Does time machine backup all users on a machine

I have a Macbok Pro with 3 users. I just bought an iomego eGo portable HD. My Time Machine preferences excludes nothing. I would like to know if Time Machine is backing up the other users data. If not, will backing up their data (uner their profile) erase mine?

Time Machine will back up the whole hard drive, including all users on it, unless you have it set to back up only certain folders.

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Does time capsule backup all the music and photo files?

I do not have any files excluded for backup with my time capsule. So, are all my music and photos stored on my MacBook Pro and iMac backed up each time?
Does it also back up the Photostream in iPhoto?
I am a little confused about all this and do not want to lose any of these files if my MBP hard drive crashes.

Time Machine will back up the iTunes Media Folder, which stores all of your music and video.....and it will also back up the iPhoto Library used with iPhoto.
Time Machine does not backup the entire libraries each time that it runs. Time Machine backs up the entire contents of your Mac on the first "master" backup. Once that is done, Time Machine only backs up the changes that have occurred on your Mac since the last backup.
So, if you have made any changes to the iTunes Media Folder or iPhoto Library since the last backup, Time Machine will pick up the change and back that up on the next pass when Time Machine runs.
Best to ask your question about Photostream in the iPhoto support area. My understanding is that images are normally stored in iCloud, but if you have downloaded images permanently to your Mac, they are stored in the iPhoto Library, which will be backed up.

Does Time Machine backup sparesebundle?

Hi, I'm a newbie mac user and a little paranoid about backups. I tried searching under support and forums, but did not seem to find the answer to my question:
Does Time Machine automatically backup a separate partition that has been created:
1) I created a separate sparsebundle where I store my iPhoto library/files in order to be able to share the library between multiple users based on this Apple knowledge article http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1198.
2) The sparsebundle is located under Users -> Shared -> and named "iPhoto Library.sparsebundle" and automatically set to mount at login.
When I go into Time Machine, I don't see the mounted partition, but it looks like the sparsebundle under the shared directory is backed up. Just want to confirm that if my machine goes down, I can restore the backup of my iPhoto files from the sparsebundle even though the partition does not show as mounted.
Apologies if this is a basic question, just making sure that there is not another setting I need to specify for additional partitions that have been created.
Thanks in advance!

george in sf wrote:
Hi, I'm a newbie mac user and a little paranoid about backups. I tried searching under support and forums, but did not seem to find the answer to my question:
Does Time Machine automatically backup a separate partition that has been created:
1) I created a separate sparsebundle where I store my iPhoto library/files in order to be able to share the library between multiple users based on this Apple knowledge article http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1198.
2) The sparsebundle is located under Users -> Shared -> and named "iPhoto Library.sparsebundle" and automatically set to mount at login.
When I go into Time Machine, I don't see the mounted partition, but it looks like the sparsebundle under the shared directory is backed up. Just want to confirm that if my machine goes down, I can restore the backup of my iPhoto files from the sparsebundle even though the partition does not show as mounted.
yes, you can. the sparse bundle is backed up by TM unless you specifically exclude it from backups.
Apologies if this is a basic question, just making sure that there is not another setting I need to specify for additional partitions that have been created.
Thanks in advance!

Does Time Machine Backup When You are NOT logged in?

I do not normally leave myself logged in since there are multiple people in my family and they have their own accounts.
Does time machine run backups when I am not logged in?
Does it wake the computer from sleep to run a backup every hour? Day?
If TM does not backup when I am NOT logged in, should I leave myself logged in by switching users back to the login screen?
(On a side note:) Is there a way to make it so that when a screen saver activates, and someone hits a key, it goes back to the login screen instead of the desktop?

Mike Delaney wrote:
I do not normally leave myself logged in since there are multiple people in my family and they have their own accounts.
Does time machine run backups when I am not logged in?
Don't know
Does it wake the computer from sleep to run a backup every hour? Day?
No
If TM does not backup when I am NOT logged in, should I leave myself logged in by switching users back to the login screen?
(On a side note:) Is there a way to make it so that when a screen saver activates, and someone hits a key, it goes back to the login screen instead of the desktop?
Yes, in System Preferences->Security check "Require password to wake...."
You can also tick "Log out after x minutes of inactivity" which would require a new login.

Does Time Machine backup iCal?

I had a problem with some lost todo items the other day and checked to see if I could see a backup calendar as a quick way to solve the problem. If I am on address book and enter time machine, I see backups of my old address books and if I am on mail, I get all my old mail messages on the screen (though the todo item is grayed out), but if I am on iCal, I simply get the Finder window.
Does Time Machine backup iCal or do I need to do a manual backup and then let Time Machine backup that file from finder?

