Control Time Machine, Control Time Machine

Is there some way to control when Time Machine backs up?  It totally takes over the machine.  I would like to limit it to starting the back up after mignight.  Iron Mountain and other back up apps allow that.

I used to allow TM only one or two backups per day simply by ejecting and switching off the drive. I ran TM that way for over a year and never had a single problem.
Here's the thing, sense I was already using CarbonCopyCloner for years before TM came out, plus not needing hourly backups. It was very easy for me to turn TM off, erase the drive and use it as a second CarbonCopyClone instead.

Similar Messages

  • How do i reset my mac completely? I have parental controls and cant seem to get to time machine cause i bought the computer with parental controls on it and they did not have the password. How do i completely reset my macbook pro?

    how do i reset my mac completely? I have parental controls and cant seem to get to time machine cause i bought the computer with parental controls on it and they did not have the password. How do i completely reset my macbook pro?

    If you have a rescue email address (which is not the same thing as an alternate email address) on your account then the steps on this page will give you a reset link on your account : http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6170
    If you don't have a rescue email address (you won't be able to add one until you can answer your questions) then you will need to contact Support in your country to get the questions reset.
    Contacting Apple about account security : http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5699
    When they've been reset (and if you don't already have a rescue email address) you can then use the steps on this page to add a rescue email address for potential future use : http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5620
    Or, if it's available in your country, you could change to 2-step verification : http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5570

  • Time machine makes 30 backups for the last two days, no backups for any earlier times: is there a way to control it?

    I've been running Time Machine in the background for as long as I've owned my current Mac--- a few months.  It is a completely generic set-up: it's a desktop (rarely shut off or asleep) connected to an external hard drive that is much larger (1 TB) than my internal hard drive (0.5 TB), and Time Machine is configured to save backups of my whole internal drive to the external drive.  The external is half-full, and the internal is a little more than half-full.  I often hear my external crunching away, working on something.
    I recently needed to access an old file, so I went into Time Machine mode on the folder where it had been deleted a few weeks ago.  While I'm not upset that it isn't available (it's my own fault for deleting it), I didn't expect the Time Machine to have such a bad distribution of saved backups.  There are 30 backup snapshots of the past two days, and nothing earlier.  I was expecting something more like a few from today, a few from this week, a few from this month, and a few going all the way back in time--- a broader distribution.
    I don't see any way to control this in the Time Machine Preferences (in fact, very little control at all).  Is there a secret way to control it, or some tip to ensure a more useful distribution of saved snapshots?
    Thanks,
    -- Jim

    Thanks, but it doesn't exactly address my question.  TimeMachineEditor allows me to set the intervals or times when backups occur, but it doesn't control the algorithm that decides which snapshots should be deleted.  My problem was that Time Machine chose to delete all of the old snapshots and keep only the most recent ones: I'd like it to keep more of the recent ones than the old ones, but still keep some old ones.
    In fact, the (unmodifyable) text on the Time Machine control panel says that it keeps:
    hourly backups for the past 24 hours
    daily backups for the past month
    weekly backups for all previous months
    That would be perfect if it were true.
    Perhaps the algorithm did the wrong thing because the size of my internal hard drive varied quite a lot a few days ago: a process got out of control and used up all of my internal disk space.  I killed the process and deleted its output (several times), so my internal disk eventually went back down to normal.  Perhaps in the intervening hours, Time Machine made a backup, once an hour, and used up all of the external drive space.  When it had to choose between keeping "weekly backups of previous months" and "hourly backups of the past 24 hours", it chose to keep hourly backups of the past 24 hours.  This was the wrong choice in my case (it was the unwanted output) and is probably the wrong choice in most cases.
    Is there a way to control the algorithm that decides which backups to keep and which to delete?  I would have it delete the hourly, daily, and weekly backups in a way that preserves their relative distribution.
    By the way, while I have made it sound like my problem was a runaway log file (something that would be easy to put in an excluded directory with Time Machine's "Options" button), it was a VirtualBox snapshot merge.  The data in question are precious, but were unnecessarily copied many times while VirtualBox failed to merge them properly.  I can't simply exclude a directory: I'm talking about a more general problem.
    Thanks!
    -- Jim

  • Time Machine controls are gone

    Since the last update I noticed the controls in Time Machine are gone. I cannot anymore delete all copies of files from archives. The only 2 options I have is cancel and restore.
    There used to be an options button on top of the window. This now has gone. Anybody having the same issue or a solution?

