Disable Time Machine?

Does anyone know how to completely disable Time Machine? I'm using Carbon Copy Cloner for my backups. I have no disks selected in the TM preferences but every day, without fail, I get an error that pops up saying 'Time Machine could not complete the backup. No backup disk has been selected.'
Hopefully someone has a solution for this. Thanks!

Have you ever used a 3rd-party app, such as Time Machine Editor, Time Machine Scheduler, or the like, to alter Time Machine's default behavior? If so, they set up a completely separate scheduling system -- you'll need to use the same app to turn that scheduling off.
If not, it's possible the preference file where Time Machine's settings are kept is damaged, so when you try to turn TM off, the setting doesn't really change. Try deleting this file:
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
That's in the top-level Library folder, not the one in your home folder. And Spotlight won't find it, since it's considered a system file, so you have to navigate to it. If you don't know how to do that, open your internal HD with the Finder, then the Library folder inside it, then the Preferences folder, then find that file (or see #A7 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting).

Similar Messages

HT201250 how do I disable time machine? I want to use my external drive as additional storage. But it mirrors everything I edit. If I remove a document, it removes it from the external drive as well.

how do I disable time machine? I want to use my external drive as additional storage. But it mirrors everything I edit. If I remove a document, it removes it from the external drive as well.
I purchased a 1 TB WD passport drive, formatted for Mac. I set it up originally (mistakenly) to backup time machine. I went back and set it to "do not backup" It still backs up evey document I edit. If I add a document when the drive is disconnected, it automatically adds it to the external drive the next time connect to the passport drive. If I remove a document the same thing happens.
I need additional storage to free up space on my laptop hard drive. This is not working the way I want it to. Help!

Do not backup your startup volume to another partition on the same drive. If the drive fails you have nothing. Always backup to another drive or volume on another drive.
The I/O error usually means there's a problem with the drive. Clone ASAP, then repartition and reformat the main drive. Then restore the clone. Here's the basic process:
You will have to backup your OS X partition to an external drive, boot from the external drive, use Disk Utility to repartition and reformat your hard drive back to a single volume, then restore your backup to the internal hard drive.
Get an empty external hard drive and clone your internal drive to the external one.
Boot from the external hard drive.
Erase the internal hard drive.
Restore the external clone to the internal hard drive.
Clone the internal drive to the external drive
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
After startup do the following:
Erase internal hard drive
Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
After DU loads select your internal hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Do not quit Disk Utility.
Restore the clone to the internal hard drive
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the internal hard drive. Source means the external startup drive.
Note that the Source and Destination drives are swapped for this last procedure.

External hard drive disables Time Machine

_The Setup_
I have a 1TB dual-band Time Capsule. We recently became a three Mac home, so I decided to buy a LaCie 2TB external USB hard drive, plug it into the Time Capsule, and instruct two of the Macs to backup to said drive via Time Machine.
_The Problem_
Each Mac has been able to backup to their proper drives, however at least once a day, the disks will both become undiscoverable. Time Machine on each Mac starts giving the error that the backup disk cannot be found. Neither will the disks appear via Finder.
_The Current Solution_
If I flip the power switch on the LaCie USB hard drive off and then back on again, both the Time Machine's internal drive and the LaCie become findable again, and everything is back to normal. That is, until a few hours later when it all goes down again.
Any idea what could be causing this? The external has its own power source, so I can't imagine it is a power bus issue, but who knows.

It may be possible that your LaCie HDD has implemented a power-down feature in its firmware as a power/cost savings measure. When Time Machine runs it finds the HDD "unavailable" and assumes that it can't make the backup.
If this is the case, one option would be to run a script that "wakes up" the HDD just prior to the hourly TM backups. Also, you might want to check with the manufacturer to see if this feature is controllable so that you can disable it or change its frequency.

Disable "Time Machine Bacup Delayed" Popup

I have done some searching and have not found anything regarding this particular issue.
I would like to disable the popup window that comes up if I do not backup for a few days. I know that I need to backup, but I would prefer not being reminded. Does anyone know how to do this?
Thanks.
Josh

That window should only occur on an initial backup.
Are the subsequent backups of a reasonable size (ie, a small portion of what's on your system)?
If so, 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 the backup in question, then copy and post all the messages here.

How to disable Time Machine from backing up to another hard drive connect to my TC?

