What's the point of Time Machine

After clearing up this 10.5.6 bug on Time Machine it got me wondering what the benefit of TM really is. I am a photographer dealing with large files but I never work on a single photo for more then one hour. My method of backing up is simple... download raw images from the CF card to the OS disk that I'll be working from as well as to two internal HD backup disks. As I work I put finished photos in a "finals" folder that is copied onto the backups as I go along. Indeed if the OS disk goes down while I'm working I have the raw files on two backups plus the finals folder as I may have backed up in that time frame. I understand TM will provide me with a fall back to previous edits of a single image but even so, this seems like a waste of a hard drive and perhaps more trouble than it's worth for the small effort to drag and drop occasionally. Perhaps TM is better for video work or am I missing something elemental here?

Carl,
CarlKramer wrote:
Excellent info, thanks. Two questions about the post.
How do I "flush" data of a backup HD to de-frag it?
Easy. Copy all the data to a second drive or volume, delete it from the first, then copy it back (or not). The most logical scenario is one where "live" data (that which is being edited or otherwise managed) is kept on one drive temporarily. When it reaches a state where the files will remain "static" in the future, those files are copied to the second drive/volume and deleted from the first. Since files will be written to the second "archival" drive sequentially, then never modified or moved again, fragmentation will always remain at essentially zero for that drive.
Fragmentation on the first drive will be eliminated when all data is removed from it. Alternatively, the volume can just be formatted (erased), but this isn't necessary.
Lets say I get a disk error and my boot system goes down. If I have been backing up the boot drive to an external with TM, what are the steps I would take to get total recovery?
A "Full Restore" is a function of the Leopard installer. Boot to the installation disk, then open the installer's "Utilities" menu. "Restore from a Time Machine Backup" is at the bottom of the menu. You are asked to connect the backup drive. When it is mounted, it is scanned for valid backups. A list appears, and you choose which backup you would like to restore (presumably the most recent, but you can choose any that exist). You then choose a destination for the installation. When it has been restored, the machine reboots to the restored installation ad you're back up & running.
Unlike a "normal" installation of OS X, restoring a backup is dependent only on the direct transfer speed from the backup drive. Where a bare installation of Leopard might take as long as 2 hours, a restoration of Leopard plus all applications and user data takes only minutes (in my case, 45).
You would normally be using this feature after having used Disk Utility (in the same menu) to erase the faulty startup drive. However, it can also be used, and quite handily, to move an installation from one drive or machine to another.
Scott
P.S. If fragmentation on a startup disk becomes and issue (rare with OS X, but it can happen with the types of file mentioned earlier), restoring from a Time Machine backup after an erasure can be an excellent solution! -s

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I have a 2013 macpro I upgraded to yosemite. Now I find time machine does not work, nor my old back up using a click free wireless back up. What is the status of time machine and yosemite?

What is the status of time machine not working with yosemite?
I upgraded mu mac pro to yosemite and since have found time machine does not work.
Also, my old backup via a clikfree wireless backup does not work any longer.
Is anyone working on this issue?
Is there anyway I can backup my information today and until time machine &
yosemite get fixed?

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console 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 and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Initially the words "String Matching" are shown in that box. Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes.) You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard."
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Note the timestamp of the last "Starting" message that corresponds to the beginning of an an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showing, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
☞ If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

What is the equation for Time Machine required space?

Once again Time Machine says it has run out of room to do my backup. I guess I just don't understand the equation for figuring this out.
These are my specs:
Disks being backed up - 2 drives
          Internal Drive - 640gb, 482gb in use
          External Drive - 500gb, 105gb in use
     587gb total data in use
Time Machine disk - 1TB, 715gb in use, 284gb available, asking for 303gb
TM wants space that is more than half of my total data in use. I have one (old) 2gb file, all others are 99mb and smaller, mostly much smaller.
Why isn't TM removing older backup files to make room for the latest? Why does it think it needs a block of 303gb when the new files it needs to back up are all in the sub 10mb range?
On the surface it seems like TM is using disk sizes to do it's caluclations instead of file size.
What is the equation it uses to figure this out? I am puzzled...

