, which is a "Weekly" backup.)
"Weekly" backups are kept until TM needs the space for new backups; then one or more of the oldest weeklies will be deleted.
So after a month, even if you do an hourly backup every day, and that 100 mb file is changed and backed-up +*every time+* (not real likely), you'd have 54 backups (1 per day plus 24). That would take a total of 5.4 GB, small potatoes on any TM drive, and really not worth worrying about.
But if you want, you could delete all the backups of it. See #12 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

Time Machine: Backup folder changing size when connected to different computers

Can someone please help me wrap my head around why the size of my Time Machine backup folder changes when connected to different computers? I tried to be as thorough as possible. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this.
I made a backup of my one laptop (MacBook Pro running 10.6.8) before installing Mavericks. The backup folder size is 258.56 GB and it is on a 1TB WD external. There are no other computers backed up in this folder.
Last night, I tried to copy the backup folder to another 1TB WD external and ran into the “you can’t do that” message. After some researching, I came across articles explaining how Time Machine handles HDs and, in order for me to copy my backup folder, the drive I want to copy the folder to needs to have the “Ignore ownership on this volume” deselected.
Okay, so here is my situation: I have the “Ignore ownership on this volume” deselected and journaling is correct on the drive I want to copy the backup folder to. So I can continue working on my laptop, I want to use a different computer to copy the backup folder from one HD to the other. The problem I’m having is each computer I own is showing me a different backup folder size O.o.
(1) The computer I want to use – a Power Mac G5 Quad running 10.4.11 (non intel) – is showing a backup folder size of 592.7 MB, but the HD shows there is 258 GB being used. When I drag copy, I only get a 592.7 MB backup folder. For some reason, the backup folder is the only folder acting this way. I compared other folders from the same and different externals and all the sizes match up perfectly no matter the computer they were connected to. How is this possible?
(2) My second option - Mac Pro (early 2009) running 10.9.4 – is showing a 256.15 GB backup folder size. Very close, but not 258.56 GB.
(3) My last option is to use the computer I’m trying to stay away from, the MacBook Pro running 10.6.8. This is the computer I backed up and is showing me the correct folder size = 258.56GB. As I mentioned, I'd like to work on my laptop while copying the backup folder using one of my other computers.
I am able to drag and drop from each computer, but the folder size depends on the computer I’m using. I don’t understand why I can't do a simple drag and drop of a 258 GB folder.
Many thanks!!

The directory files that you are seeing are not real. They are links to the actual backup files that are stored in a hidden directory on the drive. If you were to look at the same drive on a pc, you would see the folders and you would a list files that are in the folders but the files would all be 0 byte files and Windows will tell you the file is empty because there is nothing there but a link which Windows does not understand.
So the point is you can't just copy the backupd files. The best solution that I know of (and maybe someone else will chime in) for copying them is to mirror the drive with something like Carbon Copy or some other program.
See this site for more information about time machine and how it works: http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

