Time machine only backup when i am using mac

i have a time capsule and a wd external drive connected to IMac for backups. time capsule only backs up when i am using computer or if i click the time machine icon. is this correct? i thought it would backup automatically every hour.

Time Machine will back up every hour as long as your Mac is active and you have made any changes in the last hour. 
If a change has not occurred on your Mac, there is really no reason for Time Machine to back that up.

Similar Messages

  • Why is Time machine saying backup disk disconnected? Using MBP 17" Lion 10.7

    Why is Time machine saying backup disk disconnected? Using MBP 17" Lion 10.7

    Do you have an external drive connected?
    If you do has it gone into sleep mode? There is a setting in the OS to put drives to sleep if they aren't being used. Energy Saver "Put the hard disk to sleep when possible".
    Also most external drives have a built in sleep function that if they aren't being accessed for a period of time they go to sleep by themselves.

  • Time Machine dumping backups when it shouldn't!

    I've had this problem from the outset of getting my new machine about a week ago. TM starts dumping back ups at about the 15th or so hourly backup. There is plenty of space on my external 1TB LaCie D2 Ext. hard drive...I've tried everything as far as troubleshooting, including doing an archive and install on my interior 640 gig hard drive. But TM just won't get past the hourly back-up. It keeps deleting back-ups sometime 2 or 3 at a time. I'd like to be able to use Time Machine, but right now I'm just going to be happy with a Super Duper back up unless any of you genius'....grin...can help...Otherwise my machine is working great and I truly love it! I'm new to Leopard, but have been a Mac guy for 25+ years....Thanks for any ideas or help guys!
    Z

    zutty wrote:
    Hmm...OK let me see if I've got this right....My initial TM backup was on May 17 at 2AM...So seeing as it's been more than 24 hours...It will begin to delete some..or all..of the preceeding hourly backups?
    Yes. Only one will be kept. The rest will be deleted.
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  • Time machine only backups trough ethernet

    Hello!
    since i restored my mac after a hardware failure (sata cable in my Macbook Pro Mid 2009 died) i restored my mac using time machine to a new disk (first thought my harddrive quit working on me)
    all went fine, but currently im only able to to my time machine backups trough ethernet, and not trough Airport.. when i initiate a manual backup i get;
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    21-11-12 09:01:06,908 com.apple.backupd[240]: Backup failed with error: 19
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    You might see this one first, when it's only near full:
    Once it is full, and has deleted one or more old backups, it sends this, after the backup is done:
    See #C4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for details.
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  • Time Machine--"Next backup: When Mac is plugged in"

    My wife and I have identical MacBook Airs (2011) with Mavericks.  For whatever reason my wife's  Time Machine will not back up until it is plugged in to an electrical outlet.  When I open Time Machine Preferences, it will say, "Next backup: <future time>".  When I unplug her Mac Air from the electrical outlet, it changes to, "Next backup: When your Mac is plugged in".  The concern is that the Mac Air is used unplugged all the time, and when it is plugged in she closes the lid.  All I need is for her to restore some work that is from two days ago. 
    I can not find anything in Preferences that controls that function.  I reset SMC and did a reset of Time Machine using Pondini's instructions, http://pondini.org/TM/A4.html
    So why is it doing this?
    My MacBook Air does not act this way.  It backs up on the hour plugged or unplugged.
    A search on the forum turned up a handful of posts from 2008 with this question.
    Everyone have a nice day.

    There is a setting in Time Machine in System Preferences. It is under the options button to "Backup while on battery power". Check that.

  • Time machine client backup restore to a new mac mini server?

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    This is a bit of a guess... But I Imagine you would have to start with the workstation OS install DVD first, and go from there at the appropriate point. Any chance you have or could make a CCC backup instead? I am assuming you could boot a mini server from a backup of mini non-server. Then you could copy it over. This is probably worth a phone call to Apple TAC

  • My Airport Time Capsule only works when I turn off and turn on, but I think this may end up with the unit. What can this happening and how to solve?

    Time Capsule Airport
    Hello to all, good day, sorry my english google, but it is the tool I have at the moment. I'm having trouble with my Time Capsule Airport, I made all the settings according to the manual, but there has been a connection problem with my iMac. When I finish my work I turn off the imac and then again when they return to work and care, it can not connect to Time Capsule Airport, making it impossible to remove the files and make back up by Time Machine only works when I turn off and turn on the Airport Time Capsule , but I think this may end up with the unit. What can this happening and how to solve? Thank you.
    Olá a todos, bom dia, desculpe meu inglês google, mas é a ferramenta que tenho no momento. Estou tendo dificuldades com a minha Airport Time Capsule, fiz todas as configurações de acordo com o manual, mas tem existido um problema de conexão com meu iMac. Quando termino meus trabalhos desligo o imac e depois quando retorno pra trabalhar novamente e ligo, ele não se conecta a Airport Time Capsule, impossibilitando retirar os arquivos e fazer o back-up pelo Time Machine, só funciona quando desligo e ligo a Airport Time Capsule, mas acho que isso pode acabar com o aparelho. O que pode esta acontecendo e como resolver? Obrigado.