    This is the iSync forum - nothing at all to do with Time Machine.
    The correct forum is here:
    http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1227

  • More Time Machine Control

    Is there anyway to control the amount of saving ability of time machine? It saves and saves and saves until my 1TB external drive only has around 300gb left! would be great to control the amount of previous days you wanted TM to save.

    no, there is no way to do that. however, you can make a partition on the external and keep the TM backups on that partition. this will restrict the amount of space TM backups take. it's best to make this partition dedicated to just TM and not keep any other data there. you can do it nondestructively even now by splitting the current partition with TM backups in two. this will preserve the data on the partition with the backups. enter "creating new volumes" in disk utility help to see how that's done.

  • How can I restore Parental Control Settings from Time Machine Backup?

    I was trying to adjust one of the parental controlled accounts for my child.  I disabled parental controls, rebooted, and re-enabled it.  Now all the settings that I had setup before are gone.  How can I restore Parental Control Settings from Time Machine Backup?

    Hi ...
    I've found a solution to my problem.
    Time Machine locates extenal HDD backups differently depending if they were done via a network or via a USB/FireWire/Thunderbolt connection.
    My initial backup was done via a direct Thunderbolt connection. I ran into the above issue b/c the second time when I tried looking for the backup file the HDD was conencted to my iMac and I was accessing it via a network conenction.
    I simply connected the drive directly to my MacBook pro and ... voila. I was able to see the backup, select the iPhoto library and begin the restore.
    Hope this helps.
    BTW - I found this out by reading the 'blue box' selection on this page: http://pondini.org/TM/E2.html
    (Thanks goes to Pondini!)

  • Retrieving Parental Control Settings from Time Machine Backup

    After having 20+ websites saved for "Allow access to only these websites" in Parental Controls I was experimenting and clicked on "unrestricted access" which caused all the websites we had saved to disappear when I decided to go back to "Allow access to only these websites." Is there anyway using Time Machine to recover the sites we had chosen? Any recommendations on ways to back-up the sites, so if I have another problem I can fix it easier?
    Thanks!

    You won't be able to see them in the nice display of the current settings as when selecting +Mail > Preferences+ from the Mail Menubar.
    And, neither the data (emails) or preferences are stored in the application.
    The preferences and settings are stored in this file:
    *<your home folder>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist*
    If you can read XML, find that file in your backups via +Finder > Time Machine,+ then double-click it to open it with QuickLook.

  • HT201250 Controlling Time Machine

    Is it possible to have Time Machine ovewrite an existing backup instead of making excessive new backups? If not, is there a way to control when Time Machine preforms its backup task so as to not make excessive backups?

    If you want to limit the space the backups take, limit the space available to it.
    If your backups are on an internal or directly-connected external HD, partition it.
    If your backups made over a network, you can limit the maximum size of the sparse bundle they're in, per #A8 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
    Otherwise, it's usually not a good idea to try to alter Time Machine's default workings.  It will "thin" backups automatically, down to one per day for a month, then one per week as long as there's room on the destination.

  • HT201317 I am trying to upload photos from my Windows 7 machine, and I was told to drag them into the photo stream in the iCloud control panel. I have downloaded the control panel several times, but cannot find the place to upload the photos from my Windo

    I am trying to upload photos from my Windows 7 desktop, and was told to go to the iCloud control panel and drag the photos into the
    upload to photo stream icon. I have downloaded the contol panel several times and cannot find the icon to get this done.  HELP 

    If you're trying to add photos to photo stream on your PC, you drag them to your photo stream uploads folder (normally My Pictures\Photo Stream\Uploads).