"No such file or directory" errors on Time Machine backup volume

I remotely mounted the Time Machine backup volume onto another Mac and was looking around it in a Terminal window and discovered what appeared to be a funny problem. If I "cd" into some folders (but not all) and do a "ls -la" command, I get a lot of "No such file or directory" errors for all the subfolders, but all the files look fine. Yet if I go log onto the Mac that has the backup volume mounted as a local volume, these errors never appear for the exact same location. Even more weird is that if I do "ls -a" everything appears normal on both systems (no error messages anyway).
It appears to be the case that the folders that have the problem are folders that Time Machine has created as "hard links" to other folders which is something that Time Machine does and is only available as of Mac OS X 10.5 and is the secret behind how it avoids using up disk space for files that are the same in the different backups.
I moved the Time Machine disk to the second Mac and mounted the volume locally onto it (the second Mac that was showing the problems), so that now the volume is local to it instead of a remote mounted volume via AFP and the problem goes away, and if I do a remote mount on the first Mac of the Time Machine volume the problem appears on the first Mac system that was OK - so basically by switching the volume the problem switches also on who shows the "no such file or directory" errors.
Because of the way the problem occurs, ie only when the volume is remote mounted, it would appear to be an issue with AFP mounted volumes that contain these "hard links" to folders.
There is utility program written by Amit Singh, the fella who wrote the "Mac OS X Internals" book, called hfsdebug (you can get it from his website if you want - just do a web search for "Mac OS X Internals hfsdebug" if you want to find it ). If you use it to get a little bit more info on what's going on, it shows a lot of details about one of the problematic folders. Here is what things look like on the first Mac (mac1) with the Time Machine locally mounted:
mac1:xxx me$ pwd
/Volumes/MyBackups/yyy/xxx
mac1:xxx me$ ls -a
. .DS_Store D2
.. Documents D3
mac1:xxx me$ ls -lai
total 48
280678 drwxr-xr-x 5 me staff 204 Jan 20 01:23 .
282780 drwxr-xr-x 12 me staff 442 Jan 17 14:03 ..
286678 -rw-r--r--@ 1 me staff 21508 Jan 19 10:43 .DS_Store
135 drwxrwxrwx 91 me staff 3944 Jan 7 02:53 Documents
729750 drwx------ 104 me staff 7378 Jan 15 14:17 D2
728506 drwx------ 19 me staff 850 Jan 14 09:19 D3
mac1:xxx me$ hfsdebug Documents/ | head
<Catalog B-Tree node = 12589 (sector 0x18837)>
path = MyBackups:/yyy/xxx/Documents
# Catalog File Record
type = file (alias, directory hard link)
indirect folder = MyBackups:/.HFS+ Private Directory Data%000d/dir_135
file ID = 728505
flags = 0000000000100010
. File has a thread record in the catalog.
. File has hardlink chain.
reserved1 = 0 (first link ID)
mac1:xxx me$ cd Documents
mac1:xxx me$ ls -a | head
.DS_Store
.localized
.parallels-vm-directory
.promptCache
ACPI
ActivityMonitor2010-12-1710p32.txt
ActivityMonitor2010-12-179pxx.txt
mac1:Documents me$ ls -lai | head
total 17720
135 drwxrwxrwx 91 me staff 3944 Jan 7 02:53 .
280678 drwxr-xr-x 5 me staff 204 Jan 20 01:23 ..
144 -rw-------@ 1 me staff 39940 Jan 15 14:27 .DS_Store
145 -rw-r--r-- 1 me staff 0 Oct 20 2008 .localized
146 drwxr-xr-x 2 me staff 68 Feb 17 2009 .parallels-vm-directory
147 -rwxr-xr-x 1 me staff 8 Mar 20 2010 .promptCache
148 drwxr-xr-x 2 me staff 136 Aug 28 2009 ACPI
151 -rw-r--r-- 1 me staff 6893 Dec 17 10:36 A.txt
152 -rw-r--r--@ 1 me staff 7717 Dec 17 10:54 A9.txt
So you can see from the first few lines of the "ls -a" command, it shows some file/folders but you can't tell which yet. The next "ls -la" command shows which names are files and folders - that there are some folders (like ACPI) and some files (like A.txt and A9.txt) and all looks normal. And the "hfsdebug" info shows some details of what is really happening in the "Documents" folder, but more about that in a bit.
And here are what a "ls -a" and "ls -al" look like for the same locations on the second Mac (mac2) where the Time Machine volume is remote mounted:
mac2:xxx me$ pwd
/Volumes/MyBackups/yyy/xxx
mac2:xxx me$ ls -a
. .DS_Store D2
.. Documents D3
mac2:xxx me$ ls -lai
total 56
280678 drwxr-xr-x 6 me staff 264 Jan 20 01:23 .
282780 drwxr-xr-x 13 me staff 398 Jan 17 14:03 ..
286678 -rw-r--r--@ 1 me staff 21508 Jan 19 10:43 .DS_Store
728505 drwxrwxrwx 116 me staff 3900 Jan 7 02:53 Documents
729750 drwx------ 217 me staff 7334 Jan 15 14:17 D2
728506 drwx------ 25 me staff 806 Jan 14 09:19 D3
mac2:xxx me$ cd Documents
mac2:Documents me$ ls -a | head
.DS_Store
.localized
.parallels-vm-directory
.promptCache
ACPI
ActivityMonitor2010-12-1710p32.txt
ActivityMonitor2010-12-179pxx.txt
mac2:Documents me$ ls -lai | head
ls: .parallels-vm-directory: No such file or directory
ls: ACPI: No such file or directory
... many more "ls: ddd: No such file or directory" error messages appear - there is a one-to-one
correspondence between the "ddd" folders and the "no such file or directory" error messages
total 17912
728505 drwxrwxrwx 116 me staff 3900 Jan 7 02:53 .
280678 drwxr-xr-x 6 me staff 264 Jan 20 01:23 ..
144 -rw-------@ 1 me staff 39940 Jan 15 14:27 .DS_Store
145 -rw-r--r-- 1 me staff 0 Oct 20 2008 .localized
147 -rwxr-xr-x 1 me staff 8 Mar 20 2010 .promptCache
151 -rw-r--r-- 1 me staff 6893 Dec 17 10:36 A.txt
152 -rw-r--r--@ 1 me staff 7717 Dec 17 10:54 A9.txt
If you look very close a hint as to what is going on is obvious - the inode for the Documents folder is 152 on the local mounted case (the first set of code above for mac1), and it's 728505 in the remote mounted case for mac2. So it appears that these "hard links" to folders have an extra level of folder that is hidden from you and that AFP fails to take into account, and that is what the "hfsdebug" shows even better as you can clearly see the REAL location of the Documents folder is in something called "/.HFS+ Private Directory Data%000d/dir_135" that is not even visible to the shell. And if you look closely in the remote mac2 case, when I did the "cd Documents" I don't go into the inode 135, but into the inode 728505 (look close at the "." entry for the "ls -la" commands on both mac1 and mac2) which is the REAL problem, but have no idea how to get AFP to follow the extra level of indirection.
Anyone have any ideas how to fix this so that "ls -l" commands don't generate these "no such file or folder" messages?
I am guessing that the issue is really something to do with AFP (Apple File Protocol) mounted remote volumes. The TimeMachine example is something that I used as an example that anyone could verify the problem. The real problem for me has nothing to do with Time Machine, but has to do with some hard links to folders that I created on another file system totally separate from the Time Machine volume. They exhibit the same problem as these Time Machine created folders, so am pretty sure the problem has nothing to do with how I created hard links to folders which is not doable normally without writing a super simple little 10 line program using the link() system call - do a "man 2 link" if you are curious how it works.
I'm well aware of the issues and the conditions when they can and can't be used and the potential hazards. I have an issue in which they are the best way to solve a problem. And after the problem was solved, is when I noticed this issue that appears to be a by-product of using them.
Do not try these hard links to folders on your own without knowing what they're for and how to use them and not use them. They can cause real problems if not used correctly. So if you decide to try them out and you loose some files or your entire drive, don't say I didn't warn you first.
Thanks ...
-Bob

