Does Time Machine actually back up files?

We have a Mac OS X Server on an eMac running for an elementary school. We set up Time Machine to backup to an Intel iMac setting beside it, booted in Target Disk Mode. We had a problem with the Server the other day, and it wouldn't start up. When we booted the iMac in the regular OS (rather than Target Disk Mode), we tried to access the Server's backups in the Backups folder on the Hard Drive. When we accessed the latest backup folder, a little black arrow was on the icon and when we tried to access anything in the folder, it said that it couldn't access the files unless the backed-up computer was on and running or something of the like. Is this normal? Did we do something wrong? Is there any way to get it to backup the actual files in full so that if the Server goes haywire, we could access the files on the iMac, to which we backed up the Server? Thanks for any help provided.
Message was edited by: mattshank

The Time Machine backup is a repository, but requires a restoration location, usually the HD you're backing up. You can't access the TM backup directly. If you want that kind of capability, you need to use something like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!.

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Does Time Machine make back-ups when nobody is logged on?

Hello,
Does Time Machine make back-ups when nobody is logged on and does it continue to back-up when I log off?
I'm using an directly connected external hard drive to back-up my data with Time Machine, the back-ups are encrypted.
Thanks in advance.

I had the same problem with Time Machine and solved it by enabling "Enable Power Nap" in Energy Saver:
System Preferences...
Energy Saver
Restore Defaults
Check "Enable Power Nap: While sleeping, your Mac can back up using Time Machine and periodically check for new email, calendar, and other iCloud updates."
2013 21.5 iMac
OSX Mavericks
Seagate 1 TB slim USB 3.0 (power is drawn from USB port), formatted to Mac Journaling File System

When Time Machine is backing up files, I can't work on other apps

When Time Machine backs up files, I am not able to work on other apps such as Safari. I try to cancel the back up but nothing happens. Then the rainbow-colored wheel appears and I can’t do anything. I have turn off the computer and the external hard drive, restart both and log in. After this happens, I see that Time Machine is no longer backing up anything and I am able to continue work on Safari. What is happening? Should I quit Safari before Time Machine starts backing up files? Please help. Thanks.

to ssis6:
I guess this is something that happens once in a while because Time Machine is backing up files now and I am able to work on Apple Discussions and reply to your post. I just wonder if in addition to your explanation, there is any other explanation as to why what I described happens. Thanks for your help.

Would it be possible for time machine to back-up files from 3rd party software such as windows platform using parallel?

I'm wondering if it would be possible for time machine to back-up files from 3rd party software such as Windows XP using parallel software especially if it is isolated from mac? Any advise would be greatly aprreciated.

Short answer - yes Time Machine will backup everything within the Mac OS system.
Longer answer - Parallels creates a pvm disk image "Parallels Virtual Machine" which Time Machine backs up.
Due to the changes to the pvm file Time Machine is unable to read the minor changes and will somtimes do a full backup of it each time Time Machine runs and can chew through Back up drive space quite quickly.

Can somebody tell me please: does Time Machine automatically back up iPhoto?

Can somebody tell me please: does Time Machine automatically back up iPhoto?

Unless you have excluded it, it will backup the iPhoto Library.
Ciao.

Does Time Machine really restore all files of app?

Hi mac people,
I have done a clean install, then i don't want use migration assistant to move back things, but when i move back garageband 6.0.5, i open it, then i realise that only app is been restore but all the loops and audio is not, then i search online found that i have to move those things by my own,
So this problem make me wondering does time machine really fully restore?
I also wondering how about other apps or files do they really all been restore even they SEEN like no problems?
Thanks for helping !!!!!

then i realise that only app is been restore but all the loops and audio is not, then i search online found that i have to move those things by my own,
If you want everything restored from Time Machine, don't use Migration Assistant but use Setup Assistant - migrate al files when you are first prompted to restore from Time Machine or another Mac, after a clean install.
you can select what to restore - the settings, the libraries, the user data.
Since you do not want to use the assistants - to restore Garageband 6.0.5 manually, you transfer all files and folders in the system library:
/Library/Application Support/GarageBand/
and the loops from
/Library/Audio/Apple Loops/
Your plug-ins from
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/
and the corresponding folders in your user library ~/Library/

Does Time Machine backup open applications/files?

I recently lost my calendars (in Entourage, Ical, Mobileme, etc.), and wanted to restore from a time machine backup.
I tried to restore the Entourage identity from a day or two before only to see that the date in Time Machine for the file was way old.
I suspected that because I leave the app open all the time, particularly all night when my backups run at 11 pm that the file never got backed up. Does this sound right?
Ical, on the other hand (which is synched to mobile me and entourage), even though I rarely open it and use it, seemed to have the updated data.
How does Time Machine deal with files that are in use?

Entourage needs some special handling. I don't use it, so can't tell you exactly how to do it, but if you search this forum for Entourage you should find a post or two (by Kappy and/or Baltwo, I think) with good advice.

Time Machine stopped backing up files 2 years ago!

