How Do I Know If Time Machine is Successful?

After much hassle, and discovering that there is an undocumented bug that requires Time Machine to use an external USB drive that was NOT formatted for PC use ... even though I explicitly formatted the drive with Disk Utility as an HFS+ volume ... sigh.
I have Time Machine working ... sorta ..
It has been munching away all day ... and has built a number of files that total about 40% of the total used storage on my primary drive. It reports multiple backups and keeps adding more data each hour.
When do I know it has successfully backed up at least ONE version of all my files?
Message was edited by: RocketAlchemist

If it is doing the hourlies then it has already completed the full first backup. It won't do the hourlies until then.
Check the options to make sure that there aren't exclusions for data you want backed up. If you're only seeing 40% of what you believe should be there then i'm guessing things are excluded tha tyou aren't aware of!

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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?

How do I know if time machine is backing up my apple mail? I need to have copies of all of my emails, so there I have a lot of mail files. I was told that if I change computers, that the mail files will all be on time machine. Is this true? Thanks, Dave

Is there a way to verify if time machine is backing up my apple mail? I was told that if I change computers, that the mail files will all be on time machine and can be easily be put on a new computer using my time machine backups. Is this true? Thanks, Dave

Having deleted some Mail messages by mistake, I have had to recover them from TM. I can tell you that the recovery of mail messages will be done at the mailbox level. In my case it was half of the messages in a mailbox. So I recovered the complete mailbox from TM. Then I copied the messages from the recovered mailbox back into the mailbox I use in Mail. I hope that helps.
Please be aware that TM is a backup application and not an archival application. What that means is that if your TM drive gets full, it will get rid of older files which could be mail messages to make space for newer backups. You might want to consider archiving your mail instead of using TM if you need to maintain your mail messages for extended periods of time.
Allan

I accidentally erased a sticky from my Dashboard? I don't know how to find them in Time Machine.

I accidentally erased a sticky from my Dashboard? I don't know how to find them in Time Machine. Any ideas how to recover it?

When you have a Write window open press F9 to turn on the Contact Sidebar. Select the contact or contacts to send to. Hold the control key while clicking contacts to select more than one. Then use one of the Add To buttons at the bottom.
This looks like the first message you have posted here. You will get an email to the address you used when registering.
You can click on your username to go to your profile/activity page. I suggest that you bookmark that so you can find your posts and answers easily.

I'm running Pages version 5.2 on a Desktop Mac version 10.9.2. with the Pages app open how do I use the Time Machine to go back five hours to see the work?

I'm running Pages version 5.2 on a Desktop Mac version 10.9.2. With the Pages app open how do I use the Time Machine to go back five hours to see my page? Can I access Time Machine within an app like Pages? How do I enter Time Machine within the application? It always takes me to the Finder. I apolgise for the mumbo jumbo. I simply do not know how to use Time Machine. It makes sense when I follow the Tutorial but then I lose it.

OK. You've kind of skipped over the reason why you want to go back five hours, but my assumption would be that you've made changes to a Pages file that you want to revert.
There are two ways to tackle this. From Pages itself, open the current version of your document, and from the File menu, click Revert To, and Browse All Versions. You'll then be in the Time Machine interface for that file, and can browse back to the version you want.
Or, outside of Pages, you can select the file (or the folder it was originally in, if you've since deleted it) and enter Time Machine from the TM menu (it sounds like you've already tried this?)
best
Matt

How to restore files from Time Machine after Clean Install of Mavericks

How to restore files from Time Machine after Clean Install of Mavericks. I know the data is there but seems unaccessable because I may have changed the Computer or Owner name. Is there any way to fix that now?

Hi Linc,
my back-up data is managed by Time Machine; the actual data is on a second internal Hard Drive with a capacity of 1TB - not partitioned. I am using Time Machine and have access to all data backed up since Mavericks Clean Install but not the data prior to this date.
When I open the 1TB drive in Finder I can see a folder "Backups.backupdb/Sigi's Mac Pro/ followed by many folders of backup dates going back to 2010-09-20-103441 and up to 2014-02-07-142414 all followed with folder Macintosh HD. February 7th 2014 was the date of the clean install.
These Backups are followed by backup date folder 2014-02-08-075554 with a subfolder of MacPro-320GB (this is the name I assigned to my Boot Drive during formatting; I suspect I should have assigned the same name as before ie. Macintosh HD) and 2014-02-11 with a subfolder Macintosh HD, these are the ones I get access to by way of Time Machine > Restore.
Weird thing is on Febr 11 when I relised my possible mistake and renamed the Bootdrive back to what it was initially ie. Macintosh HD despite this I have access to all backup data since the Clean Install in both folders MacPro-320GB as well as Macintosh HD but not to any data prior to the Clean Install.
Is there something that Time Machine knows and prevents access or is it simply a matter of renaming the subfolder 2014-02-08-07554/MacPro-320GB to ........./Macintosh HD?
I like to restore selectively and not everything - It was hard work reinstalling apps that were supposed to be the troublemakers (ref my discussion on Maverick problems) but I now need to get onto data specific to some of these apps as well as other data I may have missed. Long story? Yes and sorry.
Sigi

I have a power pc (g5) computer that I will soon be replacing with a current i5 or i7 mini. How do I transfer the Time Machine files from the internal hard drive on the G5 to an external drive that I will later use with the Mini?

