Time Machine ERASES EARLY SAVES WITHOUT PERMISSION

If the backup storage is nearly full, Time Machine will clear space for a new backup by DELETING THE OLDEST FILES.
It only tells you after the fact that it's done so, thus I never had the opportunity to prevent erasure of the very first set of files I saved. And some of those were data from Tiger and Panther that I thought would be preserved.
Hey, Apple, how about giving us a "May I delete these old files" warning?
While you're at it, perhaps a "Do not backup while checkboxed applications are running" (ie: games, when things get really choppy.
I love the concept but the execution leaves a bit to be desired.

Um, I know that, NOW. And that's exactly my point, isn't it?
As someone who was romanced by the Steve Jobs MacWorld demo into believing that Time Machine would solve the backup problem, I got stung. Mea Culpa.
Now, with Time Capsule being pitched as the ultimate backup, even more folks will one day belatedly discover that sad fact.
It would have been nice for Apple to put that dandy little caveat up front in large, bold, red type - or, as in my suggestion, at least ASK PERMISSION before deleting what might be important files rather than blithely informing that they are now permanently irrecoverable. A checkbox in the preferences panel would be sufficient.
Great software, less than sufficient forethought by the programmers. Even Safari now asks if you truly want to quit with multiple windows or tabs open. Trash emptying is initially set to toggle an alert about non-recovery. Overwrites are intercepted with a dialog box warn the user.
Yet in this crucial (and brilliant) application, no such safeties are engaged.
My post was more in the way of a warning to others who are about to step on the same punji stick.

Similar Messages

I was trying to back up my mac by using my external hard drive. Without realizing it, time machine erased all my backups from my other computers. Is there any way to recover these files? I can't even get the external hard drive to work on my pc.

I was trying to use my external hard drive to back up my mac computer. It had files on it from my pc computer. Time machine erased all my existing files. (I thought it was only going to erase the duplicate files and rewrite them). Is there anyway to recover these files from my external hard drive. My mac has renamed the hard drive time maching and it will no longer show up on my pc. What can I do?

Yes, the Old Master file has a folder for each year where I find all photos from that specific year. I am attaching a screen shot of the file.
In the meantime i have managed to download all photos (it did not download any video files though in mpg, avi, 3gp, m4v,mp4 and mov format) to a new iphoto library. Unfortunately the photos are quite mixed and often doubled up. I ma considering to purchase iphoto library which checks all duplicates in iphoto. this will save me a lot of time. What do you think?

Time machine ERASED essential files!!!

As my Time Machine Volume was full, time machine erased my very first backup without asking before.
In this backup I had essential files and projects of my musical studio work, now its gone.
Thanks Time machine.
I wanted to recover this very first backup to another drive to be sure it is safe, but then I realized that it was erased automatically.
I thought there is an option to choose older backups to erease when the drive is full???
Very dissapointed.
Message was edited by: Logicello

You need to realize that there are two types of backup: mirror images and archival.
Never trust very important documents to one drive! Put masterworks on CDs, and copies to back up drive, and to a drive that is off-site, in case your building or home were destroyed or burglarized.
I made the last mistake just once. I was burglarized, and the thieves not only took my computer, they took all the backup media, too. I was prepared only against hard drive failure. Now I find some off-site storage - .mac, my own domain, even email, to have important stuff also somewhere away from here.
I'm sorry your files are gone. Perhaps they are still on the drive. Take your hard drive to a drive recovery service and see if they can restore the files. Do this SOON before the files are overwritten.

Does time machine erase contents on external hardrive?

does time machine erase contents on external hardrive? is there a way to keep old information on the external hard drive and also use it for time machine?

sorry. still a bit confused. i've been using the hard drive on my old macbook, and then i transferred information to the new macbook using the hard drive. does it still need to be formatted? is it a special time machine formatting? i didn't transfer all the information on it and i'd like to keep it on the external hard drive as "old macbook" and also use it for the time machine. possible or pipe-dream? thanks.

(How) Can I use Existing Time Machine On New Mac Without Erasing Original TM Backups?