Since reading some of the first messages, I have been backing up my calendar each week and putting the backup file in my documents folder. I know that file is backed up, so I assume in case of a major problem, I could pull it from Time Machine and restore the data.
Out of curiosity, though, I explored the folders in my library/calendar path and found a number of folders, each containing a file that was dated either today or within the last few days. I assume each folder is for a different calendar and that in case of total disaster, I could restore these from Time Machine.
My question at this point: When I export the calendar from iCal, if the All Calendars option is checked, am I safe in concluding each of the separate calendars would be there? If I accidentally had one calendar highlighted, would only that calendar be backed up?

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 Ever Delete All Traces of a File?

I have a question. I have read up on Time Machine on various articles, posts, and documents across the web and I am having a hard time understanding exactly how time machine deletes files.
When a disk is full, does Time Machine ever make the decision to delete the last copy or version of a file, therefore completely erasing it off the disk forever? I know that Time Machine deletes older versions of files, but will it ever completely delete the last, final backup of a file to make space? If so, I can't imagine using Time Machine as a true piece of backup software. It seems like it would be useful in restoring your computer in an emergency, but as far as backing up files, it seems that it would be catastrophic, because it may choose to delete the last remaing version of a file to make space and you end up losing that file for ever.
Here is an example:
I create a file X.doc
Time Machine backs it up.
I modify X.doc
Time Machine backs up the copy, keeping both the original and the new copy on the backup drive.
I modify X.doc yet again.
Time Machine drive runs out of space. Time Machine deletes the oldest version of X.doc and backs up the new copy.
I create 10 more files unrelated to X.doc
Will Time Macine remove all remaining versions of X.doc to make space for the 10 new files???
I hope I am making sense.

Derek Doublin1 wrote:
Will Time Macine remove all remaining versions of X.doc to make space for the 10 new files???
The worst TM can do is delete all your older copies of files, not the most recent version.
If the drive is full, then it can't accept any more files period.
If you had a full 100GB boot drive and a 100GB TM drive, the TM drive would be a copy of the boot drive with no room for saved states.
If you changed a file on the full boot drive, then TM updates that file on it's full drive, there will be no copy of the previous version of that file.
TimeMachine makes for a poor pernament backup system, because lets say you do a major files addition to your boot drive, TM backs that up and can go ahead and delete files you realized you accidentially deleted just a few short days ago.
It's better than nothing and works ok for newbies, but more seasoned types use many backup methods in addition to TM, because corruption creep is possible with TM as well as malware as it's hooked up so often, in a lot of cases all the time.
Most commonly used backup methods

Does Time Machine bundle backup sets when it deletes a month's daily sets?

I'm asking this question to find out if I can delete the all but the last week in a month, each month, in order to extend the useful capacity of my backup drive.
In some backup systems, a periodic "bundle" is made when previous sets are deleted, so for instance, the last backup of the month has the cumulative hourly changes of that month. In this way, transient files which appear and disappear within the month are retained in the monthly backup.
Is this true of Time Machine? Exactly what does Time Machine do? Does it simply wipe out the daily sets and chose the last one to be the "weekly backup?" Or something more sophisticated and useful?
Thanks for any insight!

I've devised a little experiment to discover Time Machine's behavior in this regard:
On my Time Machine's backup schedule, August 27 corresponds with the end of a week. So, on August 26 at 9:15AM, I created the following [folder]/file structure:
[Time Machine Test -Transient Roll-up]
   [Time Machine Test - 1. Hourly Transience
      A one hour lifetime file.rtf
   [Time Machine Test - 2. Daily Transience
      A one day lifetime file.rtf
   [Time Machine Test - 3. Weekly Transience
      A one week lifetime file.rtf
At 10:10AM of that day I removed
[Time Machine Test - 1. Hourly Transience
      A one hour lifetime file.rtf
At 10:10 the next day, August 27, I removed
   [Time Machine Test - 2. Daily Transience
      A one day lifetime file.rtf
On August 28 at 10:30AM, acheck today of the earliest backup of this structure reveals only the following:
[Time Machine Test -Transient Roll-up]
   [Time Machine Test - 3. Weekly Transience
      A one week lifetime file.rtf
I draw the conclusion that transient files within a time period are not subject to a "roll-up" mechanism that displays all changes after out-of-date files are deleted by Time Machine. Thus, for instance, any file that appeared and disappears during an hour will be lost in Time Machine's daily history. Similarly, files that only persist for a day will be lost in the weekly history. And, presumably, if one wanted to choose a week which represented an accumulation of transient changes during the month it would be impossible to do so.
Even so, if one wants to manage only one backup volume, rather than accumulating a stack of them over the years, one might well think about selectively deleting all but one week per month in the earliest backups available, as the projected remaining time approaches less than a few weeks. BackupLoupe's Statistics gives an estimate of remaining time left for backups on a volume, and I would suggest using that as a forecast, unless others have experience to the contrary.
Hope this is useful. It certainly is to me.