The problem is Mac to Mac - the volume that I'm having the issue with is not related in any way to Time Machine or to TimeCapsule. The reference to TIme Machine is just to illustrate the problem exists outside of my own personal work with hard links to folders on HFS Extended volumes (case-sensitive in this particular case in case that matters).
I'm not too excited about the idea of snooping AFP protocol to discover anything that might be learned there.
The most significant clue that I've seen so far has to do with the inode numbers for the two folders shown in the Terminal window snippets in the original post. The local mounted case uses the inode=728505 of the problematic folder which is in turn linked to the hidden original inode of 135 via the super-secret /.HFS+... folder that you can't see unless using something like the "hfsdebug" program I mentioned.
The remote mounted case uses the inode=728505 but does not make the additional jump to the inode=135 which is where lower level folders appear to be physically stored.
Hence the behavior that is seen - the local mounted case is happy and shows what would be expected and the remote mounted case shows only files contained in the problem folder but not lower-level folders or their contents.
From my little knowledge of how these inode entries really work, I think that they are some sort of linked list chain of values, so that you have to follow the entire chain to get at what you're looking for. If the chain is broken somewhere along the line or not followed correctly, things like this can happen. I think this is a case of things not being followed correctly, as if it were a broken chain problem then the local mounted case would have problems also.
But the information for this link in the chain is there (from 728505 to the magic-135) but for some reason AFP doesn't make this extra jump.
Yesterday I heard back from Apple tech support and they have confirmed this problem and say that it is a "implementation limitation" with the AFP client. I think it's a bug, but that will have to be up to Apple to decide now that it's been reported. I just finished reporting this as a bug via the Apple Bug Reporter web site -- it's bug id 8926401 if you want to keep track it.
Thanks for the insights...
-Bob

