Change Time Machine backing up times?

Is there a way to either i) have Time Machine back up at night or ii) have it back up less frequently than every hour. I can hear the thing going on in the background all day long and it's beginning to get a bit annoying.

You can use Terminal to reset the time between backups. The default time is set to 3600 seconds, but you can change it to whatever you want as long as it is in seconds.
There is another app called TimeMachineScheduler which provides a bit more customization. You can set a time frame when you don't want it to backup in.
Or the app Eric suggested.
Both the Terminal process and TimeMachineScheduler app are listed in this article:
http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/02/change-the-time-machine-backup-schedule/
You can also just turn TM off and back up manually. Check the box to show TM in the menu bar and you can access it at any time easily and hit backup now.

Similar Messages

  • HT201250 How to change Time Machine back up time

    Is there a way to change the hourly Time Machine back up time to once or twice a day?

    Tidy wrote:
    Now I have my original back up on time capsule which time machine can't see and it keeps starting over again to make a new backup - so my time capsule disk shows two separate backups one the original one of 2 days ago named for my computer and a new one almost the same gigabytes (139gb) which it has called Macintosh sparse bundle ???? 
    It's possible the first one is damaged, but that seems unlikely, unless you turned the TC or Mac off while it was trying to do a backup.  But even that shouldn't cause TM to start a new one (absent any messages to that effect).  And it shouldn't be named "Macintosh" unless you've changed your computer name to that via System Prefs > Sharing.
    A clue may be lurking in your logs.  Use the widget in #A1 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting to display the backup messages from your logs.  Locate both backups in question, then copy and post all the messages for each one here. (Since the first backup has been a couple of days, the widget may not show the messages for that backup; if not, the pink box shows how to use the Console app to find them.)
    With the messages from both backups, we may be able to see what's going on.
    I'm thinking that I should just leave time cap ON and see which it backs up to then delete the other one.
    Let's see what we can find first. 
    I assume connecting iMac to time cap via Ethernet cable would not be a problem?
    Correct.  Doing the first, full backup via Ethernet is recommended.
    Also if just turning time machine off is enough to disrupt time capsule backups how about turning the iMac off, which I will have to do once in a while.
    Neither should be a problem, unless a backup is in progress and either the TC or Mac is shut down abnormally.

  • Time machine back up time schedule

    is there a way to set up time machine backup schedule at certain time(eg 2am once a day) instead of every hour?

    You cannot do that through Time Machine, but you can use a third-party application like TimeMachineEditor to do what you want. It simply modifies Time Machine, so you can choose when you want that Time Machine creates backups of your files

  • HT201250 when does time machine back up?

    I don't see an option to set when time machine backs up.

    Time Machine makes hourly backups, and there's no way to change that without hacking. There's also no good reason to change it.
    These statements are sheer nonsense. There are not only good reasons to change Time Machine's backup time frames (even if it's personal desire), but there are simple and effective means of doing it that do not adversely affect the system. Time Machine Editor is one of them, and has worked quite effectively for numerous people.
    BTW, your link you use to support your argument was quite arguably not from the use of Time Machine Editor, as the user had numerous other and true "hacks" installed that were the root of numerous console errors and problems. I'm glad the developer chimed in and investigated, and pretty much invalidated your unfounded initial claim of "the mess he created" with his program. Libel is a pretty outrageous practice.

  • How do I change permissions for the documents and files on my Mac Book Pro after I re-instaalled the HD using a Time Machine back-up?

    I had to re-install the HD on my Mac Book Pro. I used a Time Machine back-up for all the apps and files. Most were restored, However, I cannot unlock a number of them. I tried changing the permissions using Get info but it is not working. I am using the latest version of Moutain Lion OSX.

    Linc:
    Very helpful suggestion and response, Thanks for pointing out that it is a permission issue. I am working through the issue and resolving my problem.

  • Is it possible to change the read/write permissions on a time machine back-up of iTunes? I need to restore it, but old version is locked....

    Is it possible to change the read/write permissions on a time machine back-up of iTunes? I'm needing to restore it as my phone deleted half our playlists during sync  & am not seeing a way to unlock the permissions. I have the current version unlocked, but can't seem to get the backed-up version. When I click on restore I get a pop-up that says iTunes can't be deleted as it is part of the OS. I'm not even trying to delete, just restore the old version. Any suggestions?

