How to backup while away from usual Time Machine destination?

When at home, I have Time Machine backup to a Time Capsule (and a couple of external drives that I rotate off-site).
I'd like to guard against losing any files changed while I'm away from home for some days should I lose my hard disk. One possibility is having an external HD with a full TM backup on it but this isn't appealing to me because the HD would end up being stored close to my Macbook and it's possible they could disappear togather. The volume of modified data to backup would easily fit on a USB stick or SD card that I could keep in my pocket.
Is there a way to backup only those files modified since my last backup to Time Capsule (to my SD card)? Some reading about rsync, mtmd and mtmfs didn't yield anything useful.
My current workaround is to create a smart folder in Finder of files modified after a specified date and copy these to the SD card. This doesn't preserve the directory structure.

First, understand that having one, and only one, backup isn't that much safer than having none. I can't count the number of times I've seen someone lose the internal hard drive only to discover a previously undetected problem with the one and only backup drive. It sounds too coincidental to be likely, but gut feelings in this case have little to do with reality.
So, that said, I wouldn't try to limit this secondary backup method as you stated. I would create a full secondary backup plan. Use some online service, like CrashPlan or Carbonite. Note that I don't use those (not away from home enough to warrant it), so don't take that as an endorsement of those two particular services!

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How to restore just Mavericks from a Time Machine backup

Macbook Pro 15", (early 2011) 2.0 GHz, 8GB memory
After having my WD 750GB HD crash, I decided that I would opt for a smaller (256GB) SSD drive and just put Mavericks and my apps on the new drive and keep my user files on an external drive. I've installed and formatted the new drive but I can't figure out how to install just OSX from Time Machine since the entire backup is too big for my new drive. Before the drive failed, I had installed the latest update for Mavericks (10.9.3?) Thoughts?

I think you should do the following:
Install Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion Using Internet Recovery
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
Partition and Format the hard drive:
Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
After DU loads select your newly installed hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
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. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion. Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
You can find more about restoring from a Time Machine backup at Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
You

How do I reinstall Mavericks from a time machine backup? (Hard drive failure)

Ok, so I have a mid-2007 iMac and the hard drive finally died. It originally shipped with Leopard or something, but I had it upgraded to Mavericks. I have an external hard drive with a current Time Machine backup on it. I am about to replace the internal hard drive with a brand new (unformatted) hard drive. So here is the question: Is there a way to boot from my Time Machine backup and then reformat the drive and do a Time Machine recovery?
I have the old OS X install disks, but I don't want to have to upgrade through all of the old OS Xs. I also have a Macbook that I could create a bootable USB from--something like this (http://lifehacker.com/how-to-create-an-os-x-mavericks-usb-installation-drive-145 0280026)--and then I could reformat the drive and recover from Time Machine. But is there an easier way? Can I just boot straight from my external hard drive that has the backup on it?
Thanks for your help everyone, I'm hoping to be able to take care of all of this tonight.

You can try this. OPTION boot the computer.
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
"OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the disk icon labeled Recovery HD.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
This should boot the Mavericks Utilities Menu.
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open 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 Apply 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.
When the formatting is done quit Disk Utility and return to the Main Menu. Now select the option to restore/reinstall OS X from a Time Machine backup. Follow the directions.

How do I retrieve mails from a time machine backup of a different computer?

I had to reformat my computer because of a trojan file I couldn't eradicate, and I didn't want to restore files from a time machine backup for fear of reinstalling the trojan. After reinstalling OS Maverick, my MacBook Pro from early 2009 is now back to good performance. However, I would like to retrieve my old archived mails from 2009 onwards, excluding the present year, of course. I know those mails are there, but how can I access them?
Thank you.
Domenico

See if you can inherit the backup.
Inherit a Backup
Inherit a Backup (2)
See 17.
Time Machine FAQ
Time Machine Troubleshooting

How do I remove files from my Time Machine Backup and then how to exclude external hard drives from Time Machine?

How can I remove external hard drives from the Time Machine and exclude them in the future?

For deleting backups from Time Machine: http://pondini.org/TM/12.html
For excluding things from backups: http://pondini.org/TM/10.html
For general Time Machine advice (all courtesy of Pondini): http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

How do I restore Reminders from a Time Machine backup?

