Password protect Time Machine backup files?

My Home folder and subfolders are unaccessible for other users of my iMac. And lets say, my household.
However, as soon as I make a TM backup on an external HD, anybody can look into my folders right away.
Since encryption will change the functionality of TM (no file by file recovery) I am looking for password protect the backup.
How come TM doesn't incorporate this?
*OSX protects my folders, Time Machine lays them out in the open.*

Tee Loo wrote:
My Home folder and subfolders are unaccessible for other users of my iMac. And lets say, my household.
However, as soon as I make a TM backup on an external HD, anybody can look into my folders right away.
that's not true. TM backups have EXACTLY the same POSIX permissions as the originals and as such have exactly the same protection as the originals as far as access is concerned. no more and no less. that means among other things that given an admin password one may be able to view them on any computer.
the only way to truly protect your backups is encryption. you seem to know about that and the limitations about filevault with Tm but that's the best you ca do.
Since encryption will change the functionality of TM (no file by file recovery) I am looking for password protect the backup.
How come TM doesn't incorporate this?
*OSX protects my folders, Time Machine lays them out in the open.*

Similar Messages

  • Password protect Time Machine backups

    Hello,
    I share a LaCie external HDD for Time Machine backups with other people (who also use the drive to back up).
    Inside the 'Backups.backupdb' folder, there are folders from the people who back up. Everyone can open all of them - without needing any passwords. I'd like it so that each owner has access to their files, but still have Time Machine backups without any problems or whatever.
    When choose 'Get Info' of my folder, and look at the 'Sharing & Permissions' I see:
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    staff - Read only, and
    everyone - Read only.
    Why is there no "myusername"? I don't know which one to change (and how).
    How do I do this?
    I've been looking around a little - I can't find anything that sounds like it'd help me.
    Thanks in advance!

    rudieih wrote:
    Hey, sorry, I guess I wasn't clear.
    The drive is used by several MacBooks, each with only one user installed on it (no Guest accounts, nothing else). So each backup file in Backups.backupdb is only for one user/machine.
    that doesn't matter. the fact that there is only one account doesn't mean that there could not be more accounts. the permissions for this folder are still set for the whole computer.
    I'd like it so I can't see the backups of their computers and they can't see mine. How can I do this?
    You can't. if you use the TM backup drive in this fashion there is no way to hide backup folders for different computers from each other. The only thing you can do if you are worried about this sort of thing is to turn on filevault on your account. then nobody but you will be able to see backups of your home directory (not the whole computer). Filefault stores your home directory inside an encrypted sparse bundle which can not be accessed without knowing the password to open it. However, Filevault is a very finicky software and it's extremely poorly integrated with Time machine. It only backs up your home directory once you log out and you won't be able to browse old backups of your home directory using TM interface.
    Right now everyone can browse everything.

  • How do I password protect time machine backup

    A friend of mine just had her computer and external hard drive stolen.   How do I protect my external hard drive (time machine) from being accessed if stolen?

    If you have FileVault turned on there is an Option in Time Machine to encrypt the backup. If you do not have FileVault turned on your computer is your biggest vulnerability. You will find a detailed tutorial for turning FileVault on and Encrypting Time Machine here.

  • Time Machine backup file corrupted and locked

    This morning when I switch on my Mac there was a dialogue box telling me that my Time Machine backup file was corrupted and that Time Machine would have to create a new backup file.
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    +Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/MyBookHome+
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    aschmid wrote:
    Yes you are right, I know it isn't supported - as so many other things but they work!
    This one is notorious for working for a while, then . . . not.
    In addition to the problems above I got a pop-up from Time Machine saying the backup file is broken and it needs to create a new one. I told it to go ahead and what happened is that it actually proceeded to DELETE the old backup file before creating a new one - there goes my several months of backup history!
    Yes, just as it says in the message. See #C13 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).
    All I can say do now is connect my drive directly to my iMac and figure out a way how I can backup my other iMac and the MacBook I have. On the AE this just worked remotely.
    Yeah. Until it didn't.
    Really not much options here to backup a home with 3 Macs!?!
    Sure there is. Back the others up to the same drive, over your network, via sharing. See #22 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), for details and setup instructions.