I just got through doing a clean install from Mavericks to Yosemite and now I'm trying to attach and recognize the original Time Machine Drive (TMD)
I chose to install as a new computer and did not choose a Time Machine backup option because the original TMD was not attached at the time of installation.
Upon arriving at the desktop and connecting my original TMD, I was able to see it in finder but Time Machine did not automatically accept it.
I am able to see the disk in Time Machine but it doesn't tell me that its got data on it .
HERE'S THE ANXIOUS MOMENT: If I select TMD, which is the original, will it overwrite all that orignal information, or will it continue adding to it?
I've read under different parts of the forum that if you go through this process during the original setup and the Time Machine drive is attached to the computer then you will be prompted to inherit the old Time Machine. Since I didn't have the drive attached, I didn't see that.
Now back to desktop and into the Time Machine utility: This option to inherit doesn't seem to exist or is obvious. The only option after selecting the drive in Time Machine is "Use Disk". If I click this, will it erase my original data or will it ask to inherit the drive? It's not very clear what will happen after I click "Use Disk".
Thanks so much to anyone who can help, Jeff

Thanks for the link. I went there but didn't find any information on how to inherit the backup history. The link says "If you’re replacing an old Mac and want the new Mac to use the backups from the old one, click Inherit Backup." At what point in the migration process does it ask "to specify whether you (I) want a new Mac to inherit a backup"? It seems like I got quite a few levels into Migration assistant and the last click that I did not click seemed like it was good to start the process without telling me anything about inheriting anything.
Any suggestions or did I not go far enough?
From Apple Website below
OS X Yosemite: If you want a new Mac to “inherit” your backup history
You can move the backup history from one Mac to another, but after the new Mac “inherits” the backup history, you can’t use the backup history on the original Mac.
You’re asked to specify whether you want a new Mac to inherit a backup if you do any of the following:
Use Migration Assistant to transfer your settings from an old Mac to a new one.
Use Migration Assistant to transfer your settings from a Time Machine backup of an old Mac to a new one.
Clone the disk you use to start your Mac, or physically move it from an old Mac to a new Mac.
Replace your computer’s main board.
If you’re replacing an old Mac and want the new Mac to use the backups from the old one, click Inherit Backup.
If you plan to continue to use your old Mac, click Create New Backup to preserve the backup history and start separate backups for the new Mac.
Connect a new backup disk to your Mac
Transfer your info from a PC
Last Modified: Nov 18, 2014

Time Machine deletes old files without notice

Once in a month I intiate the Back Up Now command
Time Machine works about 30 minutes and then anounces it could not backup
Then I see most of my old backups in the Trash. I could not recover them.
There is now 40 Gb space on the external hard disk but it seems not enough
The computer has about 70 Gb data.
Does it mean htat Time Machine backs up 70 Gb each time I initiate the Back Up Now ?
I also looked into Preferences: it is checked to receive a warning before old backups are deleted
But I did not get a warning.
WHat can I do now ?

Bomiboll wrote:
I had to trash all the backups. Then I had to empty the Trash or otherwise the external hard disk was still not empty and so TM asked for more space. It was quite time consuming, took more than 2 hours
To trash all the backups, all you have to do is erase the partition -- takes seconds.
But we still don't know what's going on. Again:
What message did you get when it failed earlier? Post the messages for that backup from the widget.
How much data is on your Mac, and how large is the backup drive?
Then I made a backup of about 55 Gb and that took another hour.
That's about right for USB2 or FireWire 400. How is your drive connected?
I would like to make it speedy but how ?
The first backup will take a while, as it copies nearly everything; subsequently, only additions and changes will be backed-up, so should be fairly quick under normal circumstances -- a few minutes at most.
But if you only back up once a month, it will be much longer, and sometimes Time Machine will do a full backup. It's designed to back up changes hourly.
Now that I have my backup, I wonder where is the mail app which has mails on My Mac, where is Reminders and Notes etc. I cant find them on the Backup.
For Mail and Notes, see the blue box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #15.
I'm not sure where Reminders are.

Cant access some of my files in time machine- says I dont have permission to view them.

