Time Machine and Spotlight Configuration (in 10.5.3 ...)

I've just sent Apple the following suggestion that I wish would be implemented in future Leopard update. Just wondering if some of you share my opinion.
Here goes :
Time Machine and Spotlight Configuration
Wouldn't it be sooooo much simpler to be able to tell Time Machine which drive to backup and which drive to backup onto, once and for all, and to tell Spotlight which drive to index, once and for all, instead of constantly having to open their Preferences and tell which of them NOT to backup or to backup onto, or which one NOT to index each and every time an external device is connected to the Mac ?
It is as if your TV set required you to deselect 99 or so channels in order for you to watch a given channel !
That would save SO much time having to rush to both Preference Panes upon connection of any device, in order stop those processor hogs from mobilizing 98% of processor activity for long minutes during which our Super Turbo machines litterally crawl to my original Mac-512's speed.
This would be a one-time setting for most users, and neither of those utilities would be impaired by such a simplification of their configuration.
Unless of course I am completely missing some important aspect of their functionnality.

I second that. By default both Spotlight and Time Machine should be off. Or at least it should be possible to configure that, which comes handy when installing a new system, updating, etc. I do not want Spotlight or Time Machine to work until all is installed and updated.
On the other hand, it would be great if Spotlight did not require to re-index a new disk when all its contents have been copied from an older disk using the Migration Assistant. After all, the Spotlight index is also on the old disk, so copying such index should be quicker. Likewise, for the Time Machine volume: it should not be necessary to re-index the Time Machine volume, since copying the Spotlight index of the booting disk should be enough.
That way, the slow down and incompatibilities between Spotlight and Time Machine would we wiped out for ever.

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Time Machine and Spotlight

I've been having mixed results with Time Machine and Spotlight. It seems to be able to find any files that were indexed before the original backup, but it doesn't find anything that was added after the original (ie from incremental backups). I don't have the Time Machine drive in Privacy in Spotlight prefs.
Also, I can't search in Mail in Time Machine. Once I enter Time Machine mode, the search box goes gray for both the Now entry, and for all past backups too.
Thanks for any help.

I second that. By default both Spotlight and Time Machine should be off. Or at least it should be possible to configure that, which comes handy when installing a new system, updating, etc. I do not want Spotlight or Time Machine to work until all is installed and updated.
On the other hand, it would be great if Spotlight did not require to re-index a new disk when all its contents have been copied from an older disk using the Migration Assistant. After all, the Spotlight index is also on the old disk, so copying such index should be quicker. Likewise, for the Time Machine volume: it should not be necessary to re-index the Time Machine volume, since copying the Spotlight index of the booting disk should be enough.
That way, the slow down and incompatibilities between Spotlight and Time Machine would we wiped out for ever.

Recurring Time Machine and Spotlight problems

When I first installed Yosemite, the first TM backup hung on “Preparing backup”. I rebooted, and the hourly backups worked for a few hours, and then a backup again hung on “Preparing backup”. Likewise, Spotlight worked for a while and then hung. I re-indexed the hard drive and rebooted. Spotlight worked for a while and then again hung. I’m getting tired of having to reboot to get these things to work. Can I simply redownload Yosemite and re-install it over the current installation to see if a re-installation will help?

Hi Bill ...
It may be corrupted Spotlight or Time Machine preferences.
Open the Finder. From the Finder menu bar click Go > Go to Folder
Type or copy paste the following:
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Spotlight.plist
Click Go then move the com.apple.Spotlight.plist file to the Trash.
If that didn't help, do the same thing for: /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist

Interesting problem with Time Machine and Spotlight

As I was searching for spotlight problems in time machine, I came across many discussions about the indexing and whether or not to include your external Time Machine back up drive. My drive has always been indexed and one day when I plugged it in, it ran a quick index which hadn't happened before. I put it in the Spotlight Privacy Tab in Preferences not really knowing what I was doing, and after that whenever I opened Time Machine I couldn't search for files on my external HD - it just wouldn't find them even though I could navigate backward without using spotlight and find the specific files myself.
Thinking all I needed to do was take my Time Machine drive out of the privacy tab, I did so but am still encountering the same problem. Although - it seems to be a little bit better. Say I have a file on my desktop labeled "First Draft" - I backup TM, delete the file from my main comp, then back up TM again to simulate a lost file over time. I search in spotlight "First Draft" click the back arrow and am easily taken to my missing file - exactly how TM should work.
However, I have a folder named "First Draft" that I backed up a while ago, deleted, and now replaced with a new folder with the same name but with different files in them, then Time Machine can only seem to find my current folder. I search "First Draft" in spotlight in TM and then click back, but it can't seem to find it - it just goes back to the first backup date with a blank window. I know it's there because when I take off the search words and navigate through a certain day, I can see the files. Does anyone else have this problem? It's such a detailed problem - sorry it took a long time to explain. I hope you understand my problem. Thanks for your time!

