Time Machine Schedule

I find the Time Machine schedule for backups too frequent. Is there a way of changing this schedule rather than doing my backup manually as I'm doing now? It also uses a lot of space because of this. Any help will be appreciated.

If you have Time Machine ON, changes on Time Machine Editor will not apply. Remeber to switch OFF your time Time Machine Preferences, as Time Machine Editor will handles the intervals. Maybe that's the problem. Hope this helps.
Taken from TME faq:
FAQ
Should I turn the big switch from the Time Machine preferences to OFF?Yes. TimeMachineEditor handles the scheduling itself and has its own ON / OFF switch (which behaves very much like the one from Time Machine).

Similar Messages

Time Machine Scheduler doesn't backup

Having downloaded time Machine Scheduler V4 beta I've selected 4 hr. intervals and skipped backups from 5A to 10P. TMS isn't making any backups. Anyone else have a similar situation?

This would be an issue best taken up with the developer of that utility. There's probably a good reason why it's still in beta, and this may be one of those reasons. The developer provides the utility "as is", so I don't know how much help he will provide.
Regards.

What happened to the Time Machine scheduler?

I upgraded to Lion and now I can't seem to find it anywhere in system preferences.

I would like to be able to schedule my time machine backups too. Every hour seems excessive for a lot of people. It seems like my computer at work is constantly backing up. I feel like it is slowing my work down. Even if it is just setting the backup to every 2 hours or every three hours. I don't need to pick a time, just have it happen less if I desire.

Time Machine scheduler

I've been trying to search the answer in this forum but still can't find it.
When I connect my external drive, the time machine have the pre-set back up time schedule (hourly, daily, weekly). Is there any way to change the schedule to, let's say, weekly only or is it possible to perform the backup immediately after the external drive is connected (no need to wait for another hour after the external drive is connected)
Thanks,

You can run a backup at any time by control-clicking on the
time machine icon in the dock. One of the options that comes
up is "Back Up Now".
Frank,
Thank you for the TM tip. I keep the TM off most of the time and
prefer to run it manually but each time I turn it on I have to wait
for the next schedule. Sure would have been nice of Apple to have
a "Back Up Now" button to the TM. You found it and that was just
what I needed. BTW, the control-clicking did not work on my setup,
but the right-click on the TM dock bring up the box you mentioned.
Thanks again

Time Machine scheduled backup that is twice the size of the data on my hard drive?

Hi,
I recently wiped my old TM (archived it to another drive) and want to start fresh
Upon connecting to TM for the first time, it attempts to perform a 134GB backup
The funny thing is that I am only using 63.78GB on my hard drive
I have it configured as RAID 1 (i.e., mirrored), could this be the cause? I had assumed that it would just back it up once, and that the external would worry about the mirroring... But can't think of any other reason for this at the moment.
Thanks

On a more detailed examination of what was actually happening on my machine, and then posting a more specific thread, I found the answer!
Disk Utility says I am using 131gb of SSD; Finder says I am using 38gb?
Thanks for tracking with me on this!

Time machine not automatically backing up to sparsebundle

Used TimeTamer to create sparsebundle.
Manual backups work fine.
Receive message that "time machine destination not resolvable" when automatic backups are tried.
Is this issue correctable?
Thank you

jjs01 wrote:
I am backing up to a 1st generation Drobo.
All I know about Drobos is what I read on their site and some threads here.
How is it connected? Network (Ethernet or WIFI) or direct (USB, Firewire, eSATA)?
The reason for doing so is to limit the amount of space my Time Machine backups will take up.
Depending on how you're connected, there may be a better way. Are you still running 10.6.8? Note that on some models, Drobo says not to use that with Leopard or Snow Leopard (http://support.drobo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/610/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xMzI 2NzcyMDg3L3NpZC9NZFN1TWtPaw%3D%3D).
According to this page: http://support.drobo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/609/~/how-do-i-make-time-machin e-work-with-drobo%3F, some models of Drobo allow you to create partitions. If yours will, that's the way to go.
Then let Time Machine create a Backups.backupdb folder at the top level of the volume if you're connected directly, or it's own sparse bundle if you're connected via network.
If not, and if you're connected via network, you may be able to let Time Machine create the sparse bundle, then limit the maximum size via #A8 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
hdiutil create -size 8192g -fs HFS+J -volname "TM-backup-of-****-*****-mac-pro" /Volumes/Drobo/****-*****-mac-pro_001f5b32e8e4.sparsebundle
Some possible problems with that (I can't tell since you substituted ***s):
Check the names (of all odd things) of your Mac, network, and Drobo per #C9 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting. The names may be a problem even if you let Time Machine create the sparse bundle.
As I read the man page for hdiutil, that command will not create a sparse bundle disk image with a maximum size of 8 TB; it will create a fixed-size disk image of 8 TB.
Since 10.6.0, Time Machine no longer includes the source Mac's MAC address in the name of the sparse bundle. I don't know if having it there is a problem in your setup.
Have you used any other 3rd-party apps (such as Time Machine Editor, or Time Machine Scheduler) to alter Time Machine's default behavior?

