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

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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.
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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?
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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.

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

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Hi I'd like to jump in here. Your app showed me this:
Time Machine:
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Time Machine Editor.
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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.
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SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
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View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
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CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
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☞ 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.

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Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
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Carl,
CarlKramer wrote:
Excellent info, thanks. Two questions about the post.
How do I "flush" data of a backup HD to de-frag it?
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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?
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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 similar situation. I have a 500gb iMac with 350gb used. I have a 500gb ext. hd with 465gb available. Time Machine (horrible so far in my opinion) claims I don't have enough room to run it. The math I learned still proves that 465 is greater than 350.
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Regards
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What's the trigger for Time Machine to back up a FileVault folder?

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