Time Machine to keep two computers synced

After lugging my 13" macbook pro back and forth to class I finally bit the bullet and got an 11" macbook air. I would love to use Time Machine to keep these two computers synced easily. Is that an option to simply backup the pro and then apply the changes to the air? Also, if I restore the air to the backup that was made with the pro will all of my programs and applications transfer or will I need to re-purchase all of them?

mhale11 wrote:
After lugging my 13" macbook pro back and forth to class I finally bit the bullet and got an 11" macbook air. I would love to use Time Machine to keep these two computers synced easily. Is that an option to simply backup the pro and then apply the changes to the air?
No. This is not something that TM does.
Also, if I restore the air to the backup that was made with the pro will all of my programs and applications transfer or will I need to re-purchase all of them?
It will depend - most should work fine.

Similar Messages

One Time Machine drive for two computers

Okay I know that I can use one drive for my macbook pro and my iMac. But, I am wanting to keep both my computer connected to the drive, without having to disconnect one and then hooking up to the other. Is there a way for both computer to recognize the drive and pull from it for backups. Can a usb switch solve this problem or is there software that will work. Also if there is a way to do this I know that i will have to off set the backup time so that both computers are not writing to it at the same time. Thanks in advance,
Adam

you can't have a drive directly plugged in into two computers at once. what you can do is keep it plugged into one computer, back up that computer directly and back up the other computer over network (wireless or ethernet). you don't need to worry about overlapping backup times. the OS will take care of it itself.

Time Machine only keeps two days backup, displays old backups that don't exist. Occurs on two separate HDD's

I have a 15" 2010 MBP C2D-2.53 in completely original form except it is running OSX 10.8. Applecare just ran out so that's not an option, FYI. Lately I went to fetch an old file from TM because the current file was corrupt and I noticed that TM was only backing up for the past couple of recent days. Oddly enough, it also displayed a couple of backups dated from 2010, even though the external HDD I'm using was purchased 2 months ago and the files displayed in the "2010" backup did not exist at that time so it's an impossibility. The backup disc is a toshiba canvio external 320gb USB.
I thought that was odd so I zeroed and reformatted that disc using disc utility. I made it the TM disc again, did the usual backup without error and waited a couple of days. Sure enough, when I checked it had continued the trend of displaying the impossible 2010-dated backup and was still only backing up the past couple of days' material correctly. I decided that this was all getting a bit silly, so I plugged an old external WD USB hard drive, formatted it and made it my second time machine backup disc. Waited a couple of days, accessed it, saw the same exact thing as with the other external drive.
I'm perplexed, however based on these rudimentary tests I'm guessing the culprit lies with the machine rather than the external hard drives. These facts may be unrelated, but I also notice that when I go to eject the toshiba external drive, it says something like "there is more than one partition, would you like to eject one or all" and the machine also had some work done on it by Apple recently. Specifically, a new logic board, airport card and complete erase/install where I reinstalled data successfully through migration assistant. The work was done due to kernel panics at boot. Thankfully for now I've also got CCC cloning the drive, but I do require the long-term snapshots that TM takes.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, and I'm willing to do some digging to fix this issue.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a test, not a solution. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Step 1
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is localized to your user account.
Enable guest logins* and log in as Guest. For instructions, launch the System Preferences application, select Help from the menu bar, and enter “Set up guest users” (without the quotes) in the search box. Don't use the Safari-only “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac.”
While logged in as Guest, you won’t have access to any of your personal files or settings. Applications will behave as if you were running them for the first time. Don’t be alarmed by this; it’s normal. If you need any passwords or other personal data in order to complete the test, memorize, print, or write them down before you begin.
Test while logged in as Guest. Same problem?
After testing, log out of the guest account and, in your own account, disable it if you wish. Any files you created in the guest account will be deleted automatically when you log out of it.
*Note: If you’ve activated “Find My Mac” or FileVault, then you can’t enable the Guest account. The “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac” is not the same. Create a new account in which to test, and delete it, including its home folder, after testing.
Step 2
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode* and log in to the account with the problem. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Shut down your computer, wait 30 seconds, and then hold down the shift key while pressing the power button.
When you see the gray Apple logo, release the shift key.
If you are prompted to log in, type your password, and then hold down the shift key again as you click Log in.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs. The next normal boot may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
*Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t boot in safe mode.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem?
After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of steps 1 and 2.