    Hmmm, ok I'll give it a shot. I've always had the iTunes sync w/ my phone set up to only load selected playlists to the phone b/c there's a lot more in iTunes than I have room or desire for on my phone. A few months back I started having trouble w/ trying to sync everything & subsequently adding more to the phone than it could hold. The quickest thing at the time was to unclick the sync music option in iTunes so I could still backup the phone to the computer & not have a problem.
    When I asked about it during one-to-one session shortly after, they advised me to delete the music off my phone & then re-sync it to the computer, run a backup of the phone & redownload the music to the phone. When I tried this it ended up deleting all my playlists (but not my husband's) from iTunes. Irritating, but I've been rebuilding the playlists since. I had also unclicked sync music again & an Apple person told me the most likely best fix was to delete & reload iTunes completely.
    A few days ago I realized I hadn't backed up the phone to the computer in over a month so after deleting & reinstalling iTunes, & w/o changing anything (sync music was STILL unchecked) I ran a backup & my phone went from having 4 GB free space to being 2 GB over capacity due to iTunes trying to download the entire music library to the phone. I made a one-to-one appt again & it was suggested AGAIN that I delete all the music off my phone & then resync it to the computer & redownload the music. We did this (though a few random songs that had previously been purchased somehow remained on the phone), I got home, connected the phone & instead of the music that shows  as 'on my device' disappearing from iTunes it just sat there, so, as the guy had told me I MIGHT have to do, I threw all those songs showing in iTunes as being on my phone, in the trash so that it was completely clear.
    At this point I checked sync music, made sure the options were 'selected playlists only', checked the ones from my own list that I wanted (I usually have one playlist of comedians from my husband's folder that I also have on the phone, but didn't check it at this point). It uploaded all my stuff just fine, but for whatever reason when it saw that I wasn't uploading that comedy playlist any longer, it not only didn't upload it but proceeded to delete my husband's entire folder of playlists from iTunes. -_- I got on the phone w/ an Apple support person right away but he wasn't able to tell me anything .. basically said we'll have to rebuild everything. I asked about the possibility of using time machine, he said he's not qualified to answer that, so that's when I started looking around online & found, among others, the link I referenced a couple replies ago.
    I hope this all makes sense. It's been a long-term issue so I'm trying to go from memory as I figured to begin w/ that I had just made a mistake somewhere, so didn't try to document anything. Now w/ it having happened a 2nd time, I'm not sure if it was 'user error' or something else.......

  • Why does time machine back up change root directory of software?

    about a year ago i did a time machine back up of my old macbook pro, then when i came to use a piece of software (native instruments-traktor) it said the root directory had been changed and it couldnt find the file. i had to remove the whole program from my mac and redownload it. then since then had no problems.
    now ive just purchased a new macbook today and wanted all my old files and software on it so i did a migration expert with time machine. it seems to have bought most things over.....a few files are missing from logic but again when i went open traktor, again it said root directory changed,,,im not to good with these root directorys so havent got a clue what to do so again ive had to remove the program and redownload it which is a bit of a pain.
    any ideas why time machine changes it??

    I'm also puzzled because it continually wants to back up some 15MB or more when I've changed nothing
    Suggest that you download and install BackupLoupe to find out exactly what is being backed up on each pass.
    soma-zone: BackupLoupe
    If you want to change the backup frequency of Time Machine, an application like Time Machine Editor will allow you schedule backups whenever you like. But, you may not need to do this if you can figure out what might be causing the first issue.
    TimeMachineEditor
    If you ever decide to delete Time Machine Editor, be sure to change the backup frequency back to hourly before you delete the application.

  • Time machine backs up 32K files even when nothing changed.

    I just received a brand new OSX Lion Server (Mac Mini). I also installed an external USB HD for backup.
    Unfortunately, each Time Machine back-up eats up about 1.9GB and backs up 32K files, even if nothing changed (e.g. I leave it on over night).
    Below is the log, which I received with time machine buddy (a widget). 
    Starting standard backup
    Backing up to: /Volumes/backup/Backups.backupdb
    Waiting for index to be ready (101)
    1.93 GB required (including padding), 363.27 GB available
    Copied 326275 files (64.7 MB) from volume Server HD.
    1.91 GB required (including padding), 363.10 GB available
    Copied 326402 files (16.8 MB) from volume Server HD.
    Starting post-backup thinning
    No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
    Backup completed successfully.
    In this case, there were small changes, so 17 or 65MB sounds about right. What bugs me is that the backup took 2 hours(!) and required 1.91 GB. As every backup is longer than the hourly interval, in the current setup, if I switch on TM it is continuously backing up all day all night.
    I have already erased the backup disk twice and have also tried to delete the .inProgress file. After such a restart, the first backup is big and real fast, and then it is just as slow as ever.
    Does anybody have any idea what it could be? Any help would be appreciated.
    Thanks,

    Use either of these to see what it is actually being backed up?
    http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/A2.html
    regards,
    Colin R.

