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

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HT201250 How do I partition my Time Machine back up drive (G-Drive) to back up both my IMac and my MacBook Air?

How do I partition my Time Machine back up drive (G-Drive) to back up both my IMac and my MacBook Air?

That's not needed, but if you want to do it, use the Disk Utility in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder to create a new partition.
(70423)

When using Time Machine, if I delete items from my computer, will they still be backed up to access later on my external hard drive? In other words, when time machine backs up again, will it delete the files from the back up?

When using Time Machine, if I delete items from my computer, will they still be backed up to access later on my external hard drive?
In other words, when time machine backs up again, will it delete the files from the back up that I have deleted from my computer?

No, I do not believe so. Time Machine would keep all those now-deleted files in previous backups, and as time goes by those backups might be deleted if you needed room, but it would still keep one backup from each day in last month, as well as one from each week forever, as long as you don't start running out of room, then just the oldest would be deleted to make room if needed.
I use a backup drive about double the size of my drive to be backed up, so I would guess it will never get to the point where deleted files being replaced by new ones being backed fill up that drive to the point where backups actually have to get deleted.

How do I delete a Time Machine back-up from my trash?

I use an external hard disc for my Time Machine back-ups.
In order to make some room on the external hard disc for some other files I wanted to store while I reformatted their original disc, I moved the Time Machine bach-ups into my iMac Trash.
Now when I try to delete thes old unwanted back-ups I get this message -
There are some locked items in the Trash. Do you want to remove all the items, including the locked ones, or just the unlocked items?
I've tried selececting Remove All Items but they just stay there.
I tried to darg them out onto the desktop but although that creates a new folder, the back-ups stay in the trash.
I've tried switching Time Macine off in the preferences bu that doesn't help.
Can anyone help me with emptying them?

dear Sue
i've tried the alt solution to empty trash but it does not work
I still got the -8003 error
for emptying time machine backups that i foolishly put in the trash
i've also tried this solution using terminal and it did not work either
http://www.imore.com/how-force-empty-trash-your-mac-using-terminal
any help you might offer would be greatly appreciated
i am using a 24 inch iMac
OSX 10.6.8
Message was edited by: summer_laughter

How to Copy a Specific Time Machine Back-Up to Ext Hard Drive

I'm transitioning from a MBP early 09 to a MBA mid 11. I pruned the MBP pretty well to migrate items from it to the Air, but I want to preserve the last "full" Time Machine back-up of the MBP to an external hard-drive. Not the "latest" - as the lastest back-up includes the pruning need to migrate necessary items from the Pro to the Air - but one dated a few days before I began the pruning. How do I get that specific back-up (currently on External Hard Drive A - 250 GB) onto a new external hard drive (Ext Hard Drive B - 1TB)? I want to preserve that specific back up then ERASE Ext Hard Drive A to use as a portable for the the MBA. Thank you.

don't delete anything on the TM drive using finder. you can do it from TM interface. however, in your case it will not help because TM will always make a full backup after a system restore like you did and there is absolutely no way to avoid it. as suggested you might want to reformat the TM drive and start backups from scratch.
BTW, to delete a single backup you start TM, scroll back to that backup, click on the "gears" action button in Finder's toolbar and select "delete backup".

How do I copy old Time Machine back-up data onto my new (second) back up drive?

I recently bought a second back-up drive for use with my MacBook Pro (running 10.9.4).
I'm successfully backing up my computer to both drives on a regular basis using Time Machine. (a Seagate drive and a Western Digital drive respectively)
I was wondering if there's an easy way to add the old back-up files from the old drive to the new drive as well. That is to say, I wish I had all the data that precedes my new back-up drive on BOTH drives. There's plenty of space on the new drive.
Again, I'm already running Time Machine successfully to both drives, is it perhaps as easy as connecting both drives to my computer and copying the older dated back-up files over to the newer drive within the Backups.backupdb folder for my profile?
Thanks for any help!

Although the documentation says you can copy Time Machine backups in the Finder, it's very slow and sometimes doesn't work at all.
This technique will only work if the volume you're copying to is the same size, or larger than, the one you're copying from.
First, open the Time Machine preference pane and click the Options button. You may have to unlock the settings first by clicking the padlock icon in the lower left corner of the window. Authenticate as an administrator.
Delete the volume you're going to copy from the list of backup destinations. Then turn Time Machine OFF.
Launch Disk Utility, open the built-in help, and search for the term "Duplicate." Follow the instructions. All existing data on the destination volume will be erased.
If the volume you're copying was encrypted by Time Machine, you may have to unlock it first. Click the Unlock button in the toolbar of the Disk Utility window.
Turn Time Machine back ON and select the new volume as a backup destination. You can also continue to use the old volume, if you wish. The two will be alternated when both are available.
CAUTION: If the volume you're copying is corrupt, as shown by Repair Disk or Verify Disk in Disk Utility, then that corruption will be copied to the new drive. Don't copy data from a corrupt volume on a malfunctioning drive. Put the drive aside and don't use it until you're sure you'll no longer need the data. Then securely erase it and take it to a recycling center. Do the same if the Restore operation fails with "disk errors."

