Time Machine Schedule

Hello. My new iMac 21" is up and running with everything finally copied across from my old Windoze machine. Now I'm getting to grips with backing up.

The Time machine is on and running to an external Hard Drive, and it does seem to be working swimmingly BUT does it have to back up every hour?

I'm not doing anything so important that I need to back up this often! Is there a way to change the schedule please to back up just once or twice a day?

Thanks.

Aunty_V said:

Is there a way to change the schedule please to back up just once or twice a day?

Click to expand...

Not within the Time Machine itself, but there's an excellent little app, called TimeMachineEditor that will let you customise your Time Machine backup schedule.

I've used it for over two years, if I remember correctly - it was recommended by the UK edition of MacFormat - and never had a single problem. I have a reasonably robust backup system outside the Time Machine, so like you, felt there's no need to run TM quite so often.

MBP17•David said:

Not within the Time Machine itself, but there's an excellent little app, called TimeMachineEditor that will let you customise your Time Machine backup schedule.

Click to expand...

Another excellent alternative to this is TimeMachineScheduler. It has a couple options that TME is lacking, like specifying a time period to NOT do any backups. My only concern is that it hasn't seen an update since December and version 4.0 has been in beta for some time. I'm not noticing any issues on my end, but I'm a teensy bit worried that development has stalled.

+1 for TMS. I, too, am slightly concerned about development but the products works perfectly with Mavericks, so I can still recommend it.

Or you can also turn automatic updates off. Then whenever you want, manually choose "Back Up Now" by clicking on the icon in the upper right of your screen. This is what I do once a week. Open Time Machine Preferences if you wish to watch the progress bar so you know when it's done. Or don't.

+1 to what member "MYmacROX" does. The only caveat here is remembering to do it. ;D

Thanks all. That's helpful.

Second Question...

I've made a bootable thumb drive back up today, using Apple's "Recovery Disk Assistant" and I attempted to use it to boot up. I reached a login screen and logged in but thereafter the system just seemed to stall although the small activity wheel continued to turn. This went on for so long that I gave up and rebooted back to the Hard Drive. Is this normal? Does the bootable thumb drive take an age to get anywhere, or I do I appear to have a problem and need to rerun the backup?

If so, is there a better app to make a bootable USB thumb?

Thanks again?

The USB bootable thumb drive version of Mavericks does take a fairly long time to display the selection screen. I also have a bootable copy of Mavericks on a USB 3.0 external drive which takes considerable time to boot to the desktop screen. But it does sound like your thumb drive may not be bootable. Might be a good idea to do it over again.

chscag said:

+1 to what member "MYmacROX" does. The only caveat here is remembering to do it. ;D

Click to expand...

Set a reminder on your Mac or phone?? ;D

I think once a week is FAR to infrequent, while for some people every hour is far too much. I'd use (and have used) TME or TMS to set for, well, however much work you can afford to lose. For me, that's usually no more than a few hours.

Once a week is probably not enough for most folks, however, I also use Carbon Copy Cloner to make daily backups. For me, a Time Machine backup once a week will suffice.

Nothing good for Snow Leopard? I found iTMachine and installed it. It might allow you to shorten the interval for backups, but the maximum it would save is one hour.

TimeMachineScheduler works with Snow Leopard. Did you try it?

No, because the system requirements line says otherwise. I'll download it and see who is right!

toMACsh said:

No, because the system requirements line says otherwise. I'll download it and see who is right!

Click to expand...

That's the current version that says otherwise. There's a link to an older version for 10.5.8+.

lifeisabeach said:

That's the current version that says otherwise. There's a link to an older version for 10.5.8+.

Click to expand...

Yep. Got it!