Can't backup on my Time Machine installed on Time Capsule

I use to manage all my time machine backups on the Time Capsule.
From some days until now, I noticed that the Time Machine scheduled backups just abort in the middle of the process, after it scans the files to backup.
My Time Machine is working properly and therefore I can also access to my Time Capsule when I use it as as wireless hard drive.
When it is starting backup, Time Machine disk is mounted on my MAC.
Any ideas on what is going on?

Pondini, I'm using the internal HD.
Here is my log from the last backup:
Jan 12 22:10:20 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Starting standard backup
Jan 12 22:10:20 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Antonio%[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
Jan 12 22:10:30 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Antonio%[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
Jan 12 22:10:38 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
Jan 12 22:10:45 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule/Antonio Parracho’s MacBook.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Jan 12 22:10:45 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Jan 12 22:10:46 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: 2011-01-12 22:10:46.327 FindSystemFiles[279:907] Looking for system packages
Jan 12 22:10:46 antonio-parrachos-macbook mds[37]: (Normal) DiskStore: Rebuilding index for /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Jan 12 22:10:47 antonio-parrachos-macbook mds[37]: (Normal) DiskStore: Creating index for /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Jan 12 22:10:51 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: 2011-01-12 22:10:51.556 FindSystemFiles[279:907] PackageKit: * Missing bundle identifier: /Library/Receipts/Flip4Mac QuickTime Components.pkg
Jan 12 22:10:51 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: 2011-01-12 22:10:51.595 FindSystemFiles[279:907] PackageKit: * Missing bundle identifier: /Library/Receipts/Flip4Mac Web Plugins.pkg
Jan 12 22:10:56 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: 2011-01-12 22:10:56.528 FindSystemFiles[279:907] Finding system files...
Jan 12 22:11:11 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: 2011-01-12 22:11:11.859 FindSystemFiles[279:907] Writing system path cache.
Jan 12 22:11:32 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Jan 12 22:12:32 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Jan 12 22:13:32 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Jan 12 22:14:32 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Jan 12 22:15:32 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Jan 12 22:16:32 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Jan 12 22:20:49 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!
Jan 12 22:20:49 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Error: Flushing index to disk returned an error: 0

Time Machine on a NAS - Avoiding "Time Machine completed a verification of your backups....."

I use Time Machine to wirelessly backup my MBA to a Buffalo NAS. It will work fine for weeks or months, then I will see the dreaded "Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.” error. Of course this means I lose all my backups.
I have researched this pretty thoroughly and I know that using TM with a NAS has some risk. But I am hoping to not have to resort to dragging out a USB drive everytime (daily) I want to do a backup.
Can anyone share sucess stories of how they make TM work reliably with a NAS? Is it a Buffalo problem and a different NAS works better? I know the majority of TM users have no problems. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks.

I have a Synology 1511+ and had the same issue. Except my backups would only corrupt every month or two.
After lots of searching I found the issue is backing up over wifi to the NAS. I found the solution to this was to install a small app: Time Machine Scheduler (free).
It can be found here: http://www.klieme.com/TimeMachineScheduler.html
All you need to do is install, and set backups only to run over Ethernet. Works great for me as I use my mac 50/50 between my workstation and wirelessly around the house. Haven't had an issue since.