Authenticating with a Time Machine backup shared from Server

Hi everyone. I'm in a real tight spot here, so I'll be greatfull for any help you can give...
Last night I was going to attempt to partition for a BootCamp install, when the Yosemite install on my Mid 2010 MBP decided to report inconsistently on the amount of free space left on the system drive (Finder said one thing, Disk Utility another). Because of this, I it didn't matter how much space I freed up by deleting stuff, Disk Utility didn't recognize the new free space, so I couldn't create a large enough partition blah blah. Anyways, I couldn't repair permissions while booted in to the OS...oh dear. Reboot in to the Recovery partition and attempted to repair permissions from there, but that failed and advised me to format and reinstall. So that's what I tried to do.
I've got a Mid 2012 Mac Mini setup as a Server, with an external USB HDD configured as a Time Machine backup disk, which is shared over my network. Having formatted my MBP, I had no local Recovery partition left, so I booted in to the Internet Recovery mode. Restore From a Time Machine Backup couldn't see my shared Time Machine drive. Pretty odd. So I re-installed Yosemite, booted in to the fresh local Recovery partition and tried again. This time it could see my Time Machine backup drive. Great! Only problem is, when I highlight the drive and click Continue, it asks me to authenticate with the server and pre-populates the Username field with "root". Trouble is, the root user on my server was not enabled. Weird. So I tried the credentials of my administrator account on the Server. Failed. tried several other sets of credentials. Failed. Logged on to the server, enabled root user, set a password, rebooted the MBP and tried the new root user credentials for the enabled root user account on the server. Failed.
So my question is, ***?! Any ideas?
FYI, I did also try simply connecting the external disk that host my Time Machine backups, directly to the MBP but, of course, it couldn't see it. Probably because the folder structure is different to what the OS expects for a local disk, since it's configured as a share (/Shared Item/Time Machine Backups or what ever). I'm reluctant to go down the route of mucking about with the backup drive at this point, hence why I've come here.

Yea, I've opened it up to everyone and ensured it's shared over SMB and AFP. Opened up to the world! Well, locally at least.
I've had another stab at it tonight. I'm not sure if it is an authentication issue after all, because if I just type in gibberish credentials, the dialogue box shakes to signify that those credentials have been disallowed. However, if I type a know set of credentials in for the server (in this case the servers admin credentials) then I get the following message...
"There was a problem connecting to the server "server-name.local.". Check the server name or IP address, and then try again. If you continue to have problems, contact your system administrator"
FYI, I have committed my actually server name and replaced it with "server-name.local" is for illustrative purposes.
I checked that I could ping server-name.local from Terminal while booted in to the Recovery partition, over both Wi-Fi and Ethernet, which I can, without dropped packets. This is really starting to worry me now.
Any idea what I can restructure the folder structure on the backup drive, such that it will be visible to the Mac over USB? I'm weary of trying this method, as I really don't want to stuff my backup up and I don't have a an additional, sufficiently large enough, external disk to make a backup of the backup. Running out of options :-/
PLEASE HELP!