Nevermind - what's even stranger is that right after I posted this - it fixed itself. Wow I hate when that happens...

I want to set up the Time Machine and I would love to use the Time Capsule but since I already have a wireless router I need suggestions on what other external disks Apple could recommend to use with the Time Machine and how to configure that disk

I want to set up the Time Machine and I would love to use the Time
Capsule but since I already have a wireless router I need suggestions on
what other
external disks Apple could recommend to use with the Time Machine and
how to configure that disk.
A complication that I need to resolve is the fact that I am using Vmware
Fusion to be able to use Windows on my Mac. Now it seems that Time
Machine is not backing up my files
on that virtual Windows without additional configuration and my question
is whether you can advise me here or whether this is only a matter for
the Fusion virtual machine.

If you want to use Time Capsule you can.. you simply bridge it and plug it into the existing router.. wireless can be either turned off or used to reinforce the existing wireless.. eg use 5ghz in the TC which is much faster than your 2.4ghz.
You can also use a NAS.. many brands available but the top brands are synology, qnap and netgear readynas series. These will all do Time Machine backups although how well always depends on Apple sticking to a standard. There are cheaper ones.. I bought a single disk zyxel which was rebadged and sold through my local supermarket. It actually works very well for TM at least on Snow Leopard. Major changes were made in Lion and again ML so do not instantly think it will work on later versions. I haven't tried it yet with those versions.
Any external drive can be plugged into the mac. Use the one with the fastest connection or cheapest price according to your budget. USB2 drives are cheap and plentiful. But no where near as fast as USB3 or FW800. So just pick whichever suits the ports on your Mac. Interesting Apple finally moved to USB3 on their latest computers.
TM should exclude the VM partition file.. it is useless backing it up from Mac OS side.. and will slow TM as it needs to backup that partition everyday for no purpose.. TM cannot see the files inside it to backup just the changes.
You need to backup windows from windows. Use MSbackup to external drive.. if you have pro or ultimate versions you can backup to network drive. But MSbackup is a dog.. at least until the latest version it cannot restore the partition without first loading windows. There are about a zillion backup software versions for windows.. look up reviews and buy one which works for you. I use a free one Macrium Reflect which does full disk backups and is easy to restore.. to do incremental backups though you have to pay for it.

Time Machine and Time Capsule don't seem to work well together?

Reposted.
I get the feeling there are some serious problems with the combination of Time Machine and Time Capsule.
This is extremely disappointing, as the idea of a centralized backup device on the network (instead of disks attached to each and every computer we have running Leopard) seemed like such a good idea and a good way to supplement our tape-based backup that takes place with Retrospect.
In reality, it's a disaster on both Intel and PowerPC systems. All systems and the Time Capsule are fully up to date with software updates from Apple. I have two 1TB Time Capsule units. It goes something like this:
1. I have a few systems (mainly Intel) that work perfectly with the Time Capsule. There are no complaints and no issues at all. These systems just quietly run their backups as they should. They are the definite minority--maybe one or two have worked properly.
2. I have some systems that complain from time to time (mainly PowerPC) but will back up with a little encouragement. These too are the minority.
3. And finally, I have systems that are nothing but pain. These are both Intel and PowerPC systems. They are also the majority of the systems I have. The most common problem is sudden loss of the credentials needed to access the Time Capsule hardware--a user will be going along about their business when the Mac OS asks for the Time Capsule user name and password--after it's already been supplied and backups have been running. This should simply never ever happen.
Another charming behavior I've seen is corruption of the sparse disk image file that each computer creates on the Time Capsule. Time Machine will complain that it can't perform the backup, and examining the disk image file with Disk Utility shows it to be severely damaged. Turning off Time Machine, deleting the corrupted sparse image file, and starting over fixes it. For a while.
Finally, there are the machines (again, both Intel and PowerPC) that just can't seem to actually get through the first backup run. They either go so far and can't continue, or never actually manage to get started. I've checked the disks in these computers and found no problem with the hardware or file system. The installations are fresh and fully up to date.
Meanwhile, I have computers running Leopard with directly attached disks configured for use with Time Machine. One is a QuickSilver that isn't even officially supported by Leopard, with a Firewire attached disk. It doesn't skip a beat. The other is an Intel Mac mini being used with Mac OS X Server 10.5.4 and a USB external hard drive. These machines just do their thing, and I never have to babysit them.
These problems with the Time Capsule have been so severe that I've just given up on most of the computers and shut off Time Machine entirely. We have tape backups that run over the week, so it's not a huge loss. But that's not what really made me throw up my hands and say "enough"...no, that was the speed. Even with just one computer backing up to it, the Time Capsule seemed terribly slow. Watching the progress indicator was just painful.
I put in a word about all of this to my independent Apple dealer, and they say I'm definitely not the first to complain about some or all of these problems. In fact, they told me they were going to set up a test lab in their shop to see if they could duplicate these findings. I have no doubt that they can.
There are a total of seven computers backing up to one Time Capsule. They all store maybe ~40GB worth of data including the OS. There are about six computers on the other. Because of the way the network is laid out, the Time Capsule is connected to a Gigabit switch (and that is the only thing it's connected to). It cannot be used as the router, although I know Apple suggests this. The Airport section is disabled--I have no need or desire to use it. Some computers link up at 100 megabits, others at 1 gigabit. There are no network problems--we have no problems moving large amounts of data across the same network to our tape backup machine.
Is anyone else seeing these kinds of problems? Am I doing something wrong or expecting too much from Time Capsule?

