Use Time Machine on ONLY one specific folder?

I wish to use the Time Machine function to backup only one specific folder on my computer, the DROPBOX folder.
How can I implement this and inform Time Machine of my choice?
According to my first investigations, I only have the choice to select folders to EXCLUDE. This makes the setup of Time Machine unconfortable.
Any advice?

I agree with Jeffrey Jones2 above .
Makes no sense to backup the dropbox folder alone, Dropbox It is "cloud storage" and has its own backup. Dropbox keeps a snapshot every time you save a file. You can preview and restore.
If you go to the DROPBOX website you can view deleted file from the trash can icon (see below.)
From there it is a matter of Restore the file. This would work for accidentally deleted files, there maybe a 30day archive limit so read the small print for details.
If it is imperative to your backup plan, just drag and drop your folder to any external storage device, just not the Time Machine HD/partition.

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I used Time Machine to recover my Pictures folder. This created a folder called Pictures (original) but I cannot open it. There is a do not enter roadsign, red disk and white bar on it. How can I see the contents?

I used Time Machine to recover my Pictures folder. This created a folder called Pictures (original) but I cannot open it. There is a do not enter roadsign, red disk and white bar on it. How can I see the contents?

Repairing the permissions of a home folder in Lion is a complicated procedure. I don’t know of a simpler one that always works.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the page that opens.
Drag or copy — do not type — the following line into the Terminal window, then press return:
chmod -R -N ~
The command will take a noticeable amount of time to run. When a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) appears below what you entered, it’s done. You may see a few error messages about an “invalid argument” while the command is running. You can ignore those. If you get an error message with the words “Permission denied,” enter this:
sudo !!
You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up.
Next, boot from your recovery partition by holding down the key combination command-R at startup. Release the keys when you see a gray screen with a spinning dial.
When the recovery desktop appears, select Utilities ▹ Terminal from the menu bar.
In the Terminal window, enter “resetpassword” (without the quotes) and press return. A Reset Password window opens. You’re not going to reset the password.
Select your boot volume if not already selected.
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Before downloading lion, i want to backup my computer with time machine and a G-DRIVE Slim. But how can i use time machine to only backup my system once?

Just wondering, how can i use time machine to only backup my system once? Just this once and not on a weekly basis?

Upgrade. My three year old Mac Pro and year old MacBook Pro have no problem. Both seem faster.
And there's your problem reading entirely subjective views on forums, from people that might or might not have decently maintained systems, good operating practices, or whatever....
Strangely, when most companies issue new software, it is because they believe (and believe they have checked) that it is better than the previous version.

Can Time Machine back up to specific folder within external hard disk?

I have never used Time Machine, always using the Lacie backup software to back up to a folder I've named macintosh HD on my Lacie external disk. I have other folders containing data not on my macbook. The disk is not partitioned.
I decided to try Time Machine, but it only seems to give me a choice to back up to the whole Lacie external disk. The folders within it are all greyed out. I'm worried if I did use it, it would erase over my existing folders?
Is there any way to use Time Machine to backup to a specific folder within an external hard disk with already existing files on it?
Thanks

no, you can not designate a folder for TM backups. But TM will not erase anything already on your drive provided the drive is correctly formatted. It has to be formatted mac os extended journaled with GUID partition scheme for intel macs and APM for PPC macs.
If the drive is formatted correctly TM will simply make a folder at the top level of the drive. However, IMO it's an incredibly bad idea to keep other data on the same partition with TM. i strongly recommend you make a separate partition just for TM. There are just too many situations when you need to erase your TM drive and start backups over. having other data on that drive makes this very inconvenient.

Using Time Machine backup from one mac to another

I had a Mac book pro running 10.7.5 and used Time Machine to backup the system. The macbook died and I want to restore the Time Machine backup to my iMac running 10.7.5.
Question 1: Is this possible and how is it done?
Question 2: Will it restore all the software and files from the macbook pro to my iMac?

It can be done without any problem and everything will be restored from the Time Machine backup.
If you want to replace the actual content of the hard drive of your iMac with the content of the Time Machine backup, press Command and R keys while your Mac is starting, choose the option to restore the Time Machine backup and follow the steps.
If you want to keep both content, use Migration Assistant to create a new user with the data of the MacBook Pro. Open Migration Assistant and follow the steps. Then, open  > Log Out, and log in the new user to access to the migrated data

I want to use Time Machine to ONLY BACK UP ONE FOLDER

Is that possible? Thanks!