Authenticating with a Time Machine backup shared by Server

Hi everyone. I'm in a real tight spot here, so I'll be greatfull for any help you can give...
Last night I was going to attempt to partition for a BootCamp install, when the Yosemite install on my Mid 2010 MBP decided to report inconsistently on the amount of free space left on the system drive (Finder said one thing, Disk Utility another). Because of this, I it didn't matter how much space I freed up by deleting stuff, Disk Utility didn't recognize the new free space, so I couldn't create a large enough partition blah blah. Anyways, I couldn't repair permissions while booted in to the OS...oh dear. Reboot in to the Recovery partition and attempted to repair permissions from there, but that failed and advised me to format and reinstall. So that's what I tried to do.
I've got a Mid 2012 Mac Mini setup as a Server, with an external USB HDD configured as a Time Machine backup disk, which is shared over my network. Having formatted my MBP, I had no local Recovery partition left, so I booted in to the Internet Recovery mode. Restore From a Time Machine Backup couldn't see my shared Time Machine drive. Pretty odd. So I re-installed Yosemite, booted in to the fresh local Recovery partition and tried again. This time it could see my Time Machine backup drive. Great! Only problem is, when I highlight the drive and click Continue, it asks me to authenticate with the server and pre-populates the Username field with "root". Trouble is, the root user on my server was not enabled. Weird. So I tried the credentials of my administrator account on the Server. Failed. tried several other sets of credentials. Failed. Logged on to the server, enabled root user, set a password, rebooted the MBP and tried the new root user credentials for the enabled root user account on the server. Failed.
So my question is, ***?! Any ideas?
FYI, I did also try simply connecting the external disk that host my Time Machine backups, directly to the MBP but, of course, it couldn't see it. Probably because the folder structure is different to what the OS expects for a local disk, since it's configured as a share (/Shared Item/Time Machine Backups or what ever). I'm reluctant to go down the route of mucking about with the backup drive at this point, hence why I've come here.

Yea, I've opened it up to everyone and ensured it's shared over SMB and AFP. Opened up to the world! Well, locally at least.
I've had another stab at it tonight. I'm not sure if it is an authentication issue after all, because if I just type in gibberish credentials, the dialogue box shakes to signify that those credentials have been disallowed. However, if I type a know set of credentials in for the server (in this case the servers admin credentials) then I get the following message...
"There was a problem connecting to the server "server-name.local.". Check the server name or IP address, and then try again. If you continue to have problems, contact your system administrator"
FYI, I have committed my actually server name and replaced it with "server-name.local" is for illustrative purposes.
I checked that I could ping server-name.local from Terminal while booted in to the Recovery partition, over both Wi-Fi and Ethernet, which I can, without dropped packets. This is really starting to worry me now.
Any idea what I can restructure the folder structure on the backup drive, such that it will be visible to the Mac over USB? I'm weary of trying this method, as I really don't want to stuff my backup up and I don't have a an additional, sufficiently large enough, external disk to make a backup of the backup. Running out of options :-/
PLEASE HELP!