I have a Power PC G5 computer that I will soon be replacing with a current i5 or i7 Mini. How do I transfer the Time Machine files from the internal hard drive on the G5 to an external drive that I will later use with the Mini?

Hi, likely the easiest is to just poll the drive & get something like this...
Get MacScan...
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/macscan.html
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/U3NVSPATA/
But if you have a good external drive already, just clone it.
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Or SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/

How can I copy a time machine backup from one Time Capsule to another ?

How can I copy a time machine backup from one Time Capsule to another ? I bought a 1 Tb Time Capsule to replace my 512Mb Time Capsule. Now, I like to copy my time machine backup from the old Time Capsule to the new one so I can keep using my backup.

from this support article:
(click on image to enlarge)

After a clean install, how can I continue using Time Machine?

After a clean install, how can I continue using Time Machine?
I booted from my recovery partition, erased my HD, installed the same OS, (Lion, 10.7.5) then restored from my TM.
If it asks if i want to use TM, I say yes. When I chose the drive, it seems to want to start all over, instead of just picking up where I left off.
Is there any way of picking up where I left off?

Hi Frank,
You are sure you looking in your Library in /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Library and not /Library at the top level of your harddrive?
When you open iCal what do you see? Are the calendars the two default Home and Work ones?
I really appreciate the responses -- especially if you are in the UK as opposed to Ontario.
Why, do you have something against London Ontario?
John M

I have just installed a 2TB time capsule on my iMac i7, it see my second 1TB hard drive but the 256 SSD doesn't come up in the list of hard drives I can back up. How can I enable the time machine to see my first SSD 256gb hard drive?

I have just installed a 2TB time capsule on my iMac i7, it see my second 1TB hard drive but the 256 SSD doesn't come up in the list of hard drives I can back up. How can I enable the time machine to see my first SSD 256gb hard drive?

iLife is preinstalled on all the Macs. If you purchased iLife in the App Store or your computer came without DVDs, open App Store > Purchases and download the applications. If your Mac came with discs, insert the Applications DVD and install iLife applications

I want to know about time machine if i can use the hard drive that i use for time machine back up as a normal hard drive too or if it's only for time machine

I want to know about time machine if i can use the hard drive that i use for time machine back up as a normal hard drive too or if it's only for time machine
and if it yes i want to know if i have 1TB hard disk to use the 500gb for time machine and the other 500gb for normal use

thank you very much because i am considering to buy the porsche design hard disk 1TB and i want to have it for normal use and for time machine is a pitty to give 1TB for back up only again thanks and i know seperate the back and the working jobs are better but the i have to have 2 hardisks and i want only 1

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)

How do I use my Time Machine as an external hard drive to just dump files no longer needed on my computer?

How Do I use my time machine as an external hard drive?

Time Machine is software that allows a Mac to backup to a Time Capsule or other hard drive, so I think you are asking about the Time Capsule here, correct?
http://www.apple.com/timecapsule/
How do you plan to connect the Time Capsule to your network, or is it already connected and configured?
When you have it configured on the network, you can use the Finder to copy/paste or drag/drop files from your Mac to the Time Capsule disk.

Hi, I used an external hard drive as a time machine,now I want to use it on a windows PC as a normal hard drive again. How do I "reformat" the time machine to an normal usb-device?

Hi, I used an external hard drive as a time machine,now I want to use it on a windows PC as a normal hard drive again. How do I "reformat" the time machine to an normal usb-device?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+format+hard+drive

TS3423 Mac book pro stops responding after Maverick OS restart. Currently have a circle with a line through it after 20+ hours. Tried to shut it down and use the Time Machine to restore but no response. How can I restore with Time Machine if it will not s

Mac book pro stops responding after Maverick OS restart. Currently have a circle with a line through it after 20+ hours. Tried to shut it down and use the Time Machine to restore but no response. How can I restore with Time Machine if it will not start?

sonjadg,
you can purchase a replacement pair of grey installation DVDs for your MacBook Pro from either Apple or iFixit. If Startup Manager is only showing an OS X Installer volume, then it sounds like the Mavericks installer had a problem midway through its installation process. To fix this, you’re going to need to erase your internal disk and reïnstall your original version of OS X from the grey Mac OS X Install DVD, use Software Update to get it back to 10.6.8 (presuming that your MacBook Pro originally came with Snow Leopard), and then restore from Time Machine.

How Do I Know If Time Machine is Successful?

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