  • Do time machine back up with HD attached to mac, then change HD location?

    I want to do my first time machine back up with the HD directly attached to mac (faster) then take that HD and connect it to my Airport Extreme (dual band) 802.11n router for subsequent periodic back ups (as future back ups, unlike the first one, will be far smaller, obviously).
    Is that possible?
    If not, what else should I do?
    Ethernet directly to the router (a pain for my situation, but possible)

    BreeBrizzle wrote:
    I want to do my first time machine back up with the HD directly attached to mac (faster) then take that HD and connect it to my Airport Extreme (dual band) 802.11n router for subsequent periodic back ups (as future back ups, unlike the first one, will be far smaller, obviously).
    Welcome to Apple's discussion groups.
    Is that possible?
    Not without a lot of hassle. Time Machine manages backups on a locally-connected disk completely differently from how it managed backup on a network disk. It's possible to convert between the two schemes, but it's not easy.
    If not, what else should I do?
    Ethernet directly to the router (a pain for my situation, but possible)
    I'd back up to the disk while it's connected to the AirPort Extreme, but connected via Ethernet for the first backup. It might minimize the pain if you do that overnight.

  • How to change the frequency of time machine back ups

    Time machine backs up every hour. And it takes several minutes. I don't need to back up that often. Once a day is fine. But I don't see any way to set the frequency of back ups.

    There are a number of applications that can be installed to set different time schedules for TM. I have not provided links as I know nothing about them.
    If you do a web search on the title of your post you should find them.

  • I have partitioned my time capsule, but I can't get it to work as a Time Machine back up and permanent media server for both mac and PC. What format do I need to partition the drive to so that it works for both mac and windows and so that it will be visab

    I have partitioned my time capsule, as I want part of it to act as a media server for both mac and windows. However I don't know what format that I need to partition it to. I also can't make it a permanently accesible drive. I want to restore the drive to the original format (which I don't know) and start again and re-partition the drive in a format that can be used for media by both mac and PC and for time machine back-ups and make the media part of it permanetly accesible so I can add and acccess my files.
    Thanks

    You are mixing up a couple of things here.
    The TC drive cannot be partitioned without removing it.. did you do that?
    If you partition it you must use a Mac disk utility and use the HFS+ ie standard Mac format. And GUID partition table not windows type.
    You can select erase disk in the airport utility.. that will take the disk back to original format. No partitions. TC is deliberately not partitioned as it is not a media server.. it is a backup device for TM. Over time .. the disk will be filled with TM backups so you have a long history of file changes to your computer.
    There is no media server in the TC.. it is merely disk storage.. you can serve files from it to a media device.. but the TC itself is dumb as dumb.
    Now the actual format of the drive is irrelevant to the PC.. The TC offers SMB file services to the network. You can copy files to and from the TC as if it was a local disk without caring one iota about the format. The TC handles that .. it is not a local disk .. it is a network drive.
    Although you cannot partition the TC. you can still copy files to it.. this does have implications for TM.. but as long as there is plenty of free space should not be a major issue.
    You can create a disk image via the disk utility in a Mac.. and as stated you can create partitions if you do it on a Mac with the disk directly connected which means breaking warranty if any exists on the TC.

  • HT4927 How do I restore my iPhoto library from a time machine back up of a macbook pro to an iMac?

    My Macbook Pro is in a coma, but luckily I  backed up on the 20th May. I managed to get my itunes library back on my new iMac; but cannot figure out how to do the same with iPhoto. Any ideas out there?
    Thanks in advance!