Migration Assistant Mav.: not showing ML Time Machine backup

Hi Mac community,
my own MBP mid 2010:
clean install of Mavericks
connected FireWire 800 external hard disk with recent Time Machine backup done in Mountain Lion
started Migration Assistant, selected the Time Machine disk, and transferred all user data
everything worked absolutely PERFECTLY and now Mavericks runs smoothly with all my old user data
So I wanted to do the same thing with a relative's late 2009 iMac:
still in Mountain Lion, doing Time Machine backups to TWO different USB 2.0 hard disks
browsing the Time Machine disks manually to check whether all the files are there -- they are, including the (hidden) ~/Library folder
clean install worked fine, Mavericks runs OK
starting Migration Assistant in Mavericks ⇒ and - OH HORROR - the connected external Time Machine hard disk does not show up as a source - in fact, NOTHING shows up
So I copied over the data manually, for which I had to enable the root account (how else would one delete/replace a whole ~/Library folder??)
Then I tried to fix permissions manually (because other users could now read the files in the home folder).
All the old data (mails, contacts, calendars) is still there, but the whole thing doesn't really run smoothly; each time one logs into the account, keychain asks weird questions and dock icons pointing to programs show questions marks again. Later today, I'll try to fix permissions for the home folder as a whole (Recovery Boot ⇒ Terminal ⇒ resetpassword ⇒ Reset Home Folder Permissions and ACLs), but I'd rather do another clean install and somehow get Migration Assistant to offer me the Time Machine backup as a source for user data transfer - AS IT SHOULD in an OS that 'just works' ...
Anything I could do to convince Mavericks to use my old Time Machine backup??
This is a real nightmare for me ⇒ I f*cked up a relative's system -- really hope I can fix it again.
Cheers, folks!

sorry, i don't know what else it could be then. if you have another external drive you can try doing a full system restore from the TM backups onto that drive and see if MA will recognize that drive and migrate from it. other than this there is always manual migration. slow and tedious but it can be done. see this link for help with that
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6185507

Time Machine backup? pictures and external hard drive

I know this question has been asked before but I just wanted to make sure of something. Does a basic Time Machine backup backup all photos? And also a real basic question-- Is a Apple Time Capsule the same as a external hard drive?

You can save the pictures in Time Machine backup.. that is not a problem and what the TC is designed for.
You cannot off load the pictures from the internal disk of the computer and use the Time Capsule as the drive for a running library.. that is when it will get corrupted.. if you need more space for a library use External drive that plugs in by USB or FW or Thunderbolt. And it must be formatted standard Mac OS extend journaled.. then Time Machine can backup the drive to the Time Capsule.
I should also use the language more carefully.. the TC is fine for files even of pictures.. but it is unsuitable for an iphoto library or aperture library. I am always assuming on a Mac when people talk about pictures then they mean a library.. but if you save raw pictures from the camera onto a TC directly that is fine. The only issue that then arises is no automated backups.. TC is not a NAS in the normal sense of the word.. Every NAS has a built automated backup.. TC does not. You also cannot backup files on the TC using TM.. it was designed as a Target for Time Machine backups Not as a source. There are other backup products that will work.. but then you will need to figure out where to back up file to.. and the worst possible place is the USB on the TC.

How can I move (copy) my Time Capsule date to a new 2T hard drive and then wipe the TC and start as a new (clean) Time MACHINE backup?

How can I move (copy) my Time Capsule date to a new 2T hard drive and then wipe the TC and start as a new (clean) Time MACHINE backup?

Just use the archive utility on the disk page of the airport utility manual setup..
If you have lion and v6 airport utility.. it missed out. On lots of things.
Download and install the real.. UTILITY
5.6 http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482

How to restore, associate, ??? Time Machine backups prior to HD going bad?

Greetings. I hope someone can help me. Soon. Real soon!
So on our office iMac we have an external HD for time machine.
Last week the HD inside the iMac failed. I guess it was one that had been identified by Apple as in a bad crop..... so Apple kindly replaced the failed drive.
But here is my problem: We were previously running on Mountain Lion. One of the major apps we use is a Windows app that runs under Parallels.
When the HD was replaced, the Tech who did the work I guess did not realize we have a Time Machine. So he put in the new disk and installed Mavericks on it. He said he recovered as much off the failed disk as possible, but we see nothing from before.
Anyway, so now the computer's name is different. The OS is different. Only the HD has the same name: Macintosh HD and of course, all the hardware is what we had previously, except the HD.
So when the computer was put back into service, Time Machine was turned on. :-(
We had a bear of a time reinstalling Parallels and a newer version of Windows than what we had before.
We can access the data that was on the old Time Machine backups via the Finder, except the critical information we need from the backups resides in on the virtual C: drive that mounts when that Parallels app [used to] runs.
If I try to recover or Migrate from the Time Machine drive, the only backup files that are available to me are those that have been made since the HD replacement.
Is the ANY WAY to turn back the clock to restore from the OLD TM backups?
I tried using the tmutil associatedisk command in Terminal, but that seems to have not done anything for me either.
Any assistance or advice would REALLY REALLY be greatly appreciated!