Hi, I cant seem to find some of my older files in time machine. Says I dont have permission to view them. I recently had a new hard drive installed in my Mac and had all info restored to it then did a time machine back up onto my WD drive. Time machine window still seems to have the earlier dates and windows but I cant acces them. Anyone got any ideas how I can safely get them back? Thanks D

nastassjasouthend wrote:
I' ve been working in FC10
Specifically. what version number?
Russ

Will a system restore from Time Machine erase any of the data that is currently on the Mac and not in the Time Machine?

We had a lot of data on our Mac (i.e. photos, iTunes libraries etc) which we backed up via Time Machine. The hard disk corrupted so we had to get it wiped. When we got it back, my parents started using the mac as per usual but they didn't do a full System Restore from Time Machine. So, if I do a full restore now, will it erase any of the new photos, musc etc that is currently on the mac?

The Time Machine restore will only restore what is on Time Machine. Making a clone is probably a better means of ensuring whatever data you want recovered gets recovered together with Time Machine.
Generally speaking, applications that are newer than the operating system from Apple that are included with the operating system are not supported. So in your data recovery process from your clone, you'll have to be careful what data you choose to copy back.

Time Machine Deletes Old Backups without warning!!

I have just lost loads of pictures and emails when my Timemachine deleted old backups. I was so happy to have an easy way to keep my iPhoto cleaned up while keeping all the photos for the future. I would load my all the photos from my camera, backup with TimeMachine and delete the "bad" unwanted photos, confident in the knowledge that these pictures are still there on my external. I looked forward to some future date when someone would write an easy piece of software to consolidate old iPhoto libraries and even go through TimeMachine and consolidate those photos too. But until that fantasy event, my pictures, even though not wanted were still there.
Not any more!!
I replaced my hard drive and reloaded my laptop from Timemachine and I think that was the event that sparked the dump.
There should be a special check box to make sure that NO backups are automatically deleted, EVER. They should be a way to make them Sacred!!
There should be a way to create a separate backup just for iPhoto because right now, there are no good ways to easily break apart or merge iPhoto libraries. At least what I was doing worked, (well.... until it didn't).
Any ideas??

nerowolfe wrote:
True, TM is not a classic archival system, but until the drive is full, the difference is moot.
No, the difference isn't moot.
I still have on my TM HD every file I ever had because it's only 1/2 full.
No, you don't. Read on...
Time machine has three levels of backups:
1) hourly - deleted after 24 hours
2) daily - deleted after a week
3) weekly - deleted only when the disk is full - these are the only deletions you will be warned about
Time machine is always deleting files. Every time it backs up, it deletes files.
But the OP's real question is why he was never warned about the old backups being deleted, as TM says it will do, archival stuff notwithstanding. Apparently TM simply ignores the user's request to be warned.
No, it doesn't.
That being said, as I asked in a post not too long ago, "how many have had a warning from TM that old backups are being deleted?" as one would expect when the TM preference box, "Warn when old backups are deleted" is checked.
It appears to me to be a bug.
I ask again if anyone has gotten this warning.
Nobody answered my previous post with a yes.
Yes.
Because Time Machine continually cleans up behind itself, it tries very hard to ever delete the weekly backups. The only time I've gotten the deletion warning was when my disk was full. I think I just avoided the problem by removing my old Parallels images from Time Machine and got back an extra 70 gig or so - good for another six months.
This is not a bug. This is how Time Machine works. It is unfortunate that the original poster did not fully understand this. The fact is that Time Machine backs everything up. If you create 100 files, it backs up the folder with 100 new files. If you delete 100 files, it backs up the folder with 100 less files. Then, the next day, it deletes old backups. The only one it keeps is the last one, with 100 less files.
It is correct to say that Time Machine is not an archival system. It is a backup system. If you want to save your files forever, you need to copy them to a location that isn't under the control of any sort of automatic software.

Help!!!! Will Time Machine Erase Everything on my portable hard drive?