  • Can anyone access time machine backup files by connecting to time capsule by ethernet cable?

    I operate an imac connected to a time capsule. It works great. My internet is connected to the time capsule with an ethernet cable and I access the internet on my imac using an ethernet cable connected to the time capsule. I can also connect to the time capsule using wireless.
    A colleague of mine wants to connect to the internet and because of location issues the only convenient way is to let him connect to my time capsule using an ethernet cable. He can access the internet fine and he uses a windows PC. Now my question is, will he be able to access my time machine backup files if he connects to my time capsule using an ethernet cable? I have not given him my password.
    Any help will be appreciated. I want to help him get online but I want to make sure he cannot access my time machine backup files.
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    There are actually 3 passwords on the Time Capsule - assuming it has the same setup as my Airport Extreme Base Station.
    One password for the WiFi connection.
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    One password for access to the storage drive - most people leave the check-box to just use the base-station setup password again.
    And, as I said before, you also have the option to encrypt your TM backups.  So even if somebody runs off with the device and breaks in to the disk, it will all be garbage without the TM password.
    This is the screen as it is on my computer:
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    Here is a screen shot of the other options:

  • I have a time machine backup file on a USB hard drive.  I bought a time capsule / airport extreme, flat 3TB.  I wish to transfer the backup file from the usb hard drive to the time capsule hard drive.  10.6.8

    I have a time machine backup file on a USB hard drive.  I bought a time capsule / airport extreme, flat 3TB.  I wish to transfer the backup file from the usb hard drive to the time capsule hard drive.  10.6.8

    Unfortunately, Time Machine backups that are stored on a drive that has been connected directly to a Mac are completely different than Time Machine backups that are stored on a Time Capsule.
    Frankly, it is not worth the effort and trouble to try to transfer the old backups to the new Time Capsule.....my opinion....having done this in the past.
    It is possible though, but I would not recommend it due to the complexity and downsides involved with this. To give you an idea of how to do this, check out this support article.
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    Time Machine will make a new complete backup of your Mac and then add incremental backups from that point.
    My advice.....start a new backup on the Time Capsule and move forward. Keep the USB hard drive around for a month, maybe 2 or 3 in case you need to go back to an old backup for some reason.  At that time, you will not likely need the old backups at all since you will have a current 2-3 month history of new backups.  At that point, you can erase the USB drive and use it for another purpose.

  • Hi, Question about secure empty trash. I moved some Time Machine backup files to the trash from an external hard drive. Now I can't secure empty trash. It starts, finds 74,003 files, and does nothing. The external hard drive shows it's empty, but it isn't

    I moved some time machine backup files from an external USB hard drive to the trash. Tried secure empty trash. It counts 74,003 items, then just sits there. The external hard drive window shows it's empty, but the info pane says it only has 50G of memory left. I left the secure empty trash on over night. It did nothing. Ideas?
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    Relaunch the Finder, then from the Finder menu bar, select
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  • Determining the Size of a Time Machine Backup File

    When I highlight a Time Machine backup file and then click on Get Info under File to determine the size of the backup file, the disk drive works its heart out, but the Get Info window never arrives at a determination of the file size being seemingly stuck in the "calculating size" state.
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    JohnnyS wrote:
    Regarding your statement: "If you Enter Time Machine (the "Star Wars" interface), from a Finder window with a "size" column, then browse your backups, you should be able to see the sizes easily." - what do you mean by the "Star Wars" interface?
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    If I look at the pull-down menu under Finder, I do not see Enter Time Machine. Am I looking in the wrong place? Obviously, since I couldn't get by the first step, I never got to a "size" column, and to be honest, I don't know that I have ever seen a Finder window with a "size" column.
    You can add one, by selecting View > as List, then View > Show View Options in a Finder window's menubar, and select or de-select whatever columns you want.
    I'm a little embarrassed by my lack of knowledge, but if I don't acknowledge my shortcomings, I'll never get the question answered. Thanks for taking your time to try to help me.
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    I'm not sure just what you were looking for in your first post. The size of all your TM backups is just the amount used on your external disk, unless you have other data in the same partition (which isn't a good idea). Because of the way TM works, you can't really determine the size of an individual backup, and it really wouldn't mean much.
    Perhaps if you clarified just what you want to know, we can help answer it.
    For more info on Time Machine, you might want to review these:
    Time Machine Tutorial
    Time Machine 101
    How to back up and restore your files
    Time Machine Features
    Apple - Support - Mac OSX v10.5 Leopard Time Machine
    and perhaps browse the Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
    If you have a problem setting-up or using Time Machine, start with the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum. It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it.

