Time Machine Folder Structure

I am using external HDD to backup my MBP 15, iMac, MBA 13 and the folder structure (of the external HD) looks like this
I am also using Time Capsule to backup two Mac Mini but the folder structure looks like this
Why the two folder structure are different? Why there is no individual folder according to the date for time machine backup for the two Mac Mini that is backup vi Time Capsule? Is this the intended result?

The answer would be that Time Machine backs up differently to a drive that is connected directly to Mac versus a shared drive....the Time Capsule in your case....which is connected to the network.
Backups to a network drive like the Time Capsule are located in a special container called a sparsebundle file.
If you open up the sparse bundle file and drill down a few levels, you will the same type of Backups.backudb folder that you see on the drive connected directly to the Mac.

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MAC OS 10.7 Trying to Delete from TRASH Time Machine FOLDER (file)

Trying to delete time machine Folder(files) from TRASH. even used secure option, goes through ok. but will not delete from TRASH. files delete from
Time Machine Drive ok, deletion gives you more space on TM DRIVE Time Machine runs ok, How to Delete the Folder (Files) From TRASH?

Hello Mtaff,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
For more information, take a look at:
You can't empty the Trash or move a file to the Trash
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1526
press Shift-Option or Option key combination while emptying the Trash
Have a nice day,
Mario

How to share more than one Time Machine folder

Hi,
With Snow Leo Server I found how to find how to share more than one Time Machine Folder but I can't see how to do the same with Lion Server, could you help me with that ?
The goal of that is to offer one TM folder per user which is located on a dedicated partition in order to limit the size of TM backups per user (150Gig).
In Lion, in can only share one TM folder for everybody and I didn'tfind if I can set a limit size per user...
Thank you in advance,

I have figured out a way to enable multiple backup targets.
However, it's one of these things I wouldn't want to describe to anyone except true programmer types, because everyone else has a 90%+ chance of messing up their system if they do something wrong.
It involves turning off file sharing, and then editing the plist files in /private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/sharepoints/
The gist of it is this:
a) first create all the share points you later want to use for TimeMachine, and set them up for afp-only file sharing, also create one TM target, which you can either use later, or have there so the system has one entry it knows how to handle. I just made a bogus one that I'm not actively using.
b) turn off file sharing in Server.app
c) turn off TimeMachine in Server.app
d) now you can edit the files, the easiest is with Xcode, so you may want to install that first
e) for each sharpoint you made in a) there will be a corresponding .plist file in the location indicated, these are the files that need to be edited.
f) for each of these files
     1) the item0 string property in the timeMachineBackup array must be switched from 0 to 1
     2) a new key of type array with the name timeMachineBackupUUID must be created
     3) in the newly created array an item of type string must be placed with the value of a UUID, which can be created with the shell command uuidgen
g) make sure all the edited plist files are saved
h) turn on TimeMachine in the Server.app again
If all went well, you now should be able to go to one of your networked client computers and see all the time machine share points just created as options for being a time machine target.
Anyway, if you go that route: be careful, don't blame me if you muck things up...

My Final Cut Projects folder were missing some files, I went to my time machine backup to restore and it said I don't have permission to access the time machine folder "Final Cut Projects". Why?

My Final Cut Projects folder were missing some files, I went to my time machine backup to restore and it said I don't have permission to access the time machine folder "Final Cut Projects". Why?

Yes, I've done all "the ususal suspects.." repaired permissions, zapped pram, "reintroduced Time Machine to the backup drive by turning it off and on... etc

Time Machine Folder

After installing Yosemite my entire Time Machine Folder is now in the trash. I tried to return this to my new Time Machine DB folder, but I get a message that it cannot be changed. OK, so how do I return my backups to my backup drive. I cannot afford to loose the backups.

Click here and follow the instructions.
(111523)

Can't copy time machine folder

Hi,
I had to format the hd where I have time machine, so I copy the tm folder to a new folder in other external hard drive.
Now that I format the 1st external hd I trying to copy the tm folder to the root of the formated hd, but after a long wait I get a message saying that there is enought space...
How can solve thia ?
How can I copy that big folder faster, is there any other way ?
Thanks!