This is my first time using Time Machine. I purchased a 500 gb portable hard drive (Western Digital) which is mac compatible. When I got it, it I loaded all of my files from my pc onto the hard drive. I have transferred some of the files (mostly pictures and documents) to my MacBook hard drive. When I connected my portable hard drive and opened up Time Machine, I located the Western Digital drive fine but it said it needed to be reformatted and that it will erase all of the files on the hard drive. I think there are some files on it that are necessary to run the hard drive so I'm nervous about deleting them. Can I delete them and still have the hard drive run properly? Should I just transfer all of the remaining files to my laptop and then use the Time Machine program? I want to be able to periodically back up all of my files on the portable hard drive.

TM only works with drives formatted for Mac machines. Your drive does not qualify, since your PC can see it. This is why you are being asked to reformat it.
You can partition it and use part for your FAT32 Windows files and the rest as HFS+ for TM, but, IMO, you would be better with a separate FAT32 drive for your Windows files and have one drive dedicated, not necessarily to just TM, but to HFS+.
My TM drive has a Tiger bootable clone on it in a separate partition, but it's all HFS+

Time Machine erase drive help?

When setting up Time Machine on an external HD partition, I select a 500gb partition on my HD it asks to erase the drive. When I select yes will this only erase that partition or might it format the whole HD and therefore loose all my files on the other partition?

Ok I got impatient and just did it. But rather than letting TimeMachine do it I Used the disk utility to format the specific partition into MacOS Journalised format and then Time Machine was fine.
I imagine TM would have just done exactly that but imagine if it had formated the whole drive and removed my partition. So my advice is don't tempt fate and do it yourself in Disk Utility

Time Machine erased my external HD installation files

so i just got a western digital passport 2.5 external HD, brought it home, plugged it in, and what should pop up but good old time machine to ask me if i wanted to backup my HD. I clicked yes like an idiot and it erased the drive installation files. i went to Western Digital's site and it seems they havent gotten to putting up the files yet for the 2.5. So, i was hoping that someone else got one recently and would be kind enough to send me the files so i could start using this thing.

Peter,
I don't understand anything you have posted in any of your responses. What is it you want, here?
New external hard drives often come with some type of software stored on them. The software is usually some type of backup software, and sometimes hard drive utilities, that come bundled with the drive.
Since you have a Mac, these software titles are pretty much useless, or at least redundant; OS X has all the tools it needs already.
Nevertheless, these software titles usually come in the form of disk image files. This should explain my mention of them before.
If you want to format the drive, you use Disk Utility, as you have found. Time Machine, however, has already formatted the drive for use with your Mac. If you want to use it for something other than your time machine backup, you can still do that; just copy files to it in the Finder.
We're just not clear on what you intend to use the drive for. If you posted some more information, we could give you better direction.
Scott

Time Machine makes full backup after permission repair.

I am struggling with this a couple of months but now I am sure. Each time I do a permission repair of my hard drive, Time Machine makes a full backup of roughly 200G. In this way my Time Machine disk can be full rather quickly. I seem not to be able to prevent this. Anybody having the same issue? Or, even better, having a solution? Thanks, Pierre

