HT201250 stop time machine deleting back ups

Hello, I've just started using time machine, and I don't want it to delete my old backups when full - at least not without asking me first. is there any way to do this?

Something to consider about Time Machine is that it saves only one copy of each unique version of a file, even though it may appear in dozens or even hundreds of time stamped backup folders. Another is that it saves hourly backups only for a day & daily backups only for a month.
Both of these things save a lot of disk space compared to more conventional archival backup methods but as Bob Harris says, it is not the right tool if you want to save everything indefinitely.

Similar Messages

  • HT201250 Access Time Machine daily back-ups from 1 month ago?

    Time machine saves daily back-up for one month, then weekly back-up for all time before 1 month ago.
    Is there a way to find daily back-ups from more than a month ago?
    That is, I seek to access all daily back-ups for a file from 2.5 months ago, rather than just weekly back-ups, so that I can access the past daily interval changes and recover daily deletions for this file.
    Thanks for any help.

    ed00006 wrote:
    Is there a way to find daily back-ups from more than a month ago?
    No, sorry.  When they're deleted, they're deleted.
    After that long, the space has almost certainly been re-used, so even an expensive, elaborate Data Recovery process or service won't turn up anything useful.

  • How do I stop Time Machine from backing up Aperture thumbnails?

    Hi,
    My 2TB backup drive recently became full, and I became curious as to what was filling it up. I wrote a perl script to analyze the Time Machine backups, and I noticed that over 50% of my backup was filled with AP.Thumbnails and AP.Minis from the Aperture project directory. In particular, the AP.Thumbnails files in the backup consumed 737 GB of disk space!
    The problem with the thumbnails files is that they are a single file that contains all of the thumbnails for all of the 40,000 photos I have in Aperture and it is now 20gb in size. Every time I add a new file to Aperture, the thumbnail file changes, and I get a new 20gb of data added to my backup. I add photos often which means that most of my backups have 20gb of Aperture files (which are easy to rebuild and don't need to be backed up).
    I decided to try and stop Time Machine from backing up these files, and there seems to be no way of doing so (without telling Time Machine to skip backing up my entire Aperture project which I don't want to do). In Finder, you can do a "show package contents", but the Time Machine GUI doesn't allow this.
    I tried to tell Time Machine to exclude the files via the GUI, but Time Machine sees the Aperture Library as a single package and won't let me exclude individual files from within the package.
    I googled around, and found the attribute that Time Machine puts on files to exclude them from the backup. I used xattr to set the attributes:
    xattr -w com.apple.metadata:comapple_backupexcludeItem com.apple.backupd <filename>
    I also used this command on the iPhoto thumbnail files.
    I used spotlight to find all of the files with this attribute using this command:
    sudo mdfind "comapple_backupexcludeItem = 'com.apple.backupd'"
    This command returned the iPhoto files, but did not return the Aperture files.
    However, if I run "xattr" on the Aperture files, the attribute does exist!
    During my next time machine backup, the iPhoto files were skipped as I wanted them to be, but the Aperture thumbnails were backed up again
    I thought that maybe time machine was looking at the aperture package as an atomic unit, but iPhoto is stored as a package as well, and the attributes worked there on files inside the package.
    Does anyone have any idea why time machine is still backing up these files? Is there any way I can get around this?
    It seems to me to be an incredible oversight on Apple's part since both tools are Apple. The thumbnails files are very expensive to backup, and they are not necessary for backup since the are easy to rebuild from the original photos which are also backed up.
    Thanks,
    Ron

