Backup problem

[dj22bz]

Hi guys!

I've just bought my first Mac computer (yaay!) some weeks ago, so I'm not very used to using OSX yet. Perhaps my question is a bit silly, but maybe you guys could help me?

Here the problem:
When I bought my Mac I also bought a Time Capsule, so that I could keep my computer backed up and safe (I use my mac at work, so a data loss would be fatal to me). I've set up Time Machine to back up my computer, and I use the Capsule as my backup disk. Works perfect! However, when I check my storage, I have almost 40 GB of backups on my flash drive on my Mac! (See the screenshot!)

Why is this? Shouldn't the backups be on the Time Capsule? Have I missed some setting? How do I change this, and how can I free up that space again? As you can see from my screenshot, I only have a 120 GB flash drive on my mac - I and want to save as much storage there as possible.

Would be so grateful for any help you guys could give me!

 

[bobtomay]

Time Machine has changed with Lion. It now keeps a backup on the internal drive when you are away or not connected to the TM backup drive. Connecting to your backup drive, it will move those over to your backup.

 

[dj22bz]

Time Machine has changed with Lion. It now keeps a backup on the internal drive when you are away or not connected to the TM backup drive. Connecting to your backup drive, it will move those over to your backup.

I am currently connected to my Time Capsule, and I've tried to manually backup (which it does without problem), but the files are still on my HD.

 

[bobtomay]

Have not read enough to understand how it fully works at this time and I haven't carried any of mine out of range of my TC since the upgrade to Lion. Before you go messing with it, I would suggest you leave it alone for 24 hours and see what happens. Come back and we'll do some more digging. Perhaps someone more familiar will chime in also.

I have read by several that these do disappear - eventually. The ones reporting it, did not provide a time frame when they noticed it. There is still quite a bit of contradictory stuff out there and hard to determine what is correct.

 

[dj22bz]

Problem solved, kind of.

Well I finally fixed it. Derr... Or did I?

After having spent some 40 minutes on the phone with Mac support (those guys are truly awesome!) I was advised to reinstall Lion, 'cause they said it was likely some sort of bug. In fact, after some more research, I think they were right. When I checked my HD-usage I found different values with different methods. When I checked under "About this Mac" I had the backups taking up space, and I found them by checking with the Disc Utility too. However, when I went in through the Finder and command-clicked on my Macintosh HD and chose "Get info" it could not see the backups taking up space. Very confusing.

So could this all be a bug with Time machine in Lion? Maybe. The Mac support guys had no idea what was causing this, nor could they find any other way than to reinstall to fix it.

Said and done, my system is up and running again, with everything in order.
So now I manage my backups manually by just using the Time Capsule as a NAS and putting the files in separated folders on it, through the wireless network. Takes me a minute or more than the automated way to do it, but hey, now at least I've got full control over what I keep in my Capsule.

I know this is not the ultimate solution, but should my Mac die one day, then at least my important files are safe. Settings and apps I can reinstall and fix easily through my apple-account.

So basically, that ends this thread, unless anyone is interested to discuss what could be the proper solution or the cause for the problem described above.

Thanks bobtomay for you help, and God bless!

 

[Andres87]

Well I finally fixed it. Derr... Or did I?

sorry but hmmmm it'll happen again I have the same issue look at my thread :
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/apple-notebooks/245537-local-backups-staying-hdd.html

it takes over a week to transfer about 4GB of local back ups to my TM so the only issue is to turn off the local back up "feature" like someone mentioned on my thread.

 

[bobtomay]

I've seen it reported in multiple places that Finder does not show those files, so that's nothing out of the ordinary. It's also been reported that the OS will actually overwrite those files if the space is needed.

 

[chscag]

This has been discussed before in several threads. As the other post suggested, the fix Apple gave you is temporary. The backups will magically appear again on the HDD. The only way to avoid that happening (at least for now) is to turn off Time Machine until you're ready to make a backup. Not a very elegant way to use TM, but it works until Apple fixes it in a future update.