I may be on to something. The Time Capsules I have live in a telephone equipment room that is indoors but not directly air conditioned or heated. It doesn't ever get too hot to be comfortable in there--the highest I've ever seen the temperature was 80 degrees (F). Most of the time the temperature is between 60-78 degrees.
I happened to touch one of them the other day while it was in use, and I noticed that the casing was hot to the touch...not dangerously so I suppose, but much hotter than I would have expected.
So I turned a small fan on both Time Capsules and have left it running. And I've noticed that not only do backups seem to complete more quickly, the reliability is also better. I am going to try some of my most troublesome computers once again just to see what happens.
I know there is a fan pointed at the hard drive in the Time Capsule, but I can't see how it does much in the way of cooling things down. In my opinion, it's just surrounded by too many heat producing devices to do much good...after all, not only is there a 7200 RPM hard disk in there, but also a 500MHz Marvell processor and radio set.

Using Time machine and external HD at the same time

Dear All
I'm intending to buy an external HD both for the purpose as a external HD and for time machine use.
Is this possible? If so, how do I configure it?
Thanks.
Jojos

Apple Partition Map works just fine on an external HD (including booting from a clone made with SD). GUID is only required for the internal HD on Intel-based Macs. There is a lot of misinformation going around on this topic.
Is Apple spreading the misinformation Barry? This OP originally asked about Time Machine and an external drive. He later asked about bootable backups. I tried to take all that in consideration in my reply. Apple has consistently said in everything that I have read in the Knowledge Base that when using Time Machine with an Intel Mac to use the GUID partitioning scheme.
There are also recent posts around these forums, as well as around the internet, where folks have had bootable volumes that were not GUID and they encountered strange behavior on their Macs that they report was resolved by making sure that their bootable volumes on external drives were in the GUID partitioning scheme.
Dah•veed

What am I doing wrong in Time Machine and Mail?

Hello,
I've been trying to switch my Mail from POP to IMAP. I've almost got it finished, but I lost a few messages in my inbox when I deleted them from the server (thought they would stay in Mail, guess I need to get used to IMAP). I went to Time Machine, found the messages from a few hours before, highlighted them, and clicked the Restore button. Time Machine scrolls back to the latest window, then Time Machine closes and I'm returned to Mail, no mailbox selected. When I check the Inbox, the restored messages aren't there. I check the Recovered Messages mailbox in On My Mac, I even check the Deleted Messages box On My Mac. I can't find the restored messages anywhere. I can't seem to figure it out, I must not be thinking clearly, and I need someone's help to point me in the right direction. The messages are safely in Time Machine, and I can't get them to come back.
Thanks for helping me out with this,
Jess

Quit Mail. Force quit if necessary.
Back up all data before proceeding.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select
          Go ▹ Go to Folder
from the menu bar. Paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V, then press return.
A folder window will open. Inside it there should be files with names as follows:
          Envelope Index
          ExternalUpdates.storedata
Move those files to the Desktop, leaving the window open. Other files in the folder may have longer names that begin as above. Move those files, if any, to the Trash.
Relaunch Mail. It should prompt you to re-import your messages. You may get a warning that the index is damaged and that Mail has to quit. Click OK. Typically, the process takes a few minutes, but it may take hours if you have gigantic mailboxes. In that case, you may be able to speed things up by temporarily adding your home folder to the Privacy list in the Spotlight preference pane. Remove it when Mail has finished importing.
Test. If Mail now works as expected, you can delete the files you moved to the Desktop. Otherwise, post your results.

Recently installed a 1TB hitachi travelstar hard drive into my Macbook 10.6.8 however Time Machine says not configured hence cannot back anything up

Recently installed a 1TB Hitachi travelstar hard drive into my Macbook (13inch mid 2010) OS X 10.6.8 .
However now having problems with configuring , latest issue my Time Machine says Not Configured hence cannot back up using this device !
Can anyone help ?