    Shadow99999 wrote:
    Hi,
    My 2TB backup drive recently became full, and I became curious as to what was filling it up. I wrote a perl script to analyze the Time Machine backups,
    No need to write your own script for that. there are a couple of already made nice GUI tools for this - TimeTracker http://www.charlessoft.com/ and BackupLoupe http://soma-zone.com/BackupLoupe/
    and I noticed that over 50% of my backup was filled with AP.Thumbnails and AP.Minis from the Aperture project directory. In particular, the AP.Thumbnails files in the backup consumed 737 GB of disk space!
    The problem with the thumbnails files is that they are a single file that contains all of the thumbnails for all of the 40,000 photos I have in Aperture and it is now 20gb in size. Every time I add a new file to Aperture, the thumbnail file changes, and I get a new 20gb of data added to my backup. I add photos often which means that most of my backups have 20gb of Aperture files (which are easy to rebuild and don't need to be backed up).
    I decided to try and stop Time Machine from backing up these files, and there seems to be no way of doing so (without telling Time Machine to skip backing up my entire Aperture project which I don't want to do). In Finder, you can do a "show package contents", but the Time Machine GUI doesn't allow this.
    I tried to tell Time Machine to exclude the files via the GUI, but Time Machine sees the Aperture Library as a single package and won't let me exclude individual files from within the package.
    I don't have aperture but I think most people exclude the whole thing from TM backups and back it up separately. but if you want to exclude a subfolder in a package that's easy too. just select the package in finder, control-click on it and select "show package contents". in the resulting finder window drill to the folder you want to exclude and drag it to the TM exclusion list in TM system preferences->options.
    I googled around, and found the attribute that Time Machine puts on files to exclude them from the backup. I used xattr to set the attributes:
    xattr -w com.apple.metadata:comapple_backupexcludeItem com.apple.backupd <filename>
    I was not aware of this method for excluding stuff from TM backups. could you provide a link to where you found this?
    I also used this command on the iPhoto thumbnail files.
    I used spotlight to find all of the files with this attribute using this command:
    sudo mdfind "comapple_backupexcludeItem = 'com.apple.backupd'"
    This command returned the iPhoto files, but did not return the Aperture files.
    that's because Spotlight never looks inside packages unless you start a search inside a package directly. iphoto seems to be the only exception. I don't know how it's done.

  • Our iMac (intel, 11.2) freezes up when using Time Machine for Back Ups.  We have 16GB of RAM and the BU drive is 1 TB on firewire.

    Our iMac (intel, 11.2) freezes up when using Time Machine for Back Ups.  We have 16GB of RAM and the BU drive is 1 TB on firewire.

    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

  • HT201250 Does Time Machine delete files in back-ups that are deleted on my Mac?

    Does Time Machine delete files in back-ups that are deleted on my Mac?  IOW....if I need to restore a whole back-up, I don't want to restore previously deleted files.

    Does Time Machine delete files in back-ups that are deleted on my Mac?
    Not immediately. When space starts to get tight, Time Machine will start to delete the oldest file(s) to make more room, but this won't occur for some time.
    if I need to restore a whole back-up, I don't want to restore previously deleted files.
    You won't if you choose to restore from a backup that occurred after the date that you deleted the file.
    If you absolutely do not want to keep the file in your Time Machine backups at all, you do have the option to go into Time Machine, find the file, and manually delete all versions of the file from past dates.

  • How to stop Time Machine from backing up Temp Files?

    Hi folks!
    I am trying to find out how to stop Time Machine from constantly backing up 'useless' temporary files accumulated from web browsing? Although I don't change or add large files to my HD, Time Machine backs up hundreds of MBs every hour. Those file amounts make sense when I consider that I browse a lot to YouTube, SoundCloud, etc to watch videos or listen to music - I just don't want them to be backed up.
    Under Time Machine Options I already excluded the following items from backups:
    ~/Library/Caches
    /Library/Caches
    ~/Downloads
    But even though I did this weeks ago, Time Machine stills finds large files to be backed up every hour and my only guess is that I am still missing a location where either Safari or Firefox - the two web browsers I use - store temporary files.
    Can you help?
    Thanks a lot in advance!