  • Time Machine Backup File Size :  Very Small compared to MAC HD

    I did my first backup and my MAC HD where everything is at is about 319.73 in capacity and Im only using 167.78 storage space. When the backup is complete the file size is only 40Gb , I find that so odd , is that normal will everything restore to its original state If I had to reinstall the OS ?

    OK, here it is
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    Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/Data
    Running backup verification
    QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
    CopyHFSMeta: cannot replay journal: Invalid argument
    Backup verification passed!
    QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
    Disk image /Volumes/Data/myname’s Computer (2).sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time >Machine Backups
    Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Detected system migration from: /Volumes/Dom's HD
    No pre-backup thinning needed: 21.02 GB requested (including padding), 889.63 GB available
    Waiting for index to be ready (101)
    Copied 26534 files (22.3 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
    Starting post-backup thinning
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    So, is the problem that I used Time Machine on my previous machine to backup to a different volume? Then perhaps it has just tried to backup things that may have changed in the couple of months since I last backed up on that machine?
    If so, how do I get time machine to start afresh with my new Time Capsule?

  • Password for Time machine backup

    Anyone can help with security issue for time machine backup?
    -I want my time machine disk to be password protected
    since it is very easy for everyone accessing backup disk from time machine, it is really not secure, or any other backup application have password protection?

    vernonstreet wrote:
    If I have misplaced my password for the time capsule, how do I reset?
    That's a different password. Do a "soft reset" per [Resetting an AirPort Base Station or Time Capsule FAQ|http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3728].

  • Time Machine backup file is stuck in my trash, taking forever to empty.

    I understand I did this wrong, should have gone to the gear icon in TM to delete. Threw it in the trash and started to empty it. Let it run overnight and it's still only a fraction done. Tried to put it back in the TM drive to delete it properly, but it's now stuck in my trash. How do I get rid of it??

    As Thomas says, your best bet is to erase the drive; that will take a few seconds at most.
    Or, you could try to force-empty the trash folder on the drive:
    Open the Terminal app (in your Applications/Utilities folder). Be *very careful* with this app. It's a direct link into UNIX, the underpinnings of OSX, but without the protections of OSX.
    In Terminal, the prompt looks like this: user-xxxxxx:~ <your name>$
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    cd /Volumes/"Time Machine Backups"/
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    sudo rm -rf .Trashes
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    If there were many items involved, this may take quite a long time. Unless there are problems, once the deletion is complete, you'll see another prompt (there's no completion message).

  • How do I restore Time Machine backup files (from TC) to an external HD?

    I did a full Time Machine backup of my machine to a Time Capsule. All told, around 500GB. The MBP to which I'd like to transfer the files doesn't have a big enough hard drive. However, I do have a 1TB External HD that I could use. Can I use Time Machine or Migration Assistant to move/access the files? I'm using Lion.

    See: Mac 101- Time Machine, Time Machine - 101 Tutorial, Pondini's Time Machine FAQ - All You Need for Time Machine, and Pondini's Time Machine FAQ.

  • Deleting time machine backup files from old time machine disk

    I have an external USB HD that USED to be my Time Machine backup disk. I have replaced it with a newer FW HD and use the old one for archiving files, disk images, etc. The old disk still had 100gigs of backup files on it from time machine. To free up space, I thought I'd drag a few months of backups off the old dick into the trash. This worked. But I can't empty the trash. When I go to put the backup folders BACk on the USB disk, I get an error. So they are stuck in the trash.
    Any help? Thanks.

    I have always understood that there is no need to delete backup files from Time Machine.   Once it reaches 'full' it begins to delete them sequentially of its own accord.
    Good policy to check out Pondini's comments.
    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.htm
    Or type Pondini into Google for a broader selection of his offerings.