WEIRD "Time Machine could not complete Backup" error

So this started back in Leopard 10.5.
I used Time machine once and didn't like it so I turned it off and unhooked the external drive.
Ever since that time, I get a Time Machine could not complete Backup error window that pops up every 2 hours or so it seems.
I updated to Snow Leopard and still got this problem all the way up to 10.6.8.
I have now updated to Lion and I STILL get this stupid annoying error.
My TM is OFF and there are no drives selected anywhere.
What should I do ?

Very true, I didn't even tink about that... but.....
I did have TimeMachineEditor but it was already set to OFF.
I also had another program (Time Machine Scheduler) that was also set to off.
****, I would have loved it to be that !!!

Frequency of time machine backups

Is there a way to change the frequency at which the time machine backs-up? It backs up every hour and that is just too often. I have a 500GB Time Machine. Also, does anyone else's heat up to an insane degree? I have mine elevated for full ventilation and that helps exponentially.
-Thanks

Are they trustworthy?
I haven't used them myself, but I've heard good things about them.
They're reviewed here and here.
Good luck!
EDIT: I would use Time Machine Scheduler, since it doesn't mess with the system file TM uses to back up-it's probably safer.
Message was edited by: joshz

Time machine backing up when pref is turned off

I noticed yesterday and today, after replacing my TimeMachine with a new one, that even though I had temporarily turned off the Time Machine backup in my system prefs because I didn't want it running while I was editing a video, it will still backing up. And backing up a huge amount of data. A Google search using "time machine backs up when turned off" as the search phrase led me to: <http://toti.posterous.com/hidden-local-backups-with-mac-os-x-lion-filli> in which I learned that TM is doing local backups to my laptops' hard drive. Don't want this, but as usual Apple is assuming most people would welcome this safety feature and so don't offer (a) information on it or (b) the option in system prefs to turn it off. Anyway, on that page there is a command for the Terminal which will turn off this feature:
sudo tmutil disablelocal
One could easily be fooled into thinking your computer had less disc space than you actually have due to this feature. Pretty well everytime there is a "smart" application within the ever expanding OS, there is a downside to it. If only there was an "I'm no dummy" mode which would allow users to tailor various features without mucking about in the Terminal, which I know little about and try to stay away from, except for the occasional "fsck -fy" command at startup.

john2b_75 wrote:
My MacBook does this too. No amount of turning on and off the Time Machine in Preferences has any impact on its behaviour.
Have you ever used a 3rd-party utility, such as Time Machine Editor, Time Machine Scheduler, or the like, to alter Time Machine's behavior? If so, that's the problem -- those set up a completely separate schedule. Use the same app to set it back to the defaults or OFF.
If that doesn't help, it's possible the preferences file (where the ON/OFF switch, among other things, is stored), is damaged. Try a "full reset" of Time Machine, per #A4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
My Time Capsule drive is stuffed (indexed to death) and even Disk Warrior can't fix it,
If your backups are corrupted beyond Disk Utility and Disk Warrior's ability to repair, nothing can. Erase the disk via the Disks tab of Airport Utility, and let Time Machine start fresh (via Ethernet cable if at all possible).
Actually, take the time to select a Zero-Out, not the quick erase -- if that fails, you know the TC's HD is failing. If not, it's probably ok.
But the disk being full and/or corrupted has nothing to do with Time Machine starting backups.
after 24 hours of grinding away it fails only halfway through.
With what message?

Time machine stopped automatic backups - works fine manually

Hi there - I checked but didn't see this issue addressed anywhere:
- I am using Time Machine wirelessly connected to an external drive through an Airport Extreme
- Previously, once I "helped" the mac recognize that the drive existed (I seemed to have to do this every time I woke the macbook up from sleep), it would happily backup every hour.
- But, now, it will not back up unless I manually go to the menu bar and select "backup now". Then it does fine, but I shouldn't have to remember to do it all the time, should I?
Anything I can do to get this back to automated?
Thanks,
Dan

Hey Dan - I found your post because I was having the same problem. I don't know if you've already resolved the issue. While mine was self-inflicted, I'm wondering if this solution will work for you, too.... there is a free application out there called Time Machine Editor that lets you custom schedule Time Machine backups. It "updates a system configuration file to change the Time Machine scheduling." I'd forgotten that I'd downloaded it and played around with it and it was overriding the schedule.... You can install it, revert the settings to default and then delete it and apparently, it's completely uninstalled...or customize your schedule and hang on to it... I hope that helps! Let me know...
Here's the link:
http://timesoftware.free.fr/timemachineeditor/
eric

How do I get Time Machine to ONLY backup my main drive?