jlmcvay wrote:
Starting pre-backup thinning: 286.19 GB requested (including padding), 265.05 GB available
That's your main problem; wanting to back up about 238 GB (plus 20%). Curiously, that's a bit less than the previous messages.
See what's shown for Estimated size of full backup under the exclusions box in Time Machine Preferences > Options. According to the figures in your first post, it should be about 587 GB. If it's considerably larger, then there are two possibilities:
Something else is connected, and Time Machine is trying to back it up.
There's a directory problem on one of the disks being backed-up, so Time Machine thinks it's much larger. If so, try verifying your internal HD, and repairing the external, per #A4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
But if the estimate is reasonably close, then something very large has changed. See #D4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for some of the common culprits. Unfortunately, there's no way to tell in advance what it is; you can only see that after a backup completes.
If nothing there helps, try excluding the external HD and trying again (per #10 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions) -- that should tell us whether the problem is on the internal or the external. Then we can try to narrow it down.
Seems like there is a problem with the Event store UUIDs for my internal drive.
Not a major one. That message means that Time Machine isn't sure that the previous backup was completed normally (which it obviously didn't). When that happens, Time Machine can't use the Event store, but has to do a "deep traversal" to compare everything on the drive to the backups to figure out what's changed and needs to be backed-up. That takes a while, of course, and means your backup will take considerably longer than usual.
I commonly have iPhoto open all the time. If TM cannot back up iPhoto while it open that would explain why it needs to backup a lot of data.
That's a possible explanation, but 238 GB is a lot of photos. How large is your entire iPhoto Library?
Time Machine can sometimes back the iPhoto Library up when iPhoto is open -- it seems to depend on just what you've been doing. So it's fairly unusual for it to be missed for very long. (It ought to send a message after a certain time, but it doesn't.)
If excluding the external HD doesn't turn up a clue, try excluding your Pictures folder.

What are the stages of Time machine backup

I often leave my Time Machine to back up and am never really sure where it is in the process. For example, where does "Indexing backup" come in the process? Is it almost done when it's indexing?
I've seen many others have problems with this stage lasting a long time. What happens if I stop the backup during indexing? Are my files already backed up? Would I be able to restore from the un-indexed backup?
Thanks

If you see indexing for more than a few moments, and especially on a number of backups, there's likely a problem of some sort. Just what depends to some extent on what version of OSX your Mac is running.
If you cancel a backup before it completes normally, you cannot view or restore anything from it.
You can always tell if a backup has completed successfully, by clicking the TM icon in your menubar and/or going to System Preferences > Time Machine. If it shows a recent date & time for Latest Backup, that's when it was done.

What's the trigger for Time Machine to back up a FileVault folder?

Hi,
I have been enjoying the new MacBook pro and the useful FileVault for weeks now. I read quite some discontent with FileVault, which indeed could be better, but still it provides useful and free encryption.
With regards to backup on Time Machine, the Home Folder back up supposedly only happen when you log out of a FileVault encrypted account. Meanwhile, I don't always get how it starts and the rules for the Home folder to be backedup.
I make daily changes on my Home folder and the backup only starts once every other week, maybe randomly? Only few times i see the backup progress bar at shutdown and it seems to happen only after a certain amount of additional data has been added.
Has anyone more insight in how the backup (i.e. at log out, only way to backup on TM with FileVault) is triggered? Is there a way to make it a mandatory operation at log out, when my backup drive is available? As I use a WiFi HD (through airport), is it related that backup only occur once in a while and not at each logout
thanks for any tip
Y.

With FileVault enabled Time Machine only backs up when you log out or shut down, unfortunately And when it does it copies the entire encrypted .sparseimage every time. There is no incremental backup when FileVault is enabled.
Regards,
Michael

My wifes iphone was too full to record a video so I upgraded her cloud storage to 20g and did mine at same time. Cloud is showing 15g free storage butshe still cannot take any mor photos as "not enough memory" What is the point of paying for the extr

My wifes iphone was too full to record a video so I upgraded her cloud storage to 20g and did mine at same time. Cloud is showing 15g free storage butshe still cannot take any mor photos as "not enough memory" What is the point of paying for the extr

Hello Pushtheriver,
After reviewing your post, I have located an article that can help in this situation. It contains a number of troubleshooting steps and helpful advice concerning iCloud storage issues:
Get help using iCloud storage
This may also help:
Understanding iOS device capacity
You can sync and download many different types of content on your device. Some types of content (such as music and videos) typically take more space than others (such as notes and books). The amount of space taken by an app depends on the app's purpose; complex or graphically intense apps usually take more space than simpler apps.
If your device is near its capacity, you can remove some of the less used content to make room for more.
Thank you for contributing to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
BobbyD

Long story short....I restored my computer to an earlier point using time machine and now all of the previous back-ups are gone. My question has to do with itunes...is it possible to restore my itunes library to the most recent backup because the restore

Long story short....I restored my computer to an earlier point using time machine and now all of the previous back-ups are gone. My question has to do with itunes...is it possible to restore my itunes library to the most recent backup because the restore that I did was in march and the latest backup was in may....the reason being is that there were app that i had downloaded that are in my most recent back-up, that were not in the backup I restored to. Is it possible to just restore one application ie)itunes?

See this post.
tt2

What's the difference between time capsule and time machine?

What is the difference between time capsule and time machine?

See Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule.

What makes the color of the icon for my external HD change to the color of the icon for Time Machine?

What makes the color of the icon for my external hard drive change to the color of the icon for Time Machine?

Perhaps when you first connected the drive you were asked if you wanted this to be used for TM. If you clicked yes it remembers that.

What's the point of a contract when Verizon can cancel it any time?

I live in an apartment and have a two years contract with Verizon Fios which I signed back in Jan of this year. There is some issue in my apartment unit and my apartment management is transfering me to a ground floor unit in the same building. When I initiated the service transfer request with Verizon, they wanted me to drop my two year contract and sign a new two year contract with a significantly higher monthly fees. What's the point of two year contract that I signed back in January?

Technically you broke the contract by moving.

What's the point of warranty?

I am a student coming from Hong Kong to London for postgraduate study. Before I left Hong Kong, I decided to buy a netbook for my lecturers in the UK. Lenovo s10-2 was chosen because the version available in HK comes with 6 cell battery with international warranty and Lenovo Protection Service (against accidental damage).
This is the first Lenovo machine for me. All was well and I was starting to appreciate Lenovo. Suddenly, the LED screen started to flick with white lines moving across the it, just two weeks after I bought it from Hong Kong.
Yesterday, I called the UK support line who initially suggested replacement (because the purchase is last than 30-day old). However, when the agent found out that I bought the machine in Hong Kong, he said I could only get it repairs. Fair enough.
I packed the netbook this afternoon ready to ship it to the repair center. Being not sure about whether or not my proof of purchase was needed, I called the support line again. This time, the agent gave me a "friendly warning" or maybe a management of my expectations.
I was told that Lenovo believes that there is a 99.5% chance that these type of problems are due to “internal damages" caused by users! I was also advised that sending the machine in for repairs risk myself getting into paying 230 pounds (pretty much the purchase cost) to get the LED screen fixed because it is likely to be not covered by warranty. On top of that, I would have to pay 65 pounds even if I want my netbook back after inspection without getting fixed because again, 99.5% chance that "damages by users" would be concluded!
What's the point of warranty? Totally unacceptable. Any thoughts? Should I take the risk?
I only got the machine just over two weeks ago and used for less than 10 times!

seblee,
This bears a bit of looking into to provide you the best answer. Sometimes, the accidental damage policies are only valid in the home country, and I would like to check. If that were to be the case, you would have replacement or repair options in HK, but standard warranty terms would likely apply in UK.
Your situation sounds exceptional, and I'd like to look into this and see what can be done.
Can your send me a private message with your contact information and the serial number from the bottom of the unit?
Sorry that you are having this trouble. Will see how we can help.
Mark
ThinkPads: S30, T43, X60t, X1, W700ds, IdeaPad Y710, IdeaCentre: A300, IdeaPad K1
Mark Hopkins
Program Manager, Lenovo Social Media (Services)
twitter @lenovoforums
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What's the point in buying a new MacBook?

Hi all,
Recently I went with my iBook G4 to the Apple store to troubleshoot a small problem, but they were unable to help me as after only 7 years, the machine was rendered obsolete and they didn't feel obliged to help. My iBook recently died and I felt like a part of me was missing.
So my question is, what is the point of buying myself a brand new MacBook Pro if in 5 or 6 years, it will be obsolete? I want a Mac that will last me wherever I go for a long time before it finally dies. I've realized that I need to put PowerPC computers out of the question, but will intel processer Macs last longer than PowerPC processors?
For the record, I don't want to switch to Microsoft as I find them difficult and this isn't a crack at Apple.
Any answers are very appreciated,
Thomas.

With Intel based Macs the hardware will not become obsolete as fast as PPC based Macs did, but the operating system and/or applications used might.
That does not mean that it will stop working, just that you won't, in a few years' time, be able to get the latest bells and whistles.
Officially, support from Apple ceases after seven years - but that does not stop the Macs working!
Vintage and obsolete Apple products:
Obsolete products are those that were discontinued more than seven years ago. Apple has discontinued all hardware service for obsolete products with no exceptions. Service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products. These include ALL G4 and G5 models.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1752?viewlocale=en_US

What's the point of iCloud

Unless I misunderstood, I have to pay to get all my music to be pushed to all my devices (iTunes Match) and I have to buy iWork for my iPhone (even though I already have it on my Mac) in order to get those documents pushed to the cloud. (It makes more sense to stick with iWork beta!)
I feel like Apple is nickling and diming its loyal customers.
So, essentially, iCloud is useless! I thought it would be a great way to free up space on my hard drive; I could just store my documents and music in the cloud.
My question is: what is the point of iCloud? Honestly, what does it do? It just pushes stuff between your devices? I genuinely don't understand the point of it.

