Simple question-simple answer for simple soul?

sllewk · Jun 3, 2018

Hello everyone, oh yes - it is HIM again! I am still at odds with Time Machine; I do not like it one little bit and would love to delete it (but NOT allowed) so would like to disable it. Against all advice I prefer Super Duper and have it on my 21inch iMac late 2017 model running High Sierra 10.13.4. Every time Super Duper fires up the dreaded Time Machine chimes in like a bad smell and I am peed off with the continued nag screens. How can I disable Time Machine? I have searched the internet for weeks, if not months; and no one seems to have an answer - so basically, am I striving for the impossible or what? If it is not possible then I will have to learn to live with it I suppose but, I will do so very grudgingly and will not be a happy bunny at all!

Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.

ferrarr · Jun 3, 2018

To disable Time Machine, go into System Preferences > Time Machine, and uncheck the "Back Up Automatically" option. You can also uncheck the "Show Time Machine in the menu bar" option as well.

sllewk · Jun 3, 2018

Hi Ferrarr, I have done both of your tips but still Time Machine continues to haunt me. As a pointless exercise I even looked in Activity Monitor for the Time Machine with the vague hope I might get some control in there but nothing was offered that might solve the problem so I left well alone. On top of that I was playing on foreign turf so decided not to make any alterations, not very computer literate to say the least.

Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.

ferrarr · Jun 3, 2018

Then TM may be sending you Notifications. Look in System Preferences > Notifications, look to see if Time Machine is listed, and if so, delete it.

Can you post a screen shot of the message you are receiving?

sllewk · Jun 3, 2018

Time Machine is not mentioned in notifications and I will try to send a screen shot of the nag screen when I next get one (providing I can remember how)!

Regards from Keith in Derby England.

IWT · Jun 3, 2018

Against all advice I prefer Super Duper

Not at all, Keith. SuperDuper! (SD!) and Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) are highly regarded in our forums. Each is bootable, which is a huge advantage. If SD! is to be your only Backup (BU), make sure that you BU regularly because you can only restore from the last BU, be that this morning or last month.

I don't share your dislike of Time Machine; but respect each individual's opinion.

In addition to what Bob (ferrarr) wisely advised, you can go further and remove the Hard Drive from Time Machine.

Whilst in System Preferences > Time Machine, you can not only uncheck "Back up Automatically" , but on the right will be listed all of your Drives that use Time Machine. Underneath, is "Add or Remove a backup Disk". Click on your Disk to highlight it and then "Remove".

Ian

sllewk · Jun 3, 2018

Bob and Ian, sadly I used Time Machine as well as SuperDuper, now my dislike for TM has surfaced once again. I have done all the things that Bob has put forward and also all that Ian has suggested but not necessarily in the order required (if that is required) . The back ups have always been done on a 1TB external drive; this drive has been properly removed by clicking on it and rejecting it. Then unplugged and the PC switched off (not really necessary but felt happier) then after rebooting I attached the drive and reformatted it using Disk utility. I then gave it a name of Super Duper, started Super Duper in the normal manner. After about two minutes a nag screen appeared asking " Do you want Time Machine to back up on Super Duper hard drive"? No, I most certainly do not want that to happen!!! If the blasted computer had not cost such a lot of money I would apply a lot of "SIT" to it------------------- sudden impact technology------- but my wife would be very cross indeed and I am not sure of the punishment administered to yours truely. I am at a complete loss as to what to do next except just tolerate the continued intrusion by TM.

Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.

Sawday · Jun 3, 2018

sllewk said:
Bob and Ian, sadly I used Time Machine as well as SuperDuper, now my dislike for TM has surfaced once again. I have done all the things that Bob has put forward and also all that Ian has suggested but not necessarily in the order required (if that is required) . The back ups have always been done on a 1TB external drive; this drive has been properly removed by clicking on it and rejecting it. Then unplugged and the PC switched off (not really necessary but felt happier) then after rebooting I attached the drive and reformatted it using Disk utility. I then gave it a name of Super Duper, started Super Duper in the normal manner. After about two minutes a nag screen appeared asking " Do you want Time Machine to back up on Super Duper hard drive"? No, I most certainly do not want that to happen!!! If the blasted computer had not cost such a lot of money I would apply a lot of "SIT" to it------------------- sudden impact technology------- but my wife would be very cross indeed and I am not sure of the punishment administered to yours truely. I am at a complete loss as to what to do next except just tolerate the continued intrusion by TM.

Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.

So the mac cleverly recognises that you have attached an external drive and asks, very nicely, if you would like to use Time machine. You say no. What's the big deal? FFS there is a option to turn it off!

MacInWin · Jun 3, 2018

Keith, if you have UNCHECKED the box labelled "Back Up Automatically" found at System Preferences>Time Machine, and under Options at that same location you have excluded your internal drive by adding it to the list, then TM should not run, not prompt you for any backups. If you are getting that question, then one of the settings must be incorrect. I have TM "turned off" by those steps and never get prompted for anything. And if TM in fact IS turned on, then when the target drive is disconnected, it's taking "snapshots" every hour and keeping them on your internal drive, taking up disk space. So, double-check the settings again.