  • Put back deleted time machine backup files

    I Accidentally deleted my time machine backups folder although I can still see all my files in the trash of the specific external hard drive. But when I choose put back I get a message saying the files can't be moved because they are backup files.
    Is there anyway to go around this?
    it seems I just need the right permissions to drag the folder back to its original place.
    thank you

    I'm up for anything! Those are my only backups and on top of that I can't boot my own computer properly (only through an external HD which has bad sectors) because it gets stuck on Yosemite installation reboot. So I'm trying to get my time machine files back so I can go into recovery mode and see if I can put my yosemite system onto the new internal HD.
    I thank you for the help. Here is the information you requested:
    Volume name is "Time Machine"
    total 600
    drwxrwxr-x  17 domingosmiguel  staff     646 12 Dez 19:07 .
    drwxrwxrwt@  8 root            admin     272 18 Dez 09:48 ..
    -r--------   1 domingosmiguel  staff      16  6 Mai  2011 .00254bd50940
    -rw-rw-r--@  1 domingosmiguel  staff    6148 15 Dez 11:21 .DS_Store
    drwx------   5 domingosmiguel  staff     170 15 Out  2011 .Spotlight-V100
    drwxrwxrwt@  3 domingosmiguel  staff     102 13 Jun  2013 .TemporaryItems
    drwx-wx-wx@  3 domingosmiguel  staff     102 12 Dez 18:40 .Trashes
    -rw-r--r--   1 root            wheel  162570 25 Ago  2011 .VolumeIcon.icns
    -rw-r--r--@  1 domingosmiguel  staff     312 13 Jun  2013 .apdisk
    -rw-r--r--   1 domingosmiguel  staff       0  6 Mai  2011 .com.apple.timemachine.supported
    -rw-r--r--   1 root            staff     785 25 Nov  2013 .disk_label
    -rw-r--r--   1 root            staff    3149 25 Nov  2013 .disk_label_2x
    drwx------  27 domingosmiguel  staff     918 15 Dez 12:39 .fseventsd
    drwxr-xr-x+  6 root            staff     204 14 Dez 16:43 Backups.backupdb
    -rwxr-xr-x@  1 root            wheel  115716 29 Set  2013 tmbootpicker.efi
    I thank you again for the help

  • Time Machine backup file differs in size from HD

    I just backed up my MacBook for the first time using time machine to a time capsule. I checked out the file size of the sparse bundle file and its approx. 70gb, however my HD has 86.5gb on it. Is this correct? I thought the backup file would be the exact same size as the HD.
    Also, there is a disk image mounted under the HD in the finder called "Backup of "name's" computer". Does that have to stay or can I eject it?
    Thanks in advance for the help.

    cgapper wrote:
    Thanks for the info on the disk image, it has since disapeared.
    16gb of size difference seems like a lot. Could it be that there are 16gb out of 86gb that isn't being used efficently on my HD? While it was doing its initial backup, I noticed toward the end when I checked on it in the morning, there was still approx 16gb left to transfer.
    I agree, 16gb is "a lot" just for fragmented files. When I performed my first full backup, the disk image virtually matched the size of my data on the Mac. So I don't have an explanation not knowing more about your setup.
    BTW - How did you check "the file size of the sparse bundle file". Are you connected via ethernet or wirelessly? When ever I call up Get Info wirelessly it never reports a size, just "Calculating size...".
    When I checked back a few mins later, the figures in the progress box had changed to 'xx' mb out of 6mb. Seems kinda wierd to me. Any more thoughts on that? b
    Yes, what you say at the end was the 2nd pass of Time Machine. This explains it...
    *Time Machine Appears to Make 2 Backups*
    It is normal for Time Machine to perform two passes with each backup. This is because some files/folders have likely changed while Time Machine was performing the first pass of the backup backup, particularly if the current backup took some time to complete or your computer was in use during the Time Machine backup. So it picks up those changes with a second pass. George Schreyer refers to this behavior in his article on Time Machine: “The copy process is pretty straight forward and can happen in two passes if changes happen DURING a backup.” [http://www.girr.org/mac_stuff/backups.html]
    Cheers!

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