capaho wrote:
Julian Wright wrote:
Here we go... Yet another 'loyal' Apple customer who seems to think that because they've bought one Apple product, Apple should forever let them have new products and services for free.
The real problem here is that Apple has no long-term commitment to support anything it makes. It wasn't that long ago that MobileMe (which was not free) came into existence and now it is already being dumped in favor of iCloud, which lacks the iDisk, remote access to Time Capsules and personal websites. It's a step backwards and a disservice to those of us who were using some or all of those MobileMe features.
Apple's product cycles, both hardware and software, are too short to be of use to anyone but those who like to play. Forget about trying to run a business from Apple products these days.
That is exactly right.
In my own small home network we 7 Macs all being synced through MobileMe. Only two of these Macs can run Lion and doing so would mean no longer being able to use applications that our clients still use so it would mean loss of these clients. Not to mention the cost of replacing at least 5 of or Macs.
Then there are businesses that have dozens of Macs or sometimes even hundreds of Macs along with gigs and gigs of data that Macs running Lion can't access. So even ignoring the huge cost of replacing al these Macs with newer Macs there is still the issue of Macs running Lion not being able to run needed applications.
With MobileMe one could buy a newer Mac running Lion and it would still be able to sync with older Macs but now it is all or nothing.
At least one design shop that I do work for is now replacing their Macs with Windows machines since these computers can run older software and also be able to sync with iOS devices using iCloud. At least a dozen other places that I do business are considering doing the same thing.

What is the point of having 17 apps if no one is skilled in that many disciplines anyway?

I have been told how having access to 17 apps is a really great deal. The problem is no one is skilled in that many different disciplines. Even if someone took the time to learn all that software they would still not be competent in all those fields. I don’t know any creative types that are really good at graphic design AND video AND illustration AND music AND the web coding etc. What good is access to all those tools if you don’t have all the skill to do all those different line of work?
I keep hearing people say “Isn’t it great to know that you could use all that software if you wanted to?” No! It isn’t! Having access to tools without the necessary skills to competently use them is pointless! I have worked in graphic design for about a decade and have been improving over all that time so the idea that I could just start a new field adequetly is redic! You need to have an entire team of people who work in many fields to do all those things really well. So my question is what is the point of having the software running off one machine with a license for only one user?

@W_J_T (and MikeChambers)
“yeah you gotta be good at something rather than no good at anything, that is true. ;-)
I guess that is why I don’t understand this big push by Adobe to make their users become mediocre in many areas. Can you please elaborate on this point Mike Chambers? Why should I be bad at a lot of things rather then good at a few things? I don’t get it.
“As far as apps vs fields, the first thing many people wanna know is if you know the required software for the given task(s).”
On one hand I understand the need to have software skills on the other hand software skills without artistic talent does little good.
“Why that is I don't know, its rather odd and does not allow people the same ability to only focus on their more specialized sectors like in the past with the Creative "Suites".”
I understand the problem Adobe had with suites; all the products had to be released on the same time schedule which meant some were released way before they should have been. CC gets around that problem but Adobe hasn’t done a good job at telling why anyone needs all the apps.
“Did you just wish to have some dialog, or do you have a specific question or suggestion about things? I am kind of confused at this point sorry. ;-)”
It just seemed odd to me when I kept hearing these Adobe evangelists getting excited about the ability to use so many apps. I came here since I was hoping Adobe could explain why having apps in so many fields that you are not talented in is a good deal. So far I am still waiting for Adobe to answer that question.
“your passion seems to be solely the design aspect of things.”
Yes, it is but perhaps most importantly is the issue of time dedicated to learning a new craft. I have a good amount of design work so looking into a career change at this point doesn’t make sense for me. If I changed my career I would have to turn down design work that I currently have coming in and that would be a little silly.

What is the point of the download window if you use stacks?

Greetings,
One of the most annoying things about the download window was the fact that the window always hung around after completing dowloads in Tiger when using safari. To me, that was just a time waster of always pressing Apple+W to close that window.
When Leopard was released, I was excited to realize that one function of the download stack was to recevie downloads from safari after completed. However, after completion, the download window still sticks around and I still have to close it... then navigate to my stack of downloads to mount the image. What is the point of the download window is I use stacks now? Why can't the window disappear after completion?
//Cheers

Aaargh!! Me too - it's so annoying! Firefox has a downloads window as well - I just don't see the point of it. I didn't like it in Tiger either.
As a way to see the progress of downloads, it's fine, but it should at least close when all the downloads are finished, and completed downloads should not display.
Ideally it should look & work exactly like the Copy window in Finder - the one that comes up when you are copying or moving a large file or number of files from one folder to another.
Is there a hack that will make it work like that?

What's the point of Time Machine

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