I am a video editor that has clients continuously bringing me hard drives to edit from. The problem is that every time I plug in a new disk, I need to disable it in Time Machine. If I forget to disable it, then Time Machine will automatically try to shove it on itself and in the process will wipe out all past versions of my main drive. The ONLY drive that I EVER want backed up is my main drive. I love the feature of Time Machine where there might be some old file I had on my desktop the week before that I deleted and now need back. Well, I can't get it back, because during the process of trying to backup some random drive that a client gives to me, it will automatically wipe out all previous backups of my main drive to try to make room.

All true, and I do not actually use CCC that way. I use TM for my daily backup (actually, I have it set to run every 12hours), and I use SuperDuper for a pair of clones (one offsite) that I manually incremental update weekly or so. I also have CCC for a monthly additional clone that lives in my firesafe when not being updated.
There is an older freeware (or maybe it is donationware ?) utility named Time Machine Scheduler still around, but I do not know how or even if it runs on OS X 10.8, although it runs on 10.7 so may well work fine - it will let you specify a particular time to backup.
The default TM backup frequency can be easily modified from the command line:
sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto StartInterval -int 43200
Where the number is in seconds, so 43200 means to kick off a TM backup every 12 hours (the default in the *.plist file is 3600, or every hour).

Time Machine hangs at same point during a full system restore!

I recently had a complete crash on Mac Book Pro requiring reinstallation of Latest Leopard with Upgrade Disk. Tried to restore full system from time machine backup on time capsule, but the restore stops and does not proceed at around 37-39% complete. No error messages. On the phone with apple care, was told my back up was corrupt! Any ideas. I'm very disappointed right now, as my back ups were automatic via time machine schedule. Please help me get my system back!

Andre,
You could, by-pass the Full Restore process and do an Erase & Install and Migrate. Then no 'manual' restore will be necessary. Of course, if the installer is hanging as a certain point with a Full Restore then there is no guarantee that it won't during this process as well. But it's still worth a try.
Also, if you are dealing with many GBs of user data and multiple accounts, you could have it migrate all this over in stages using Migration Assistant, rather than in one big chunk.
*Erase, Install, & Migrate*
A final option, reserved for last resort, is to erase the hard disk, install a fresh copy of the Mac OS, and then use Migration Assistant during the installation to restore your user accounts. This is the Mac equivalent of ‘Slash and Burn’, and really should only be necessary if you require a completely fresh start.
Procedure:
Verify that your Mac has uninterrupted AC power.
For faster migration of user data, Time Capsule/AirDisk users should connect their Macs directly to their Airport device via ethernet.
Insert your original Mac OS 10.5 Leopard DVD and reboot while holding down the “C” key.
At the “Welcome” screen click “Continue”.
Click “Agree” to the user agreement.
Select you Macs internal hard disk and click “Options”.
Select “Erase and Install”.
Select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” for disk format. (Avoid selecting “Case-sensitive” unless you know what you are doing.)
Click “OK”.
Click “Continue”.
At “Install Summary” click “Customize” if you would like to eliminate certain Print Drivers, Fonts, or Language packages from being installed. Otherwise, click “Install”.
If you wish, you can click “Skip” when the DVD integrity check begins.
After the initial installation completes, your Mac will restart and you will see the video introduction.
At “Welcome” select your country and then preferred keyboard.
At “Do You Already Own a Mac?” you are asked “Would you like to transfer your information?”
+from another Mac+
+from another volume on this Mac+
+from a Time Machine backup+
+Do not transfer my information now+
Select “from a Time Machine backup” and click “Continue”.
At “Select a Backup Volume” choose your Time Machine backup disk and click “Continue”. (If you are attempting the migration wirelessly, then click “Join...” and select your network first.)
At “Transfer Your Information” check all the categories you wish to migrate over. If you wish your Mac to be in the same state as your last backup, then check everything. Give the installer time to calculate sizes.
Once that is complete, the “Transfer” button will become active and you can click it.
After the install, verify the registration information, click “Connect” and you are done.
After logging in, immediately go to System Preferences --> Time Machine, and turn “OFF” backups, even if a backup attempted has begun.
Next, Launch Disk Utility, select your Macs’ internal disk on the left, and click “Repair Disk Permissions”.
Interestingly, no Spotlight indexing appears necessary, so, once the permission repair is complete, turn Time Machine back “ON” in the Preferences. Time Machine should continue to backup to the same set of backups that it did prior to the restore. However, due to event logs being out of sync, the first backup will require a lengthy session of “Preparing...” as Time Machine performs a “deep traversal”. Allow this to proceed uninterrupted. Naturally, the first backup after a significant installation like this will be quite large so don’t be alarmed.
Let us know if this was helpful.
Cheers!