Have a look at this thread I posted in earlier and the various links in Pondini's excellent Time Machine resource I linked to:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/20367932#20367932

Best Setup for Lion Server Time Machine Backup with Drobo?

I've been thinking about this a lot, yet I don't feel I have a good solution for this, so I'm going to throw it out to the community.
I have a home server setup using a Mac Mini running Lion Server 10.7.2 with a Firewire 800 Drobo attached. The Drobo is used for both Time Machine backups and files. I also have a Powerbook G4 running Leopard and a MacBook 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with Lion 10.7.2 which connect to the Server and the Drobo wirelessly thorugh an Airport Extreme.
I want to use Time Machine to have all of my computers back up to the server & Drobo, but realize there are several ways to go, each with their pluses and minuses:
Server Time Machine Backup:
+ Centralizes backup process, rules, and other elements
+ Currently Mac Mini is backing up to the Drobo correctly using this process
+ Have setup size limit on Server backup so that it does not eat up file space
- Would combine laptop backups with server backup into one sparse image: this would lead to the computer with the largest backup needs taking up too much space
Client-Driven Time Machine Backup:
+ Allows for customization of backup processes by computer
+ Can setup specific space requirements for each computer
+ Backups are separate from each other
- Wireless backup from laptops to Drobo is not functioning currently
Any thoughts or experiences on how best to set this up? I tend to do most of my work on the MacBook, hence I am concerned about it having it's backup space eaten up by the server, but that may be more of a theoretical issue than a real one.
Thanks in advance for your help!

Well I'm not sure if I am following you but I will explain how I set mine up. When I got the Drobo I inserted 2 drives and selected the highest available volume I could (16TB). My drives are 4 TB each and I knew I would soon add 2 more. Then Drobo did its thing and prepared these drives. The Drobo shows up on my mini desktop as an external drive. When I log into my server from my other computer I can see the mini server volume and the Drobo volume. I can access each no problem. They act as regular volumes. Soon after I added the second two drives and everything stayed the same meaning I could still see and access the Drobo on the desktop of my mini. So it sounds like you used the Drobo dashboard to partition yours for two volumes? Are they both showing on the desktop?
"Maybe the Drobo needs to be mounted on the desktop to be considered AFP feature enabled." I could be wrong and hopefully someone will correct me but I think the Drobo (or volumes) have to be mounted on the desktop to work with AFP.

Check Time Machine Backup Contents

I have been manually backing up my MacBook Pro contents via drag and drop to my NAS box and have now switched to wireless Time Machine backups after an initial wired backup.
I would now like to remove my previous manual backups from the NAS so that I am not doubling up on the content that has been backed up.
My question is:
Is there a way to check the contents of the Time Machine backup on my NAS, so that I can ensure everything has been backed up and if my NAS fails then I won't lose everything?
I am currently running:
2012 MacBook Pro with fully updated Mavericks
Buffalo Linkstation LS421DE with fully updated firmware (RAID1)
Nothing has been specifically excluded from the backup by myself.
I have entered Time Machine from the MacBook and it appears that there are previous copies of all the folders that I have checked so far.
I am sure that you can appreciate how important data is.
I will then be looking at an off site backup in the form of an external hard drive that will be kept at my workplace.
Please let me know if you need any more details or if you have any recommendations regarding my set up.