Can Time Machine Backup to Two Different Drives?

I have many Apple Computers, and I was wondering if it were possible to have time machine backup to two different drives.
I want it to back up My documents, Mail, and other files/folders that I access often to a partition of my internal drive every minute.
And
I want it to back up Everything on my Mac to my external each night upon connecting it to my mac.
I take my MacBook everywhere with me and I need to make sure that the files I work on the most stay Perfectly Accessible no matter what, and I don't want to sacrifice too much space for that procedure. I would rather just be able to do constant backups of my most used files and folders, and then do a system backup each night to make sure I always have what is needed.

Let me add some more observations. I use two disks, one at home (its a mounted volume on another Mac at home) and the other is a portable disk that I attach to my MBP at work. This works fine.
About your details - TM backs up every hour. If you look around you'll find some posts that give instructions on changing the frequency (I haven't paid attention to these, so I can't help you). However, backing up to another partition on the same drive is not what I'd recommend. If the drive dies, you may lose both partitions.
As for doing constant backups of the most used files and at night doing a system backup - it seems to me you aren't "getting" TM. This sounds like the type of backup strategy one uses with "regular" backup software. I don't think I'd recommend backups every minute, but for short intervals, why not just do a default backup of everything. It doesn't really back up everything, just things that have changed. The only time it does a complete backup is the first time you use it with a specific drive. After that it no longer does complete backups, unless you reformat the drive and start from scratch.

Is there any way to force time machine to keep retrying after disk i/o error?

a little background to my problem:
i've had a hard drive problem previously, and i managed get all the data off of my mac by trying and retrying to access the same files and also from my working time machine backup. after zeroing out and reformatting my drive and doing a clean install of Mavericks i had everything back up running no problems.
recently, my macbook pro would be stuck and slow in recently imported iphoto pics so i figured my hard drive is really failing this time around
i try to get a time machine backup to save what i can, but after a couple of tries time machine would just stop backing up and in console i would see a disk i/o error.
is there any way to force time machine to keep trying to backup through the disk i/o error so i can save what i can before getting a new drive?
edit: a little more info, i know i have a harddrive error from looking at the console, but when i do a verify disk in disk utility it comes up clean and even after doing a disk repair it comes up clean i still see disk i/o errors in the console.

See:
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved
Thee can also be a problem with the file(s) that store the extensions registry.
Delete the files extensions.* (extensions.sqlite, extensions.rdf, extensions.cache, extensions.ini) and compatibility.ini in the Firefox [[Profiles|profile folder]] to reset the extensions registry.<br />
New files will be created when required.
See "Corrupt extension files":
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_install_themes_or_extensions
If you see disabled, not compatible, extensions in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions" then click the Tools button at the left side of the Search Bar (or click the "Find Updates" button in older Firefox versions) to do a compatibility check or see if there is an update.

If I completely fill my hard drive 500Gb how time machine will keep working having 1Tb of total space, I mean I have to delete mu hard drive but how I keep my previous information on time machine and keep using to with new information?

If I completely fill my hard drive 500Gb how time machine will keep working having 1Tb of total space [externak hard drive], I mean I have to delete my hard drive but how I keep my previous information on time machine and keep using it with new information?

Time Machine does not provide archival storage.
If you delete a file from your disk it will eventually be deleted from your TM backup without any notice to you.
You need a second external disk to use for archival storage.
You also need a third disk for backups of the second disk.

I have time machine saving onto two usb drives. The backup is 4.6TB. Each drive is 6TB. Why is time machine only updating one drive? (The other has been the same for two weeks.)

I have time machine saving onto two usb drives.
The total size of the files being backed up is 4.6TB.
Each external USB drive is 6TB. So I have 12 TB of space for Time Machine.
Why is time machine only updating one USB drive? (One drive has been the same for two weeks.)
I have selected both drives in the Time Machine settings panel.
My understanding was that it would do a full backup, and then incremental backups of changed files, getting rid of old copies as needed, and alternate between the two drives.
But it looks like drive A has one complete backup, dated two weeks ago, and drive B is the only one getting action.
There is a red icon on drive one that says the drive needs 120GB more space to do a backup -- which is strange since the whole backup set is only 4.6TB in size, and the drive is 6TB in size...