I've been doing a bit of experimentation -- sorry to say, it looks like you're out of luck.
I can explain what is happening, but am not entirely sure why.
It's the result of the rather unusual structure of Time Machine backups. The first backup copies everything. On all subsequent backups, only the items that changed are copied. But "hard links" are made to the items that did not change, so each backup appears to be a full one. See Hard Links in How Time Machine works its Magic for a better explanation.
Ordinarily when you copy the Backups.backupdb folder, those "hard links" are copied correctly -- there's still only one copy of the unchanged files, but multiple hard links to them.
Once the Backups.backupdb folder is moved from the top level of the drive (apparently), the copy doesn't work properly -- instead of copying the hard links, the actual files are copied. So if there are 3 backups, all containing hard links to the same unchanged version of a file, the file will be copied 3 times instead of once. Since few files change from one backup to the next, there will be lots of these, and the copied folder will be many times the size of the original.
That always happened on Leopard, but the Finder was rewritten effective with Snow Leopard so it wouldn't do that. Apparently it only works properly now if the Backups.backupdb folder is at the top level of the drive, not inside another folder.
So, your best bet is to let Time Machine start fresh on the reformatted drive. Keep the old backups as long as you think you may need them. You won't be able to restore from them via Time Machine, but you will be able to copy selected items from them via the Finder (but you may have permissions problems with them). If space is a problem, you can delete some of the individual date-stamped backup folders.

How do I retrieve Time Machine folder from Trash

Hello All,
This is my first posting!
I've read quite a bit on these forums, and found some great info on Time Machine, particularly Pondini's posts and website (thank you!).
Here is my issue:
iMac (2007) with Mountain Lion getting slow, and last week start-up got stuck on grey screen. Looks like hard drive failing, according to Apple Store Genius. They manage to get me back up and running in Mountain Lion thanks to a recent Time Machine backup on external hard drive via USB.
I get the beast home, and start a new TM backup on the same external HD. It says disk full, can't complete backup.
In Finder (bad idea, I now know), I open the TM folder in the external HD, only to find duplicate copies of the Macintosh folder, with months worth of backups in each (identical). Thinking this will confuse the Mac/Time Machine, I figure I should delete one. I call the Apple store to make sure it's ok to delete one copy. They say YES. I drag it to the trash, but when I go back to check the backups.backupdb folder, they're BOTH gone.
I try to drag it back out of the trash, but after a few hours of "preparing to copy" the iMac freezes. Back to the Apple store, and it's now limping along in OS version 10.6. A new iMac purchase is close on the horizon...
So, I have a recent TM backup that I would like to use, but it's in the trash on my external HD!
I've used Finder to look through the folder in the trash, and retrieved individual documents and desktop folders that I need.
Email, calendar and contacts are all safely duplicated on my MBP.
However, I have music and a few years of photos that I desperately would like to recover.
Ultimately, I plan to use the most recent TM backup to migrate to my upcoming new iMac.
All is not totally lost, as I have a second TM backup on another external HD - although it's from March 2013. Not the end of the world to lose photos from March to now, but if I can get them back, I'd like to. They seem so tantalizingly close, sitting in the trash.
So, my question is: can I retrieve my Time Machine Macintosh folder from the trash?
Options I've considered so far:
Simply use the "Put Back" option that comes up with Right-Clicking the folder. Too chicken to try this up to now.
Drag and drop it? Huge file, will take a looooong time.
Copy one recent backup in the trash to a separate drive and use that to migrate to new iMac (from Pondini's FAQ#18, I'm doubting this will work - but I'm trying this now; several hours in and file is 317Gb).
Copy the photos from an individual backup. From what I gather, with my version of iPhoto being '11, I can't see individual photos and I'll have to copy the entire library as one file and import it later. Again, huge file, long time.
I would appreciate any suggestions!
Many thanks in advance.