    oas2103 wrote:
    they come from my anti-virus software
    Are you sure you need that? There are no viruses that run on OSX. None. Zip. Zero.
    If you're running Windoze on your Mac, that's the same as running it on a PC, so it needs all the same anti-everything stuff you'd use on a PC.
    There is some "malware," such as Trojans, for Macs, though. But (unlike viruses that can get onto your system without your knowledge), you must approve their installation (via your Admin password) and/or operation (via the "This application was downloaded from the internet ..." prompt).
    Appropriately enough, some of these Trojans are included in pirated versions of Apple software, such as iWork!
    For the gory details, see Thomas Reed's [Mac Virus Guide|http://www.reedcorner.net/thomas/guides/macvirus].
    Thanks a lot again!
    You're quite welcome, and thanks for posting back.

  • How to stop time machine from backing up encrypted lion partition

    I am using 10.6.8 but I created a Lion partition on the same disk. I am trying out Lion and I do not want Time Machine to back it up. I was able to exclude the Lion volume until I encrypted the Lion partition using Filevault 2. Now when I'm using Snow Leopard, there doesn't seem to be a way of preventing Time Machine from backing up the Lion partition. Am I missing something?

    The FAQ says Snow Leopard can't read the Filevault 2 disk which seems to imply I won't be able to keep Time Machine from backing up the Lion partition. That seems wrong. How can Snow Leopard's Time Machine see the disk to back it up, but can't see it to exclude from backup?

  • Stopping Time Machine from backing up when running FCP

    Is there any way of stopping Time Machine from making backups when I have Final Cut Pro running?
    Each time TM is about to prepare backup, FCP goes down in performance like an ant in maple syrup.
    Quite annoying. And sure, I can live with no backups made during work. (I hit Command-S every minute instead... ;-))

    You may have something else going on, that doesn't seem to be a problem at other times.
    First, see if the size of the backups makes sense, given the changes you've made. If in doubt, Click here to download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window. That will show the duration of each backup at the top, and the total size in the "Copied" messages.
    If that seems large, see #D4 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
    If the size seems reasonable, but the amount of time is not, see #D2 in the same place; any or all of the suggestions there may speed them up.

  • Am I able to use both Carbonite and Time Machine as back-ups for my iMac?

    HI,
    I have a iMac, and I have recently recently completed the initial back up for Carbonite. I also have a 2TB Seagate external hard drive that I would like to use with Time Machine. I am wondering if I am able to use both Carbonite and Time Machine simultaneously.

    Hi, and welcome to the forums.
    As bdmarsha says, yes, you can run both simultaneously.
    But one caution; there are some reports here that some of the online backup apps keep some fairly large, frequently-changing files on your system. Time Machine will back them up along with everything else, which can take some extra time and space on your TM drive.
    After your initial TM backup, see how large the incremental backups are (by watching the progress bar and info on the +Time Machine Preferences+ window). If those seem too large for the changes you've made since the previous backup, see #A2 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), for a couple of apps that will show exactly what was backed-up.
    If you find such things, you can exclude them from TM backups, per #10 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

  • HT201250 After Time Machine has backed up my files, can I delete my originals from my Mac and do something in Time Machine to ensure it will never automatically delete them from the backup in the future?

    I'm new to using Time Machine - I'm making my first backup right now - and I have a few concerns.
    So let's say my precious photos are taking up most of my Mac's hard drive space. I back them up with Time Machine on an external hard drive. After that, I want to delete my photos from my Mac because I want more space and my photos are now stored in the external hard drive. I have a few questions about that.
    First, does Time Machine's backup system follow the same concept as having extra storage (so would this be a reasonable decision to make)?
    Second, if it does, then could I access/open these photos from Time Machine's backup anytime I want?
    Third, would I need to use the restore backup function of Time Machine every time I want to open my photos are there alternative ways of accessing my photos, like through opening directory paths to the photos?
    Lastly, when the external hard drive becomes full and Time Machine wants to delete my oldest backup files, what can I do to ensure that these photos will never get deleted unless I manually do it? Like, is there a way to lock and secure these files? Or, is it like if these photos are the only copies saved in the backup, I can rest assure that Time Machine will never delete them?
    Thanks