    Again - this is not the way to do this and generally does not work - you must use TimeMachine as designed - instructions link again  http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
    Note especially
    Restoring data from Time Machine backups
    With Time Machine you can go "back in time" to restore files, versions of files, or your entire system. Make sure your backup drive is connected and mounted (if not, Time Machine will alert you that "Your Time Machine backup disk can't be found."
    If prompted, enter an administrator name and password to proceed with the restore.
    Restoring specific files or folders
    Choose Enter Time Machine from the Time Machine menu and the restore interface appears. You can literally see your windows as they appeared "back in time."
    You can use the timeline on the right side of the window to reach a certain point back in time (the timeline shows the times of all backups on your backup drive). If you don’t know exactly when you deleted or changed a file, you can use the back arrow to let Time Machine automatically travel through time to show you when that folder last changed.
    Note: Dates in pink indicate the data resides on your Time Machine backup device. Dates in white indicate the data resides on your Mac. In OS X Mountain Lion and Lion, portable Macs have the feature of local snapshots. See thisarticle for details.
    You can also perform a Spotlight search in the Time Machine Finder Window search field to find a file. Simply type the Spotlight search field and use the back arrow to have Time Machine search through your backups to find what you are looking for.
    Before you restore a file, you can also use Quick Look to preview a file to make sure its the one you want. Highlight the file and press the Space Bar to bring up a quick look.
    To restore, select the file/folder and click the "Restore" button. The file will automatically be copied to the desktop or appropriate folder.  If the file you are restoring has another file in the same location with the same name, you will be prompted to choose which file to keep or keep both.
    Restoring your entire system from a backup
    If you are restoring a backup made by a Mac to the same Mac
    With your backup drive connected, start up your Mac from the Recovery system (Command-R at startup) or Mac OS X v10.6 installation disc. Then use the "Restore From Time Machine Backup" utility.
    Note: If "You can't restore this backup because it was created by a different model of Mac" appears when restoring a backup that was made on a different Mac, follow the onscreen instructions.
    If you are restoring a backup made by one Mac to a completely different Mac
    Important: If the backup you are about to restore is from a completely different Mac, use the Migration Assistant to transfer data from the backup, as described in the next section.
    Migrating a Time Machine backup to a new Mac
    When you buy a new Mac, you can transfer all of your applications, files, settings, and other information from a Time Machine backup you've already made.
    You will be asked if you want to transfer files when you start up your new Mac for the first time. Or, you can use theMigration Assistant (located in Applications/Utilities).
    After Migration Assistant completes the transfer and you select your existing Time Machine backup drive, you will be prompted with "Inherit Backup History". Once selected you will be able to continue to use your existing Time Machine backup on your new Mac.
    And again for detailed TM answers go to the Time Machine forum
    LN

  • Time machine back-up stuck on "cleaning up" before actually showing back-up progress

    On my MacBook Pro running latest Snow Leopard, after replacing the internal HD and restoring the data from the Time Machine back-up apparently seamlessly, when starting back-up again to the the same external disk connected to another mac on the network, this happened.  Almost 12 hours now.  There is activity on the external back-up disk as the LED light is blinking and I can hear it work. 
    The message in Time Machine Preferences pane is "cleaning up" which usually shows at the end of the back-up but this time it is before any progres has shown.
    I have Time Machine Buddy widget installed and this is what it says, again for the last 12 hours or so:
    Starting standard backup
    Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/TM WD Book-1
    Failed to attach to image: /Volumes/TM WD Book-1/Vladskibook.sparsebundle, DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35
    Disk image /Volumes/TM WD Book-1/Vladskibook.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
    Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
    Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|new event db|
    Should I just wait patiently or perform a repair of the back-up disk or do a full reset of Time Machine?
    If I should wait, can I use my mac without affecting this process?
    Thanks

    Yellowvan wrote:
    Hi Pondini,
    Yes, I bought DiskWarrior 4.1.1 - it came up with this report:
    " DiskWarrior has successfully built a new optimized directory for the disk named "Untitled."
    The new directory is ready to replace the original directory."
    Did you let it do that? If not, nothing was changed!
    The drive is still under guarantee - can they really fail this quickly?
    Sure, a few drives from any production run will be D.O.A, and a few others will fail very quickly, as with nearly any manufactured product.
    But you don't know yet whether the drive is bad. If you didn't let DW replace the directory, run it again and do so.
    If it's still troublesome, try the other things in my last post before deciding it's the drive.

  • Will existing Time Machine back ups build after 1 account migration

    I have one i-Mac happily backing up with Time Machine to an external hard drive.
    I have just bought a second i-mac (the old one's filling up) and propose to use migration assistant to move an admin account from the old to the new i-mac leaving two other accounts (and their files etc) on the old one. I see from some posts that it seems as if Time Machine will start a new back up series for the new i-mac's back ups (cos its a new MAC address). But what about the old i-mac? Will that continue to extend the existing (old) Time Machine back up files, albeit without my transferred account and its files? I'd like to end up with the old i-mac continuing to work with and build its Time Machine back ups (less my account and its new files) and have a new back up series from the new i-mac building to a separate partition on the external drive.
    Second minor point: I have read that putting a partition on the external drive is the best way forward as it will stop competition for space and allow changes in one set up in future to have no impact on the other. Is this the best way forward?
    Does this all make sense?
    Sorry but I can't see an answer in the forum to what must be a reasonably common issue in this expanding mac world.

