DOES TIME MACHINE EVER SLEEP?

I've just noticed that if you enter into the time machine backups it shows backups having been done every hour for the last 24 hours. But during some of that time the computer has been in sleep mode, eg: overnight. Is this something new in OS10.7?, or is it because I've changed connections from wi-fi to direct network? - I'm sure it didn't used to do this. Seems strange, because surely nothing is going to change and need backing up whilst it's asleep......?

KJ W wrote:
during some of that time the computer has been in sleep mode, eg: overnight.
your Mac might be waking from sleep to perform the backup.
Mac OS X v10.6: About Wake on Demand

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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 prevent sleep?

Surely, if I have time machine set to say 1hrs 15 mins it will never sleep because of the Time Machine hourly backups?
I have a brand new iMac and although it it set to sleep it never does and I think that is due to TM running every hour...
Just as my machine is about to nod off TM starts another backup.

Well, in theory. I'm not really sure what TM does if, for example, the computer is asleep prior to the time of the next backup. TM may not wake up the computer and simply skip over the backup until the computer is awake whenever a scheduled backup comes up. But TM should not abort if the computer's sleep time arises during a backup. It should keep the computer awake until the backup finishes. This should be how any backup utility should work, but then you never know for sure until you test them. For me I would want to test any backup utility's behavior under circumstances that might compromise the backups insofar as I depend on the backup utility's reliability to produce usable backups without my having to be constantly in attendance.
I've tried TM several times since Leopard's release, and in general do not consider it a reliable backup alternative. I have had varied results with backups and restores, particularly with restores. TM seems to backup OK, but I haven't had any success doing a complete system restore. I'm also concerned by the many trouble reports appearing on these forums. There are just too many problems reported for me to consider TM truly reliable. However, that said there are a lot of users who seem to have no problems with TM. I guess I just sort of think a backup utility should really be bullet-proof because it's so important.

Does Time Machine and Sleep Mode work with your external USB HD???

I have a new iMac 10.7.3 with latest software updates.
Do you have an external USB hardrive that works with Time Machine turned on and Energy Saver set at 10 minutes on the computer???
If so which external USB HD are you using???
So far I have not found one that works correctly. They seem to corrupt the external USB HD requiring a reformat of the drive each time.
I need to buy one that works.
Tom..........

I am presently using four different brands of external drives with Time Machine on different Macs:
Seagate
Iomega
Western Digital
Maxtor (this is an old Firewire 400 drive)
I never configured any of these drives specially for sleep or spin down. I just formatted them and then used them with Time Machine. The computers are set to sleep after various idle times raging from 10 minutes to 20 minutes. The box for "put hard disks to sleep when possible" is also checked. Two are laptops and two are iMacs.
I have never had any issues with any of these drives, and they've been used with Time Machine for over two years in some cases. That corruption you mention sounds unusual.
Did you format the drives for use with a Mac before connecting them up for Time Machine? For instance, Mac OS Extended and GUID partition table? Some PC formats won't work, for instance If you select an NTFS or FAT-formatted drive, Time Machine prompts you to reformat the drive. If you have one of these, reformat the drive in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
I am suspecting you have a drive with one of the PC formats that isn't compatible with Time Machine.

Does Time Machine awake an iMac from Sleep?

I'm just curious as to whether Time Machine backups awaken an iMac from sleep? Or does Time Machine sleep too? I'm not talking about display sleep, but system sleep.

Hi:
Short answer, no
Time Machine will, however, keep track of when the next backup is due after the Mac wakes.
Barry

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.

How does time machine handle deleted files

I've recently grown into a 1.5TB external hard drive where I back up my iMac through Time Machine. I'm a photography hobbyist who does a lot of processing work on my photos in Photoshop, therefore I'm regularly generating sizable data to back up.
My question is, using some hypothetical numbers:
Pretend I create 50GB of new data by importing a lot of photos onto my iMac, then Time Machine does it's thing before I can decide what photos I want to keep or trash. I later go back and edit my photo catalog and decide I only want to keep 1/2 of photos from that previous import, reducing that data to only 25GB. Will Time Machine keep those old pictures on my external drive, even though I deleted them from my iMac? Will Time Machine ever recognize I threw away those files, assume I don't want them, and overwrite them? Or is Time Machine going to keep using my my external drive to back up everything until I used up all of the externals space?
Message was edited by: Michael Streubert

Understanding how TM deletes things can be difficult, but I'll try to summarize it:
-TM will back up your system every hour.
-After 24 hours, TM will delete all but one of the 24 previous hourly backups. The one it decides to keep will become your "daily" backup. You have no control over which of those 24 backups it will select to keep as the daily.
-After 30 days, TM will start to delete the old daily backups too. It will keep 4 of the last 30 backups, one for each week.
-After your TM disk fills up, it will start to delete old backups to make room for new ones.
So, after you delete them from your main HD, the length of time that they kept on the TM drive can vary. If the files existed for only a few hours, then there is a good chance that they will be purged from the backups the following day. Or they might be kept for weeks or months, depending on if TM decided to keep those backups as the daily or weekly. It's kind of a crap shoot.
If the files existed on your main hard drive for between one and seven days, then they will remain on your TM backup drive for at least a month. After that they are at risk of being purged out.
If the files existed for more than a week, they will stay on your TM drive until it fills up. After that, they are at risk of being deleted.
I hope this helps.