    This is easier to do with pictures perhaps.. since we do not share a common language and machine translation leaves a lot to be desired.
    In the airport utility bring up your Time Capsule.
    Simply post the screenshots here.
    So here is mine.
    Click on the Edit button and give us the Internet and Wireless and Network tab..
    eg.
    Please also make sure you are set to ipv6 in your wireless or ethernet .. whichever is used.. and do tell which.
    This is wifi in your computer.
    The following are important..
    DO not use long names with spaces and non-alphanumeric names.
    Use short names, no spaces and pure alphanumeric.
    eg TC name. TCgen5
    Wireless name TCwifi
    Use WPA2 Personal security with 10-20 character pure alphanumeric password.
    read apple instructions to help with TM and TC.. they did finally admit it has issues in Mavericks.
    OS X Mavericks: Time Machine problems
    Mount the TC manually in finder.
    AFP://TCgen5.local
    When asked for the password .. that is the disk access password and save it in the keychain.
    Reset Time Machine
    See A4 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

  • How can I force Time Machine to make a complete backup of my Hard Drive.  I just installed a new external drive for Backup since my previous one failed.  Now when I back up, Time Machine only backs up my data folder and the Users folder.

    How can I force Time Machine to make a complete backup of my Hard Drive.  I just installed a new external drive for Backup since my previous one failed.  Now when I back up, Time Machine only backs up my data folder and the Users folder.
    When I start a backup. Time Machine says "Oldest Backup: None; Latest Backup: None", so it seems like it should do a complete backup, but it only does a partial. 

    Hi I'd like to jump in here. Your app showed me this:
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              Mobile backups: OFF
              Auto backup: YES
              Volumes being backed up:
                        Macintosh HD: Disk size: 749.3 GB Disk used: 453.81 GB
              Destinations:
                        Plastic Wrapper [Local] (Last used)
                        Total size: 999.86 GB
                        Total number of backups: 64
                        Oldest backup: 2013-07-24 23:25:11 +0000
                        Last backup: 2013-11-17 01:40:47 +0000
                        Size of backup disk: Too small
                                  Backup size 999.86 GB < (Disk used 453.81 GB X 3)
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              All volumes being backed up may not be listed.
              /sbin excluded from backup!
              /usr excluded from backup!
              /System excluded from backup!
              /bin excluded from backup!
              /private excluded from backup!
              /Library excluded from backup!
              /Applications excluded from backup!
    Aside from the size of my backup drive, which I will increase at some point, I'd really like to have time machine backing up all system folders, especially Applications. How to I reset this hidden exclusions?
    Thanks,
    Darcy

  • I bought an external hard drive for backups to use with Time Machine, but however when I try to connect it with the other windows laptop it doesn't work ? intact it doesn't work on any other device except my MAC ?

    I bought an external hard drive for backups to use with Time Machine, but however when I try to connect it with the other windows laptop it doesn't work ? intact it doesn't work on any other device except my MAC ?

    Do not worry about it.
    Time Machine needs that your external drive is formatted in HFS+, or better known as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". This filesystem is used by Apple on Macs and Windows cannot read or write drives formatted with this filesystem, being this the reason why all your devices do not read the external drive except your Mac.
    You can only use your external drive to make Time Machine drives. If you store anything different, you may damage the Time Machine structure, so it is better not to use it as a drive to store other data. Instead, get another external drive to do it or create a second partition on the external drive formatted in FAT32 by using Disk Utility > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU3.html FAT32 can be read by Windows PCs

  • Can I use Time Machine to backup ONLY an external drive?