Hi,
For reasons which are long and unimportant I have to restore my mac from a time machine backup without being able/wanting to use a full migration assistant etc
I'm currently having issues with restoring my Reminders from the TimeMachine backup I made. I have manged to restore Notes, by going to Library --> Containers and restoring the "com.apple.notes" folder, but this process doesn't work with the similar folder in Containers ("com.apple.reminders").
Am I doing something wrong here? Where does Mountain Lion store the reminders data?
Many thanks for any help

OS X Yosemite version 10.10.1
I recently lost most of the contents of my Reminders. Although I can't be sure of the cause, I suspect a certain Mac cleaning utility.
I was able to restore my Reminders with the help of Apple Support, but the procedure was not straight forward as the ~/Library/Calendars folder “contains account data and generally speaking it will cause iCloud to activate even if deactivated and remove the data since the time stamp on the data is older than on iCloud”.
Here is the procedure that I followed:
1. Disconnect from Internet
2. Make a backup of your current ~/Library/Calendars folder
Locate Calendars folder using Finder
List the folders in your Home folder
Click on Go → Hold down alt key to see Library → Click on Library → Click on Calendars
Copy the Calendars folder to Desktop
3. Locate Calendars folder in Time Machine
Locate Library folder using Finder
List the folders in your Home folder
Click on Go → Hold down alt key to see Library → Click on Library
Enter Time Machine
Locate Library folder for the day/time you want to restore
Click on Calendars folder
4. Restore Calendars folder
Then Restart and check your Reminders to ensure that they are OK
5. Make a local backup of your Reminders
Export each Reminders list to (say) Desktop
Reminders → File → Export
6. Reinstate previously saved Calendars folder
Locate Library folder in Finder
Copy saved Calenders folder from Desktop into Library folder (over-writing previous Calendars folder)
Restart
7. Update Reminders from local backup
Import each Reminders list from Desktop
Reminders → File → Import → select backup file → select appropriate Reminders list
8. Reconnect with Internet

How to extract individual files from a time machine back up'

Hi! I have a problem... So two months ago my mac's internal hard disk had a problem, as the folks at genius bar would say, it was "ejecting" itself by itself. It was frozen. Problem: I was gonna do a backup the day it happened, so I didn't have a back up. I went to a centre of data recuperation. They managed to get a lot out of the internal hard disk and put it in a new external hard drive. Apple then replaced my SSD, and I restored (from the external hard drive) what had been recuperated back on my computer with a new SSD. Now I realise that a lot of things are missing - especially pictures- which is quite annoying. I do have a very old back up that I did with Time Machine on another external hard drive. My question is: how can I restore only the pictures from that back up? I can't go back on time machine because this is a new SSD, and I don't wanna restore everything from that back up as I have more data on my computer as it is now... Help?

go into the backups.backupsdb of the old time machine and find your picture folder wherever you saved them and drag the files over to your Mac.
then, NEVER again only have ONE backup of your data, always 2 minimum.

How do I restore emails from my Time Machine?

In restoring my wifes email account on her Mac Book Pro, she has lost the emails that were in her in box. How do I restore those emails from my Time Machine backups?

Open Mail and select the Inbox
Click the Time Machine clock icon at the top of the screen and then click Enter Time Machine
Select a recent date when the Inbox was intact from the timeline on the right of the window
Click Restore

How to backup mac os x using time machine

how to backup mac os x using time machine

yes.presently my mac is running but it is too slow. i want to upgrade to yosemite can i upgrade to it directly from 10.9 without upgrading to 10.9.5.
And another problem is, if i upgrade anything it asks me to restart and when i does that it stucks at loading and my os is crashing.pls help me out .
pls tell me how to back up my os x with time machine and how to restore that os using time machine if my mac gets crashed.