Old discussion (2009), but you might read what Pondini typed.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/10161899#10161899

Item count errors in Time Machine folder

Whenever I run Disk Warrior after Time Machine subject drive is full of errors like "item count" and "custom icon" errors in the Backups.backupdb folder on subject drive. Why is this happening?
jmf

Yes I have run Disk Warrior on the object internal drives, and they do not have any errors after successive checks with Disk Warrior. The errors are only on the external drive that contains the backup folder. Another consistent problem, is Disk Warrior wants to bless the "System Folder" on the backup drive which is an external data drive with no operating system installed.
jmf

How can I lock a Time Machine folder?

I have a folder on a Time Machine disk that I don't want Time Machine to automatically overwrite when it needs more space on the disk. When I "Get Info" on the file there is an option to "Lock" it, but, the option is greyed out. I've changed the file to read only for the system and everyone else, but I'm not sure that would prevent Time Machine from overwriting it.

Duane Craig wrote:
and it just seems logical to have it archived with the backups.
And that's where you make an incorrect assumtion on Time Machine. It does not "Archive" anything. It provides a backup of what is currently on your hard drive. If you delete something from your hard drive, it will remain in Time Machine for a while, but as soon as TM needs the space, it will delete those things from the backup.
If you want something archived, then do it separate from Time Machine, as you stated:
In the absence of any other advice, I'll just store that backup elsewhere. Thanks for responding.

Why does Time Machine folder sizes exceed physical capacity?

I have a MAC G3 Server Serving multiple MACs as a Storage, Media Server, and Time Machine storage. These other external MACs are all running Version 10.8.3. Only the Storage server is running 10.5.8.
All of the extenal Macs use Time Machine to backup to the served Storage media volume called "Time Machine".
The physical size of the "Time Machine" volume is 2.0 TB.
Yet when I am on the G3 Server, and perform a "Get Info" on the "Time Machine" volume, and also the folder that contains the Server's backups, the stored capacities exceed the physical capacity of the drive to which the volume resides.
The single physical drive is 2.0 GB and only has one partition called "Time Machine". In the root directory of this volume there is the one folder called Backups.backupdb, and a .sparsebundle DMG file for each of the remote systems that are bing backed up by Time Machine.
Each of the sparsebundles are well below the dirve's physical capacity, but both the local server's backup folder (Backups.backupdb) and the G3 server's local volume "Time Machine" show a used capcity that well exceeds the physical capacity of the drive on which it resides.
For example, here is the information from "Get Info" on the Backups.backupdb folder on the "Time Machine" volume when viewed from all systems:
Kind: Folder
Size: 3,456,930,478,415 bytes (3.46 TB on disk) for 122,254 items
But the Physical Volume "Get Info" shows this:
Kind: Volume
Capacity: 2.0 TB
Available: 169.92 GB
Used: 3,456,930,478,415 bytes (3.46 TB on disk) for 122,254 items
(NOTE: this is identical to the size
My guess is that there is some sort of deduplication involved.
If so, I would like to know the type of deduplication is performed?
Is it File Level deduplication, Block Level, or Content Level?
Also, is the deduplication inhererant on the volume (File System) level, or only specifically for Time Machine, via symbolic links?
Thank you in advance.
Jeff Cameron

This is due to the way Time Machine stores files. While there is only one copy of each version of each file stored, there are multple links to that file, and each link is reported in Get Info at its restored size.
How Time Machine Works its Magic

Time Machine Folder Information

Hi, I installed a Time Capsule (500GB) approx a month ago and backups have worked well and as planned, until now.
The folder information within Time Machine displays 0 items under folder name "Desktop" (for all backups being taken) yet the backup disk icon on the desktop allows me to view the folders and files that have been backed up.
In summary, the backups are taking place but Time Machine is not recording the relevant detail and therefore not allowing anything to be restored.
I am using a MacBook Pro over a wired ethernet network with OS X 10.5.5, Time Capsule and AppleTV.

Hi... I'm having this /exact/ problem - my time machine backups show up in the "enter Time Machine" option (space-y thing), but each of them just shows the desktop folder with "0 items." Yet if I click on the external hard drive in Finder, I find TM backup folders with information... I'm just worried that I won't be able to restore correctly if something happens.