    I am having problems with the internal HD on my iMac and Disk Utility is telling me I need to reformat the drive and restore from backup. Only problem is that my 3TB Lacie Thunderbolt drive I was using for Time Machine recently failed (think it may have happened during an electrical storm brownout). Yep, I know, ***** to be me
    The issues with the internal HD are preventing the iMac from booting and I would prefer not to have to purchase various repair software to find one that really works such as Disk Warrior or similar ((despite it getting very good reviews). I suspect it make be HFS corruption but no way to really tell that I am aware of.
    I have setup an external drive with Yosemite and booted from that so now my old internal drive is seen as an "external drive".
    I am using Disk Utility to make an image copy to a new 3TB external drive I purchased. Writing the DMG is going to take some time.
    What I would like to do is to set up Time Machine to backup to a separate external 3TB hard drive (the second one I purchased) and have TM create a backup of ONLY the old internal drive - not the new system as well as the old internal unit.
    Is this possible and if so can anyone advise how to do this. Does not seem I can exclude the system drive I am now booted from so that it is not backed up. (This makes sense that TM would be designed this way given its primary purpose is to backup a system).
    If TM cannot be configured in this way, is there another option I can use?
    Thanks
    Andrew

    Thanks for that advice. I have heard of it but a friend who does IT support at a University nearby suggested using Disk Utility to save an image - hence this is currently underway at present. Once this is finished I will try Carbon Copy Cloner.
    I have another friend who has an older version of CCC - do you know if an old version will work ok or if only the latest supports Yosemite?
    Also once I have the clone completed from CCC, is the process then to reformat the old internal drive and then clone from the CCC external drive back to the internal and then reboot and trust all is well?
    Appreciate your help Csound1.
    Regards
    Andrew

  • On imac 10.6.8 using current version of Aperture.  How can I access the Aperture Library  on my external hard drive that I use with time machine for backup?  I can only access the application but not the library..

    On imac 10.6.8 using current version of Aperture.  How can I access the Aperture Library  on my external hard drive that I use with time machine for backup?  I can only access the application but not the library..

    Go into Time Machine (the program not the bundle on the extrnal disk) and using Time Machine's browser go to the Folder where the library lives. You could look in the library bundle in Time Machine but that won't really tell you much,
    If you want to make sure it truely has backed up your library you will need to restore it and open the restored library with Aperture.
    If all this still has you confused you need to read up on Time Machine in order to get a feel for how it works, for what it is doing and for how to restore files from it.

  • When installing maverick mailboxes disappeared, only have current emails. All the folders and content missing. Could anyone be of help. I do have Time Machine for backup.

    When installing maverick mailboxes disappeared, only have current emails. All the folders and content missing. Could anyone be of help. I do have Time Machine for backup.

    Solved the problem by clicking the gray triangle next to "On My Mac" and drilled down!

  • Using time machine to backup Logic Projects

    Hi
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    Yes - time machine can back up any drive. I am using 3 drives: system drive, a USB2 drive for Time machine backups and a firewire 800 drive for Logic Studio projects, instruments, samples, audio, etc. TM backs up my system and FW drives to the USB drive.
    Time machine options (in system preferences) allow you to exclude/include drives so you just need to set it to include your second internal drive.
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  • Time Machine: Repeated errors when backing up for the first time using a new external firewire drive

    My Iomega 500GB firewire external drive failed on me last week and I have just replaced it with an identical model. I used to use the old drive with Time Machine on my MacBook Pro running 10.5.8 with no issues, until the drive had a hardware failure and stopped spinning up, hence the replacement.
    Two days ago I tried using Time Machine for the first time with the replacement external drive. The backup failed and each subsequent backup attempt has failed since then with a different error each time. The drive cannot be ejected using Finder (Finder says disk is in use and cannot be ejected even when no processes are running except for Finder and Time Machine has been disabled), by dragging it to the dock (hangs computer which can only be fixed by a hard reboot), in Disk Utilities (drive cannot be unmounted) or in Terminal ("no such file or directory").
    The first backup attempt failed after 3 hours of "preparing" with the message "The backup was not performed because an error occured while creating backup directory".
    I tried repairing the disk in Disk Utilities and Disk Utilities said the drive was OK ("the volume Time Machine Backups appears to be OK"). I tried ejecting the drive (hard reboot of computer and disconnecting the drive), plugging it back in again and trying again.
    This time it started backing up, then failed after a few minutes with the message "an error occured while copying files to the backup volume". I had a look at the troubleshooting suggested on http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/C3.html and followed instructions. It failed again, so I did a full reset as per http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/A4.html.
    It failed again, so I tried reparing the drive again in Disk Utilities and again it said it was OK. I tried using different cables and ports (Firewire 400 instead of Firewire 800), and backups still fail.
    I have turned off anti-virus scanning (Sophos). I have tried excluding it from Spotlight but this causes an error message from Spotlight. I have tried trashing the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist file and rebooting. I have tried selecting deselecting the drive as the back up in Time Machine preferences, selecting "None", then "Stop Backing Up" then quitting preferences, rebooting, disconnecting the drive, reconnecting the drive and selecting the drive again as the backup disk in Time Machine preferences. I have tried erasing the drive completely, rebooting, and trying to back up again.
    None of these have worked. This is a brand new drive and I do not want to have to replace it again if I do not have to.
    Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you.