Sorry to say, but from what I've read here, countless numbers of times, is that Time Machine and a NAS NEVER play well together, no matter what a NAS supplier may say.
The backups are not usually the problem - the problems seem to occur with restores. I'm hoping that those with some real-world experiences will jump in here - you may want to include the fact that you're using a NAS in your subject line.
The best way to create wireless Time Machine backups (that will actually restore, if needed) is to purchase the newest Airport Extreme and hang drives to it. Only the newest one will work.
It's fine to use a drag and drop method of backup to your NAS, but don't count on using Time Machine with it. It simply is not reliable or recommended, as I've read so many times.
As I said, you may want to compose a new header for your message - you're sure to get responses from folks who have used a NAS with varying results. But PLEASE don't just take my word on it - reach out to those who have used a NAS and Time Machine. You may find that there's better software to use with your NAS: my information is strictly second-hand.
Good luck,
Clinton

Trouble restoring from Time Machine backup

Hi all,
I've reached the limits of my ingenuity trying to restore a troublesome Time Machine backup, so I'm here to ask for some guidance. To start at the beginning: I corrupted my Macbook Pro's internal hard drive somehow, possibly by jarring loose a RAM chip while the computer was asleep. I removed and reseated the RAM, reformatted the hard drive, and reinstalled OSX from the install DVD, all the way back to Snow Leopard, then re-upgraded to Mountain Lion. So far, so good.
The current problems began when I tried to restore my system from my Time Machine backup (store on a 500GB external hard drive, which was actually the original MBP hard drive which I replaced and chucked into a Transcend StoreJet enclosure). The restore proceeded for about half an hour, then failed with a SIGSEGV plus an "Error -36", data could not be read from "". This occurred during the OSX installation, where I decided to skip the restore at first, and also later when I invoked the Migration Assistant.
I began to copy the files manually, first using the Time Machine interface, and later with a straight "cp -r" on my home directory. Similar errors ensued: I got a popup error message saying that the data could not be read, and also that the Time Machine disk was removed improperly, data might be lost, etc. I ran a "Repair Disk" on the external drive, and with "cp" was able to copy about 1/3 of my data; however, after an hour, the copy operation crashed again with a "disk removed improperly" error. After two or three times removing and re-plugging in the external hard drive, the disk no longer mounted, and Disk Utility says that it cannot repair the disk.
Now, my real question is, I was able to plug the bare Time Machine hard drive into an Ubuntu desktop via SATA, and the disk mounts and I can browse the file system without error. So, can anybody help me understand (a) what exactly is wrong with the external hard drive that OSX can't deal with it, but Ubuntu can, and (b) how I might efficiently recover the files off of the external hard drive? Regarding (a), could the issue be related to the hard drive enclosure? Regarding (b), I can see all of my files in Ubuntu, but Ubuntu doesn't recognize the hard links, and so the actual files are organized randomly in thousands of Time Machine directories; sorting these would be a true nightmare!
Sorry for the novel, and thanks in advance for any help!

OK, I have a partial solution. A kind fellow has written a virtual filesystem for Linux specifically to read Time Machine drives: https://github.com/abique/tmfs. Simply installing this utility allows me to browse the hard link structure of Time Machine without manually delving into the '.HFS+\ Private\ Directory\ Data^M' folders. I'm currently copying out all of the files onto a second external hard drive, and hopefully this will recovery my data. A bazillion thanks to abique!
Of course, this doesn't track down my hardware problem, but I think it's best to retire this external hard drive entirely. I think the problem is with the drive or the enclosure and not with my MBP, since I attempted to copy the data onto a different MBP and had the same errors.
Steps:
- Install TMFS, available in the Ubuntu Software Manager.
- Find the initial mount point of the Time Machine drive. For me, it was /media/<username>/<long string of random letters and numbers>.
- Re-mount the time machine drive using the virtual filesystem. I also had to make a folder corresponding to the new mount point by hand, for some reason:
> sudo mkdir /mnt/tm-root
> sudo tmfs /media/username/4be78be9-cc68-32b4-9683-72c2209d11be /mnt/tm-root -ouid=$(id -u),gid=$(id -g),allow_other
- The Time Machine partition is now browsable (read-only) at /mnt/tm-root in a terminal, instead of not recognizing the hard links.

Time Machine backup in real time?

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