Thanks for your reaction.
No, only 10-20.
I do permission repair once every 4-6 weeks more or less as a kind of maintenance. No idea why but it happens to be like this.
This is in the log (and somewhere here the trouble occurred):
Jun 28 19:33:16 imac-ethernet com.apple.backupd[355]: Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule Disk/iMac van Pierre.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Jun 28 19:33:16 imac-ethernet com.apple.backupd[355]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Jun 28 19:33:22 imac-ethernet CleanMyMacHelperTool[386]: Mounted devices (\n "/Volumes/pierre.wolters",\n "/Volumes/Time Machine Backups"\n)
Jun 28 19:33:22 imac-ethernet CleanMyMacHelperTool[386]: Wont clean Time Machine Backups because disk image
Jun 28 19:33:22 imac-ethernet CleanMyMacHelperTool[386]: Mounted devices (\n "/Volumes/pierre.wolters",\n "/Volumes/Time Machine Backups"\n)
Jun 28 19:33:22 imac-ethernet CleanMyMacHelperTool[386]: Wont clean Time Machine Backups because disk image
Jun 28 19:58:02 imac-ethernet com.apple.backupd[355]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
Jun 28 19:58:04 imac-ethernet com.apple.backupd[355]: Ejected Time Machine network volume.
Jun 28 20:13:30 imac-ethernet fseventsd[48]: event logs in /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/.fseventsd out of sync with volume. destroying old logs. (930 2 930)
Jun 28 20:13:31 imac-ethernet com.apple.backupd[504]: Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule Disk/iMac van Pierre.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Jun 28 20:13:31 imac-ethernet com.apple.backupd[504]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Jun 28 20:13:33 imac-ethernet fseventsd[48]: log dir: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/.fseventsd getting new uuid: 87C9B931-FE3E-48EF-818C-B78899942EB3
Jun 28 20:13:35 imac-ethernet CleanMyMacHelperTool[536]: Mounted devices (\n "/Volumes/pierre.wolters",\n "/Volumes/Time Machine Backups"\n)
Jun 28 20:13:35 imac-ethernet CleanMyMacHelperTool[536]: Wont clean Time Machine Backups because disk image
Jun 28 20:13:35 imac-ethernet CleanMyMacHelperTool[536]: Mounted devices (\n "/Volumes/pierre.wolters",\n "/Volumes/Time Machine Backups"\n)
Jun 28 20:13:35 imac-ethernet CleanMyMacHelperTool[536]: Wont clean Time Machine Backups because disk image
Jun 28 20:22:47 imac-ethernet com.apple.backupd[504]: Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule Disk/iMac van Pierre.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Jun 28 20:30:28 imac-ethernet com.apple.backupd[504]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
Jun 28 20:30:29 imac-ethernet com.apple.backupd[504]: Ejected Time Machine network volume.
Jun 28 21:08:34 imac-ethernet com.apple.backupd[694]: Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule Disk/iMac van Pierre.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Jun 28 21:08:34 imac-ethernet com.apple.backupd[694]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Jun 28 21:08:37 imac-ethernet CleanMyMacHelperTool[727]: Mounted devices (\n "/Volumes/pierre.wolters",\n "/Volumes/Time Machine Backups"\n)
Jun 28 21:08:37 imac-ethernet CleanMyMacHelperTool[727]: Wont clean Time Machine Backups because disk image
Jun 28 21:08:37 imac-ethernet CleanMyMacHelperTool[727]: Mounted devices (\n "/Volumes/pierre.wolters",\n "/Volumes/Time Machine Backups"\n)
Jun 28 21:08:37 imac-ethernet CleanMyMacHelperTool[727]: Wont clean Time Machine Backups because disk image
I will check your suggestions.
Once again, Thanks.
Pierre

If I restore the system from Time Machine, are folders not in Time Machine erased?

Pretty much as per the title. I was messing around with my Internet connection (DNS issues) and now can't get online at all, and can't find other ways back online, so I was going to restore from Time Machine: but I've got some folders that aren't in Time Machine (mainly temporary files like podcasts, iTunes U, videos and the like). If I do a system restore from Time Machine, it looks like that material will be erased. Will it all disappear, or will the folders not in Time Machine be left as is?
Thanks in advance!

Yes, a time machine restore will erases the volume and then restores.

Time Machine erased my backup!

I have two Time Machine drives, BACK-UP and BACK-UP2. The first contains data from Jan 2012 to early 2014, the second drive picks up from there to now.
I went to retrieve a file today and BOTH drives now only go back as far as last week! They appear to be exact copies of each other.
What happened to my stuff?

Answering my own question;
Last week one of my 2TB internal Avid media drives failed (not a Time Machine drive) and disappeared from the desktop. When I replaced the drive and restored it with Retrospect I did not remember to EXCLUDE it in the Time Machine system preference, so all of that Avid media was included in the next TM backup, causing the deletion of two years worth of Time Machine backups.
I only use Time Machine for my System drive, but back all other drives with Retrospect.
Use this as a learning experience, everyone. I certainly did.

Time Machine ERASES EARLY SAVES WITHOUT PERMISSION

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