You installed the new hdd with new install of Mac OS .. or did you recover your old TM setup??
If TM cannot locate the Time Capsule .. is it visible in airport utility or finder??
Are you even using a TC?? If you are using an external drive you need to spell it all out.
Time Machine may not recognise the old backup.. you can usually inherit the old one.
See B5 and B6 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Otherwise use A4.. delete the existing TM setup and reconfigure it from scratch. If you do that TM should discover and reuse the old backups if possible.. but a new hard disk might not be possible it may need to start over.

HT201250 Can I partition my external hard drive and use one partion for time machine and the other one for data that i may want to use in different computers?

I have this doubt. I've just bought an external drive, especifically a Seagate GoFlex Desk 3 tb.
I want to know if it is recomendable to make a partion exclusively for time machine and let another one so I can put there music, photos, videos, etc that I should need to use or copy to another computer.
May half and half, 1.5 tb for time machine and 1.5 tb for data.
I have an internal hard drive of 500 GB (499.25 GB) in my macbook pro.
Any recommendation?

As I said, yes. Be sure your Time Machine partition has at least 1 TB for backups.
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your 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.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two (2). 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.

Can I have two Time Capsules in the same network, use one as Time Machine and other to expand network?

I need to purchase a divice to expand my Wi-fi network. I was looking at the AirPort Extreme, but a friend has a brand new Time Capsule for sale. So, for the same price of the AirPort Extreme, I´m getting the Time Capsule.
I already own one and using it as Time Machine and wireless router. If I decide to purchase another TC would it have any conflict with the one that I already have?
Is it possible to use one as Time Machine and wireless router and the other to just expand network and storage only (not as Time Machine)?

If I decide to purchase another TC would it have any conflict with the one that I already have?
No
Is it possible to use one as Time Machine and wireless router and the other to just expand network and storage only (not as Time Machine)?
Yes. The important thing to remember is that the "extending" Time Capsule must be located where it can receive a strong wireless signal from your "main" Time Capsule.

Can I use my external HD for Time Machine and still use it for storage?

I have a 1TB external HD and my computer has yet to arrive. I was planning on backing it up via Time Machine and I'm wondering if my external HD will still be useable as a storage device once I pair it with Time Machine.
There's no way the backup will take up the full 1TB of space, so I'm hoping it doesn't just go to waste >.<

If you really only want backups of the current contents, don't use Time Machine.
It's designed to keep copies of things you've changed or deleted for as long as possible. This allows you an excellent chance to recover a previous version of something you changed or deleted in error.
It also allows you to revert your entire system to the exact state it was in at the time of any previous backup, even if that's a different version of OSX. It's rare, but if an OSX update, or installation of a kernel extension or 3rd-party app makes a huge mess, it's much easier and more reliable than rebuilding everything.
You might want to review the [Time Machine Tutorial|http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#timemachinebasics] and perhaps browse [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). See #1 there for size considerations.
For alternatives, see Kappy's post on [Basic Backup|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12366915#12366915].

I'm using Time Machine and a LaCie external drive to backup. I also have a 8 GB LaCie flash drive I want to use for small jobs. If I plug the LaCie flash drive in, is my Mac going to think it is the LaCie external drive and start trying to backup?

I'm using Time Machine and a LaCie external drive to backup. I also have a 8 GB LaCie flash drive I want to use for small jobs. If I plug the LaCie flash drive in, is my Mac going to think it is the LaCie external drive and start trying to backup?

no.

TIme Machine and iTunes

When I perform a back up using the time machine and my external hard drive, will the music in my itunes and the photos in iphoto be backed up as well? Thanks!

Everything is included unless you exclude it. How you do that is:
1. Open System Prefrences and click on Time Machine
2. Then click on Options. If you want to exclude something click the + sign and use Finder to locate it and then add it. On your next TM backup that item willl be excluded.

I have an older macbook pro and the hard drive is starting to go (making loud noises). i tried to back up to an external hard drive (my passport essential se) using time machine and the computer keeps shutting down. suggestions to complete backup please?

I have an older macbook pro and the hard drive is starting to go (making loud noises). i tried to back up to an external hard drive (my passport essential se) using time machine and the computer keeps shutting down. the same thing happens when just trying to save my pictures from iphoto to a flash drive. suggestions to complete backup please?

Sounds like you'll need to access that drive while it is not booted. You need to replace it anyway, so do that, then one way or another (ext enclusure, et), access it and copy files.
If you keep trying to boot it, you might kill it for good and not get your files, so just swap it out first.

Time Machine and Spotlight Configuration (in 10.5.3 ...)

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