  • Can multiple remote desktops control the same machine at the same time?

    Can anyone please tell me if this set up possible:
    mac mini running XP app
    iMac logged into to control that app
    ibook logged in to control that app
    of course, only one person actually moving the mouse / using the keyboard at one time.
    Miklos.

    What I want it for is for both computers to be able to control a mac mini and the reason I want them both to be able to be logged in, is because I know at some point I"m going to go to the other end of the building, forget to log out of one, and need to use the other, and then I'll just shoot myself in the foot with the whole set up if you know what I mean. Mostly nobody else will use it just me so this is really helpful!
    Miklos.

  • Time machine out of my control-Unix Executable file

    Time machine did not show up on my desk top today. When i tried to access it thru Go/Network I got a box that said SMB/CIFS/file system authentication.
    When I accessed the files on the time machine they don't open because they are "Unix Executable files" instead of the type that they really are. What happened to my access to the time machine?

    One thing to double check is that the computer name (in the sharing preference panel) is exactly the same as it was when the backups were made. Sometimes that is all it takes to have Time Machine continue with incremental backups.
    In your case, however, it may be that you would need to change the new computer's ethernet MAC address to the same as your old computer, and that could be a problem if you don't still have that computer.

  • How do i control when time machine backs up

    I do not carry around my external hd with me and yet time machine keeps looking for it whenever I am on ac power.  I find this irritating but have been unable to figure out an option for when tm backs up.  I did see that tm backs up onto the hd when the backup disk is not connected and then transfers those backups to the external hd when connected.
    Anyone else find it irritating that tm keeps wanting to back up to an external hd that is not there?  Have you found anyway to solve this problem.  By the way, my laptop is encrypted with lion file vault in case that makes any difference.
    david

    that is not in the options.  Here is a screen shot

  • How do we regain control over our Time Machine drive revisited

    +I posted this question as two posts over in the+ *Intel-based iMac* +forum but I think I may have put it in the wrong place. Please forgive me if you've already read this over there. If someone tells me how to delete a post I will or perhaps a Moderator can/will do it for me.+
    +O M Oz+
    Recently our 2.66 Intel Core 2 Duo started into a cycle of rebooting itself during the startup sequence. Eventually we decided to Restore the disk from the Time Machine Backup which is kept on an external 1TB La Cie drive.
    After the Restore was complete; Time Machine attempted to do a backup run but we got an error message saying the drive could not be accessed to write the backup. Only the very last backup could be seen from the Star Wars screen. The icon had changed to the generic usb drive icon with a padlock.
    I attempted a Full Reset of Time Machine by deleting the Preferences as described in the Troubleshooting thread. Since then we have not been able to access the Time Machine drive at all with either Time Machine or Finder.
    A check of Sharing and Permissions shows that all users are listed having custom access which seems to mean you cannot read or write the drive. Disk Utility reports the drive as seeming to be okay when run in either Verify or Repair modes.
    I have also attempted to run the sudo command from Terminal with no success. I'm running out of ideas. I don't want to do a low level reformat of this drive yet because it IS a backup drive and I'm not clear on the status of the restored drive.
    *Next Day after sleeping on it, I posted...*
    I've been thinking it over carefully and think I might have done the damage myself.
    Before things went pear shaped I needed to back up the 80GB Hard Drive for a laptop but was just a little short of space on the 1TB drive. In Finder I went into the backup.backup folder and deleted the oldest backup under Finder.
    From what I NOW know of the data structures of Time Machine I suspect this would have also removed the backups of whatever it is that logs the various permissions. Am I right?
    If I am right can I recover from this and still save the the older backups?
    Old Mac Oz

