Can I limit the amount of Time Machine backups?

Is it possible to limit the amount of Time Machine backups? I have a 2 tb drive to store back ups...it's nearly full. I'd like to use the drive for other things as well.
Hope this makes sense.

Ohhh, no way!!
Pondini died?????? I just talked to him a couple weeks ago it seems.

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Can OS 10.7 limit the number of Time Machine backups

I'm using a 2TB Western Digital My Book Live to backup my 2011 MacBook Pro on a home network that's shared with Windows 7 machines. Can I limit the size of my Time Machine Backup to 500GB or limit the number of backups?

Falcon27453 wrote:
re: samberl's suggestion;
You can limit the size of the TM backup by using this automator script.
http://code.google.com/p/backmyfruitup/downloads/detail?name=CreateBackupVolume. zip
Has anyone else either used this suggestion... or can offier any input? Pardon the comment... but the mod worried me a wee bit.
No. Hacks worry me in general, and the deeper inside the OS they dig, the more I'd be worried. Here's why. It's not a matter of if they become a problem, it's when. The OS will continue to change. That's a given. As it does, they absolutely do not take into consideration accomodating hacks. In fact, there have been circumstances where they have gone far out of their way to make sure hacks do not work in future updates. Trusting your data backups to that scenario??? No thanks. And yes, the same continuous update situation is true of any software (it doesn't even have to be third-party, as we've seen many times), but software apps more in the mainstream continue to be updated, while hacks . . . .

How can I limit the amount of time my Safari Browser remains open?

Since I live way out in the country, I am limited to EXEDE ViaSat, for internet. I know it is archaic to pay for limited data, but I'm stuck with it. On my iPad, I can limit the time my browser is open, so it closes automatically if I'm not using it. My iMac (OS X Maverick 10.9.5 - using Safari 7.1.4) stays open and burns up data like crazy. I looked, in Safari Preferences, and can't find any place to limit the time the browser stays open. Can someone, please, help me do that? Thanks.

Thanks for responding babowa. Actually, if my husband or I forget to shut down the browser, and walk away - even though nothing is happening - it continues to use data. Just today, we blew through 2GB, and we're only actively using the browser for about 15 minutes. I left the browser open for my husband, but he didn't get to it, and it didn't get shut it down.
Hitting Command Q isn't really a solution, for us. If we remember, we click the red button in the upper left corner, of the browser page and it closes the browser. The problem is, sometimes we forget to close the browser and it continues to use data. On my iPad and cell phone, it automatically closes the browser after 30 seconds. I'm looking for a way to to that on my iMac.

HT201250 Can I change the schedule of time machine backups?

Time Machine is great but is there a way to change it so that it backs up at the end of every day (instead of every hour). I have found some software available that will edit the setup (free online) but would rather use something Apple 'guaranteed'!

Ohhh, no way!!
Pondini died?????? I just talked to him a couple weeks ago it seems.

I have created a new partition on the Mac HD for Lion as I would like to dual boot. Do I need to install Snow Leopard on that partition before installing Lion? If so, can I use one of my Time Machine backups to do this?

I have created a new partition on the Mac HD for Lion as I would like to dual boot. Do I need to install Snow Leopard on that partition before installing Lion? If so, can I use one of my Time Machine backups to do this?

zoominnana wrote:
Can I set up 2 different time capsule backups? one for the lion partition and one for the snow leopard partition?
No, you can't partition a Time Capsule's internal HD. Both partitions will back up to the same sparse bundle. keeping the backups for each partition separate.
Time Machine will not take the two OSX partitions as two different computers, but for best results, exclude the Snow Leopard drive from backups on the Lion partition, and exclude the Lion partition from backups on the Snow Leopard partition.
There may be some files on the Lion partition that Time Machine on Snow Leopard won't like, among other things. See #10 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions for details.

Can't unlock the lock on Time Machine

I Can't unlock the lock on Time Machine, Security, Accounts, or Startup Disk prefPanes?
This occured after the last update to OS 10.6.8. Repaired the disk Permitions.The problem remains.......
Does anyone know how to solve the problem?
I

I Can't unlock the lock on Time Machine, Security, Accounts, or Startup Disk prefPanes?
This occured after the last update to OS 10.6.8. Repaired the disk Permitions.The problem remains.......
Does anyone know how to solve the problem?
I

Can I increase the capacity of Time Machine with an external hard drive connected to Time Capsule?

Can I increase the capacity of Time Machine with an external hard drive connected to Time Capsule via the USB port? My current Time Machine has a total capacity of 1TB. I'd like to double or triple its memory. I don't want to use the external hard drive in lieu of the Time Capsule hard drive. I'd like to use it in addition to. Just don't know if/how it's possible.
This is another one of those questions that I've searched the web for answers, and have gotten tricky answers back. So now I'm trying to introduce a clean slate to the mix.
Thank you for your time!

Well, what you mentioning is possible. However, I don't know whether it's supported (as in, "easy to set up."). Time Machine officially supports backing up to a locally attached drive, to a machine running a Time Machine server (i.e. running OS X Server software), and to a Time Capsule. I don't know that it officially supports a drive attached to an AirPort or to a Time Capsule. Though I know some people have gotten it to work.
Best I can say is to try it. Plug the drive into the Time Capsule, ensure it's shared on the network, and then try and set it as a backup target from a machine in the Time Machine backup panel (you'll need to ensure it's mounted first). If it works, you're all set.

Can you limit the amount of data accessed per user on an AirPort Extreme?

Can you limit the amount of data accessed per user on an AirPort Extreme?