Finder Freezing when time machine back up files

I've an 24 aluminium iMac. The finder often freeze (once a day at least) and I noticed that this is often when Time Machine is backing up files.
It's impossible to relaunch the finder and sometimes other mac apps are freezing (preferences etc..). On the dock I can still see that the finder and the apps are active but in fact there are frozen and it is not possible to force quit.
Then if I shut down the computer through the apple menu it doesn't work and the only solution is to shut down manually my iMac with the back button.
Be that as it may it is less frequent since the iMac last software update (graphic card) before everything on the screen was freezing.

I have a 1tb and 540 tb Ultramax Harddrive to support my Mac Pro G5. I originally bought the 650 when the G5 was running Tiger and it worked without fault on a 800 firewire. I partly purchased this model of drive as they advertised its extendibility. When time machine was announced I purchased a second 1tb version and installed the two drives running daisy chained by 800 firewire and they worked fine. Maybe 2 weeks after installing Leopard which had caused me problems because of the application enhancer i was not ready to use time machine so declined to switch it on.
After a few weeks and after the 650 had dismounted itself i started to find after waking from sleep the mac was frozen. There was no way out other than switch it off on the front switch. I later discovered that on powering down the 650 ultramax I could recover my processes but at the danger of corrupting the drive by not removing it properly. As I tried to work out an exit strategy to save data on the 650 I got a system warning to say the Ultramax was beyond repair and was available only to recover files. Eventually it started hanging after a few seconds so i had no choice but to lose data and reformat the drive. That failed and having already contacted Iomega support for advice with little support they eventually agreed the drive had become damaged and agreed to replace the unit.
With the new unit I expected the problem would be gone.. but it was a matter of hours before the symptoms re-emerged, not as bad as before they seemed to allow other apps to continue to run and work it just disabled the finder so i could open an application from recent apps but not through a finder window and if i asked it to open or save a file it would lock the application so much not even a three fingered quit would solve the problem it would close the app in the finder but in the close app window it would remain listed as not responding.. the only way to recover use of the mac was to power off the ultramax almost on loosing power all hanging functions would re-emerge sometimes i needed to switch the mac off.
I decided to risk setting time machine on and although it worked it hung on the first back up and ever since I have woken up the mac as i run a very eco friendly power management policy I would find the hang accompanied by time machine backing up.
I am sure time machine is part culprit in this problem although i cant work out why only the 650 suffers I have tried taking it off firewire and moving to usb and it still does the same....
Any ideas or pointers to an answer of any sort would be welcome

How do I install my time machine back up on a new hard drive because the old one died?

Hi! My MacBook hard drive died, so I had a new one installed. Now, I am hoping I can transfer my Time Machine back up on it without having to do it manually. I was running Leopard on it. Can I boot from the Time Machine back up or will I have to install Leopard on it first? I'm not extremely computer savvy so , of course, I am looking for an easy way to do this! Thanks for any suggestions!

The Time Machine backup is not bootable
You will have to install Leopard first

Why does Time Capsule echo when time machine backs up?

Every time time machine backs up I get horrid echo sounds from my Bose speakers which are attached to the computer. I use Time Capsule and have for quite a while but this is a new problem - probably about two weeks since it started. It is driving me nuts as it is loud.

There is always a low hum from TC which i dislike but I moved it so it is faint.
Bad.. very bad.. there should not be a low hum "always" from a TC.. If the hum is 50hz, 60hz 100hz or 120hz.. it is a power supply issue that probably just got worse. They do not hum in normal use.. there is a fault in the power supply.
Take it back to apple and get it replaced. Wipe it before you take it in.. they should exchange it.
In normal operation you can put your ear up against the TC.. and power it on..
The start up cycle goes like this.
Fan will immediately start up.. and front LED will flash momentarily green go off then begin flashing amber.
Fan will cut off and the hard disk will spin up.. this is several seconds into the boot cycle.
Hard disk will settle to normal operation.. disk test complete. TC will finish the boot. LED will go green (if everything is good).. after about 1min the disk will stop spinning. From this point the TC should make no noise at all. Audio noise at least. If you have internal power supply hum.. it has faulty transformer or some other part. Since it is under warranty pass it back for replacement.

How do I protect a Time Machine back up from being automatically deleted during new backups?