Time Machine backups delayed (Mavericks)

I have posted the same thread in the Time Capsule category a week ago but have had no replies. So I'm trying again here in Mavericks.
Since purchasing a new Time Capsule and updating to Mavericks from SL about three weeks ago, I've had an issue with Time Machine scheduled backups. Before setting up the TC I backed up to an external drive connected to my imac via USB. Now I use the TC for TM backups and as a router. The TC is connected to a Netgear router running in modem mode. My imac where I'm having the below TM issue, as well my ipad and iphone connect to the TC over wifi (for internet and TM backups).
Hourly TM backups start with a delay but there is no error or warning message to say there is a delay. I've read Pondini's FAQ and trouble shooting but cannot find this exact issue anywhere. I've done a full TM reset as per Pondini trouble shooting A4, as well as verifying backups as per A5, and also powering off and rebooting everything as per C19 (including hard reset of TC). None of this has changed anything.
Pondini says TM backups are scheduled to start exactly one hour after the start of the previous backup. But my backups start several minutes after the completion time of the previous backup (anything between 2 minutes and 25 minutes so far). Each time the scheduled time for the next backup passes without it starting and as a result the TM preferences start displaying the next scheduled backup an hour later (as if it just skipped one). But then the backup will start some time after the completion time of the last backup.
I will illustrate in an example with screenshots:
1. At 20:04, the next backup is scheduled for 20:05
2. At 20:06, the backup hasn't started so TM acts as if it has been skipped and shows next backup at 21.05
3. But then at 20:24, the backup unexpectedly starts. As mentioned above, then timing is somewhat random in that in can be after 2 minutes or 20 or more. The only consistency is that it always starts after the completion time of the last backup.
4. The backup has finished, it seems everything is fine (although I can't be sure). The completion time of the last backup is correct, and the next backup is scheduled for 1 hour after the last one started. But guess what... the wholem thing repeats itself again.
This issue makes me uneasy about the reliability of TM backups. I am also experiencing another issue with my TC which is linked to Airport Utility intermittenly showing "device not found". See my ongoing discussion about this issue here:https://discussions.apple.com/message/24339064?ac_cid=op123456#24339064
I have no idea whether these issues are related. Please note that the above issue with delayed TM backups is independent of the "device not found" issue i.e. the delays occur whether or not the TC is visible in Airport Utility. (When it is not visible/greyed out, both my wifi internet connection and TM backups still run).
Grateful for your advice! Thanks.

I used the process outlined here successfuly just now:
http://www.wilmut.webspace.virginmedia.com/notes/icloudtm.html
I am running Mavericks. Things I learned or to clarify/amplify what he says (at the URL I just listed):
* If you have partial data saved in Calendar now, I highly recommend you export and save it as an .ics file so you won't lose anything.
* Make sure you close Calendar before trying to restore.
* To restore Calendar files, go back to the date you want to restore in Time Machine, and in your home folder (or whatever you may have renamed it), go to Library > Calendar. Highlight ALL files in this folder. The Restore button should turn white in the bottom right of the Time Machine and hit that. It will move them all into your calendar.
* Follow his procedure otherwise. When you import the old data into your newly created On My Mac version of your calendar, it will say there is a "new event" or message and ask you where you want to put it. That would be the newly created calendar you just set up chosen off the list. It's pretty obvious but his directions didn't say so I like to be explicit with details.
* I found that calendars I had created since losing my old ones were not overwritten or lost when I followed the above procedure.

Time Machine Schedule

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