Does Time Machine backup Entourage properly?

If a user is using Entourage (an account is open) does Time Machine back it up properly? Anybody who has experience with this?
Reason I ask is that backup programmes like ChronoSync will return a error if any user has an open account. In other words one needs to quit entourage first and than back up to have it work properly.

I have found that Time Machine seems to re-visit a file it backed up if that file changes before TM finishes backing up the remainder of the drive...but I'm not 100% sure about that.
I exclude the Entourage database from Time Machine via TM's prefs panel. Instead, I periodically (according to a schedule I determine) back it up to an "archive" folder on my internal drive via an Automator workflow (see <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/01/alternativemethod_to_use_entourage_and_timemachine.html>). Additionally, I avoid the hourly schedule imposed by TM by using TimeMachineEditor (<http://timemachineeditor.en.softonic.com/mac>). In combination, this provides very flexible control of the frequency that multi-GB files are backed up by TM.

Does Time Machine backup system files (/usr/local/*)?

Does Time Machine backup system files (/usr/local/*)?
If so how do you locate them in the Time Machine interface?
If I go into Time Machine mode and type say "/usr/local" in the Time Machine search bar I get nothing although I can open a terminal application and cd to /usr/local and see bin, lib, include, etc.
Of course I can never see /usr/local in Finder either ... only at the command line.
Thanks.

John, another tech pro ("baltwo") suggests:
Run this in the Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 1
OPTION-click and hold on Finder's Dock icon->Relaunch which reveals all hidden files. Then, look for that file and delete it. To hide all of those, use the same command, substituiting zero for the one, and relaunch the Finder.

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.

Does Time Machine back up other users?

My wife and I share the same computer. We each have our own user accounts. Does Time Machine back up both accounts? It appears that the amount of disk space used on the computer is about equal to the amount on the external hard drive that I use for backup. So I am assuming that both users are backed up in case of a crash. I hope this is the case! Sorry that this is slightly off topic.
Lou

Yes Time Machine backs up your entire hard drive.

HT201250 How does Time Machine allocate backup data.

I have over 150GB to back up with time machine and only 256GB HD to use, does Time Machine back up all files each time or only files updated after the last backup?

Time Machine first makes a full backup, and then, it makes incremental backups backing up only the files that have changed since the last backup. When the Time Machine drive gets full, Time Machine will start deleting old backups in order to be able to make new backups. If you want more information about Time Machine, see > http://pondini.org

HT201250 Does Time Machine backup and restore Bootcamp?

I am replacing defective hard drive in an iMac that I primarily use as a pc under Bootcamp. I have to find some way to clone and restore the bootcamp partition. I was told today by a Genius at the Apple store that I should buy a 2 TB external (which I did for $150) and run Time Machine. He assured me that my bootcamp partition would be backed up along with the entire mac partition and that I would be able to restore everything perfectly on the new hd. Now that I am home and continuing my research, I can't find anywhere that says it will work. Documentation on Time Machine fails to mention bootcamp. So, does Time Machine backup and restore bootcamp or not? And will it be bootable after the restore? Help!

I think you've got it! I have never used WinClone so I cannot attest to how well it will work, but it's pretty much all lthere is. You will have to create a new Boot Camp partition on the new drive, and it should be the same size as the partition you cloned.
Be sure you prep the new hard drive:
Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your 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.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
7. Quit DU upon completion and return to the installer. Now install Snow Leopard or restore from your Time Machine backup.

If i move itune to external drive does time machine still have backup?

if i move itune to external drive does time machine still have backup?
I just moved my itunes off my macbook pro because it was taking up too much space and put it on an external hard drive. i have a second external hard drive that i use for time machine. when i update time machine next will my itunes files be removed from the backup since they are no longer on my internal hard drive (what time machine backs up?) basically, i want to make sure i have a second copy of my itunes besides the one on my first external hard drive and i was wondering if time machine will still have all of that data (on the second external hard drive).
i cant find this answer anywhere!!! thanks so much!!!

Check to see whether or not it's excluded in the Time Machine pane of System Preferences.
Items deleted from the hard drive won't be deleted from the backup until the backup location runs out of space.
(63157)

HT201250 Every time I add/delete music to itunes, does time machine backup my entire library? If so can I limit backup just to added music?

Usimg time machine-every time I add/delete music in itunes library does time machine backup entire file? If so,an I set it up to just backup added music?

It shouldn't be backing up the whole thing again, just the changes.

Does time machine backup all users on a machine

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