I have an external hard drive connected to my TC and I don't want Time Machine to backup to the external hard drive, just to the Time Capsule, how do I do that?

Open Time Machine Preferences
Click on Options
Click the + (plus) button
Navigate using the Finder interface to the External Drive and click it to highlight it
Click Exclude at the lower right of the window
The drive should now appear in the "Excluded Items" list and it will not be backed up

How to disable Time Machine from backing up to hard drive

Mountain Lion (OSX 10.8) will not install onto iMac (under OSX 10.7.4) because: "hard drive is Time Machime backup disk" error message. However, TM Preferences does not show the iMac HD as a TM backup Location Option - it only shows the LaCie External Drive - which has been the storage drive receiving the Time Machine Backup. How do I remove/prevent Time Machine from looking for and/or backing up to the iMac Hard Drive if the TM Pref does not list the iMac Hard Drive as an option? Note: The iMac HD icon on the desktop is a "Time Machine image" (blue Drive icon w/white white counter clockwise arrow). Thanks.

Check to see if you have a file called backups.backupdb on the hard drive you are attempting to update.
If the install procedure see such a file, it might think that it is a TM backup drive.
Allan

Disable time machine star animation in Mountain Lion

From time to time I inadvertently delete a file and so I go into time machine to recover it. Which is super useful. What's driving me insane, though, is the animated background animation of expanding stars. Trying to scan my folders while the background keeps moving forward is making me seriously nauseous. I get a headache after only a few minutes...
It seems like there used to be a way to turn this frankly superfluous animation off (e.g. http://hintsforums.macworld.com/showthread.php?t=102266, or http://hints.macworld.com/comment.php?mode=view&cid=117454). But starting in Lion this seems not to work any longer (see https://discussions.apple.com/message/18330846#18330846).
Any ideas how I can get a steady background image in the time machine interface?

vance.corkery wrote:
Hi,
Operating 10.7.4, I make use of 'time machine' encrypted backups to an external HD. If I wipe the HD and do a fresh install of 10.8, will I lose the encrypted backup?
No. It's password only. You can even access it on a different Mac (Lion or ML) with the password.

How to disable time machine to upload os x mountain lion

Trying to download os x mountain lion but computer says it can not because time machine is using harddrive ??

Mac OS X v10.6- Cannot install Mac OS X v10.6 on a volume used by Time Machine for backups
OS X v10.6, OS X Lion- Cannot install Mac OS X v10.6 or later on a volume used by Time Machine for backups
OS X- Cannot install on a volume used by Time Machine for backups

Lion disable time machine background animation

when screen sharing to a Mac in Time Machine, the animated background grinds the screen to a halt.
I have tried this tip:
http://hints.macworld.com/comment.php?mode=view&cid=117454
but my Lion's time machine background still animates. Is there a different solution for Lion?

I just posted a similar question in the OS 10.8 section: https://discussions.apple.com/message/20848493#20848493
Have you had any luck in turning off the background animation?

Is there any way to disable time machine based on network connection?

I would like to have time machine not run when I am on my wireless connection, but be enabled when connected via ethernet.
Is there any way to do this automatically?
Thanks!

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, press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the page that opens.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Try the action again. Post any messages that appear in the Console window – the text, please, not a screenshot.

Need to disable Time Machine for real

Hi,
My Time Machine is turned off, but every time I log on I get the following message, "A storage location for Time Machine backups isn't set up."
So I click on 'Set Up Time Machine', it shows that Time Machine is turned off. I thought if I chose a backup disk maybe then I could really get it to turn off so I clicked on that and I get a blank window with the option to "set up Time Capsule". We do not use wireless here so the only option is to cancel which leaves me back where I started.
I know I must be missing something. I have scoured this discussion but the only solution I found to try was deleting the plist file. That didn't help.
I also tried using Workgroup Manager to not allow this user to access Time Machine but that didn't work.
Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

LS_Simon wrote:
Hi,
My Time Machine is turned off, but every time I log on I get the following message, "A storage location for Time Machine backups isn't set up."
So I click on 'Set Up Time Machine', it shows that Time Machine is turned off. I thought if I chose a backup disk maybe then I could really get it to turn off so I clicked on that and I get a blank window with the option to "set up Time Capsule".
Is the window completely blank, or is there a "None" location, with a red circle with a line through it? Select that line and the +Use for Back Up+ button will change to +Stop Backing Up.+ Click that and the prompts should stop.
I do hope you have backups via some other app -- otherwise you risk losing all your data.