So... I recently tried to restore my Macbook to an earlier time and discovered that Time Machine stopped backing up my files (documents, music, photos, etc) years ago! When I select a time period (say Sept 24, 2013) the actually files included in the backup are from no later than 2010. Why did this happen? I thought Time Machine backed up everything. I did not exclude anything and it certainly backed them up at one point. I'm not sure if there is some way that I am missing to retrieve information that was "backed up" a week ago.

A backup was listed for a week ago, it's just that when I went into the files looking for what was missing (music, for example) there is nothing new since 2010. That's years worth of new files missing all the while thinking that Time Machine was backing them up. My external hard drive was connected and Time Machine was performing that backups as usual without any indication that something was going wrong. There are dozens of backup slots over that time frame that are missing the new files.

Does Time Machine *really* back-up everything?

I've run into some problems with my computer and will have it repaired tomorrow. They will be replacing the hard disk, so I need to make sure I have everything before I give it to them tomorrow morning. I used Time Machine to back up things, so all should be fine. Theoretically, I guess... ;-)
I've now restored from Time Machine back-up to a different computer - this is the one I'll be using while my own is being fixed. But: About 40GB (of about 300GB in total) seems to be missing! The file number reported by Disk Utility is about the same (I've been using the "new" Mac for a day, so I expect it to be different), and I've used "du" in terminal to find out whether there are any major discrepancies but haven't found any. Maybe a few massive swap files that are ignored? Or what could it be?
Any idea what's going on???
Sebastian

No one is an idiot.
It is worth going to Apple's website and reading all the info on their pages about these products. They tell a lot and there are usually links to tutorials.
Time Machine backs up everything the first time. Then it only backs up changes. When you enter time machine you will seethe series of what ever folder you are in running back into space. You can go to a specific date and the version of say a letter will be in the state it was in at the time of that back up.
The same is true for the contest of a folder. If a back up runs at 2:00 pm and the you delete the file at 3:00 the file will remain in the 2:00 pm back up.
There is an option to exclude files from the back up. My opinion is that backing up the system files all the time isn't worth it. I find if there is a system problem I want to reinstall the whole thing fresh.
This works if you don't mind sitting through software installs.
Time Machine if left alone will back up the entire system and keep it current. Once the back up drive is full however it will start deleting old back ups. It will let you know it is going to do this. You can choose to let that happen or add a new drive. It isn't the best system for a permanent archive.
I have excluded everything but my home folder. I expect to get at least a years worth on my drive and at that point a new drive wouldn't be that big a deal.
Hope this helps.
Greg

Does Time Machine also back-up iPhoto/iTunes libraries?

I'd like to do a complete reset of my Macbook Pro, in order to get him faster.
I have a LaCie Hard Disc. Will my iPhoto and iTunes librairies also be backed up when I do a back-up with Time Machine?
When I re-installate my mac, and then I put the back-up from the LaCie back, will everything be recovered?
I want to make sure that I don't lose anything.

https://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
As you will see, the above states:
Time Machine automatically backs up your entire Mac, including system files, applications, accounts, preferences, email messages, music, photos, movies, and documents.
If you happen to be running any anti-virus or cleanup programs, get rid of them as they will be the main culprit in slowing down your Mac! Indeed, if you ARE running any of these, delete them first and see how your Mac runs before resorting to a reinstall of OSX.

Does Time Machine also back up wired external hard drives?

I apologize if this is already answered; I can't find the answer. But I am running out of space on my hard drive, and I am thinking about moving my music and movies (ie multi-media content in iTunes) to an external hard drive. I am torn between two options. 1) use my existing external hard drive (LaCie d2 Quadra 1T) and partition it for Time Machine and a Multi-media folder, or 2) just buy another external hard drive, likely another LaCie and dedicate it for my multi-media. I lean towards keeping my back-up hard drive as is -- for one purpose so as to minimize loss of data should (when) the unthinkable happen. Anyhow, I'd like to know whether Time Machine can be told to include my 2nd external hard drive in its regular back-ups. Likewise, if I partition my current LaCie, can I tell Time Machine to back up my multi-media folder? Any info or links you can provide is appreciated. Regards.

I appreciate the comment. Is there a way to find out whether Time Machine backs up external hard drives without having to buy one and plug it in to see if it is listed in the Time Machine pane of System Preferences? If I could read between your lines, I assume you are saying is Time Machine is "smart" enough to include external hard drives provided that I don't exclude it. Right? PS - I will be using the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.

Why does time machine go back less than a month?

clearly, i'm doing something wrong...
i'm in the process of cleaning up stuff from my external drives. sometime in the fall, i switched my time machine backup to a larger drive. i did my best to follow the instructions for transferring over a time machine backup, and it didn't work. i still have the old TM database, but time machine wouldn't recognize it. so i lived with it and got on with my life, starting a new TM backup.
today, i just realized that it goes back less than a month. what is THAT about? before you ask, it's NOT a disk space issue. on a 2 TB drive, i currently have 1.23 TB of available space. there's plenty of ROOM for further backups, but it's just not keeping them. please help... i love time machine, and it's saved my bacon on a number of different occasions. but on many of those occasions, i had to go back quite a bit further than 3 weeks to restore what i needed. if that's all i'm going to get from time machine, it's usefulness to me is slashed by about 80%.

