PauloROP

Q: Time Machine on a NAS and Snapshots Questions

Hello Guys,

 

I have a doubt on How the Time Machine works. I have been reading a lot of stuff about this but I did`t get my answer.

I am using a macbook pro 15" at home and a NAS WD Mycloud Mirror 6TB, I set everything to do the Time Machine backups on a 521GB partition of the NAS.

So I understand when I am not at home, the macbook keeps doing the backups and saving in the SSD drive, those are the local snapshots, BUT when I am at home I thought the backups were done only in the NAS, but It seems in my case the backups have been done both in the NAS AND in the Macbook Pro SSD. I enabled the Time Machine 3 days ago (but in fact I already have some old backups in it), and used the notebook for the past 3 days ONLY at home, but look at how big are local snapshots 134GB, is this normal? I mean wasn't this supposed to be only in the NAS, as I stayed home all the time?

Screen Shot 2015-04-27 at 03.16.05.jpg

So my two questions are:

- When I am at home, Should Time Machine record the backups both in Local Snapshots and the Nas? Or just in the NAS?

- If I am away from home and the Time Machine did the backups in the local SSD, snapshots, What happens when I get home? Does Time Machine copy all these local snapshots to the NAS? Or it keeps only in the SSD?

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Apr 27, 2015 8:30 AM

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Q: Time Machine on a NAS and Snapshots Questions

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  • by Barney-15E,Solvedanswer

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Apr 27, 2015 9:10 AM in response to PauloROP
    Level 9 (50,351 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 27, 2015 9:10 AM in response to PauloROP

    I don't think I've read anything that indicated they stop when you have a Time Machine drive available.

     

    The storage display can be incorrect if your Spotlight index is corrupt or incomplete.

     

    This seems to indicate they are just copied to the Time Machine drive, not deleted after: About Time Machine local snapshots - Apple Support

    After your backup drive becomes available, Time Machine copies the local snapshots from your startup drive to your backup drive so that they're stored in both places. You can recover files from local snapshots even when you're away from your backup drive.

    Pondini's FAQ has some more info, but does not directly answer the question.

    http://pondini.org/TM/30.html

  • by PauloROP,

    PauloROP PauloROP Apr 27, 2015 10:38 AM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 27, 2015 10:38 AM in response to Barney-15E

    Your link answered the question.

     

    Like normal Time Machine backups, Local Snapshots are usually made hourly.   If your Time Machine volume is available, both are usually done at the same time, so you'll see adjacent purple and white tick marks with the same time.  If the Time Machine volume isn't available, Local snapshots will continue on the same schedule, so for that period you'll only see white ones.

     

    Second, they're temporary and expendable.   If the disk gets too full, some or all will be deleted without warning, and no new ones made.  In addition, they're consolidated periodically into daily versions, then deleted after a week.  So it's usually not worth worrying about the space they use.  See the pink box below.