    I then tried to move it (TM back up files) off with Restore, whilst preserving the TM back ups but I couldn't seem to do it to the i-Macs hard drive nor to partition that to allow this to happen (assuming the lack of a discrete partition was the problem).
    That's likely correct. This only works if you restore one entire partition to another, and check the +Erase destination+ box.
    The problem was that I could not (maybe for the same contiguous reasons) create a new partition on the old i-Mac just to temporarily move the TM back up to. Without it I could not 'empty' the WDC firewire drive and partition it prior to returning the TM back ups to it albeit contiguously in a dedicated partition.
    Unfortunately for me to retain the TM back ups for the account I moved to the new i-Mac, I will have to leave that account on the old i-Mac as well. I can't see a way around that? If I delete the account on it then surely I will lose the ability to Log onto it and then to click TM and see back in time on that account?
    If I understand you correctly, that will be true eventually, but not immediately, as TM will, eventually, delete it's copies of anything that's no longer on your internal HD. That will depend, of course, on how long TM can keep it's backups. But while they're still there, if you log on with Admin privileges, you should be able to view the old backups.
    Not sure I explained myself clearly. Sorry. Having understood from your earlier help that 'migrate' actually means 'make a copy in another place', I have the migrated account in two places: one now dormant, on the old i-Mac and two, where it is migrated to (the new i-Mac). But TM continues to back up all accounts, indeed everything, on the old i-Mac by dint of its MAC address. So to see the migrated account's past history I assume I have to access the version on the old i-Mac. To put it another way, when logged into one account on the old i-Mac I believe it is not possible to see the TM history and files of another account on that i-Mac despite TM backing the entire HD. You have to be logged in to that account to see it. On the new i-Mac, with its different MAC address, TM is busy creating the first TM back up and I assumed that in the migrate it did not bring TM history as I had read that it is MAC address specific.
    The only issue (apart from having this account's history spread over two machines (pre-today on the old i-Mac's TM and today onwards on the new i-Mac) is that I have all the files on both machines. I am not worried about security only unnecessary usage of disk space. It isn't critical, there's lots of it, but it just seems wasteful and untidy. Unless you guys know otherwise?
    If I understand what you've done, you do have duplicates of the current contents, but only one copy of the old backups (on the old F/W drive).
    On the old i-Mac I have the two accounts I wanted to stay there plus the now dormant account I migrated. TM continues to work away at memorising ALL these although there will be no further changes to the dormant migrated account as I will not be running it on the old i-Mac. On the new i-Mac I have the migrated account of which TM is now creating its first (huge) back up but starting today. There is no history here. So I have copies of everything; its just that the old history of the migrated account remains on the old i-Mac and a new history (does that make sense?) is building from the new one. My point was that if I were to delete the dormant account from the old i-Mac, then I could not access it to use TM with it. I believe TM only shows the history of the account and screen you're in at the time?
    There is an option in TM that will allow you to selectively +Delete all backups of+ selected items. +Enter Time Machine,+ locate and select the item(s), click the "gear" icon in the Finder window's toolbar, and select the +Delete all backups of ..+ option.
    What you can't do is, keep the backups of only previous versions of things that were changed or deleted. It's all or nothing.
    Not sure I understand this. What would have been nice but I do not think is possible is to have moved the account to the new i-Mac together with the TM's back ups of that account and continue to build it up (whilst having access to its history) on the new i-Mac. If that were (is?) possible I could have totally deleted the old account and with it its files from the old i-Mac, freed up some HD space and had a full AND growing TM history all on the new i-Mac.
    Many thanks for staying the course and for your continuing help.

  • Mail 6.2 will no longer open on my macbook pro after migrating my old computer from a time machine back up

    Hi,
    I recently got a new 13" macbook pro to replace my old macbook.
    I did a migration assistant transfer from a time machine back up of my old macbooks data on to my macbook however Mail 6.2 will no lonfer work for me.
    It worked fine before the transfer and no it opens ok but if i click 'new viewer window' it unexpectedly quits
    Any and all help would be greatly appreciated
    Thanks
    Pacman481

    Eek, sorry for the multiple posting, I keep trying new things and needing to report back. SO, in those accounts that I thought I'd "fixed," I tried going back in and changing the settings back to the way I like them, i.e. leaving the messages on the server for a week (because sometimes I like to see messags on my iphone too) and as soon as I did that, it started downloading old messages before, i.e. back to the same problem.
    Meaning, there's no workaround for the account I share with my business partner, because the only way I've "fixed" it on my personal accounts is to have mail removed from the server immediately, which is not possible on the accounts I share. (And is kind of a bummer for my personal accounts, too, given that I like to see mail on my iphone too).
    Sorry for info overload, just trying to be helpful and cover all the bases. :-)

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