With the "Options" button in the "Time Machine" system preference, you can list all the folders you don't want to backup. You could include the top level System and Libray folders, other user's home folders, and most folders in your home folder.

Time Machine Backup only one-fifth the size of my disk. Where's the rest?

I have a startup disk with about 250 gigs in my G5 dual. I have a 500 GB disk for Time Machine. It runs when it's supposed to and I've used it to recover a few lost files successfully. I felt safe until I noticed that the Time Machine disk has only about 50 GB on it! How is this possible? What do I need to do?
When I click on options in the TIme Machine preference pane, I see the Time Machine Backups disk excluded (as I would expect) and I have excluded an additional disk, and it says in the lower right "Total included: 250.0 GB" What is going on? I feel as if I definitely cannot rely on Time Machine if I had to do a complete restore. I'd be missing 80% of my files!

If Time Machine runs into a problem with a corrupted file, it may skip the balance of the entire folder holding that file (or more), and then if there are no changes in the folder it is skipping, it doesn't pick up on it in later backups. Obviously this is not ideal behavior, but that's the way it works right now.
Here's what you can do:
Reboot from your Leopard install DVD (hold the "c" key while booting until you see the spinning gear on the gray Apple screen, and, if the DVD is not already inserted, insert it just after you press and release the power button).
When asked, select your language.
At the next screen, where you would normally begin an Install, INSTEAD Quit out of the Leopard Installer using the menu bar. Select your main hard drive as the drive to boot from.
When it boots up, log in as normal. Then open Applications / Utilities / Console and select "All Messages" in the column on the left. If this is the first time you've done this, it will take a while to get itself organized and the initial list of messages may be empty.
Then open System Preferences / Time Machine so you can watch what is happening.
Then right-click (or CTRL-click) on the Time Machine icon in the Dock and select Back Up Now from the pop up menu.
Booting from the Leopard install DVD like this will cause Time Machine to ignore the file system event logs of what's changed (because the drive may have been altered without those logs reflecting it), and instead do a Deep Traversal of your main hard drive's file system looking at everything for changes since the last backup. You will see a message to this effect in the Console. Time Machine's "preparing" stage will be unusually long -- for your size of file system it could be an hour or so -- but eventually it will finish the Deep Traversal and it will backup whatever needs to be backed up.
NOW, look at the Console for any error messages during this. The infamous -1088 error is the one most people have found. That indicates a file Time Machine has decided is corrupted -- causing it to give up on a folder. Get rid of those files/folders or put them in the Do Not Back Up list, and do another backup until you have no more such errors.
You should now have a complete backup on your Time Machine disk.
--Bob

HT3275 Can I do a custom restore to a new hard drive using time machine selecting only what I want to migrate?

My hard drive failed and I had to replace it. I want to restore from time machine but there are some applications and folders I want to exclude from the back up. Is this possible?

Yes. Partition and format the new drive, then install Mountain Lion from scratch. When finished you can restore what you want, manually, from your Time Machine backup.
Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
        the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.

How do you use Time Machine to restore a specific users account? I can't do it from the user screen because I am not allowed. I can't do it from the admin because I can't see other users in Time machine.

I can't restore my user account from the users screen because I get an alert that Mac OS needs something. I can't restore in TimaeMachine from the Admin screen because I can't see other users home folders. What can I do?

See Pondini's TM FAQs for starters.

Time machine allows only time capsule

I try to use a drive of another machine for backup. Time Machine has only one option, this is a time capsule. Since I don´t have it, I cannot backup my data. The option for Time Machine is being switched of everytime I try to select another drive.

Time Machine needs AFP file sharing, networked Mac running 10.5.6 or later and the Time Machine drive to be formatted with some flavor of Mac OS Extended with GUID partitioning.
Mac 101: Time Machine
Note: Every available disk that can be used to store backups is listed. If you’ve partitioned a disk, the available partitions are listed. Time Machine can’t back up to an external disk that's connected to an AirPort Extreme, or to an iPod, iDisk, or a disk formatted for Microsoft Windows (NTFS or FAT format). If you select an NTFS or FAT-formatted disk, Time Machine prompts you to reformat the disk. Choose a different disk or reformat the disk in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Because reformatting erases any files on the disk, only do this if you no longer need the files or if you have copies of them on a different disk.
If your backup disk is on a network, the network server must use Apple File Protocol (AFP) file sharing and both your computer and the networked backup disk should have Mac OS X 10.5.6 or later installed.
The most common format for a Time Machine backup disk is Mac OS Extended format, but Time Machine also supports Mac OS Extended (Case sensitive, Journaled) and XSan formats.
If the disk is partitioned using the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition type, some partitions may not be available for use with Time Machine. The GUID Partition Table (GPT) or Apple Partition Map (APM) partition types are recommended.