Your question was whether the AirPort Extreme is able to establish data limits per user.
If you add another router that has this type of capability or install software on another router, then you will be able to establish data limits for each user. The AirPort Extreme will have no control over this.

Can Yosemite read a snow leopard Time Machine backup

Can Yosemite read a snow leopard Time Machine backup. Once I installed Lion over SL and it was a disaster since I could not get any docs or photos back, so had to put SL back on my old iMac.
Will 10.10 give the same problem or is there a way to migrate the old 10.6.8 data to 10.10?
Thanks

Yes, you can do that. The only limitation is that you can't encrypt the backup volume.

Can I move all data from time machine backup to another external drive & work from it?

Hi all, the harddrive on my macbook died (2nd time in a year) & I had a new one put in that's much smaller than the old one. Can I move everything from my time machine backup onto a seperate external drive and work directly from that on my laptop/imac? At the mo. I don't think time machine will recognise my computer as it's a new drive etc. Thanks Jenny.

What exactly do you want to do?
Is it that you wish to extract an older version of some documents to edit, but leave the original intact?
You can Restore an older version from TM and choose not to replace the current one.
Or, do you wish to install the OS on your new drive, and migrate all the information from the TM backup to the new isntallation?
EDIT: Ok, re-reading your question, I think macjack probably has the right idea.
However, see Pondini's Time Machine FAQ # 16

How can I limit the amount of space on a Time Capsule used by Time Machine?

I know that you cannot partition a Time Capsule drive. However, I was wondering about other options for limiting the amount of space used by Time Machine so that I can use the rest of the space for other purposes.
I heard something about creating a disk image on the Time Capsule to limit the amount of space used by Time Machine. If I create a disk image, would TM just use all the space that's not part of the disk image? How do I access the disk image part? Can I manually drag and drop files to it from my Mac like any other external drive? Could I set up the disk image part to work with a Windows computer?
I've also heard things about modifying sparsebundles which I don't know anything about. How does this work? What happens to the space that is not part of the TM sparsebundle? How do I access it? Can I manually drag and drop files to it from my Mac like any other external drive? Could I set up the extra space to work with a Windows computer?

Some other things to make note of:
Some disk image formats have a maximum size and only use that size after they have had to expand to actually hold that much data. Make sure you are not using this type of image so you can guarantee the space is reserved. Sparse bundles are like this. I haven't read up on the sparse bundle trick, but I assume it's something to do with setting a maximum size for it.
When you open up the Time Capsule disk, you will first be looking at the normal storage space. When you create an image, there will be a file you click on that mounts another drive that uses space on the Time Capsule. This shows up as just one file unless you open it to see it's contents.

I have a Samsung S5, How can i increase the amount of time my phone rings?

So as stated in the Subject, I have a Samsung S5 it works really well so far, However when someone is ringing me it only rings 3 times. Is there a way i can increase the amount of times the phone rings before it goes to answer machine?

Hi,
Try this:
1. Dial *#61# and click Send. You will see your VM access number and the current ring delay time.
2. Write down the phone number displayed (including +1).
3. Dial **61*+1xxxyyyzzzz*11*30# and hit Send. +1xxxyyyzzzz is the number you wrote down previously, 30 is the delay in seconds. The delay can be set in 5 second increments, 30 is maximum.
4. Dial *#61# to verify that the new settings are active.
Thanks,

Can't start with Snow Leopard Time Machine backup in Lion

Hi,
I have seen coverage in MacWorld (http://www.macworld.com/article/161421/2011/07/migrate_time_machine_backup_to_ne w_mac_in_lion.html) of using my Snow Leopard Time Machine backup as the starting point for my Lion TM backup. This saves all my revision history of all my documents and makes them available in Lion. However, when I follow the steps given in the MacWorld article, I don't get the same set of dialog boxes and am never given the option to use a previous disk.
Any hints to getting this to work would be much appreciated.
-Eric

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.
Pondini's Time Machine FAQ

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.

Can't access library folder on Time Machine Backup

I'll try to explain this as clearly as possible...
1) I have wiped my hard drive and completed a clean install of Mavericks. I did this due to persistant problems with disc permissions that I could not eliminate.
2) I did not want to take a chance on introducing problems with migrating a profile from my Time Machine backup so instead of using Migration Assistant, I used Finder to browse the Time Machine backup I made prior to reformatting my drive to simply copy all my necessary data files back onto the drive in my newly created profile.
3) I've reinstalled the majority of programs I use and everything is looking good (no disk permission problems when I've checked using Disk Utility).
4) Mail is working just find with all my accounts having been restored using my Apple ID.
Here's the problem....
I forgot that some of my mail had been stored on my local hard drive. I beleive this mail should be in my user/library/mail folder of my time machine backup. However, I cannot access my User/Library folder in Time Machine. I've tried opening my current (new) User/Library folder in Finder and then selecting "Browse Other Backup Discs" from the Time Machine icon and, although this opens the Time Machine backups, I cannot do any time travel...in other words, although there are many stacks of folders shown in the backup, I cannot move into the past from the present.
Any suggestions on how I can get this Mail folder out of the Time Machine user/library? I know there is some stuff there that I'm going to have to get to.
Thanks!

It woked to get me into my current User/Library of my "new" profile but I cannot move back in time into the actual backups despite the timeline increments on the right side of the screen in Time Machine showing they're are backups for the past several months. I'm stuck on this moment so to speak.
Got to hit the sack...head is swimming. Thanks for the suggestions Barney. Let me know if you think of any others.

Can I limit the amount of Time Machine backups?

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