How can I restore files from a time machine back-up of my iMac to an EXTERNAL hard drive connected to MacBook Pro. Using Migrat

I would like to restore files from a time machine back-up of my iMac to an EXTERNAL hard drive connected to MacBook Pro. When I tried using Migration Assistant it only gives me my internal hard drive as an option to restore to. The internal hard drive on my macbook isnt large enough to store the files.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
OS X can only restore data to the drive where Time Machine backed up files from.
If you want to restore files from the Time Machine backup onto an external drive, your only option is to access to the Time Machine drive manually (open a Finder window and choose your Time Machine drive in the Finder sidebar), navigate through its folders and copy the files you want to the external drive

How do I unlock photos from my Time Machine back up?

I moved from a MacBook Pro 2010 to a new Macbook Pro (today), how do I unlock my photos from my Time Machine back up so I can use them on my new Pro? I have already recycled my old MacBook, and my Time Machine was backing up to an external. Please help! I can see the data in the back up, I just can't move the photos to my new computer to use them.

Hello MommaBruno,
After reviewing your post, I have located an article that can help in this situation. It contains helpful advice concerning Time Machine:
OS X Mavericks: Restore items backed up with Time Machine
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14111
Thank you for contributing to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
BobbyD

How can I empty trash from outboard Time Machine back up hard drive?

I cannot wempty the trash from my outboard Time Machine Hard Drive. I keep getting error messages.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
OS X can only restore data to the drive where Time Machine backed up files from.
If you want to restore files from the Time Machine backup onto an external drive, your only option is to access to the Time Machine drive manually (open a Finder window and choose your Time Machine drive in the Finder sidebar), navigate through its folders and copy the files you want to the external drive

I deleted my iPhoto library, how do I restore it from my Time machine

I did a restore from my time machine, and as it was downloading it said "I don't have permissions" HELP!

OS X needs about 10 gigs of hard drive space for normal OS operations - things like virtual memory, temporary files and so on.
Without this space your Mac will slow down as the OS hunts for space on the disk, files will be fragmented, also slowing things down, apps will crash and the risk of data corruption - that is damage to your files, photos, music - increases exponentially.
Your first priority is to make more space on that HD. Nothing else can be done until you do.
Purchase an external HD and move your Photos and Music to it. Both iPhoto and iTunes can run perfectly well with the Library on an external disk.

How do I recover files from a Time Machine backup after a clean system reinstall?

I had a really funky problem with my Japanese input that is too weird (and irrelevant at this point) to go into here. The gist is that I took my 13-inch, Mid-2012 MacBook Air to the Apple Store in Osaka, and one of their geniuses told me he couldn't isolate the cause and that the only solution was to do a complete reinstall. Of course, I had backed up my whole disk to my Time Capsule before going to the store. The problem is, I cannot do a straight backup, because that will simply bring back the unsolvable problem.
I got the MacBook Air home and used the moving assistant utlity (sorry, I don't know the English name for it since my system's in Japanese) to resinstall all my applications. So far so good. The problem is, I have no idea how to get my files, photos, music, and movies from the Time Capsule into my new account. I didn't see any option for that when I ran the moving assistant utility, and I absolutely do not want to resinstall anything from the old Library Folder.
When I go into Time Machine mode, pinks lines on the right side of the screen indicate that Time Machine has all my old backups there, but when I try to navigate to them, I get only an empty black window. I assume that's because Time Machine does not recognize my old account and new account as the same account (and indeed there is no reason at this point that it should, since I don't know how to link them).
Any help would be very much appreciated.

While in Time Machine, press the key combination shift-command-C. The front window will show all mounted volumes. All snapshots should now be accessible. Select the one you want and navigate to the files you want to restore.

How do I delete files from a Time Machine backup?

Hi,
I have a Time Machine backup that has a large group of image files on it. How can I delete this data from the TM backup so it is no longer taking up that space on the Time Machine backup drive? Just delete the files in Leopard and run Time Machine again...? I somehow don't think that will work...

hassiman wrote:
Hi,
I have a Time Machine backup that has a large group of image files on it. How can I delete this data from the TM backup so it is no longer taking up that space on the Time Machine backup drive? Just delete the files in Leopard and run Time Machine again...? I somehow don't think that will work...
It would be a disaster.
Only delete TM files from the TM interface. Run TM from the dock, select the file(s) you wish to remove and click the Action Gear. You have the option to delete that particular backup, or all instances of that backup. This is the only way to delete backup files.

How to backup while away from usual Time Machine destination?

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