Time Machine error message despite being disabled

Hey
So, despite having time machine completely disabled in my system settings and killing the backupd process, I still get a popup warning from Time Machine trying to run and complaining about not being able to find the Time Machine disk. I've followed the various tips to delete various plist files, but to no avail. I've also done the thing with connecting a new disk, assigning it as the Time Machine disk and then changing the settings to not back up, and disabled Time Machine again, also to no avail.
Clearly this is being triggered from somewhere, but I'm stuffed if I can find where. Any suggestions about finding what is triggering Time Machine other than Time Machine itself?
Thanks
K

Did you ever use a 3rd-party app, such as +Time Machine Editor,+ or manually edit any "plist" files, to change Time Machine's schedule of hourly backups?
If so, it's still doing whatever it was last told to do. Use the app to reverse what you did (if you've deleted the app, download it again to do this).
If not, when is it doing this? When you first start up? When it wakes from sleep? When you connect an external HD? Other?

Time Machine won't back up to External

Would appreciate some guidance please.
Have been running Time Machine since August ( when bought iMac 21.5 ) without any problem.
I installed a 2nd ( portable ) external hard drive that I back up to separately. I'd been under the impression that I had excluded this 2nd hd from the TM options but had'nt and now done so.
Up until a few hours ago TM was ok but now get a message saying " Files can't be copied onto the backup because it appears to be read only" that prompted me to check if TM was also backing up the other hd which it was but did'nt want it to.
My internal hd is 500gb though only 70 gb is currently used. TM is being backed up to a 320gb external hd which I know is too small and should be 2-3tb but as I've only used 70gb I thought 320 would suffice for the time being. TM is now saying that there is only 94gb free left on it's external but been under the impression that once the hd becomes full, TM starts delete the old(er) files.
In TM options I now have the 2nd portable external hard drive ( 37gb used) excluded though the TM hard drive is shown but greyed out.
The ' won't back up essage ' also has a further note about using disk repair but would I then risk losing all the TM backup data?
OSX is 10.8.2 and up until now it's bee running perfect. Grateful for any pointers.
Thanks John

The backup drive has malfunctioned and corrupted itself. If that has ever happened before, or if it ever happens again, replace the drive. You may want to consider replacing it anyway for the safety of your data.
If you choose to keep using the drive, disable Time Machine temporarily in its preference pane, then launch Disk Utility, select the backup volume, and run Repair Disk. This operation may take several hours. If the volume can't be repaired, you'll have to erase it and start over. Don't do that unless you have at least one other complete backup. You should start another backup now if you don't already have one. One backup is not enough to be safe.

Restoring System from Time Machine backup - only option is older backup

I have two drives in a Mac Pro - a system drive and a data drive. Yesterday morning the system drive died. The computer hung and when I manually restarted it, I got the circle with a line icon, and then on a subsequent restart, after resetting the PRAM, I got the ? folder icon.
I restarted with the install disk in, and booted into Disk Utility. I attempted to repair the system drive, but it was reported to be corrupted and not repairable.
I installed a new drive, booted back into Disk Utility, formatted the new drive, and initiated a "restore from Time Machine".
My problem is, once the list of "complete" Time Machine backups came up, the most recent one listed was for October of this year, almost 3 months ago. In that time, Time Machine has been on and running without issue. I know there were Time Machine updates made for this computer the morning of my crash, and the day before, etc. But in terms for restoring my system, my most recent restore point is late October.
I went ahead and restored to that most recent Time Machine "complete" backup, and several hours later my system is back up and running, but as it was three months ago, not yesterday morning.
Why, if Time Machine has been performing hourly backups without fail, was I unable to restore to something more recent? If I connect to Time Machine (on a Time Capsule) from the computer in question (after the restore) and browse the backups on it, the most recent folder I see is 2011-01-14-190729 - still not as recent as I would hope (maybe the drive going bad was causing errors with very recent backups) but much more recent than October.
I would really like to be able to get my system back to a much more recent snapshot than it's at now. (I have disabled Time Machine backups on it in the meantime so as not to overwrite the backups I currently have)
Any suggestions?