Time Machine Folder Calculating forever

Hey Guys,
I have a Time Machine Backup folder from July. If I try to connect to my MacBook Pro and read contents of the folders, I am unable to.
There is a red '-' Icon attached to some folders and when I click on them, the preview pane shows 'Calculating' and it stays like that forever (I left it overnight). From Terminal 'You have no permissions to access' or something like that.
There is a lot of stuff I need in that backup. Any help is really appreciated.
Thanks guys!
Uday

Yosemite is a dog..
Do you have another computer on the network running some functional Mac OS??
If not buy a USB drive. plug it into the Mac.. boot from recovery and try and use the TM to restore the whole backup (at a suitable time for your files) to the USB drive. Do this over ethernet with no wireless turned on.
Once you have a working recovery restart the computer from Yosemite.. and pluck the files you need from the USB drive.
You can also have a try with finder to do a manual restore.
Can't access old files on time capsule

Time Machine Folder Renamed (2) Backups Fail

Hi all,
After updating to Snow Leopard, Time Machine backups would fail with an error (2) displayed by 'Time Machine Buddy'.
On my Time Machine volume within the Backups.backupd folder my computer folder has had "(2)" added to it i.e. computername (2).
When I found this I went straight into the 'Sharing' system pane and change the computer name back to the original name (deleted the "(2)").
This change was not reflected in the Time Machine Backups.backupd folder.
I do not have permissions to change the folder name. I tried adding myself as an owner in 'sharing and permissions' but still could not change the folder name. I logged in as the 'root' user but still could not change the folder name.
Has anyone a solution to this problem other than setting up another external drive? e.g. terminal commands.
Thanks.

xccobrien wrote:
This change was not reflected in the Time Machine Backups.backupd folder.
I do not have permissions to change the folder name. I tried adding myself as an owner in 'sharing and permissions' but still could not change the folder name. I logged in as the 'root' user but still could not change the folder name.
Be glad you didn't make that work. Apple puts special "deny everybody everything" permissions on it's backups for a reason: when we mere mortals fool with TM's backups, we can hopelessly corrupt them.
*Never change, move, or delete anything in a TM backup via the Finder.*

Time Machine - Folder Exclude - Error

Hi,
i was using LION & i moved to Mavericks in addition to the very slow performance comparing to LION i have 2 new errors.
1)Time machine error.
2) Wifi auto refresh.
1)Time machine error.
i've excluded a folder from time machine cause there was Music inside ( Tony Music in the attached photo )
I've moved the music to another drive cause i dont need them on my MBP and tried to remove the excluded folder from Time machine but its now working.
each time i removed it and i save then go in it shows as nothing done !!!
it disturb me to see this folder excluded and i dont have it ! CAN Anyone Help ???
2) Wifi auto refresh.
the wifi is not auto refreshing, each time i press on the wifi to move a connection it doesnt show live wifi routers, i should turn it off and back on to see them.

Hi V.K.
Thanks for the quick reply.
I've tried to follow the instructions and I've entered "Time Machine" in the quotes, as this is what I've recently changed the name of my hard drive to be called. Terminal then asked for my password which I entered. However, terminal then returned the following comment:
"chmod: /volumes/Time Machine/.0017f2d8f3ef: No such file or directory"
All I can think of that I recently changed the name of my hard drive from "Maxine" to "Time Machine" today - but I've tried both names and they don't work.
Any ideas?
Thanks for your help.

Time Machine Folder Sizes

I have calculate folder sizes on but when looking through time machine folders the size is not indicated. Anyone know why?
Rachael

Time Machine keeps one big backup of your whole drive. Then from there, it stores hourly backups for the past 24 hours plus daily backups for the past month and weekly backups until your drive is full.
iTunes libraries are probably the biggest culprit in rapidly filling Time Machine drives. You can go into Time Machine Options to exclude certain folders to help. But in general, the design of Time Machine is that it will use up all the space you give it. Once your drive is full, it will dump the older data (I believe it will prompt you when that happens).
If you want to limit what Time Machine can use, you may want to partition your external drive using Disk Utility. That will basically 'block off' a section of the disk drive to use for Time Machine, leaving the rest available for whatever you want. Be careful, though - while partitioning a drive isn't that difficult to do (especially under Leopard), making a mistake could cause you to lose the data on the drive you're working on.

Time Machine Folder Structure

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