    NeuroBrain wrote:
    Since my new external hard drive is have a lot of space, I'm thinking of splitting it for Time Machine and external storage.
    This is a common mistake and I highly advise against it.
    1: TimeMachine saves states of changes and thus requires more room on the TM drive than the boot drive it's backing up.
    2: Something happens to the TM drive, loss, theft, dropped, power surge, etc., you lose both backups.
    3: The storage drive might become a portable need, with it being on the TM drive, now your increasing the risk to the TM backup that something could happen to it along with the storage drive, due to increased movement.
    Seriously, have a read,
    Most commonly used backup methods
    it's ASC User Tip that saves us regulars all the trouble of having to repeat ourselves over and over again in the posts, because we tend to forget things too, or not here sometimes etc.
    "Plan for the worst and the good will take care of itself" - Donald Trump

  • Time machine lost back ups after Mavericks "upgrade"

    I upgraded to mavericks yesterday after doing a time machine back up. Installation went well but this morning my imac had to back up 500GB and when that was done all of my old back ups are gone. When I enter time machine it just has 3 hours of back ups! Can anyone offer a solution as to how to get my back ups...obviously time machine is out!
    Thanks
    Peter

    I had this too. I figured out that in my case the problem was that I had updated to the new iMovie library. It was only after I had done this that I found out that iMovie 2013 creates a new package folder with all of the existing movie events in it. As I had just under 500gb of movies I had suddenly got an "extra" 500gb.
    The result was that there was not enough space on the Time Machine drive to accommodate the new back up size - so it ditched the older backups. And in fact ditched everything but the most recent backup. I thne made some changes and ended up in a loop with insufficient space for new backups.
    I don't know if this is the problem which afflcited you but thought I should mention it.

  • HT201250 Avoiding Time Machine Deletions?

    I want to preserve my family photos and videos on an external hard drive as I am filling up my MacBook Pro storage, meaning I need to remove some videos from my MacBook so I can add more.  It sounds like Time Machine will write over old files to keep more recent updates.  Is there a way to mark certain files on the external hard drive as ones that should NEVER be deleted by Time Machine?  Or is there a better way?  Thanks for your help.

    Time Machine is not designed to serve as permanent storage.  It is an incremental back-up tool.  As space on the volume is needed, it will, eventually, delete the oldest back-up(s) to make room for the newest one.  If you have files you want to save that are no longer on the volume that you are backing up, they will, eventually, be deleted as the archive of their original storage location gets pushed further and further back.  To keep them, permanently, they need to be saved to a separate partition or volume that is not assigned to Time Machine.

  • Time Machine prepares back ups of 10GB and more with very little activity on my computer

    I have an early 2008 iMac with a Samsung 750GBHD, and I am using a Time Machine since 4 years ago working pretty well.
    As of beginning 2014 it started to show many errors but at the end of the day there were 1 or 2 back ups done. During this August I realized that back ups were of a size of 10Gb and more nearly every day while the activity of the computer was very light, internet and mail. I cut an anti virus that was working on the background with no success. There is no virus activity, the comp is clean.
    What could be the reason for this abnormal activity?

    Only way to find out is to analyse what is actually causing the large backups.
    Have you installed the widget yet??
    A1 here.
    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
    Or you can get a software app that tells you what TM is doing since it is hardly forthcoming.
    See A2
    For why backups are over large.. generally.. see D4

  • Time-Machine to back-up 2nd Time-Capsule

    Hi - I'm using my old Time-Capsule (2T) as external drive for all my media files and I just bought a new 3T Time-Capsule to make back-ups using Time-Machine.
    Time-Machine makes back-ups of my Mac but does it actually include the files on my 2T Time-Capsule?
    Regs,
    LL

    It depends how you set it up:
    http://pondini.org/TM/27.html
    http://pondini.org/TM/32.html
    Ciao.

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