You could try a clone instead.
Clone - Carbon Copy Cloner (Often recommended as it has more features than some others)
Clone – Data Backup
Clone – Deja Vu
Clone - SuperDuper
Clone - Synk
Clone Software – 6 Applications Tested
Time Machine Versus Clones and Archives
Commonly Used Backup Methods

Upgraded to Mavericks and time machine backups keep failing.

I upgraded to Mavericks a few days ago and now I find my time machine backups keep failing. I first tried turning off the power to the time machine then turning it on again and I managed to get one complete backup but that took over 20 hours to complete.
The time machine backup mode never seems to get beyond " preparing backup" then showing the message "backing up failed, disc already in use"
The time machine backup worked fine before I upgraded, is there a way round this problem or will I have to go through reloading the time machine as if it were a new piece of equipment?
My wife's iMac is still on mountain lion 10.8.5 and the backups on the same Time Machine work fine.
Any help would be gratefully received
Greg

Hi,
I have exactly the same problem.
MBP 2011 running 10.9 named "ebook"
MacMini running 10.8.5 server with TM share
everything works fine UNTIL for some reason the MBP is interrupted during a TM backup ...
After that I get the disk already in use error !
Rebooting the MBP wont help, but I narrowed the problem down ...
Looking on the Mini server I noticed :
- the TM backup user stays connected over AFP, even after several hours of inactivity and a couple of reboots of the MBP. Killing the AFP connection works, But problem stil continues !
- looking on the MBP with "lsof | grep ebook" showed me that the SparseBundles were still in use by the AFP process ... Using the Server control panel and restarting AFP solved that ...
After restarting the AFP process the remote TM Backup started to work again !
A couple of days later, the same problem occurred again, fixed it by this work around ...
I hope there will be a more permanent solotiun for this !

My Time Machine backup keeps failing...how do I find out why?? MacBook Pro 5,1 OS 10.5.8, 6GB ram backing up to new OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro 2TB

Forgive my clumsiness ---
My Time Machine backup keeps failing...how do I find out why?? MacBook Pro 5,1 OS 10.5.8, 6GB ram backing up to new OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro 2TB

Have you formatted the disk to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)?
Caio.

My Time Machine backup keeps failing. I get a message the "Volume has the wrong case sensitivity for a backup". Please advise.

My Time Machine backup keeps failing. I get a message the "Volume has the wrong case sensitivity for a backup". Please advise.
Thanks, Howard

You can change the case sensitivity of the sparsebundle.. but I really doubt the error is real.
See A8 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
The sparsebundle should have case sensitivity turned on.
I cannot even fathom how it could have changed.
Let me recommend before you start fooling around with the sparsebundle.
Do a full network start.
Power everything off.. start up modem.. wait 2min.. power up the TC.. wait 2min.. power up any other network gear like switches.. wait..
Now power up the computer and try it.
If the error is the same.. I would do a factory reset of the TC.. give it all short names, no spaces and pure alphanumeric. Then reset TM .. see A4 in the same reference as above.. and do a verify of the backups.. A5 above and try the backup again..
No luck..
Then erase the TC and start over.. it is sometimes necessary as TM does get itself in a knot.

My time machine backup keeps failing

My Time Machine Backup keeps failing . Does anyone know what I should do

Launch your console program (located in the utilities folder) and click on all messages in then left column then type "backupd" in the filter box in the upper right. Read the messages, it may give you a clue as to what's causing the problem.

Time Machine to Backup two different mac computers on a single firewire 500

I have a new generation MacBook and iMacG5 and a single Maxtor 500 GB external hard drive which has two firewire inputs. I connexted both macs by firewire to this external hard drive. I used Time Machine on both computers which are on at the same time. However I can see Time Machine works well on one mac - where I can see each hourly backup but the other mac backups don't show up. I called Tech support and was told that I cannot have both macs on at the same time accessing the same external hard drive. I see two different files for each computer's backup so why can't both computers be running Time Machine at the same time?
So...I thought I should buy the new Time Capsule 1 TB BUT I worry the same access issues will occur. How does the Time Capsule drive wirelessly operate with two macs simultaneously when I was told that Time Machine would not operate via firewire with multiple computers on a single drive.
Any suggestions...are the Tech Support folks incorrect about using Time Machine with firewire access simultaneously with two different macs?