Hi, any help would be appreciated.
I used an external hard drive Time Machine backup to restore my music and photos after losing nearly everything during an update. I followed the instruction from Apple Support and turned on TM so I could enter and recover the needed libraries. Unfortunately I wasn't aware that TM would continuously backup for the next 7 hours as I searched for duplicate music files, merged iPhoto libraries, etc...until I received the message that TM had deleted all my backups (all the way back to 2010).
Just to head off the "how could you not know?!" comments - I had previously left TM off and just selected backup now when I attached the external drive.
The good news is that the backup I used to restore my music and iPhoto library from May still appears to be intact, so how do I make sure it doesn't get deleted the next time I back up? My concern is, once I've removed all the duplicate music and photo files I would like to back up again prior to upgrading to Yosemite - just in case I experience the same issues with losing files again I'd like to be prepared.
My external hard drive is an Iomega with 83.1 GB free of 320 GB.
I'm on a Mid-2009 MacBook Pro / 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo / 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 / 43.76 GB free of 159.18 GB
OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks
Any help would be greatly appreciated. If it's written for someone who is not very technologically advanced (read: step-by-step instructions) that would be even better! Thanks in advance!

You need to get a bigger external drive, 2 to 4 times the amount of data you are backing up. I would also recommend a minimum of 2 backups. You can do that with 2 Time Machine drives or use a clone to give you a bootable backup.
Time Machine FAQ
Try E1 in the 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems
Time Machine Versus Clones and Archives
Clone - Carbon Copy Cloner (Often recommended as it has more features than some others)
Clone – Data Backup
Clone – Deja Vu
Clone - SuperDuper
Clone - Synk
Clone Software – 6 Applications Tested
Commonly Used Backup Methods

How do you know when time machine is full?

Hi there,
Just got my new time machine & everything is okay but just wondering, what happens when it gets full? Do you get a warning when it's about to reach full capacity. Also, to create the available disk space to allow it to carry on backing up, how do you delete say the oldest files. Basically, what I'm asking is how to manage it so it keeps backing up effectively.
Ta, mMel

Not to worry. One of the big advantages of TM over other backup apps is, TM +manages it's space for you.+
As you probably know, TM keeps it's hourly backups for 24 hours; and converts the first of the day into a daily backup which it keeps for a month. Then it converts one per week into a weekly backup that it keeps as long as there's room.
Thus, it will fill whatever drive/partition you assign to it.
When there's not room for new backups, it will begin deleting the oldest of those weeklies, but it's smart enough that it won't delete it's copy of anything that still exists on your HD.
Cool, eh?

HT201250 How can I make sure time machine backed up my photos and music?

I recently got a new MacBook Pro, and I sucsessfully transferred all of my information onto my new computer from my old MacBook. I also bought a new external hard drive. I used Time Machine to back it all up. It says that it transferred everything, but all I can see are the Applications. I want to be sure that I have it backed up in two places before I erase my old hard drive and sell my old computer.
Thanks for the help.

When you enter Time Machine and navigate to a snapshot, you see only applications? Nothing in your home folder, for example?

How do I copy my time machine back up from a smaller Hard disk to a larger hard disk; so that I can then continue to back up, through Time machine, on the larger hard disk?

I am using time machine for backing up on an external hard disk. This has now become full and every back up results in the deletion of the first back up on the hard drive.
I have bought a larger hard drive now and am trying to copy the back up from the smaller hard drive to the new larger hard drive, using Finder. This is not happening and the message I am getting is
"The volume has the wrong case sensitivity for a back up"

Hello UmeshNB,
Thanks for the question. Based on what you stated, it seems like you are not able to move a backup to another drive. I would recommend that you read this article, it may be able to help you isolate or resolve the issue.
Time Machine: How to transfer backups from the current backup drive to a new backup drive - Apple Support
If it is not formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), reformat the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID partition. If you do not know how, see the steps in this article.
If the drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended but without journaling, OS X may state that "the volume has the wrong case sensitivity" to be used as a back up disk.
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Mario

CS3 locks up when time machine backs up

When I'm working in Adobe CS3, namely Photoshop, illustrator and After Effects, the program locks up if time machine tries to make a back up. Time machine seems to get stuck too, appearing to make a backup forever until I force quite from the CS3 app.

Where are your backups going, to an external disk, Time Capsule, or ??
Where is the data for those apps, on your internal HD, an external, or ??
Try the things in #D2 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
If still no help, copy and post the +TM Buddy+ messages (per #D2) for one of these backups here.

How do i load a time machine back up

my harddrive crashed and i took it to the apple store to get it fixed. when i brought it home i loaded the wrong version from my time machine. how do i load an earlier version.

Wrong version of what?

How do i control when time machine backs up

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