Rod · Jun 3, 2018

I'm sure that TM's persistence is part of Apple's strategy to encourage people to backup, not a bad thing in my mind. Nowadays any new EHD's connected to my MBP illicit an offer from TM to use as a backup. Make sure your EHD is not listed in TM preferences and that automatic backup is untucked. You are right about notifications, TM does not appear in the notification panel Prefs so you can't turn that off. I have found one exception though. If the EHD you are using for Super Duper has never been used for TM and you say no when you first format it in Disk Utility it will not ask again. This suggests that TM somehow remembers the EHD. Personally I tackled the problem by doing a time Machine backup on a spare EHD, leave Auto Backups turned off (to prevent hourly snapshots) and using Time Machine Scheduler to set weekly backups.

pm-r · Jun 3, 2018

As Rod says:

If the EHD you are using for Super Duper has never been used for TM and you say no when you first format it in Disk Utility it will not ask again.

IF the drive was erased, partitioned/formatted again, then TM will butt in and ask if you want to use it until the "No" button is used.

I get the impression that you did something similar, but maybe not completely from what you posted:

then after rebooting I attached the drive and reformatted it using Disk utility. I then gave it a name of Super Duper, started Super Duper in the normal manner.

Click to expand...

How often are you reformatting that external drive??? :Grimmace:

- Patrick
======

IWT · Jun 4, 2018

Keith,

In addition to what I posted in #6, Jake has reminded me about one thing I didn't mention which might help.

With your Super Super! Drive attached/mounted Go into System Preferences > Time Machine and click on the Options box (bottom right).

This will bring up a window showing all the Drives to be EXCLUDED from any Time Machine backup. Click on the + sign, navigate to your SuperDuper! Drive and add it to this list. Then Save.

That ensures that Time Machine will always exclude that Drive from any attempted backup.

Thanks to Jake for reminding me about that. I have simply elaborated in order to show you how to do this.

Ian

sllewk · Jun 4, 2018

Sawday, I have no desire to enter a war of words! As the original thread stated " A simple question - a simple answer for a simple soul" I know what 'FFS' stands for and there is no need at all to swear at me! You have obviously not really read all replies, I do KNOW TM can be switched off and to the best of my knowledge have done just that (or so I believe) but something has gone wrong. Being sworn at does NOT help me at all and I am a simple soul not a computer buff.
Sarcasm is the LOWEST form of wit and down to frustration on your part - sorry!

Keith in Derby.

sllewk · Jun 4, 2018

Good morning Ferrarr, I have taken two screen shots but do not know how to post them in this reply?

Very best regards from Keith in Derby England

IWT · Jun 4, 2018

Hi Keith

Here's how to upload a screenshot.

Click on the task bar as shown here:

Now select computer and then Select Files:

This will allow you to navigate to where your screenshot is saved - by default it is the Desktop as in the example shown below. Choose the file from the Desktop list - highlighted in blue in my case; then Select File.

This will bring up this window - Select Upload Files

NB, Keith - the file size of each attachment is restricted and if you get a message saying the file size is too large, open the image in Preview and use Tools to Adjust the size.

Hope all this makes sense

Ian

Rod · Jun 4, 2018

In support to your reply to sawday, if you are running High Sierra it is no longer possible to turn TM off. The on/off button has been removed and replaced with the Auto Backup option tick box.

sllewk · Jun 4, 2018

Hello Bob, At last I have found out how to add a screen shot (Via IWT Ian). Do not know yet if my assumption is correct but here we go:-

.
Sorry but it looks foreign to me! maybe you can make sense of it???

sllewk · Jun 4, 2018

Ian, thank you, I seem to have put a screen shot on this forum. By golly what a palarver, not something I would want to do every day. I am beginning to think that I must admit defeat and allow TM to do it's thing on the external hard drive. It beggars belief that Apple will not allow TM to be switched off in High Sierra 10.13.4 surely it should be a choice of "run or NOT run" as the op chooses.

I am also considering leaving the forum after the manner that Sawday answered my post; in my eyes a totally un-needed reply, in amateur radio that sort of thing was frowned upon very strongly.

Very best regards from Keith in Derby.

Slydude · Jun 4, 2018

Based upon your screeenshot you will want to make sure the SuperDuper drive is connected and choose the "Don't Use" option. If doesn't fix things I'll do some more difgging and see what I find out.

Something just occurred to me. You may have answered this already but I haven't had the morning cup of tea yet so here goes. Is your SuperDuper drive always connected to the Mac. If not that may be why the message is reoccurring.

sllewk · Jun 4, 2018

Hello Slydude, long time no see! In answer to your question - yes the SuperDuper hard drive is permanently connected to my Mac. In system preferences>Time Machine and in the bottom corner Options, the Super Duper hard drive is listed under a title "Exclude these items from back ups". Not sure exactly what that means, does it mean that back ups will not be put on it via SuperDuper (surely that is not so), or does it mean TM backups will not be put on the external hard drive? I have other silly questions but feel I am wasting member's time in asking them. Maybe I should just GO AWAY and not come back.

Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.

Simple question-simple answer for simple soul?

sllewk

ferrarr

sllewk

ferrarr

sllewk

IWT

sllewk

Sawday

MacInWin

Rod

pm-r

IWT

sllewk

sllewk

IWT

Rod

sllewk

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Slydude

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