Time Machine automatically deletes older snapshots to make room for new ones. If your backup history is shorter than you expect, it may be because you're backing up one or more large files frequently.
Virtualization software such as VMware, Parallels, or VirtualBox creates a large virtual-disk container that is constantly changing, so it has to be backed up every time Time Machine runs. That will quickly fill up any backup destination.
You should exclude the virtual-disk file(s) from your Time Machine backups. To do that, click the Options button in the Time Machine preference pane. You may also be able to do it in the virtualization app's settings. Back up the files on the virtual disk from within the guest system, using a native backup application.
A compromise solution is to create a "snapshot" of the virtual machine in the virtualization software (not a Time Machine snapshot.) That will give you a single large file that never changes and only has to be backed up once. All the subsequent changes will be stored in a new file that's initially much smaller, but will grow over time. You should still exclude that file from TM backup. If you ever need to restore the VM from Time Machine, you'll have a working setup, which will make it easy for you to restore the rest of the data from within the guest system.
Another common cause of large TM snapshots is native OS X disk images. If you store a lot of data on one or more writable disk images, they should be in "sparsebundle" format, which will be backed up much more efficiently than any other format. A sparsebundle will not be backed up at all while the image is mounted. Make sure you unmount the image often so it can be backed up. Consider eliminating large read/write disk images from your workflow, if possible.

Time Machine not backing up File Vault encrypted iMac

I recently turned on File Vault and performed backups to my Time Capsule via Time Machine. Although slow it did back up several times. However because of it being slow I followed some advice which said to restart my iMac in Safe Mode and then do a normal restart,which should then speed up the back up process. Well, I did this and it did not make any difference other than now it gets to the end of the back up and starts again, with about completing backup!
So, I'm thinking is it because of File Vault, or is there something else I can do to make sure of being able to perform a backup via Time Machine. I am currently using Lion 10.7.5.
I assume that the backup (if it ever does another one) will also be encrypted as the option in Time Machine to encrypt is greyed out. Any thoughts here?
I thought maybe I should turn File Vault off and try again, but that sort of misses the point if I want to protect my data.
Help please.
Much appreciated - Alani

Alani wrote:
I recently turned on File Vault and performed backups to my Time Capsule via Time Machine. Although slow it did back up several times. However because of it being slow I followed some advice which said to restart my iMac in Safe Mode and then do a normal restart,which should then speed up the back up process. Well, I did this and it did not make any difference other than now it gets to the end of the back up and starts again, with about completing backup!
Does it fail, with a message? If so, what message? If you don't remember, see #C2 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
If not, a clue may be lurking in your logs. Use the widget in #A1 of the same link to display the backup messages from your logs. Locate the backup in question, then copy and post all the messages here.
Is it any faster if you connect via an Ethernet cable, instead of wirelessly?
I assume that the backup (if it ever does another one) will also be encrypted as the option in Time Machine to encrypt is greyed out. Any thoughts here?
No. Mountain Lion can encrypt network backups, but Time Machine on Lion can only encrypt backups made to a local or directly-connected external HD.
I thought maybe I should turn File Vault off and try again, but that sort of misses the point if I want to protect my data
No, that will take a very long time and won't make any difference anyway.

If I store files in the TimeCapsule's own HD, will i be able to use time machine to back those files up also? (specifically can i store/run my iPhoto library from TC and then have Time machine also make/include a backup up of the iPhoto library?)

I curretly use my iphoto library from an large external HD (2 tb) and then have time machine back it up to my airport extreme (which has an external HD attached, 500gb ) Long story short... I am running out of storage space on the 'large external hd 2tb'. however, I still have space on the HD (500gb) that is attached to my airport extreme.
My question is,
1. If i move my iphoto library over to the HD attached to my airport extreme, Is there a way for Time Machine to also back this up.
2. same question only applied differentliy = If i purchase a Time Capsule. and store files on its HD. (specifically an iPhoto library) would time machine create backups of this 'locally' stored data on its own TC HD?
TC = time Capsule
HD = hard drive
TM = Time machien

1. If i move my iphoto library over to the HD attached to my airport extreme, Is there a way for Time Machine to also back this up.
Sorry, but no. Time Machine cannot backup from network drives.
1. If i move my iphoto library over to the HD attached to my airport extreme, Is there a way for Time Machine to also back this up.
2. same question only applied differentliy = If i purchase a Time Capsule. and store files on its HD. (specifically an iPhoto library) would time machine create backups of this 'locally' stored data on its own TC HD?
Again, sorry, but no. Same reason. The TC's internal HDD is treated as a network drive.

HT201250 how do I get Time Machine to back up files (e.g. iPhoto) stored on an external hard drive?

Installed a new 3TB external hard drive for Time Machine. I have 2 other external hard drives attached to my iMac that contain iTunes and iPhoto. How can I point Time Machine to those external drives to include in the backup?

What is listed in System Preferences > Time Machine > Options... > Exclude these items from backups:?
Any attached external disk not listed there should be backed up.

Does Time Machine actually back up files?

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