How does time machine use the external disk space??

does time machine back up only the changed or new stuff or does it back up everything? does this mean that if on "day one" it backed up 600 gb worth of data, the next back up on "day 2" would be 600gb+a few more things, or would it be 600gb+600gb+the few more things? Does it back up "day one" in a whole package and "day two" in another package, or does it back up "day one", plus only the different things made from "day one" to "day two""?
similarly, does it keep stuff from the first back up ever, plus anything new or modified in the following back ups, then when it is full, does it let just the oldest files drop off? or does it drop off everything from the initial backup? that is, if I had 20mb of changes would it erase only 20mb of data to make the new data fit, or would it erase all 600gb from say "day one"?
thanks for the answer!
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
<Email Edited by Host>

See Pondini's TM FAQs for starters.

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

Does Time Machine wake my computer up every hour?!

I am finding mixed answers...
Does time machine wake up the computer to do the hourly backup?
It seems to do this, as it made eight backups last nite.
if so, what's the sense? any way to prevent this?

Hello all:
I rarely make statements without qualifying them. However, TM does not wake a sleeping computer. If a computer is waking up, something is causing that to happen besides TM.
Barry
Edit: I believe that dwb has a good thought. Go to system preferences>energy saver>sleep and see what you have indicated the system should do.
Message was edited by: Barry Hemphill

HT201250 What does time Machine back-up?

I would like to use Time Machine as a back-up on an external USB hard drive. However, I am not sure what it actually backs up. I want it to back up only the main Mac hard drive and not all the files and folders on the external drive which I will also use as the destination for the TimeMachine back-up. Is there a way to do this or does Time Machine only back-up the main MacHD and not connected "data" drives like the external one I will use for TimeMachine. Also, how do I make a bootable "rescue" drive or disk if my hard drive fails and I want to install a new one? Will a "rescue USB flash drive" -- bootable with the operating system (Mountain Lion) in it -- in conjunction with Time Machine on the external drive restore a new hard drive (MacHD) to what was on the old one? Finally, how does one make a rescue (bootable) USB flash drive with OSX 10.8.2 on it?
Mike

Try going system preferences>time machine.select disk>highlight the disk, click use for back up (make sure the padlock is unlocked. If this has already been done there might be a problem with the disk. Go to utililites>disk utilities highlight the disk click verify disk.

Does Time Machine/Migration Assistant successfully transfer software licenses for Microsoft Office and Adobe?

I have a MacBook that I purchased in late 2007. It's been very good to me over the years. However, I'm been having various minor issues, and tonight I noticed that the screen goes to black at about 45° as I'm closing my laptop. In other situations I'd try to fix this myself, but right now I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural South America and have limited access to the right tools, much less replacement parts. So instead I'm taking it as a sign that my trustworthy companion is about to give up the ghost and I should get a new computer now, instead of completely running this one into the ground and potentially losing important documents, photos, &c.
My question is simple: Does Time Machine and/or Migration Assistant successfully transfer licenses for Microsoft Office 2011 and for Adobe software?
My software installation disks are in a box in a basement in the United States. And since I'm not quite sure which box it is (last summer I did not see the need to label my own boxes), I'm not going to ask some unsuspecting friend or family member to dig through all my posessions to find an alphanumeric code or two, especially if I can just transfer/migrate the license without it.
Many thanks.

Try the combo update on the old machine.
10.6.8 Combo Updater
If the 2 computers have the correct cable connections, try the Target Disk Mode.
Target Disc Mode

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 track changes to disks made by other operating systems?

I run 10.8 Mountain Lion on my main partition but also occassionally boot to a copy of 10.7 Lion on a separate partition in order to run a version of Quickbooks for Mac that isn't supported in 10.8. Time machine is only turned on in 10.8 and backs up all internal disks and partitions when I'm logged into that operating system. My question is does time machine in 10.8 notice changes made to any of the internal disks made by me while I was booted into 10.7 Lion?
Occassionally I reboot into 10.7 Lion to run Quickbooks for Mac 2011, do work, make changes to files, ect. When I log back into 10.8 Mountain Lion and Time Machine does it's normal back up thing, does it recognize changes that were made to internal disks, folders, and files that were made when I was previously booted into 10.7 Lion? Or does Time Machine in 10.8 Mountain Lion only recognize changes that are made when it's running?
Thanks Peeps!
ben

When I log back into 10.8 Mountain Lion and Time Machine does it's normal back up thing, does it recognize changes that were made to internal disks, folders, and files that were made when I was previously booted into 10.7 Lion?
Yes.

Does Time Machine track file movements?

If I have a file on my desktop, have Time Machine back up the desktop, and then move the file to my "Documents" folder and back up again, does Time Machine back up two copies of the file in each respective location or does it know that the file was moved (without being changed) and only keep one copy on the backup drive and just make a new hard link to the file in the new location (in this case the "Documents" folder)?

if you move a file to another location, TM will think that it's a new file provided that it sees the moved file during a regular backup.
If you move a file around BETWEEN backups, it will NOT find the intermediate locations.
- gws

DOES TIME MACHINE EVER SLEEP?

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