What you cannot do is connect two computers to a single FW drive enclosure at the same time. You can connect the drive to each computer separately. Time Capsule functions as a network drive thus any machine on the network can access the shared network drive. This is not the same as using an external FW drive.
If you want to use your single FW drive to backup two computers, I suggest you first partition the drive into two equal partitions. Use one partition for the TM backup of one computer, and the other partition as the TM backup for the second computer. However, you will need to physically move the drive from one computer to the other in order to perform backups.
Alternatively, if you have a local network set up you can physically connect the drive to one computer, then set up file sharing so that the other computer can mount the shared drive and use it for backup via the Ethernet network (or wireless if it's a wireless setup.) Unfortunately, I'm not positive this will work because TM is known to have some problems backing up to network devices although it is supposed to be able to backup to network drives.
Nevertheless, you should set up two partitions on the drive for each computer in order to keep the backups separate.

Can I use a single external drive to maintain time machine backups for two Mac computers?

Hello
We have an older mac mini and macbook air. I have one Western Digital external USB drive. Can I use the same drive to hold and maintain time machine backups for both machines?
I already have the macbook air time-machined on the WD drive. I now want to backup the mac mini onto the same drive. Is it going to over write the time machine backup or is the software smart enough to maintain two separate files, partitions, whatever it does..?

It will maintain separate backups. Note that it's generally advisable to use separate drives for best practice backup, but yes, it will work for both computers, provided you have enough space (need generally 2-3 times the total used file space for both Macs).
Matt

Can one use a Time Capsule to backup Two Computers?

Sorry for what is likely such a dumb question, but Iif I bought a new Time Capsule with 3TB of storage, could I use this to backup two different computers on our home network?
And if so, could I generate an encrypted disk image (using Apple's Disk Utility) to store the data for both computers? Worst case scenario, there's a burglary and the Time Capsule is stolen, so we would feel much better knowing that the backed up data is totally encrypted and safe.
Thank you!

If you are asking about Time Machine backups from your Mac, the Time Capsule can easily handle multiple backups from 4-5 other Mac computers.
Time Machine will automatically keep separate backups for each Mac in a special container called a sparsebundle image, and you do have the option to encrypt the backups for each Mac.
Time Machine must backup directly to the Time Capsule drive.....it cannot back up to a separate disk image that you might create.

Sharing a Time Machine backup between two Macs

Hi
So I was running my music production software on a first gen Mac Mini. I would store all of my project files on an external drive and backup that external drive to a second external drive using Time Machine. I had Time Machine set so that it excluded everything on the Mac Mini except my original external drive.
Now I've stepped up to the latest and the greatest Macbook Pro 15 inch. I'm running the same music production software on it and loading up all my files from the same external drive. When I go to back it up with Time Machine, it wants to start a separate backup for the Macbook Pro, even though it is only backing up the same stuff from the Mac Mini. The thing is that there aren't any system specific files being backed up, just my project files. For the life of me I can't get it to continue the original backup. I plan on using both Macs for music production and plan on using the same drive for both. I would like to back up every time I finish a session on either computer.
Is there anyway I can get Time Machine on each computer just continue one backup??
I know I can access the backup from each computer by "Browsing Other Time Machine Disks", but I want to backup, not restore.
If not, is there any other software you can recommend? Although I would hate to lose the backups that I already do have...
Thanks!
jg

That's probably a good option for you. It's not easy to keep a 3 way sync.
If you really want to keep certain files synced on your Mac Mini, you might want to look at ChronoSync. It appears it's a good backup-sync program. Don't know if will keep synced between the 2 computers and external drive without a little manuel effort, but would be easy to sync at least 2 devices, such as MacBook to Mac Mini, or MacBook to external.
If you don't need to keep synced files, then best option is to do a full TM backup of both computers. Since you have 2 externals, use one for each. You can still use TM to access files if you need, and if you have a hard drive failure, it's an easy replace drive and restore the whole computer from TM.
And don't overlook the option of File Sharing between the 2 computers to access each others files or a shared folder. That's a real easy way just to copy a few files when you need them.
Anyway, Good Luck and Happy Holidays

Time Machine to keep two computers synced

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