Will Henderson wrote:
I would really like to be able to get my system back to a much more recent snapshot than it's at now
See #14 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
On the list of backups (point g there), click the "pop-up" menu; there may be two entries there. If so select the other one -- it may have the backups you want.

Time Machine Taking a Long Time to Index / Back Up

Hi everyone.
I noticed this on the latest backup to my Time Capsule device. I'm backing up over a WiFi connection to a time capsule device. It is taking a long time to index the backup. Here's the code from the latest backup.
10/17/12 9:43:03.799 PM com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup
10/17/12 9:43:04.091 PM com.apple.backupd: Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://Michael%20Payne@Extreme%20Pleasantville._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Time%20Mac hine%20Backups
10/17/12 9:43:12.657 PM com.apple.backupd: Mounted network destination at mountpoint: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups using URL: afp://Michael%20Payne@Extreme%20Pleasantville._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Time%20Mac hine%20Backups
10/17/12 9:43:34.015 PM com.apple.backupd: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
10/17/12 9:43:37.440 PM com.apple.backupd: Disk image /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Michael’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1
10/17/12 9:43:37.459 PM com.apple.backupd: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/Backups.backupdb
10/17/12 9:45:23.296 PM com.apple.backupd: 500.1 MB required (including padding), 3.27 GB available
10/17/12 9:46:48.844 PM com.apple.backupd: Copied 1436 files (3.4 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
10/17/12 9:46:51.897 PM com.apple.backupd: 448.1 MB required (including padding), 3.27 GB available
10/17/12 9:46:51.898 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
10/17/12 9:47:53.681 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
10/17/12 9:48:55.642 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
10/17/12 9:49:56.511 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
10/17/12 9:50:56.564 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
10/17/12 9:51:57.643 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
10/17/12 9:52:57.903 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
10/17/12 9:53:59.341 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
10/17/12 9:55:01.281 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
10/17/12 9:56:03.171 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
10/17/12 9:57:03.966 PM com.apple.backupd: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
10/17/12 9:58:33.083 PM com.apple.backupd: Copied 824 files (1.2 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
10/17/12 9:58:40.359 PM com.apple.backupd: Starting post-backup thinning
10/17/12 9:59:51.851 PM com.apple.backupd: Deleted /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/Backups.backupdb/Michael’s MacBook Pro/2012-10-16-213620 (5.6 MB)
10/17/12 10:00:17.440 PM com.apple.backupd: Deleted /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/Backups.backupdb/Michael’s MacBook Pro/2012-10-16-113505 (1.6 MB)
10/17/12 10:00:30.046 PM com.apple.backupd: Deleted /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/Backups.backupdb/Michael’s MacBook Pro/2012-10-16-103509 (1.6 MB)
10/17/12 10:00:43.781 PM com.apple.backupd: Deleted /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/Backups.backupdb/Michael’s MacBook Pro/2012-10-16-093513 (1.3 MB)
10/17/12 10:00:43.781 PM com.apple.backupd: Post-back up thinning complete: 4 expired backups removed
10/17/12 10:00:45.207 PM com.apple.backupd: Backup completed successfully.
10/17/12 10:00:56.988 PM com.apple.backupd: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
10/17/12 10:00:57.550 PM com.apple.backupd: Ejected Time Machine network volume.
I am just curious as to why this is, and what I might do to fix it. I did see one suggestion in another website suggesting diabling spolight indexing of the backup image with sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/Time Machine Backups, but don't know where to type that in. It then states to reenable it, but don't know where to type that in, either. Any advice would be helpful. I did run a verification not too long ago, and here's that code.
10/14/12 3:44:14.289 PM com.apple.backupd: Backup verification requested by user.
10/14/12 3:44:41.503 PM com.apple.backupd: Running backup verification
10/14/12 4:04:31.602 PM com.apple.backupd: Backup verification passed!
If any of you have or had a similar problem, I'd appreciate your help. For the time being, I may just disable time machine during the evening, and only have it run during the day when I'm at work.

Is your sig still current (10.7.3)? Or did you update to 10.7.5? Because 10.7.5 had a Spotlight/Time Machine bug that slowed down a lot of backups. If that's what it is, there's now a 10.7.5 Supplemental Update that fixes the slow Time Machine problem.
If it isn't 10.7.5, I don't know what the problem might be.

Disable Time Machine?

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