    I half expected you would be the first to reply, Pondini
    Pondini wrote:
    Old Mac Oz wrote:
    . . . The icon had changed to the generic usb drive icon with a padlock . . .
    . . . *we are not able to access* the Time Machine drive at all *with either Time Machine or Finder*. > >. . .From what I NOW know of the data structures of Time Machine I suspect this would have also removed the backups of whatever it is that logs the various permissions. Am I right?
    Not exactly, but yes, that can damage your backups.
    Try to repair them, per #A5 in the Troubleshooting Tip. If that succeeds, your backups are probably ok. If not, It's possible that +Disk Warrior+ can. It's expensive (about $100), and probably a good investment for the future, but there's no guarantee.
    I have already tried that but Disk Utility reports that there is nothing wrong with the disk; clearly that is wrong. I cannot reset the permissions to let me (as the Administrator) even read the disk
    If that succeeds, and the 80 GB backup from another Mac is still there, you can delete it via Time Machine. See #12 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
    The 80GB backup was a simple Finder copy from the extracted Hard Disk onto my Time Machine disk, just simply regaining Finder access will allow me to rescue that
    Also, everything you restored to your internal HD is considered as new, so it must be backed-up again. That will, of course, take a lot of space. It's possible that Time Machine deleted a large number of your old backups to make room. If it didn't, because it couldn't do the backup, it will when it can.
    I understand that is what should happen.
    So . . . try the repair. If that works, see if the old backups are still there, and also see how much space is available on your TM drive. If there's not enough room for a new full backup of your internal HD, plus 20% for workspace, TM will have to delete some old backups. If the disk isn't well over twice the size of the data it's backing-up, your best bet may be to erase the drive and let Time Machine start fresh.
    I am coming to that conclusion. The drive is plenty big enough, it's a Terabyte backing up a 300GB disk. Activity Monitor and Finder using +Get Info+ both tell me the drive has 931.39GB available with about 907GB used, we just cannot access any of the data this usage represents due to the locked permissions.
    Since I last posted I have also tried resetting PRAM and running sudo from Terminal as per #C5 in the Troubleshooting Tip to reset the permissions to no avail.
    The Restore has not been a success so I am probably going to have to wipe the whole computer and rebuild the system, something I am understandably unwilling to do.
    I asked here because the problem seems to be related to a recent Time Machine run and the drive I used. Am I asking my question in the correct forum?
    Thanks for your input so far.
    Old Man Oz

  • Can I control how much of my back up disk time machine uses?

    I bought a 1tb backup drive and want to save my photos to it. However, I also want to use it to back up my macbook pro. I was wondering if I could actually do that, using it for both purposes, or if when the drive was full, due to the backups, will it no longer let me save my photos there. Or is there a way to only have time machine save one backup at a time? I don't need to back it up all that often.
    Thanks!

    Time Machine will back up until it fills the drive. The bigger the drive, the farther back in time you can go. What you could do is to create 2 partitons on the drive, one for Time Machine and the other a regular old Mac OS Extended(Journaled). Personally, I'd have at least twice the capacity of the computer's drive allocated as Time Machine (so a computer with a 250 gb drive would get at least a 500 gb Time Machine volume).
    You set up partitions with Disk Utility. Set them both up as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). When you first connect with Time Machine it'll ask you if you to choose the drive and want to dedicate that to TM. Choose one of the partitions and you're good.

  • Can I control what Time Machine Backs up?

    I bought a 2TB external drive last night and set up my Time Machine to back up my iMac. I have up to 5 external drives hooked up to my computer. The first backup failed saying I needed more than 2TB of space. I noticed one of my external drives was active too. So I stopped the backup and ejected each of my external drives. When I started Time Machine again, it said it only needed 1.85 GB! Thats more like it!!! When I clicked on the options button and removed all the external drives to NOT be included in the backup for some reason it was still backing up those drives. I am not sure why.
    So moving forward what is the best plan of action? Do I turn the TM off when I have those external drives mounted or vice versa and eject all my external drives and leave TM on?
    Thanks!

    All you could ever need to know about Time Machine:
    http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
    (from the late and sorely missed ASC contributor Pondini)

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