Can't restore Junk Mail using Time Machine

As I was executing the command "delete junk mail" I noticed some files in there that I never saw, and then they disappeared. I tried restoring them using Time Machine but the Junk Mail folder is greyed out. All the other folders are recoverable, but not Junk. Can anybody help?

I see the same thing - junk mailboxes are grayed out in TM. However, the actual mailbox folders in finder are backed up. in finder go to homedirectory/library/mail and look for junk mailbox folders inside your account folders. start TM while in there and recover the messages you need.

I am trying to restore my old Macbook Pro data using Time Machine on a new Mackbook Air from external hard drive, but when I install I get two different loggin accounts and I only want one loggin account

I am trying to restore my old Macbook Pro data using Time Machine to a new Macbook Air from an external hard drive, but when I restore I get two diferrent loggin accounts and I only wnat one loggin account to access all my data/files?

This web site might answer all of your Time machine questions:
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
Ciao.

HT201250 Can I include external drives to be backed up using Time Machine. Not only do I want to back up my IMac, but I have several extenal drives for one iPhoto, one iTunes and one for other files & documents.

Can I include external drives to be backed up using Time Machine? Not only do I want to back up my IMac, but I have several extenal drives for one iPhoto, one iTunes and one for other files & documents. How do I know if they are included in the backup process?

Yes, if they are not exclude then TM backs them up.
Allan

Using Time Machine, is it possible to back up a computer AFTER a specific date. I only want to back up files from AFTER January 2015. Is this possible, and how can I do this?

Using Time Machine, is it possible to back up a computer AFTER a specific date. I only want to back up files from AFTER January 2015. Is this possible, and how can I do this?

emilypdunne wrote:
Using Time Machine, is it possible to back up a computer AFTER a specific date. I only want to back up files from AFTER January 2015. Is this possible, and how can I do this?
Is what you're saying that you only want backups in TM of the state of your Mac from January 2015 to the current date and nothing before then? I'd think the simplest solution would just be to delete in TM all the backups prior to 1/15 and then let TM do its thing. The ultimate source for all things Time Machine is here. On this page, note the comment that "Time Machine will never delete the backup copy of anything that was on the disk being backed-up at the time of any remaining backup" which I understand to mean that if you delete all the backups in the TM file prior to 1/15, any file that wasn't present on your Mac as of 1/15 will no longer be represented in the TM file. Note that the second link also has instructions for how to delete TM files.
If you were trying to accomplish something else, then as Emily Litella (Gilda Radner in SNL) used to say, "never mind."

How can I back up only selected files using Time Machine?

I'm a graphic designer, I use a number of Time Capsules to periodically back up my entire computer. But I also want to set up another Time Capsule (bus powered external hard drive) that will continually run as I work and only back up a single folder and all it's sub folders - in this case a folder called 'Client Files'.
QUESTION: How do I use Time Machine to back up only my 'Client Files' folder and all it's sub folders?

Frankly, this is probably not worth the time and trouble that it will take to set it up.
Time Machine backs up your entire Mac by default.
Time Machine Preferences / Options gives you the ability to Exclude items from backup, so to do what you want, you basically will have to Exclude everything else on the Mac from being backed up. That is going to be quite a task depending on where your Client Files folder resides and you have your Finder files set up.
It will not be that difficult to Exclude major folders..... things like Applicatons, Pictures, Music, Documents, etc.....but to get to the point where you want may not be that easy.
Take a look at things by opening Time Machine Preferences, then click on Options
Since you will be adding items to be Excluded, you would need to click the + button at the bottom of the window and then navigate to find the general folder that you want to Exclude.
Unfortunately, you cannot simply tell Time Machine to only back up the items that you want.....you have to tell Time Machine what NOT to back up.....which is going to be most of your Mac.
And.....whatever you set up in Time Machine /Options to be Excluded will apply to all backups to all Time Capsules. You cannot specify what is Excluded on one Time Capsule and not another. It's all or nothing. Not what you want to do, I am sure.
Good luck

Use Time Machine on ONLY one specific folder?

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