    Hello, some possible clues...
    Should you click “Start New Backup”? Not yet! If you see the dialog above, your existing Time Machine backup is corrupt, and you might not be able to recover data from it. But you can save a copy of the corrupt bundle and, perhaps, extract some data from it if needed.
    Ask yourself if Time Machine has saved data you might need before deciding what to do next:
    If you are sure you won’t need anything backed up before today, click “Start New Backup” and let Time Machine do its thing.
    Otherwise, click “Back Up Later” and save a copy before letting Time Machine start a new backup. Just look for a file called “computername.sparsebundle” (for network backups) or “Backups.backupdb” (for local ones) and create a copy with a different name. You can open sparsebundle files with DiskImageMounter and browse them like any other disk. More information is available here.
    There you go. If you click “Start New Backup” when you see this dialog box, Time Machine will erase all of your old backup data and start a new bundle. It won’t be corrupt, but it will be empty.
    Note that you can manually initiate a Time Machine backup integrity check by option-clicking the “Time Machine” icon in the menu bar and selecting “Verify Backups.”
    http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/08/11/time-machine-completed-verification-backups- improve-reliability-time-machine-create-backup/
    According to This Time Machine resource   “This appears only on Snow Leopard, and started with the Time Capsule Backup Update 1.0 in mid-May of 2010.  It also seems to have been included in the 10.6.3 v1.1 update and 10.6.4.”
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    One thing you can do to make the backup take less time is to connect your machine to your Time Capsule or other backup drive via Ethernet for the duration of the initial backup.
    http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/the-dreaded-time-machine-has-completed-a-verifi cation-of-your-backups-to-improve-reliability-time-machine-must-create-a-new-ba c kup-for-you-message-and-why-you-are-seeing-it/
    Time Machine: About "Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you."...
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4076
    Or a different/better solution in my experiences...
    Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
    http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
    Or SuperDuper...
    http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
    Or the most expensive one & my favorite, Tri-Backup...
    http://www.tri-edre.com/english/products/tribackup.html

  • Does Time Machine bundle backup sets when it deletes a month's daily sets?

    I'm asking this question to find out if I can delete the all but the last week in a month, each month, in order to extend the useful capacity of my backup drive.
    In some backup systems, a periodic "bundle" is made when previous sets are deleted, so for instance, the last backup of the month has the cumulative hourly changes of that month. In this way, transient files which appear and disappear within the month are retained in the monthly backup.
    Is this true of Time Machine? Exactly what does Time Machine do? Does it simply wipe out the daily sets and chose the last one to  be the "weekly backup?" Or something more sophisticated and useful?
    Thanks for any insight!

    I've devised a little experiment to discover Time Machine's behavior in this regard:
    On my Time Machine's backup schedule, August 27 corresponds with the end of a week. So, on August 26 at 9:15AM, I created the following [folder]/file structure:
    [Time Machine Test -Transient Roll-up]
       [Time Machine Test - 1. Hourly Transience
          A one hour lifetime file.rtf
       [Time Machine Test - 2. Daily Transience
          A one day lifetime file.rtf
       [Time Machine Test - 3. Weekly Transience
          A one week lifetime file.rtf
    At 10:10AM of that day I removed
      [Time Machine Test - 1. Hourly Transience
          A one hour lifetime file.rtf
    At 10:10 the next day, August 27, I removed
       [Time Machine Test - 2. Daily Transience
          A one day lifetime file.rtf
    On August 28 at 10:30AM, acheck today of the earliest backup of this structure reveals only the following:
    [Time Machine Test -Transient Roll-up]
       [Time Machine Test - 3. Weekly Transience
          A one week lifetime file.rtf
    I draw the conclusion that transient files within a time period are not subject to a "roll-up" mechanism that displays all changes after out-of-date files are deleted by Time Machine. Thus, for instance, any file that appeared and disappears during an hour will be lost in Time Machine's daily history. Similarly, files that only persist for a day will be lost in the weekly history. And, presumably, if one wanted to choose a week which represented an accumulation of transient changes during the month it would be impossible to do so.
    Even so, if one wants to manage only one backup volume, rather than accumulating a stack of them over the years, one might well think about selectively deleting all but one week per month in the earliest backups available, as the projected remaining time approaches less than a few weeks. BackupLoupe's Statistics gives an estimate of remaining time left for backups on a volume, and I would suggest using that as a forecast, unless others have experience to the contrary.
    Hope this is useful. It certainly is to me.

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